Another beauty from Lyn: In 1970, Congress passed the Bank Secrecy Act, which made banks file reports to the government whenever their customers do more than $10,000 in transactions within a day. Back then, this dollar amount was worth more than the median annual income, and reporting therefore happened rather infrequently. However, the Bank Secrecy Act was not adjusted for inflation, and so over the course of five decades the government has automatically reduced the threshold for necessary reporting and has therefore continually expanded their surveillance mandate each year without further legislation. The combination of restricting the number of physical banknotes in circulation, making it undesirable to hold physical banknotes for long periods of time due to inflation without interest, and surveilling bank deposits, has been an effective surveillance and control combination.

A beautifully put foundational insight by Lyn Alden at the end of chapter 6 in Broken Money: “Overall, it’s the combination of the banks and the government that have power over the ledger that most people use as money in any banking system. For a gold-backed banking system, the only part of the ledger that individual users have control of is the precious metal coins that they retain in their own custody, and for that they rely on the properties of nature to maintain the integrity of the ledger. Once they surrender coins over to the banking system, they have begun to rely on a hierarchy of other people to control their money.”

A mini rendition of a song from the album ‘Cranky’ I released last month. This one is called Ride My Steed. (You can find in Wavlake, bandcamp and lots of other places)

Reading Broken Money by Lyn Alden for the first time. This passage that links inflation and war’s likelihood is so important and close to the heart of why I care about Bitcoin. “The ability to debase money contributes to the likelihood of war and several other forms of damaged productivity occurring in the first place. The temptation for a ruler to debase coinage is too great to overcome, because it’s usually the path of least resistance when faced with a problem. If the king knows that paying for a war by outright raising taxes would likely lead to revolution, but that paying for the war via gradual debasement of coinage will not, he can justify paying for his war by relying on that second method. If he and his potential war opponent were both stuck with the first method of paying for a war with extra taxes rather than debasement, the war might not happen because their subjects might revolt if it did. The costs of the war would be more transparent and unpopular right away. In contrast to this, the ability to debase coinage to pay for a war allows the war to happen first and the costs to be partially delayed, which increases the probability of war happening and increases the scale to which it may occur. If debasement can occur, it eventually will occur for any number of reasons. The possibility for debasement exists, always and everywhere and invitingly so, as something a government can turn to whenever it can’t spend transparently on what it wants to. Aside from examples of unusually corrupt or mentally ill rulers, a king does not generally wake up one day and whimsically decide to devalue his realm’s coinage with cheaper metal for no reason. War, plagues, and other destroyers of productivity are indeed at the root of why kings usually end up debasing their money. To remain in power, rulers seek to strengthen their political position, placate their subjects, and smooth over problems that inevitably arise throughout their reign. Currency devaluation is a method that a king can resort to so that he can make increased payments without having to increase taxes for those payments, and therefore the cost instead gets pushed, over time, onto those who accept the newly devalued coins at their old face value despite not having the same metal content or supply scarcity that they used to have.” It is a bit long and taken out of its full context. I seek ways to make this easier to understand. Currently it requires a fair bit of explaining to communicate it well enough. #philosophy

This is fantastic. I love it. I would be curious to flesh it out. I’ve wondered if there is some way to quantify the benefit of storing in bitcoin versus fiat?

GM! I don’t care what form the future takes, only what spirit imbues it.

Wavlake

Cranky • Patrick Manian

Play, boost, and more on Wavlake ⚡️🎵

Dear Ear Dreamers, I'm reading Lord of the Rings again... (fuck, its good). Apparently Hobbits give presents to other people on their own birthdays. Bilbo calls it "not a bad system." So today, on this bizarre national holiday that shares my birthday, I’m following suit—and giving you a gift: An album called Cranky. I conceived it in 2023 after a few years growing desert dough, though a handful of these songs go back a decade. A handful are 'city', some are more 'folk'. I don't know if this is a genre, but I keep thinking of these tunes as headphone music — one-on-one, emotional, raw, genre-jumping and far from perfect. In a day when AI is soon to top the charts, I don't expect this to be playing in any clubs. It veers towards solitude and a long stare at the ceiling. P.S. I have many people to thank for this coming to be. Andrew Stevens (drummer for more projects than I can find) for playing the drums on all the songs and engineering machinations out in the high desert. Joe Ulmer (Rann drummer) for mixing the city ones with proper super fund slime. Tim Walsh (Jimbo Norman / Stepkids drummer) for mixing the country ones with proper twang. Ivan Anderson (Cyberattack/Sweet Fix) for Peace and Quiet picking. Jeff Manian (MSU/Sweet Fix/Jimbo Norman) for B3 magicals on Tired Along. Dan Manian (MSU/Jimbo Norman, WWB) for laying down (too) many good bass takes on Lost my Way. Hannah Gentiles for making my photo likeness crisp. Happy listening! May you find some old memories and enjoy some new feelings. P.S.S. I'll call out the 3rd song. It's a quirky one that keeps creeping closer to my heart. It has to do with the Buddhist notion of 'attainment' After all these years, how good it feels to realize I'll never attain anything! P.S.S.S. The USA, a monastery I am quite fond of in the Catskills and I all 'began' today. It's always been a confusing day to me. The disparate forces of hot dogs, fireworks, long silences, peace, pain and my desire for ice cream cake all seem swirl together — especially the way America is going these days. And yet, there is hope, because in at least some sense, we are all free — even when we're Cranky. Happy 4th of July. P.S.S.S.S. This was originally sent via email to a listserv on July 4th #music

I’m pretty sure the response would be “a wizard is never late!”

Decrepit bogs Forgotten logs Make for a hell of a night Were I a frog

Retirement home Bingo Enthralling To those in the know

"I slept, and dreamed that life was joy; I woke, and found that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy." The Dial (July 1840) — Poet Ellen Sturgis Hooper

This is my favorite song of the new batch. The joy of being a total newbie at all times. Tossing away any ideas of knowing better. Whimsical... just feels like me these days. Especially after leaving behind an overly serious aikido dojo.

Wavlake

Wavlake

Turn up the value ⚡️

#music #wavlake

Written back when I was a lonely lad in my 20's Neo soul style. But in hindsight, it could apply to many things - i.e. regrets, hesitations, desires...

Wavlake

Wavlake

Turn up the value ⚡️

What do you think of this statement? Philosophizing at its core is to help guide our rational mind back towards intuition and sensation #philosophy

I trust the world to put us where we are needed.

People think of “doing good” as volunteering or donating. But where your money sleeps is a hidden force — shaping war, surveillance, and ecology.

“Something very simple happens when you answer the question “who are you?” When you are describing or explaining or even just inwardly feeling your “self.” What you are actually doing is drawing a mental line or boundary across the whole field of your experience. Everything on the inside you are feeling or calling your “self,” while everything outside that boundary you feel to be “not-self.” Your self-identity depends entirely upon where you draw that boundary line.” - Ken Wilber from No Boundary #philosophy

Beautiful fantasies Interweave horrific realities Creating rich tapestries This dance never ends Be careful when you take a stance For where is ever shifting And now is no sure footing

Wisdom is truly self-sovereign and decentralized. No teacher can give it to a student, they can only help others to recognize it. Is it the same for everyone? That doesn’t make it centralized. We all have our own tunnel down to source.

How did we get here? Where do we go? Silly to think We run the show - popped in my head on a recent zen retreat