The Breakdown

Inflation

Inflation Is the Cruelest Tax

A reading of a new piece on inflation from the Wall Street Journal that NLW argues shows a shifting mainstream narrative.

People  ·  4 October 2020
Podcasts

‘The Fed Meetings Are a Dead Spectator Sport’ – Best of The Breakdown September 2020

A monthly recap featuring conversations with Luke Gromen, Raoul Pal, Tavi Costa, Sven Henrich, Corey Hoffstein and Michael Saylor.

People  ·  3 October 2020
Podcasts

10 Popular Investing Beliefs We Should Be Questioning

NLW dives into a viral twitter thread asking people which financial conventional wisdom they disagree with.

People  ·  1 October 2020
DeFi

DeFi Summer; Bitcoin Fall

The attention may have been with DeFi when it was warm, but as the cold winds of COVID-19 return fears and election volatility blow, bitcoin is resuming narrative dominance.

People  ·  30 September 2020
DeFi

So Now They’re Hacking DeFi Protocols Before They’ve Even Launched?

When the DeFi degens caught wind of a new pre-release Andre Cronje project they piled in, only to get $16 million hacked away in a flash.

People  ·  29 September 2020
Coinbase

Coinbase’s New Policy: Anti-Woke or Just a Joke?

CEO Brian Armstrong’s letter has not just the crypto world but the larger world of tech and business talking about the role of corporations in society.

People  ·  29 September 2020
Bitcoin

Why Bitcoin’s Longest Run Above $10,000 Matters

Bitcoin has been above $10,000 for even longer than the record 2017-18 run, giving confidence to long-term HODLers in the process.

People  ·  28 September 2020
Podcasts

Understanding the Coming Currency Cold War

Will the future of currency be led by the U.S., China, Bitcoin or some combination we can barely imagine today?

People  ·  27 September 2020
Podcasts

Why the Stock Market Is Poised for Its Worst September Since 2011

Last week saw the third-biggest outflow from stock funds in history, and the dollar is the strongest it’s been since April. Here’s what’s going on.

People  ·  26 September 2020
Podcasts

Did Corporate Insiders Perfectly Predict the Market Top?

In August, the volume of personally owned stock sold by corporate executives reached its highest level since 2015, followed by a 10% decline in the S&P500 in September.

People  ·  24 September 2020
Money Laundering

The FinCEN Files Show Banks Don’t Actually Care About Stopping Money Laundering

The massive leak of suspicious activity reports shows how banks let the government know about likely money laundering, then go right on providing services.

People  ·  21 September 2020
Podcasts

Lyn Alden’s Latest: Why Currency Devaluation Is Inevitable

This week’s “Long Reads Sunday” reading is from macro analyst Lyn Alden and focuses on the inflation vs. deflation debate in historical context.

People  ·  20 September 2020
DEXs

Why the First US Crypto Bank Is a Big Deal

Kraken became the first crypto exchange to win a U.S. banking license this week. Here’s why that matters.

People  ·  19 September 2020
Podcasts

Governments vs. Networks: The Battle for the Soul of Finance

Governments have significant discretion over economics and finance today, but decentralized network-driven alternatives threaten that control.

People  ·  16 September 2020
Podcasts

The Decade of the Living Dead: How Zombie Companies Are Robbing Tomorrow’s Economy

The percentage of companies that can’t afford to pay the interest on their debt has reached a new all-time high in the wake of central bank intervention.

People  ·  15 September 2020