Surf Report: In Memoriam
Issue 36: 05.30.2021 (Free Version)
INTRODUCTION
May 30, 2021
Hi everyone—I’m so glad to have you here. What a week.
The ties between the banking industry, the U.S. dollar, and the military are tight. Each is inextricably bound up with the other like some dystopian web of deliberate obfuscation. It can be difficult to untangle things enough to see where one begins and the other ends.
The government has always held a monopoly on violence, and our global reserve currency is quite literally backed by the might of the United States military and its associated rules of engagement. The phrase “…or else” hangs in the background of trade and commerce like a hired thug. In the world of money, military is an enforcer.
But that isn’t why most men and women volunteer for the armed forces and put their lives on the line for their country. If you ask them, or read the accounts of those who fought and survived, they are usually motivated to defend. It’s those they know and love who prompt huge personal sacrifices, to help protect them and contribute to their preservation. It’s not to uphold the dollar, it’s to uphold lives.
This tension lies at the heart of everything wrong with the current banking system. It’s why financial matters are of vital importance.
Money is stored time and energy. We work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 50 weeks out of the year and trade that time and energy for “time + energy credits.” i.e. money. And we do this so we can exchange our credits for the product of someone else’s time and energy. We sacrifice scarce, finite resources of our human lives to be more productive and benefit from the talents and specializations of others.
We can also save our time + energy credits for use later in the future. In this way, money allows us to store our precious time and energy like a battery.
So the things governments do with our money, and the casual ease with which they can dilute its value without consequence, is extremely personal. To create vast amounts of fiat currency out of nothing—without trading any time or energy to do so—drains the purchasing power of our batteries and makes them increasingly less valuable. It’s an immoral and irresponsible act at best. At worst, it’s time theft.
Not only that, but war itself would be completely unaffordable—its costs far too great—if the government couldn’t make its own free money to fund it. There’s no telling how many human lives have been lost simply because of this legalized counterfeiting.
“Imagine if countries had to buy jets and weapons with real money instead of printed-by-the-trillion fiat paper that cost them nothing.”
—Max Keiser
Tomorrow is Memorial Day here in the States. It’s a holiday dedicated to those who have lost their lives in war. It’s a day meant for remembrance. And it’s this idea of sacrifice that sits at the heart of some of our deepest values as a society: virtue, honor, and respect.
To sacrifice your time and energy to provide for others, or provide for your future self, may not feel as consequential as soldiers fighting a war prepared to sacrifice their very lives. But a respect for the idea that you can’t get something for nothing ties us all together and grounds us in a shared value that keeps us honest.
Removing the need to sacrifice or make tradeoffs leads to corruption.
It’s only by taking risks and giving something up that a healthy system can function, since it prevents bad actors from socializing losses for personal gain. It’s as true for societies as it is for ecosystems and organisms.
Days like these always have me reflecting on the value of human time and energy, considering how many strangers have lost their own lives with the intention of protecting others’ Am I spending my time or killing it? Am I passing the time or seizing the moment? Is my energy being stored or drained?
It’s one thing to remember and honor the sacrifices of others, but it’s another to make sure those sacrifices were well spent.
Until next time 🤙,
“The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.” —Ernest Hemingway
Breaking 🌊
🤑 Biden to propose $6 trillion budget, increasing federal spending to World War II levels. [The Hill] $6,000,000,000,000 is 7.5x the bailout of the 2008 financial crisis.
🎬 Amazon to acquire MGM Studios for $8.5 billion [Axios] Just one week removed from the transformational merger announcement between WarnerMedia and Discovery. [CNBC]
💳 Taking a cue from video game microtransactions, Disney's new Spider-Man ride will allow you to purchase upgrades [Gizmodo]
🎮 Evidence is piling up that Netflix wants to be the Netflix of games [The Verge]
🚫 Coinbase has banned employee salary negotiations. [The Hustle]
₿💱 Ray Dalio confirms BTC holdings, says 'Bitcoin's greatest risk is its success' and “I’d rather have bitcoin than the bond.’ [The Block]; Michael Saylor hosted a meeting between Elon Musk and the leading Bitcoin miners in North America to promote energy usage transparency & accelerate sustainability initiatives worldwide. [Twitter]; Apple Is Looking for Crypto Experience in ‘Alternative Payments’ Job Post [Coindesk]; Financial Innovation Act signed into law, Nebraska becomes second state allowing crypto banks. [NCN]; Globant, the $8.7 billion NYSE-listed tech firm, has purchased an aggregate of $500,000 in crypto assets, comprised solely of bitcoin. [Cointelegraph]; Fidelity Bitcoin Fund Attracts $102M in First 9 Months [Coindesk]; Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest buys nearly $20M worth of Bitcoin, maintains $500,000 price target [Bitcoin Magazine]; U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Senator Cynthia Lummis Wyoming have launched the bipartisan U.S. Senate Financial Innovation Caucus. [senate.gov]
From The Tweetbox 🐦
“Remember the drama of how much debasement occurred during the 2008 financial crisis? We have debased the currency by nearly the same amount just since January of this year. No one cares. They just want their checks.” [Tweet]
“The USD as currently structured no longer even serves 90% of US interests well” [Tweet]
For The Pros 😎
178 places to get free traffic for your startup (Link available to Pro subscribers)
A collection of hypothetical case studies detailing how to grow various brands products, and services. Lots of great ideas and thought-starters! (Link available to Pro subscribers)
Turns out when incorporate this one piece of content in your marketing or product page leads to an increased willingness to pay (Link available to Pro subscribers)
What nearly 2/3 of employees would prefer over a hefty yearly raise, and why (Link available to Pro subscribers)
A great read, with plenty of valuable lessons for people building businesses for the long haul: (Link available to Pro subscribers)
The most popular link building techniques: (Link available to Pro subscribers)
Worth A Read 📃
The Optimal Amount of Hassle, by Morgan Housel
And what I concluded from hanging out with them and from others in a similar situation was that they weren’t crazy at all. They were actually the smart people who had seen through the bullshit. And because of that, they couldn’t function in the world.
If you recognize that BS is ubiquitous, then the question is not “How can I avoid all of it?” but, “What is the optimal amount to put up with so I can still function in a messy and imperfect world?”
Here's Why Billionaire Ray Dalio Would Rather Own Bitcoin Than Bonds, via Nasdaq
Fixed-income investors have been facing setbacks over the last couple of decades. Yields fell sharply as investors moved their focus towards risky assets including stocks and currencies. Furthermore, pandemic-related economic disruptions, as well as zero interest rate policy, have further damaged returns from bonds and other debt offerings. Even though the most prominent U.S. 10-year treasury yield has stabilized in the past couple of months after notching an all-time low of 0.54% in early March last year, Dalio still believes investing in bonds is an unwise idea.
Tip ☝
Here’s a really great thread of advice from Julie Zhou detailing an important idea: just because you think you can improve on a product doesn't mean you can also convince enough people to switch to it.
Here’s An Idea 💡
An AI-powered assistant that automatically transcribes your Zoom meetings: Otter Assistant, from Otter.ai
PNGs 🖼
Start with an audience, not with the idea:
Pods & Schools 🐬🐠
🔊 Taxation, Bitcoin and the State, with Dominic Frisby, on the Bitcoin Standard Podcast with Saifedean Ammous
"It’s hard to find a great event from history that didn’t have a largely untold tax story behind it, without which that event could never have unfolded in the way that it did. I believe that taxation should be taught in schools in the same way we teach chemistry and mathematics. It’s that important a subject and we overlook it completely.”
🔊 Hass McCook on Bitcoin’s energy use in context, in conversation with Nic Carter on the On The Brink podcast from Castle Island Ventures. A completely essential listen for context on the costs, inputs, and outputs of the energy industry. I learned a ton, and the section about the gold mining industry was particularly eye-opening.
Tools of the Trade ⚒
Products I use to make money
Swan. I recently became an official Swan partner because I love them so much. So if you're like me and just want an easy, automated way to buy bitcoin on the regular with the lowest fees in the game, head to https://swanbitcoin.com/Mulvey. You even get $10 for free ✨
StockCharts. I easily make back the small monthly subscription fee with the superpowers it gives me.
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Disclaimer
Nothing in this email is intended to serve as financial advice. Do your own research.