Progressive Fed Nominees, Arizona, and Evergrande - FED 79
Fed Watch - Bitcoin and Macro - A podcast by Bitcoin Magazine
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If you enjoy this content please SUBSCRIBE and REVIEW on iTunes, and SHARE! In this episode of Bitcoin Magazine’s “Fed Watch'', I fly solo without Christian, but get to interact with the livestream fellas at Bitcoin Magazine, Q and Alex, and answer some questions from the live audience. Topics for this episode were the new nominees for the Federal Reserve Board, the Arizona bill to make bitcoin legal tender, Evergrande and China, and finally the IMF forecast for GDP in 2022. Raskin for Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve This month Biden announced his nominees to replace Rosengren, Kaplan and Quarles at the Federal Reserve, three board members who stepped down in 2021. Of most note was the nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin to fill Quarles’ Vice Chair seat, and his role as Head of Supervision. This is a controversial nomination, because Raskin is a radical progressive. She served at the Fed previously during the Obama administration, so is no stranger to the Fed. She is a big supporter of using Fed policies and powers over banking regulations to promote a progressive political agenda, like climate initiatives. Raskin also draws a hard line on bitcoin and private sector digital alternatives to the USD. She favors the unrestrained use of Fed regulatory powers to control bitcoin and other innovation in the currency space. As for Central Bank Digital Currencies, it is safe to say that she’d agree with those other progressive central bankers like Christine LaGarde, who want to pursue a CBDC. Arizona Bill to Make Bitcoin Legal Tender In our coverage of the Arizona bill to make bitcoin legal tender, I recap the situation and put it in context of GDP size. The Arizona GDP is $375 billion where the El Salvador GDP is $25 billion. As for the legal issues, it is plainly unconstitutional, because the States are not allowed to make anything other than gold and silver legal tender. In an interesting turn, would the federal government actually pursue Arizona in this case since the current USD does not fit the definition either? We’ll have to wait and see how this turns out. What we can say now is that it is a big win already for bitcoin in shifting the Overton Window to include this debate. China nationalizing property market Long time listeners of Fed Watch will know we talk about China a lot. In this episode, I give a quick update on things happening right now in regards to the communists, Evergrande, and real estate in general. This month, State Owned Enterprises (SOE) were exempted from the 3-red lines in a de facto, slow motion nationalization of the real estate market in China. This is a big change in how the real estate industry in China is structured, and marks the end of growth in my opinion. Another development we cover is the gigantic secondary market o