Hello boys and girls, men and women,
Thank you for joining me in this journey of learning and growing together.
Before I get started, I want to share why I want to do this publicly and the goals of this newsletter.
But mind you, if you are looking for some short-term gain through this journey or thinks that I will share financial advice to make you rich, Please stop here. Unsubscribe from this email list, delete this email, and move on because I don’t want to waste your time.
Coming to the point, why did I invite you to this journey of learning and growing together to be financially informed, technologically agile, and socially connected.
I have two theses for this,
The 1st Thesis: Great and lasting Innovation happens with Open and Collaborative learning.
Let me take you back during the 14-17th century of the Ming Dynasty of China.
The Ming dynasty, also known as the Great Ming, was once one of the greatest empires on earth. The dynasty had everything that needed to be called the superpower of their time. The citizens were great scholars and scientists, patriotic soldiers, and bureaucrats. They were technologically advanced for their time. From inventing gun powder, the printing press, and architecture to building The Great Wall of China, the mighty European empires were no match for them.
Yes, the Ming dynasty bureaucrats were selected through government examination just like how today’s top Indian civil servants like IAS, IPS, and IFS were recommended through the UPSC exam.
This was the Ming dynasty at its finest.
"Of all the civilizations of premodern times, none appeared more advanced, none felt more superior than that of China. Its considerable population, 100-130 million compared with Europe's 50-55 million in the fifteenth century; its remarkable culture; its exceedingly fertile and irrigated plains, linked by a splendid canal system since the eleventh century; and its unified, hierarchic administration run by a well-educated Confucian bureaucracy had given a coherence and sophistication to Chinese society which was the envy of foreign visitors." - Paul Kennedy on his book The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
So what went wrong that the world today doesn’t get influenced by the Ming dynasty’s culture and advancement just like it gets from the European histories and culture?
The Ming dynasty's cultural developments were characterized by a generally conservative and inward-looking attitude.
They are overwhelmed with their wealth and power, believing they did not need anything else. They closed their doors to European and other Asian traders and travelers and stopped exploring.
On the other side of the continent, the Italians and European powers continued to explore, sail across the sea, spread their Art, Culture and Religion, and open their trade to the world.
Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer and navigator who "discovered America.”
This is the reason the European period of “Age of Exploration” and “Renaissance” that took place from the 15th to 17th century shaped much of our history today. Their culture, education, religion, and wars shaped the world history.
(This is a vast topic, and I will cover it in the future newsletter in detail).
But hey, wake up. That's enough of the past. Let’s be back to today’s time. I mean, at least in the recent past.
The 2nd Thesis: Money is not equal to wealth. You may get money easily but not wealth.
To explain my second thesis to you, let me present two important charts:
Here is the first chart, which shows how much money has been printed in the United States of America since 1960. Notice the sharp increase since 2009 and a vertical rise in 2020? The Fed just printed more than 40% of all its US dollars in circulation in 12 months in 2020-21 for the Coivd19 economic stimulus and relief program.
This is how the US central bank prints money, aka Federal Reserve System, prints out of thin air.
If you are not an economist or know less about finance, you must be wondering why this matters for anything.
Well, this is the reason I will present to you the second chart.
This chart shows how the money loses its value or its purchasing power (the goods and services it can be bought).
If your grandfather saved $1000 in January 1913, today (June 2022), its value will be only $33 in purchasing power.
This is how our money loses its value because the central bank or the government simply prints them out of thin air without backing it to any tangible goods.
Again you must be wondering why I am referring to the US dollar and not the India Rupees. It is because the US dollar is the world reserve currency, and its monetary policy affects the whole world economy.
This is the reason why today, most things (goods and services) are expensive, and the middle-income class cannot afford luxuries.
American baby boomers who lived during the 70s or the 80s with just a middle-class income can easily afford to buy good houses, cars, and even a luxury lifestyle at their median age of 25-30.
But today, forget about owning a house or a car. The same age groups are stuck in college debts, mortgages, health care insurance.
Now, you must be questioning why on earth am I lecturing on the history of China, Europe, and the Financial System of the United States.
After all, I am an ordinary tribal guy who grew up without a color TV or a simple NOKIA phone in a remote village of Nagaland.
Well, that is the reason why I am learning this history and how money works.
I don’t want to call myself a victim or play the victim card that I belong to a tribe and that I cannot participate in the history and world economy at large.
So, that are my two theses and the reason why I want to learn the history of the past and educate how money works so that I can make informed and calculative decisions for the present and the future.
I invite you to this journey of open, collaborative learning and figuring out how money works.
For your information, I didn’t major in history or finance in my college. I was a Computer Science and Engineering student. I currently work as a Web3 & Blockchain Researcher.
Any feedback on this writing is most welcome as I am here to learn and grow together with you.
Please consider subscribing to this newsletter and share it with your friends if it may be helpful to them.
I also do talk with interesting people on my podcast when I get time. Please do check out here. I am sure you will get some value out of it.
That’s it for now and for this week. I can’t wait to write to you again next week.
Until then, take care and feel free to reach out to me on my socials.
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Thank you.
This is Kuzote Lohe’s Newsletter, a newsletter about All things web3, blockchain, & finance.
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Awesome!!! Thank you for this valuable information in this short amount of time 👍🏻