We are back with Marc Friedrich and his new Book The Biggest Chance of All Times. Friedrich gives us insight of how damaging the Corona pandemic has been for the economy and how it has exposed the governments even more than before. However, every crisis is a chance for the average person to get through it and come out even stronger with a much brighter future.
Interview Date : 22th March 2021
Do you think the COVID-19 pandemic will end soon?
No, it is not going to end soon. The politicians find it very charming to govern without parliament and without asking the people, and they have gotten away with many things through the pandemic excuse. It’s a very dangerous charming privilege for them. During this pandemic, there have been several cases where decisions have been made unconstitutionally.
For example, in Italy, the former ECB chief Mario Draghi was sworn in as Italy’s new prime minister without any elections. He was just put in the position with no elections – this communism and fascism. Now, even in Germany, they have made some political decisions without the parliament.
How is the EU working?
Before the European Union was founded, there was a treaty called the Maastricht Treaty. One of the things agreed upon was creating a single currency, the Euro, and it is the backbone of the foundation of the European Union. However, even this treaty was broken in the shadows of COVID-19 when Italy’s former prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, called out for economic help saying it is an “economic and social emergency”. A “corona bond” was agreed for 500 billion euros of an emergency loan. Northern European countries felt betrayed by the EU as they do not trust the hard-pressed southern ones to spend the money wisely and pay back their debts. Even though debts have never been paid back, the ECB is printing even more money to even pay for those loans promised to the south.
This is a war on our democracy and we have a socialism problem. It’s a very dangerous path we are on. Politicians feel like they don’t have to ask the parliament or anybody to do what they want; there are no elections, they can print more money, raise taxes, etc., and say “it is because of COVID-19”.
Is the election of the CP Von der Leyen also against EU’s democracy?
The Commission President of the EU, Von der Leyen, the most powerful woman in the EU today. She is a German politician who is not suited and incompetent for the job as the CP of the EU, and at all people have cried out on TV and in the news about the issue of how she was elected for the role; she never got elected to be the CP of the EU.
There were elections for the CP role of the EU, and we had two candidates; Manfred Weber and Von der Leyen. Weber won the elections through fair means, but France commented that “they don’t want him,” so they just put Von der Leyen in the position without considering any election. This is communism and anti-democratic just like how the new prime minister of Italy was chosen.
How has the family paradigm shifted?
In the 80s, in a nuclear family with 2 kids only one person, usually the father, would go out to work to provide for the family. He could provide for his family, buy property like a house, and even take his family on vacation 2~3 times a year. After all that, they were still able to save some money for retirement. That was living a good life 40 years ago.
Today, both parents have to work, and they still have to discuss if they can even afford to have children. That is why we have a demographic problem because inflation is restricting a healthy demographic growth. It is hard to believe that educated adults with jobs say “ children are too expensive.” Even if you don’t have children, you still have to work around the clock to have a decent life.
Let’s imagine a family with 2 children who want to buy an apartment in a suburb of a big city in the western world, where both the parents are working. That purchase would be the end game for them. They will rarely be able to go on vacation. Furthermore, as the currency continues to debase and we have 0-interest policies coupled with increase in inflation, there will be no room to save anything for their retirement either. The monetary system will ultimately create poverty parabolically, and that is why people have to invest in something like Bitcoin to be free because the system is in favor of the super-rich.
What kind of a family did you grow up in?
My father was a handyman building and making houses. He earned around 1000 euro a month, but throughout his life my father was able to provide for us, buy a flat, take us to different destinations on vacation with that money he made back then. It is mind-blowing. today, even if you earn 5000 euro a month, it doesn’t really mean you are super-rich anymore. You have to think about your high rent, food, and services, etc., and the money will be gone. Let’s not forget that you have to pay income tax as well, and income tax is up to 40% in Germany with some of the highest tax rates in the world.
Does it matter if our governments are right-winged or left-winged?
I’m looking forward to a change in the political system because it’s hard to bear the present system, and that is why I have so much gray hair. I know it will be a challenge and collateral damages coming with the change, but I hope it will end well.
It doesn’t matter if we have a right-wing or a left-wing political system as long as we can have a government for the people. We need a new political system. I always believe in evolution in the monetary and political system. The current democratic parliament doesn’t work; it’s too slow and corrupt. Right now, we do have the liberal-conservative political party CDU, Christian Democratic Union of Germany, with Angela Merkel as the Chancellor of Germany who will step down in 2021 from her position after 16 years in power. For a very long time, everything has been at a standstill in Germany, so I think we need a completely fresh party different from the Opposition party, Green party, and all the others that exist today.
Why do crises happen?
Every crisis for mankind was a way to evolve and make progress. After the Second World War, Germany was ruined. Almost all of the buildings were bombarded, and everything had to be renovated. Back then, nobody saw a future for Germany. Millions of people died and the majority of the men died because of a senseless war. However, after that was overcome, Germany had the most prosperous time and has become one of the richest countries in the world. No one would predict or believe that Germany could prosper like that 70~75 years ago by looking at all the demolished cities and buildings. However, we are at the end of our prosperous time again and we are on the verge of a catastrophe with our monetary system. Japan and many other countries are in the same boat as Germany today.
Everybody thinks the official inflation rate is around 1% and the central banks fight desperately to create inflation because it’s so low. We have deflation, but if we allow deflation to happen, we will end up with a great depression and that is why central banks are printing so much. When writing the book, I calculated the real inflation for the western world, and I was shocked. I knew it was higher than what the official numbers tell us, but it was just mind-blowing. The real inflation for last year alone in Germany was a surprising 14%. Just as Michael Saylor said “the capital costs inflation rate is 15~20%.” The real inflation rate for the US was even higher than in Germany because their economic growth was poorer.
What kind of relationship is there between the monetary system and politicians?
There is an unhealthy dependence between the monetary system and the politicians. Politicians make promises in order to get elected, and they have to finance it somehow. Since taxes aren’t enough to pay for it, they have to make more debts to pay for the promises they make. Now, when the banking system cannot give out more debts, they will go to the government to get bailed out. If the government doesn’t do that, the monetary system will collapse and “bribe” the government, thus the financial system has the upper hand of the government.
How does the ECB feel about Bitcoin?
The ECB is scared of Bitcoin because they see how dominant and powerful it has become. As Gandhi once said: “First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” They ignored it in the early days, then they laughed at it, and I believe we are at stage three now where they are fighting us. For me, that’s a symbolic sign that we are going to win. It is overwhelming for governments because it is more powerful than people thought, and it cannot be abolished or banned. So, their last measure was to regulate, put it on the black-list and spread propaganda about it so people refrain from dealing with it.
Why do you get criticism for writing about Bitcoin?
I remember a prediction I made in an article I wrote for Focus, a big German news magazine in autumn 2020. I wrote that there will be an incredible parabolic Bitcoin bull market in the coming months, and it happened. Some people reacted positively and even invested in it. However, there was negative criticism because people are scared. In the article, I questioned the whole system we are living in and people don’t like that. It is more comfortable not to ask questions, stay in one’s bubble and not get out of it.
However, this path we are on right now will take us to a clip and die, so we cannot but change our way of living that we have accepted to be our “normal”. But people don’t like this as it sounds confrontational, and so try to stigmatize me.
What do you consider to be real assets?
Real assets are limited through nature or algorithms, like gold, silver, diamond, and even some stocks, real estate, land, forests, and art. Real assets are something you need to have that will act as a life insurance for your purchasing power. Bitcoin, for example, is limited through code. Now, Bitcoin has one advantage over all other assets because we know the exact finite number of how many Bitcoins there are, but we cannot know how much gold, silver or other such assets will exist.
Many Bitcoiners reject gold, but what about you?
Gold has over 5000 years of history, and I am quite sure all central banks have gold in their accounts. Even Japan owns gold, and China is buying gold like never before. Russia and Turkey are buying and own gold as well. Throughout its history, people have accepted it as a store of value to backup their wealth.
We don’t know what ultimately will happen to Bitcoin either, it is still an experiment. If Bitcoin succeeds tomorrow, then that is a positive gain for me, however, if it doesn’t, I would like to have something else to go to. To put everything on one card seems too reckless to me, soI think you have to own a little of everything and diversify your portfolio.
I created a series on YouTube called “Invest during the Pandemic” where I talked about cycles, our economies and governments, etc., with different intellectual people. I enjoyed talking to all of my guests, like Grant William, Preston Pysh, and Richard Werner.
Interviewer , Editor : Lina Kamada
【Disclaimer】
The Article published on this our Homepage are only for the purpose of providing information. This is not intended as a solicitation for cryptocurrency trading. Also, this article is the author’s personal opinions, and this does not represent opinion for the Company BTCBOX co.,Ltd.