Nah
Yeah, People Come up
Lot’s of governments and central banks fucking around.
How’s that saying about fucking around go again?
Oh yeah, “Fuck around and find out.”
(I’m sorry about the bad words, Mom. I know you taught me better. This saying was just too apt here.)
Newsweek recently published a piece entitled “A popular uprising against the elites has gone global,” about how everyday working-class folks have had their fill of messaging and policy from the elites.
Canadian Truckers fought back against the Canadian Government and the “laptop class” overly restrictive COVID-19 policies.
More Hispanics are registering as Republicans because of Republicans’ anti-woke, pro-working class rhetoric (which, let’s be honest, is probably little more than empty words).
And now over 30,000 Dutch farmers have risen up against their government, which is proposing to curb the amount of nitrogen these farmers can use on their crops. Nitrogen is a key ingredient in fertilizer, and less fertilizer means less crops and less livestock.
As a vegan, I personally don’t care much about their being less “livestock” in the world, but I sympathize with everyday people who are trying to make a living.
Farmers in Poland have joined with Dutch farmers in solidarity, as new regulations will also make them reduce their nitrogen fertilizer compounds.
And Italian farmers are following suit, as well.
(Admittedly, I haven’t been able to find a good source to verify the above Tweet.)
Sri Lanka
I can’t even be quippy about what’s happening in Sri Lanka. It’s heartbreaking to watch what is happening in the wake of the government defaulting on its debt. People there are starving and desperate.
Cost of Living Rises, and People React
There’s a saying I learned when I lived in Ghana in 2009, and that was “When America sneezes, the world catches cold.” What Ghanaians were pointing at was the fact that the 2008-2009 financial crash in America actually impacted the Ghanaian economy much more harshly than it did the American economy.
(There are a number of reasons for this, but I don’t have the bandwidth to get into them here. The basic premise, though, is that when things go wrong in the economies of developed countries, they go exponentially wrong in the economies of developing countries.)
So, now that America has caught an economic cold, we can say that the rest of the world is catching the equivalent of the flu.
And speaking of Ghanaians…
And then we have the following unrest.
We didn’t just get here because of money printing during COVID. What we are seeing is the result of two and a half decades of undisciplined central banking furthering The Cantillon Effect, and hurting everyday people. And now everyday people are pissed, and the powers that be are running out of options to quell the unrest.
Some of My Takes on Elites in the News This Week
I wrote about how Gary Gensler, former Goldman Sachs alum worth $120 million, and his posse at the SEC rejected Grayscale’s application to convert its Bitcoin trust (GBTC) into a spot ETF for NASDAQ’s website on behalf of Finder here. If you don’t understand what Grayscale or GBTC is or why what the SEC is doing is unjust, read the piece to learn more.
And I provided some commentary on behalf of Finder for a piece that was syndicated by the Miami Herald about how all of the elites who told you to buy crypto last year have gone radio silent now that the digital asset market is in a downtrend.
Not All Stablecoins Are Backed the Same
Lastly, here’s a piece I wrote for Finder comparing the two largest stablecoins by market cap, Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). (Did I mention this in the last newsletter? Maybe. Too lazy to check right now.) Really important reading if you don’t understand how stablecoins are backed all that well.
That’s All, Folks!
I rode my bike from New York City to the top of a mountain 50 miles away and then back to New York City earlier today, and my body is broken. Time to go lie on my couch and let it mend while I watch the new Dave Chapelle special.
Stay Safe Out There,
Frank
Twitter: @frankcorva
