Bitcoin and the U.S. Fiscal Reckoning with Avik Roy

 
 

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“If Bitcoin ever does compete with Treasury bonds as the premier store of wealth in the world that’s a really really big deal, that transforms the entire way the world economy works.”
— Avik Roy

SHOW DESCRIPTION

Location: Austin, TX
Date: Thursday 7th October
Company: Forbes
Role: Editor

In 1971, Richard Nixon ended Bretton Woods, severing the entire global monetary system from its anchor, gold. Governments around the world have since been able to create new money and increase debt virtually without restriction.

Fifty years later, and there’s no political will to slow down spending. Instead, new money is created to pay for new spending, and the numbers involved get larger and larger.

Governments can issue new currency to service their own debt, but the cycle of increasing deficit spending and monetary inflation may already be leading to spiralling debt and runaway prices with no obvious way out.

In this interview, I talk to Avik Roy, Editor at Forbes. We discuss the growing problems with debt and inflation, healthcare, and central bank digital currencies.

TIMESTAMPS

00:02:50: Introductions
00:04:15: Avik's background
00:12:54: Universal healthcare systems
00:20:42: US healthcare
00:24:57: The US Constitution and failing government
00:28:11: Membership of Congress
00:30:05: The US debt
00:33:37: The fiscal reckoning
00:37:22: The Basel Accords
00:40:42: Different ways to default on debt
00:44:46: Conflicting measures of inflation
00:49:07: Watching El Salvador
00:57:26: Bitcoin's role in the US fiscal position
01:04:52: The capital gains tax question
01:14:04: Why COVID lockdowns were the wrong solution
01:21:44: CBDCs
01:34:19: Final comments

 

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SHOW NOTES

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