The Price of Everything and The Value of Nothing

What's going on now reminds me of the run-up to 2008. 

Everything is so expensive. 

Why are crytpocurrencies that offer zero value trading for what they're trading for? 

Why is everything so expensive? 

I have dead fish to sell. $100 apiece. 

Take it or leave it. 

They received a huge windfall, re: 2008.

TARP. QE. Hot, liquid streams of money. 

What was sold to us as a flesh wound metastasized into their pet zombie.  

Dot gov flooded the market with capital.

At these rates, who wouldn't want to borrow?  

Companies issue bonds to buy their own stock. 

This makes stocks expensive. Why?

The money to buy them is cheap. 

The stock price gains pay the interest on the bonds. 

Profit is the difference between the interest on the note and the gain in the stock. 

For some companies it's the only profit.  

This is a huge scam. 

Why is BTC $7000? Nobody uses it for anything other than speculation. 

Who is speculating? It used to be people in the crypto space. The early adopters. 

People bought it to play with it, to see how it worked.

To move value from one place to another, without a bank. 

I felt like a bank teller the first time I used it. It was neat. 

I instantly saw the value, the potential. 

Now it's Goldman Sachs and everyone else.

This is not their first time playing banker.   

Goldman etc needwant maximum returns on cheap money.

Maximum returns on cheap money is their reason for the world continuing to turn.  

For the past year, BTC has offered maximum returns. 

Profit results when gains exceed the cost of borrowing.

If you are Goldman, or someone like it, your borrowing costs are very cheap.  

Crypto is just another asset class for cheap money to exploit. 

What is the value of crypto? It is invaluable. This is obvious.

Its current uses, however, are limited. 

Though the technology will be ubiquitous some day, crypto is currently being used as a vehicle for speculation.

Crypto's Top Three and a Half uses may be dark market trading, online gambing, and speculation. 

Its earliest use was dark market trading. 

Then gambling. 

It solves problems in these fields. It will continue to solve problems, to become more valuable.  

Now speculation. 

Cheap money is encouraging this, driving spectacular price gains.

See it in collectible cars. And art. And real estate, of course. 

And everything else the men and women of Goldman etc. like to own.  

As long as money remains cheap to borrow, we will continue to see wondrous and spectacular price action in crypto and other spaces.

If they want it, it will continue to gain as long as money is cheap.  

Coins that offer no value will spike in price, only to leave a crater in the Earth. 

Coins that offer no value will suddenly spike in price, only to trade sideways before cratering or continuing to gain in price. 

Absolutely anything can and will happen. 

Things that don't make sense will happen. 

Coins that offer real value will crater. 

Some will go to the moon. 

When I think of craters, the moon comes to mind. 

Some will win, and some will lose. 

Losers will win (for a time); winners will lose.

Many will get rich. Many will become poor again. 

What will be around in 25 years? 100 years? 

Why will it be around?

It's the same as always. Those who solve problems and get lucky will be around.  

This has already happened before, but there has never been anything like it. 

This will continue to happen.      

I would caution you to be careful. 

But you are an adult, and you do not need me to tell you to be careful. 

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Photos by Dan Gold, John Baker, Muhammad Rauf An Yusup, NASA, Michal Grosicki, Patrick Fore, Zach Savinar, and Mandy Beerley, whose profiles you'll find on Unsplash.