Quick Bitcoin thread.

No, I’m not going to convince you to go buy a speculative asset.

I am going to explain why a lot of really smart people are doing it though, and it’s a little more complicated than most think.

<thread> 🧵👇

#bitcoin
2/ The easiest way to understand what Bitcoin is, is to understand what it’s not - the current monetary system.

In most countries, money is rarely made by government. Instead, it’s largely made by banks lending money.

When banks issue a loan, poof! Money is created.
3/ When banks create loans, they create both assets and liabilities. Money is created, backed by a bank’s confidence in a borrower.

Surprised? A recent poll of British law makers found 84% had no idea commercial banks made most of the money in supply.

So, you’re not alone.
4/ You can see why governments shit bricks when banks are in trouble now, right? So when a financial crisis happens, what does government do?

Scrambles to help create more loans.

They lower interest rates, and create bigger loan programs.
5/ It doesn’t matter if it’s best for mom and pop go take out more debt. Go do it.

It doesn’t matter if public companies aren’t making more money. They need you to borrow to pay more for stocks.

This increased spending “ideally” drives higher prices and inflation.
6/ Which is great, because we need to deflate the real value of household debt. After all, if we inflate away the value of the debt by inflation, it’s real burden is lowered. Sweet!

Sounds like an insane system? Well, that’s because it is.

Now back to Bitcoin.
7/ During the Great Recession, the creator of Bitcoin basically said fuck this bailout system.

I’m creating a stateless currency, that isn’t driven by credit growth, or inflation. You put your money in, and trade the currency for market value.
8/ There’s no inflation. Assets are backed solely by trust in a trustless system.

You can’t fraudulently create Bitcoin.

The Central Bank of Bitcoin can’t just make more of it.

Fast forward to the next recession, and what’s happening? A fuck ton of credit is being made.
9/ As wealth accumulates for rich people so quickly, they have three choices:
- buy inflated stocks
- buy more real estate to keep empty
- buy bonds with negative returns after inflation
- exit the monetary system

A lot of people are opting for the last option.
10/ As wealth gets produced faster than the economy can create productivity, more and more rich people have been piling into Bitcoin.

That’s pretty much the multi billion dollar bet.

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More from @StephenPunwasi

10 Dec
Okay, so it's been a while since I did a supervillain school post, so I'll try to make this one good.

Let's talk about J. Paul Getty.

Looking at how the industrialist made his money, you'll understand why middle class people will never understand taxes.

<thread> 🧵👇
2/ For those that don't know, J Paul Getty was one of the wealthiest guys in history. He mostly made his money in oil, but he was truly a pioneer in what I call organizational income efficiency.

See, his company was so efficient, it barely ever payed taxes.
3/ The play worked like this. Most people *know* he owned oil fields, but he didn't officially. A trust did.

Besides the oil fields weren't profitable. They would spend all of their money at shipping companies.

He happened to own those too, luckily.
Read 11 tweets
8 Dec
Listen, Stephen Punwasi.

I have no idea what you fuck, but I'm assuming it's other men based solely on you not sharing my values.

Despite the earth having billions of women in every socioeconomic class, they all are impressed by metal forged by a man into something shiny.
I suddenly realize why I know so many smart and beautiful single women that loathe dating. 😂
Also, as a side note, I can pretty much guarantee I've never mentioned the gender of my partner on Twitter unless it's about their gender.

I intentionally say they/them, because that's how people normalize non-binary language. Why would I use non-contextual identifiers? 🤷‍♂️
Read 5 tweets
8 Dec
Quick money concept I think more people *NEED* to understand.

The Lauderdale Paradox.

It's the simple concept of whether you should go on Spring Break or not.

Kidding! It's actually a 200 year old puzzle about public vs private wealth and value creation.

<thread> 🧵👇
2/ James Maitland, a.k.a. the 8th Earl of Lauderdale, was a Scottish dude that sat around discussing money and wealth.

History nerds know him as the guy that had a bloodless duel with Benedict Arnold, but really – he played a fundamental role in discussing public wealth.
3/ Maitland speculated there's an inverse correlation between public wealth, and private wealth.

He theorized public wealth is "all that man desires that is useful or delightful to him." I describe this as things like air, water, and @rickygervais.
Read 11 tweets
4 Dec
Has your neighborhood felt empty, even before the pandemic? It's not just your hood. It's a global phenomenon.

I call it the vacant home epidemic.

Here's a quick thread on how on how the Great Recession resulted in a housing crisis that will last generations.

<thread> 🧵👇
2/ Paris had 107,000 vacant homes in 2017, about 7.5% of all houses. 40,000 weren't even connected to the electrical grid anymore.

New York City had 247,977 vacant or scarcely occupied homes in 2018, about 11% of the city's apartment supply.

This is just a start.
3/
Toronto: 99,000

Vancouver: 25,000

India: 11.09 million(!)

China: 50 million.

I know what you're thinking. Seriously? WTF is happening?

Well, after the Great Recession, central banks flooded the market with cheap credit. That cheap credit killed bonds.
Read 12 tweets
3 Dec
Everyone: @AOC is selling a "tax the rich" sweatshirt for $58! That's way too expensive.

Me, a former mass market apparel designer: Made in America. Union printed. Sounds about right. That's what it costs to pay everyone a decent wage along the way.

#TaxTheRich
If you made it in Vietnam at a factory that pays workers a fair wage, after imports and duties – you're looking at a market price of about ~$35.

MOQ of 50,000+ units, and a factory discount for repeat orders.

One person's spending is someone's income.
Make it in a foreign sweatshop, at MOQ 100,000, with factories cramped so tight they sometimes burn down and take the whole workforce with it?

You can sell it at a local mega grocery store for $12.
Read 7 tweets
3 Dec
Capitalism was designed for one tax – a property tax.

The average person thinks taxing high incomes makes more sense, and rich folks are happy you think that... because it doesn't.

Quick thread on why income taxes should be low, and property taxes should be high.

<thread> 🧵👇
2/ Adam Smith argued land is a natural monopoly. As people earn more money, the rents of the land scale.

No additional productivity was created on the land, but additional productivity created by the user was leached by the land's lord.
3/ If wages grow faster than the annual rate of property taxes, extra income is captured for non-productive purposes.

This creates incentive to hoard, and it also creates incentive to do literally nothing with the land. This is called land banking. Buy, hold, and pay low fees.
Read 12 tweets

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