What Happens When an "Infinite-Money Machine" Unravels | Hacker News Reader

What Happens When an "Infinite-Money Machine" Unravels

newyorker.com

28 pointspseudolus9 comments

The global debt is at almost 350 trillion dollars, which is over 300% global GDP.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mature-markets-push-g...

The first thing that came to my mind when I read the title with “Infinite-Money Machine” was thinking of Google Search (Ads). Am I the only one?

Imagine being bold, or foolish, enough to risk almost a billion dollars, most of which was borrowed, on something as speculative as Bitcoin... an imaginary object that basically only has a punchy techno-libertarian story and no intrinsic value or real world application.

Really takes a neurotype I cannot comprehend or empathize with, but society needs all kinds I suppose.

The way I think about it these days it's that these "neurotypes" are just as the clergy and clergy-adjacent classes of the past.

Many may actually believe in [deity] so they are on a righteous path, while still many more don't truly believe (or live according to [deity doctrine]), but they see the sheer amount of wealth and prestige that these systems offer. So they play along.

And then some of those players do a miracle, or give particular effective sermon at the right time, and they're sainted. Soon believing themselves to be prophets and indeed propped up by the hard work and resources of others.

At least the deities of yore had cool characters.

You might like Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell. Very eye opening on how groups from religions to crossfit classes exploit humanity's tendency to form groups and follow charismatic leaders, even after the "cult" becomes toxic to the individual members.

what about its use of being the money of illegal activity, the market value of criminal activities is not a small number, surely it can support bitcoin and other coins.

    > "most of which was borrowed"

If you're going to gamble, you might as well do it legally with other peoples' money.

Ethically, many of the organisations investing in this subscribe to the "Greater Fool" theory, so I'm not going to be overly sympathetic to their plight if it goes south.

I'm sure you understand the subject and aren't speaking from ignorance? All current fiat money has no intrinsic value.

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