No Coin and Nothing Stable: Crypto Crisis (Financial Times, Rana Foroohar) \ stacker news ~econ

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No Coin and Nothing Stable: Crypto Crisis (Financial Times, Rana Foroohar)www.ft.com/content/efc848c0-0990-4623-98ed-1176e97f04cb

1006 sats \ 16 comments \ @denlillaapan 16h econ

Full disclosure: I'm fucking mad today... miss Foroohar's crap propaganda gets to feel it

So we're back at this: "crypto (ugh) is unstable and volatile and dangerous and I'm an idiot."

Tldr: confusion of stablecoins and bitcoin AND same old volatility argument

NEWSFLASH, FUCKING TRADFI JOURNOS: it's 2025, not 2013. Go fucking learn. This is pathetic:

Bitcoin, one of the digital assets banks may lend against, has been nearly four times as volatile as major indices since 2020. It has also had ties to terror funding, and I have yet to read anything that made me think it is more than a tool for speculators and criminals. But that hardly matters when the largest political donors are behind it.

Oh, it's all fuelled by nefarious lobbyist money? Blow me.

NOTHING to do with tradfi/central banking's insane money printing, housing markets gone berserk, governments seizing and blocking money, remittance being criminally expensive, banks/payments closed on weekends. SHOULD I CONTINUE?!

Oh, and stablecoins, tangential as they are, are dangerous and skittish (have you checked your outlet's own banking system recently + having had 4 finance ministers in the last 3 years... how's that for "stable"?)

Consider what could happen if, over the coming months or years, the Fed must raise interest rates more sharply due to inflation. Markets would tank, as they always do when rates go up. Crypto would fall further and faster. Financial institutions (including any number of shadow banks) holding crypto on their balance sheets could then run into trouble, causing credit markets to freeze

uh-hu... consider what would happen if rates go up, and bonds that banks were forced to hold + had EATEN like crazy for any sort of return, and they'd be mark-to-market insolvent and that'd be bad. Weird if that hypothetical happened, huh.

Not that odd for a "journalist" to be completely, diametrically wrong on every count... but I guess that just betrays what "journalism" actually means: mouthpiece for the status quo.

Fucking unimpressive retard. GTFO.

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96 sats \ 9 replies \ @Scoresby 16h

I enjoy mad denlillaapan! I was speaking to two people who are involved in traditional finance (one is runs a fund and the other is a lawyer for a bank) and got a reality check when they both (independently) trotted out the "I have yet to read anything that made me think it is more than a tool for speculators and criminals."

They didn't put it quite so stupidly, but more or less they believe bitcoin is used by criminals and there's not much point to it beyond trading it to make a quick buck.

As stupid as the lady in the article here sounds, she's probably closer to the voice of the majority than not.

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102 sats \ 6 replies \ @kepford 13h

she's probably closer to the voice of the majority than not.

Yes. This has been my experience as well.

@Scoresby did you ask them if they read the white paper? If you did. I'd bet 1 million sats they haven't. We are early.

On that early part I've been re-watching Seinfeld and my wife keeps pointing out how early they were on that show with many small things that are just common place in culture now. Things like cage free eggs. This show was in the 90s. I know that is a silly example but the masses can move very slowly if something is kinda fringe or sounds fringe.

I have settled into this belief. NGU is the only signal that will get people's attention. People are dumb. They are distracted. They are ignorant. They are lazy. Their one weird friend getting rich will be a wake up call. If you think people are suddenly gonna wake up to Austrian economics or sovereignty or any of the many other things that attracted most of us you are delusional.

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63 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby 13h

I didn't, but you are correct: I know them well-enough to know they haven't.

That being said, I remember being told to read the whitepaper when I was first poking around in Bitcoin. It was not helpful advice. I don't have the gigabrain to read it and see that the world is gonna change.

I agree with you, though, NGU is probably the main way most people will come to bitcoin.

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102 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 13h

Ha! That's a good point. I didn't read the whitepaper in 2008 when I heard about bitcoin on the Security Now Podcast. I didn't end up reading it until around 2020. The book that I think is probably best for somewhat technical people and doesn't get in the weeds on econ or trigger non-gold bugs is The Bullish Case for Bitcoin.

Thing is, I'm the type of person that seeks out the best cases for things and then the best cases against them. I HATE strawman positions and hype. This is why I mostly ignore mass media. Its absolutely terrible. The only value for me personally in mass media is like a weather report. This is what people are being programmed to think now.

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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @halalmoney 13h

Oof!

NGU is the only signal that will get people's attention. People are dumb. They are distracted. They are ignorant. They are lazy. Their one weird friend getting rich will be a wake up call. If you think people are suddenly gonna wake up to Austrian economics or sovereignty or any of the many other things that attracted most of us you are delusional.

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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @kepford 13h

I'm a fan of Ron Paul's work. I am a fan of Rothbard. I think sovereignty and open source are vital. I also leave my basement and walk among normies. We aren't gonna intellectually revolutionize the masses. Change comes through utility. Over time the masses will get reprogrammed after the status quo is unseated but that's gonna be generational.

There are people you can influence. There are people you should. But most are lost causes.

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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @halalmoney 12h

You write so well.

Funny: I also leave my basement and walk among normies.

And profound: We aren't gonna intellectually revolutionize the masses. Change comes through utility.

Excuse me while I get this good stuff on nostr.

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103 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 12h

Those comments weren't meant to be directed AT you btw.

Edit:

These things may seem obvious to you and I but there is a not small amount of bitcoiners that seem to be delusional about mass adoption and general human behavior.

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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Akg10s3 13h

I like your answer 👌

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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @denlillaapan OP 15h

they believe bitcoin is used by criminals and there's not much point to it beyond trading it to make a quick buck. As stupid as the lady in the article here sounds, she's probably closer to the voice of the majority than not.

that's just astonishing, really... do we live in the same world bubble, or nooot?!

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85 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 16h

I’m all for leaning into this “terror funding” silliness. Banks should not be allowed to transact in any currency that’s been used to fund terrorists.

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42 sats \ 0 replies \ @denlillaapan OP 15h

close all of them, on money-laundering charges... RIGHT NOW!

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33 sats \ 1 reply \ @kepford 13h

Over the years it has become incredibly clear that corporate media mouth pieces are incredibly lazy and arrogant. Bitcoin is just one of many topics where you can witness this. I have been listening to more normie sources lately to get a feel for where they are and you are dead right. They are maybe at 2017 at best. Some are even farther behind than that. I don't expect them to be bitcoiners but it become obvious very quickly that they just repeat the same talking points we hear all the time.

Gell-mann amnesia is something you must be aware of. We saw this over and over during Covid on medical things. Uncritically repeating talking points is what they do. They do it on AI. They do it on quantum. They do it on foreign relations. They do it on economics. They do it on everything.