The Breakdown

Matt Stoller works with the American Economic Liberties Project and is the author of “Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy” as well as the popular Substack newsletter “BIG.” In this conversation, he and NLW discuss the history of American antitrust sentiment and politics including: The origins of antitrust sentiment  How the “Watergate Babies” generation of Democrats turned away from antitrust sentiment  How the 1990s shifted power in favor of corporates and tech  Why the 2008-2009 crisis was a seminal moment in our attitudes towards big finance  The significance of the new antitrust case against Google  Find our guest online: Twitter: @matthewstoller Web: mattstoller.com

Huge news broke this morning as PayPal announced it would be offering buying, selling and eventually merchant payments for bitcoin and other cryptos across its network.  In this late-breaking Breakdown episode, NLW explores: The specifics of the news Why the scale, precedent and normalization are hugely bullish What some skeptics are saying Why it’s significant PayPal is focused on the coming central bank digital currency era 

Today on the Brief: DOJ files biggest antitrust case in two decades against Google  Goldman Sachs’ 1MDB settlement  LINE’s new CBDC platform  Our main discussion: bulls vs. bears as bitcoin passes $12K Someone recently tweeted, “Bitcoin price has never been this high with such bearish sentiment.”  On this episode, NLW looks at the bullish case (growth in open interest on CME backed by strong macro narrative around stimulus) and bearish case ($12K sell wall and bleeding from alts and DeFi).   

Today on the Brief: Chinese citizens less than impressed with DCEP trial Is Filecoin the “Titanic” of ICOs? Mnuchin, Pelosi go one more round on stimulus Our main discussion: A new Bretton Woods moment? In a recent speech, the International Monetary Fund argued that the time to fundamentally re-evaluate the global economic order is here. Goldbugs see the potential to return to the gold standard, bitcoiners anticipate ever-growing stimulus and macro observers are betting on massive disruptions in the wake of central bank digital currencies.

On this week’s Long Reads Sunday, NLW reads: “Capital Allocation & Risk Asset Ramifications in a 0% Interest Rate World” The piece examines how different asset classes – from stocks to bonds to bitcoin and beyond – fare in the context of a world where the Federal Reserve is determined to keep interest rates at or near zero for years to come.

On this edition of The Breakdown weekly recap, NLW looks at: Growth in the institutional investment space in crypto A new 10,000 BTC treasury announcement  Reports from the Bank for International Settlements, G20, WEF, IMF and more around central bank digital currencies A National Security Council report labeling distributed ledger technology key for national security

Today’s Breakdown is a conversation with Andre Anjos – aka RAC, a Grammy Award-winning recording artist and music entrepreneur. He and NLW discuss: Starting the “Remix Artist Collective” as a business Evolving from remixing to performing artist The challenges and trade-offs of working with major labels  How the music industry beat back technology innovation where other industries failed How NFTs, tokens and other crypto innovations are opening up truly free markets for music and culture  Find our guest online: Twitter: @RAC Web: rac.fm

Today on the Brief: Initial jobless claims rise to highest level since August BTC as a DeFi reserve asset Twitter reactions as Filecoin goes live Our main discussion focuses on the convergence of the crypto and public markets. NLW looks at: Narratives of bitcoin’s correlations to stocks Growing overlap of retail and institutional traders SPACs and public crypto companies  Bitcoin treasuries  Geopolitical intrigue around ANT Financial

Today on the Brief:  Bitcoin hashrate at all-time highs Record number of large companies lose money during the pandemic JPMorgan releases research note on bitcoin Our main discussion: Stone Ridge Holdings Group discloses $114 million in bitcoin treasury assets.  NLW digs into what Stone Ridge is, why it spun off New York Digital Investments Group (NYDIG) and how the company has quietly built itself into a serious player in the institutional crypto asset space.   

Today on the Brief: Is the “blue wave” Democrat victory narrative in the presidential election starting to shake up Wall Street?  Johnson & Johnson pause COVID-19 vaccine trial  1000 Satoshi-era bitcoins are on the move  Our main discussion: The world’s central banks are moving quickly on digital currencies. NLW looks at a slew of recent news showing how much of a priority CBDCs are becoming: A report from the Bank for International Settlements and seven other central banks setting design principles for CBDCs A G20 regulatory standards framework  A forthcoming OECD tax reporting framework  One need only look at the increasingly speedy rollout of China’s DCEP to understand why this has become a major priority for central banks everywhere.