2023-07-12T15:49:11Z https://nostr.now Aurelius https://nostr.now/npub169yu4d6xl8a6d4xvfyhstjdxr0cc7qtfq5pch5kwv4k2wkapa3pq8v2thg http://www.joke-of-the-day.com/files/images/bigsquirrel.jpg http://www.joke-of-the-day.com/files/images/bigsquirrel.jpg https://nostr.now/nevent1qqs2lxmpsk7nu9f9juskct2y5kyc2ahus6p7mmc9248ntc0q6n4g42gzyrg5nj4hgmulhfk5e3yj7pwf5cdlrrcpdyzs8z7jeejkef6m58kyyee8u8x I don’t go to psychics, and I don’t entertain PlanB’s endless forecasting about future values. <br/><br/>Exciting predictions bring in likes on YouTube…but provide no value to an asset that needs to be appreciated by its users. Irrational exuberance doesn’t help Bitcoin. 2023-07-19T00:48:07Z https://nostr.now/nevent1qqsvxzvm9et94r5uw24m84tchghl4pv0njsa0vuszqqtadqudk04xpszyrg5nj4hgmulhfk5e3yj7pwf5cdlrrcpdyzs8z7jeejkef6m58kyywdthz7 In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs9y3h5dhpdqnstqtanehuze8al68kuj5mlnwnah35sy5mwzmkjdaspt7w64'>nevent1q…7w64</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>“Cheap borrowing advantages the borrower.”<br/><br/>Not really. The fact that money is cheap means that everybody has already borrowed on the real assets that you desire. Prices are inflated on houses not as a virtue of their productiveness, but because of available money. Paying 6% interest to borrow on a house that was worth 2 years of your income in 1950, has now transitioned into borrowing at 3% on a house that is worth 12 years of income. You’re paying far far more in interest because you’re playing with an asset class that is massively inflated because of those aggressive loans, because of the myth of necessary home ownership, because of the impossibility of bank default due to bailouts, and because of the belief that prices will always rise. 2023-07-06T12:03:03Z https://nostr.now/nevent1qqs9y3h5dhpdqnstqtanehuze8al68kuj5mlnwnah35sy5mwzmkjdaszyrg5nj4hgmulhfk5e3yj7pwf5cdlrrcpdyzs8z7jeejkef6m58kyygffsyr In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqsyh9l8eh3g5g2a598vp4sy8wkjhuv4tqcrmwpjy5sef8lsjxl7kvqv964gc'>nevent1q…64gc</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>Most important is the success that the finance industry has had in convincing the populous that prompt debt repayment is next to Godliness. Never before was virtue tied up with debt repayment. But now, people are expected to impoverish themselves, eat twinkies, live in boxes, and sell kidneys to repay debts. A debt that can’t be repaid, historically won’t. And it shouldn’t. Excessive interest is usury, and excessive charges from monopolies that corner people into participating with a one-sided loan, are unjust. <br/><br/>If you default on a loan, perhaps you’re a creep. But perhaps you can’t repay it. And if you can’t repay it, it was a bad loan and a bad business move by the bank. 2023-07-06T11:57:47Z https://nostr.now/nevent1qqsyh9l8eh3g5g2a598vp4sy8wkjhuv4tqcrmwpjy5sef8lsjxl7kvqzyrg5nj4hgmulhfk5e3yj7pwf5cdlrrcpdyzs8z7jeejkef6m58kyysh42dh In reply to <a href='/nevent1qqs9sfrrpp8myuql8ya7hksnw6vvs388pazjsl2x8lqrq4k9355uc0cxtj3q7'>nevent1q…j3q7</a><br/>_________________________<br/><br/>If you have to play your master’s game, by all means play to the best of your ability. If you need to borrow, go for cheaper money. <br/><br/>The structure of debt has been altered from its of original form, to the advantage of the finance industry. The natural state of things is for a lender to make a loan based on his understanding of the likelihood that a borrow will pay it back. If they made a loan to someone who couldn’t make the payments, it was a bad loan. Default ensued and it was the bank’s loss. There was a risk to both sides of the contract. The natural rate of interest that covered such default risk was around 6%. <br/><br/>But now, loans are a one-sided risk. 1. Because 90% of loans are made on real assets (property) and are no longer made for business ventures, there is always an asset for the bank to redeem. <br/>2. Debtors prisons are a real thing, and the possibility of imprisonment alters the mathematics of a potential debtor who cannot pay a loan—perhaps he’ll sell his child into slavery instead of defaulting on a bad loan.<br/>3. Banks have written their own laws to make default impossible for some loans. If a graduate cannot pay 7% on her student loans, too bad. A 200k loan for a cooking degree would have been considered a bad loan in any other generation. The banks know it cannot be paid back. But now default is impossible.<br/>4. Large default is no longer absorbed by the banks who are responsible for their poor business decision. Obama made it clear in ‘08 that losses would be passed on to taxpayers.<br/><br/><br/>Even low interest rates are far higher than are needed to cover a loan that has no counterparty risk. 3% seems like a deal only because 18% credit card loans exist. A reversion to fair lending practices must happen, but will never happen so long as the banks write their own anti-default laws. 2023-07-06T11:53:12Z https://nostr.now/nevent1qqsgeauklkcp0sknyhuprlm6v7majxg026grkxvpfh4t0acfpnjp72czyrg5nj4hgmulhfk5e3yj7pwf5cdlrrcpdyzs8z7jeejkef6m58kyyr244vs To have a decentralized protocol and then to ask a corporation to centralize its onboarding seems to be going backwards. <br/><br/>This is an inconvenience, but inconvenience doesn’t dissuade the sort of people that are drawn to protocols over platforms. 2023-06-13T09:42:11Z