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GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

stephendiehl.com

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Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#81

Post by equality_1138 »

seibelj wrote: post #4

I find bitcoin to be the greatest innovation in finance in the 21st century, a watershed moment in economic development. For the first time any person can own a financial asset completely decoupled from any government. That’s the value proposition for me. It’s not nihilism - it’s optimism in the individual to succeed over the corrupt state.

The downside is that is fuels a speculative mindset, not only among so-called investors in bitcoin but as a ripple effect throughout the economy. However great of an innovation bitcoin is in theory, in practice it could have unintended consequences you ought to consider.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#82

Post by sudosysgen »

hintymad wrote: post #56
sudosysgen wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The norm is falling through time. Right now, the norm is fine, but in a few decades, the norm will be to barely be able to afford rent. The way things are going, the norm is trending towards pretty bleak, yeah.

I guess STEM here really means the fields that pay decently and require hard skills. I hope we will always have such fields, be they STEM or not.

Of course. But they will pay decently so long as relatively few people go into them.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#83

Post by UncleMeat »

solosoyokaze wrote: post #70
cataphract wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the author says is: > [Bitcoin is] a naked speculative bubble based on a technology that doesn’t scale can’t and [won't] replace any existing financial service So that Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme, and provides no financial service of value. I don't think it's fully true, because Bitcoin facilitates underground transactions and is a practical asset in countries with high inflation and currency restrictions, but the…

Well one way to look at it is Bitcoin is up against USD because USD is suffering massive inflation. Thus, BTC is doing its job.

That's obviously false, given that the price of steak is not up ten million fold or whatever over the last decade.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#84

Post by UncleMeat »

seibelj wrote: post #20
ABeeSea wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest society wide actualized impacts of crypto have been: 1) Ransomware 2) Electricity usage 3) International reserve currency for bad actors such as North Korea, terrorist cells, and drug cartels. I don’t see any of these three as a positive; certainly not the greatest financial innovation of all time. I also don’t see other use cases having the size of these three. (Ignoring speculative investment as a use c…

I see the major benefit of bitcoin being that no government can stop it or seize it from me if properly stored. USD was used for crime well before bitcoin. The benefit of reducing the power of government and empowering individuals is vastly worth whatever electricity it costs. After all, if people want to use electricity to stream pornography, I don’t care. They are paying for it - and so are bitcoin enthusiasts.

I'm happy that the state has the ability to seize illegal funds from people. Outside of minarchists and a few others, there aren't many people who think that completely lawless wealth is a good plan.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#85

Post by UncleMeat »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #41
mrslave wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> IMO The real issue is a crap education system which gives neither opportunity, nor good advice The nihilism of YOLO has little to do with schooling. A broken education system is well after the fact of the economic and social reality constituting their environment. The young today have impossible economic hurdles: unaffordable shoebox apartments, high student debt, no incentive to save, no good jobs for modest tasks…

> no incentive to save I highly disagree with this. The S&P 500 has returned 400% since the crash in a mere 12 yrs. If doubling your money every 6 years does not sound excellent to you, the it's a financial education that is lacking, not real opportunity. > in-person communities are fractured by many different spoken languages I actually have found this really enjoyable, to have lots of opportunity to speak/learn Spa…

And the Nasdaq only matched its 2000 peak in 2017.

Investment can be powerful, but you are cherry picking.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#86

Post by seibelj »

UncleMeat wrote: post #84
seibelj wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see the major benefit of bitcoin being that no government can stop it or seize it from me if properly stored. USD was used for crime well before bitcoin. The benefit of reducing the power of government and empowering individuals is vastly worth whatever electricity it costs. After all, if people want to use electricity to stream pornography, I don’t care. They are paying for it - and so are bitcoin enthusiasts.

I'm happy that the state has the ability to seize illegal funds from people. Outside of minarchists and a few others, there aren't many people who think that completely lawless wealth is a good plan.

In the West we have reasonably decent government. In other countries, not so much. You are a law-abiding citizen today, and tomorrow you are a criminal whose assets should be seized. Just ask my family that fled communism!

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#87

Post by lmm »

solosoyokaze wrote: post #80
lmm wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I said something like "Apple won't go out of business because it's a big company", comparing to Sears would be completely fair.

The OP said Bitcoin is like the lottery. It’s on him to explain that. The lottery has not returned value to almost every person who bought a ticket in the past decade, Bitcoin has. It’s a false and inept analogy.

I think the overwhelming majority of people who bought Bitcoin have paper gains only, not realised value.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#88

Post by maerF0x0 »

sudosysgen wrote: post #36
hintymad wrote: post #28

> Let’s state the uncomfortable truth. The future for many Americans is bleak and their lives are going to be nasty, brutish and short. Everyday I see a world where many in my generation have simply given up all hope for opportunity of a family, a house, a stable career and forced to confront an uncertain future in a world that is slowly boiling itself to death. But why? Why can't more kids get into STEM fields? Why…

If more kids get into STEM, then eventually STEM salaries will regress to the norm. It's a non solution. Systematically, the average American will and must confront quite the bleak future.

thinking about, building, and running a business is pretty much the only real future. This may look like becoming an expert and contracting oneself out, or it may look like finding a niche and exploiting it for all the market value it's worth.

Working for someone else has been the "easy" route (mentally) for a long time, and easy things never pay well.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#89

Post by illumin8 »

loeber wrote: post #38
Judgmentality wrote: post #3

> And so we see Gamestop story fall out of that. In a nutshell a bunch of retail investors (possibly with help from institutional insiders) decided to pump a small cap stock far beyond what the valuation of the company should be. This completely ignores the fact that the stock was shorted over 100% of float, and people knew it was going to squeeze so they bought in hoping to ride the wave. And that did in fact happen…

Strong agree. This is a lazy polemic. Take, for instance, this one amazing part: > Goldman Sachs, Citadel, Andersen Horrowitz those guys are making transaction fees "Andersen Horrowitz"? Does the author have any idea who he is criticizing or what industry they're in? > Failing microcap stock GME is not a microcap stock, and it was not a microcap stock, even before this entire saga > I make no pretense that I don’t de…

> "Andersen Horrowitz"? Does the author have any idea who he is criticizing or what industry they're in?

Once I saw this obvious error and realized the author doesn't even understand that VCs are different from a stock exchange, and can't even spell their name properly, I realized how ridiculous this blog actually is. His Bitcoin argument cemented it.

I want the 5 minutes of my life back that I spent reading this drivel.

Re: GameStop, Bitcoin and the Commoditization of Populist Rage

#90

Post by sudosysgen »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #88
sudosysgen wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If more kids get into STEM, then eventually STEM salaries will regress to the norm. It's a non solution. Systematically, the average American will and must confront quite the bleak future.

thinking about, building, and running a business is pretty much the only real future. This may look like becoming an expert and contracting oneself out, or it may look like finding a niche and exploiting it for all the market value it's worth. Working for someone else has been the "easy" route (mentally) for a long time, and easy things never pay well.

I agree this is viable for some people. But it's structurally impossible for a sizeable portion of the population to do it. Our economy needs employees to run. It's not a question of easy/hard.
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