What the Hell is an Economy?

Another stupid AI image In the beginning, there was bartering. Then money was invented, prices were listed, and markets happened.  Goods, services and assets could be efficiently bought and sold. Currency ties it all together.  While dollars used to be made of cotton and stored in our leather wallets, today the ownership of dollars is recorded in electronic bank ledgers, somewhere deep within a data center.  The transfer of dollars is accomplished by the adjustment of these l

Yes, I know.  I said that this post would be in Tether.  Next one, I promise.  But this one is short. In my prior post , I made what I thought was a pretty convincing argument that the recent “gold rush” was primarily due to 2025 ETF buying.  That would be people like you, adding gold to your IRA, 401k, brokerage account, whatever. Here is something else to consider. Roughly 5% of the total bitcoin supply is held in ETF’s, the leader being Blackrock’s bitcoin ETF IBIT , holdi

For the last two years the price of gold has increased by about 145%, making it one of the best performing assets over that period.  Why this 2-year surge in price? While new gold is being constantly mined, the dramatic increase in price tells us that demand is increasing faster than the supply is increasing.     But First, Ton vs Tonne A tonne (metric) is defined as 1,000 kilograms, while a ton (imperial/US) is 2000 pounds. Even though the term “ton” is commonly used, gold i

In reference to the government paying able-bodied people not to work , I previously claimed  that “ the cold, hard truth is that this is the worst economic decision that a society can make.” The logic is obvious. Not only does such a policy diminish the percentage of the population that is economically productive, is also discourages those that are working, that are trying to make ends meet.  Why would this not result in a downward spiral of productivity, and a gradual reduct