Month: July 2022

Authored by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead via The Rurtherford Institute,

Imagine living in a country where armed soldiers crash through doors to arrest and imprison citizens merely for criticizing government officials.

Imagine that in this very same country, you’re watched all the time, and if you look even a little bit suspicious, the police stop and frisk you or pull you over to search you on the off chance you’re doing something illegal.

Keep in mind that if you have a firearm of any kind (or anything that resembled a firearm) while in this country, it may get you arrested and, in some circumstances, shot by police.

If you’re thinking this sounds like America today, you wouldn’t be far wrong.

However, the scenario described above took place more than 200 years ago, when American colonists suffered under Great Britain’s version of an early police state. It was only when the colonists finally got fed up with being silenced, censored, searched, frisked, threatened, and arrested that they finally revolted against the tyrant’s fetters.

No document better states their grievances than the Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson.

A document seething with outrage over a government which had betrayed its citizens, the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, by 56 men who laid everything on the line, pledged it all—“our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor”—because they believed in a radical idea: that all people are created to be free.

Labeled traitors, these men were charged with treason, a crime punishable by death. For some, their acts of rebellion would cost them their homes and their fortunes. For others, it would be the ultimate price—their lives.

Yet even knowing the heavy price they might have to pay, these men dared to speak up when silence could not be tolerated. Even after they had won their independence from Great Britain, these new Americans worked to ensure that the rights they had risked their lives to secure would remain secure for future generations.

The result: our Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

Imagine the shock and outrage these 56 men would feel were they to discover that 246 years later, the government they had risked their lives to create has been transformed into a militaristic police state in which exercising one’s freedoms—at a minimum, merely questioning a government agent—is often viewed as a flagrant act of defiance.

In fact, had the Declaration of Independence been written today, it would have rendered its signers extremists or terrorists, resulting in them being placed on a government watch list, targeted for surveillance of their activities and correspondence, and potentially arrested, held indefinitely, stripped of their rights and labeled enemy combatants.

Read the Declaration of Independence again, and ask yourself if the list of complaints tallied by Jefferson don’t bear a startling resemblance to the abuses “we the people” are suffering at the hands of the American police state.

Here’s what the Declaration of Independence might look and sound like if it were written in the modern vernacular:

There comes a time when a populace must stand united and say “enough is enough” to the government’s abuses, even if it means getting rid of the political parties in power.

Believing that “we the people” have a natural and divine right to direct our own lives, here are truths about the power of the people and how we arrived at the decision to sever our ties to the government:

All people are created equal.

All people possess certain innate rights that no government or agency or individual can take away from them. Among these are the right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The government’s job is to protect the people’s innate rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The government’s power comes from the will of the people.

Whenever any government abuses its power, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish that government and replace it with a new government that will respect and protect the rights of the people.

It is not wise to get rid of a government for minor transgressions. In fact, as history has shown, people resist change and are inclined to suffer all manner of abuses to which they have become accustomed.

However, when the people have been subjected to repeated abuses and power grabs, carried out with the purpose of establishing a tyrannical government, people have a right and duty to do away with that tyrannical government and to replace it with a new government that will protect and preserve their innate rights for their future wellbeing.

This is exactly the state of affairs we are under suffering under right now, which is why it is necessary that we change this imperial system of government.

The history of the present Imperial Government is a history of repeated abuses and power grabs, carried out with the intention of establishing absolute tyranny over the country.

To prove this, consider the following:

The government has, through its own negligence and arrogance, refused to adopt urgent and necessary laws for the good of the people.

The government has threatened to hold up critical laws unless the people agree to relinquish their right to be fully represented in the Legislature.

In order to expand its power and bring about compliance with its dictates, the government has made it nearly impossible for the people to make their views and needs heard by their representatives.

The government has repeatedly suppressed protests arising in response to its actions.

The government has obstructed justice by refusing to appoint judges who respect the Constitution and has instead made the courts march in lockstep with the government’s dictates.

The government has allowed its agents to harass the people, steal from them, jail them and even execute them.

The government has directed militarized government agents—a.k.a., a standing army—to police domestic affairs in peacetime.

The government has turned the country into a militarized police state.

The government has conspired to undermine the rule of law and the constitution in order to expand its own powers.

The government has allowed its militarized police to invade our homes and inflict violence on homeowners.

The government has failed to hold its agents accountable for wrongdoing and murder under the guise of “qualified immunity.”

The government has jeopardized our international trade agreements.

The government has overtaxed us without our permission.

The government has denied us due process and the right to a fair trial.

The government has engaged in extraordinary rendition.

The government has continued to expand its military empire in collusion with its corporate partners-in-crime and occupy foreign nations.

The government has eroded fundamental legal protections and destabilized the structure of government.

The government has not only declared its federal powers superior to those of the states but has also asserted its sovereign power over the rights of “we the people.”

The government has ceased to protect the people and instead waged domestic war against the people.

The government has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, and destroyed the lives of the people.

The government has employed private contractors and mercenaries to carry out acts of death, desolation and tyranny, totally unworthy of a civilized nation.

The government through its political propaganda has pitted its citizens against each other.

The government has stirred up civil unrest and laid the groundwork for martial law.

Repeatedly, we have asked the government to cease its abuses. Each time, the government has responded with more abuse.

An Imperial Ruler who acts like a tyrant is not fit to govern a free people.

We have repeatedly sounded the alarm to our fellow citizens about the government’s abuses. We have warned them about the government’s power grabs. We have appealed to their sense of justice. We have reminded them of our common bonds.

They have rejected our plea for justice and brotherhood. They are equally at fault for the injustices being carried out by the government.

Thus, for the reasons mentioned above, we the people of the united States of America declare ourselves free from the chains of an abusive government. Relying on God’s protection, we pledge to stand by this Declaration of Independence with our lives, our fortunes and our honor.

In the 246 years since early Americans first declared and eventually won their independence from Great Britain, “we the people” have managed to work ourselves right back under the tyrant’s thumb.

Only this time, the tyrant is one of our own making: the American Police State.

The abuses meted out by an imperial government and endured by the American people have not ended. They have merely evolved.

“We the people” are still being robbed blind by a government of thieves.

We are still being taken advantage of by a government of scoundrels, idiots and monsters.

We are still being locked up by a government of greedy jailers.

We are still being spied on by a government of Peeping Toms.

We are still being ravaged by a government of ruffians, rapists and killers.

We are still being forced to surrender our freedoms—and those of our children—to a government of extortionists, money launderers and corporate pirates.

And we are still being held at gunpoint by a government of soldiers: a standing army in the form of a militarized police.

Given the fact that we are a relatively young nation, it hasn’t taken very long for an authoritarian regime to creep into power.

Unfortunately, the bipartisan coup that laid siege to our nation did not happen overnight.

It snuck in under our radar, hiding behind the guise of national security, the war on drugs, the war on terror, the war on immigration, political correctness, hate crimes and a host of other official-sounding programs aimed at expanding the government’s power at the expense of individual freedoms.

The building blocks for the bleak future we’re just now getting a foretaste of – police shootings of unarmed citizens, profit-driven prisons, weapons of compliance, a wall-to-wall surveillance state, pre-crime programs, a suspect society, school-to-prison pipelines, militarized police, overcriminalization, SWAT team raids, endless wars, etc. – were put in place by government officials we trusted to look out for our best interests.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, the problems we are facing will not be fixed overnight: that is the grim reality with which we must contend.

Yet that does not mean we should give up or give in or tune out. What we need to do is declare our independence from the tyranny of the American police state.

Joe Biden woke up on July 4, failed miserably when trying to read one word from the teleprompter…

As you celebrate the 4th tomorrow, remember our President’s inspiring words about this great nation. pic.twitter.com/EcNoXNuY8l

— Bill D’Agostino (@Banned_Bill) July 3, 2022

… and decided that the most patriotic thing the president could do, was leak that tariffs imposed on China by the Trump administration could be rolled back as soon as this week, a decision which the WSJ said is constrained by competing policy aims: on one hand addressing inflation (because supposedly easing tariffs will somehow shrink inflation) while on the other hand maintaining economic pressure on Beijing, not that that has been a policy goal of Joe Biden, who has become China’s de facto Manchurian candidate courtesy of his son Hunter.

Citing ‘people familiar with the situation’, the Journal writes that what comes next could include a pause on tariffs on consumer goods such as clothing and school supplies, as well as launching a broad framework to allow importers to request tariff waivers.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is conducting a mandatory four-year review of the Trump-era tariffs. A comment period for businesses and others who have benefited from the tariffs will close July 5, giving the administration an opportunity to calibrate its policy.

A tariff rollback would mark Biden’s first major policy step on trade ties between the world’s two biggest economic powers. The president in recent weeks held a number of meetings with senior economic advisers where options for a decision on the Trump-era tariffs were discussed, Bloomberg adds citing its own sources.

Hints that the Biden administration is considering an easing in some of the tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese imports have multiplied as inflation has accelerated, putting pressure on US officials to find ways to tamp down prices paid by consumers for everyday merchandise.

Biden said last month he’ll be talking to Chinese President Xi Jinping “soon” and told reporters he was “in the process” of making up his mind about whether to lift tariffs. Some members of Biden’s Cabinet suggested he use the upcoming call with Xi to ask him for reciprocal tariff cuts on American goods currently facing import duties, though that idea was quickly shot down, the people said.

Meanwhile, as he weighs a decision, Biden has been buffeted by policy disagreements both within his administration, and by outside forces including business, labor and lawmakers, which is why a plan to announce a tariff cut has been repeatedly postponed, as it reflects the “sharp divisions” within his own administration over the China tariffs.

Among his own cabinet, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen – who recently admitted her cluelessness is behind the most catastrophic inflationary juggernaut unleashed in the US in more than 40 years – has called tariffs a drag on the economy, saying the administration is looking at ways to reconfigure them to help curb inflation. Yellen has said some of the inherited tariffs aren’t strategic and don’t address China’s unfair trade practices.

“Reconfiguring some of those tariffs so they make more sense and reducing unnecessary burdens is something that’s under consideration,” Yellen said in an interview with ABC News on June 19.

Most of Biden’s cronies, however, take the opposite view to that of the senile trasury secretary: on the other side are U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and National security adviser Jake Sullivan, who see tariffs as valuable leverage in getting concessions from China. These skeptics want a tariff cut paired with another measure designed to keep pressure on Beijing to change practices that the U.S. says put American companies and workers at a disadvantage.

Among the possible steps are raising tariffs on strategic items such as industrial machinery and transportation equipment, while lowering duties on consumer goods. The U.S. also could start a fresh investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act focusing on China’s industrial subsidies on high-tech items, a policy the USTR has been preparing for months.  Such a policy could lead to tariffs on a new set of products.

“From the domestic political perspective, there are two very strong, competing concerns. One is the need to be perceived as fighting inflation. And the other is the need to be seen to be very strong in standing up to China,” said Claire Reade, a longtime China official for the USTR who is now at the law firm Arnold & Porter.

“The question is how do you take all of these divergent concerns and harmonize them into one policy?” she said.

The catalyst behind the highly unpopular decision is an even more unpopular byproduct of the Biden administration – soaring prices. The White House has been struggling in vain to contain the fallout from high prices for food, gas and other consumer items, which will decimate the Democratic Party in the November midterm elections.

Unsurprisingly, economists say removing Chinese tariffs isn’t likely to have a dramatic impact on inflation. Peterson Institute analysts Megan Hogan and Yilin Wang estimate that removing tariffs on Chinese imports could lower consumer-price index inflation by a marginal 0.26 percentage point at first. But “as U.S. corporations trim their markups to compete with imports,” that might eventually lead to a 1-percentage-point reduction in inflation, they added.

Meanwhile republicans including Sen. Bill Hagerty (R., Tenn.) and others have rightfully pointed out that, for more than two years after the tariffs were introduced, there were few signs of inflation or discussions linked to their impact on consumer prices.

“Wouldn’t removing these tariffs simply encourage more bad behavior,” Hagerty asked Tai at a recent hearing. “What kind of message would it send to China?”

At the same time, proponents of tariff reduction – most of them generously funded by China – say it is important for Biden to show he is serious about fighting inflation, possibly by pausing tariffs on consumer goods purchased by American households. As the Federal Reserve is primarily responsible for controlling inflation, tariff reduction is one of the few policy options available to the president. Biden himself has said in recent weeks that he is considering a tariff cut, noting that the levies were introduced by the previous administration.

Of course, this being the Biden administration where every incremental decision only lead to more chaos and pain, a decision to drop tariffs would only lead to even more acute attacks on the White House as it was Biden’s own advisors such as Tai (previously appointed by Biden) who has repeatedly defended the tariffs as a useful tool in confronting China over its trade practices.

“The China tariffs are, in my view, a significant piece of leverage, and a trade negotiator never walks away from leverage,” Ms. Tai told a Senate subcommittee meeting on June 22.

For its part, China has long pressed the U.S. to ease the tariffs, contending they hurt both countries.

“With inflation rates running high across the globe, the U.S. needs to lift all the additional tariffs imposed on China, as this will serve the interests of businesses and consumers and benefit both countries and the world at large,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a June 15 press conference.

As the main weapon of his trade war with China, former President Donald Trump imposed tariffs ranging from 7.5% to 25% on Chinese imports worth roughly $370 billion over four rounds between July 2018 and September 2019. The action was based on the findings of a Section 301 investigation over China’s practices related to technology transfer and intellectual property.

While early rounds of the tariffs were placed on strategic items closely linked to the investigation, the lists were later expanded to consumer goods as Trump officials ramped up pressure on Beijing.

There is one reason why we should be skeptical that Biden will order tariff cuts: labor unions and progressive Democrats, who have had a decisive sway on Biden’s trade policy, are among the most vocal opponents of tariff cuts. Among them are the members of the Labor Advisory Committee advising the USTR, representing top unions including the AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers and Service Employees International Union.

They noted that nothing has changed in China’s practices since Trump’s 301 investigation that would merit lifting the tariffs. If anything, they wrote, Beijing has “only doubled down on their strategy and approach.”

In prior years before there was a war on in Eastern Europe, it was customary for the Russian president to send a congratulatory commemorative message to the US president marking the July 4th holiday.

As perhaps expected given the Ukraine invasion and Washington’s unprecedented sanctions against the Russian state and economy, including on Vladimir Putin himself, the Russian leader won’t congratulate Biden this year, according to a Monday Kremlin statement.

“This is because this year, the U.S.’ unfriendly political discourse towards Russia has reached its culmination point,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, as cited in Interfax. He called it “hardly appropriate” at this time.

“Under this circumstance, sending such a congratulatory message is hardly appropriate,” he explained.

Not only have US-Russia relations reached a historic low-point of late, but there’s not even the basic level of diplomacy and communications one might expect as part of efforts to end the Ukraine war and achieve a ceasefire.

Instead, the Biden administration has approved wave after wave of billion dollar weapons packages, also while signaling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to take a hardline ‘no compromise’ stance in refusing the possibility of any territorial concessions for the sake of ending the war.

The Moscow Times observes of where things stand between Moscow and Washington in the following:

In March, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the relationship between the Kremlin and the White House was “on the verge of a breakup.” Ryabkov said that the only way to “save” it would be for the U.S. to halt the supply of weapons to Ukraine and, instead, “project positive influence on Kyiv.”

But as for the type of warmer, relaxed relations which might have allowed for exchanges of congratulatory holiday messages, that hasn’t happened since 2020.

Putin sent his last Independence Day message to Washington during that year of the Trump presidency, at a moment relations were already sliding in large part due to ‘Russiagate’ related election interference accusations being lobbed at Moscow.

By Nick Colas of DataTrek Research

Today we will discuss an early classic in the field of behavioral finance: John Maynard Keynes’ “Beauty Contest”. Its lesson is that market prices are set by what investors think other investors think. At present, that dynamic is creating ever-lower stock prices because of the increasingly consensus idea that the S&P 500 will bottom somewhere between 3,000 and 3,400. Those levels come from expectations of lower earnings due to a recession. The bottom will come when investors think other investors believe it has arrived.

For Story Time Thursday this week we have a discussion of an early behavioral finance concept called the “Keynes Beauty Contest”. While distinctly out of step with modern values – the idea comes from John Maynard Keynes 1936 work “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money” – it is still a hugely useful paradigm today. Especially today, frankly …

Richard Thaler published a wonderful analysis of the Beauty Contest in 2015 (link below), which quotes from the 1936 Keynes work to describe how it works:

• Imagine a newspaper contest “in which the competitors have to pick out the six prettiest faces from 100 photographs, the prize being awarded to the competitor whose choice most nearly corresponds to the average preferences of the competitors as a whole …”

• “ … each competitor has to pick, not those faces that he himself finds prettiest, but those that he thinks likeliest to catch the fancy of other competitors, all of whom are looking at the problem from the same point of view …”

The analogy to equity markets:

• Investors and traders look for investment ideas they think other market participants will find more attractive in the future.

• The timeframe may be a day or a week for a trader and 6-12 months for an investor, but the idea is the same. Buy things that you expect other people will find more valuable at some future date. Any analysis worth pursuing must be in service to that goal.

The hard bit about the Beauty Contest as far as its application to investing is that it is iterative. It is not enough to pick faces you think the crowd will find attractive. Everyone else is doing that too. To win, you must run multiple cycles of “what will the crowd think?”

Thaler’s article updates Keynes’ idea with a numerical version which explains why this is so challenging:

• “Guess a number from zero to 100, with the goal of making your guess as close as possible to two-thirds of the average guess of all those participating in the contest.”

• “To help you think about this puzzle, suppose there are three players who guess 20, 30 and 40 respectively. The average guess would be 30, two-thirds of which is 20, so the person who guessed 20 would win.”

• The naïve guess would be 50 – the midpoint between 1 and 100 – based on the assumption contestants are lazy and would just pick random numbers rather than latch on to the wrinkle of “two-thirds of the average guess”.

• More educated guesses might be 33 (two thirds of that 50 naïve estimate) or 22 (on the assumption contestants have thought the problem through, but not iterated one level deeper).

Math nerds will think of this as a Nash equilibrium problem, and Thaler makes the point the only viable answer using this approach is zero. Iterate the last point’s math ad infinitum and you get zero. Yes, this assumes only math Ph.D.s are playing the game. But it is a logical conclusion nonetheless.

We can use this idea to estimate what market participants think fair value on the S&P 500 is today:

The naïve guess is today’s close: 3785. We’ve had a horrible first half of 2022, and maybe all the bad news is finally baked into stock prices.

The second order guess might be 3,386, if we assume investors will think other market participants will key off either pre-pandemic highs and/or discount a modest earnings recession:

• This was the last S&P 500 high before the Pandemic Recession (February 19th, 2020).

• It is also 18x S&P earnings of $188/share, which is roughly 15 percent (14.5 pct, to be exact) below current earnings power of $220/share.

• While earnings typically decline 25 percent in a recession, perhaps any upcoming economic downturn will be milder than most. The 18x multiple is slightly richer than the 10-year average of 17x, but fair since investors tend to pay more for trough earnings as they anticipate higher earnings in a recovery.

The third order guess could be around 3,000, if investors believe markets must discount a full-blown recession before there is enough general interest in stocks to make for a durable low:

• Assume an average hit (25 pct decline) to S&P earnings from a recession and you get $165/share versus the current $220/share earnings power.

• Put an 18x multiple on that $166/share and you get an S&P of 2,970.

Takeaway: fair value on the S&P – or any other stock market index – is a function of what investors think other investors think. In bull markets those beliefs are iteratively revised upwards. In bear markets, such as now, those revisions trend lower until specific catalysts change investor perceptions. Then, the whole cycle starts all over again. At the end of a very difficult 6 months for stock prices, it is worth remembering that there is always a low and a next bull market. The goal now is to play defense until those arrive.

Source: Thaler article: https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/keyness-beauty-contest

Americans’ pride in their country has steadily fallen since Gallup started conducting a survey on the subject in 2001.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Now, as Statista’s Katharian Buchholz reports, national pride in the U.S. has plummeted to an all-time low, as the fewest respondents in the history of the poll said they were extremely proud to be an American. The measure dropped to just 38 percent upon Gallup’s latest survey in June 2022.

Adding up those Americans who felt extremely or just very proud of their country, the measure fell from 69 percent in 2021 to 65 percent in 2022. This is still 2 percentage point above an all-time low of 63 percent in 2020.

In terms of partisanship, Democrats have predictably seen the largest drop in national pride. Only 26 percent of Democrats responded that they were extremely proud of their country in 2022 – down five points from 2021 and 30 points since 2013. But Republicans were also affected, losing 18 percentage points since a recent high of 76 percent extremely proud respondents in 2019, landing at 58 percent saying they were extremely proud of America in 2022.

National pride, like many other topics in the U.S., has become intertwined in political polarization, having culminated in a record 54-point gap in feelings of extreme pride between Republicans and Democrats in 2019.

The survey also shows that older Americans are more likely to have extreme pride in the U.S. when compared with younger ones, while men are also much more likely than women to show extreme national pride.

Authored by Dr.Riste Simnjanovski via BitcoinMagazine.com,

This July 4th is an opportunity to think about how Bitcoiners reclaimed their own financial independence.

PART ONE: A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

There is a lot of history one could survey when examining Independence Day. Some historians might reference the 1940s, or the 4th of July being recognized as a federal holiday; maybe BBQs or fireworks would find their way into the conversations.

A military historian might dive into the American Revolution, 1776, the Continental Congress or the original 13 Colonies as an excellent place to begin boring their grandchildren. Bitcoin authors have also explored this topic from a variety of perspectives. I’m going to try an alternative approach; from a status quo perspective.

One aspect that many forget to mention is that only a small, fringe minority truly sought complete and sovereign independence from Great Britain in 1775. The colonists who believed that “America” should be independent of Great Britain were considered a radical group that deviated from the norm. The masses took comfort, even in tyranny.

Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” onboarded many more colonists to take up arms as distrust and anger grew against Great Britain.Paine’s work has similarities to Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper on Bitcoin. Both documents sought to expose issues in the current status quo and proposed an alternative solution.

The challenge was that most of the population found comfort in persecution, taxation, lack of representation and authoritarian rule. Many shrug this off now as years tick away and society is further removed from the past, but how would life change if people were genuinely sovereign in America?

Imagine if no governmental interference, no bailouts, no safety nets, no welfare, no subsidies and no “free” rides were the norm? I posit that if a census took place today, many Americans would err on the side of tyranny versus sovereignty — as they did in the late 1700s.

I could propose many rationales, but the bulk of them hover around a fear of the unknown or truly having to support themselves and those they care for with nothing more than their wits, hard work and determination. Bitcoin rewards all these human attributes with incorruptible, non-confiscatable, immutable and eternal property.

Bitcoin’s proof-of-work model mirrors the American spirit; even beyond generational hope, Bitcoin represents American grit. Bitcoin rewards hard work, because it was born of hard work, time, energy and sacrifice. Bitcoin is determination, because it was founded on an alternative to the status quo. Bitcoin mirrors Independence Day in a profound manner.

Bitcoin outwits stupidity, arrogance, ineptitude, laziness and greed. For individuals seeking sovereignty, there is no other alternative.

The irony is that everyone from liberals, moderates, libertarians and conservatives are represented in the Bitcoin network. Yet, they are still a fringe minority in their respective communities. This common thread has drawn them together, even moreso, in some respects, regardless of their political differences. Individual “Financial Independence Day” has not yet been identified by many individuals (non-Bitcoiners) — let’s change that.

PART TWO: INDIVIDUAL SOVEREIGNTY

Many individuals, organizations, corporations and nation-states own bitcoin, or at least they think they do. Unless these parties hold their private keys, they entrust custodians, many of whom failed when push came to shove.

Many reading this article may have kept their private keys for years, while others might have recently set up a hardware wallet … and are plugging it in daily to ensure they understand how it works. Others either do not hold their private keys, have their life savings sitting on a third-party exchange or are not exposed to bitcoin (yet).

I would encourage Bitcoiners to see if they can look back on their hardware wallet’s transaction history to see when their first BTC transfer occurred. The day these individuals took custody of their first satoshi or bitcoin is their Financial Independence Day.

Next, I would encourage families to make this date known to the people they care about and, at a minimum, use this date as a reminder to discuss the significance and importance of Bitcoin, sovereignty, hard work, determination and independence.

Yes, the 4th of July is a federal holiday where families gather, break bread and enjoy time together; however, the meaning is lost if, even for a brief moment, time isn’t dedicated to remembering the significance and sacrifices made on your behalf.

When folks identify their family’s Financial Independence Day, I encourage them to celebrate just as much as they would when they honor this country on the 4th of July. The significance of Independence Day is that individuals can OWN property; and what better property to own than one that is completely non-confiscatable by any entity?

Perhaps, if you have not taken custody of your bitcoin, maybe this 4th of July is a great day to start.

Happy 4th of July, and a tip of the hat to sovereign individuals with satoshis and Bitcoin in cold storage.