The difference between a business choosing to raise prices as a result of higher input costs (inflation) versus degrading the standard/scale of the product (shrinkflation) is whether the buyers are willing and able to pay more. If they are not then they get shrinkflation. I see a lot of shrinkflation at the moment and that indicates a weak economy with incomes stretched to their limits. It is much most expensive to downsize a product (packaging, logistics, wholesale deal sizing, etc) than just I clearing the ticket price. It’s done only when inflation isn’t an option.

Okay summer's almost ready to go over here. Who is buying Apple Vision goggles so they can sit outside in the sunshine all day long working at a 'screen'?

Go ask Alice, I think she’ll knnnnow. “Re-member what the doctor said, Feed your headdddd, Feed your heeaaaad.”

We’ve long needed to scale out nuclear power production to avoid a high greenhouse gas output economy. Now we need it to save our nation states too. Amazing that it took LLMs to tip us in that direction finally.

“Gary’s Economics” is a business. The hat and the budget kitchen he sits in are wardrobe and studio props. They are aimed to disarm those who are only superficially critically thinking. ‘He’s one of us at heart - but with insider info on them - he’s our loyal mole’. He’s not. He is selling advertising space and a book. He may also be selling influence perhaps as a lobbyist (my hunch). He’s lying about his credentials. He’s ignorant about bitcoin. His taxation scheme is simplistic at best and detrimental at worst. He is an image and a brand.

Sold above $100k? Bought in around $50k? Then you might have a CGT bill of ~20% which is $10k/coin. Anything under $90k is small profit. Under $80k is >12% profit. Under $70k >28%. Quite a risk you took, so you want that juicier return. Who’s diving back in 1st to swing the mkt?

George Orwell’s sequel is less well known but perhaps even more chilling. If you haven’t read it, get a copy of: “1994, Celebrity Big Brother”

Use bitcoin to import every other nations asset inflation.

Tea bags. Harvest the finest leaf tips, make soft mesh bags - perfect per portion convenience of luxurious delights from the east. Oh and make sure the bags come in pairs so the drinker has to tear them apart for every other cup. That last bits really important.

If I have a BitAxe but it’s sitting on the shelf unpowered because it had some overheating error and I haven’t had time to look at it - am I still making the bitcoin network secure?

Legal tender is a much confused term. Does it mean… a) you must accept it in trade b) it’s not illegal to accept it c) you can’t sue if it’s offered in settlement of any debt Bukele went with A, a very interventionist and extreme rule. China has at times made it illegal tender (judicial penalties if you are caught using it), but the UK wins by making GBP its only legal tender and using definition C. Why wins? Because they leave the door open for trade to happen In any asset, from barter to shells to pounds to bitcoin. So why isn’t the UK really winning? Because they apply capital gains tax to the trade of anything which isn’t GBP which is a huge disincentive in letting any other asset become a de facto currency. El Salvador maintaining a zero CGT status for Bitcoin is the real gem of a law. It’s non-interventionist, allows a fair playing field and voluntary organic growth and demonstrates a more valid economic experiment to take place. The IMF changes have been ironically beneficial in the long term. Now, the UK, please stand for and vote for tax rule changes too.

This pizza box is adorned with AI generated images. The car was never made, the woman was never born and the baker was never photographed.

The less we gossip, the stronger the risk that we partition our _social_ networks. If that happens we fork our perceptions of reality. How many peers do you communicate with and how heterogeneous is that group?

Gresham’s law of laundry: Bad socks outlive good socks

AI race is clearly misunderstood. As bitcoin miners know, the efficiency of the machine is just an edge in the race, not a reason to put less effort in. DeepSeek is at best a downward difficulty adjustment, and at worst a new but normal competitor. Nvidia is still king.

Mr. Tom

How do you manage all your encryption keys (e.g. SSH, GPG, PKI)? There doesn't seem to be a widely adopted standard like BIP32 and related for deriving them from a common seed, or tooling for that kind of scheme.

Slippage = price drives up for your purchase and then collapses Stickage = price drives up for your purchase and then stays there Zippage = price drives up for your purchase and then keeps going

BOO

QE = Arbitrary debasement Or… QE = Clever fiat game which stimulates real productive activity to benefit wider society ?