What we’re reading (11/12)
“First Came The Crypto Crash. Now Comes The Taxman.” (Wall Street Journal). “The rout in cryptocurrencies worsened this week with the collapse of the offshore exchange FTX. With bitcoin recently down more than 60% in 2022, many crypto investors would surely like to forget about digital assets, at least for now. That would be a mistake. The Internal Revenue Service hasn’t lost interest in cryptocurrencies, and investors need to focus on key tax issues before year-end.”
“The Red Flags On FTX We All Seemed To Miss” (Forbes). “The clues were there, often coming straight from SBF himself. Talking to David Rubenstein, one of the founders of the Carlyle Group and a Bloomberg TV host, Bankman-Fried explained why he created FTX. It would foreshadow the exchange’s demise.”
“Reported CPI Inflation Is Mostly Rent” (Cato Institute). “Year‐to‐year percentage changes in the CPI will always be called “stubborn” in the headlines simply because each new month is averaged together with eleven previous months. Even on a year‐to‐year basis, however, CPI inflation has been falling for All Items Less Shelter (Rent)[.]”
“The Fed Has Done Enough And ‘Really, Really Should Pause’ Rate Hikes, Top Economist Paul Krugman Says” (Insider). “‘My view is that the Fed has probably done enough already. And they really, really should pause and wait to see,’ Krugman told Bloomberg TV. But he doubted the central bank would pause its rate-hike regime, as it has been scrambling to restore its credibility on fighting inflation after describing it as merely ‘transitory’ last year.”
“How Will Crypto Clearinghouses Evolve?” (Marginal Revolution). “When guessing at the future of crypto, keep in mind that the future of crypto exchanges and the future of crypto assets are very different things. For many pure crypto bugs, the exchanges are a sellout and a concession to older methods of finance and settlement. The exchanges can be regulated, controlled and co-opted, even turned against the notion of individual monetary sovereignty. Instead, the pure crypto vision stresses the notion of “every person their own bank,” through the medium of a personal wallet and beyond easy purview of the central authorities.”
