$Trump

Joseph P. Kennedy, paterfamilias to JFK, RFK, and Ted Kennedy, was asked how he knew to bail out of the stock market just before the Crash of ’29. “A shoeshine boy on the street was giving stock tips. And people were listening to him. When everyone is doing it, it’s time for smart people to stop doing it.”

Fast forward ninety-five years, The Sunoco gas station and mini-mart that I pass every morning on my way to the gym makes up for its high gas prices by selling propane cylinders, live bait, “roll your own” paraphernalia, and Bitcoin. If I can pick up some Bitcoin along with live bait and rolling paper on my way to the Old Fishing Hole, is it time to follow Joe Kennedy’s lead and bail out of that financial bubble? After all, Bitcoin started at $100 per unit back in 2009 and is now trading for $104K. That is the very definition of a speculative bubble. The “nanny state” Biden administration is trying to regulate Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies..

That “nanny state” regulation may end today. Donnie promised to make America “the crypto capital of the world”. In fact, he issued his very own “meme coin”. It’s an image of Donnie pumping his fist inspired by last summer’s assassination attempt. He calls it $Trump. Much like Willy Wonka’s Golden Pass, a $Trump with a portion of his ear missing gains you admission to Mar-a-Lago. (I made that last part up.)

When the president who appoints the regulators supposedly preventing crypto-fraud issues his own cryptocurrency, it is a classic “fox guarding the henhouse”. Donnie’s cryptocurrency could be worth as much as $67 billion if it really takes off. But making the Trumps even richer is not the purpose of $Trump. That “nanny state” SEC and Commodities Futures Trading Commission required Donnie’s lawyers to explain how $Trump is not a conflict of interest for the soon-to-be president. “It is merely a digital trading card, the purpose of which is to symbolize a show of support, not an investment opportunity or a political donation,” they claimed. “Also, people stopped buying the golden sneakers, cowboy boots, and Bibles, and Melania needs a new outfit for the Inauguration.” (I made that last part up.)

Joe Kennedy has been long dead, but I’m sure he wouldn’t touch $Trump with a ten foot pole.

By Ed Dufton