There are tons of cryptocurrencies out there, and it’s fairly trivial to make a new one if you want. The trick is getting a bunch of suckers to pay you for it.
The guy who made Dogecoin did it one afternoon by copying the Bitcoin source and changing a few things. He spent as much time changing the font to Comic Sans and putting Doge jokes in the UI as he did on the actual guts of the currency. It’s nonsense.
I say this as someone who bought some Dogecoin when it started (as a joke!) and sold it for like a 5000% gain a few weeks ago. It’s all nonsense. Although I do wish I had waited a few weeks longer on that nonsense to make a 25000% gain.
Just to be clear, I’m not a Ron Paul/Stansberry Research “ZOMG! Hyperinflation” nutter. I don’t believe in balanced budget amendments, ending the fed, or any of that shit. Countries can carry debts, and occasionally, substantial debts. But once you cross 100% of GDP, there’d better be a plan and some political will to balance the accounts, or else you’ll have problems with entitlement spending (a big chunk of the economy and political stability) somewhere down the road.
No disagreements there. Taking on debt can actually be a net benefit, as long as it allows a country’s economy can grow at a rate sufficient to service the interest on its debt. It’s just frustrating to me how so many people pounding the drum on crypto have no real understanding of how economics works.
The part that worries me is that calls to reduce spending, or to raise interest rates, both get shouted down. Yes, the government can theoretically pay off debts by raising taxes if they need to, but I think that is a political no-go. But hey, as long as countries/companies continue to gobble up newly issued bonds under the assumption that the US will always be able to pay it off, let’s keep the party going!
The hard part, like it is with the stock market, is timing when the music stops. I’m sure you’ve heard of the saying “the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent”, or as I like to say, “other people can remain dumber longer than I can remain smart”. I’m just glad I won’t have any descendants to face the fallout.