CBDC Means Central Bank DIRECT Control (Central Bank Digital Currency Is Frought With Moral Hazard Risks)

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are the digital form of a government-issued currency that isn’t pegged to a physical commodity (in other words, CBDCs are digital FIAT currency). They are similar to cryptocurrencies, except that their value is fixed by the central bank and equivalent to the country’s fiat currency, which is the US Dollar.

The US Federal Reserve has not created a CBDC … yet. Our woefully corrupt El Presidente Jose Biden (more of a Latin American, tinhorn Banana Republic dictator than as US President) has ordered the study of a CBDC. Since everything Biden touches reeks of “boodle” I am suspicious as to Biden’s motives.

There are some positives to a CBDC, mostly with WHOLESALE CBDCs. Wholesale CBDCs are similar to holding reserves in a central bank. The central bank grants an institution an account to deposit funds or use to settle interbank transfers. Central banks can then use monetary policy tools, such as reserve requirements or interest on reserve balances, to influence lending and set interest rates.

It is the RETAIL CBDC that is the cause for concern. Retail CBDCs are government-backed digital currencies used by consumers and businesses. Retail CBDCs eliminate intermediary risk—the risk that private digital currency issuers might become bankrupt and lose customers’ assets.

There are two types of retail CBDCs. They differ in how individual users access and use their currency:5

Token-based retail CBDCs are accessible with private keys or public keys or both. This method of validation allows users to execute transactions anonymously.
Account-based retail CBDCs require digital identification to access an account.

The real problem with CBDCs is that The Federal Reserve and Federal government can trace EVERY EXPENDITURE of a household. Including political contributions, firearm and ammo purchases, etc. With this much information at their disposal, this allows for DIRECT CONTROL of the population.

Given that we now know that Biden used social media platforms to pass false narratives and repress alternative views, can we trust The Federal Reserve with this much information about consumer spending? Of course not. This is a consolidation of censorship and repression of individual liberties.

Yes, paper and coin currency serve a purpose in society as an alternative to barter. Imagine trying to buy a Ford F-150 Lightning (LMAO!) using barter? Ok, we have a system of credit where you can obtain a car loan. But barter, an old system of exchange, is inefficient. That leaves us with physical currency (certain restaurants only allow payment in cash). But many consumers are using Debit Cards as a substitute for physical cash, so this is a giant step towards RETAIL CBDC already.

Alternatives to the US Dollar? Of course, gold and silver are popular choices historically. Then we have rise of the cryptocurrencie market, which some Congressional members want heavily regulated or banned. Why? First, there are some shady crypto activities (see Sam Bankman-Fried and his shady political contributions to Democrats). Second, cryptos are volatile. Why is this of any interest to Congress? Third, cryptos can be used for illegal activities (but so can cash. Just watch Netflix’s Narcos for the shipment of US Dollars to Columbia in mattresses, etc. No, the goal of some members of Congress is to overregulate or obliterate alternatives to the US Dollar … unless The Federal government does it, like The Fed’s CBDC!

My favorite crypto site is Coinbase where they allow trading in 325 different crypto currencies.

With Biden’s Department of Injustic and several Democrat state Attorney Generals indicting Biden’s top political opponent Donald Trump with the intent of preventing him from campaigning for President (sounds so much like other Totalitarian regimes in history), trust in the Federal government and Federal Reserve are almost nonexistant.

Here is chart of the purchasing power of the US Dollar (blue line) since the creation of The Federal Reserve system and core CPI YoY which is still relatively high at 4.86%. That is over twice The Fed’s target rate of 2%.

I am sure that Billions Biden doesn’t understand moral hazard risk. For him, there is no risk, But for the middle class and lower wage worker class, CBDC represent a clear moral hazard risk, particularly if cash vanishes and Congress tries to ban cryptos.

The face of why so many Americans don’t trust The Fed. Or The Biden Administation.

Or this face, Urban Joe Biden (Stalin was Country Joe).

ECB Official Fabio Labels Crypto As “Deleterious” With “No Societal Benefits” In Scathing Speech (The Fed And ECB Are The Deep State’s Own Printing Presses And Don’t Want Competition!)

Yes, the ECB’s own Fabio … Panetta wants to ban any competition to Central Bank printing presses. Of course, like Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and SEC’s Gary “The Ghoul” Genslar, he wants to protect The Deep State’s monopoly on money printing by banning competition.

According to Fabio Panetta, crypto volatility and aspects of blockchain technology made digital assets only suitable for gambling…

Fabio Panetta, an executive board member of the European Central Bank (ECB), has suggested a dark future for cryptocurrencies, in which digital assets may be used for little more than gambling among investors.

In written remarks for a panel at the Bank for International Settlements Annual Conference on June 23, Panetta said crypto’s perception among investors as a “robust store of value” began to dissipate in late 2021 and into 2022, when the total market capitalization fell by more than $1 trillion. According to the ECB official, the “highly volatile” nature of crypto assets made them suitable for gambling, and should be treated as such by global lawmakers.

“Due to their limitations, cryptos have not developed into a form of finance that is innovative and robust, but have instead morphed into one that is deleterious,” said Panetta.

“The crypto ecosystem is riddled with market failures and negative externalities, and it is bound to experience further market disruptions unless proper regulatory safeguards are put in place.”

He added:

“Policymakers should be wary of supporting an industry that has so far produced no societal benefits and is increasingly trying to integrate into the traditional financial system, both to acquire legitimacy as part of that system and to piggyback on it.”

Panetta claimed the “security, scalability and decentralisation” of crypto transactions was “not achievable,” saying the immutability of blockchains is a negative aspect of the space due to transactions often being unable to be reversed. He cited the collapse of FTX, as well as a recent lawsuit brought by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission again Binance, as “fundamental shortcomings” of the ecosystem.

“Crypto enthusiasts would do well to remember that new technology does not make financial risk disappear,” said the ECB official.

“It is like pressing a balloon on one side: it will change in shape until it pops on the other side. And if the balloon is full of hot air, it may rise for a while but will burst in the end.”

Panetta has previously backed parts of the ECB’s plans for a potential digital euro, currently being researched by the central bank.

He has also proposed banning crypto assets with an “excessive ecological footprint” as part of efforts to address risks to the environment.

Panetta is similar to anti-competition Statists like Senator Elizabeth Warren and SEC’s Gary “The Ghoul” Genslar who don’t want competition for The Fed’s massive printing press.

We know that Bitcoin along with Gold and Silver have done well the September 2022 when the US Dollar began to lose value.

Today, we are seeing a slight up-tick in Bitcoin (+0.05%) and Ethereum (+0.60%).

Not this Fabio.

104 Days Later! US 10Y-2Y Yield Curve Remains Inverted For 104 Staight Days, Mortgage Rate Falls As Fed Tightens (Ethereum Rises > 4%)

Yes, The US Treasury 10Y-2Y yield curve remains inverted, for the 104th straight day. And Bankrate’s 30-year mortgage rate has dropped -57 basis points since November 3, 2022.

This comes after a gruesome Pending Home Sales and mortgage applications reports today.

At least Ethereum is up over 4% today!

FTX Chief Hunts for Crypto, Calls Controls ‘a Complete Failure’ (Cryptos Getting Creamed As Fed Tightens) Didn’t SBF See That Coming??

As I have said before, Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX exemplifies loose Fed monetary policy and its unintended consequences: shoddy investment practices by both sides and ridiculous claims that are unverified.

Like Sam Bankman-Fried tweeting that FTX and his team were held as paragons of running an effective company.

I am sure that SBF’s attorneys (like his parents) are telling Spam to stop tweeting ridiculous defenses. As in its all the fault of crypto volatility. We now know that at best SBF had a total lack of corporate controls and thought risk management was the Hasbro board game. And SBF while virtue signaling failed to mention his twisted relationship to Ukraine funding.

(Bloomberg) — Advisers now overseeing the carcass of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Group are struggling to locate the company’s cash and crypto after finding poor internal controls and record keeping at the now-bankrupt company.

“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information,” John J. Ray III, the group’s new chief executive officer who formerly oversaw the liquidation of Enron Corp., said in a sworn declaration submitted in bankruptcy court.

“From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented,” he added.

Advisers have located “only a fraction” of the digital assets of the FTX Group that they hope to recover during the Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Ray said. They’ve so far secured about $740 million of cryptocurrency in offline cold wallets, a storage method designed to prevent hacks.

The company’s audited financial statements should not be trusted, Ray said. Advisers are working to rebuild balance sheets for FTX entities from the bottom up, he said.

FTX “did not maintain centralized control of its cash” and failed to keep an accurate list of bank accounts and account signatories, or pay sufficient attention to the creditworthiness of banking partners, according to Ray. Advisers don’t yet know how much cash FTX Group had when it filed for bankruptcy, but has found about $560 million attributable to various FTX entities so far.

Although restructuring advisers have been in control of FTX for less than a week, they’ve seen enough to depict the crypto company as a deeply flawed enterprise. Lasting records of decision making are hard to come by: Bankman-Fried often communicated through applications that auto-deleted in short order and asked employees to do the same, according to Ray.

Well, this story keeps getting worse and worse and makes Sam The Sham look like a common criminal rather than a Democrat Saint.

Didn’t SBF’s chief economist show this chart to him and his Alameda team? The one where crytpos soars at The Fed and Federal government go wild on stimulus, then back-off? As The Fed tightens, cryptos are getting crushed.

At least Bitcoin rallied a bit today to $16,564.21, but other cryptos are down … again. Litecoin is actually up 4.57% while Solana is down -4.35%.

SBF, like Janet Yellen, will claim he didn’t see it coming.

The Thrill Is Gone … From Cryptos? Bitcoin Resumes Downward Trend As Fed Tightens To Fight Inflation

The Thrill Is Gone … from cryptocurrencies.

The cryptocurrency market is getting hammered thanks mostly to two things: 1) Sam Bankman-Fried’s horrid failure with FTX (fraud, Enron, front-running, stupid investors, Democrat-Ukraine connection) and 2) Fed tightening to combat high inflation.

Bitcoin, the Mac Daddy of cryptos, is down another 2% today.

The rest of the story.

The NEW face of the US Federal government and why they will sweep the Bankman-Fried fiasco under the rug, just like Hunter Biden’s laptop fiasco.

Larry Summers Says FTX Meltdown Has ‘Whiffs’ of Enron-Like Scandal (Or Solyndra, A Democrat Boondoggle) Bitcoin Falls Another -6%

Former Obama economist and Harvard University President Lawrence Summers says that the FTX meltdown whiffs on an Enron-like scandal.

“A lot of people have compared this to Lehman. I would compare it to Enron,” Summers told Bloomberg Television’s “Wall Street Week” with David Westin. “The smartest guys in the room. Not just financial error but — certainly from the reports — whiffs of fraud. Stadium namings very early in a company’s history. Vast explosion of wealth that nobody quite understands where it comes from.”

Lehman, Enron? How about Solyndra, one of the biggest political boondoggles in US history.

About two years after the Obama administration co-signed $535 million loans to Solyndra, the company filed for bankruptcy on September 1, 2011. A 2015 report from the Department of Energy found major flaws in Solyndra’s business practices and claimed the company made “inaccurate and misleading” statements to obtain the loan guarantees, and also found fault with Department of Energy oversight.

Which brings us to FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried (the son of Stanford law professor Barbara Fried and co-founder of the political fundraising organization Mind the Gap, which advocates for progressive political candidates and funds get-out-the-vote groups). Sam Bankman-Fried was a big Biden donor. What are the odds that The Federal government will impartially investigate SBF and the FTX fiasco? ZERO!

Why did FTX run into trouble?

FTX has a native cryptocurrency token called FTT, which traders use for operations like paying transaction fees. Last year, Mr. Zhao sold his stake in FTX back to Mr. Bankman-Fried, who paid for it partially with FTT tokens.

On Nov. 2, the crypto publication CoinDesk reported on a leaked document that appeared to show that Alameda Research, a hedge fund run by Mr. Bankman-Fried, held an unusually large amount of FTT tokens. FTX and Alameda are meant to be separate businesses, but the report claimed that they had close financial ties.

Binance announced on Nov. 6 that it would sell its FTT tokens “due to recent revelations.” In response, FTT’s price plummeted and traders rushed to pull out of FTX, fearful that it would be yet another fallen crypto company.

FTX scrambled to process requests for withdrawals, which amounted to an estimated $6 billion over three days. It seemed to enter a liquidity crunch, meaning it lacked the money to fulfill requests.

How did Binance intervene?

On Tuesday, Binance said it had reached an agreement to bail out FTX by buying the company. But, Mr. Zhao added in the announcement, “Binance has the discretion to pull out from the deal at any time.”

In a concurrent announcement, Mr. Bankman-Fried said the deal would protect customers and allow FTX to finish processing their withdrawals. He attempted to dispel rumors of conflict between FTX and Binance, adding, “we are in the best of hands.”

His last quote made me laugh.

Bitcoin plunged another -6% today as gold (gold line) and the S&P 500 (yellow line) rose. Moral to the story? Nothing has been the same since The Fed started tightening.

All cryptos are down today (except Litecoin). The three biggest, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Binance Coin are all down over 5%.

Why does Sam Bankman-Fried remind me of the late John Belushi?

Here is Sam Bankman-Fried defending his actions to his law professor Mom.

GameStop: Rage Against The (Financial) Machine? Or Bidenflation? (Meme Stocks, Gold And Cryptos)

2021 has been a very weird year. Inflation has boomed (highest in 40 years) after the election of Joe Biden as President of the USA (call it Bidenflation). Then we have The Federal Reserve barely acting on the booming inflation (keeping rates at 25 basis points while withdrawing the COVID-related monetary stimulus).

Then we have the rise of cryptocurrency Ethereum and the surge meme stocks such game store GameStop, a favorite of the internet site Reddit.

Given the volatility of GameStop (Reddit-inspired), you can see the strange shape of GameStop’s volatility surface.

By contrast, gold is now where it was was at the beginning of 2021 and the surge of Bidenflation.

Here is volatility surface for gold.

So, there are a number of meme stocks (GameStop is just one example), gold, silver, cryptos such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. But gold seems to be placid with respect to inflation, but the meme stocks and cryptos seem to be motoring. Or is it rage against the financial machine? Or rage against Bidenflation??

The US stock and bond markets are closed today and tomorrow, Christmas day.

Have a Merry Christmas! And celebrate the “Santa Pause” as Powell refuses to raise rates to combat inflation until 2022.

US Dollar, Gold, Ethereum SOARING As Fed Loses Control Of Inflation

As inflation seems unstoppable by The Federal Reserve, we are seeing the US Dollar, Gold and Ethereum soaring in price.

Persistent inflation is here to stay.

Yup, The Fed is firing blanks.

Battle Of The Fiats! Bitcoin Hits $50,000 … Again And Backs-off As US Dollar Sinks (What Happened To Bretton Woods?)

Since President Nixon helped take the US off the gold standard, the US Dollar has become FIAT currency. That is, not backed any precious asset such as gold, silver, platinum, etc. What ever happened to the Bretton Woods system?

The Bretton Woods system was the first example of a fully negotiated monetary order intended to govern monetary relations among independent states. The chief features of the Bretton Woods system were an obligation for each country to adopt a monetary policy that maintained its external exchange rates within 1 percent by tying its currency to gold and the ability of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bridge temporary imbalances of payments. Also, there was a need to address the lack of cooperation among other countries and to prevent competitive devaluation of the currencies as well.

So much for Bretton Woods. We now live in a FIAT world where The Federal Reserve can print money almost without any limitation.

Enter cryptocurrcies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Bitcoin, the favorite of many, broke through the $50,000 barrier yesterday, only to level off below $50,000 this morning. Ethereum is level after rising yesterday. Meanwhile the US Dollar (the preferred FIAT model of The Federal Reserve) is falling.

Here are some of the cryptos out there, but I only follow Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Since Nixon and dropping off the gold standard, we have seen US Federal debt (and spending) blow out of control with the decline in M2 Money Velocity to its lowest levels.