Bitcoin Forum

I've followed Mish for years. Don't agree 100% with his constant deflationary calls, but otherwise I find him worth reading. I had found it odd he never had a post about bitcoin, until today.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/04/mish-interview-with-bitcoin-jesus.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MishsGlobalEconomicTrendAnalysis+%28Mish%27s+Global+Economic+Trend+Analysis%29

Mish remains a goldbug. His piece is mildly hostile to BTC but he points to another piece to do the heavy BTC bashing for him: http://www.plata.com.mx/mplata/articulos/articlesFilt.asp?fiidarticulo=209

You know what's coming from the first sentence: "The newest invention in monetary affairs are (sic) the so-called Bitcoins." Needless to say, he also prefers the so-called gold.

Mish is an interesting guy. He is a Misesian/Rothbardian who believes in PMs but (unusually) thinks that fiat will deflate rather than inflate. Reading the article between the lines, I get the impression that he is sympathetic to BTC  as free market, anarcho, anti-fed construct, but doesn't really understand enough about it to be able to analyse it coherently. However, in time I can certainly see him becoming an ally and if he does then he will be a very good ally to have..

The article he links to (Hugo Price) is much weaker. It is just the standard gold-bug complaint about BTC that it is not a commodity. This misses the point that what makes gold a good currency is not that it is a commodity, but that its supply is inelastic and cannot be manipulated. Ditto BTC.

I have a lot of respect for both Mish and Hugo Salinas Price, but they are both very conservative and haven't quite grasped Bitcoin's potential. They would never be early adopters in any case. Just like you cannot expect 77-year-old Ron Paul to immediately like BTC.

However I do not doubt that they will be convinced over time, as they understand more and more about the nature of the Bitcoin protocol. Even if they never accept it as a store of value, they will grasp how it can help protect property rights and free trade and fight capital controls and other restrictions.

So do I. That why I use horses instead of automobiles, carrier pigeons instead of email, and bloodletting instead of medicine.

:D

He lost his wife not too long ago and arranged for a charity collection via his blog. Although he has zillion readers, the action barely got response, quite to his surprise. I remember wanting to donate a bit more to his ALS Foundation but the payment methods did not work for me (I don't have a credit card).

It would be great if he could open a Bitcoin address for donations to this foundation. He has given the community a lot and many would like to give something in return (if only that would be easy).

I'd put this article of Mish's into the category of "it doesn't suck".  I didn't find him to be at all hostile - in fact, I detected a certain wistfulness in his examination of bitcoin.  He made his choice about the monetary battle long ago, and that's fine:  his choice was correct for his day.

He'll own some bitcoin one of these days, no doubt.  He'll never rely on it.

Mish was one of the few who got the deflationary call of 2007-09 correct, as did i, and for which i very much admire him.

what's interesting to me is that i don't recall him being a gold bug during that time period.  i believe this has been a more recent phenomenon coinciding with his sponsorship by GoldMoney which i think has biased him. 

i ultimately think he'll be wrong on this call.