let's panic! get a certicate!

Bitcoin is following the panic of the regular markets, most alt coins do even worse. The world is in panic mode and the main culprits are seemingly oilprices and the COVID-19.

We feel confirmed that crypto is to be traded and not to be used as store of value. We notice that it is not not a market with it's own rules. It follows the larger picture and though having many specific characteristics that makes it attractive to be in, it is not the great next thing from an investors perspective. Not a store of value, not a hedge.

This Thursday March 12th might get a place in financial history. Despite pumping in massive liquidity all tanks. The Nikkei, the DAX, the DOW, the S&P500. Some bluechips, like Boeing, are under massive attack. The sell off of everything. Crypto just follows the sentiment.

What makes this time spooky is the liberty governments take in their reactions. We have been flooded with climate panic, the war on terror, the war on cash, correctness, the war on free speech and now the virus panic. Whatever case you study of the above, the result is exactly the same: more surveillance, less civil rights. In case of the virus we are treated on travel bans and in some countries you are just put in jail when you do not comply to the emergency powers states take.

As for finance: the game is more rigged than ever before, the debt bubbles are astronomical and at the same time governments crack down on any money or possessions people might have outside the regulated system. It is a silent dictatorship.

In itself it is not bad that the massive over consumption in western societies takes a hit. It might be a good medicine. It might make people consider scenario' s for the economy that are not based on globalism and eternal growth. More than 80% of all products on the market we could do without. All bottled soft drinks, all processed foods, most packing materials, most garments and so on. Little of what we buy we really need.

The case against globalism should also become clear. Supply chain vulnerability being only one argument. How did the USA come to a point that China in the end produces the antibiotics Americans need? Dependency on imports has destroyed capabilities over many years and the price might be steep in the end.

Western countries, on the other hand, tend to pride themselves as morally just. Are they? The West has a strangling grip on commodity prices, squeezes and bullies developing and poor countries and shamelessly uses underpaid and unprotected workers to have cheap consumption goods in their own economies. These goods do not have any real value for consumers: the profits go to importers/big retail and government (taxes: tariffs, sales tax, VAT and so on). There is endless hypocrisy in the West: it is OK to wear a t-shirt produced in a place were standards are atrocious and workers are paid almost nothing. Liberals invented all kind of fair trade narratives around this and set up a certification industry: green, ecological, sustainable, responsible and so on. The dictionary of a cynical hypocritical self-righteous complacent and indeed decadent system of exploitation. People eating meat and at the same time are animal right activists. Clean conscience...

There is a real problem in Western economies. At least half of jobs are either making no sense or can and will be replaced by automation and AI. Certification and compliance has become a business - we can do without it and it will change nothing in real output. Business is poisoned by many layers of bureaucratic activities that do not contribute to either quantity or quality. Some things are crazy. Five cent products are sold for one dollar. 20 Cents of this is legal and insurance fees, another 20 Cents is marketing, another 20 cents is compliance and approval, another 20 cents is taxes - and so on and so on. If you drive a car in Germany, every liter (0.2642 Gallon) is taxed 64%. Having the cheapest coffee at Starbucks sets you back at least 2$. If you start thinking about these price levels you understand why all is a bubble, all is overhead. Living in Europe I get utility bills that consist for over 90% of taxes.

That is not a high living standard but a robbery in plain sight. We need high salaries in the West to allow excessive government spending, bureaucracy cost and profits based on de facto monopolies. That is a far cry from a free market. Especially in Europe, where every product is taxed to the limit and regulated into absurdity.

After the 2008 crisis the only thing that banks changed was the narrative. The lesson learned by elites was that bubbles can be bigger and bailouts must be camouflaged better. Governments are willing to share the lessons, since they share the loot. The limits to power are not set by any opposition from the people (free sector tax payers and employees) that are robbed silly this way. The Giant Permanent Underclass (once a middle class) is relatively easy to control. The limits are in the system itself. How to keep consumerism going, how to keep value inflating, how to keep fiat currencies credible, how to keep the petro dollar alive and most of all: how to keep bad credit credible. Many trillions in derivatives are at stake. Savings and pensions are of no concern: it's just money of the little people. Just keep it in the books and don't pay to the beneficiaries when that is not necessary. German pensioners collecting empty bottles from garbage cans are normality in Germany. A rich country full of poor people... Across EU-Europe poverty is on the rise and traditional rights are in decline. The States are not doing much better.

We live in a system that is way beyond reform. Some fundamentals cannot be fixed. The logical end would be currency reforms, a more sober life and a market were leverage and derivatives are really regulated. In fact blockchain would be a solution. But instead of setting example it creates DeFi as a copy of the regular market to make greed even more rewarding...

We need to get rid of a lot! Especially the trading of debt and the possibility to use insurance as a financial instrument. The incentive to create toxic debt must be taken out of the system. That is not a communist idea: it's sanity. The bubbles as exist only benefit unproductive people. The financial sector. Corporate law needs a big reform to take out corruption and to prevent people from outright theft and escaping accountability. The law should be law again. What happened to money in the predatory financial sector happened to law in the just as predatory judicial sector. A lot to do that cannot be done...

While writing this trade was again suspended in New York, despite all kind of measures and sweet words to calm the markets. What will happen from here? You can expect covered bailouts, some gloomy months and at the end a new bubble. The intention is to learn how to cheat more and better and have the taxfarm more ignorant. Chasing the 1% out is a bad idea that will not work. Better try to be one out of one hundred. Or leave the race and live somewhere in the middle.. Voluntary exile... As long as it is possible - that window is also closing.

<br /><center><hr/><em>Posted from my blog with <a href='https://wordpress.org/plugins/steempress/'>SteemPress</a> : https://cryptmove.com/2020/03/12/lets-panic-get-a-certicate/ </em><hr/></center>