Let's take a history lesson on the US Dollar.
The Dollar's reign as world reserve currency can end quicker than anyone can imagine. This isn't a prediction of imminent collapse, but a statement of fact.
You see, freaks, this is all a confidence game.
The party only goes on if the people subjected to the US Dollar are confident it will remain valuable and is being managed properly by the powers that be. This has been true of every fiat currency that has existed throughout human history. The Dollar isn't immune to this reality despite what those in charge may try to make you believe. The deranged MMT advocates shouting, "Debt is only money we owe ourselves." and "The Dollar's reserve status means we can print as much as we want and spend it on whatever we want without repercussions." severely discount the fact that reserve status of a government mandated fiat currency has never lasted very long when you zoom out far enough. All the accrued debts and printing eventually come back to bite the issuers in the ass.
Again, this isn't a proclamation of an imminent collapse of the dollar, but an observation that there are strong signals beginning to emanate from the market that confidence is waning. As you can see from the screenshots above, this morning Goldman Sachs came out and questioned the viability of the US Dollar in the midst of the awe inspiring expansion of the Fed's balance sheet, a prolonged shutdown of the economy, and the (coordinated?) social unrest that has swept through major cities in the US. The high priests of the banking world seem to be turning on the Hydra that feeds them. Going as far to recommend that their clients get exposure to assets like gold and silver, which would have been derided as mere paper weights only a few years ago by the same analysts. This is not a good sign for the Dollar.
Is it really that hard to believe these signals are beginning to proliferate though? How can any self-respecting individual have any confidence in the Hydra that has gotten us into this position? Our political system seems to be in constant turmoil. Partisan vitriol and spite policy has become the norm on Capitol Hill. The dominant political parties have devolved into ineffective caricatures who cater to the Cantillionaire class instead of actually trying to help individual Americans and preserve the principles this country was founded on. The Fed has proven it has absolutely no idea what it's doing and cannot predict or control the externalities that come with the policy it pursues. As recently as last week, Fed Governors began saying "fuck it, let's just go full send and try to overshoot our 2% inflation rate." Changing their tune on a dime yet again. And to top it all off, there is a Socialist insurrection being attempted in many major cities as confused, manipulated simps attempt to find meaning in their lives.
If we're being honest with ourselves, the pillars of confidence in the faith-based system that props the dollar up are weaker than they have ever been. Is it really surprising to see people start to distance themselves from the belief that the US Dollar can remain the reserve currency into perpetuity? Are you shocked that hard assets like bitcoin, gold and silver have experienced significant rallies over the last week? The instability of the system is beginning to be priced in earnestly.
These assets, bitcoin in particular, provide a much better ability to instill confidence if one takes the time to understand how they work. The distributed nature of Bitcoin makes it extremely hard to change, so one can have a high degree of confidence that the number of bitcoins that will ever be produced will never surpass 21,000,000. That same nature also makes it extremely hard to attack as there is no central location that stores the ledger data. It is copied on tens of thousands of machines scattered across the planet. One can have confidence that the loose game theory that keeps the stakeholders within the Bitcoin network in check will continue to ensure coopetition. And the fact that bitcoins are digital and the private key that grants you the ability to move them can be stored in your memory makes bitcoin extremely hard to seize.
Bitcoin is leaps and bounds better than the Federal Reserve system which is wholly centralized, has a monetary policy that is completely unpredictable and erratic, and is pushing individuals towards a digital panopticon in which all transactions can be tracked, censored and immediately taxed. Bitcoin is an obvious solution when one couples these facts with the waning confidence that is becoming more evident. Even when compared to other hard assets like gold and silver, Bitcoin is a step function improvement on their shortcomings which include a supply schedule which is only slightly more predictable than the US Dollar, their penchant to be seized in mass by broke governments, and the fact that they are much harder to transact in due to their physical nature.
The signs of the monetary and social systems we've grown accustom to cracking at their foundations are all around. These are uncomfortable truths and you Uncle Marty needs to be clear here, I wish they weren't the truth. I wish this wasn't our current condition. I wish the powers that be would have exhibited the necessary humility and restraint to prevent our society from getting into this position. However, that is simply not the case. Bitcoiners aren't hoping for the incumbent system to fail so Bitcoin can succeed. We are simply making a calculated bet that this trend in waning confidence in our political and monetary systems is going to continue and Bitcoin provides the best alternative to fall back on when shit really hits the fan.
In a world in which humans are able to decide between centralized fiat currencies that depend on central authorities not abusing their positions to make politically expedient decisions or a free market currency that cannot be debased or changed to appease the current cultural and political environment; bitcoiners are betting that the former simply won't be able to compete on merit and the market will naturally gravitate towards Bitcoin.
Free yourself from the madness. Join us.
Final thought...
Terry cloth is growing on me.