Surviving the WEF's New Normal

By now, many of you will have heard of the “Great Reset." The WEF’s economic agenda that sets out how the world recovers in the post-pandemic age.

I have seen a great deal of coverage of this topic. Some of it claiming that it was “nothing but a conspiracy” while others hypothesised about a global economic shift in which we will truly own nothing.

As is the case with so many of these things, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

But, whether there is an actual “agenda” is of lesser importance. What really matters is that we personally take the steps needed to secure our personal and financial freedom - such that no one can infringe upon either of them.

That’s why I thought it would be a great idea to run through a number of ways in which you can effectively resist any pressure to conform to a “new normal” - whatever that may be. Even if you don’t think this is a risk worth worrying about, you will definitely appreciate some of these practical tips.

You can watch that video here.

📊 My Personal Portfolio 📊

I have decided to sell a small portion of my ETH portfolio and have allocated this to Lido Finance’s LDO token. That’s mainly a play on the successful execution of the merge.

After doing more research for my upcoming vid on Ethereum, I am more bullish on the chances of a merge being pulled off successfully. If the merge is a success, there will be immense demand for liquid staking and, as the most well known liquid staking protocol, Lido finance is likely to get the lion’s share of that.

There have been no other changes to my portfolio. You can follow my Telegram channel if you want to know about these market moves in real time.

ETH 39.06% | BTC 32.19% | USDC 5.20% | SOL 4.45% | DOT 4.12% | ATOM 3.98% | RUNE 1.53% | LDO 1.50% | MATIC 1.39% | ADA 1.38% | NEAR 1.32% | STETH 1.21% | HNT 0.84% | FTM 0.73% | LINK 0.56% | INJ 0.56%

📈 Thoughts on Market 📈

Fire in the (Jackson) hole! The moment Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said the Fed is ready to ‘bring some pain’ on Friday, investors priced in the obvious. Come September, the Fed will be raising interest rates higher than many investors had expected. The CME’s FedWatch tool subsequently flipped from a 0.5% interest rate hike to a 0.75% rate hike prediction, but here’s what they’re not telling you: the future hasn’t happened yet.

It seems that those watching Jerome’s abnormally short Jackson Hole speech failed to take note of something extremely important he said. What the Fed is looking for is concrete evidence that inflation is coming down. One month of a lower CPI print might not be enough, but two months of a lower CPI might just do the trick. As it so happens, the next CPI print comes out on September 13th, which is roughly when the Ethereum merge will occur.

With some luck, the next CPI print will come in low enough for the crypto market to rally, and while it’s certainly not guaranteed, the cooling off we’ve recently seen in the hot-housing market could be enough to crush demand in the short term. That’s because most of the middle class hold their wealth in their homes. As such, the actual and potential double digit loss could crush consumer sentiment enough to create another lower CPI print for August.

While we wait, we have lots more crypto FUD to look forward to. As some of you may have seen, an Ethereum developer found a bug in the project’s code, leading to fears that the merge could be delayed. Just yesterday, the second most popular cloud platform for Ethereum nodes suddenly announced that crypto uses of any kind were against its terms and conditions. Interesting timing given that the Ethereum merge is just 3 weeks away.

Speaking of timing, things are looking pretty grim on the price charts for both BTC and ETH. We are barely holding on to that 20k support level for BTC and by the time you read this there’s a high chance we’ll be below it. The same goes for ETH at the 1500 level. The silver lining is that ETH is still holding strong against BTC, and we could start to see more positive price action in ETH as the Merge approaches, specifically around September 6th.

Not only that, but BTC and ETH are both looking oversold according to my favourite buy the dip indicators. This is especially true for Lido Finance’s LDO token, hence why I decided to pick it up at these levels. Some of my colleagues here at the Coin Bureau have been pushing me to allocate a couple of bips of my dry powder into Ethereum Classic’s ETC, but I’m not at all sold on the idea because of the upcoming proof of work forks.

On that note, you’ve probably noticed that Binance and Coinbase both recently announced they will be pausing ETH and ERC-20 deposits and withdrawals during the merge. This immediately reminded me of the video we did some time ago about all the things that could go wrong when you try and cash out. Deposits and withdrawals are some of these things, and it’s nice to know that they’re letting us know for once, even down to the exact times.

So, ask yourself what you plan to do when the merge comes around. Again, these exchange freezes won’t just apply to ETH, but also ERC-20 tokens. Not financial advice, but I would consider moving some or even all of your stablecoin holdings to other chains (and not layer 2s because they’re reliant on Ethereum). And, if you have any ETH or ERC-20 tokens you want to sell soon, consider moving them to exchanges in the next week or so.

I hate to say it, but you never really know what could happen at the layer 1 level, so in this case it’s best not to expose yourself to unwanted risks. Whatever you do, just stick to using a regulated crypto exchange so you lower your chances of getting rekt. Also, bear in mind that we could see some exchange outages because of all the trading activity, so it might even be worth having some wrapped ETH and ERC-20 tokens on other chains for DeFi trading.

Exciting times ahead, and not just because of crypto…

🥶 Winter is Coming 🥶

A few weeks ago, I did a video on the coming energy crisis in Europe. In it, I talked about some of the biggest risks facing the continent from an energy security perspective. However, I never expected that it would get as bad as it has recently.

Energy prices have been skyrocketing in a number of countries. In the Euro area, it costs almost €600 per Megawatt hour for electricity. That’s up from under €100 at the beginning of the year.

In the UK, things aren’t looking any better either. That’s because this October, the UK energy regulator has agreed to raise its price cap by 80%! This price cap applies to over 24 million households in the country.

Of course, given that energy is such a large component in the cost of numerous other goods and services, this is going to have massive implications for inflation. There are several countries that are already experiencing double-digit inflation. Here in the UK, we recently breached 10.1%, which is a 40-year high - and it is projected to get even worse.

According to some economists at Citigroup, if gas prices continue their meteoric rise then we could see inflation as high as 18.6%!! This is leading many to conclude that the UK will have a severe cost of living crisis in the coming months.

It’s also worth noting that Europe isn’t the only continent that will be competing for limited gas supplies this winter. Because they are trying to wean themselves off of Russian gas, they are going to have to increasingly rely on LNG imports. These LNG shipments will also be in high demand in Asia - especially if they too have a cold winter.

The worst outcome could come if there just isn’t enough energy to go around. This led to a number of fears around potential gas rationing. That has become a serious possibility and the EU asked its member states to reduce consumption by 15% from the 1st of August to the 31st of March next year.

The measures taken by individual countries to limit energy use have also been quite telling. For example, in Germany a number of cities have rolled out measures such as dimming street lights and limiting heating of public buildings. The economy minister has also urged citizens to take shorter showers and increase their fridge’s temperature.

In Spain, parliament even approved a law that would limit heating and cooling for most businesses and public spaces. They are now not allowed to set aircons temperatures at lower than 27c in summer or heating temps at higher than 19c in winter.

Of course, there is hope. An early end to the conflict in Ukraine could mean that energy disruptions ease. Moreover, there are moves afoot to restart coal plants in order to make up for the lack of electricity supplies.

No, this isn’t ideal, but when the choice is between dirty energy or no energy, the former is usually chosen. If you’re wondering how we got here, well, let me tell you…

🤔 ESG Is A Worrying Ideology 🤔

The Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investment trend being foisted upon us by asset managers like Blackrock is an extreme ideology. In this case, the damage it has done to society takes the form of the current energy crisis, which began long before Russia invaded Ukraine.

This is something that both people and politicians are quickly becoming aware of, which is why Texas recently took the bold move to effectively ban Blackrock and other large ESG investors from doing business in the state. Florida effectively followed suit by banning state pensions from investing in accordance with the ESG ideology. This seems to be the beginning of a bigger trend that could grow to a global scale, and not just because of energy.

Blockworks Macro recently put out an incredible interview with an expert in shipping. I strongly recommend giving it a watch if you have time, because it’s as equally fascinating as it is concerning. The TLDR is that ship builders have stopped building because of ESG-related policies, which make it unclear what kinds of fuel will count as ‘green’ in the future. This means that we’re likely to see a shipping crisis soon.

Meanwhile in Canada, the government has decided it’s going to force farmers to cut fertiliser use by 30% by 2030, which will result in less food production. Note that this is coming at a time when we are on the brink of a global food shortage. All the while, the private sector is pushing people to eat plants and bugs to save the planet, despite the fact that these foods aren’t exactly eco-friendly either. The good news is that nobody wants the plants or the bugs.

The bad news is that public opinion isn’t stopping the people in power from pushing the ESG ideology from the top down. This begs the question of what comes next, and, if you ask me, it’s the same thing that always comes when the people in power refuse to listen to the public: pushback. There are already massive protests happening around the world in countries like Argentina and Pakistan, where the government is trying to use digital ID to stop the protests.

Now, you’d think that this pushback is a good thing. After all, when the current people in power are toppled, the next ones to take power will represent the public, right? Well, not exactly. In Sri Lanka, the people in power were effectively pushed out, but it appears that the new president is in bed with the World Economic Forum. This is consistent with the WEF’s focus on taking power from the bottom up, rather than the top down, as per today’s video.

Call me crazy, but it really seems like the great reset, the ESG investment ideology, the UN’s 2030 agenda and other such global initiatives are all the same things being pushed by the same people. As scary as this is, it makes it easy to know when you ought to push back. Just ask yourself the following question: will this idea or policy result in the centralisation of power when it’s put into practice? If yes, then chances are it’s something you should oppose.

Let’s just say you’ll be surprised with how many times the answer is yes. Thank God for crypto.

🔥 Deal of The Week 🔥

Volatility can be stomach churning at times, but it also presents a number of opportunities for the astute value hunters out there. Coins going on sale because of irrational market conditions.

If you consider yourself a value hunter, then you are going to need a top-notch crypto exchange. Not only that, but you are going to want a bargain when it comes to trading fees - these do, after all, add up over time.

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🔮 Video Pipeline 🔮

• You will own Nothing: Here’s Why
• Ethereum Merge Update: Some Concerns
• Cosmos Update: ATOM Beating The Bear Market?
• The Incoming Retail Crypto Trading Ban
• Jackson Hole Symposium Summary And Implications

🏆 What's New At CoinBureau.com This Week? 🏆

✅ Stake and Earn: Complete Guide to Staking Crypto

✅ Ledger Nano S Plus Review 2022: Top Security for Altcoin & NFT Collectors

✅ Can You Still Make Money Mining Monero in 2022?

That’s all for now! However, the whole team at Coin Bureau HQ would like to give you a big thank you for your continued support and helping us produce the best content we can!

Guy your crypto guy