“The younger generation doesn’t believe in gold. They know about things like Bitcoin.”
― James Altucher, March 14, 2021
Dear Reader,
Poor Joe Biden. The president of the United States is left with adding sanctions upon sanctions against Vladimir Putin. Sure, France and Germany and the Netherlands and Moldova agree. Now what?
Even normally neutral Switzerland has piled on, saying it may freeze Russian assets held in its Alpine vaults. We’ve seen those vaults. What a tiresome thing to consider armed conflict versus economic sanctions. Especially for individual investors.
Last week our Jim Rickards outlined all the ways Vladimir Putin prepared his country for these kinds of reactions. Russia won’t founder easily because it’s full of raw materials that the world needs… and there are plenty of back channels available for anyone who wants to buy them.
Top of mind, of course, are cryptocurrencies.
Plenty of news outlets are sharing their opinions of the role cryptos will play in this international drama. I talked to James Altucher.
James, you may recall, likes to call himself a “serial entrepreneur” because of all the businesses he’s founded. He also enjoys teaching others to achieve greatness, as described in his bestselling books Choose Yourself… Reinvent Yourself… Skip the Line… and more.
You won’t find his most recent tome listed on Amazon, however. It’s called The Big Book of Crypto, and it’s only available to his paid subscribers. In a Session last March, James explained why he prefers cryptocurrencies even over traditional stores of wealth like gold.
“Gold, at the end of the day, is just a rock,” James said, as much of a provocative statement as that may sound. “There’s nothing you can actually do with gold, except keep it.” Meanwhile, “you can spend Bitcoin.” I’m pretty sure you can hear me chuckle on the recording when he said it.
More presciently, he said, “if there’s a financial crisis that affects banks and exchanges, your gold’s affected.” “But,” as James pointed out, “Bitcoin is outside of the banking system.” Now, here we are, nearly a year after our first conversation, Russia can’t touch any cash or bullion stored outside of the motherland.
With the initial thought in mind, I sat down with James again this week for an urgent new Wiggin Session. He links what’s happening in Eastern Europe to the ongoing trucker protests in Canada — and what it all means for decentralized cryptocurrencies. And what potential events lie ahead for individual investors like you.
“The invasion is a very bad thing for the people involved,” James tells me, “but it’s a very good thing for the price of crypto because all these situations are underlining the reasons why money itself had to evolve…”
We’ll dig deeper into his thoughts, leading up to the broadcast of our full conversation on Saturday.
Follow your bliss,
Addison Wiggin
Founder, The Financial Reserve
