Location: Remotely Date: Friday 26th, March Company: lynalden.com Role: Macroeconomist

Bitcoin was born out of the 2008 financial crisis when central banks worldwide started printing money at levels never seen before to bail out the banks for a mess they created. 

Now, a decade later, amid a global pandemic, the money printer is again being used to rescue up a faltering economy. This time, the level of money printing dwarfs that of 2008/09.

With the ongoing debasement of fiat currencies globally, inflation is more of a concern than ever before. Bitcoin offers a hedge against the threat of inflation, and with its sound monetary principles, it is the antithesis of the inequity and reckless money printing of central banks.

Corporations are now using Bitcoin as an inflation hedge. When MicroStrategy announced their initial bitcoin purchase in 2020, CEO Michael Saylor explained that he was worried about their cash position being like a ‘$500m melting ice cube’. This sentiment has been echoed by many other corporations, with a record 47 S&P 500 companies citing ‘inflation’ in their 2021 Q1 earnings reports.

The link between printing money and inflation is not black and white, so how is inflation measured? And what are the markets telling us? 

In this interview, I talk to Lyn Alden, a macroeconomist and investment strategist. We discuss the growing concern of rising inflation, CPI as a measure and what the markets are signalling.