Quoth the Raven, Released on 1/24/24
Two of my favorite Austrian thinkers – Peter Schiff and Lawrence Lepard – go head to head on Bitcoin (and talk a little about gold, too).
*The interview begins at 6:08
Lawrence W. Lepard founded Equity Management Associates. Currently, he is Managing Partner at Equity Management Associates LLC and Limited Partner at Johns Creek Partners LLC. He is also on the board of Amarillo Gold Corp. and Rise Gold Corp. In his past career he occupied the position of Principal at The Cue Ball Group LLC, Partner at Summit Partners LP, Managing General Partner at Geocapital Partners LLC, Investment Associate at Continental Illinois Venture Corp., Financial Analyst at Smith Barney Harris Upham & Co., Inc. and Financial Analyst of Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. (Broker). Mr. Lepard received an undergraduate degree from Colgate University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Peter Schiff is an internationally recognized economist specializing in the foreign equity, currency and gold markets. Mr. Schiff made his name as President and Chief Global Strategist of Euro Pacific Capital. He frequently delivers lectures at major economic and investment conferences, and is quoted often in the print media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Barron’s, BusinessWeek, Time and Fortune. His broadcast credits include regular guest appearances on CNBC, Fox Business, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel, as well as hosting his own weekly radio show, Wall Street Unspun. He’s also the author of the bestselling books: Crash Proof 2.0
Chris Irons is the host of the Quoth the Raven podcast and author of QTR’s Fringe Finance Substack.
The Bitcoin Debate: Peter Schiff vs. Larry Lepard added by Herman James on
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BTC has a huge downside for the freedom folks. Biometric ID is the agenda. If that is needed to access the internet, then I doubt that is something desired by people who want a better world.
Much of this debate turned into an exercise of explaining what money is. Too bad. The audience here is not a bunch of 4th graders who don’t know the essentials of money, so these arguments were a waste of time. The host should have stepped in and directed the debaters to stay on topic, which was the pros & cons of Bitcoin. Lepard even admitted that BC is not money because apparently hardly anyone is using it; most are hording and saving it in the hope of a higher price. I guess he considers it strictly an investment since he clearly admits that almost no one tries to use it to transact business.
Lepard even goes on to say money doesn’t need to have a use (you’ve got to be kidding). OK then, Larry, I’ll pay you one million atoms for that house you have for sale. What, what’s that you say? “Well Jimbob, just what the hell am I supposed to do with a million atoms?? Why, they don’t have any use or value to me!” That’s right Lar Bear; they don’t. But you said money doesn’t have to have a use, right? Right !!
The other interesting thing here is that just like 99% of the entire population of the world, both Lepard and Schiff totally miss the point of what gives BC value. I mean, after all, some people believe Bitcoin has value and are willing to pay a shitpot of money for them. This is a question that no one, and I mean no one, seems to be willing to ask, and more importantly answer.
So just what makes BC valuable, exactly?? A Bitcoin, of and by itself, has absolutely no value that any sane, reasonable, rational human being would ever give it. To think otherwise and just nuts. The real value, and only value here is, the BC system. It’s the system that allows one to transfer a currency (any currency, it doesn’t have to be dollars) from one place to another, and, supposedly, with complete anonymity. And that’s it. End of story. What is so hard to figure out here? The BC system allows you to supposedly transfer money easily, and quickly. But it’s not free. Someone has to pay for this huge money transfer machinery, and that’s you the BC holder.
If BC was real money, just why in the hell would you need to exchange it for dollars, or yen, or euros, or whatever? This fact would never, ever be admitted to by Lepard because that would blow his arguments for BC wide open. He would be admitting that it has absolutely no value and the jig, as they say, would be up.
Bitcoin is the “pet rock” of the 2000’s…a “fart on a hard drive”. I just hope that when it crashes all of the big promoters still have lots of money tired up in it. I’m gonna laugh…and laugh…and laugh!