PaperImperium

Those who follow me know that I think there is a lot to learn about stablecoins by going deep into the history of money (both private and public, both fiat and commodity). Today, let’s talk about debasement.
For modern fiat currency, we don’t think about debasement much, which is more of a journey, and focus on the destination, which is inflation. This is because there’s not much to actually debase for a fiat currency.
But debasement used to be a major concern for metallic money. Florins, Ducats, Shekels, and (the most successful though dollarizing Spanish trade and the United States) the Doll

The headline actually undersells this, because the last time Japan had 1% rates, it was in the context of a rate cutting cycle from 6% down to 0.5% in the early 1990s. So only people who were around in 1989/90 or before have experienced a tightening cycle in Japan, notwithstanding brief hikes up to 0.75% in the sunup to the Great Financial Crisis.
Interest rates play an especially important role in countries that depend upon either trade surpluses or capital flows surpluses. In the case of Japan, the yen is very weak right now compared to 1995 (about 160 yen/USD vs 80 back then). The Bank of J

One of the darker periods in financial innovation was the securitization of loans using human collateral. While lending against slaves, serfs, and unfree labor doubtlessly occurred wherever unfree labor was institutionalized throughout history, the late 1700s and early 1800s brought new, complex structures as global finance exploded.
The use of American slaves was so prevalent that in at least one county one in four slaves was serving not just as labor in the fields, but as collateral pledged to a loan. Loans were generally either purchase-money mortgages (to acquire a slave) or equity mortgag

Successful stablecoin-like products historically solved for a major problem, and giving yield to users wasn’t it.
Tether: shortage of USD on blockchains and emerging markets
Feng Piao Notes: shortage of local currency in 1920s Manchuria
UK Private Coinage: shortage of small-denomination GBP
Wildcat Banknotes: shortage of currency in US hinterlands and frontiers
Swedish Banknotes: shortage of SEK currency
You’ll notice that all of these tackled a common problem that led to their adoption - a shortage of currency and local liquidity.
This is why I’m so bullish on stablecoins as a category but b

When people mention private money, they usually think of private banknotes. I’ve also pointed out time and again that most money today is private money, in the form of bank deposits.
But there’s also the curious case of private coinage in the 1700s & 1800s UK.
At the time, coinage was minted by bringing the metal (gold, silver, or copper in the case of the British Royal Mint) to the mint and paying a striking fee.
This of course meant you lost a little money to mint money (not unlike many stablecoins). You also had to physically transport your guineas, shillings, pennies, farthings, etc, so co

I am so, so sad that NES Nobunaga’s Ambition is finally on Switch… but it’s only on Switch 2.
I’ve put out an RFP to my kids to see which will let me rent time on their devices the cheapest. Other than Final Fantasy, the NES game I spent the most hours on bc of replayability