Bitcoin and Robinhood will end badly for those who can least afford it
The US economy’s K-shaped recovery is underway. Those with stable full-time jobs, benefits, and a financial cushion are faring well as stock markets climb to new highs. Those who are unemployed or partially employed in low-value-added blue-collar and service jobs – the new “precariat” – are saddled with debt, have little financial wealth, and face diminishing economic prospects.
These trends indicate a growing disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street. The new stock market highs mean nothing to most people. The bottom 50% of the wealth distribution holds just 0.7% of total equity market assets, whereas the top 10% commands 87.2%, and the top 1% holds 51.8%. The 50 richest people have as much wealth as the 165 million people at the bottom.
Rising inequality has followed the ascent of “Big Tech”. As many as three retail jobs are lost for every job that Amazon creates, and similar dynamics hold true in other sectors dominated by tech giants. But today’s social and economic stresses are not new. For decades, strapped workers have not been able to keep up with the Joneses, owing to the stagnation of real (inflation-adjusted) median income alongside rising costs of living and spending expectations.
For decades, the “solution” to this problem was to “democratize” finance so that poor and struggling households could borrow more to buy homes they couldn’t afford, and then use those homes as cash machines. This expansion of consumer credit – mortgages and other debt – resulted in a bubble that ended with the 2008 financial crisis, when millions lost their jobs, homes, and savings.
Now, the same millennials who were shafted over a decade ago are being duped again. Workers who rely on gig, part-time, or freelance “employment” are being offered a new rope with which to hang themselves in the name of “financial democratization.” Millions have opened accounts on Robinhood and other investment apps, where they can leverage their scant savings and incomes several times over to speculate on worthless stocks.
The recent Gamestop narrative, featuring a united front of heroic small day traders fighting evil short-selling hedge funds, masks the ugly reality that a cohort of hopeless, jobless, skill-less, debt-burdened individuals is being exploited once again. Many have been convinced that financial success lies not in good jobs, hard work, and patient saving and investment, but in get-rich-quick schemes and wagers on inherently worthless assets such as cryptocurrencies (or “shitcoins” as I prefer to call them).
Make no mistake: The populist meme in which an army of millennial Davids takes down a Wall Street Goliath is merely serving another scheme to fleece clueless amateur investors. As in 2008, the inevitable result will be another asset bubble. The difference is that this time, recklessly populist members of Congress have taken to inveighing against financial intermediaries for not permitting the vulnerable to leverage themselves even more.
Making matters worse, markets are starting to worry about the massive experiment in budget-deficit monetization being carried out by the US Federal Reserve and Department of the Treasury through quantitative easing (a form of Modern Monetary Theory or “helicopter money”). A growing chorus of critics warns that this approach could overheat the economy, forcing the Fed to hike interest rates sooner than expected. Nominal and real bond yields are already rising, and this has shaken risky assets such as equities. Owing to these concerns about a Fed-led taper tantrum, a recovery that was supposed to be good for markets is now giving way to a market correction.
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats are moving ahead with a $1.9 trillion rescue package that will include additional direct support to households. But with millions already in arrears on rent and utilities payments or in moratoria on their mortgages, credit cards, and other loans, a significant share of these disbursements will go toward debt repayment and saving, with only around one-third of the stimulus likely to be translated into actual spending.
This implies that the package’s effects on growth, inflation, and bond yields will be smaller than expected. And because the additional savings will end up being funneled back into purchases of government bonds, what was meant to be a bailout for strapped households will in effect become a bailout for banks and other lenders. * Nouriel Roubini is professor of economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He has worked for the IMF, the US Federal Reserve and the World Bank.
Ancient Greece has long been a civilization full of mystery, wonder, and fantasy. Their ancient jewelry-crafting techniques are used even today, and they often inspire modern-day artisans to create some truly amazing pieces.
In fact, there’s no better symbol for the hedonism, wealth, and luxury that the ancient Greeks are so well known for than expensive, beautifully-made jewelry. Their fascinating culture is still studied to this day by scholars, menafn.com reported.
Though the archaic civilization is long gone, their traditions, history, and culture live on when used as an influence or inspiration for contemporary jewelry pieces. Wearing historically-inspired jewelry is also very on-trend right now, and there is no better place to find it than the Museum of Jewelry.
Beautiful, historically-inspired Greek jewelry collections
For the Museum of Jewelry’s selection of pieces, go to and check out some of their new designs. Their jewelry is all hand-made using the same Greek techniques utilized thousands of years ago to create historically-inspired designs. The master artisans who handmake each unique piece are extremely dedicated to their craft, keeping the ancient techniques alive and well.
History of Greek jewelry
Greek jewelry has an incredibly exciting and detailed history, but it first started to take off after the Bronze Age. Though some Greek jewelry techniques inevitably have Mesopotamian influences, the Greeks evolved and adapted those methods into a style utterly their own. Eventually, they were producing beautifully crafted pieces that symbolized the wealth and power of those who could afford to purchase and wear them. Greek nobility considered expensive gold and silver jewelry to be a status symbol — something that showed their power, protected them against evil, and helped them honor their many gods.
Mycenaean era
The Mycenaean era marked an exponential rise in the popularity of jewelry. Pieces from around that period are often found in coffins since the Greeks believed they could take their jewels with them into the afterlife. However, after the Mycenaean era ended, Greece would go through three hundred years with the very fabric of their society on the brink of ruin.
Golden era
Though the period after the Mycenaean era is sometimes referred to as the “dark ages,” the new Golden era ushered in an explosion of advancement in jewelry-making techniques and methods. They would utilize molds, precious metals, thin gold leaf, and gemstones to create exceptional-quality jewelry unrivaled in beauty. Unfortunately, after the Hellenic period, which was known for its abundance of gold pieces, Greece’s ultimate fall and their eventual conquest by Turkey brought a drastic change in jewelry design and style.
Greek jewelry has an intriguing history full of wonder
The history of Greek jewelry is a captivating subject, particularly since the ancient techniques they invented for hand-crafting jewelry are still used to this day. Authentic historical designs inspire the Museum of Jewelry’s beautiful and exclusive collections, all of which are created by master artisans using the same methods the Greeks utilized thousands of years ago. Wearing hand-crafted jewelry influenced by Greek culture is a great way to honor their traditions, letting the ancient civilization live on even in the twenty-first century.
Intermittent fasting has been touted as the way to lose weight by everyone from Silicon Valley bros to Tiktok influencers and research has shown that it is an effective way to lose weight but is it losing the right kind of weight?
A new study, conducted in mice, found that despite all the benefits of intermittent fasting, losing that spare tire isn’t one of them, forbes.com reported.
In fact, according to this latest study it can actually make your losing your belly fat harder, which isn’t great since stomach fat is strongly linked to diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
The study, published in the journal Cell Reports, looked at what happens to different types of fat tissue during intermittent fasting in mice.
What they found was that visceral “belly” fat, which is fat tissue surrounding our organs including the stomach, and subcutaneous fat, which lies just under the skin and is associated with better metabolic health, changes how it behaves when the mice only eat everyother-day.
“While most people would think that all fat tissue is the same, in fact, the location makes a big difference,” said senior author Mark Larance from the Charles Perkins Centre and School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney.
“Our data show both visceral and subcutaneous fat undergo dramatic changes during intermittent fasting.”
Usually during fasting periods, fat tissue steps into to provide energy to the body by releasing fatty acid molecules.
But when Larance and his colleagues looked at what happens to visceral fat and subcutaneous fat, they found that it went into “preservation mode” and became resistant to realizing the fatty acids.
They also noted that the stomach fat in mice adapted over time, becoming better at storing fat as energy and essentially becoming more resistant to weight loss.
“This suggests the visceral fat can adapt to repeated fasting bouts and protect its energy store,” said Larance.
“This type of adaptation may be the reason why visceral fat can be resistant to weight loss after long periods of dieting.”
Larance also said it was possible that a history of repeated fasting periods triggers a preservation signaling pathway in visceral fat.
Although, it’s unclear if diets like the 5:2 diet or other calorie restriction diets would have the same effect on visceral and subcutaneous fat.
Previous research has shown that intermittent fasting in humans might reduce belly fat.