Category Archives: the Great Reset

Thoughts about Bitcoin

First Remarks

I am not an economist; neither am I, at least in terms of occupation and/or formal training, an historian. I say that from the outset simply because it may be objected that, especially in terms of economics, I have no intellectual locus standi, despite the fact that most predictions made by economists turn out to be inaccurate. Also, “two economists, three opinions”…

Bitcoin

So, Bitcoin. Bitcoin was invented in 2008, possibly in Japan, by someone (or a group) whose provenance and even real name or names remain unknown:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

What is Money, in any case?

Money is an almost metaphysical thing. Different societies have used seashells, precious metals etc as money, the key characteristic being the relative rarity of the commodity used. In China (in the 7th Century under the Tang dynasty), paper currency was invented, and later more widely introduced in the 11th Century (Song Dynasty), where it was encountered by Marco Polo and others, who introduced the idea to Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknote

Paper currency was, at first and for a long time, backed or notionally backed by precious metals, notably gold. Paper money only became generally acceptable in Europe a thousand years after its invention in China. The natural scepticism of the people was overcome both by its convenience and by its credibility, that credibility not only bolstered by its supposed convertability into gold or silver but also by the draconian penalties visited upon those who counterfeited the notes.

These factors underpin all money, credibility or popular belief in its value being the core.

Speculative Bubbles

One could go wider and say that credibility and belief underpin all valuation of assets, whether money assets, real property or other property in which the population is impelled to invest. Time and again there have been speculative bubbles: in currencies, in shares, in housing, in undeveloped land, in metals and even in such things as tulip bulbs (17thC Holland).

A good history of these bubbles and other mass events of the sort was penned in 1841 after the South Sea Bubble and was reprinted after the Wall Street Crash of 1929: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (and reprinted since, eg in the early 1980s)..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_Popular_Delusions_and_the_Madness_of_Crowds

Since that book came out, since its 1930s reprinting, other bubbles have come and gone. Among the more noteworthy was the “Silver Bears” bubble of the 1970s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday

and also many and various real property bubbles across the world.

Bitcoin Goes Viral

At first, back in 2008, Bitcoin was valueless, worth nothing at all. It was just electrical impulses on a machine, effectively. It was still of small value three years later:

“The price of bitcoins has gone through various cycles of appreciation and depreciation referred to by some as bubbles and busts.[129][130] In 2011, the value of one bitcoin rapidly rose from about US$0.30 to US$32 before returning to US$2.[131] In the latter half of 2012 and during the 2012–13 Cypriot financial crisis, the bitcoin price began to rise,[132]reaching a high of US$266 on 10 April 2013, before crashing to around US$50.[133] On 29 November 2013, the cost of one bitcoin rose to a peak of US$1,242.[134] In 2014, the price fell sharply, and as of April remained depressed at little more than half 2013 prices. As of August 2014 it was under US$600.” [Wikipedia]

Wikipedia continues:

“Ponzi scheme and pyramid scheme concerns

Various journalists,[79][144] economists,[145][146] and the central bank of Estonia[147] have voiced concerns that bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme. In 2013, Eric Posner, a law professor at the University of Chicago, stated that “a real Ponzi scheme takes fraud; bitcoin, by contrast, seems more like a collective delusion.”[148] A 2014 report by the World Bank concluded that bitcoin was not a ‘deliberate’ Ponzi scheme, but that it did thus far meet the “standard definition of a speculative bubble”.[149]:7 The Swiss Federal Council[150]:21 examined the concerns that bitcoin might be a pyramid scheme; it concluded that “Since in the case of bitcoin the typical promises of profits are lacking, it cannot be assumed that bitcoin is a pyramid scheme.” In July 2017, billionaire Howard Marks referred to bitcoin as a pyramid scheme.[151]

On 12 September 2017, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, called bitcoin a “fraud” and said he would fire anyone in his firm caught trading it. Zero Hedge claimed that the same day Dimon made his statement, JP Morgan also purchased a large amount of bitcoins for its clients.[152]

Speculative bubble dispute

Bitcoin has been labelled a speculative bubble by many including former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan[153] and economist John Quiggin.[154] Nobel Memorial Prize laureate Robert Shiller said that bitcoin “exhibited many of the characteristics of a speculative bubble”.[155] Journalist Matthew Boesler in 2013 rejected the speculative bubble label and saw bitcoin’s quick rise in price as nothing more than normal economic forces at work.[156] Timothy B. Lee, in a 2013 piece for The Washington Post pointed out that the observed cycles of appreciation and depreciation don’t correspond to the definition of speculative bubble.[131] On 14 March 2014, the American business magnate Warren Buffett said, “Stay away from it. It’s a mirage, basically.”[157]

Two lead software developers of bitcoin, Gavin Andresen[158] and Mike Hearn,[159] have warned that bubbles may occur. David Andolfatto, a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, stated, “Is bitcoin a bubble? Yes, if bubble is defined as a liquidity premium.” According to Andolfatto, the price of bitcoin “consists purely of a bubble,” but he concedes that many assets “have bubble component to their price”.[53]:21 Speculation in bitcoin has been compared to the tulip mania of seventeenth-century Holland. Comparisons have been made by the vice-president of the European Central Bank, Vítor Constâncio, by JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon,[160] by hedge fund manager Ken Griffin of Citadel,[161] and by former president of the Dutch Central Bank, Nout Wellink.[162] In 2013, Wellink remarked, “This is worse than the tulip mania […] At least then you got a tulip [at the end], now you get nothing.”[163] On 13 September 2017, Jamie Dimon compared bitcoin to a bubble, saying it was only useful for drug dealers and countries like North Korea.[164] On 22 September 2017, a hedge fund named Blockswater subsequently accused JP Morgan of market manipulation and filed a market abuse complaint with Financial Supervisory Authority (Sweden).[165]

The Guardian, CNBC, Forbes and Evening Standard compared bitcoin to bubbles such as the South Sea Bubble, the Wall Street Crash, the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the Dot-com bubble.” [Wikipedia]

Current Situation

Bitcoin started to reach escape velocity in late 2016, going from hundreds of U.S. dollars to thousands. At time of writing (December 2017), a single Bitcoin is valued at over $14,000 [USD], or £10,500 [Pounds Sterling]. People who “invested” less than £100 several years ago have seen their stock suddenly rise to be “worth” as much as £100,000. Those who have risked more (in some cases a million pounds or more) now find themselves in theory able to buy small or even medium-size nation-states lock, stock and barrel.

What Do We Know About Bitcoin?

  • Bitcoin’s origins are obscure, to the extent that journalists and others have researched, investigated and written about the names of possible founders and organizers without having come to a definite conclusion;
  • Bitcoin is almost useless as a popular currency: its explosion in “value” has made it unusable for any transaction not involving, at the least, tens of thousands of pounds;
  • Bitcoin, though supposedly limited in overall amount or number, has seen security breaches which, at the push of a button (putting it simply), have at least briefly increased the supply of Bitcoin.

Conclusion

Bitcoin is a classic speculative bubble or, alternatively and perhaps even better put, pyramid scheme. The people who got in early and stayed in are sitting on mirage-fortunes; those who have “invested” more recently will probably lose everything they put in. At the moment of writing, Bitcoin is probably nearing its peak. When it starts to fall rapidly, the panic will probably wipe it out entirely.

The surely inevitable collapse of Bitcoin will take down more than just Bitcoin itself. It may affect the stability of the economy more generally. Beyond that, if (as Bitcoin proponents and/or “investors” say–and their anger at any criticism is perhaps born of subconscious desperation), Bitcoin is as “credible” as any “ordinary” currency (and that is Bitcoin’s strongest point), then the upcoming crash of Bitcoin could take with it much public confidence in the value of the world’s major currencies too. Our major currencies are no longer backed by gold or silver and have only the value we put upon them. We exchange stones for bread. Our currencies are themselves castles in the air and “such things as dreams are made on”.

We recall the hyperinflation of early 1920s Germany, and I myself saw, on several visits to 1980s Poland, how the slide of the zloty affected that country politically and socially. The fate of Bitcoin is not just about Bitcoin.

Update, 23 November 2018

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/bitcoin-price-crash-cryptocurrency-mining-bankrupt-china-bitmain-giga-watt-a8646821.html

Update, 18 February 2019

The course of Bitcoin trading in 2017 is examined (below)

https://www.coindesk.com/900-20000-bitcoins-historic-2017-price-run-revisited

At the time of writing of my own 2017 blog article, a single Bitcoin was “worth”, i.e, valued at, about £10,500 pounds sterling. At time of writing today, 1 Bitcoin is worth just over £2,853 pounds sterling, somewhat above a quarter of the former figure, and only about a sixth of the 2017 peak.

Update, 19 November 2020

I update my post purely because, in the uncertain conditions of 2020, I see that the article is receiving more hits. Sign of the times?

I have nothing to add to the article itself, but as of today, Bitcoin is trading at just under £13,398 (pound sterling) and at USD $17,730.

Update, 26 November 2020

Update, 20 February 2021

Radio 4 Today interviewed an expert in cryptocurrencies, who himself has made tens of millions of pounds from them. He expects a crash. I expected one three years ago. Never happened, though the value did plummet before recovering and climbing further.

As of today, 20th February 2021, 1 Bitcoin is valued at not far short of £40,000!

I notice that Alison Chabloz accepts Bitcoin donations; I hope that she got some before the price rocketed, and still has them. If so, she may have a windfall. https://alisonchabloz.com/how-to-donate/

Update, 8 September 2021

Today, Bitcoin recovered from USD $44,000 to USD $46,000 after having fallen from USD $52,500. An indication of the underlying volatility.

All the same, I am wondering whether, so far from being somehow “anti” the international money system, Bitcoin might not in reality be controlled by it…

Certainly, the genesis of Bitcoin has the feeling of “legend” (in either sense) about it (supposedly created by a Japanese whose identity has never been confirmed. Perhaps…).

Update, 14 December 2021

Update, 14 June 2022

14 June 2022 saw Bitcoin at around USD $22,000.

Update, 20 July 2022

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62246367

Update, 18 July 2024

Well, I have to admit that my 2017 prediction of a Bitcoin collapse was, though accurate-seeming in 2019 (when the price dropped to a mere sixth of its 2017 peak) wrong in terms of its later rise.

Incredibly, as of today, the price of 1 Bitcoin is £49,700 (Pound Sterling) or USD $64,627!

There is now renewed fevered speculation about the trajectory Bitcoin might take: https://cointelegraph.com/news/analysts-forecast-200k-bitcoin-price-after-btc-s-bullish-momentum-returns.

I can only suppose that the surge in “value” (rather, in price) of Bitcoin reflects the world situation, the instability of the world economy, and therefore the instability of world traditional currencies.

Gold is also at a record high at present.

All the same, if there were a major war, a world war (a fortiori, a nuclear war), and assuming that any human society and economy were to survive, Bitcoin would probably disappear in a flash (literally), as the Internet is destroyed, taking Bitcoin with it.

Human paper currencies would also disappear, at least for a while, in that scenario, but gold would still hold at least some value, presumably. At least you can hold a lump of gold in your hand, or put it in your rucksack…

Update, 7 October 2024

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/nov/06/dollar-soars-as-markets-bet-that-trump-has-won-us-election

Bitcoin leapt to USD $75,000 yesterday. £58,000 in pounds sterling.

Update, 21 November 2024

An illustration of the madness:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14109325/Bitcoin-binbag-landfill-Wales-500m.html

Update, 18 November 2025

According to newspapers, Bitcoin is “crashing” [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/mailplus/article-15298981/Inside-Bitcoin-apocalypse-Prices-crash-buy-sell-warning.html], but that is only so in relative terms; as of time and date of writing, one Bitcoin is still “worth” or valued at marginally down from £70,000, well up on the price at this time last year.

Update, 6 February 2026

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/05/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-slump

As of today, 1 Bitcoin is valued at just below £48,000 (USD $55,000).

The War on Freedom of Expression in the UK, USA and EU States

Introduction

Recent events have sharpened my already-keen interest in freedom of expression. On Twitter, the premier socio-political short-comment website, those regarded in the USA as “alt-right” have had their “blue ticks” removed, signalling that they are not very approved of by whomever decides policy at Twitter. In the UK, several people are currently about to be put on trial for saying or singing things of which the Jewish Zionists disapprove. Also in the UK, David Icke has just (17 November 2017) had his event at the Old Trafford facility owned by Manchester United (itself owned by a clan of American Jew-Zionists) cancelled. In the EU, the already considerable online censorship in Germany, France, Scandinavia has been intensified and new EU rules control online platforms as never before (and behind such restrictions, once again, “them”…).

Many reading this will be aware that, by reason of the activities of a pack of Jew-Zionists, I was disbarred in 2016. I have blogged about that and may do so again. Even before those events, I was prevented, I think in 2011 or 2012, from posting book reviews on Amazon (UK and US) because one (at first only one) obsessed Jew complained to the Jewish Chronicle about me. Other Jews joined in, the original one trolling anyone who liked my reviews (enough liked them to propel me to the top 40 reviewers), leaving stupid and unpleasant comments, many both defamatory and untrue). Once the Jewish Chronicle and other Jew-Zionist organizations piled in, Amazon caved in…

In fact, this censorship, largely exercized by the Jewish-Zionist element, predates the Internet era. I recall trying to advertize a small organization in The Spectator, around 1978. I was advised that I had to supply a precis of its political view. I did that, only to be told that my advertisement would not be printed. Same at that bastion of well-heeled and hypocritical Home Counties free-speech-ism, Private Eye. This at a time when these publications carried both “Conservative” and “socialist”, even Communist adverts!

The Internet opened up a window of freedom of expression, but “they” are rapidly moving to close it. Free speech is being shut down.

USA

The free speech provisions of the US Constitution are as outdated and superseded as those governing arms in private hands and other matters. At present, with certain exceptions, the State (meaning government) will not (there are exceptions) criminalize something said by an individual in the street, on a placard, in print, but that does not prevent that individual losing his job (if an employer dislikes what he has said or written, or where the employer has been pressured by external forces, such as the Jewish Lobby, with its campaigns of boycott etc).  The US Constitution, in other words, cannot save the individual from losing his job, home, family, if his employer decides to penalize him because of his “free expression”.

Likewise, the writer who writes that which is disliked by the Jewish lobby will not be arrested in the USA, but may find that he cannot get books published by mainstream publishing houses. The academic who tries to expand the boundaries may find that tenure is denied, or employment terminated.

Now, in the Internet age of social media, we find that the major platforms for freedom of expression are not properly public, but private organizations, private enterprises, which can decide on almost any basis to prohibit any named individual from posting. Amazon, ebay (which e.g. allows Soviet but not German Third Reich memorabilia), Facebook, Twitter. These organizations are either owned or largely owned or strongly influenced (and staffed) by Jewish Zionists.

I spoke in February 2017 at the London Forum about, inter alia, the “privatization of public space” in this regard. Now, the “alt-right” personality Richard Spencer has echoed me from the United States, talking about how the fora of the past were public, but the (online) “fora” of the present age private, thus able to exclude those whose views are not approved by the owners of the websites (or the commercial advertizers thereon).

UK and EU

The above “privatization of the forum” (or fora) applies not only in the USA, but in the UK and other EU states. The EU has already (in most states) criminalized “holocaust” “denial” (examination and/or revision of that historical narrative). It has also forged ahead (under Jewish-Zionist control or influence) with plans to penalize Twitter, Facebook etc if the “wrong” symbols, cartoons, views are hosted.

In the UK, several people are now facing trial at the instigation of Jewish-Zionists: Alison Chabloz, Jez Turner, others. Whatever happens to them will be of significance for freedom of expression.

We now hear that Twitter is planning further purges, this month (November 2017), and on or about 22 December. Those changes may well mean the end of Twitter as a useful place online on which to exchange ideas. We shall see. I myself am half-expecting to be removed.

In the end, the consolation must be to remember that no revolution or takeover of any state has ever happened via social media, though online propaganda has helped one or two offline campaigns to achieve success. Boots on the ground are what count.

Update, 23 December 2018

I was expelled from Twitter in mid-2018. No reason given (beyond weasel words), no appeal, no clarification. Many others have gone the same way. The only consolation has been the realization of how totally pointless and self-defeating tweeting is!

Update, 13 January 2021

Since my last update, over 2 years ago, the war on freedom of expresson has intensified. See my later blog posts.

Post-Collapse Survival; Preservation of Civilization and Culture

Recent months have seen devastation from hurricanes. The Caribbean area has been the worst-hit. Most of those islands are now, with help from major states as well as from charities and individuals, bouncing back. Puerto Rico is still suffering from the effects, partly because it is the largest of the worst-affected islands, partly because the US Federal Government response has been sluggish.

In Europe, it is unlikely that we shall suffer in any major way from hurricanes, but there is a quite-high chance that our societies will suffer from the dislocations caused by war and/or socio-economic collapse. Many will say that this cannot happen or would not affect at least the more civilized parts of Europe. Are they sure? It is still just within living memory that parts of Europe were devastated twice by the very major conflicts of 1914-18 and 1939-1945. Apart from those wars, there have been others: the war between the Bolsheviks and others from 1918-1922 (Russia, Ukraine, Poland, East Prussia); the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939); the Balkan War(s) of the 1990s. That is not even taking into account smaller armed conflicts such as the Hungarian Uprising and subsequent Soviet invasion (1956) or disruptions of an economic or other nature. The recent and continuing “migration-invasion” of Europe by non-Europeans comes to mind.

An individual or small group within a society, not holding political power, cannot do much to steer such events; neither can an individual or small group easily defend itself either directly or in terms of subsistence. However, there are possibilities, if prepared for in advance. In Puerto Rico, while most of the population suffered (at time of writing many continue to suffer) from shortages of water, food, from lack of electricity, vehicle fuel and medical help, others have been able to weather the storm, both literally and metaphorically, far better.

In Puerto Rico and elsewhere, those who survived without suffering more than they had to were those whose homes were solid, who had stocks of food, fuel and medical supplies and who were as far as possible “off-grid”. Twitter carried innumerable stories of despair and triumph, such as the farmer who powers his farm using solar power from his own solar array. For him, the fact that the electricity distribution network was not working (for weeks) was not directly relevant.

In the UK and across Northern Europe, the same applies. I have blogged previously about how people on farms, country estates and elsewhere might be able, not only to survive social collapse, but also to help to preserve culture and civilization during what could be an extended period without central control, help, law, order. As during WW2 rationing, those best off might be people living in rural areas, especially those already “prepped”:

  • electrical power and hot water from solar panels, heat exchanges, small wind turbines, small hydropower plants; there are also ways of producing limited amounts of electricity via pedal-powered and hand-operated wind-up systems; temporary back-up might involve small petrol or diesel generators.
  • water purification systems; solar stills; temporary back-up via stocks of bottled water: bottled water lasts, at a minimum, 2 years and in many cases is still drinkable without treatment after 4 –or more– years and even after that can still be used after simple treatment such as addition of drops of potassium permanganate or by running it through a filter and purification system, or by boiling it as required. In fact, most rural farms and estates have access to springwater supplies etc.
  • food home-grown or produced. This of course depends on having land on which to grow it and will be much easier if the preppers already do it on their own estates and farms (or the land around ordinary houses). How much land is required is not fixed and depends on the required diet, the land type and quality etc, but can be as little as half an acre per person and quite likely even a smaller area– https://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/how-much-land-is-needed-to-be-self-sufficient . In addition, there will be food backup via stocks of tinned food, dried foods and, for those whose diet encompasses them, foods from fishing and shooting: fish, shellfish, venison etc. A further source would be from permaculture sources: nut-bearing trees, wild berries and so on.
  • Internet. This may be interrupted or even cease to exist for a time, though it is likely that service will continue in some form or be rebuilt eventually; a major resource in terms of useful techniques, as well as in holding together spread-out communities and the rebuilding –if necessary– of the wider society. Also, a way of offering or asking for help.
  • medical help: as on expeditions etc, you can never have too many doctors or nurses. A further advantage to having doctors on board before disaster strikes the general society is that doctors can order supplies of drugs unavailable without prescription and, should they so decide, stockpile them. While few individuals will be able to afford their own operating theatre, a social-national community might be able to fund doctors to set up one before it is required.
  • transport: vehicle fuel can be stored, but may not last very long. Electric cars and other vehicles are still novel; when they are available, anyone with an electrical supply and a charger will be able to charge them and so continue to have the use of cars, trucks, tractors etc.

I have left out the question of arms. As the law now is in the UK, most people are not permitted arms beyond shotguns and in some cases rifles. Obviously, farmers and landowners will usually have such weapons. In a situation of collapse, arms will probably become available. In any event, any larger or more complex weapons (eg mortars, tanks) require persons with the requisite military training. In short, it is unnecessary for the germinal ethnostate to have arms beyond those customarily available to all rural communities in the UK (other European countries are far less strict).

We in the germinal ethnostate will be in a good position not only to survive but to found a new society if we prepare in the right way and in good time.

Notes

https://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/

https://www.theorganicprepper.com/

http://prepared-housewives.com/about-me/preppers/

https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/making-compost-at-blaencamel-farm/

 

The UK Housing Crisis

The housing crisis in the UK is perhaps the most pressing problem the UK, certainly England has, apart from mass immigration. The two are connected, of course. It is idle to imagine that the housing crisis can be solved without stopping mass immigration, yet the System political parties all maintain that the two problems (or facts) are unconnected. In any TV discussion on housing, mass immigration is the elephant in the room, rarely if ever mentioned by the participants. This is remarkable.

The latest statistics [https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/statistics-net-migration-statistics] for immigration show that (official, “legal”) “net immigration” into the UK was 327,000 in a single year (about 700,000 came in, some left, some British people also emigrated). Even if two or three immigrants live in one house, that means that somewhere around 100,000-200,000 houses or flats would be required to house these incomers. In one year. Another 100,000-200,000 houses next year…and so on. In fact, the situation is worse than that, because the immigrants (certainly the non-Europeans) have a far higher birth rate than the British. In parts of London and elsewhere, there are already far more births to immigrant mothers than to British ones.

About 150,000 new houses are being built each year in the UK now, but the House of Lords has said that the UK “needs” (largely because of immigration and births to immigrant mothers) 300,000 more houses each year:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/07/14/england-needs-to-build-50pc-more-homes-than-governments-target-s/, while even more conservative estimates say 250,000.

In other words, there is a shortfall each year of at least 100,000 dwellings, yet the System political parties will not address the main reason why British people either cannot get a house (whether to buy or rent, as prices and rents spiral) or pay through the nose to do so. The Labour Party is particularly culpable, because it both promotes mass immigration and yet cries about the “housing crisis”! No wonder its former voters are deserting it in droves.

British people are divided by the crisis: a minority are living as rentier parasites and/or are profiting (on paper) via inflated property values. The majority are paying huge amounts in mortgage payments or excessive rents, simply so as to have a roof overhead. This cannot continue.

The solution to the housing crisis in, particularly, England, is to

  • stop mass immigration;
  • repatriate as many immigrants (and offspring) as possible;
  • prioritize British people for all forms of housing;
  • build decent State housing for rental;
  • change planning rules in large parts of Victorian and interwar London;
  • found beautiful new garden cities and towns without destroying the countryside;
  • decentralize the UK, to prevent the South and South East being ruined.