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8:51 "CELEBRITIES, IT TURNS OUT, TOOK MORE HEAT for accepting advertising money from FTX than politicians did for accepting donations" It's true and it's INSANE.
To be fair, its not because those celebrties took the money its because they went out and promoted FTX (in exchange for money), not just that they took money. Not that trading favors for money is any better, but just saying.
Because people actually care about those people for some reason. Nobody cares about politicians, until they´re getting blamed for F-ing up something important.
I don't think it's necessarily insane. It's possible that those celebrities brought FTX more customers who then lost money whereas those politicians probably didn't have that big of an effect.
From what SBF said, politicians were a lot cheaper to buy. Also people just accept lobbying in politics as a thing, for some reason. Transparency does nothing.
I think its called lobby nowdays, it was rephrased from corruption if iam not mistaken, electorate have negative reaction towards it and the whole thing sounds negative. Can you spot the pattern?
false believe to think that it was made to be anti-government. more likely it was made because the US dollar is being devalued through constant money printing.
it faced every attack possible for a while and was de facto illegal but like alcohol and guns its here to stay so they want to use it to flex even more on the commoners
Tech bros are always saying they invented something when in fact, they just made something that already existed. You know, like in this case, the crypto folks donating to politicians think they are 'inventing the future of currencies'...except...all they're doing is what the oil money is doing....favoring their industry as a diverse dollar and with government backing is where value can be (mostly) stabilized...cause crypto is definitely not stable.
@@serioserkanalname499yes. That is the legal corruption. If it wasn't for lobbying it wouldn't be legal. You just made the same joke again but worse...
@@gwentarinokripperinolkjdsf683 something something you're the joke idk what do you want from me? I just saw someone falsely "um actually" and wanted to point it out. Not every comment has to be a joke :|
Also, the sheer number of billionaires with deep vested interest vying for administration jobs on both the Rep and Dem sides is scary. Some, like Musk and Cuban are openly mentioning what they want (like which specific role) and then paying $$$ to the campaigns, while others like Powell-Jobs seem to have been more discreet about it. How is this legal?!😮
The sheer scale of crypto political contributions should be a huge warning flag to politicians that something stinks. Unfortunately, politicians tend to be deeply uninformed about technical things and very informed about the cost of running campaign ads.
We all know about the mad skills top democrats and Republicans have ,trading stocks (sarcasm) Crypto is just one more way they will be able to enrich themselves
I do love the respective names "defend progress" and "protect jobs" for what are ultimately two identical policies funded by the same industry. It sounds like a simpsons parody.
"protect jobs" just mean giving corporations ungodly amount of money that some crumbs trickle down to new job listings so the employment rate looks good on the report
Yet it exists; it's the monolithic Uniparty, for both sides are merely puppets pulled by their strings to the command of a single entity. Unfortunately, it's a lot less interesting than the La Li Lu Le Lo from the Metal Gear Solid games.
@@plasticwalnut7650 it's not monolithic. While some like cryptos bros are funding both, many others are funding only one side: for example, O&G, NRA and evangelists funds the republicans, while planned parenthood and civil right groups funds democrats. Crypto has the benefit of being an issue that most people just doesn't care about, so there is no political gain for criticizing them or the opposite party for supporting them, especially not when 120 millions is on the table!
Dealing with all these Hushpuppies of the world has to rub off. But please don't overlook his nice handkerchchief (it's called pocket square, I had to look it up). this truely has style, If you have classic upbringing you know that the pocket square should never match the tie exactly (if you are nitpicking, yes he doesn't wear a tie here). Patrick shows the perfect combination in all of his outfits. I definitely give him an A+. I wish he could introduce me to his stylist.
Ya know, maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m just crazy, but I feel like maybe it *shouldn’t* be legal to donate hundreds of millions of dollars to political campaigns without actually disclosing that you are, and using deliberately misleading PAC names to do so. Just a thought, ya know
I'm surprised there are no comments on Patrick's note that (paraphrasing) "betting on crypto is betting that criminality will be more prevalent in the future". This has got to be the biggest hot take/reflection point in the whole video and has not been commented on. Honestly, that comment alone is having me reconsider my negative sentiment on crypto to wanting to invest since it seems criminals can get away with anything these days.
I think I would like crypto a lot more if they paid me and not politicians to sell crypto as an actual investment. Maybe then I would accutal think it helped most people, not people who hack other people's crypto wallets.
@@fademan77 The IRA did not raise inflation. The Act will obviously, it take time. The provisions are estimated over a ten year period. Many economists say that the IRA will bring down inflation in the long run. ("How the US Inflation Reduction Act will impact the economy", RIcha Sahay World Economic Forum Nov 2, 2022 - source)
@@fademan77there was a worldwide inflation spike 2022/2023 and you can hardly blame Biden for Chinese supply chain issues, post-covid problems or Russias war.
Words are not real, their just sounds and shapes granted common meaning via collective understanding. When you possess the world's strongest military, one of the most effective intelligence services on the planet, and the most powerful economic engine this side of the Milky way, you've got numerous means to coerce and bribe others to agree with your definitions.
Te estaré eternamente agradecido, has cambiado mi vida entera y seguiré predicando en tu nombre para que todo el mundo escuche que me salvaste de una enorme deuda financiera con solo una pequeña inversión, gracias Matilda A Garcia.
Normalmente utilizo una representante autorizada, Matilda A Garcia. Ella ofrece un enfoque más práctico, ya que analiza factores como la demanda del mercado, los cambios regulatorios y las tendencias de adopción. Este enfoque le permite tomar decisiones informadas en lugar de depender únicamente de la dinámica emocional del mercado.
Same here. If you mean it's worse because we aren't killing/banning crypto altogether. The Democrats will regulate it, the Republicans will let it run hog wild. This is a sort of "keep your friends close, and your enemies closer" situation. But obviously we've caved to it. I think crypto is a destructive force and should be banned.
That's just the earning side of crypto. There are huge HUUUGE possible upsides for the USAGE of cryptocurrencies. Government can't steal it from you or stop you from spending it freely.
@@operator8014 Buddy, if the USA is trying to "steal your money" or stopping you from "spending it freely", you should be worrying about water, food and shelter and not bloody crypto , cause the world has already gone to shit
@@operator8014 So cryptocurrency is a solution looking for a problem? What are some current examples of the government preventing me from spending it freely on something?
Two major points though: 1. The people who once advertised crypto as a "fight against the establishment" also fought against what crypto has become today, and have largely left the industry, or dedicated their time to research that is much more esoteric than an influencer running a pump and dump. So at least there's no contradiction/hypocrisy there - the crypto enthusiasts of 2011 and the crypto bros post 2017 are two completely separate groups of people. 2. Gensler (at least to my knowledge) is not hated due to his enforcement of certain rules. He's hated because of his selective enforcement of rules. Most notably - people knew that FTX is a scam long before it went bust, but Gensler was complicit in trying to kick every legitimate exchange out of the US, in order to redirect all investor money into an obvious scam, while pretending not to see anything wrong with FTX. His former boss is also a relative of Caroline Edison, basically the second in charge after Sam Bankman Fried, showing clear conflict of interest.
i think you are reading too much into FTX collapsing before the SEC could get to them. its just good legal strategy to go after the more obvious cases and smaller fish first to build precedent and then use that precedent from those cases to make it easier to beat the big players that can throw more money at their defence. FTX just collapsed before the SEC could get to them. there is no obvious bias there. We are not even yet at the stage where the SEC has won a decisive case naming a lot of the big cryptocurrencies as unregistered securities but we will get there at some point in the next few years unless the crypto exchanges manage to swing their dick around in DC enough to get one of theirs installed a chair to end the justified prosecutions.
It's so frustrating that the public narrative around crypto has been driven by "we don't want to discuss the real thing and any of its implications, we want to let a bunch of scammers make it a fake thing that we can hate".
Every video related to crypto the comments are stacks of salty bag holders sandwiched between botted replies promoting crypto scams. What a beautiful world.
The only crypto users not complaining are the ones actually using it, mostly for illicit trades. Those are rarely the bitcoin users tho, as bitcoin is inherently unsafe and in vast amounts held by government agencies.
@@TacoTuesday4bitty coin investors aren’t in the comments, they’re off doing jungle drugs, buying cyber trucks to flex on TikTok, and when they are on twitter, they’re arguing for lowering the age of consent.
Block chain voting. Decentralized and open for all in the nation... as long as you buy at least $25 in eth.... Lmao can you imagine some 85 year old grandma trying to use crypto to vote. 😅 I know if this happened 3/4's of my family would have no idea how to cast a vote.
@@benclair What's wrong with it? If you mean the US, Trumps former lawyers during Jan 6th have been Dis-barred after admitting they knowingly lied in Court and they KNEW that there was NO 2020 Election Fraud... Chesebro, Powell, & Ellis Also Rudy Guiliani admitted it too and got sued for $150 Million in court and lost and is currently filing for Bankruptcy. Do try keep up...
I love how paying a bribe is illegal but receiving one is ignored, rendering it effectively legal. But that's kind of expected when the writers of the law are the ones receiving the bribes.
@@wholeNwon Well I can give the cute reply which is as a UK citizen no, they can't. But to answer the point; there might be candidates who are legitimately anti-corruption but with the 2 party system they are unlikely to prosper outside of those parties.
I saw a TV ad 25 years ago featuring a one dollar bill with a talking George Washington portrait telling me my dollar goes farther every day at a local mattress store. If money was already that savvy that long ago, it must be crazy wise today!
I feel like many idealistic, neophyte candidates must make such plans. Then they get into office and realize they have no actual power as an individual.
@@Casey-dy2oo It would be hilarious! But it probably will never happen as no superpac will trust them after that, dooming them to perpetual losses afterwards. We live in a plutocracy.
As someone working deep in the crypto industry I found this to be a really well measured and fair video. Having a16z and coinbase double down on the same lobbying efforts crypto purports to be antithetical to is deeply frustrating and thanks to people like you and Molly for surfacing this.
It's not really buying the elections. It's simply lobbying both sides (hedging their bets) before the election is run. Still pretty disgusting. Lobbying with money or any goods in kind should be illegal.
Fair point. The consumer credit industry, which soaks average citizens for billions of dollars in interest payments annually and calls consumer credit "good for the economy," surely donates many times more to these candidates than the crypto industry does.
As a Finnish dude, it always baffles me when Americans are against the revealing how much tax they payed and such, how much they used to pay to a campaign... We have always had our tax payments on full view of everyone, the taxes are almost automatic here, we don't need to think about them, as the system is quite effective. And if we see some guy is just bankrolling our multiparty system, people aren't happy. We use the taxes to health care and education more effectively and the richest ones can't get away with these kinds of pumping of investing into elections, as those are also open to see for everyone. There's a reason for being the "happiest" country in the world. We know how everyone is doing so it drops the rate of corruption a significant amount, and everyone is really on the same level of opportunity as it can be, not ideal, but still quite well done. Main thing is the understanding of "freedom", in USA it's "freedom FROM something" and here it's "freedom TO DO something". And you are free to do everything which isn't against the law, and the laws are really friendly to everyone, keeping people happy in every class of citizens. Still, it's ofc easier to be more wealthy, but the thing that people aren't breaking and entering your property every night is quite a big boon, when everyone is kinda ok with how things are, and you still have the good free health care if your business goes down.
@@ilari90 it baffles me too how our system is so incredibly successful at getting so many mice to vote for the local tomcat. Vast swaths of American policy are not only not in the general public's best interest but not even in those particular voters' best interests. (My state took hundreds of millions in tax dollars, plus incentives, plus abatements to build a fertilizer plant because Koch industries was gouging farmers, then basically teed up the sale to Koch industries this year) They have pawned Laffer curve policies for 5 decades. Despite the incredible lack of efficacy people still vote for politicians that promise to create growth by cutting the taxes on the wealthiest. And that we're going to finance enormous military misadventures by cutting the taxes of the wealthiest etc.
USA has a lot of different campaign finance laws including recording who made donations to whom and when. This includes candidates as well as PACs. There is good reason to be concerned that what we have isn't enough, but we absolutely have reporting and recording requirements. Income taxes can reveal a lot of sensitive personal information so it is kept private, but not all taxes are like that. For example, property taxes are publicly available and searchable. Why do you think it is a free-for-all here?
I was talking about this recently with my wife. I actually can't imagine that everyone would know how much each person is earning - the amount of silent envy would be insufferable. There is a reason colleagues don't know who is earning how much. But I understand in Finland people might think differently.
@@TheGateux It's called here as the "envy days" when the taxes are revealed, only ones that are complaining are the wealthy ones, but even most of them are ok with it, they know they are going to be respected, too by their peers. And for the others, we just want to see how the democracy is done, we need that to make sure no one is using their wealth to buy someone. It still happens, but we are one of the least corrupted country in the polls.
@@username7763 One thing I find ridiculous is that you can put your taxes into religious or "good will" incentives to avoid taxes, and those can be almost anything. Here we have pretty tight laws who can collect money for charity, those need to have pretty strict stuff going on, if they want to be a charity for example. US has that too, but the regulations of making a charity fund is pretty lax compared to Northern Europe. And you can't avoid taxes with those, it's just charity, not tax evasion.
Fans of Taylor Swift were able to force Taylor Swift to dump a guy for just being racist, while fans of Joe Biden have not been able to force Biden to dump Netanyahu for committing mass murder. The standard is pretty clear that celebrities are under much more scrutiny.
Honestly, if we're going to boil the oceans over crypto or AI chatbots. Bring the NFTs back please? I'm tired of hearing about how spicy auto complete is going to revolutionize everything, and put us to the end of scarcity. It still doesn't know how much glue to put on a pizza, how many R's are in strawberry, etc.
@@johnpienta4200but the spicy autocomplete is in every app and piece of tech now as it consumes so much energy and data as little else we invented to tell you that it's favorite fruit is an applum and that all autistic people love puzzle pieces 🙃
The redpill conspiracy folks are still in at large, but the peer to peer network itself is now much more drifted away from the original libertarian freedom of money idealism because the nodes and full wallets are no longer run by ordinary folks (e.g. bitcoin full wallet requires like 2TB hard drive space these days, to get your transaction processed under an hour you have to use like 15 bucks worth of bitcoin to get priority so no chance for large mass of people running it). The only nodes on the networks are sketchy exchanges, criminals that dedicate that kind of HW to it and a shitload of chineese miners. The system is now just a smoke and mirrors for money laundering as primary use case and is hiding behind the smoke and mirrors of the "freedom of money!" argument.
Important video. I remember as I was trying to figure out what exactly was crypto I learned three things. 1. The block chain concept is kind of interesting. 2. Crypto suddenly changed from an 'alternate non governmentally controlled 'currency' to a 'store of value.' Which of course set off my Bull S* detector. and 3. It consumes enormous amounts of energy. And along the way there were pizzas purchased for bit coins that were in a few years worth over a hundred thousand dollars, there were new cryptos introduced weekly. NFTs rang a bell. I've been in the arts business for decades. False scarcity is often used to disguise bad art. I was surprised in 2019 and 2020 how many otherwise intelligent people were comparing the potential future gains of Apple, Tesla and Bit Coin as though they were similar. Remembering what Stalin said about the Vatican disapproval of something the Soviets were doing, "How many divisions does the Pope have?" How many factories does Bit Coin have? The only thing surprising is that cryptos haven't collapsed. I also remember how sadly funny Albania was when the nationwide Ponzi scheme was shut down by the government. Thousands of people protested that it should be left alone -- long enough to pull in new suckers so they could get their money and profits out.... The only thing different is Crypto is more complicated, the amounts of money are huge - but it's still just a scam.
Albania collapsed and the state fell due to those ponzi schemes - troops had to be sent in. Crypto is an organized crime psyop doing it at an epic global level for far more nefarious reasons. It IS the collapse.
And not accounted for.if you put the actual cost in energy, co2 water on it this would be a pretty exciting expensive currency to use. At least for small payments.@@tacocat9
I too dived deep and came to about the same conclusions. Red flags: •Always changing claims. As if it's a pretense. •Needless complexity. As if to hide a sleight. •Hard & expensive to use. As if it didn't matter. •Waste of resources. As if it can't do better. •Widespread grift. As if that is all it is good for. •Handwaving reconciliation with reality. As if it's not there. I found no redeeming qualities.
The "blockchain" is a conditionally immutable linked list. Not a new concept in compsci. In the case of buttcoin configured into a bit-mask lottery obfuscated by the avalanche effect of one-way hash functions: 100% gambling and right to the core. Gambling machines use similar code to bitcoind.
Total respect for Patrick having the courage to shine a light on this industry and those that are beholden to it. A lot of powerful people are probably not happy he is sharing the truth.
Please don’t do sponsorship partnerships with scant VPN companies and their offshoot password managers. It compromises your credibility and is ironic given that we tongue in cheek point at politicians doing the same thing.
It's so detached from any real value, it is the greatest speculative asset, hence a great hedge / investment in financially favourable climates. I personally use it.
American politics is decided by votes. Hillary Clinton proved in 2016 that you can't actually buy an election, when she drastically outspent Trump and still lost.
Representatives of the public should represent the public. By accepting this money and promoting the interests of those few that stand to gain whichever party it may be that will do so will be stab its supporters in the back...
it's a choice, accept the money and betray your electors, or lose the election and honestly represent nobody. That's the system big money donors have intentionally created through lobbying and donations
Thank you for the Rap News about Puffy D. I'm sorry you had to talk about cryptocurrency and politics as well, but I understand. The algorithm and all that.
Crypto’s influence on the 2024 election raises serious concerns. With regulatory uncertainty and market volatility, I'm hesitant to dive into crypto investments right now. Is it time to pull back or rethink strategy?
I agree. Even with great opportunities, we should proceed cautiously. Seeking market analysis or advice from certified market strategists is important.
Absolutely, having a solid plan is crucial. My portfolio has doubled since early last year. My financial advisor and I are working towards a seven-figure goal, though it might take until Q3 2024.
I thank you, Patrick (and Zeke) for shining a light on the shenanigans that go on behind the "crapto"world. Please keep us informed of what goes on in this dark world.
Don't worry. The only politicians that allow themselves to be bribed in this fashion are the ones that are also stealing campaign funds and can and will be criminally charged
There's literally no one clean to vote unless you rebuilt the system from the ground up. You can count with the fingers of your hands the somewhat trustworthy politicians left.
Much needed reporting. I don't understand how 'Crypto' makes sense - now as it's political behaviour is clear - it is JUST a market 'con'. Breaking the banking 'con' by becoming the banking 'con'. political behaviour == regulatory capture
Patrick, this is your most important video so far. Crypto industry is such a funny name for this... They produce nothing, but make billions. Most people already woke up to this scam...
Remember that when people try to tell you how great democracy is. Democracy is a popularity contest and you need a lot of money for marketing and advertising.
@@username7763 Only if the electoral districts are large as in the U.S. Each candidate in the house represents nearly 1 million people. We need to make our districts smaller to account for our growing population. When the constitution was ratified we had 59 representatives and 4 million people. Now, we have 435 representatives but 340 million people. The corruption is inevitable. We need multimember districts.
Big Orange told the GOP flat out, "You're all worms, I'm going to crush you, and you will all do what I say. Because you are spineless worms." And with a handful of exceptions, he was exactly right. It's beyond disgusting.
We know, we don't care. Only idiots think campaign contributions constitute a bribe, anyone that knows anything knows that money doesn't belong to the politician
I don't know what conclusions I should be drawing from this comment section, but there is a alarming amount of people (or bots? who knows these days) who either don't remember how crypto clearly started with bad intentions while claiming otherwise, or seem to think there's any redeeming qualities still. It's a bad idea working on a bad system, and it's always been a way to circumvent the current money system, which means it's going to be rife with illegality.
