I see much of the same thing. I do hold more hope in what relief crypto can bring in the situation though. We just need lots of different crypto options that are truly decentralized and that can be used instead of any government e-money.
And the way to decouple STEEM from manipulated BTC is to create fiat pairings for STEEM (and many other altcoins). I think Binance is hard at work making that come into being, as are many others, including Coinbase.
I don't think the interest rate thing has anything to do with political parties. Trump was saying the Fed needed to raise interest rates when he was running (and was correct). Now he criticizes the Fed for actually doing it to the tiniest degree, because he doesn't want the contraction it brings under his record. So the only politics involved is self-interest and lies, as per usual. The Fed is just doing its thing and "managing" the economy. It really should have been raising interest rates a few years ago.
The problem lies within the fundamentals you espoused upon. The underlying economy is so weak, that only artificial inflationary actions like tax breaks for the corporations that can be used to buy back stocks and raise the stock market, artificially suppressing bond yields by buying up bonds, and so on has kept us out of global recession for years now.
Thank you for stopping by @indigoocean I do hold hope for the inherent promise and possibility of crypto's ..my bone of contention being that if we appoach it with the same egotistic greed fuelled narrative that has blighted the world of finance, then we are standing on shaky foundations. Unfortunately, within the rise of bitcoin I witnessed many of these problems being birthed into the crypto sphere .. within the concept we have the possibility of lifting our brothers and sisters up and freeing them from servitude and bondage .. and yet, alas once again many squandered that premise on dreams of quick and easy money. For me this is our lesson and is what we must overcome .. if we can do that, if we can help others whilst helping ourselves, then I feel the future is very bright.
In terms of the FED raising rates, I can certainly understand your perspective and yes the rates should have been raised a very long time ago, in fact if we'd taken the hit back in 2008 and let the too big to fail's actually fail .. I feel those green shoots could now be bearing small flowers .. although, still I can't help but ponder whether (hypothetically of course) if Obama had secured another four years in office, would they be raising them with such haste?
Thanks again for the great comment my friend .. much appreciated! :)
Not to take up all your time, but want to respond on the crypto co-opting you mention, which I also see. Someone said the most interesting thing the other day that I think you'll appreciate. He was talking about the different communities around each of the top coins that has a lot to do with how it is "mined." He said that in the BTC world there was a fierce, adversarial competition between miners. I must get to that computation before you, and only one of us can earn that BTC. Whereas in say the ETH community there is a lot of cooperation to advance the tech (or something like that, don't really remember the others that well). Main point being, there is an inherent value problem with BTC they will probably never go away. But other crypto offers much greater promise of actually being a part of the world we want to create.
In fact, I just came out of a meeting in which we discussed the possibility of our own community token that incentivizes certain behaviors related to a world awake, and creates a token economy around that. If you'd like to be kept in the loop on those developments, just let me know how to best reach you with any of that.
Sorry for the late reply @indigoocean .. I've been offline for the majority of the week so I'm just catching up on messages. Yes, I think you've made some great and valid points and I very much agree that it's the intent behind the implementation of the coin that determines the outcome. In the long term I have great hope for the future of our species, and like I alluded to in the post (if we can detach ourselves from greed and bitcoin) great hope in the power of a truly decentralised crypto space.
My concern has always been for this moment in time and (although it's always darkest before dawn) the manipulation and division that is playing out around us. This is the chaos before the perceptual shift (the shift of ages) and although (like the winter storms) this chaos will pass, the power structure will not simply relinquish their grip upon this world .. and yet from a wider and deeper perspective, they are also the ones forcing our hand, demanding that we change, driving us to create ingenious solutions to the injustices and imbalances they have brought to our socities.
Whichever way you look at it and however frustrating this world can be, we are incredibly lucky to be alive at this moment in time .. although perhaps luck doesn't come into it. ;) Thanks again my friend and yes I would love to be kept up to date with the behavioural token concept .. incredibly interesting! Are you on discord? I'm still in the middle of this house renovation (hence I'm not around as much) but I will always catch up with any messages that are left for me.