That's a nice stiffy!
Boring noise. Wake me up at $30k. This is starting to look like a raging stiffy! (Will wake you up at 30k!) |
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Well I'm happy not to live in the USA. We get way more vacation with a regular job. Also job security is way better. Sick leave no matter how long you need to recover, etc. Americans think they live in the most free country in the world but that's simply not true. Yet average GDP for every EU country except for Luxemburg is still lower than that of the USA. Certain job sectors in fact across Europe such as IT pay pittance salaries compared to the USA. Sure, you only have private healthcare in the States but it is also of a much higher quality. Many Europeans need to flock exactly to the States to get experimental cancer treatments simply not available in Europe. I think you are pretty much the definition of an ignorant European who stupidly have outsourced energy security to a country you for some bizarre historical reason hate and you have also installed countless layers of government thinking it will protect you from trouble where in fact it is turning into a similar political setup that Adolf Hitler wanted to achieve: Germany in control and no one else gets a say. When someone wants to leave said political system such as the UK you shame them and completely forget it was them who saved your asses from all speaking German or Russian by now. It is also my understanding that the once secure job market in the likes of The Netherlands now with year only contracts is nowhere near as safe as it used to be. Plus the constant mumblings over ditching the mortgage tax break would make the average worker / mortgage payer much poorer if it were to go. It's all relative. Cost of living in the US is insane. Job security is non-existent. And salaries are low if you take cost of living into account. The healthcare argument is a stupid one. USA ranks 18th in the world and my little postage stamp of a country ranks higher. For experimental treatments of cancer the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and France rank the highest in the world. And you can have the best in the world but who cares if you can't get access to it. If I get cancer, I get helped. You get cancer it's a big fuck-you if you can't pay hundreds of thousand dollars. Edit: I'm in the Netherlands and here you have a 1 year contract. They can extend it twice and then they must give you a permanent running contact. It's been like this for a long time. But a full contract is usually a negotiation point. Haven't heard that anything changed, but it doesn't affect me as a contracter. European countries always dominate the top 10 index, better quality of life.  https://happiness-report.s3.amazonaws.com/2022/WHR+22.pdfI've visited the US a couple of times, found it to be feeling pretty un-free, e.g. because of extreme poverty you see, because of the many silly rules e.g. not being able to say shit on TV or radio or not being able to get a beer without something to eat, but also because of the infrastructure which restricts you from movement if you don't have a car (e.g. if you're a kid or drunk). Also the harsh punishments for little things like drugs. And also the hard time people get for being themselves, you see a lot less diversity on the street unless you go to a hotspot like San Fransisco or New York. Maybe Bitcoinbunny should visit the NL sometime. If you like freedom I'm sure you'll like it! |
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I just closed a long on  |
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Usually there is a dump @ 30k euro, any moment now.....
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So Wall Street and the big investment banks are irritated with the Fed. They want the market to regain momentum and start moving up again.
But with the Fed dragging out these incremental rate hikes every couple months, the market cannot do that; it cannot bottom, recover, and move on.
They want the Fed to pull off the band-aid with a big rate hike and be done with it for the year.
Now they aren't getting what they want.
I have a feeling the Fed will be reversing some of their actions next month at the latest. Maybe not rates, but I bet they'll change their mind on the QT. Shit is going to break real soon, the world is too leveraged now for any tightening. There is no way the Fed will sit back and let this happen, to do so would be the end of all government services, followed by the goverment itself. Imagine the government trying to pay for everything without being able to issue bonds (because the fed is no longer buying), or tax its citizens because unemployment is above 20% and capital gains are a thing of the past. The Fed is the lender of last resort for a reason and we're going to see them in that role again real soon. In the mean time markets are cactus, including Bitcoin's price. If you thought you'd seen brrr before, well baby, you ain't seen nothing yet. Yeah, I was thinking the exact same thing. With all the mass employment shakeouts over the past 2 years, I'm imagining that IRS and state tax revenues have absolutely cratered. So how are they going to make up the difference? How are they going to pay for govt services and service the deficits? There's only one way: moar printer go brrr. But QT and raising rates into a huge worldwide recession with GDP falling? That's economic suicide. Isn't unemployment 3.6% in the US right now? Yes there was a big spike because well hey fuck the workers long live capitalism, but 3.6% is even lower then the 3.8% we have in the Netherlands right now, and it's really hard to get new staff here right now. Also, financing a government isn't really that hard, in the big picture there's plenty of money and all the government has to do is find the right balance of taxation and spending. As the US government is always reluctant to tax the rich they will always struggle a bit. Then again, they can always privatize even more stuff and make regular people pay double (like they did with health care) for half the services. I just don't buy this doomsday talk. The only real problem here imho is the "quantative easing" they did which led to inflation which will fuck over people with lower incomes disproportionally hard. Edit: oh yeah the other big problem here is that wall street seems to dictate the price of BTC. |
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Cool. I've been thinking about this recently and long-term CGT means it's probably not a good idea to cash everything out in one go. This would only be a good thing if they let you still hodl your bitcoin keys. If not, then no, not a good thing. I hear that if you want to get a large loan without actually putting up collateral, the mob has some pretty decent rates? |
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OK so who is buying all teh btc.
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During Chinese Warring States period, a man named Chuang-tzu had a dream that he was a butterfly flying from flower to flower, feeling free, blown about by the breeze. Upon waking, he wondered, “Am I a man, dreaming I am a butterfly; or a butterfly, dreaming I am a man?” Dreams often do not mean anything and when they do, we usually cannot immediately discern the meaning. One of the most creative analogies on dreaming was "audiovisual representation of a virtual machine's garbage collector's run", by a programmer collegue. Check this out on Amazon Prime, ep1 of Electric Dreams (yes it is ep5 on IMDB, on Prime it's 1, prolly cause it's the best ep): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6955104/?ref_=ttep_ep5 |
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snip
To have a chance to fully understand all this, you have to go way back, to the times around WW1. You will probably see why it's best to not take any sides. Narratives are stronger than facts (did i say that before?) We may evolve beyond this, i'd suggest after some thousand years, at best. Our brains are too small to withstand narratives, which make us stop thinking, or think less. The good news: We have evolved so far that we are able to identify problems. Now we have to take the bigger step to be able to solve them, without causing more problems. Maybe the 90% of our brain potential most of us don't use (according to Albert Einstein) would come in handy... It's bigger then that. Stories are no less important then facts. Every single thing that is man-made started as a story. And identity is based on stories, some of those stories we call 'history'. Much of what is going on in the world today revolves around identity, just look for it in the speeches of politicians from all walks of life. One of those (hi)stories is the reason why western European countries are so eager to help Ukraine. Our stories here on the European continent are intimately intertwined. And we recognize ourselves in them. Humans are more inclined to help those whose identities resemble their own. Century of the Self is must-see stuff!! |
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The world was so simple 2 months ago when Russia asked NATO to guarantee and sign agreement that they will not expand further to the East. They explained again and again that placing rockets in Ukraine and Georgia is a red line for Russia. Senile Biden said in an interview that he doesn't care about Russian red lines. The result is what it is. Now they do care but it is too late.
Russia has the right to defend itself! Since 2016 there are nuclear ballistic missiles in Kaliningrad, between 2 European Union countries. Any disarmament demand by Russia is BS. Also Russia is asking for respect of its sovereignty, when it is the one invading Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, and instigating "pro-Russian" sentiments everywhere possible, giving Russian passports, to justify further invasions in former USSR countries. Yeah it's just old fashioned imperialism. See this article from the future: https://mil.in.ua/en/news/brave-new-world-of-putin-an-article-by-the-propaganda-publication-ria-novosti-which-was-to-be-published-after-the-occupation-of-ukraine/On the other hand, NATO is also a thing that is trying to grow, as things tend to do. I can imagine the frustration with that on the Russian side. However, no reason to bomb a brother nation to hell. The funny thing is Putin is accomplishing exactly the opposite of the goal he started out with. A nation's identity is build on stories, and the story that is being written now is that for Ukraine, Russia is a mortal enemy, and Western Europe are friends. |
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I'm sorry, but maybe my family and I will die tomorrow if the world does nothing, so
Ban Russia from SWIFT! Protect Ukrainian Sky! Send NATO to Ukraine! #BanRussiafromSwift #CloseTheSky #SendNatoToUkraine
you can ban me if you think it's necessary!!!
You can thank Germany for blocking the removal of Russia from the SWIFT payment system And US and its Allies are scared that Russia might seek alternative payment system from China which would make the US loose its position as the leader of International Interbank Transaction. BS. There will be virtually no impact on Europe. They should stop buying oil and gas from the Soviet regime anyway. Won't that cause an increase in oil prices in Europe though? Russia is one of the largest exporters of CNG, while Europe also imports oil, at a decent percentage. The war itself already skyrocketed oil and gas prices, however, wouldn't these sanctions lead to a further increase in prices, in the near future? Talking about the financial repercussions is the least important thing when people are literally dying, however, it was a question I wanted to ask, since Russia is one of the largest exporters in that industry. Yes that will be a big problem. Particularly for countries like Poland who get 70% of their gas from Russia. Without SWIFT the gas cannot be paid (unless Russia starts accepting BTC of course). However that is a pain that everyone will have to deal with. Poland already said they will support cutting Russia from SWIFT. My home country The Netherlands is contemplating upping the gas production again. Measures will have to be taken in the whole of Europe to keep energy prices for civilians and companies in check. Also. interesting article highlighting both sides of the story, about 'de-nazification' of Ukrain. Might be hulpful to quote when confronted with Russian propaganda: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/25/vladimir-putin-ukraine-attack-antisemitism-denazify |
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Happy valentines everyone! And remember: fuck first! Do that first, not after a romantic dinner where you eat and drink too much! Just closed a long in order to afford a piece of art that I wanted, without having to further reduce my stash. Bit of a gamble but it worked out. https://www.lakenhal.nl/en/story/future-fossils |
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Fuck... covid got to my family.
Good thing Covid is not what it used to be... but anyway all the best to your loved ones! All the best!! My GF has Corona again too, for the second time (first time was Alpha, before vaccines were there, she got long covid as a result). Omicron with a couple of shots is a whole other beast luckily, this time she was pretty sick for one day (yesterday), today is already much better. |
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Proudhon's timing really is amazing.
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Is Taihuttu one of those ancient Dutch names?
It's Indonesian. Because the Dutch occupied Indonesia there are a lot of people with Indonesian roots living here. Love the Indonesian cuisine btw! |
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The ‘Bitcoin Family’ immigrates to Portugal for its 0% tax on cryptocurrencieshttps://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/06/bitcoin-family-moves-to-portugal-crypto-tax-haven.htmlI can't find it now, but I distinctly remember a thread that was talking about this family. Most of the commenters were laughing and absolutely eviscerating them for being so "stupid" and "reckless" for going all in on bitcoin at the time, and saying how they will lose everything. I was one of the few on that thread, if not the only one, who applauded and defended their YOLO move. They're Dutch actually. Recently saw the guy on a weekly program about crypto on Dutch TV. He knows what he's talking about. Taxes in his home country are great too, however the weather is not. Here you only pay about a third over a fictional gain of 5 percent, so about 1.6 percent per year. No taxes on trades. |
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In the NL we say: A shroud (lijkwade, a shroud for the dead) has no pockets.
It is indeed, like cAPSLOCK so uneconomically said, about finding a balance.
BTW I do have a separate BTC address for my daughter.
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