Financial, Economic and Social Mood Update (May 1, 2022)
The total global cryptocurrency market hit a record high market capitalization on November 10, 2021. Bitcoin BTC and over 19,729 other privately launched electronic digital cryptocurrencies have been surging in value over the past decade. They have already matured to a large degree, having replaced 94 percent of commercial and investment banks all over the world. Traditional commercial and investment banks as we have come to know them over hundreds of years will likely cease to exist in the very near future – this is how rapidly things are changing over into the new digital financial system. The cryptocurrency market reached a record high value on November 10, 2021, but it has lost 41 percent of its value since then. 4 of the 5 FAANG stocks (the titans of American high technology) are already in a bear market. The 5 FAANG stocks are 1) Meta Platforms, Inc. (FB or Facebook down by 48 percent from its record high), 2) Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN down by 34 percent), 3) Apple, Inc. (AAPL down by 14 percent), 4) Netflix, Inc. (NFLX down by 73 percent) and 5) Alphabet, Inc. (GOOG or Google down by 24 percent). The minimum description of a bear market is to be down by 10 percent. The aggregate US stock market, best represented by the NASDAQ Composite Index, is down by 24 percent since November 22, 2021. Recent stock market activity points to an emerging asset market collapse – the noise coming out of the real estate market is demonstrating this by the day. Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) which are forecast to replace existing national paper fiat currencies will likely be even more inflationary, and even worse than that, they will remove all remaining financial liberty. Governments will have the ability to determine who spends how much, on…