Crypto has no inherent value and as Graham and his greatest student Warren Buffett would tell you, “without value you ain’t got nothin’.” Tesla is a car company without a lot of value except speculation. Most models are not profitable even when made in China. Subsidies to buyers and carbon grants to Musk do not a car company make. At least long term when the bubble bursts. Spacecraft that blow up and are going to Mars are profitable only if government pays for them. Musk is living the dream today, but not for long.
If you plant tulips correctly they re-emerge each year, multiply, and prosper. Don’t expect this to work with bitcoin. The “pump and dump” aspect of cryptocurrency and memes is bad enough, but when the head of the SEC colludes with crypto insiders the name of the game is bunko! When (not if) it all collapses what will happen to the banks that jumped into the next great thing? Is it time to put my cash under the mattress?
Bitcoin is currently around 83K, down from a high around 109K, but up from its intrinsic value of zipnadabupkis.
Peter, you are spot on. Paul Krugman has also written insightfully on this, in his columns and in his Substack. And Zeke Faux's book, Number Go Up, is worth a read.
But there seems, currently, no shortage of Greater Fools. And criminals do have a real need for something more portable than pallets of $100 bills.
One amusing anecdote I read some years ago concerned a little Dutch cabin boy aboard a merchant ship who thought tulip bulbs were onions, and diced and fried up four of them--each which had been "worth" more that the ship itself.
I don't know if the story is true; sounds doubtful. But he did reduce the tulip bulbs to their intrinsic value.
So let me understand this. Market demand changes the price of Bitcoin, and trump will now use the vast federal funds to buy and sell Bitcoin, thereby raising and lowering Bitcoin's price. Trump is also a big investor in Bitcoin. It's known that drug dealers, the mob, and now a con man are the only ones who use Bitcoin to transfer funds because it is largely untraceable. This manipulation would be covered under the Supreme Court's immunity ruling anyway. What could possibly go wrong?
Crypto has no inherent value and as Graham and his greatest student Warren Buffett would tell you, “without value you ain’t got nothin’.” Tesla is a car company without a lot of value except speculation. Most models are not profitable even when made in China. Subsidies to buyers and carbon grants to Musk do not a car company make. At least long term when the bubble bursts. Spacecraft that blow up and are going to Mars are profitable only if government pays for them. Musk is living the dream today, but not for long.
Thank you, Peter. Finally, someone has expressed the truth about this latest Emperor's New Clothes phenomenon!
If you plant tulips correctly they re-emerge each year, multiply, and prosper. Don’t expect this to work with bitcoin. The “pump and dump” aspect of cryptocurrency and memes is bad enough, but when the head of the SEC colludes with crypto insiders the name of the game is bunko! When (not if) it all collapses what will happen to the banks that jumped into the next great thing? Is it time to put my cash under the mattress?
Just another crazy, dangerous scheme from a craven 47.
Bitcoin is currently around 83K, down from a high around 109K, but up from its intrinsic value of zipnadabupkis.
Peter, you are spot on. Paul Krugman has also written insightfully on this, in his columns and in his Substack. And Zeke Faux's book, Number Go Up, is worth a read.
But there seems, currently, no shortage of Greater Fools. And criminals do have a real need for something more portable than pallets of $100 bills.
One amusing anecdote I read some years ago concerned a little Dutch cabin boy aboard a merchant ship who thought tulip bulbs were onions, and diced and fried up four of them--each which had been "worth" more that the ship itself.
I don't know if the story is true; sounds doubtful. But he did reduce the tulip bulbs to their intrinsic value.
Musk (whose name is headlined in seven NYT articles this morning) has a whole menagerie of Beanie Babies whose value may come undone: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/opinion/musk-tesla-sales-stock-price.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2k4.4SJp.KVcfUO8W17UK&smid=url-share
And Bitcoin is under 81K.
...and it's under 78K.
So let me understand this. Market demand changes the price of Bitcoin, and trump will now use the vast federal funds to buy and sell Bitcoin, thereby raising and lowering Bitcoin's price. Trump is also a big investor in Bitcoin. It's known that drug dealers, the mob, and now a con man are the only ones who use Bitcoin to transfer funds because it is largely untraceable. This manipulation would be covered under the Supreme Court's immunity ruling anyway. What could possibly go wrong?