Alan Scott

[Titania McGrath @TitaniaMcGrath]

Alana Akbar, the most empowering drag queen of her generation, is about to tour the Middle East.

Can’t wait to get my tickets. 🥳🇵🇸✊

[Titania McGrath @TitaniaMcGrath]

Left-wing violence is a right-wing myth.

My latest column for @TheCriticMag.

https://t.co/687UJWUPeZ

[Helen Dale (not on your team, but always fair) @_HelenDale]

And now for something completely different: yours truly (for @Liberty_Fund) on how Australia’s Framers drew on America’s Founders when drafting their own Constitution & forming their own Federation.

What did they keep, and what did they reject?

https://t.co/otBIp16ruI

[Paolo Ardoino 🤖 @paoloardoino]

During PlanB Forum El Salvador, I was asked this:

Journalist: are you worried about USDt competitors?

Me: not many realize that Tether has been building for the last 10 years one of the widest digital and physical distribution networks in the history of humanity.
While some competitors raise capital from investors and grow their market cap paying incentives to banks to keep their stablecoins in the balancesheet, Tether has 100s thousands of partners, building kiosks across all developing countries, digital platforms with tens of millions of users and mind-blowing technology.
The scale of our network is just different.
This is the reason why USDt has been so successful in empowering 400 million users in emerging markets giving them access to the global financial system through the stablecoin USDt. There are still billions of people left out from basic financial services, good people that are simply too poor of being of interest of the banks. We'll continue in our mission to help them too.
And all this while helping the US economy, buying back hundreds of billions in US Treasuries and strengthening the US dollar as most used fiat currency in the world.
So no, I'm not worried.

[Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 @pmarca]

Why AI Won't Cause Unemployment

Marc Andreessen
Reposted Jan 24, 2025

"In retrospect, I wish I had known more about the hazards and difficulties of [running] a business." -- George McGovern

Fears about new technology replacing human labor and causing overall unemployment have raged across industrialized societies for hundreds of years, despite a nearly continual rise in both jobs and wages in capitalist economies. The jobs apocalypse is always right around the corner; just ask the Luddites.

We had two such anti-technology jobs moral panics in the last 20 years — “outsourcing” enabled by the Internet in the 2000’s, and “robots” in the 2010’s. The result was the best national and global economy in human history in pre-COVID 2019, with the most jobs at the highest wages ever.

Now we’re heading into the third such panic of the new century with AI, coupled with a continuous drumbeat of demand for Communist-inspired Universal Basic Income. “This time is different; AI is different,” they say, but is it?

Normally I would make the standard arguments against technologically-driven unemployment — see good summaries by Henry Hazlitt (chapter 7) and Frédéric Bastiat (his metaphor directly relevant to AI). And I will come back and make those arguments soon. But I don’t even think the standand arguments are needed, since another problem will block the progress of AI across most of the economy first.

Which is: AI is already illegal for most of the economy, and will be for virtually all of the economy.

How do I know that? Because technology is already illegal in most of the economy, and that is becoming steadily more true over time.

How do I know that? Because, [see chart].

This chart shows price changes, adjusted for inflation, across a dozen major sectors of the economy.

As you can see, we actually live in two different economies.

The lines in blue are the sectors where technological innovation is allowed to push down prices while increasing quality. The lines in red are the sectors where technological innovation is not permitted to push down prices; in fact, the prices of education, health care, and housing as well as anything provided or controlled by the government are going to the moon, even as those sectors are technologically stagnant.

We are heading into a world where a flat screen TV that covers your entire wall costs $100, and a four year college degree costs $1 million, and nobody has anything even resembling a proposal on how to systemically fix this.

Why? The sectors in red are heavily regulated and controlled and bottlenecked by the government and by those industries themselves. Those industries are monopolies, oligopolies, and cartels, with extensive formal government regulation as well as regulatory capture, price fixing, Soviet style price setting, occupational licensing, and every other barrier to improvement and change you can possibly imagine. Technological innovation in those sectors is virtually forbidden now.

Whereas the sectors in blue are less regulated, technology whips through them, pushing down prices and raising quality every year.

Note the emotional loading of the interplay of production and consumption here. What do we get mad about? With our consumer hat on, we get mad about price increases — the red sectors. With our producer hat on, we get mad about technological disruption — the blue sectors. Well, pick one; as this chart shows, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Now think about what happens over time. The prices of regulated, non-technological products rise; the prices of less regulated, technologically-powered products fall. Which eats the economy? The regulated sectors continuously grow as a percentage of GDP; the less regulated sectors shrink. At the limit, 99% of the economy will be the regulated, non-technological sectors, which is precisely where we are headed.

Therefore AI cannot cause overall unemployment to rise, even if the Luddite arguments are right this time. AI is simply already illegal across most of the economy, soon to be virtually all of the economy.

[spiked @spikedonline]

Five years ago, we woke to the news of a highly infectious virus circulating in Wuhan. The authorities moved quickly – not to suppress the virus, but to quash the truth about its origins. This was the deadliest cover-up in history, says Matt Ridley
https://t.co/JNXwq2rnWf

[Lars Christensen @MaMoMVPY]

This is a test of my reach on Twitter/X vs Bluesky.

"Re-Tweet" if you read this.

[Lars Christensen @MaMoMVPY]

This is a test of my reach on Twitter/X vs Bluesky.

"Re-Tweet" if you read this.

[Toby Young @toadmeister]

The world bankrupted itself in a vain effort to "stop the spread" of Covid but only one thing was ever needed, says retired consultant Dr. Andrew Bamji: the very few who got seriously ill needed this treatment. https://t.co/OFfXD0UI60

[Tyler Winklevoss @tyler]

I just donated $1 million in bitcoin (15.47 BTC) to @realDonaldTrump and will be voting for him in November. Here’s why:

Over the past few years, the Biden Administration has openly declared war against crypto. It has weaponized multiple government agencies to bully, harass, and sue the good actors in our industry in an effort to destroy it. This Administration's actions have been nothing short of an unprecedented abuse of power wielded entirely for twisted political gain at the complete expense of innovation, the American taxpayer, and the American economy. There is nothing the Biden Administration can do or say at this point to pretend otherwise.

Some of the lowlights include the following:

The weaponization of the banking system against crypto companies and their principals. Known colloquially as Operation Choke Point 2.0, this starts with the OCC (a federal agency that licenses and regulates national banks) and the FDIC (a federal agency that provides deposit insurance to banks) giving “guidance” and instructing banks behind closed doors not to bank crypto companies. Any bank that doesn’t follow orders is threatened.

The conversation goes something like this: “That’s a nice bank you got there. It sure would be a shame if something were to happen to it because you bank some crypto folks.” If this tactic is not enough to scare a bank into line, the examiners will be sent in to turn everything upside down. This will almost certainly lead to some “finding” — show me the bank and I’ll show you the crime — that results in a massive fine or new supervisory rules and conditions that cripple a bank’s ability to operate. The risk is simply too great. Banks can either choose not to bank crypto companies or have that choice made for them.

These agencies have God-mode over banks because they can yank their license or FDIC deposit insurance at any time citing “safety and soundness” concerns. That is why they can behave like characters out of the Godfather and intimidate banks into dropping any customer or customer segment they want. This behavior of de-banking entire industries that are completely legal, but ideologically out of favor, began during the Obama Administration, when President Joe Biden was Vice President. It was nicknamed Operation Choke Point 1.0 back then and is a well-documented stain on the Obama Presidency. The Biden Administration has dusted off the playbook and has been running it at full speed against the crypto industry.

The blast radius has extended beyond crypto companies to individuals who work at them. I personally have lost multiple bank accounts because I own crypto and my investment firm @winklevosscap has as well.

The weaponization of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against crypto. The Biden Administration’s SEC has not written a single rule for the crypto industry to help any of its participants understand how to navigate the regulatory landscape for this new asset paradigm. This is by design.

By not writing any new rules for crypto, the SEC can disingenuously say that the existing rules — based on a 1946 Supreme Court decision about a citrus grove in Florida, issued before most homes had a telephone and 50 years before the advent of the commercial Internet — are fit for purpose. They are not.

Here’s one example. If ether is a security, an open question up until 48 hours ago, then you would be breaking securities laws if you sent ether to a friend from your smartphone to their smartphone. Why? Because only a broker dealer is allowed to transfer a security. And it can only do so to another broker dealer. From this example alone, anyone can understand how classifying a crypto like ether as a security would gut its utility and destroy its ability to usher in a decentralized future. It’s like asking an automobile to behave like a horse. Yet that is the position the Biden SEC has taken towards almost every crypto. It does this not because it doesn’t understand the consequences, but because it does. These are exactly the consequences it wants. To kill crypto.

By taking the ridiculous position that almost every crypto is a security, the Biden SEC has given itself the plausibility and carte blanche to bring litigation against any crypto project and company in the United States. The game is simple. Make it impossible to comply, then sue everyone for not complying. And that’s exactly what the Biden SEC has done over and over again to good actors in the space. Instead of the SEC hashing out rules for crypto — something that could be done in a matter of days — rules will be written years from now by judges and juries who determine that the SEC acted in bad faith and was wrong all along. The time and economic waste will be tremendous. The damage will be done. But that’s the point.

The Biden Administration has polluted the mission and corrupted the integrity of these agencies. All of them are led by unelected bureaucrats appointed by President Biden to carry out his marching orders. The moral compass of these foot soldiers is political gain and their higher calling is political power. Congress never granted them the statutory authority to determine the fate of the crypto industry or any other legal industry in America and they are totally unqualified to act as the gatekeepers of economic life in our country. That is the role of the market.

And yet the crypto industry is not alone. The Biden Administration has consistently attacked American business across the board and villainized its greatest heroes. The crime is always success and the reward is always ridicule, fines, and even more red tape. But to be clear, the Biden Administration doesn’t hate success outright. Only the kind that lives outside of its control. Once it figures out how to confiscate or coerce it, the Biden Administration becomes quite enthusiastic about success, gleefully manipulating it or redistributing it in a transparent attempt to buy votes. Over a long enough time scale, it's easy to see how these policies will lead to the destruction of our economy and our country.

Capitalism lifts people up. When allowed to flourish properly, it is the greatest generator of wealth and prosperity the world has ever known and it's the only economic system that can achieve all of this peacefully, while upholding the freedom and dignity of every individual who participates. With certain conditions in place — like the ability for anyone to incorporate a company, open a bank account to accept customer payments, and operate in the open market without government interference — innovation and wealth creation will thrive unbounded. Remove any one of these building blocks and you will have an entirely different system with entirely different results. This is exactly what the Biden Administration has done to the crypto industry and many other industries in America. It has been dismantling our economic way of life and the system that made America the greatest country in the world. And it has done this solely for its own power, control, and political ambition.

Of all the capitalist experiments, America has been the greatest. I have seen and experienced this first hand many times. @Gemini, a crypto platform I founded in 2014 with @cameron, went from an idea on a napkin to becoming a company that has employed thousands of people over the last decade and helped millions of customers gain access to crypto. I’ve had employees thank me in tears because their time at Gemini allowed them to buy a house for their family. I’ve had customers approach me on the street and thank me for building Gemini because it helped them achieve financial freedom and start their own business. It is these experiences that give me the greatest joy and provide meaning for everything we do at Gemini. The Biden Administration has tried to tear all of this down. I am not going to stand by idly and let them. I’m going to continue fighting for what I know to be so right.

President Donald J. Trump is the pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto, and pro-business choice. This is not even remotely open for debate. Anyone who tells you otherwise is severely misinformed, delusional, or not telling the truth. It’s time to take our country back. It’s time for the crypto army to send a message to Washington. That attacking us is political suicide. This is why I will be casting my vote for President Trump in November and I hope you will too. Onward!

[Alan Scott @Alan_SmartMoney]

Missing the Bus? FX Traders and Crypto https://t.co/pBQYLm06RU

[Matt Ridley @mattwridley]

Also neanderthals had no trade and therefore no collective brain.

https://t.co/SblIeJRkI8

[Alan Scott @Alan_SmartMoney]

@MW_Trades My plan. Get a small place by the beech, stay for Aussie Open and then back. Go stir crazy if I’m there too long.

[Alan Scott @Alan_SmartMoney]

@MW_Trades Happy Birthday as an Aussie I get it! F*ckn cold!!!

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

I see that the lore of paid Kremlin cheerleaders and useful idiots has got a new update: the lost cause of a Russian-Ukrainian “peace treaty.”

According to a newly rewritten record of events approved by the Ministry of Truth, peace could have been signed in Istanbul in late March 2022, a month after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

But you know, evil Ukraine & the West perfidiously rejected an olive branch handed to them by Vladimir Putin, the greatest dove of peace in our time.

See — for like 20 months since those days, no one had been giving a shit about the Istanbul talks. This short and barely significant episode of this war was known only to focused specialists and interested audiences.

But now that the Kremlin is investing a lot of media effort to extort a temporary halt in hostilities to regroup, rearm, and replenish its losses (and call this an “armistice”), Istanbul is SUDDENLY a BIG DEAL.

Independent thinkers who once clowned around over how Ukraine was totally dead within the next three days now throw their hands up in the air and moan, “Oh, you could have had a peace deal in Istanbul, now SEE WHAT YOU’VE DONE, you brought this onto yourselves!”

See, stupid little Ukrainians never got to realize they could have ended their worst national disaster just like that, and everything could have been just fine and alright. Why fight a terrible war of national resistance against the world’s biggest nuclear power if you could have peace?

If you’re homeless, just buy a house…duh (c).

On behalf of the world of adults who don’t take everyone around for idiots, I want to ask one question: So, what kind of “peace deal” could Russia and Ukraine offer each other those days?

It’s no secret that diplomatic contacts and talks between Russia and Ukraine started as early as Feb. 27-28, 2022, just days after the invasion day. First, in Russian-occupied Belarus, then in Türkiye, as you know.

By those days, the situation was dire. But, unexpectedly for the Kremlin, Ukraine did not collapse in a snap. The Ukrainian military survived the first strike and the shock of the first 24 hours as an organized and capable power, and it was taking up the fight.

You remember the avalanche of photo and video footage of Russian armored columns devastated at Kyiv, Kharkiv, or Sumy. Advancing Russian armies were sustaining heavy losses. The Hostomel landing failed on day one. The initial blitzkrieg plan was going absolutely off the rails - we knew that, and they knew that.

On and off, there were a range of rounds of talks and meetings.

As we know, Ukraine was reportedly ready to discuss a lot of things, such as the non-aligned status, or the non-deployment of WMDs in the Ukrainian territory (as if someone ever wanted to place nukes in Ukraine, yeah), international security guarantees, or talks over the status of Crimea for the next 15 years (which essentially means “Russia keeps Crimea until Putin dies”).

But, of course, those sporadic contacts amid fierce hostilities ended with essentially nothing.

Because, I repeat, what kind of just and potentially acceptable “deal” could the Kremlin give Ukraine back then in Istanbul? And why?

It’s true that by late March, the Russian failure in the Battle of Kyiv was more than obvious. Nevertheless, by the time the sides again had loose contacts in Türkiye, Russian tanks were still standing at the gates of the Ukrainian capital. The entire north was a giant battlefield, with Chernihiv and Sumy almost isolated and with Russians standing at the outskirts of Kharkiv.

The South had collapsed with little to no fight. Russians had already surrounded Mariupol and were turning it into a mass grave amid ruins. The Bucha massacre was in full swing. Most of Luhansk Oblast lost. Russians were threatening Kryvy Rih. Ukraine had barely repelled Russian attempts to bypass Mykolaiv and attack Odesa.

That was long before the Kharkiv operation, or the Liberation of Kherson, or the Moskva cruiser.

Moreover, this was happening at the time when “warmongers in the West” were losing their senses from just thinking about “provoking Putin” — let alone about helping Ukraine with artillery, munitions, tanks, IFVs, air defense, jets, etc.

So, what kind of “just peace deal” could there be in such circumstances?

No NATO membership (which, by the way, Ukraine seeks kinda due to the everlasting grave Russian military threat in the first place, duh)? The dismissal of Ukraine’s Armed Forces to make the takeover of Ukraine easy? A Russian puppet government in Kyiv? The country’s partition? The elimination of national identity and concentration camps for those notoriously willing to be Ukrainian?

For Vladimir Putin, this was never about “NATO” or “the Ukrainian military threat” to the world’s greatest nuclear power — which has been fine with NATO standing 150 km from Saint Petersburg for the last 20 years and is now fine with Finland joining the alliance to save itself from yet another ‘special military operation’.

Behind the idiotic “Kiev Nazi regime” narrative and years of hateful indoctrination on Russian TV, this has always been and is now about the only thing — the complete re-subjugation of Ukraine as Russia’s colony.

The February blitzkrieg was supposed to be the peak moment of Vladimir Putin’s rule and his triumph, the revenge for his personal resentment and Soviet revanchism.

Yet, it resulted in Ukraine taking up the fight and inflicting the greatest humiliation of his rule.

Like it or not, Ukraine doesn’t want to roll over and die to make things simpler for somebody.

Sorry, not sorry.

So, in a situation when neither side had sustained a decisive defeat, the only possible thing happened. The war continued as there could be no ‘compromise’ between you willing to survive and the maniac in front of you willing to cut your head off.

What’s really unspeakably ugly about this new tale of the paradise lost of Istanbul is that it was the fault not of Vladimir Putin -- who wages an idiotically senseless bloody war to fellate his wretched ego — but suddenly of Boris Johnson, who at best said a thing that was more than obvious to anyone having a brain in the head.

Support my work here: https://t.co/j4T7XvJnUN

[Asra Nomani @AsraNomani]

At an anti-Israel, anti-Jew protest in DC some days ago, I stood at a table run by socialists, and a young man said, “I like your hoodie.”

I froze.

He was the first in the crowd of about 200,000 to spot the familiar green and yellow of my Israeli Defense Forces hoodie. As a Muslim feminist, I wore it as a symbol of my recognition of the state of Israel and her people and their right to exist and live in peace.

He asked if he could interview me. I wondered if I should. I didn’t know him: @KoshaDillz. Was it a setup? I extended to him trust and voila! This surprising interview.

We found kinship and that is what can happen when we take risks!

In the few days since KoshaDillz posted his video, I have gotten hundreds of messages of gratitude from new Jewish friends, telling me that my witness was a balm to the soul wounded. It started by taking a risk, and with that, friendship was born. Here is to many more collaborations, starting with this one “a Muslim and a Jew meet off Pennsylvania Avenue….” Enjoy Dr. @yudapearl 🫶🏽

[Urs Bolt 🇨🇭🇵🇭 @UrsBolt]

🇬🇧British investment managers gain approval for tokenised funds:

Funds authorised by the UK regulator (FCA) can establish tokenised funds to invest in mainstream assets while valuation and settlement procedures remain unchanged.

@InvAssoc via @UnlockBC: https://t.co/9Ui5sMkdGG #tokenization #DigitalAssets #blockchain #AssetManagement