Hi everyone, a big, big welcome back to my channel. Can you tell that I am excited for autumn? So today we're going to be talking about all of my most anticipated releases for September through December. These anticipated releases videos are some of my absolute favorites to film. I just love looking ahead and getting excited about new books. There are some really, really good ones in here. We have literary fiction, of course. We have poetry, some historical fiction. We have children's fiction, and even a romance novel. All of the physical copies of these books that I feature in this video were kindly sent to me by the publishers. They are mainly proof copies, so a big, big thank you. Let's get into the good stuff, shall we? First up, coming on the 2nd of September by Picador is All the Names Given by Raymond Antrobus. This is a new poetry collection, and as is typical of Raymond Antrobus' poetry, this collection explores a vast range of themes, including family, history, and belonging, conflicting social and cultural identities, childhood and memory, and also adolescence and marriage. This collection is also punctuated throughout with captions to describe the silences and transitions inspired by a deaf sound artist. So I first discovered Raymond Antrobus' poetry last year and absolutely fell in love. His poetry is startling and vulnerable and aching with feeling. The craftsmanship and wordplay is impeccable. Naturally, I was very, very excited to hear about this new collection. I have already read this one. It was absolutely stunning. If you do want to hear more of my thoughts on it, then go and check out my last recent reads video. Also coming on the 2nd of September by Chicken House is Artie and the Blue Gods by Jaspinda Belan. This is a middle grade novel telling the story of a young girl named Artie who lives on an island with her aunt. Her only comforts are her books filled with Indian myths, her fox friend, and her toy rabbit. I believe one day a boy washes up on the shore of the island. Artie finds out that she has been lied to about who she and her aunt is and she's finally able to figure out who she really is. So I read Tamarind and the Star of Ishtar by Jasmine de Belan last year and absolutely loved it. It was the best children's novel I have read in a very long time. Super magical and heartfelt and sweet. And that is exactly what I'm hoping for from this one. This one does sound as though it could be a bit more fantastical than Tamarind, but I am hoping for those common themes of family and belonging and homecoming. I am very, very excited to dive into this one. Next up on the 7th of September by Faber is Beautiful World Where Are You by Sally Rooney. This book is on everybody's anticipated releases list. I am sure. For those of you who may have missed it, somehow this is a new literary novel from the author of Normal People and Conversations with Friends. It follows four characters, Alice, a novelist and Felix. He works in a warehouse who meet and travel to Rome together. And we also have Alice's best friend, Eileen and Simon in Dublin, two childhood friends who slip back into flirting with one another. Of course, I've already read this one. I read it as soon as I received my proof copy. I actually vlogged the whole reading experience for you guys. It was tons of fun. I will leave it linked around. If you want to hear more of my thoughts on this one, then you can find them in my last recent reads video, but know that I absolutely loved this. It was just the step up from Sally Rooney that I hoped it would be. I loved the slightly older age of these characters and the different types of relationships they were navigating. I loved that it was a bit more big picture regarding the world surrounding these characters. The prose was delightful. As always, I'm just very happy that this is now out and everyone else can read it. I can't wait to hear what all you guys think. Also coming on the 7th of September by Ander the Stories, we have Keeping the House by Tice Sin. This is a new literary novel that is said to offer a fresh and humorous take on the London heroin trade. I believe it spans three generations, telling the stories of the women who keep their families and their family businesses afloat. It is said to explore themes of community and belonging and love. I love Ander the Stories. They are such a fab publisher. This book sounds great. I am really, really intrigued by the setting. It isn't something I have read too much about before. I love novels that span different generations of the same family. I love character-focused novels. I think this is going to be really quirky and consumable, but also quite eye-opening and scathing. I'm looking forward to this one a lot. Coming on the 16th of September by Pushkin Press is Dinner Party A Tragedy by Sarah Gilmartin. This is another literary novel set between the 1990s and present day from both Rural Island to Dublin. It tells the story of a family who are gathering for the anniversary of a death, ultimately uncovering old tensions and sending the host Kate, spinning completely out of control. So this is another one that I have already read. I couldn't wait. This novel is so reminiscent of Ann Onright's novels and I love Ann Onright. Rural Irish setting, suffocating family, exploration of childhood and memories and loss. This book has a real tense, almost painful atmosphere. It really keeps you turning the pages. I really, really enjoyed this. A great new author to keep an eye on, I think. Go and check out my recent reads video if you want to hear more of my thoughts. Coming on the 21st of September by William Heineman is Bewilderment by Richard Powers. This is a big, big release from the author of The Overstory. It follows the story of a man named Theo who is an astrobiologist and searches for life on other planets. Theo is navigating how to best singularly bring up his son who is experiencing a lot of troubles at school and also just with life generally, including being deeply affected by the destructive nature of humans and the decline of our world. I am currently reading this one and I am loving it. It is sublime. It's currently meeting all of my expectations about what I hoped it would be. It's very character focused, very philosophical, the relationship between Theo and his son and everything that they're tackling together and individually is so touching and insightful. I love the intimacy in here but also the massive universe wide scope. This is stunning so far. It couldn't be more at my street and it is massively living up. Coming on the 30th of September by Nine Archers Press is Single Window by Daniel Sluman. This is a new poetry collection from one of my favorite ever poetry publishers. It explores the experiences of Daniel and his wife, Emily. One an amputee with chronic pain and the other suffering from Crohn's disease and fibro myalgia. The poems explore a very difficult year in which the two are unable to move and are confined to their home. Primarily this collection is said to explore the fear and isolation experienced by disabled people in Tory Britain. Doesn't this just sound brilliant? I cannot wait to read this one. I think it is going to be so intimate and eye-opening and shocking. Exploring themes of isolation and confinement more generally is something that is super important at the moment. I'm sure we can all find something to relate to in here. I think this is going to be great. Probably really emotional. I can't wait to hear what Daniel Sluman has to say. Coming on the 7th of October by Faber & Faber is Burnt Coat by Sarah Hall. This is a new literary novel that is said to explore themes of passion and connection and transformation. I believe it tells the story of an old celebrated sculptor named Edith who is coming to the end of her life. As she remembers a time during a lockdown when she brought a lover whom she barely knew into her studio for the first time. I adore Sarah Hall. She is a Cumbrian author. She is from the Lake District like me. I've been wanting to read more of her work for ages. I was super excited to hear that she was coming out with something new. I just love her prose. It is super beautiful and engaging. This sounds very interesting. I love explorations of memory and desire. It has also been recommended by tons of really great authors including Sarah Moss and Sarah Perry and Daisy Johnson. I am very excited for this one. Coming on the 12th of October by Simon and Schuster Children's is Aristotle and Dante Dive Into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Elia Siennes. This is a big one, friends. This is a YA novel. It is the long-awaited sequel to one of my favorite books of all time. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. That book came out years and years and years ago. This is way overdue. I believe this one follows the same two characters in the 1980s, a couple of years after the first book takes place. Ari and Dante are in love, but they must now figure out how to navigate a relationship together in a world that doesn't seem to understand them. I love Aristotle and Dante so much. The first book is such a perfect novel, so full of feeling and vulnerability and love. I am excited and very scared for this one. Honestly, I don't really feel as though the first book needs a sequel. I can't imagine this book being as good as the first one, but I do really want to read it and just enjoy it for what it is I am excited to meet these characters again. Coming on the 28th of October by HQ is The Christmas Escape by Sarah Morgan. If you're surprised to see this book on this list, I don't blame you. So this is a holiday romance women's fiction type novel set during a Christmas holiday to Lapland. It follows a story of a woman named Christie and her husband, her best friend Alex, her young daughter and her husband's oldest friend. I believe marriages attested, friendships attested, long held secrets unravel and unexpected romances bloom. So I don't typically read romance novels, but last Christmas I found my first perfect holiday romance novel that I absolutely loved. I think it was called The Three Christmas Sisters. It was, of course, by Sarah Morgan. I adored that book. I absolutely devoured it. It was the perfect balance of plot and character and Christmas goodness. Honestly, I became obsessed with Sarah Morgan and I am now going to read one of her Christmas novels every December. This is her newest one. I can't wait to cozy up and dive into it. Coming on the 30th of October by Carkinet Press is Winter Recipes from the Collective by Louise Gluck. This is a new poetry collection told through a chorus of voices reminiscent of chamber music. This collection has been described as haunting. I believe it explores many different things that constitute a lifetime, including joy and old age and death. So I believe that Louise Gluck is a pretty well-established celebrated poet. She won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Literature. This is like her 13th collection, I think. I haven't read anything by her before, but I have heard amazing things. I'm really excited to experience her poetry for myself. I think this could be quite special. Coming on the 11th of November by Vintage is Lily, a tale of revenge by Rose Tremaine. This is a historical novel set in 1850s London. I believe it tells a story of a young woman named Lily who when she was a baby was saved by a police officer. As a child, she was sent to a hospital to be punished for her rebellious spirit. She is finally released into the harsh world of Victorian London. All the while, this police officer is still watching over her and Lily is harboring a terrible secret. I am so excited for this one. I absolutely adore Rose Tremaine. Her novel, The Gustasenata, was one of my favorite reads a couple of years ago. I'm up for reading anything she has written and something about this one in particular has just hooked me. I love me a dark Victorian historical novel every now and again, especially when they focus on a morally gray female character. This sounds delicious and enticing. I am so excited to read it next month during spooky season. Coming out on the 11th of November by Picador is The Fell by Sarah Moss. This is another of the bigger releases on this list, I'd say. This is a literary novel telling the story of a woman during a two-week quarantine period. She goes out on a solitary walk on a deserted moor and ends up falling and badly hurting herself. Sarah Moss is honestly such a brilliant writer and she is churning out the books at the moment. I've read Ghost Wall by her. I absolutely loved. I also read Summer Water last year. She is such a talent. Her writing is so beautiful and sparse. She creates the most wonderful, tense, layered atmospheres. She is always commenting on some wider social or political discourse. I'm sure this one is going to be no exception. I love that it takes place during a quarantine period. I'm sure that it's going to explore themes of isolation. I am so here for this one. Also coming on the 11th of November by Bloomsbury Circus is The Falling Thread by Adam O'Riordan. This is another historical novel, this one taking place in Manchester in the 1890s. It tells the story of middle-class Charles who is on his summer holiday away from university. He ends up in a relationship with his little sister's governess resulting in terrible consequences. So this is a bit of a random one on this list. I have never heard of this debut author before. I haven't heard people talking about this book, but for some reason it's got me. I love the sound of the setting in here, the fact that it sounds kind of dark and plot-driven and really intriguing. But it also sounds as though it may be very character-focused, which is my favorite. It's described as being a captivating portrait of a family. I believe it focuses quite heavily on Charles's little sisters as they come of age as women as part of a new century. I think this one just sounds fab. And finally, coming on the 16th of November by Ander the Stories is Somebody Loves You by Mona Arshi.  The young girl ends up giving up talking, silence becoming her refuge, sheltering her from her chaotic to multuous life. So again, kind of a random one, but honestly, I just trust Ander the Stories with anything. I've heard that this one is melancholy and deft and filled with right humor, exploring our personal stories and how we choose to share them or not share them. I think this one sounds fascinating. I've had really good experiences in the past with character-focused, slightly whimsical novels from Ander the Stories. I have very high hopes. Furthermore, isn't this cover absolutely stunning? This whole thing has certainly got me hooked. So there we go. Those are my most anticipated releases from now until the end of the year. I really hope you all heard of something that sparked your interest. As always, please let me know if I missed anything. Is there anything else that I should be on the lookout for? I hope you're all doing really, really well. I hope you're all excited about upcoming releases as well. Thank you so much for watching. As always, it really, really does mean a lot. And hopefully I will see you soon in another one. Bye, everyone.


Welcome to Digital Asset News to get top stories and crypto current digital assets and break them down into bite-sized pieces today. We've got some good articles. First up, Bitcoin could shatter 864,000 per Bitcoin by 2024 according to the analyst Plan B. I thought this was an interesting article. It just gives us a chance to sit back and dream a little bit because the market right now and over the past week has just been awful. So let's just imagine what could be. Also Ethereum Classic Labs executive director Liz Kuka was on the Alex Mascioli show and she was asked some pretty tough questions about the third 51% attacks and we're going to go over exactly what she says and the question is really asked, which is, would you, after hearing her response, invest into Ethereum Classic? And lastly, Aves Lend drops 15% as crypto market punishes DeFi. So we're getting to all that and what's going on with the market, but first I want to say thanks to everybody who has been watching the videos. We're able to donate to a worthwhile charity called Dog is My Copilot. We'd already given $50 for this week and we're able to donate $25. So if you don't know, Dog is My Copilot allows dogs and cats to be taken from high kill shelter areas in certain parts of the country and flown to certain areas or other states where there is a low occupancy rate and there is a need for pets, dogs and cats and whatnot. So thanks so much for watching the videos and we will continue to donate to this worthwhile cause. Let's break into today's markets. So what a week we've had, right? It is September 6th. It is about about 12 PM high noon Texas time and it looks like the market is doing a little bit of a recovery, which is fantastic news because I got to tell you, I thought that it would actually drop down to like the 9500 area, 9700 for Bitcoin, but we did a little bit of bounce and we're at 1.2%. So looking at Bitcoin as 10 too, also Ethereum back up to 350. So we are just $50 away from that magical $400 number, which I think they could, Ethereum could definitely get to just takes a little more time. Tether's Tether and XRP is actually doing awful just like everything else. So XRP is at about 24 cents really chain link down 27% for the week, but it's up 12% in one day. So that's quite a rebound back up to $12. So not too shabby polka dot down 23% for the week, but also up 12% at $4,069 can't beat that Bitcoin cash, which was for a very short amount of time in the fifth position and that's a pretty good down 50% for the week, but 1.4 finance coin making some big huge strides 21% and that number eight spot like coin Bitcoin SV. Bitcoin SV, I don't know why it's still in the top 10. Someone please explain it to me. I don't understand. So in the comment section, please tell me why Bitcoin SV is in the top 10. I just don't get it. Anyhow, Cardano's down, everything's down. Tron up a little bit. OKB, fantastic Cosmos. Let's see, what's the big one? UMA, which is another type of DeFi synthetic and type of coins and whatnot. It's up still 35% for the week, 22% for the day. So if you're looking at one of those little unicorns that actually did great numbers, this is the one. I had up 10% 70% for urine finance. AVE up 6.4. Unfortunately, AVE and even urine finance, they're still down a little bit. All the urine's down for 11%. But I remember when you're in finance, the token itself was around 35, 36,000 hours at 23,000 per coin. So quite a bit of a drop and AVE taking one of the hardest hits. And we're going to talk about them a bit at 30% on a seven day slide. That's huge. And then a third classic, which just had their third to 51% attack up to 1.5% today. So whatever, I don't get it. All right, let's go into today's top story. All right, this was a bad week. Let's just let's just call a spade a spade, right? It was pretty junky. So what I like to do is just to kind of recalibrate.  I mean, we all got into this space for a specific reason, right? Whether that was for the technology or to make a profit or whatever else, this is a great article, which allows us just to sit back and dream about what could be. And I do like these ones, especially on a really crappy week. So this was an article talked about Analyst Plan B and its stock to flow ratio model. And he talks about how Bitcoin could hit 864,000. Now, do I think that Bitcoin will hit 864,000? Who knows?  I always just say that because it's just the thing to say. But no, honesty, it's not going to zero. That's dumb. Bitcoin's not going to go to zero. OK, it's just not going to happen. It's already, as Mike Novogratz said, it's already crossed the Rubicon. It's already been here plus a decade. Everybody's talking about it. Everybody wants to get into it. Not everybody. A lot of the smart money does at least. So I don't think it's going to zero. We'll go to 864,000. I don't think that's right either. But I see somewhere in the 100 to 200,000 range. That's just how I see it. Now, do I know when it's going to happen? Obviously not. But when you take a look at this article about what could be, I think there's some conservative numbers that we can all take solace in. So let's just break right into it. Plan B says Bitcoin could eclipse the prediction of his controversial stock to flow model ratio, which rise to 864,000 in four years. So I think it's going to be like 20 years. That's what some people say. Like in 20 years, it'll be a million dollars. I'm like, I don't care about. I mean, I'm here for the long haul, honestly, but it takes 20 years to get a million, probably going to sell some, but sure. So where does he get these numbers? Well, first he talks about he made a conservative bet that Bitcoin will hit 288,000. Now, I think within a year or two, it's going to hit 100. And then I think in like four, it could hit 200,000. So 200,000, I can definitely see that. That makes total sense. So he states, I'm on a 280,000 as an average value. 100K would be nice. But if you just follow the math or the data, I don't mean the time series model, what we're looking at Bitcoin only, we're looking at a gold, silver diamonds, real estate, all that stuff. It's two hundred and 8,000. That's just an average value for them. This is the unknown. He says it could overshoot like three times like it did in the last phases. I don't want to mention the number. I try to be conservative, but let's just say two X or three X from 288. And then it crashes again, of course. So what he's saying is so you could go 288 times three. So you're looking at that nice lofty number of eight hundred and 64,000. And again, I don't think it's going to hit that, but I mean, what if it could? I did a video a bit ago and it talked about it was a message from 2012 and it featured Roger Veer. And he talked about how Bitcoin was going to, you know, shoot up to like a thousand dollars and everybody's like, that's crazy.  What's and then, of course, now we look at a thousand. Like, can you imagine a Bitcoin drop to a thousand? That's crazy. Everything's crazy. Until it actually happens, right? It's like trying to break that, that, that mile barrier. When Roger Bannister did it and he broke it for the, for the four minute time mark, nobody thought it could be done until it got done. And now here we are. So I see it as coming to fruition in a couple of years to pass, right? A hundred thousand, a hundred and fifty thousand. And when we look back at these days at 10,000, just like when we looked at that video back in the one from 2012, I was just blown away. I'm like, wow, they were just, that was the vision out there. And these are people like, who has way more vision than me, because I would never have thought about this. Like, I mean, I remember my son came back, came home in 2012 and he said, Hey, someone just is going to offer me 500 bitcoins for $500 on a hard drive. And I was like, what's a Bitcoin?  No one's going to do that. That's nerd money. Get out of here, kid.  And I have my own channel talking about Cryptocurrency as an asset. So again, it's about vision.  And people, I mean, in the comment section is the comment section. And they're people will probably say it, but just kind of sit back and think to yourself, well, what if, what if that could actually happen? Because it could, I mean, it really could. I mean, look at what's happened in the past. So it's a good thing to think about as to why we got into this space. Remember, a thousand dollar Bitcoin not too long ago was hearsay or heresy. $5,000 Bitcoin was incomprehensible. 10,000 Bitcoin, everyone 10,000 hit on 2017. And they were talking about the Winklevoss now being billionaires and people are like, that'll never last. That's, that's crazy. And now here we are going, oh my God, it flipped over 10,000. So who knows what could happen? I just take, I'd like to take a look at these and see what if. So let me just think about that in the comment section. Let's move on. Next up, breaking into some more serious business. So this is Alex Maske always channel. It's one of my five that I actually recommend and I watch all the time. Alex is great because he's got, you know, people who are like smart money leaders in the industry. So I like to see what is going on. Surprisingly, he has such low subscribers. I don't understand it. It's the same thing with like a unchained with Laura. She's got very few subscribers. I mean, but she has a podcast and it's awesome, but on YouTube, not that many, but she has like the best guests of all time. So if you want to check this out, I definitely highly recommend them. And you can find all my recommendations in the description. I'm not one of those people that just tries to like hoard all, all the views and all the subscribers. There's way too much information out there. So don't just take, you know, my word for it. There's a lot of different opinions and you shouldn't be in an echo chamber.  So he's just one of the guys that I listened to. So this is Alex, then he's got his co-host, Ryan, the much smarter and probably the best haircut in cryptocurrency, I must admit. And then on this one, he's got Liz Kuka. I hope I said her right name right. And she is the executive director for a theorem classic lab. So he had her on and it was, it was a good lesson, you know, like to not like badger somebody. Very nice. But then he got to this question, which was 1736 in, which she, which was the question that everybody was at was, was probably trying to answer, which is what the X going on with this 51% attack and listen to what she says. You know, one of the things that we'd be remiss not to ask is, is about what's happened recently over the last couple of weeks. There's been some 51% attacks on the ETC. And, you know, I, and you look at it and you see there might be different motivations for it. There hasn't been any instance, I think 5 million, nothing that's super out of the ordinary. Like no one walked away with $300 million. Can you give us a little hint into that? Because you have a 51% attack on a well-known point such as yourselves. It, you know, it brings it to the forefront alone. It does. And in order to do that 51% attack from earlier in the month, the one that kind of netted out 5 million or so, the attacker, so they had to purchase some hash power, right? They spent a couple hundred thousand dollars on that, but they did a double spend. So they also put up $5 million of their own money onto the exchanges where they did the double spend. So we know it's someone who had capital. It wasn't just some like you have to have the capital to really pull it off as well when it comes to double spend. So that, that's certainly unfortunate. And one other challenge that happens when you have attacks like this is you can't control an exchange. Like I can't tell any of the great exchanges that we work with, like what to do or what their policy, policies should look like. And so these attacks always happen to hot wallets instead of the cold wallet. So the cold wallets safe and secure. It's the custody, the custody solution. Well, the hot wallets, what gets targeted and tampered with. And so some exchanges allow for much larger holdings in the hot wallet. And that's how the 5 million was, was stolen, essentially, is because an exchange had a hot wallet that allowed for a much greater holding. Secondly, most exchanges are most kind of premier, well known exchanges.  And that's also something that we've, we've seen some exchanges that get hacked or get attacked, don't have in place. And so a lot of these hackers or like theft, these thefts are happening also at an exchange because they know the exchange's vulnerabilities in place. So yes, it's through ETC, but it's also through the exchange. Thankfully, no consumers or retail investors were impacted. It's just the exchanges who had a loss and had to utilize their insurance, unfortunately to deal with it. If you take a look at Ryan's face right now, he is blown away by that explanation. So I'm not going to say much about this. I'm just going to put it all out there and see what you think. Now, I'm going to link this video in the description and I highly encourage you to watch the whole thing. It's pretty interesting about what goes on in the background and the stories that are told. However, I will just say this for anybody who is taking a look from the outside in. When I look at people who were involved in very high level positions for a business, there are two types that I've seen. And Liz kind of does this here. She kind of takes ownership of it, but then she kind of slides off and say, well, this is also the exchanges. Great. I'll always remember Elon Musk during one of his launches for SpaceX and he came out and the reporters, it actually was just about to go off and they asked him, he said, Elon, what do you think about what's going to happen here? He said, well, there's two things. He goes, if this is successful today, which he goes, I think it is, he goes, I have nothing but praise and high regard to my team around me because they're responsible for this. They did a great job. However, he says, the second thing is, is if it doesn't work and there's a collapse, there's something wrong with the launch, then it's all on me because it is eventually all comes down to the one person in charge. And that is me. And I will go back to drawing board and fix it. So it's always an example. And it's the same thing like as far as business, as far as life, even when I was in the military, it's the same type of thing. Take ownership of it, say what it is, say how are you going to fix it and off you go. So again, Liz kind of did it there a little bit, but a little bit of a shirking of responsibility in my opinion. And that's just my opinion. So let me just think of the comment section. I did ask that question in a poll. And here's what we got. I said this is just three hours ago. I said after watching the video with classic labs director Liz Kuka, and our explanation, would you invest in a theorem classic, and I gave the actual time stamp at 1740. And out of the almost 500 votes, the vast majority is nope, I would not invest into it. And I got to tell you right now, me on the same way, I understand the explanation that was given, but it's all about confidence. It's all about trust. Trust is a currency that you cannot buy.  This is what happened. This is what we're going to do. This is the opportunity that we have will not mess this up. I mean, I can even remember back back in the day, and this is this is for like, this is an old story, old story for for older people. This is back in the early 80s, when Johnson and Johnson, who makes Tylenol, somebody had gone into stores, and they had taken bottles of Tylenol and they had laced it with cyanide, some some nutcase. And people died. Seven, there was like eight deaths, 10, I can't remember how many deaths there were. So this as a company, you know, as soon as this happened, Tylenol's shares and the actual stock or pot went through the just fell through the through the through the ground. No one wanted to buy Tylenol because it could be potentially laced with cyanide. And this is one of those things that was like a big deal. So what did they do? So the CEO of Tylenol came out and he said, look, this is an issue. And this is a huge problem. We understand it's all about trust. Here's exactly what we're going to do. We're going to make tamper proof resistant bottles. We're going to put a cover on top of that. Inside those bottles, each and every one will be a big piece of cotton like we are now all used to. So if you see any of these, these tampered type of products, do not buy it. And we will look into this, this, this issue that has come about, and we will make sure that we correct it and it all falls on us. And guess what happened? Tylenol still around. Within I think six months it was they had regained their entire market share of everything they had just lost. And this is after people died. So I mean, that's a very extreme case, but you get where I'm going with this one. Me personally, I'm gonna buy theorem classic. I mean, I never really got into it at all anyhow. But there was one thing that that she did say, which was pretty interesting. Liz did say, you know what, with all these different fees, as far as Ethereum goes, they're in classics looking pretty good. And on that one, you know, she was right, because the Ethereum fees right now are through the roof, even with what's going on with DeFi. So let me just think about that in the comments section. That'll be an interesting converse conversation between everybody. And let's move on to our last story. Last up, Aves Len drops 15% as crypto market punishes DeFi. So the crypto crash. And this is all about decentralized finance. And we did a video yesterday where we talked about how the anonymous founder of sushi swap essentially had sold all of his shares. So it was down like 72% for the day. But just as a curiosity, let me just take a look at what sushi is doing right now, because I'm sure that the cryptocurrency market is very rational and how they handle things. And nope, 111% up over a day 141% for the week. So whatever. But hey, if you're out there doing yield farming and DeFi, hey, have at it. Let me know how that works out. Anyhow, so on top of that, AVE is down, I think it was down like we just take a look about like 30% for the week. So we'll just say this lend is down. So the crypto crash affected some coins worse than others. Lend, AVE's governance token has shed 25% in the past 24 hours. Lend collapse is 15% amid crypto crisis. You know what this makes me? What was it? AVE. Here we go. So okay, so it's down 30% for the week. But it's up 13% for the day. So yeah, still around 15%. Which is quite a bit, I'll be honest with you. Alright, so the strong correction takes the coin's market cap back under a billion after it became the first DeFi coin to achieve that milestone. So let's see what is the market cap today? So market cap is well below that 687 million 24 hour volume of 228 million. So yeah, it did take quite a beating. But it states your lend is poised to drop even further as it moves below crucial support lines. Well, I don't think that's that's too true because I mean, look at what happened to sushi there. So I mean, this really is any kind of like trend lines make anything in DeFi. Nothing means anything and DeFi up is down and down is up. Who cares? Yeah, I got to tell you, DeFi is one of those mysteries. It's like an ICO back in 2017.  But you just couldn't help yourself because there's too much foam on I think that might be what's going on here. I don't know. But I'm not going to invest it into it till I figure it all out. Anyhow, moving down, lend may continue its descent in the short term as crypto investors rush for the exit and centralize capital on Bitcoin. Yet, many investors remain long on the DeFi coin from a fundamental standpoint, setting Aves strong product market fit. And before I go on, let me just say this, I'm not against DeFi. I think it has a fantastic place, especially for small business lending. But right now, I just think that they're going through a lot of growing pains. I don't think this is the right iteration of what to invest into for me. Maybe for you, that's fine. But I just don't see it for myself. And I think moving on moving further down the road, I think it'll be huge. I think it's a necessary thing, especially with what is going on with the banks and how they have screwed us over for so long. And the interest rates, which are just out of control, ridiculous on top of the fact that the savings account as far as like any kind of savings you put into the bank itself, they pay you nothing to stick your money in there. And then they go ahead and lend all your money out. And then of course, what happens in 2008, the crash. So I think the DeFi definitely has this place and I'm a big supporter of it. Just some of these projects, I can't get behind them. Just can't. Anyhow, to finish up DPC Capital Spencer Noon noted that what sets a part what sets a part from other protocols that currently does not have liquidity mining processes that attract capital unnaturally. He states one of the best signals of PMF and DeFi is if a project can succeed without extra incentives like liquidity mining. So if you don't know, like if you invest into like, are you stake or your borrow any type of specific cryptocurrency on sushi swap, then you'll get the native token sushi. And of course, they give it to you for free, which is weird because like, I mean, you're borrowing money to like, hey, I'll take the sushi, which is worth now it's like, I don't know, three bucks. And they give you so many of those. And then so you're like making money on borrowing money. It's just weird. But on this case, what he's saying is that Abe doesn't do that. So Abe doesn't have liquidity mining yet. It's still one of the biggest beneficiaries of new yield for me activity at 1.6 1.26 total volume locked the only 759 million market cap. The fundamentals are strong and could be. And lastly, multi capital partner Kylie Samani made a very similar comment knowing that Len would be the only DeFi coin he would invest in for the next two years if it came to it. He said if I had to hold a single Ethereum based DeFi asset for two years, it would be a by far the best combination of product and market fit, token distribution, community, pace of innovation and reasonable valuation with upsides to go. Even Arthur Hayes, guy from Bitmex, said pretty much the same thing. So I'm not too well versed in AVE. I need to do my own research. I need to do my due diligence. I'm going to take a look at it just because this article, it sounds interesting. Maybe on the road, this could be huge.  This is from Alex Machinsky. He's the CEO of Celsius. And he goes, and of course, they do interest rates or, you know, you can gain interest just by staking your cryptocurrency on their app. And they also do loans. And it's one of my one two punches. And if you're looking for like an alternative to Coinbase or any type of exchange, take a look at my wallet exchanges information Google spreadsheet. It's in the description of every one of my videos. It's got a link looks just like this and you can sign up for any of them. But what he's saying here is ETH is dropping fast probably due to short sellers and DeFi liquidations, which it did drop way below 400. Now it's like 350. It's not bad. If this continues, he states your ETH loans with Celsius, Celsius now can be affected. Your options are at any collateral, we accept 32 coins, return some of the barred funds, sell some of your coins. I think this is admirable because he's not like, Hey, we're going to liquidate all you guys. So sorry, suckers. He's just saying, look, if it keeps dropping, which, you know, hopefully it goes up and things good, because we need to do these three things. They don't want to liquidate everybody. They want their consumers to have a good experience. And that's what all businesses should do. They shouldn't just liquidate your after that and just like, well, sorry, next time. Good luck, buddy. This is the exact opposite. So that's one of the reasons why also Celsius is my one two punch. I like these guys. I believe in that guy. So all those things we just talked about and all the things that have happened in the market and what's going on and the sky is falling. How do we position ourselves for the next evolution to be successful? Well, let's jump into the office and let's go over a cue of the day. All right, everybody, welcome back to the office. So today it is Sunday. It's a nice early day. I got up early, got to jump on things, which is the best way to do it. But for the cue of the day, it's not really a cue, per se, but it's it comes from us in the comments section from yesterday's video, where we talked about the founder, the master chef, I guess they call him, who created sushi swap, did what would be considered an exit scam. And that was the video we talked about yesterday. Go check that out. It's a little disturbing. But hey, what are you going to do? You know, this is this is the the sandbox that we are in and just watch the video. I'll say. But the comment that comes out today, it was from Corey Bray, and it was a pretty good comment. He says, so he says, the market is taping taking a dive, you say, oh, you mean all my favorite cryptos are being discounted, so I can grab tons of them for cheaper.   Let's just be honest. That's my wife, she'll tell you. But one of these things about is like, you know, should I buy or should I not buy? And all I can say is I'm just going to tell you exactly what I did yesterday. And what I did yesterday was we all know that on this channel, I always preach about dollar cost averaging, meaning don't, you know, take your $5,000 that you have from whatever, wherever you got it from, right? Let's say you were saving it up, and you just go in there and go, you know what? I think polka dot would be a great one. Let me just put 5000 bucks into polka dot today, and I'm sure it'll work itself out. Well, if you did that last week, polka dot was somewhere around 620, 640, somewhere around there. And then a couple days ago, it was like around four bucks. So actually yesterday was on $4. So the thing I'm always talking about is dollar cost averaging. Now, yes, what I usually do is I, they're all automatic. I set them up on either Voyager or Gemini because they have an automated dollar cost averaging tool. I can put 25 bucks into Cardano. I can put 100 bucks into Ethereum and I can set it up as either once a day, every three days, every week, every two weeks, every month or whatever I want to do. So I don't have to pull the trigger every time, which is good for me because I got the stuff to do, right? If you're looking for an alternative to Coinbase, check out my spreadsheet, which talks about all the different things that I use as far as wallets and exchanges, where I talk about Celsius and Voyager being my one two punch. And you can get the use the links in there. You don't have to use my links, you can go right to Voyager or crack in or wherever else. But if you use the links, you get like between 10 and 25 bucks just for signing up if you need that. So that is that is one side about dollar cost averaging. But yesterday, when I took a step back, and I looked at what was going on, see, I learned this from my mistake, when March, remember when March happened and everything just went, you know, down. I bought very little things because I was like, first of all, it was one of those really scary times, honestly. But you look at you like, is this going to go back up? Is this going to go back up in like a couple of weeks, a couple of years? Is this, you know, even me, who I'm actually in this space, I tend to start to doubt until I have to just sit back and go, okay, this is why the technology is here. This is what's going to happen. I remember the history. I have to actually go through it each and every time.  And this is the time to buy. So what did I do? I bought not a massive amount, but I bought more Bitcoin. I bought more Ethereum. I bought more Cardano. I bought more Shane Lake. I bought more polka dot. And I went outside of my regular dollar cost average because the prices were here. And then all of a sudden they came down here. So what I am thinking is that there's only so low it can go, right? I mean, we don't know where what could happen tomorrow. We can go straight up or in another 24 hours and go all the way down the floor because I believe that there is a bubble and it is called defi and it is bursting. And we see a lot of different problems and that's what's happening with Ethereum and all the different things like sushi, like urn, Ave or Ave, however you want to say it. So will we go back up? I don't know. But I know yesterday it was a great deal and I had to take it and I had to take it and I learned from what I didn't do in March to what I should have done back then to what I did yesterday. So that's where we're at. And I'm not telling you to do these things. I'm just telling you this is what I felt I should do and this is what worked out for me. And also, if you think about it, if you had bought at a higher price beforehand, you felt kind of stuck, you're like shoot, I kind of fumbled in on that one, I should have done it. What you can do is you can buy it at a lower price. Now your average cost is in the middle.  Well, yesterday was around 450. So we bought at 450, 450 to six is like somewhere like 525. So that's your average cost that you did. And then you can sell it if you want to. You don't have to wait till it hits six, seven, eight, nine, nine dollars. You can actually go at 525 and sell it. And you won't feel that pressure. The big thing is not feeling the pressure. So you can actually get things done and move forward. So that is my thing today. Not telling you what to do, not financial advice, but I'm telling you what I did from the lessons I learned from March. All right, so that is it. I want to say make mention of this. In the bottom right hand corner, there's a join now button. You don't get anything special if you join up for digital asset news. But what I do is I do give random shout out. So just to sign up as a buck 99. It's like a tip, but I just do random shout out. So height me up Lee Stone brackets. Regina Halasinski, I nailed it. I nailed that name. Jesse Kirkland, who else we got David Worm, big worm, crypto swords and amuse web design. All right. So for everybody to sign up, I really appreciate it. Also want to give another special thanks. I almost forgot we hit 75,000 subscribers. I don't know how we did that, but I'm pretty happy that it happened. So thanks, everybody. Really appreciate it. And that's it. If you'd like these types of videos, it's going to be too much going to pop up in your left and right. So check those out. And that's it for today. So thanks. See you on the next one.


Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Our subject is The cultural consequences of fiat money It is a subject not very often dealt with in the economic literature more precisely. I think I'm the only economist Who has ever written on the topic? you can find what I've written so far in Chapter 13 of my book the ethics of money production The chapter is has the title the cultural and spiritual consequences of fiat inflation and in chapter I'm hesitate. I think it's chapter 10 of My book my German language book Krise der Inflationskultur With the title well, I'll spare you the German language title But it will be it has already been translated into English and the English edition will appear hopefully very soon Let us start with a few definitions It's certainly unusual that an economist would talk about the culture. Usually we talk about prices and Production quantities that are being produced. We talk about Employment unemployment this structure of production the allocation of scarce resources. We talk about entrepreneurship and then suddenly culture But you will see very soon that there are certain things that economists can't say about the culture and more precisely That economists can say about the transformation of the culture So what is the culture? Of course many definitions around but for us it is not necessary to make things very complicated. We can espouse a very large definition By saying that culture culture is how we do things is the Totality of Human action How we do things how do we we eat for example how we sleep there many different ways or you can eat you can sit at a table You can have snacks on your way Different ways of cooking and so on different ways of preparing food different ways of sharing food Just think the family meal for example is After what I've heard often non-existent anymore in American cultures as a cultural transformation commonly shared fridge and then Everybody asserts himself Individually so the family meal is sometimes reserved To a Sunday and in some families only two great occasions like Christmas and so on then everybody They get us around the table. It was very different 30 years ago. It is still very different in Mediterranean countries in Europe The way we sleep The way we move or we transport the way we worship the way we love The way we produce things How we do things that's the culture of course the culture is Determined by economic aspects because all human action involves the use of scarce Goods of economic goods. So there's always some choice involved because of Matters how we do things as always Some choice and therefore scarcity involved and therefore economics might have to say something about this some economists therefore have started Analyzing the culture from an economic point of view most notably Deirdre McCloskey a couple of books that This economist has written about the culture And one neglected but very important aspect of this inquiry is the culture of Interventionism or more precisely the cultural impact of government interventionism. This is a very interesting subject for Future research as under research very thoroughly under research topic. So for those of you who do not have Consider writing a doctoral dissertation in economics and you have not yet found a suitable topic. This is a very interesting topic government interventionism has been defined By Ludwig van Mises as a single command By virtue of which the government Orders the citizens to use their property differently than they would otherwise have done it So the distinguishing feature of interventionism is that it does not involve the totality of our users, but it's a partial Socialization of private property. So for example, the government tells us well, you may hire whomever you wish But you must pay him if you hire somebody you must pay him at least the minimum wage You may engage in contractual relationship, but be sure not to discriminate against anybody. This is a partial Discrimination was still free to engage in this kind of behavior, but we need to respect Certain regulations so we no longer completely free. This is a partial Socialization of our resources So government interventions do have an impact on the culture and which can be analyzed by economists our subject is The impact of fiat money on the culture and fiat money Is a social institution that comes into existence through government interventionism fiat money cannot spring into existence spontaneously and it needs government support most notably in the form of legal tender laws or of monopoly privileges Historically these were the rules of the roots of fiat money and Our task therefore is to analyze how the existence of fiat money changes the culture I will proceed in two steps I will first discuss some of the direct consequences of fiat money and In a second step discuss some of the indirect consequences most notably those that result from the culture of debt of the debt economy Which is a fruit of fiat money So among the direct consequences We have most notably political centralization and tyrannical government All these seem to be very stark assertions But they follow directly from the very nature of what fiat money is the fact that Monetary interventionism involves tyrannical government or at least paves the way to the tyrannical government is very old it goes back to the scholastic Nicholas or as me in the 14th century and Has not been stressed much in the 20th century But one of the economists who stressed it a lot was Ludwig von Mises and Mises argued as follows It's a very important argument and There's certainly something that you should remember and retain from this lecture Mises argued the following he said The economic foundation for the political rule by the people That is for democratic government as he called it Is that the government is dependent on The citizens is financially dependent on the citizens The fundamental political problem as soon as you have something like government is always how to control those people once They have come into office or whatever way By elections for example So they show up every four years and sometimes every two years they stand up for election They make a lot of promises and Then once they are in office they turn around and they very often do different things Different things from those that they have announced previously Different things from those that you would think that follow quite naturally from the mandate namely to act in the interest of the common good in the interest of the people Especially of their constituency So how do you make sure that these people? that act in the interest of The population as a very old problem right so Plato Caught this a problem in the translation. I could study it custodious who Guards the guardsmen Who watches the night watch watch man? Okay, so it's a big problem. So Mises says The way we control the government is through the budget It's necessary in a free society if it has government, of course you can argue well government in the sense of A government that that chooses the law and it makes the law is never An element of a free society. That's a different issue So Mises did not believe in what we call today anarcho-capitalism So he believed that there was a role for coercive government for social apparatus of violence and coercion But he says so the way we prevent that this gets out of hand is through the budget so we mandate the government we elect certain people to government and It's not necessarily that we elect them on the basis of Certain mandate of certain objectives certain role that they will wish to fulfill. We must also Decide at the same time the budget the amount of resources that they may use To give you an example. It would not be sufficient to say well We will have a minimum government that just provides security Services so minimum government is we will just provide police forces and we'll have courts And an army and we'll just protect private property rights This by itself, right? So this is the minimum minimal Mission, but the mission by itself does not determine the size of the government The government may pursue this minimal program With very few resources, let's say one police officer per thousand inhabitants or with more resources one police officer per 100 inhabitants one police officer per 10 inhabitants or a personal bodyguard for everybody The policeman may be armed with just a stick may as it was the case in in in England until very recently Maybe armed with us with a stick and a gun. They have machine gun may have a tank He may have a tank and a fighter jet and so on and so on. I just see the point right so the mission itself does not by itself Determine the amount of resources that are absorbed in the fulfillment of this mission So it is necessary not only to define the mission there. So that's the electoral platform In a democracy, but it's also necessary to define at the same time the amount of resources that the government may use And the population controls the government makes sure that the government remains the agent of the population by controlling the budget So if the government wants to extend its activities It needs to be authorized by the citizens according to this Liberal vision of the political process needs to be authorized by the citizens in the elections who vote for the party Who calls for an increase of taxes for example? Now that's of course very unpleasant especially for present-day Politicians women say yeah if but this things had to go this way Then we would never have an increase of government activities where people hate taxes that we they would never vote for a tax increase Quite possibly so right, but that's precisely the point and that's precisely the point All right, the government could increase it its activities only if it's validated if it's mandated by popular scrutiny So by the general election now as soon as the government gets around this and We deviate from a rule by the people and we move ever more to a rule by the elites That are not endorsed and not supported by the electorate The first way the government can do this is by just going into debt That's an easy route, right you you just Go into debt you go obtain more money through the financial market and of course the resistance there is much weaker Respectively does not exist at all If the government namely if the government promises not only to restitute the money It has loaned out but also to pay an interest on it So you have voluntary cooperation with people who finance you and who hope that the government will eventually pay back out of tax proceeds So it is clear that already here at the democratic principle the control of the government by the people is weakened And the government it stands Its activities beyond the scope that would have been possible by taxation alone therefore some Social philosophers have always called for The evolution of the possibility of public debt immanuel kahn was notably called for The suppression of public debt government should have no right to to go into debt, but unfortunately he Called for this only in the specific case of war finance. Of course that is Immanuel kahn could have needed some economics class and because if you just specify while we rule it out for this Activity that's not sufficient because the government might finance this out of tax proceeds and then it takes out A loan to finance all other spending that the similarity goes on right so you cannot limit the rule out government debt this way Now of course fiat money Allows the government to take out loans to an unlimited extent and because fiat money by definition can be produced without limitation without commercial limitation without technological limitation can produce as much of it as you wish and as a consequence Government that benefits from the support of a central bank Of course a central bank has in its best interest to support the government because itself depends on the legal framework Upheld by the government namely legal tender laws and monopoly privileges So it just would be ill advised not to support the government on whom it relies So as long as the government can rely on the on its central bank, which it always can it can Take out virtually any Volume of loans any debt is completely out of proportion with with its current tax revenues And that is indeed what we observe and what we have observed in the past 40 years, especially since the abandonment of the Bretton Wood system so the last link to to gold as we had the establishment of pure fiat Currencies since then right public debt has exploded and is typically also increased not only at a rhythm That was much stronger than the growth of the real economy, but also much stronger than the growth of tax proceeds so tax revenue for the government So it is clear then that fiat money allows for an extension of government activities that is completely out of tune with Effective public support as demonstrated in the elections and as demonstrated by the willingness of the population to vote for tax increases or certain any volume of taxes So what does this mean that it means that to this extent then government becomes tyrannical. It's no longer government By the people for the people as you have heard it from Abraham Lincoln the famous adage Fine, but it becomes government By the elites and for the elites by the false is no longer really they're not no longer really elected right because they maintain themselves at power and maintain their activities at a level that is not validated by Public consent but by their possibility to access the printing press so government turns tyrannical for the same reason as a second consequence For the same reason there is under fiat money regime Tendency toward the centralization of government Those governments who can benefit from a printing press That's not the only condition that is necessary, but it's an essential condition have always a competitive edge In comparison to other governments that cannot so rely on this source of financing This was a very important factor in the political centralization of Western Europe and centralization for example within Great Britain around the the king and so The king had always a competitive edge in his conflicts with the with the local princes and the local dukes and so on Same thing in Germany only much later because the Germany was politically united. So had a common monetary Framework and a common fiat money only much later Then Great Britain but as soon as it came into being it gave a political Advantage to the central government at the expense of all local governments Same thing again in the United States What is the role of states? In American politics well, it's still there's still much more powerful than Regional governments in Europe right but their relative power has greatly diminished in the past hundred years That's the least thing we can say and so the main player has become the federal government Of course, there are juridical aspects to this and there's Commerce clause and so on but the main or one of the main factors is that fear money gives Competitive edge to the federal government in all of its conflicts with state governments So we have political centralization a Third consequence is and then there are various related Direct consequence so the government because it can extend its activities May engage for example in to a greater extent and for a longer period in its preferred activities first among which is Waging war and so this is much more important in the US than in Europe And so thanks to the printing press thanks to the unlimited possibilities of financing military adventures The federal government can engage in wars that are lengthier and more violent more intensive Then it would have been possible if Spending would be based exclusively on tax revenue As many economists have argued most recently Joe Solerno Fiat money regimes were the main factor in extending World War one and World War two So without fiat money regimes World War one would probably have been over by 1960 Maybe early 1917 At the beginning there was great enthusiasm in all nations. Everybody was running to the front and yeah we'll beat the frogs said the Germans and and the French said yeah, we'll beat the Bosch. That's how they call them. That's why we will beat the Bosch and That's who they were in the war frenzy was often the case When you did not have a major war for long many long years, which is not the case of the United States It was the case of Germany at the time was the case of France at the time So they were really rushing through the front was a war frenzy.  Well, but if you survive, I mean you you very soon you Become tired of the war. It's just a very nasty business And plus I mean they got stuck at the front It was not the kind of war that they had imagined where they gloriously just run over the other country I mean they really got stuck and then all the the killing took place and it nothing moved and was just killing and killing It cost and cost you grow tired of this very very soon So if this had to be financed out of tax revenue, the world would have been over very fast It was not over very fast because there was a printing press So the government could go on and suck ever more resources indirectly out of the economy to finance the war effort And this calls especially terrible if we consider that most of the killing occurred in the Last years of the war and especially in the last months So many many millions of people could have survived had it not been for the printing press same thing in World War two another Pet scheme of governments that hitherto has been more important in Europe than in the United States But it's becoming now more important in the United States as well is the welfare state So clearly without fiat money and the possibility of financing government activities the welfare state would not go very far I it would exist But it would be rather limited because few people would be ready to pay much higher taxes to Finance welfare handouts, which is only one thing, but especially the Apparatus the bureaucratic apparatus that is the intermediary of those handouts, right? So few people would be willing to finance the welfare industry and another direct consequence more or less direct consequence of The fiat money is of course a tendency for the price level to be higher than it otherwise it would have been and this means in Practice that the price level becomes permanently that we permanently have positive inflation rates Okay, it's the direct consequence of a fiat money regime In a pure market economy, which we only had natural monies like gold and silver There would be a natural tendency for the price level to diminish we would have what is called deflationary growth Because the money supply money production tends to lag In the in the economy based on very strong capital accumulation and technological progress It tends to lag behind the growth rates of the real Economy this of the production of goods and services Therefore the prevails a tendency for prices to drop This is what we had until World War one By and large in all European countries So you can look at the the standard Textbooks and economic history in the 19th century and you will find that while the price level Diminishes in Great Britain by and large throughout all the 19th century. It diminishes in France By and large throughout all of the 19th century. So I mean with the exception of the Napoleonic Wars, right? So let's say from 1815 to 1914 by and large there is no such thing as inflationary growth that is Growing economy in the context of an environment in which prices rise in which the price level rises virtually never happens What you do have is growth with either with a stable price level or with a shrinking price level Same thing in Germany. Same thing in the United States Some of the I believe that the highest growth rates in American history Were realized see a Chinese growth rates right in the Last third of the 19th century and most of this was deflationary growth So this is a natural element of Free economy Fiat money allows the government of course to to create more money than what otherwise have been created So the price level is always higher does not mean that it becomes positive might the deflation might just be lower than it otherwise would have been and so rather than having The price level diminished 5% it only diminishes 2% that's possible But in actual practice the production of fiat money is always pushed to the point where it creates positive inflation rates and This is no accident is actually something that has been wished for By monetary authorities out of considerations that we would call Keynesian Okay, which are much older than Keynesian economics as that we know from the 1930s And there's a very old idea that the more money you spend the better it is for the economy And it is a very old idea that it should be an objective of monetary policy to discourage the hoarding of money So people are likely to hoard money if the price level shrinks if the price level shrinks by 5% per year Then you can earn a return on five percent on your savings by just holding money But just holding gold coins or silver coins in your pocket So there's a strong incentive to build up savings in the form of cash holding So according to very old ideas, this this would be very very bad This is the vampire economy you suck the blood out of the economy and You paralyze everything right so therefore we should discourage this And money cranks of the 19th century they they've argued well We should create money of a sort that the price level always rises or maybe we should start clipping money And pay a tax on banknotes so every every month or so The the value of the banknote is being reduced so that people have an incentive to spend it as fast as possible The clipping was somewhat technically difficult to realize it's difficult also to sell a banknote to anybody if he has He knows that it will be clipped at the end of the month or something like this So the the best way technically to do this was to create so much money fiat money That the price level would always rise positively in which represents some sort of a taxation on the purchasing power of money So the price level Rises 2% every year or 3% every year Then it is as if somebody had clipped To a 3% out of your coin every year so you have an incentive not to save in the form of cash, but to spend it Sooner rather than later. So that was not an accident. It was and it the result of Planned intervention in the economy now something happened that was only anticipated by a few people what was also anticipated at least by some people and and so willed namely an encouragement of the credit market is of Tendency toward the debt economy or throughout the 20th century. There's a tendency for the credit market to grow Governments firms and households Started taking out more and more loans Ah Credit for households was virtually unknown before the 20th century All right only very poor households needed loans regular households that could live off of the yearly income so never had any loans that had any debt I was also a cultural factor as a prevalence of Christian views on on a just Economy and orderly conduct and so on created this results firms were eventually were essentially Financed out of equity as the owners capital that was being used There was virtually no credit to two firms maybe a little commercial credit right in your relationships with Customers and with suppliers.  So credit existed to that extent, but not to finance any fixed investment or so Governments, of course, it always credit all governments were always into into debt since time immemorial So if you have a fiat money system Which allows us to create a positive price inflation, then of course they exist very strong incentives to go into debt For all sectors Let us first consider a Household because this is the experience that is universally shared by all of us And some of you guys are young So you don't have yet revenue is still in school and so on But I promise one of the first things that you will do once you get out of school is to take out a Loan take out a mortgage and to buy an apartment or a house Have you ever wondered why why you do this and why you do not first accumulate money? And then buy the house well, I've already given you the answer implicitly Well, yeah today would make no more sense to just accumulate to stack cash For let's say 10 years and then buy the house I mean you would lose a lot of money in those 10 years and that's why we buy first the house And then we can actually eventually even profit from this credit and I say you take a loan As high as you can serve with your service with your present income Let's say you have annual income the first year after you get out of college of $50,000 and you take out a loan On which you pay let's say $15,000 per year or is it $12,000 per year $1,000 per month And which would be in the order of what about $200,000 and then you buy a nice house a nice apartment or something like this Now what happens in an inflationary economy is that eventually your revenue will increase Of course, it also increases because you become ever smarter you become more experienced right and so on for this reason to you The value of your your work increases, but let's say if you stay even as dumb as you are now As all prices progress So will your revenue More money will be used within the economy so Companies will compete for the existing factors of production among which is your labor force By spending more and more money, so your revenue will increase Now that means that if you get into debt at a fixed interest rate That servicing this debt will become ever lighter Like an ever lighter burden on your on your budget So as you go along right the first five years or so are difficult and at ten years It's much easier than the first five years at 20 years and your revenue is almost doubled And in monetary terms and your debt is still or the debt services at the level as it was in the first year So it's a great advantage right to go into debt and To pay present expenditure by by debt rather than by first accumulating savings. That's why we do it Okay, now the same incentive exists for firms exists in fact for all market participants I'd affirm has a strong incentive to finance fixed investment machines Real estate and so on that it needs equipment with a credit and if this is a long-term investment right so For 10 years or 20 years or whatever Because it can expect that it's revenue if it stays in business right it can expect its revenues to increase under the impact of the general price inflation So what is burden some at first becomes ever lighter? subsequently and The same incentive finally also exists for governments and because governments due to the progression of prices Can expect an increase of tax revenue in the future. So they too have an incentive to go into debt Even if they did not have this wish in the first place, which of course they usually have So a fiat money system there for me might say creates a generalized rush into leverage less and less Spending is financed out of equity out of your own money and more and more is financed out of the credit market Now you might say where does this money on the credit market come from? Everybody has an interest to take out loans, but who provides the loans well in a fiat money system people have a very strong incentive also to invest in a credit Market-related financial instruments Because how do you save right? It's no longer worthwhile to keep your money in cash because then you lose So you need to choose forms of savings that will compensate you for the loss of purchasing power of the money unit So you need to buy something that increases in monetary value with the general price inflation such as real estate such as stocks So shares in companies or you need to buy something that maybe that nominally stays at the same value, but is linked to a Revenue that compensates you for the loss in purchasing power and that is Typically the case with credit market instruments And so you buy a life insurance you put money on the savings account I said bank promises you well will pay you one and a half percent. That's great Of course one and a half percent today is less than the price inflation rate So you still lose but you lose less than you would have lost if you had kept your money in cash So in a fiat money system in which the central bank creates a positive price inflation rate Both the demand for credit increases and the supply of Credits also increases and there's a huge boon for the credit market And of course it is therefore also a huge boon for financial intermediaries such as banks commercial banks and insurance companies and also investment funds That is the reason ladies and gentlemen why financial markets had such a Spectacular growth spurt in the past 100 years As a well-known fact among historians that was first firmly established at the end of the 1960s By a British statistician of the name of Raymond Goldsmith So Goldsmith had a look at all major Western countries and you found it well I mean the financial markets grow more rapidly than the real economy It's amazing. So how does this come? And this tendency has actually increased in the past 40 years And the growth of the financial sector is much more rapid Than the growth of the real economy and this ladies and gentlemen is of course a cultural feature of our time And lots of well-paid people on Wall Street and so on all the bonuses and so on That make the news and the envy of the other citizens sometimes But it's the direct consequence of a fiat money system Now there are other cultural features Directly related to this debt economy into this financialized economy. I Will highlight four of them here discussed others in my book Four things that can be relatively easily explained the first consequence is a tendency to Encourage in our decision-making a short-term perspective or in other words a certain haste We need to hurry up to take out credits as soon as possible We need to hurry up to to gain revenue as soon as possible You need constantly to have revenue Because you cannot sit on your on your savings the savings lose their value If you just hold them in cash, so you need to have constantly revenue You need to take out loans as quickly as possible so that the burden then becomes lighter Relatively soon This is of course something that characterizes financial markets is an extreme short-term orientation most of the money managers that we call investors So really just paid intermediaries have an extremely short-term orientation Which results from this? But it would be bad just to pinpoint the evil guys on Wall Street and so on if if you consider carefully your your own behavior And I do this with my own behavior as well and compare this to What you've seen in your grandparents and what you've learned about people living in the 19th century You'll see that we are moving at an incredible speed. Of course, you can look at this positively say yes I mean we were so much faster today and so on and so on but the this haze this this lacking calm lacking serenity and so on Results to some extent from the fact that they're very strong material rewards That are associated with getting into that soon and then making sure you can always Bring in revenue to service the debt So there are two Related consequences that immediately spring from it. One is increasing materialism So we come in a fiat money system out of self interest more materialistic Then we would have been under a natural monetary system. We need to watch our investments We cannot just sit on cash. We need to watch our investments constantly Even if you're a dentist or your carpenter and so on you need to know something about the stock market because Well, your insurance market something because part of your savings are invested with these guys In a natural monetary order, you could just sit on cash Well, you could be robbed not be a riskless, but right you wouldn't have to worry about other people Now suddenly you have to worry about other people become mid materialistic Especially also since it is so much more difficult to recover from a loss of Of wealth once you've lost it's very difficult to to catch up another related cultural consequence is Insatiability I need again to start first with a more natural monetary system then compare our behavior and a fiat money system and a natural monetary system Investments that we make underlie while decreasing returns and we cannot accumulate ever more capital, but we cannot invest That capital these savings we cannot invest them always at the same returns as before and we're constantly by Increasing our savings. We're constantly increasing the supply on the capital market now capital market in the Austrian sense And as a consequence the return that the the earnings that you can derive from such investments invariably diminish So that means then that in a free society There are There's an inbuilt break in The accumulation of capital and especially in the investment of capital in order to earn revenue out of it At some point the the returns become so low That this is no longer an incentive for savings So the savings that then occur have other purposes, right? They finance our personal projects which are not associated with a monetary return They finance philanthropic activities church activities and so on which are not associated with monetary return Okay, so that's the natural tendency in a free society In this is if you look at what happened in the 19th century especially in the US. That's exactly what happened Things change under a fiat money system. It was under a fiat money system You can always increase the return on your own money By leveraging your investment and this called the leverage effect It's difficult to explain this in a few sentences for for the non experts But so you look this up right on the internet maybe to give you one example. Let's say you have an investment in a firm That requires one hundred units of money one hundred thousand dollars I say one hundred units of money and it gives you a return of ten percent. Let's say you produce pens But producing the pens you earn ten percent return Now if you finance this all of this with your own money, then what you will earn is ten percent But you might if you can obtain a credit at a lower interest rate than the return that you earn by Producing pens, for example, you can if you can obtain a credit at five percent from a bank Then you can leverage the return on your own investment if you finance 90 units of Your investment with a loan of five percent and only ten units with your own money Then what will be the return on your own money? Okay, you still earn ten units of money through the investment And now out of this revenue you have to pay your creditor And so you pay him five percent on ninety units of money. So four point point five 4.5 units of money So your net revenue is no longer ten units of money. It's Ten minus four point five so five point five Now these five point five is the return on your personal investment of ten You have invested only ten units of money of your own money and you earned five point five now how much of a return is this? In percent is not five point five 55 it's 55 right you've invested ten and you earn five point five fifty five percent return Okay, that's the leverage effect The leverage effect results when you can take out loans at a lower rate then The rate that you realize that the yield that you realize through your investment It's a risky undertaking. Okay, that's the thing you can do So you see in a fiat money system which the credit market develops so well As we've seen they're very strong incentives for people to rush into leverage and so they can always By going into more leverage to become if they become more daring or if they are sufficiently daring They can always always a possibility for them to increase the return on their investment So the saturation point that would obtain in a natural economy No longer exists if only you are sufficiently Risk-friendly Okay, and there's another related aspect to this namely that of us Going into debt taking out additional loans is easier if you are already very rich Because if you already very rich your own houses and apartments and so on then you can offer this as a collateral Right as a security to back up the loan. It's not possible for people who are not yet rich So the perverse consequence then in a fiat money system is that the richer the richer you are The stronger is your so incentive to keep to remain fully invested Under natural monetary system rich persons at some point where I say okay the return on my investment diminishes on and on There's no more point Becomes pointless to to seek other investments. Well now I will just become more philanthropic in our system This is reversed the richer you are the greater are the incentives to remain fully invested and to neglect philanthropic Activities except to the extent that it's necessary to keep a good public image All right With the rest of the citizens so that they do not torpedo your activities through the political process and so genuine philanthropy disappears and Is being replaced by fake philanthropy and which in any case is at a lower level than it would be in a natural economic order a third major consequence is Increase dependence on other persons and again if your savings are in cash You do not depend on anybody you have gold coins or silver coins in a hole deep into your garden or under your pillow Okay, they can be taken away. They can be robbed. So it's not riskless But their value does not depend on what other persons do It's different if you give a credit to somebody or if you buy a share in the company Then you become dependent on the good behavior of those other persons on their faithful Accomplishment of their of their mission a good friend of mine in in in France As not professor emeritus he always stressed that this is was wonderful because it created greater social interdependence We care more for others and so on and so he says there was a positive side to this process and Well, I have difficulties Finding much joy myself by considering this right because again, it is not a genuine interest for others. It's a very interested selfish Concern that we have fathers we have become interested in what others do because their behavior will have negative repercussions on us not because we are genuinely interested in that person because we love this person and want that it Well develops according to the best of his abilities become selfish in our concern for others And what we have here is not a genuine integration of voluntary Integration, but what will am Robkir once called a forced integration It's not right Integration is not an increase of the division of labor is not always beneficial Both from it from an economic point of view and from a political point of view can also be forced All right, so they can be excessive That is certainly something that results necessarily in a fiat money system and Related aspect of this is the increasing politicization of Society and because we have increasing more concerns for others in a in a debt-ridden economy a debt-ridden economy is fragile If one we know this In because in present-day financial jargon, that's the concept of a bank that is too big to fail TBTF So big too big to fail market participant if this bank Let's say if Goldman Sachs goes bankrupt. Well, then the entire financial market will melt down Because if a Goldman Sachs is no longer able to pay back its loans its credits All right, then that this means that other people other market participants who have loaned to find in to Goldman Sachs We'll see their assets melt in the Sun So they will not be able to to pay back their creditors and so on as we have get a chain reaction So the stronger is the level of debt in any economy the stronger is therefore the selfish Concerned for the others the strongest our incentive to try through the political process to control the behavior of others So fiat money creates a tendency to what the politicization of Society a fourth and last consequence that I should like to point out is What my German colleague Torsten polite has called? Collective corruption So he has an article out on the subject in the quarterly journal of Austrian economics I think of 2012 very good article I commend all of you to read this So what he points out is that in a fiat money system? No individual market participant no household no firm certainly not the government has an interest in Abolishing the system or in discouraging the foundations of the system. Nobody's an interest to abolish the fiat money system and Put in its place A gold standard a silver standard or currency competition anything that would limit the amount of money that can be produced because as soon as this happens and You get a collapse of the financial industries and in case right credit becomes much less readily available It would be necessary to completely change The way we do things that is to change our culture we could no longer rely that much on debt We would have to rely more on our own means would have to say first I need a frugal life and then eventually pay our way out of our own savings So nobody in even though one might consider yet that the overall consequences both economic and cultural are terrible of the system It is a nobody's material interest in the short run to abolish the system Because everybody stands to lose in the short run. So even though We might especially if we learn a little bit of ocean economics We see right that the perverse working of the system from an overall point of view from our own short run material materialistic Interest it is in all it we wish to keep it up wish not to abolish it. That's collective corruption okay in Economic theory is called a rationality trap and There's a difference between An overall point of view and the individual point of view and Rationality trap is the typical consequence of government interventionism.  For example a higher education. That's the government Subsidizes higher education. So higher education comes at a lower cost than it would be on the on the market It allows you individually to gain a competitive edge As compared to all the other evil guys who want to have the same jobs That you aim for So you you're interested in doing this, but of course if everybody Right takes out the these diplomas their value is diminished And so the same types of activities that in former times were Being pursued by by employees without a university diploma without no graduates Or just had barely a high school diploma are today being carried out by people with master's degrees and PhDs All right, there's another typical example of a rationality trap All right, it's in each each one's individual interest to maintain the system and tame easy access to higher education But from an overall point of view is probably an enormous waste of resources Both time and material resources So rationality traps Collective corruption a typical consequence of government interventionism that makes by the way for It's a nice subject if you want to analyze this in different areas how government intervention creates rationality traps And it's a nice area for Papers turn papers that you write or maybe a master's thesis or something like this In conclusion then so I've Demonstrated That we can apply economic analysis to Explain cultural transformations and That a particularly important example is the case of fiat money fiat money has a very profound impact on Our culture is difficult to see it unless you step back and you consider the evolution of a long time If you just consider economic history of the past ten years it would escape your notice Because you are yourself part of that culture So you're only being awestruck if you compare to previous times and then wonder what explains these changes in our behavior This this change in the way how we do things as compared to how they were being handled by our interest us Of course, there are many other factors that also come into play, but fiat money is a major source and probably This this phenomenon of collective corruption explains why it is so difficult I to To change the monetary system to change also the political system and because everybody stands to lose in the short run not only materially But also because such a change would defy would challenge would overthrow Our traditional way of life to which we have become a castle. We are culturally unfit in a way for a natural economy That doesn't mean that we shouldn't dare to bring it about and was ultimately it's a question of courage and of insight And of the will the will can change under the impact of prudence and of insight And I hope that I've provided today one little element to encourage you in this way. Thank you for your attention