The Breakdown

CoinDesk’s Chief Content Officer Michael Casey and Head of Research Noelle Acheson join for a lively debate about the new $2 trillion stimulus package and era of “unlimited” QE, including: Whether (and on what time scale) fiscal and monetary stimulus might lead to inflation Whether the Fed buying corporate bonds amounts to a nationalization of the bond markets Why the appearance of a ‘digital dollar’ in an earlier stimulus proposal was a huge surprise How a digital dollar in the form proposed would upset the balance of power between the Fed, commercial banks, and citizens  Why trust in governments and financial institutions is likely to achieve new lows in the wake of COVID-19 Why people are reevaluating the meaning and purpose of money   

Mark Yusko is the founder of Morgan Creek Capital Management. In this wide-ranging conversation, he and @NLW discuss:  Why bitcoin has fallen with stocks over the last few weeks Why price and value are not the same thing Why stocks have been manipulated  An argument for buy backs being illegal  Why cronyism is not capitalism  Why bailouts and other types of intervention help zombie companies that should perish A debate about whether the “cure is worse than the disease” The costs of a 0-risk tolerance  The polarization of health vs. economics  Why there should be a market holiday  Why bitcoin is the last and only free market  Why the big market announcements are always on Sunday  Why we’re headed to debt jubilee  There is a non-zero probability that Trump tries to cancel the election   Why a lack of leadership is the biggest cause for pessimism today

Last October, Ikigai Asset Management’s Travis Kling predicted that Central Banks would have to “juice QE to infinity” in order to save markets from recession. Yesterday on 60 Minutes, Fed President Neel Kashkari said “there is an infinite amount of cash at the Federal Reserve. We will do whatever we need to do to make sure there is enough cash in the financial system.”  This was followed this morning by an announcement that the Fed was giving itself effectively unlimited capacity to intervene in markets. Markets were...still not impressed. In less than two hours, an initial gain had entirely retraced.  On this episode of The Breakdown, @NLW looks at: Specifics details of the Fed Announcement Why FinTwit and Bitcoin Twitter are focusing on inflation  Why some think that this action amounts to a nationalization of markets How the ‘money printer go brrr’ meme is taking hold

The week's episode, in one convenient file. Also including short clips from CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti and SwanBitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten.  Monday | Can $700B in Quantitative Easing Calm The Markets? Feat. CoinDesk’s Michael Casey and Noelle Acheson Tuesday | Gov't Stimulus Goes BIG and Why Bitcoin Is the Only Truly Free Market, Feat. Dan Tapiero Wednesday | Is the COVID19 Fiscal & Monetary Response An Overreaction? Feat. Bruce Fenton Thursday | Off Friday | State Power & Authoritarianism After Coronavirus featuring Peter McCormack

Peter McCormack is the host of What Bitcoin Did and the Defiance podcast. He recently returned from travel to a number of countries in South America including Venezuela and Colombia as well as the Turkey-Greece border.  In this off-the-cuff and wide ranging conversation, Peter and @NLW discuss Bitcoiner politics and the bitcoin community’s reaction to the potential for increased state power in the wake of Coronavirus Which types of state power growth we should be most concerned with  How to push governments to retract power growth on the other side of crisis  How travel around the world has informed Peter’s perspective on bitcoin and politics Why nuance is both disincentivized and sorely needed in times of crisis

In his daily Coronavirus press briefing today, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said “our main scramble now is ventilators.” The state anticipates that within 45 days, it could need 37,000 ventilators. It currently has 3000.  Bruce Fenton was one of the early crypto community canaries in the coal mine warning of the impending threat of Coronavirus. As the world has caught up to the warning, he has shifted his attention to helping coordinate an open source network that is trying to address that exact problem.  On this episode of The Breakdown, Bruce joins to discuss: Where the US is in its awareness cycle  Why bitcoiners are worried about the long-term economic ramifications of massive stimulus What a voluntarist alternative to government intervention might look like How an open source network is trying to solve the ventilator shortage  What regular people can do to contribute to the fight against Coronavirus

President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced a significant slate of upcoming stimulus measures, including deferred taxes and direct payments to Americans (although those details remain to be seen).  On this episode of The Breakdown, 10T holdings CEO Dan Tapiero joins to discuss: How this forthcoming stimulus might impact the bitcoin narrative Why some traditional safe havens like bonds might not fair well in the coming markets while others like gold are poised to thrive  Why markets could be positioning for a major bounce back Why the Fed has more tools in its toolkit than popular media and opinion are suggesting  Why the dollar’s global strength is a major concern  Why bitcoin is the only truly free market in the world

Over the weekend, the Fed decided it couldn’t wait for Wednesday’s planned meeting to act, cutting interest rates to nearly 0%. It also announced $700 billion of direct capital injection through the purchase of Treasury securities and mortgage-backed debt.  The question is whether this action can actually calm markets? So far, it’s not looking great. Within minutes, emergency circuit breakers were triggered again. Markets are down more than 9% on the day.  In this episode, @NLW chats with CoinDesk’s Chief Content Officer Michael Casey and director of research Noelle Acheson about: Why the market isn’t impressed with Fed action Why no Fed response will be enough on its own to solve the health crisis and the resulting economic dislocation Why we’re going to see more conversations in the coming weeks about UBI, MMT and other direct citizen stimulus 

The entire week's shows in one convenient file: Monday | What the Market Crash Means for Bitcoin, Feat. Delphi's Kevin Kelly Tuesday | Crypto Fundraising and the Nothing-Is-Safe Haven Wednesday | Ben Hunt on the Clash of Narratives in the Age of Coronavirus Thursday | 6 Good Reasons for Bitcoiners to Keep Calm and HODL On Friday | What Happens When Currencies Fail? Featuring Preston Pysh

Yesterday, the Federal Reserve announced more than a trillion dollars in liquidity injections into the market. In the coming weeks, many observers expect trillions of more in stimulus in a variety of exotic new intervention tactics.  While this will (hopefully) stem the still emerging economic fallout from the pandemic, it creates its own new set of problems. In this episode of The Breakdown, @NLW is joined by “We Study Billionaires” host Preston Pysh to discuss: How bond markets will react to the wave of stimulus  The challenge of global coordination for a new Bretton Woods Why in the wake of stimulus some governments might turn to bitcoin  The three factors that lead to currency failure