15th December 2023 > > Centralisation & corruption.

tl;dr

Corruption at the heart of the UK government highlights once again the failings of the centralised world. The SEC loudly announces its support of such failings which will eventually result in the marginalisation of the anti-libertarians that live amongst us.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

The SEC and BlackRock have completed a fourth round of talks over the functioning of a spot BTC ETF. The ETF is coming, and it is coming soon. In advance of this groundbreaking event J.P. Morgan has issued a research piece stating that this is buy the rumour, sell the news event. I fundamentally disagree, but that is my opinion, and you should make up your own mind, for sometimes the CCC isn’t always right.

With 10-yrs now sub 400bps the EU and the UK must follow suit. Central bank independence is no more than a fanciful mirage.

Occasional Series – Government corruption

On being appointed both a Lord (as he is not an MP) and Foreign Secretary, David Cameron’s disclosure of financial interests made no mention of any Chinese connections. Indeed, his spokesman said in October that “Cameron has not engaged in any way with China or any Chinese company …”.

In entirely unrelated news, in 2018 Cameron’s identical twin (who knew?) takes tea with dictator Xi:

(Source: The Times)

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – The SEC and Coinbase

Coinbase issued an official petition to the SEC requesting transparent rules and regulations for the crypto industry, a perfectly reasonable and measured request. The SEC has responded with a “Statement on the Denial of a Rulemaking Petition Submitted on behalf of Coinbase Global, Inc.”:

https://www.sec.gov/news/statement/gensler-coinbase-petition-121523

Authored by Gary Gensler, Chair of the SEC, the key reasoning was that the securities laws passed in 1933 and tested in the SEC vs Howey case, are all that are needed. The concept of personal computers at that time was limited to some extreme sci-fi novels. Safe to say that cryptos had not been imagined, so it’s a bit of a stretch to state categorically that laws passed at that time are entirely fit for purpose today.

As usual Gensler reverts to type when he says that crypto firms are always welcome to step into the SEC’s offices and work towards compliance and registration. Which misses the point – that is exactly what Coinbase is requesting of the SEC.

Gensler also admits that the SEC is making it up as it goes along “… the SEC addresses the crypto securities market through rulemaking as well” and tries to turn this into a virtue: “… it is important to maintain Commission discretion in setting its own rulemaking priorities”. Which is nonsense. The SEC is an agency of the government, and not a creature of its own making.

…

Predictably the five commissioners of the SEC split along party political lines, defining those of a libertarian nature against those who are not, at least amongst the SEC commissioners.