“Men trust their ears less than their eyes”
~ Herodutus
Written by Bryan Lutz, Edito at Dollarcollapse.com:
Lately, trust in the federal government is spiralling down, down, down…
All the way to… well…
We don’t see a bottom quite yet.
Social trust in the US government, and in fact many of the most important leaders of the west are nearing all-time lows.
(source: Visual Capitalist)
And now, in the face of a national disaster called Hurricane Helene, Kamala says she wouldn’t change a thing, while Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken announces $157 Million in humanitarian aid for Lebanon.
It’s pretty much a fact now, Americans are suffering and no one is coming to help them.
Actually, all their help went somewhere else…
John Rubino writes:
Broke FEMA and the Shrinking Trust Horizon
“So they send the Tennessee National Guard to the Middle East and FEMA (it is widely claimed) spends its rainy day fund on illegal immigrants.
And then, because that’s how the universe works, a massive hurricane hits the South and FEMA runs out of money.”
It seems it’s all about the money.
Yes, money is proof of trust.
Before there is any government needed, people make transactions for their own benefit.
They trade one thing for another.
And when the need arises, people use some kind of currency.
They place their trust in one set sea shells, coins, or bolts of cloth.
Trust was much easier when life was slower, and personal value was built over a several decades of community and relationship building inside a trade guild, or through apprenticeships.
And if a person were to interact with a business, they’d go with the one they knew…
One that was a going concern, that had a reputation for delivering.
Charles Hugh Smith writes:
Social Trust: It’s Not Warm and Fuzzy, It’s the Money, Honey
“In several critical ways, social trust isn’t warm and fuzzy, it’s all about the money, honey. In high-trust societies, transactions are frictionless and low-cost.
In low-trust societies, transactions must go through multiple levels of verification, trusted third-parties, etc., each of which is costly.
This relationship-based economy was the model used in the ancient world, and it works well when trade and communications took months or even years.
It works well on high-value transactions, for example, ships carrying luxury goods long distances.
It works less well in a globalized, commoditized economy where the volume of transactions and business is enormous and covers a range of goods and services.
We can understand the U.S. economy as bifurcated into high-trust / low-trust segments which are difficult to tease apart unless we analyze the society and economy through the lens of class, an unpopular analysis in our supposedly classless culture.”
But, as it is, we live in a fast, easy money, low-trust culture with high-trust expectations.
Expectation that honestly, never much get satisfied.
For example, when many investors expected to give their money to crypto exchange, FTX, they expected the obligatory fiduciary care.
Kind of like what a high-income earner would expect from a financial advisor, or a bank.
Well, all that went out the window, with little to no financial regulations, and the laissez-faire mismanagement of its customer’s money.
FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, mismanaged and stole billions from his customers.
Yet, now in a twisted turn of events, those who placed money into FTX are about to make money on their deposits.
Just how much…
Well, that’s up to the clean up crew.
Not the actual creditors.
CNBC reports:
FTX creditors will make money on bankruptcy: $1.19 for every dollar
“Almost all of the creditors of failed crypto company FTX will end up profiting from the money they put into the exchange, a federal bankruptcy judge ruled Monday.
According to the plan approved by Delaware bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey, 98% of FTX’s creditors will get 119% of the amount of their allowed claim as of November 2022, when the exchange filed for bankruptcy protection….
…The bankruptcy estate says it will make a separate announcement about the date the payout plan will go into effect and when it anticipates the start of distributions.”
Is this a restoration of trust?
Actually, many of FTX’s customers had deposited money into the exchange with the intent of buying and holding Bitcoin.
In reality, FTX only held 0.1% of the total amount of Bitcoin when it filed for bankruptcy.
Any labels customers may have seen representing a purchase of Bitcoin was false. Yet, customers still order the purchase of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin, which rose 260% since FTC filed for Bankruptcy.
So, where’s their money?
Reuters reports:
FTX cleared to repay billions to customers after bankruptcy plan approval
“David Adler, an attorney representing four objecting creditors, said that the price of a bitcoin, for example, has risen to over $63,000 from its November 2022 price of $16,000. Customers that deposited bitcoin on FTX’s exchange are finding it difficult to accept FTX’s claim that they are receiving a 100% recovery based on those lower prices of two years ago, Adler said.FTX said it was not possible to simply return the crypto assets customers had deposited, because customers’ assets were gone, misappropriated by Bankman-Fried.”
They’ll never see their Bitcoin gains…
It’s looking like potential Bitcoin billionaires hopefuls will have to settle with 19% gains, instead of 260%.
If that puts more trust in our institutions, I’d be surprised.
As of right now, we’re getting more than our fair share of a social bust.
Not increased social trust.
One thought on "Social Bust: Social Trust, It’s a Money Thing"
The Americna purse strings are controlled by the Republican party… why have they not come forward with helping the American People. Why have they mostly voted against FEMA funding? Intersting is that the very districts that were impacted by the Hurricanes were districts were the House representives voted against FEMA funding for the disaters!