Friday, March 13 — The Exit
Your paycheck hits the account, but it covers fewer groceries than it used to.
The Debase Brief
Friday, March 13 — The Exit
Your paycheck hits the account, but it covers fewer groceries than it used to.
The government says prices rose 2.4% over the past year.
Sugar and sweets went up 9.0%.
Electricity climbed 4.8%.
Meanwhile, they expanded the money supply by 4.29%.
That leaves a 1.89% gap where your money lost purchasing power they won't admit to.
Spotting this divergence puts you ahead of the game.
That oil shock in Section 1 is just the latest ripple on a pond that's been filling up for years.
The national debt now totals $38.88 trillion.
Every barrel of oil, every missile fired, every reserve barrel released adds to that pile.
They call CPI tame at 2.4 percent year over year for February.
Reality hits different when the bill lands on dollars already stretched thin.
Now zoom further out to Bitcoin.
I noticed its hash rate climbing to 930.1 EH/s.
That's exahashes per second securing every transaction on the network.
Miners around the world pouring more electricity into it means they see value holding steady through the storm.
Your exit doesn't bend to debt clocks or oil pipelines.
It gets fortified when the world shakes.
If you're pulling a paycheck every two weeks, that money hits the bank but picks up fewer groceries at the store.
Bitcoin rose 4.24% in the last 24 hours. It's the supply they can't expand.
If you've got savings stacked up from years of setting some aside, those dollars buy less sugar and staples now.
Bitcoin trades at $73,050 today. No central bank adds to its 21 million cap.
If you're running a small business, your costs climb while customers pinch pennies on extras.
Bitcoin's network hash rate hit 930 EH/s. That security comes from math nobody overrides.
If you're a parent tucking away for your kids' future, watch how inflation nibbles at that nest egg's real value.
Bitcoin stands firm where gold dipped 1.17% yesterday. Scarcity you can count on.
Watch your gas pump and grocery receipt over the next couple weeks as that Hormuz oil squeeze works its way through trucking, shipping, and store shelves straight to your wallet.
FOMC drops their decision Wednesday after meeting Tuesday—see how they frame rates with energy costs spiking and what it means for your loans and savings.
Debase score landed at 1.1 today.
Gold dropped 1.17% over the last 24 hours.
Bitcoin climbed 4.24%.
That's your dollars getting shaved down while even gold takes a hit, but Bitcoin forking higher.
What hit me when I dug into it is they locked Bitcoin at 21 million coins, no overrides, no exceptions.
Take that fork early, kids, and watch how it widens from here.
Mainstream Media: "Inflation cooled to a manageable 2.4% year-over-year, with steady M2 growth at 4.29%, painting a picture of economic resilience amid Bitcoin's 4.24% daily surge."
Wall Street: "CPI at 2.4% YoY and M2 expansion of 4.29% confirm the Fed's soft landing is on track, as BTC climbs 4.24% while gold dips 1.17%, reflecting risk-on sentiment."
The Contrarian Bitcoiner: "The 1.89-point M2-CPI gap and 1.1% Debase Score expose silent debasement behind the 2.4% CPI print, sending BTC up 4.24% as gold falls 1.17%."
Choose Your Lens
Same data. Your reality.
Retiree / Fixed Income
If you're a retiree living on fixed Social Security checks and a pension that doesn't budge, you know every penny counts.
Your 2026 COLA gives you a 2.8% bump in benefits starting this year.
That's a hair above the overall CPI rise of 2.4%.
But here's the part that hits your wallet hardest: Medicare Part B premiums climbed to $202.90 per month.
Up $17.90 from $185 last year—that's a 9.7% increase in one hit.
Your COLA doesn't touch that. Neither does it cover sugar jumping 9.0% or electricity at 4.8%.
Fixed income means watching those essentials and health costs outpace your steady check, nibbling away at what you've saved over decades.
The money supply grew 4.29% last year, diluting every dollar you hold still.
But you see it now, and that's your edge.
Shift some cash into I Bonds yielding 4.03% right now—they adjust for inflation and beat bank savings hands down through April.
Or allocate a small piece to Bitcoin—trading near $73,000 with a hash rate over 930 EH/s, it's the supply they can't inflate away.
You're not locked in. Buy those I Bonds today at TreasuryDirect. Start small with Bitcoin on a trusted exchange.
Protect what you've built. Turn fixed into fortified.
Small Business Owner
You're a small business owner watching every penny as inputs like electricity and staples climb.
Your optimism index came in at 98.8 for February.[[1]](https://www.nfib.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/NFIB-SBET-Report-Feb.-2026.pdf)[[2]](https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/nfib-business-optimism-index) That's holding steady just above the 52-year average of 98.[[3]](https://www.nfib.com/news/monthly_report/sbet)
Fellow owners report higher sales and less uncertainty about the future.
They're planning to hire more and make capital outlays because they see demand sticking around.
Producer prices rose 2.9% over the past year for final demand.[[4]](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ppi.nr0.htm) Your costs are up, but not exploding.
Consumers keep spending, powering the economy even as debt piles to $38 trillion and money supply grows faster than wages.
Bitcoin's hash rate at over 930 EH/s shows the smart money fortifying a supply they can't inflate away.
You see this clearer than the corner office crowd.
Small biz owners like you stay optimistic because you've got pricing power and real customer relationships.
Raise prices now on those essentials – customers are still buying. Set aside 10% of profits into Bitcoin each month. Your edge is acting first while others chase headlines. This positions your business to thrive when the gap widens.
Real Estate
If you're in real estate—whether you're a homeowner sitting on equity, a landlord with rentals, or flipping houses for a living—your world revolves around property values and rents.
You've seen the headlines about inflation eating paychecks, but here's what hits your portfolio hardest: home prices rose just 1.27% year over year according to the Case-Shiller index.
That's lagging behind the 2.4% CPI rise we talked about. Your biggest asset isn't keeping pace with the grocery bill or electricity costs.
Add in 6.11% mortgage rates, and buyers are sidelined. Existing home sales clocked in at 4.09 million annualized—still low, keeping inventory tight but transactions slow.
Delinquency rates sit at a low 1.78%, which means tenants and owners are hanging on, but rents can't climb forever without pushback.
The money supply grew 4.29%, diluting dollars while your properties grind sideways. Real estate was the reliable store of value, but now it's vulnerable to rates and affordability squeezes.
Bitcoin's hash rate at over 930 EH/s shows miners betting big on something scarcer than land. Its price jumped 4.24% in a day, outpacing home appreciation by miles.
Here's your move: treat real estate as your steady base, but pull some equity or savings into Bitcoin. It's the hard asset that doesn't bend to Fed printers or rate hikes.
You'll sleep better knowing part of your wealth is secured by math, not markets. Spot this shift now, and you're positioning for the next decade where scarcity wins.
Equities / Investor
If you're the investor glued to your Bloomberg terminal or checking the S&P 500 ticker every morning, you see the headlines touting nominal gains, but dig deeper and inflation is quietly eating your real returns.
Your equities portfolio is down a nominal 2.53% year-to-date.
Adjust for the 2.4% CPI rise the government reports, and your real return drops to -4.93%.
That's the gap nobody talks about at the water cooler. The VIX sits at 24.23, signaling the market's fear gauge is elevated while money supply grows 4.29% year-over-year. Stocks chase growth, but when nominal GDP outpaces real GDP by 30.65% cumulatively, it's a reminder that dollars dilute everything they touch—including your hard-won equity positions.
You built your portfolio on diversification and buy-and-hold, but this environment tests that. Oil shocks and debt at $38.88 trillion ripple through earnings reports and P/E ratios. Sugar up 9%, electricity 4.8%—those input costs squeeze margins for the companies you own. Meanwhile, Bitcoin's hash rate at 930 EH/s shows miners betting big on scarcity amid the fiat flood.
Here's the lens shift: equities are tethered to the same money printer that's eroding their real value. You've got the edge spotting this before the next dip.
What you can do right now: Allocate a slice to Bitcoin's fixed 21 million supply. It's up 4.24% in 24 hours at $73,050, fortified by global compute power no Fed can touch. Your portfolio gets a hedge that thrives when volatility spikes and inflation gnaws. Turn awareness into action—stack sats alongside your SPY shares, and watch your real wealth hold the line.
Student / Young Professional
If you're a student buried under loans or a young professional watching every paycheck vanish into rent and bills, listen up.
Federal student loans for undergrads charge 6.39% interest right now.
That's your one key number. It outpaces headline CPI at 2.4 percent. Shelter costs, which hit renters like you hardest, rose 3.0% over the past year.
The personal savings rate sits at 3.6% nationally. Folks are saving just 3.6 percent of disposable income. For your generation, it's often less as rent claims 30 percent or more of starting pay.
You're borrowing at 6.39 percent while inflation nibbles away and savings barely keep pace. Add money supply growth outstripping CPI, and that loan feels heavier each month. Rent hikes compound it—your apartment costs more, but wages lag. Electricity up 4.8 percent, sugar 9 percent. Essentials squeeze tighter when you're building from scratch.
No wonder building wealth feels impossible. But you see what others miss. That hash rate on Bitcoin at 930 EH/s? Miners betting big on its scarcity amid the debt pileup. Bitcoin up 4.24 percent in a day, price $73,050, supply capped forever.
Here's your move: Chip away at that high-interest debt first. Then, dollar-cost average into Bitcoin. Even $50 a week. It's your hedge against the gap. No central bank dilutes it. You're not waiting a decade to catch up—you're positioning now. That knowledge turns pressure into power. You've got this.
Beginner / I'm New Here
If you're new here, just starting to pay attention to why your paycheck disappears faster at the grocery store, this is for you.
You might think inflation is some abstract number on the news, but it hits your cart first.
Sugar and sweets shot up 9.0% over the past year.
That's not the overall average they quote on TV.
The headline CPI only rose 2.4%.
See the difference? Your everyday buys like snacks for movie night or ingredients for dinner climb way faster than the official story.
You're feeling it because those are the things you notice week to week, not some wonky average that smooths everything out.
Money supply grew 4.29% in the same stretch, widening that real gap your dollars face.
As a beginner, don't get lost in all the charts yet.
Just know this one number on sugar tells you more about your wallet than hours of cable news.
It shows how the system's averages hide the pinch on what you actually spend money on.
Now flip it to power.
Bitcoin miners cranked the network hash rate to 930 EH/s.
That's global computers betting big on something they can't inflate away.
You don't need to be an expert to get why that's your kind of signal.
Here's your move: Track three things you buy every week—milk, bread, sugar.
Write down the prices next shopping trip.
Do that for a month, and you'll see the erosion with your own eyes—no trusting reports needed.
Then, grab a bitcoin wallet app, buy $20 worth, and watch how it holds when sugar doesn't.
You're not behind; you're first in line to fix it for yourself.
That's the edge beginners get when they start simple.
Expat / Global
If you're an expat juggling currencies across borders or a global nomad chasing opportunities worldwide, you feel the pinch when your USD buys less no matter the country.
Bitcoin's hash rate sits at 930.1 EH/s.
That's exahashes per second of computing power from miners spread across the planet—China, the US, Russia, Kazakhstan—securing every transaction on a network that doesn't care about your passport or timezone.
You watch local inflations spike in one spot, currency controls tighten in another, but this global army of rigs keeps humming, betting their electricity and hardware that Bitcoin holds value through it all.
Your vantage point outside the US bubble lets you see it clearest: while fiat fights local battles, Bitcoin builds a fortress everyone contributes to.
America's debt piles to $38.88 trillion, pressuring the dollar you wire home or convert abroad.
Exchange rates swing harder when that debt fuels money printing.
But you aren't stuck holding one weakening currency.
Your mobility means you spot arbitrages others miss—like cheaper power for mining abroad or stablecoin ramps in friendlier jurisdictions.
Bitcoin Price