TLDR: Universal suffrage has a structural flaw: votes are free to cast, but the promises they buy are billed to someone else. As Tytler (probably apocryphally) observed, the public will always eventually vote for the politicians who give them stuff. Zimbabwe ran that experiment in fast forward, “one man, one vote” delivered Mugabe, 89.7 sextillion percent inflation, a dead currency, and the banana republic Smith predicted to the letter. My argument: it's time we stopped treating "one adult, one vote" as the final, unrevisable form of democracy and considered tying the franchise to net contribution: mechanically, transparently, for everyone. The bill for our slower version of the same experiment is now showing up in the bond market. That's part two

TLDR: Bitcoin starts today around $84,000, up ~30% (~$64,700) since our August 7 update (read update here) and fresh off an eight-month high, it opened the week near $85,000 and touched $87,000 on Wednesday before a hot US PMI sent Treasury yields above 5% and knocked it back under $84K, liquidating ~$510Macross the market in 24 hours (almost all longs). Crucially, the ETF bid didn't flinch: five straight inflow sessions totaling $2.65B, the best run since October 2025. And Bitwise's first institutional adoption report shows none of 15 major allocators cut crypto exposure during the ~50% drawdown, several added instead. The early-August "maximum pessimism" entry has played out; the opponent now is the bond market, not morale.

TLDR: Bitcoin is trading around $64,700–$65,000, roughly 48% below its all-time high of ~$126,200 (Oct 2025) and down ~45% year-over-year. The dominant news flow is the Coldcard hardware wallet exploit, with an attacker sweeping ~1,816 BTC (~$114M) from 5,200+ addresses since July 30 due to a firmware flaw dating to 2021. Sentiment is at rock bottom, Fear & Greed sits in "Extreme Fear" (~24) with persistent ETF outflows. Contrarian logic says moments of maximum pessimism like this are historically when the best long-term entries appear, but it's a principle, not a guarantee, and it's not financial advice.

Bitcoin broke $64k on softer U.S. inflation data, though core inflation and oil price hikes remain concerns. Markets expect Fed rates to hold steady ahead of the July meeting, with Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s testimony closely watched. The rally triggered $105 M in short liquidations and drew $173 M net inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Words of wisdom quoted on this day in history …

Words of wisdom quoted on this day in history …