Good for the global economy that the countries that are "anti-USA" are hell holes with developing economies not large enough to compete with some U.S. states. USD does not have any issues in the near future in regards to trade. No matter the invasion of Ukraine, China will continue to do business with the U.S.

Inflation is largely the concern, USD won't take a hit because Russia decides to tank their economy further with a pointless war. Only reason for a spiral would be if the situation in Ukraine escalates beyond just the two countries, forcing the U.S. to get involved.

It's not only the fuel considerations, though I am surprised to learn that Russia supplies that much fuel, it's also the fact that Ukraine is close to joining NATO the US has failed leadership that will not do anything in the event of an invasion. Seeing the US's botched withdrawal in Afghanistan gives Putin the leeway for an invasion.

Here is my prediction -- Russia does what it wants with Ukraine because of immense military power, and NATO countries + US observes from a distance because of the lack any vested interest in Ukraine. Germany in particular has a financial incentive (oil pipeline) from Russia, but even if they didn't, Germany will not have gotten involved anyway.

The solution is for Ukraine to maintain their own sovereignty. This is either through military action or by making concessions to Putin's demands, major one is removing itself from the West/NATO.

From the looks of it, there is no hope in diplomatic resolution. I've read recently that US and Russian officials cannot come to any agreement; war is inevitably the answer.

They don't have a relationship currently, but it's merely geopolitics reaching a tipping point.

Starts with the USSR -- Ukraine dissolves from the USSR and gains its independence in the 90's, and Putin, ex-KGB agent, current Russian president, wants nothing more than to see a USSR-like nation arise again with the same power it once had at its peak. So Putin's hope was for Ukraine to be part of Russia again -- this is the end goal. Why, you might ask? Geographically, Ukraine is a strategic country and separates Russia from some European countries. So any military activity or aggression on behalf of these Eastern EU countries would be more difficult if Ukraine was not part of the eastern European alliance countries. Essentially, Ukraine would act as a large buffer zone from any attacks on the mainland. Putin also understands that the current Ukrainian President cooperates closely with the US, which he doesn't like -- it's like having a spy right next door to you.

Part of the reasons mentioned above are also why Russia does not want Ukraine to join NATO. Once Ukraine joins NATO, there is no chance Ukraine will ever be part of Russia again. Russia's aggression is peaking because they recognize Ukraine is close to forming an agreement with NATO countries, and they understand that the US will not protect a non-NATO ally in the event of an invasion.

Russia must act now or never. Their economic situation does not look to be improving either, so I can't imagine the type of hit their economy would take in the event of a full scale invasion, would probably hit crypto significantly as well.

You technically could if there was a finite supply of fiat. A currency based on the gold standard wouldn't have any inflation, granted the supply of gold was steady. Even without a gold standard, a fiat currency based on magic pixie dust could theoretically not have any inflation, as long as the government is unwilling to create more supply.

Government targets the inflation rate to be at 2 percent, so they'll make adjustments accordingly. The problems arise when you try to increase the money supply too rapidly, like the US does by having a debt balance sheet of trillions of dollars -- predictable result is an insane 7 percent inflation rate (compounded by COVID, of course).

Paypal makes their living off locking people out of their account, even restricting merchant account over what they would claim to be "suspicious" activity. In the past they will let you sign up without KYC and randomly request verification, but then reject all your documents despite being perfectly legitimate.

Then they create Venmo for mobile devices because they want a new application that steers away from the Paypal name that is just as awful.

There's nothing wrong with them, these sort of restrictions are part of their business model.

VAERS reminds me of the early modeling in the pandemic, where the statistical models convinced everyone they were going to die of COVID. Not that the models were incorrect, they're just mathematical systems that are dependent on the data that it's given. The way most countries are handling their data is aggregating all the components of an individual (vax status, age, comorbidities) and submitting that information for collection to the government, directly sourced from the hospitals.

Israel, Denmark, UK and their NHS are doing a good job at keeping any extra noise away from the stats. Though as I've long said, the data generally operates as a function of testing. The more testing there is, the larger account for asymptomatic/mildly symptomatic individuals there are, so the stats begin to skew away from death and despair.

I agree, my only issue is purpose of vaccination. If the goal of someone getting vaccinated is to prevent a serous case of COVID, I don't take an issue with it. However, if the they (by they, I mean doctors, public health experts, government officials) suggest that the vaccine and boosters are a way to prevent infection, then it's just a flat out lie. And so the target really should be older folks without a good immune system. They must be the focus of the vaccines, not young people or children who are not at risk for a severe case.

Such a disappointment this was bumped for an advertisement.

Anyway -- if someone refused to bake a cake for anyone, the next logical step is to file suit and pay a hefty price for lawyers....oppose to, you know, going down the street to another bakery. Sexual orientation and gender identity are protected classes now according to Bostock v. Clayton County, so the lesbians can rest easy knowing they get to eat their cake.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf

Germany wants their Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and I recall reading that they would halt the pipeline if Russia were to invade (so brave of them, yes). It begs the question as to what actually would stop Russia if they know that NATO countries are split on what to do in the event of an invasion. The US made it clear they will not get involved, they'll just station troops in surrounding countries to watch at the dumpster fire in Ukraine.

China's "ban" is as good as an implicit ban, there is no enforcement. I'd make a list of bitcoin ban enforcement and non-enforcement, because any law that a country refuses to enforce could be illegal for the formality in protecting their own currency, but does not offer any restriction on Bitcoin use. And plus, China is not rounding up users of Bitcoin and fining them or throwing them in jail, and their communist government has that power delegated to them.

If you want to solve climate change just become a vegan. Apparently that's what all the other vegans say to the omnivores, that we're destroying the planet with every piece of animal flesh we consume.

Why would there be no taxes? Mass adoption of Bitcoin doesn't mean taxes should go away, there wouldn't be a way of paying for public utilities. The issue I have with most tax systems involving crypto is that any conversion of currencies require that you pay a tax, which is excessive. But in an absolute crypto based economy, I wouldn't have a problem with crypto income being taxed. Obviously we need to pay for public utilities somehow, unless you have a better way.

This isn't a big story, he's just converting his normal USD based pay into crypto using an intermediate exchange. The New York government is not adopting a crypto based payment system, Eric Adams is just telling people that he's investing into Bitcoin by converting his own paycheck into crypto -- something literally anyone can do.

Tell me when New York issues payments of crypto to any state employees, something I don't think will ever happen unless there was mass adoption on the federal level which forced states to follow along.

And in that calculation, I would present you with the crucial and critical question -- what is the death rate amongst the general population? I would think of COVID differently had the death rate been something like 50 percent, similar to a virus like Ebola. But if Omicron results in mild symptoms for the vast majority of the population, I have a tough time caring. Thankfully many people feel the same way, which is why you're seeing anti-lockdown/anti-restriction protests in many countries. You see people against government imposed mandates.


No I just enjoy civil liberties protected from tyranny.

El Salvador hardly bought any bitcoin at all, I think it might have been something in the tens of millions which has virtually no effect on the economy. No, it was not due to Bitcoin adoption that the debt/GDP ratio spiraled out of control. It was just due to COVID where the entire global economy tanked, and they have since not recovered. Nearly every country that began to limit their economy ran into uncontrollable debt problems, and they did not have the GDP to support such spending. Ironically enough, had BTC adoption occurred much earlier, they wouldn't have ran into an issue with the debt.

They offer you little to no protection against contracting and transmitting the virus regardless if you are fully vaccinated or boosted with one or two boosters.

See Israel's new cases - https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/countries-and-territories/israel/

Roughly 80+ of the population is fully vaccinated with large portions of the population receiving boosters, yet they are experiencing the worst peak since the start of the pandemic, adding 50k+ cases as of late. Israel also conducted a study administering a 4th shot which saw no clinical efficacy in stopping COVID transmission, one of the first in the world.

Some speculation that ADE can arise when administering vaccines - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-020-00789-5


Add this issue on top of omicron being so genetically distant from the original strain, you have useless vaccines in terms of stopping transmission.

And it's a great thing COVID-19 isn't like any of the diseases you just mentioned. Babies and children aren't dying from COVID-19 like they might have those other diseases, and the vaccines do not work against transmission anymore. Why are you under the belief that vaccination is the end to COVID-19 when there is no evidence the vaccines are effective at stopping transmission anymore? And this is including people that are boosted with a 3rd and even 4th shot.

Well, we can hope so. My concern for the future is some sort of antibiotic-resist disease that very well could wipe out humanity if pathogenic enough with high transmission. With viral infections, the transmission and virulence relationship can be complicated, because viruses need hosts to replicate, and so keeping the host alive is within the interest of the virus. With bacteria or some sort of fungi, they can self sustain without a host.

I interpreted the poster to be referring to some sort of primitive organism that might out evolve humans, but I suppose an existing pathogenic organism could  enter the gradations of evolution and become a super bug that wipes out humanity.

But it is not even an indirect factor. What was the causal factor of this person ruining his life? It's his own addiction to drugs and alcohol. Blaming crypto for this is like blaming the car when a drunk driver gets into an accident and kills an entire family. It was the person consuming alcohol that was the issue, not the vehicle.

And notice how this story is slanted. When a gambling addict loses all their money in the stock market shorting stocks, or even taking out loans to day trade, the story is about the gambling addiction, it isn't how a predatory stock market. I don't see why this story should be any different. The guy had other problems far from crypto that caused his demise.