One World
Power Projection and Commerce
Globalism in commerce will start to shrink In the coming years; according to Peter Zeihan, I agree with his logic. The United States has little incentive to patrol the oceans and make them safe as they did during the Cold War. The whole world benefited from a safe ocean voyage for goods because the US was on the job. Now that the Cold War is over, we don’t ask our partners to side with us against Russia in exchange for safe ocean passage.
US markets were, for the most part, open, but that is also changing.
A Networked World
At the same time, the internet has made information available to a much broader swath of people than ever before. Critical thinkers in China and Iran are capable of implementing a VPN to bypass their country’s firewall and dig into the wealth of information available on the internet. Nationalistic narratives that are intended to keep a populace faithful to the empire are challenged and discarded. As such, the world is getting smaller. I am not speaking of the lemmings of social media. There are many people who are capable of discerning reality from bullshit. The lemmings prefer bullshit to truth; they find it more entertaining.
In the 1990s, I worked for a think tank. The founders were forward thinkers; in their early years, they wrote about a technology that would allow face-to-face interaction over telephone lines. When I was there, these technologies were starting to come into fruition, still very expensive and of poor quality but evolving. In the years following the think tank employment, video conferencing became ubiquitous in business, saving big bucks on international travel. The quality dropped, and the quality improved exponentially. Zoom and Google Meet are a mainstay of our networked world.
The Same Boat
The impact of climate on our globe is seeping into the everyday reality of more and more people. The unsustainability of what we are doing commercially is becoming more apparent. This is an issue that, despite the squabbling over international borders and economic one-up-manship, the man in the street is clued in; the leaders of our world are still spinning a BS tale to maintain the status quo.
There are no “chosen people” here. Either we all make it, or none of us do.
Time To Question
Every day, people are starting to question the need for borders and currencies that detract from human well-being and enrich a few privileged individuals. Wars only benefit the bomb makers and politicians, while the rest of us pay the state to reward them for making our lives more difficult. This is not new; it’s a process that has unfolded over and over throughout history.
What is Different
Digital money, specifically Bitcoin, is a Global currency that is starting to catch on. I am not speaking about “Crypto” in general. Much of what is associated with Bitcoin is digital voodoo and only repeating the scams that we already have with fiat currency. While the existing monetary systems are showing signs of failing like never before, folks who have the courage to learn about Bitcoin are seeing a way forward. Like all new technologies, digital networked money isn’t fully baked. We did not see the iPhone when the World Wide Web was getting started. Likewise, alternatives to broken money and unsustainable capitalism are likely not part of everyone’s awareness. What is clear is the end game for our existing system. Economic Feudalism burns the planet and pollutes our water, air, and food.
Personally, I’ll try something different even if I don’t know the final outcome, especially when the outcome of our present course is so clear.
There are too few leaders who can see beyond the current coming train wreck to articulate a better outcome for mankind. We need more discussion and more acceptance that the existing train ride does not end well. More experimentation toward alternatives to our dystopian path. Doing the same failed thing over and over and executing different results is the essence of insanity.
Somebody’s Thinking Different
The integration of crypto ETFs into mainstream investment portfolios transcends geographical boundaries, ushering in a new era of cross-border investment opportunities and global market participation. With the potential approval of BlackRock’s iShares spot Bitcoin ETF, the international investment community is poised to embrace a more interconnected and digitally driven financial ecosystem. Those networks we discussed earlier that made the internet explode will have a similar impact on investments.
What’s different? The Bitcoin tipping point. ETFs will drive the price of Bitcoin and push it back again into the global consciousness, with casual investors and shoe-shine boys jumping on the bandwagon. Without anyone’s permission, Bitcoin becomes too big to fail and a fixture in the financial landscape. But Bitcoin was not designed to play well with others; it was intended to replace currencies worldwide.
Tsunami Ahead
But at the same time, the world of traditional investments is experiencing tectonic shifts and fraying at the edges. Sometimes, I wish I had a crystal ball that worked.
As my favorite geopolitical analyst, Peter Zeihan points out, BRICS has a snowball’s chance in hell of coming up with a currency. I mean, who do you trust to run that? But at least they’re thinking differently.
Jeff Booth points out that it is almost impossible to envision a future while being held captive in the existing framework. A currency not based on debt and driven by the military-industrial complex? Absurd, you say! Finding future solutions requires we bring into question all of our existing assumptions and question everything.
Voting at the ballot box is turning into a cluster f*&%, so I have taken to voting with my financial power; buying Bitcoin is a vote for change. The excuse of terrorist money and poor energy usage don’t hold up anymore… Bitcoin energy usage is intentional, not a problematic by-product.
The present class of money lords has proven they are not up to the job. While global commerce may be shrinking, the world is getting smaller, and a global currency might be a step in the right direction.