Thursday, April 23 — A History Lesson
Your money, explained like I'm family.
The Debase Brief
Thursday, April 23 — A History Lesson
Written by Unc LASTE · Your money, explained like I'm family
Your tank takes the same amount of gas it always did. But now filling it feels like a decision. You used to just pull up and pump. Now you check the price first, maybe drive to the next station. Your grocery cart looks smaller than it used to. Not because you're buying less food, you are, but because the same money gets you fewer bags. The electricity bill that used to be background noise is now a line item you actually look at.
This happened before. In the early seventies, oil stopped flowing from the Middle East. Gas stations ran dry. People waited in lines that wrapped around blocks, hoping to get their ration before the pumps went empty. The government handed out stickers, odd and even license plates, different days to buy gas. Real shortages. Real rationing. Today we have another oil crisis, bigger than that one. More oil offline. Higher prices. But no lines.
Here's what changed. Back then, when oil got expensive, we ran out of dollars to buy it. The government had to ration because there was only so much money. Then they broke that link, no more gold backing, no more limits. Now when oil gets expensive, they just create more dollars. No lines at the gas station because they print whatever it takes to keep the pumps flowing. The shortage moved from the gas station to your wallet.
They solved the visible crisis by creating an invisible one. No angry voters in gas lines. Just tired workers whose paychecks buy less every month. Once you see this pattern, how they trade tomorrow's purchasing power for today's political peace, you can't unsee it. And that's where your power begins.
They'll tell you inflation is under control. The official number comes in lower every month, like clockwork. But your tank doesn't lie. Your grocery receipt doesn't lie. The gap between what they measure and what you pay keeps growing. They changed how they count, what they include, when they adjust. Meanwhile, the money printer keeps running.
Every month, more dollars chase the same stuff. The money supply grows like a weed nobody's pulling. The government spends more than it takes in, then borrows the difference, then prints to pay the interest. It's a machine that only runs in one direction. Your paycheck stays flat while everything else climbs.
Bitcoin doesn't care about oil embargos or shipping lanes. The network produces a new block every ten minutes. No central bank can print more. No crisis changes the math.
This is what they don't teach in school: money is supposed to hold value, not leak it. Every dollar in your savings account gets a little weaker while you sleep. But there's a network out there, decentralized, unbothered, mathematically certain, that can't be diluted. It just keeps running, block after block, while everything else bends to politics and panic.
Let me tell you about Richard Cantillon. Irish banker, early 1700s, figured out something about money that still pisses me off today. He watched how new money moved through France and noticed the obvious: the king's friends got rich first. By the time that money reached the baker, the butcher, the regular people, prices had already gone up. The money was worth less by the time it got to them.
Cantillon called it like he saw it. New money doesn't rain down evenly. It flows through specific channels. From the source to the connected, from the connected to their friends, and eventually, maybe, to you. Each step down that chain, the money loses purchasing power. The folks at the top buy assets while they're cheap. You buy groceries after they're expensive.
Fast forward to 2008. Banks were failing. The Fed created new money to save them. Trillions. Did you get any? Did your neighbor? No. The banks got it first. They bought assets with it. Stocks. Bonds. Real estate. By the time that money worked its way to your employer, to your paycheck, those assets had already gone up. You got the inflation without the assets.
Same thing in 2020, but bigger. The money printer went into overdrive. Some of it came as stimulus checks, sure. But the real money, the big money, went to corporations first. They borrowed at basically zero percent. Bought back their own stock. Bought their competitors. Bought real estate. By the time you got your stimulus check, used cars were already up. Lumber was through the roof. Your twelve hundred bucks bought less than it would have six months earlier.
New money → Insiders → Asset prices rise → Wages adjust last → You pay higher prices with old wages
This is happening right now. Today. While you read this. The money supply is growing. The people closest to that new money are buying assets with it. Real estate in good neighborhoods. Stocks of companies you've heard of. Commodities. Bitcoin. By the time that money reaches your next raise, if you get one, those things will cost more.
Your parents could work one job and buy a house. You need two incomes and still might not qualify. That's not because you're doing something wrong. That's the Cantillon Effect playing out over generations. The money got to the asset owners first. Always does.
Here's what Cantillon couldn't have imagined. Money that can't be printed. Money where nobody sits closer to the printer because there is no printer. Bitcoin. Twenty-one million. That's it. No Fed. No Treasury. No insiders getting first dibs on new supply. When you buy it, you're buying the same thing as everyone else at the same time. No Cantillon Effect because there's no new supply to distribute unfairly.
The game's been rigged for three hundred years. Same playbook. New money, insiders first, you last. Bitcoin breaks that game. Not because it's high-tech. Because it's fair. Nobody gets to print more and hand it to their friends. That's the real innovation.
Next week looks quiet on the calendar, but that's when the real moves happen. With oil supplies still choked off and prices burning through everyone's budget, watch for emergency meetings that nobody scheduled yet, central banks don't like surprises, and this energy crisis is writing checks their policies can't cash.
Look at what filling your tank revealed today. They created so much money that even the most basic errands now require calculation. Every trip costs more not because oil is scarce or truckers are greedy, but because they diluted every dollar you earn. This is their system working exactly as designed, you get poorer while holding the same amount of money.
But there's one thing that can't be diluted. Bitcoin. 21 million coins. No matter how much debt they create, how many dollars they print, how many ways they find to make your paycheck worth less, that number stays fixed. While they turn your gas money into their hidden tax, this network keeps the only promise that matters: nobody can make more.
Your commute told you everything today. Now you get to decide what currency you save in.
Choose Your Lens
Same data. Your reality.
Retiree / Fixed Income
If you're living on a fixed income, you already know the official inflation numbers are fantasy. Your Social Security adjustment doesn't come close to covering what actually went up, the medications, the property taxes, the insurance premiums that somehow double when everything else goes up by "just a few percent."
Here's what they won't tell you at the bank: this is deliberate, and understanding that gives you power. You can't change the game, but you can stop believing their scoreboard and start protecting what you've worked forty years to build.
Small Business Owner
If you run a small business, you're watching your margins disappear one supplier invoice at a time. Your costs keep climbing but your customers can only pay so much before they walk, so you eat the difference and hope next quarter is better.
Start tracking your real costs versus what the government says inflation is, when you see the gap, you'll stop waiting for things to "normalize" and start planning for what's actually happening.
Real Estate
If you're in real estate, you're watching buyers disappear into thin air. The same house that would have had ten offers last year now sits while potential buyers do math on their grocery receipts instead of mortgage calculators. But here's what they don't see yet: when the money printer really gets going again, they'll panic-buy anything with a roof, and you'll be the one who stayed ready while everyone else was reading headlines.
Equities / Investor
If you're watching your portfolio swing while your purchasing power shrinks, you're seeing both sides of the money game. Your stocks might be up, but if they're not beating the real cost of living, not the official number, the actual cost, you're running to stand still.
The companies that understand this are the ones raising prices faster than their costs. Find them, own them, and let other people's inflation work for you.
Student / Young Professional
If you're grinding through unpaid internships while your student loans sit there growing, you're watching prices rise faster than any entry-level salary they'll offer you. You see your parents' generation bought houses on one income while you're calculating if you can afford both gas and groceries this week, but here's what they don't get: you understand this game is rigged, and knowing that early means you can play it differently than they did.
Beginner / I'm New Here
If you're just starting to notice your paycheck doesn't stretch like it used to, you're not crazy. The game changed while you were working, and nobody sent you the memo, your groceries cost more, your gas costs more, everything costs more while your income stayed about the same. Start tracking what you actually spend versus what the news says things cost, because once you see the gap, you can't unsee it. That awareness is your first step to protecting what you earn.
Expat / Global
You left your home country for opportunity, but now you're watching two currencies fail you at once. The dollar you earn keeps buying less while your home currency slides even further, making those family remittances hurt twice as much.
But you see what most people miss, you've already voted with your feet once, and you understand that money has borders even when opportunity doesn't. That perspective is worth more than any exchange rate.