Dressed in red velvet, she trampled under her reckless feet the stray flowers fallen from other heads, and held out a salver to the two friends, with careless hands. The white arms stood out in bold relief against the velvet. Proud of her beauty; proud (who knows?) of her corruption, she stood like a queen of pleasure, like an incarnation of enjoyment; the enjoyment that comes of squandering the accumulations of three generations; that scoffs at its progenitors, and makes merry over a corpse; that will dissolve pearls and wreck thrones, turn old men into boys, and make young men prematurely old; enjoyment only possible to giants weary of their power, tormented by reflection, or for whom strife has become a plaything.
– Honore De Balzac, The Magic Skin
I don’t get out all that much these days, but last evening I had a really engaging and illuminating dinner conversation. In attendance was a 47-year old commercial real estate investor and fellow Boulder resident who I’ve become friends with, a 32-year old professional poker player looking to move here, and 28-year old tech startup founder. Although I hadn’t met the younger attendees before, it became immediately apparent that everyone in attendance was highly intelligent and very engaged with the world around them.
We discussed religion, philosophy, crypto assets, the importance of nature to humans, travel and more. That said, the reason I’m writing this post is due to some of the generational observations I came upon. It confirmed the overall thesis I discussed in detail within last month’s post, The Generational Wheels Are Turning.
Here are a couple of passages from that piece to refresh your memory:
The Baby Boomer generation, which has dominated so many aspects of our country for so many decades — including the overall narrative of everything — is finally heading off into the sunset.
It’s not so much that they’re physically expiring, but their influence is beginning to wane significantly. It’s not completely obvious just yet since our world continues to be defined by the institutions and ideals they championed, but in the hearts and minds of so many, particularly the younger generations, the world they left us is hopelessly corrupt, archaic and can’t be displaced quickly enough.
While at dinner last night, I tried to listen as closely as possible to how the younger guys saw the world and where it was headed. I wouldn’t say their views of the future were wildly optimistic, but there wasn’t a sense of dread or pessimism either. There was a vibe of, yeah our generation was screwed, the government sucks and so do all these corrupt institutions, but we’re gonna get out there and do our best. I’ve noticed this worldview consistently over the years from people roughly tens years younger than me, i.e., the heart of millennial generation. Not only is my wife in that age group, but so are many of my close friends at this point, and this ethos has been pretty consistent from my experience.
They don’t trust government, corporations or anyone with power to do the right thing. This is why they didn’t enthusiastically buy the Hillary Clinton kool-aid, despite not liking Donald Trump either. It seems being thrust into adulthood with terrible employment and wage prospects resulted in a very healthy dose of cynicism about how things work. There’s a very clear appreciation that the world as is functions today is criminally corrupt and broken.
When I go out and chat with people my age and older, I notice a completely different tone compared to when I engage with younger generations. One thing is crystal clear. Older friends of mine not only think the status quo will strike back against extremely disruptive forces like Bitcoin and crypto assets, they also think the status quo will win. They expect a return to the gold standard, or some IMF-globalist one world digital currency to provide a framework for the post-dollar reserve currency system. Generally speaking, the biggest difference between the two groups is that one expects the current power structure to cunningly survive this current period, while younger people think the world can, and will, be fundamentally changed for the better. You know which camp I’m in.
Generally speaking, older people tend to be strongly anchored to the world paradigm as it exists, while those who are younger are naturally more open to massive disruption and upheaval. I’d argue that the current younger generation is even more willing to flip the table over and build entirely new structures than most people realize. The popularity of crypto assets amongst this generation is just one manifestation of this desire. That’s not to say us optimists are naive and expect this to be a smooth transition without a fight, but it’s to say we believe paradigm level, positive change is not only possible, but likely. Which is precisely the attitude you must have if you want to win. If you go into a battle expecting to lose, the result is obvious.
Most interesting to me was how the youngest member at the table responded when the subject of gold came up. He said something like, “I get the investment thesis, I get the concept of it, but it’s just not something I’m interested in.” He went on to describe why.
He likened it to buying an asset, holding it tight, and then waiting for the world to burn around him to profit. This blew my mind because I’ve heard this exact same sentiment, virtually word for word, from other people his age previously. They get gold and they understand the investment thesis, but they simply aren’t interested in it for very specific and interesting reasons. Many older people think millennials are just acting stupid and naive with their interest in crypto assets. They think these kids don’t know anything about gold or monetary history, which is why they’re attracted to these new digital forms of value, but if you actually talk to them, you’ll see that’s not the case. I’ve had too many experiences like the one described above with intelligent and aware millennials to be increasingly confident of this conclusion.
It reminded me of what I wrote last month:
This is where many older people who understand how fraudulent and terminal the current system is seem to get sidetracked. To them, the next logical step as we enter a new financial system has to be to go through gold. Far more ridiculously, some people even push the spectacularly idiotic idea that an SDR will become the accepted global currency of the future. While I don’t profess to know exactly how things will play out, I try to keep an open mind as others arrogantly dismiss Bitcoin completely.
It’s no coincidence that many of those who are particularly condescending toward Bitcoin are from older generations. They’re doing what humans tend to do, which is take their own understanding of the world and life experiences and extrapolate them into the future. Someone who lived 30 years or more before the internet came to dominate everything will naturally possess a radically different perspective of the world and where it’s headed than someone who never knew life without it. This is precisely why a younger person will inherently understand the value and utility proposition of something like Bitcoin far more easily than someone much older.
The only person at the table who owned no crypto assets was the oldest one in attendance (although he’s totally supportive of the space). This pattern is repeated over and over again in my experience. When I go out with friends my age or older they’re almost never involved, but when I go out with younger generations they almost always are. Some people will write the whole thing off as a fad, but my observations point me in an entirely different direction. The evolution and success of Bitcoin and crypto assets is not just a function of revolutionary technology being introduced into the world. Its blistering adoption rate is a reflection of a global consciousness developing amongst younger generations. It’s reflection of a burning desire for a more dynamic, trustless and decentralized world, and it will be up to them to ensure that it happens.
None of us know exactly how the future will unfold, but I’m going to take my cues from younger generations. Their values and desires will be what shapes the world as older generations retire and die off. If you aren’t talking to them and studying the way they see things, you’re going to be completely blindsided by the next 10-20 years.
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Michael Krieger
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I’m 76 and I have several friends my age who just got into cryptos as they finally see what I have been saying to them for the past year. On The Burning Platform where younger than I am people abound, I get ridicule. My wife is a Boomer and she is Wall Street/status quo and a skeptic of anything that isn’t more of the same. Lots of variation out there! On the whole, though, I agree with you Mr. Krieger and thank you for your philosophizing ways. That Balzac quote is stunning! Haven’t read him since my twenties and it’s time to revisit.
I agree completely on the different generations view of assets. I am 28 and when i talk to friends about Gold they give me a strange look. When i talk about crypto they listen.
I am in what you call the older generation. While what you say about about digital currencies may sound well now, An EMP would wipe things out in a heartbeat. Ive been concerned about this scenario for along time. I agree with you Mike on 99% of everything else you say- you could be my little brother but as digital servers are ultimately in control of your assets I feel like its a bad idea. Liqour, gold , cattle, land,food resources etc will all that will be the only currency worth anything . History is a good judge of our future – unfortunatley the last 200,000 years we as humans havent learned from our mistakes. Im not seeing it happen in this generation either.
Hi John, and thanks for your comment.
A tweet I came across earlier today sort of summarizes how I see things concisely.
“Unlike Gold, Cryptocurrencies are worthless if the world burns. This aligns incentives in a better direction than an asset that only gets big in an apocalypse.”
Someone should start selling EMP proof boxes to store your hardware wallet in. I am sure prepper websites would be interested.
“History is a good judge…”?
“This is a chaotic system, meaning that the historical pattern of object positions has ZERO predictive power in figuring out where these objects will be in the future. There is no algorithm that a human can possibly discover to solve this problem. It does not exist.”
http://www.epsilontheory.com/three-body-problem/
Excellent article but I have my doubts about bitcoin. Tulip time kind of says it all regarding this “currency” As a tech savvy 72 year old, I know a little bit and the viewpoint the millenials have regarding the world and politics is valid without question but on the bitcoin issue, not so much as it’s digital, can be hacked and definitely can be manipulated in ways that boggle the mind. No system is invulnerable and as for gold, please. A gold standard would bring even more money to the super rich and, it does not play well with digital. The currency issue is really complex as you know better than I and, IMHO, has not been really solved as to be fair, not controlled by the banks and not be an evanescent chunk of data who’s real worth is questionable at best.
Michael,
Do you have close friends, young and old, who are poor? If so, do you notice the same dichotomy? If you have environmentalist friends, young or old, what is their take on the state of the world?
Hi Jill, as I’m sure you know, poor people are simply fighting to survive every day and aren’t overly concerned with whether to buy Bitcoin or gold with disposable income they don’t have. It’s unfortunate, but true.
You’d need to define environmentalist, but I’d say everyone at that table cares deeply about the natural world and think humans should be taking much better care of it.
“The planet is fine. The people… are fucked!” – George Carlin
I was an earth science major and I wouldn’t piss on most “environmentalists” if they were standing in front of me on fire. If ever there was an example of how “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” it’s the entire global warming-climate change canard. The homo-sapiens on this particular planet will be long gone and the Earth will be perfectly fine. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a self-important fool.
For those of you familiar with Strauss and Howe and Generational Dynamics, you know that the Millennial’s are the Hero generation that will have to deal with a 4th turning.Just as the Hero generation born between 1900 to 1924 had to fight WWII. The same is going to be required of the Millennials.
As I have mentioned here before and other places, I like them a lot. But I damn sure don’t envy them.
The Balzac quote is indeed stunning and I agree with you on 99% of everything … you say. Per Michael M and John Mann, fellow members of the Boomer/older/actuarially-challenged cohort. Generational attitudes are a fascinating and critical matter at this point in history — globally as well as domestically. Please continue to explore, and discourse on, the topic.
Michael,
I hope you know that I think you are a very good person. You have a generous spirit and an open heart along with a fine mind. I think you misunderstood my question. Of course people who are poor aren’t buying gold, bitcoin etc. I was asking a different question. Do you have friends who are poor, whom you speak to hear to heart about how they see the future? If so, I wondered if you saw the same dichotomy of vision between young and old?
I see significant differences in how different classes see our nation/the world, regardless of age. As to environmentalist, I mean people who really understand climate science. I think many people believe we are mistreating the earth and I’m very glad that so many people hold this awareness in their minds and hearts. However, I am talking about people who have a real grasp on what is happening, scientifically speaking, to the earth.
…older people tend to be strongly anchored to the world paradigm as it exists, while those who are younger are naturally more open to massive disruption and upheaval. I’d argue that the current younger generation is even more willing to flip the table over and build entirely new structures than most people realize. The popularity of crypto assets amongst this generation is just one manifestation of this desire. That’s not to say us optimists are naive and expect this to be a smooth transition without a fight, but it’s to say we believe paradigm level, positive change is not only possible, but likely. Which is precisely the attitude you must have if you want to win. If you go into a battle expecting to lose, the result is obvious.
I would put it differently.
“If you expect to lose, don’t go into battle.”
Older people have been in the battle, and see the warning signs. Young people have only been subjected to propaganda, and haven’t been bit on the butt yet. They believe all the lies, and think this great new thing will save the world.
Older people have seen how well the established order co-opts the energy and creativity of the young. Whether it be environmentalism, organic food, rock and roll, yoga, community activism, anti-war activism, feminism, trade unions – all became corporatized and part of the loyal opposition. I remember when PCs were touted as This lpart of the revolution.
I remember having many discussion with young people about control of the internet. They were adamant that the internet cannot be controlled. “Margaret, you just don’t understand how the internet works!” were words I heard over and over. THEY were the ones who didn’t understand, and there is really no way to give the wisdom of experience to someone who hasn’t had the experience.
So the millennials that you talk about will watch as cryptocurrencies become the electronic money that locks everyone into the global government, and builds the tentacles of control even deeper into the lives of ordinary people.
It’s not a matter of dismissing bitcoin arrogantly, it’s a deep (if subconscious) awareness that cryptocurrency is the ideal mechanism to increase control over the populace, as every single transaction can be monitored, and targeted people (whistle-blowers, investigative reporters, activists and other troublemakers) can be isolated and cut off.
This last part is not something most people are aware of consciously, they just harbor a deep suspicion. When I bring it up, everyone knows instantly that it’s true.
“So the millennials that you talk about will watch as cryptocurrencies become the electronic money that locks everyone into the global government, and builds the tentacles of control even deeper into the lives of ordinary people.
It’s not a matter of dismissing bitcoin arrogantly, it’s a deep (if subconscious) awareness that cryptocurrency is the ideal mechanism to increase control over the populace, as every single transaction can be monitored, and targeted people (whistle-blowers, investigative reporters, activists and other troublemakers) can be isolated and cut off.”
The thing is, how can one be cut off from a currency if there is no central distributor of said currency? That’s the whole point of crypto–they’re decentralized, and can be moved anywhere at will. There is nobody alive who can stop me from moving my Ethereum from one wallet to another ad inifinitum if I wanted to. Cryptos are the antidote to the possibility of a global government, as they place power in the hands of the individuals who hold them, as opposed to institutions that distribute them. With cryptos, it’s more difficult to monitor transactions, as the act of me transferring my money from my wallet to another is seen in the blockchain as a long string of characters sending funds to another long string of characters. Compare this to the way fiats are transferred–where an institution brokers an exchange from an account tied to my name send money to an account in someone else’s–and you’ll see that this is a step in the right direction.
Margaret, I couldn’t agree with your comment any more. The big banks, such as the IMF, have been talking about crypto currencies for a couple decades now. In one paper they even said it has to appear it isn’t coming from them so people will embrace it. They want us on digital currency, that is the ultimate control.
I think young people don’t think about the privacy aspect because they have grown up in the internet age and putting their lives online. A lot of people don’t believe there is an effort to get the one world government and currency. Wait until they force us all on electronic money that is worth absolutely nothing and drop negative interest rates so you have to continue to consume or lose your principle.
Our data is the new money maker, which is why I never sign up for points or memberships anywhere, and pay cash. Everyone is being herded into the banking system they want. No one is asking, what are the bankers doing? Well, they are getting out of the stock market and buying precious metals.
Great post. These times remind me of Herman Hesse book Siddhartha in some ways but money as the “path”; many gurus and tools and preachers out there; up to us to follow who we want and see what happens; some will be seekers and keep going through each and learning; some will be in search of a stable ground for living and thus will pick something; some will preach for their own interests and aggrandizement but were not “backed” by anything in the end; some preach a correct path. I feel we are going back to a time where decentralized seeking and preaching can occur; the one-narrative world and dogfight for narrative domination I hope is dying.
Wish you and your family and all your readers that you share with lots of joy and happiness for this holiday and 2018.
Mike, your similarly aged friends are living in the zombie apocalypse, and so is the entire establishment. Reality will knock them off of their feet. Man plans and God laughs, a Jewish jewelry class fellow student once told me. How true! The US may face charges in The International Court of Justice.
..Deep State Beat Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1976-1977 Losing Streak, and Things Will Keep Getting Worse – Andrea Iravani
https://rebel0007com.wordpress.com/2017/12/22/deep-state-beat-tampa-bay-buccaneers-1976-1977-losing-streak-and-things-will-keep-getting-worse/
My Letter to the International Court of Justice at the Hague – Andrea Iravani
https://rebel0007com.wordpress.com/2017/12/23/my-letter-to-the-international-court-of-justice-at-the-hague/
As a 25 year old man, I have this to say about gold. If things keep going along, it will never ever get above 1300$ consistently, while cryptos will. If things don’t keep going, gold is low down the list of things I want to have, below ammunition, food, cigarettes, coffee, medicine, land, fuel, vehicles, etc. Maybe I’ll be wrong and I’ll look like a fool while everybody else is trying to get a can of coffee or bottle of antibiotics for 1/100 oz of gold or something.
This line of reasoning is exactly why TPTB chose the “Technocracy” style power structure to implement next. Few millennials ever question “science” or “technology” and some are religious about the future tech will bring us. Agnotology – ‘ignorance induced by the publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data’
Health food is a good route the red pill younger people about “agnotology” like Fluoride.
– Millennial
I hate to see this unnecessary “tempest in a teapot” between like minded people, some of whom prefer precious metals and some of whom prefer cryptos, and I see you Michael really putting your thumb on the scale for crypto. Why do PMs have to die in order for crypto to live? BOTH camps see the train wreck that lies ahead for the debt/fiat systems….what is wrong with getting some of both?
I see something like GoldMoney as at least an interim way to have the best of both possible worlds…in fact, I would like to pay you Fifty dollars Michael in GOLD BULLION…if you had a GoldMoney account I could do that by transferring some of the gold in my Singapore Brinks vault account to your account in Toronto, or London or wherever….(as it is I could pay you using a debit Mastercard based on that account, but, I am not going to because it misses the point by forcing us to convert gold to and use fiat.) computers can divide an Oz of gold just as fine as a million dollar Bitcoin!
One of he big (alleged) draws for crypto seems to be that it is seen as a way to avoid paying taxes. (ChecK the statistics on how many who have cashed out crypto have paid the capital gains they owe!) when I pay you in bullion I will incur a capital gain or loss when I sell to pay you. There is a clear record of the transaction and I WILL pay my taxes on it. Presumably you will pay your income taxes on the income. If you don’t like capital gains taxes, put your money in stock or interest bearing accounts and pay income taxes. Better yet, elect Congressmen and women who agree with you.
It is interesting to me that nearly every graphic depiction of a “BitCoin” I see shows a GOLD COIN. Why is that? It is because Satoshi was trying to recreate Gold by limiting the total number of coins in just the same way that Gold is limited that way by ontological luck. It is in my view simply imitation gold…..maybe better maybe worse, we’ll see…but promoters of Coins are trying to sail under the Gold flag. Make up your minds dudes.
It is interesting to me that each of the proposed alternative currencies has an essential quality that is at the same time its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Gold has mass and inimitable, limited physicality…that’s what has made it “money” for thousands of years. But it is also its greatest drawback. It needs to be secured and defended, is difficult to transport and so on. The greatest quality of Crypto is that it is just the opposite..it has no mass..it isn’t anything at all….it is a sort of ghost money which has incredible advantages as we all know and pray will work out…but, as many have noted above, this ethereal existence is also its greatest vulnerability. There is a huge “poof, it’s gone” factor here so far.
The perfect system of course is not one or the other..it is a combination of the two…a Gold and sliver.or whatever basket of goods, backed crypto. I’d like to hear more talk about that and less of people trying to defend their emotional investment in whichever future they have DREAMED UP. (Gold people seem sometimes to be hoping for apocalypse just to “prove they were right”) None of us has a clue what, if anything, will work to allow freedom of financial affairs between people without counter parties and intermediators.
For a practical palliative as far a I can see the best thing you can have for a collapse is a bag of Mercury dimes. With one of those you will be able to buy some eggs or tomatoes from the lady next door..Bitcoin? Hmmmm.
Bingo.
Gold & crypto are not mutually exclusive. They are complimentary.
Enjoy your blog. I am neither a gold or crypto fan, though I do own some GLD which I think will hedge a major stock decline. If SHTF, neither gold or crypto will help you, though small gold and silver coins will work. The new currency will be ammo, particularly .22 caliber bullets, food, and potable water.
Those of you claiming Bitcoin is anonymous are much more trusting than I am. The weak point is the exchanges and wallets. As soon as the Feds get a search warrant (whether ostensibly for money laundering or whatever pretense), the exchange is going to hand over your info in a heartbeat or get shut down.
Agree Tyler..the strength of any money is an inverse of the amount of human intervention and meddling around with it that is allowed. Theives are everywhere..public and private. The coin/pm argument is really all about which one is best able to avoid the meddling and theft. Bottom line: is a can of coins in your garden a better bet than a balky computer, running on vulnerable, limited electricity, on a complex network, dependent on a secret password you may or may not remember in a wallet or coins shop run by people who knows where? Those warrants you talk about (or threats to burn your wife’s toes off if you don’t tell where the coins are) are equally effective for coins or PMs…People seem to be ignoring the main problem by concentrating on techno or practical fixes. The Constitution (Art 1,Sec 10) tries to take a stab at a political solution…for money-use Gold and silver (or whatever other commodity or basket of them deemed better) ONLY.
Sorry, Mike. Not impressed with that particular portion of your dinner conversation. Sounds like the thrill of greed rather than excitement about a bold new world of decentralized money. For, Bitcoin is not money but a speculative product, and the fact that the younger generation is hip to it is the just about the same talk you heard about Blythe Masters and her ingenious CDOs when you were on Wall Street.
Count me in the water/food/ammo/fuel hedge agaisnit disaster vs PMs. In a future world of essential resource (food water) scarcity, why would shiny metal be worth anything? Admittedly, cryptos would be worth even less in such a world. So I don’t see either helping a whole lot in the next Great Depression. So it is best to invest based on an assumtion that the US will survive the next crisis and cryptos are clearly the future.
EMPs: An and EMP would have to be planetary to affect crypto systems, ie, caused by some externality to Earth). At that point, I’d be much more cocnerned about the conditin of the ozone layer and the survival of the human population, rather than how much money I had. In anticipation of a local EMP event, then you just need to wrap your wallet-on-a-USB with aluminum foil.
Traceability: By definition, the bitchain tracks every transaction. However, the trackability of cryptos depends much on how you use them. You can stay anonymous, but I believe that you need mutiple wallets to do so.
Millenials and cryptos: Millenials believe in cryptos, but they are naive and ignorant. They will buy the good with the bad, and give no thought to the difference. Cryptos are here to stay – but not all of them. Just as GenX saw the potential of the internet and bought every dot.com stock under the sun in the late ’90s, only to watch most of them go to 0. Are you buying the next Google or the next AltaVista? The next FaceBook or the next MySpace?
Bitcoin: I strongly feel that Bitcoin will not be among the survivors. It is too slow and resoruce intensive to approve transactions. Imagine if when you boguht something with a check, someone had to actually call the bank and speak to a teller to verify if you had funds. That is how I see Bitcoin. Also, by definition its transaction speed is *slowing* down. Do you also realize that it is impossible to approve transactions without creating more bitcoins? Imagine if each dollar bill required a quarter each time you used it.
Good points on EMPs, Btn, but some of the good people of Puerto Rico still do not have access to their crypto, if they have any. Their password might have been washed away when their home flooded. Hundreds of dollars in savings also washed away, too. So its all around tough. Their gold jewelry is still intact in that crushed bedroom bureau. But since all the stores are closed, a commercial trade for supplies is unlikely. Maybe they can pawn it to a neighbor for some gasoline…
> Count me in the water/food/ammo/fuel hedge
I think most of us recognize the common sense of being prepared for no economy at all, or one as basic as a neighborhood barter system, or, most likely a temporary situation caused by some kind of local disaster. If you are sitting in an apartment downtown somewhere and don’t have a few gallons of potable water etc.you pretty much deserve what you are going to get. As I said earlier, a bag of silver dimes, or even some paper FRNs should be near the water.
Even in my gloomiest moods it is hard to convince myself that this is the real future. Possible but a low percentage chance. The discussion here seemed to me more about how we can best function in alternatives to the current debt/fiat/rigged markets system which many of us suspect is crumbling and which replaced the gold standard which worked extremely well for a long period of time. (I can remember personally watching a line around the block of the U.S. treasury building waiting to cash in their silver certificates for silver dollars, so, the “fine tuning” experiment of Ivy League economists is really not all that old.)
The odds seem to favor in my view a slow delamination rather than an abrupt return to the Stone Age. The world economy may slow, but is not going to stop just because the currencies being used became corrupt beyond any ability to use them. So..there IS going to be a new form of money, ..ALL fiats fail eventually, and the dollar has has had an unbelievable ride at the expense of everyone else. The question here is, IF YOU HAVE SURPLUS ASSETS to protect, how do you best protect them against the semi temporary chaos that will result when the petro-dollar scheme folds and or inflation arises to erase the unpayable debt (and your bank account)?
Most here are ready to flee the dollar… Maybe Russia/China etc will create a new Gold backed currency, or the IMF will slide us all into a “Gold backed” international SDR coin…or, maybe it will go the other way with state or private currencies springing up from below. Assuming you want to, how will you buy into the new system? What will be worth more new of the currency units? Gold, BTC or other coins, or FRNs or your computer screen that says the bank has a certain balance for you?
Believe me when I say that there is no one more anxious to see the basic idea and sense of Crypos succeed, and if they do, I will be an enthusiastic participant. However, for right now Gold and silver …either physical or held specifically in a bailment outside the reserve banking system, preferably outside the country seemsa better bet than trying to pick and choose among the coins and wallets and exchanges. Someone opined here that Gold will never be worth more than 1300$. That is an opinion of course, and it may be right…but, Gold has never been worth nothing….something paper and electrons cannot (yet) say.
I quite concur, Mr. Ice Axe. The collapse of the Soviet Union was quite abrupt to us, but for the Soviet people, it had been going on for 20 years right in front of their faces. The fact that store shelves were empty on New Years Day 1992 when their super-power state was broken into shards made little difference to them: the shelves had been empty for years! And they remained empty for many more thereafter.
I’ve been reading about ancient Rome lately, finding their problems to be eerily comparable to ours: the rise of the military overseas empire and the wealthy of the top men coincided with the impoverishment of the middle classes, the traditional backbone of Roman society that made her greatness possible.
But the period of all this degradation I’m reading about was not the late Empire, as most people discuss, but the late Republic! Corruption and incompetence and greed and avarice were tearing the nation apart. Only Caesarism could save the nation, and it did. The power of Rome (West then East) lasted for really another 1,400 years after the broken machinery of the Republic was sidelined for autocracy. The armies were brought under control, the provinces given good government, citizenship extended — none of this was possible under the Republic.
Since the United States was founded on the principles of the Roman Republic and has followed it to become a militaristic overseas Empire, I suspect we’re headed in the same direction. We should expect “Caesars” from hence forth — but we should also expect some sort of Sulla to appear as well. (Perhaps that was to be Hillary’s role: a bloodthirsty paranoid out to eliminate potential enemies). Trump so far is not a Caesar but a prototype. Look to the Generals for our future leaders, incompetent though they are on the battlefield…
I am one older generation (58) guy who, at the start of 2016, was satisfied by having 2% of my wealth in Bitcoin. I never sold any Bitcoin since, and traded among other cryptocurrencies. I do like precious metals and own some, have accumulated over twenty years, but now I regard my metals as a hedge against cryptocurrencies. Note neither cryptocurrency nor metals is funding bloody wars, imperialism, and democide. Fractional reserve banking and inflated currency is. I have a cryptography background and it’s worth noting the cypher punk folks like Tim May and the late Hal Finney are boomers who started the ball rolling on bitcoin. In fact I came across Hal Finney’s works after he died and found his involvement with bitcoin. I respected his works and figured if bitcoin was good for him, it’s good for me.
I’m the mother of a millennial. Our family fell into poverty during the financial crisis and it taught our son that doing the right things can amount to zilch. We were always hard working people and lost everything, house, job, savings, everything. This is the defining experience, the financial crisis, for the younger generation.
The primary asset class for millennials is utility. Is this thing actually useful. They don’t care about gold because you can’t spend it on your mobile device. Mobility, portability, and fungiblity are the assets of the new millennium.
Younger generations may believe they can “flip the table over and build entirely new structures,” but that’s easier said than done. And the places where it’s been tried tend to look like Maoist China, Stalinist Russia, etc.
Quality points will win the day. How we define quality and assign points will continue to be a never ending negotiation.