25th February 2023 > > The World Bank.

tl;dr

The World Bank is not heading towards a crypto-friendly future.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

The PCE (Personal Consumption Expenditure) report yesterday showed inflation higher than expected, increasing the risk of higher rate rises than previously expected. The correlation of BTC price action with US stocks has been lower than at any time since late 2021, but risk assets suffered because of this report.

With money supply collapsing, supply chains continuing to be restored following governments’ illiberal and illegal overreaction to Covid, and gas prices unlikely to regain earlier highs, Central Banks worldwide may well be fighting the wrong battle with interest rate rises.

But they are always late to the party.

Central Banks should go back to their original business of being the lender of last resort. Let the market decide interest rates across the curve as it is beyond Central Banks’ competence to do so.

Occasional Series – Atherstone Ball Game

The Women’s final of the Atherstone Ball Game shortly after the local council was given permission to trial run legally binding self-identification of gender:

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – World Bank

Regular readers are probably surprised that the World Bank – as a prime example of the dehumanising centralisation ethos of supranational organisations – has not come in for the same level of critique as others such as the IMF (international Monetary Fund) and BIS (Bank of International Settlements).

Well, now I have my chance.

US President Joe Biden has nominated Ajay Banga to be the new President of the World Bank in May 2023:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/02/23/president-biden-announces-u-s-nomination-of-ajay-banga-to-lead-world-bank/

The mission statement for the World Bank is this:

“Ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity.”

Which no-one of a right mind could ever argue with.

But it’s the ways and the means that can be challenged, especially if they are at odds with the mission itself.

…

One of the key stumbling blocks to reducing poverty is the extraordinarily high transaction fees paid by a poor community’s diaspora working overseas to send home remittances. A report by the World Bank itself estimated that a $200 remittance can incur costs ranging from 5% to 9.3% (https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2020/01/World-Social-Report-2020-FullReport.pdf).

The only fight against these theft-like charges is being led by cryptos.

The use of stablecoins on L2 networks can reduce those charges to mere cents or less. The IOTA Foundation provides instantaneous transactions for ZERO cost. There is no centralised solution that can come close to such a prize.

The technological revolution driven by cryptos has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of the less fortunate amongst us. Banga embraces this enticing prospect with this statement of his beliefs when he referenced BTC:

“Why civil society would like to put a snake in its backyard and think that somehow the snake will only bite my neighbour, I don’t get it.”

…

The press release states that Banga “has critical experience mobilizing public-private resources to tackle the most urgent challenges of our time, including climate change.”

I look forward to hearing how the memo restricting air travel to economy seats on commercial airlines only goes down with the other board members of the World Bank.

…

One day, in the not-too-distant future, these executives of legacy supranational finance will be outed. They will be outed for their cleaving to the mother teat of a centralised ethos designed to keep their privileges in place, with no genuine concern for their public statements regarding worthy causes.

But I guess they just won’t care.

Their fabulously expensive (and probably tax-free) pensions will be compensation enough for public opprobrium.