The Breakdown

This is the second in a series of episodes on how the economic crisis is challenging and transforming different industries. NLW looks at:

Movies

• Direct releases are already making more than box office counterparts
• AMC is on the verge of bankruptcy (or buyout by Amazon) 
• Production is on hold and even when it resumes, likely to have strict rules on how it is carried out

Sports

• Depending on your study, between 61% and 72% of people surveyed say they’re unlikely to go to live sporting events even after lockdowns are lifted
• Colleges losing $18B+ in sports related revenue 
• eSports alternatives surging - with conversations on Twitter up 71%

Advertising

• Industry took 8 years to recover from Great Financial Crisis
• Ad spending already down massively in March/April - down 38% in digital, 41% on TV, 45% on Radio, 51% on outdoor. 

Education

• Of public schools, only 22% are offering any live instruction 
• Before crisis, college debt had increased 107% between 2009-2019
• Since the 80s, cost to attend college had grown 8x the growth in wages 
• Estimates of 15% fewer enrollments and $23B in lost revenue

Two powerful and diametrically opposed forces are shaping the economy. 

On the one hand is inflationary economic policy, which keeps the price of assets like real estate and stocks rising ever higher, but at the expense of savings as the value of currency depreciates. 

On the other is technology-wrought deflation. As technology increases its capacity exponentially, it causes everything it touches to be less expensive. 

Jeff Booth is the author of “The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation Is the Key to an Abundant Future.” In this conversation, he and NLW discuss:

• How today’s system came to be designed 
• Why policy makers are terrified of deflation 
• Why inflationary policy punishes savers and forces them into riskier markets 
• How policy that prioritizes asset holders over savers has significantly exacerbated inequality 
• Why each dollar of debt is producing less real economic growth than ever before 
• Why proposed “solutions” like MMT and UBI paper over the root causes of the problem

There is a shared sense that the world has shifted. Now begins the messy work of figuring out what it means for the future we’re headed into. 

This live episode of The Breakdown podcast with NLW features four conversations about how the future is shifting before our very eyes. 

• How We Game and Entertain Now - featuring Kathleen Breitman, co-founder of Tezos and founder of blockchain game studio Coase
• How We Identity Now - featuring Muneeb Ali, CEO of Blockstack 
• How We Bank Now - featuring Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Avanti Financial Group 
• How We Event Now - featuring CoinDesk’s Joon Ian Wong

Jones' letter lays out his bitcoin and macro thesis. 

Last week, investing legend Paul Tudor Jones rocked the world of crypto and traditional markets with his full throated entrance into the bitcoin market via his latest letter to Tudor BVI investors. 

While the headlines (and the quick price bump on the back of FOMO buying) were great, the story is even more interesting than the soundbyte. 

In this episode, NLW breaks down Paul Tudor Jones complete case for bitcoin, looking at: 

• The context and previous attitudes towards bitcoin of both authors of the letter
• The “Great Monetary Inflation” thesis driving a focus on stores of value
• How money supply growth compared to real economic output growth hasn’t been this out of sync since inflationary periods in the 1970s and 1980s
• The “Inflation Race” - a list of 8 potential inflation hedges
• The four categories by which a store of value can be judged: purchasing power, trustworthiness, liquidity, portability
• A ranked look at bitcoin, gold, fiat, and financial assets in the context of those four categories. 

The week's complete show run in one convenient file. 

• Monday | Why Buffett’s Bearishness Should End V-Shaped Recovery Talk
• Tuesday | Why Crypto Matters for Financial Inclusion, Feat. Celo's Marek Olszewski
• Wednesday | Surveying the Carnage: How Real Estate, Travel and Music Are Faring During the Crisis
• Thursday | 9 Reasons Why Bitcoin Has Never Been Stronger Going Into A Halving
• Friday | The Rise Of The Dollar Killers, Feat. Niall Ferguson & More [Money Reimagined - Part 2]