MAX KEISER & STACY HERBERT
- El Salvador Update
- Nation State Adoption
- Bitcoin OGs and the Early Days
FULL INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE: 👇
https://t.co/tP9brDEZDY
@maxkeiser@stacyherbert
At Twenty One, our mission is simple: grow Bitcoin per share (BPS).
We’re not here to beat the market, we’re here to build a new one.
We measure success in #Bitcoin, not fiat.
CRIME HAS FLATLINED IN EL SALVADOR.
Why?
1. God
2. Determination
3. Ignoring the naysayers
We applied the exact same principles to our Bitcoin strategy, and it paid off, big time.
Now, we’re taking the same approach with our deal with the IMF.
To succeed, we need the same formula: 1, 2, and 3.
And that’s exactly what we’ll do.
The foundation under Venice is fascinating.
There is the equivalent of 10 million tree trunks under the Italian city.
At first glance, wood is an inferior option to stronger materials.
But it has proven resilient since 5th century AD, when the wood was first gathered from from Northern Italy and the Balkans (leading to mass deforestation in some areas).
How? Wooden piles are submerged and buried deep in the seabed’s clay, which does two things:
1️⃣ No oxygen: Bacteria rots wood but it needs oxygen to survive and there is none where the wooden trunks are buried.
2️⃣ Salt water: Exposure to salt water for hundreds of years has hardened the wood into a stone-like material.
On top of the wooden piles are a platform made of wooden planks. On top of that is a water-resistant layer of marbles that structures are built on.
And that’s how Venice — which is 118 small islands linked by bridges, walkways and canals — was built in a swampy lagoon.
It’s time to scrap AML / KYC entirely.
The idea that politicians should know how citizens spend their money is a new and deeply flawed idea.
An entire generation has been fooled into thinking this is a necessary part of finance and the world continues to double down on an unworkable system.
Only 30 years ago when I started my career as a stockbroker/ financial advisor I could call you on the phone and sell you MSFT or IBM stock and I did not need your DOB or your social security number. You didn’t even need to have money in the account.
The 1990s to the post 9-11 Patriot Act (which was a horrible law) saw a radical increase in AML /KYC requirements. These seem to get worse every year.
In my office when we were first required to take a drivers license, the older brokers were incredulous: “What do you mean we need an ID for someone buying stocks?!? What’s next, you need an ID to buy gas or groceries?”
Now, just 25 years later an entire generation thinks this is normal or how it should be. Worse yet, some think the system won’t work without it. The opposite is true — the compliance gums up the works and adds friction where it should not exist.
While the regulator class arrogantly acts as if AML KYC is their birthright and ending it is some sort of untouchable rail, the justifications are weak. Why do we have these regimes? To stop “money laundering”? What is that? Who is the victim? Is it to stop “human trafficking” or “terrorism”? If so, how? Is it to “stop” the 12,000 entities on the OFAC list by messing with the 2,000,000,000 people not on the list?
Are major criminals somehow stopped by this? Has it stopped crime? Even if it did, is it worth burdening millions of firms and billions of people with paperwork and procedures that slow down commerce? Shouldn’t efforts be made to go after the actual criminals rather than encumbering the entire world with an inefficient compliance regime?
Money must be able to flow and move. People must be able to take risks and make investments as they choose. This is the lifeblood of a solid economy and the jobs, growth, prosperity and peace that comes with it. The US (and by extension much of the world due to our influence) is sacrificing jobs, innovation and opportunities by chasing an extremely ineffective and indirect compliance regime.
The entire idea belongs back in the dumpster of history. Let the investigators chase terrorists & human traffickers for those actual crimes and let the other billions of us use and move our money as we wish.