Hello C3 Family!

Weekly Rant - Buying BTC

I was recently asked by a family member about buying XRP, a somewhat mainstream cryptocurrency. The person asked if it was a good financial investment. I told them my honest opinion, yes it would most likely grow exponentially over the next decade and beyond. I of course told them that I do not condone buying low and selling high without performing labor, but I also do not condemn the purchasing of crypto.

I personally have been contemplating buying BTC again (I used to own some before my financial conversion). I do not approve of treating BTC or any crypto or asset as a speculative stock, but I have routinely made the argument that if you believe BTC or some other crypto is a viable and better currency than say the US dollar, than by all means trade that USD for BTC and use the BTC as currency.

I produced a series of rants a few months ago talking about currency replacements and they all can be found at www.christcenteredcapital.com. During those rants I said that Gold is pretty much an impossibility and has no guarantees against governments messing with the price, the USD leads to a lot of corruption but is somewhat working to keep the house of cards afloat, and BTC has some major issues of centralization and abstraction, but it is probably no worse than the USD. I know, I am not putting off a lot of sunshine and rainbow vibes here. But if we are to work with what we are given, then it may be the best option to own both fiat currency, and BTC and really try to use both as a means of exchange in your everyday life. If fiat and crypto are our only options in this fallen world and both have issues, then we should not give all the power to one or the other, we should divide and conquer. 

Again, I am not condoning buying BTC or any other crypto and just waiting for it to go up so you can sell it and get some more cash. BUT I am saying buying BTC and using it as a means of exchange is morally acceptable given my understanding and deep dive into the morality of wealth and investing.

Top Stories

• The tariffs are coming for Canada, Mexico , and China. President elect Trump vowed to place a 25% tariff on all products imported to the US from CAN and MEX as well as an additional 10% on all products imported by China. Economists are torn on what the overall outcome will be. Right now we rely heavy on imported goods and tariffs would make the shift the prices of those goods on to American consumers. However, the love fest for tariffs may do exactly what Trump wants...incentivize American production.

• A potential cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah will be voted on today. Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly agreed to the deal "in principle." The cease-fire is a US Backed agreement. It would move Hezbollah further north away from Israel and it would Israel troops withdraw from Lebanon.

• Trump wants to kill the EV tax credit, but CA gov. Gavin Newsome wants it to stay in his state. However, Newsome wants to exclude Tesla's because he hates people who ally with Trump wants to promote competition.

• The market as a whole, BTC, and even the ten-year treasury bond are all trending up in this short thanksgiving week. Trumps nominee for secretary of the treasury is hedge fund manager Scott Bessent. Mr Bessent is exactly who WallStreet wanted, and he is pro crypto, so a lot of establishment people are happy with the pick, hence the uptick in all things financial.

• The COP29 Climate summit agreed to send $300 billion from rich countries like the US to poor countries affected most by climate change. Trump is expected to reject the deal when he takes office. I mean, why should we, a country $35T in debt send another $300B to poor countries to fix a semi-made up problem?!

• Gladiator II and Wicked both performed well at the Box office but both films actually fell just short of their projections. 

• A judge has upheld the laws banning transgender surgeries in Missouri. Praise the Lord. 

• The Catholic News Agency released this article on Monday titled Investing with a clear conscience. The article details many problems with modern day investing like passively funding corporations that promote abortion or pornography or slave labor. And some of the companies mentioned I believe are really trying to do some good in the world, but why is it no one ever questions the premise of modern-day investing. Why do we just accept that the growth for the sake of growth is permissible?