Blencowe Resources: Aspiring to become one of the largest graphite producers in the world. Watch the video here.
To be honest, they didn't cover anything I wasn't already aware of. As far as ChatGpt vs Google Baird, I have no idea; ChatGpt definitely have the first mover advantage, but Google have access to vast amounts of data, so who knows? As I said, my Son uses ChatGpt in his work and has nothing but praise for it, and is paying for it so Google need to get a move on or they'll be too late to the party.
My Son's a software developer and uses ChatGpt all the time now.
Just watching the Video now, it's the typical BS narrative to scare US citizens and convince them that Bitcoin is some sort of safe haven, which it clearly isn't. If the US authorities get really fed up with this type of rhetoric, it's only a matter of time before they kill off Bitcoin once and for all. El Salvador has a GDP of $28.74 billion, which is less than the market cap of Lloyds, so holding them up as a comparison to the US is laughable. Stacy Herbert seems to hate the US, I wonder what her home country did to upset her. No doubt she makes money from her stance and has a vested interest in promoting Bitcoin.
There's a lot wrong in the World, but Crypto wont fix it. Currencies go up and down and countries go bankrupt, but they always come out on the other side. The US Dollar in itself is also meaningless, what has driven the rise of the US is their natural resources and scale, which has enabled them to become the most powerful country on the planet ever. The US Dollar is backed by US military muscle and they don't mind flexing that muscle when it suits them, look what they did to Iraq. Anyone who believes that Crypto will destroy the US Dollar is delusional and need a reality check.
If Banks commit fraud, or break the law then they deserve to be judged on it. I'm not sure about Dimon and Epstein though. Why aren't the electricity suppliers, and other utility providers, for his Mansions being interviewed under oath too? If Staley did anything wrong, then he should face the music, as should any Electricians who may have been called in to resolve power issues, possibly related to faulty sex toy related power outages. The pool cleaners who fished out used condoms, the following day, should also be prosecuted as accessory's after the fact and willful destruction or disposal of evidence. If they get it right, I'm pretty sure they could implicate a couple of thousand people.
Economies work in cycles and short of an unprecedented catastrophic macro event, the current cycle will come to an end and a new cycle will start. The easy money cycle is now coming to an end, having driven Growth stocks higher for a decade, the new cycle will likely see funds allocated more prudently.
Continued:
My wages went up surprisingly quickly in the 80's/90's and so did house prices. If you can believe the Central Bank rhetoric, they'll raise interest rates as high, and for as long, as necessary to prevent inflation from getting out of control. Inflation is the main reason most of our cash is invested in stocks, rather than relying on savings interest.
"Prices up, wages up, prices up, wages up, prices.. you see where this is going"
You're describing a wage/price inflationary spiral, which would force Central Banks to raise interest rates higher. I've lived through a similar in the 80's/90's; My wages went up suprisingly quickly
If half of this is true they're Royally F00ked.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/27/23659109/binance-cftc-vpn-signal-notes
Bye, bye Binance, Binance goodbye (bye Binance, Binance, bye, bye)
Bye, bye Binance, don't make me cry (bye Binance, Binance, bye, bye)
"I wouldn't invest in any Banks because they don't fully disclose their positions and if they did they would fudge the numbers"
There's always a risk with investing in any company, but I don't currently see an issue with the UK Banks. Lloyds are due to go ex dividend on the 13th April, with a 1.6p dividend and they're in the midst of a £2 Billion share buyback program, as far as I'm concerned it's a perfect time to top up. During the Pandemic I topped up BT at 106p and 112p, as well as topping up Vodafone and Lloyds when they were both in the doldrums as sentiment plummeted. As the saying goes, the best time to buy stocks is when there's blood in the streets. The reason I don't invest in AIM stocks, is because most of them fail and I don't see the point of gambling small amounts in something that'll likely turn into a loss, so I prefer to invest relatively large amounts in dividend paying stocks and use dividend reinvestment to generate portfolio growth. Most of Lloyds lending, by a long shot, is in mortgages. They've set aside loan loss provisions of around £1.52 Billion and:
"2024 and 2026 guidance
Operating costs now expected to be c.£9.2 billion in 2024,
with a cost:income ratio of less than 50 per cent by 2026
Asset quality ratio now expected to be c.30 basis points in 2024
Return on tangible equity now expected to be c.13 per cent
in 2024 and greater than 15 per cent by 2026
Additional revenues from strategic initiatives of c.£0.7 billion
by 2024 and c.£1.5 billion by 2026
Risk-weighted assets to be between £220 billion and £225
billion at the end of 2024
Capital generation now expected to be c.175 basis points
in 2024, increasing to greater than 200 basis points by 2026
The Group will maintain its progressive and sustainable
ordinary dividend policy, whilst the Board expects to pay down
to its target CET1 ratio by the end of 2024"
Looks pretty good to me.
"You said earlier that you don't know where all the Bank loans are, which also means you don't know where their risk is.. Banks are accounting crooks and they should all get blown up as inflation increases and their losses float up along with the CEO's lol"
I'm confident in my Lloyds investment, so much so that we're looking at buying another £20,000 worth of Lloyds stock in a couple of weeks time.
If the Banks failed and the financial system collapsed, Bitcoin would be worthless along with everything else, you'd be talking about marshal law with Government and military intervention across the board, do you really believe Crypto would be the thing that'd replace Fiat under those circumstances? Not a chance; In reality what would happen would be a great reset with the same system but a refinancing of the Financial system.
I see CNBC have joined in the Crypto hype, they must have some vested interest in the Bitcoin companies targeting Africa.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/26/bitcoin-is-poised-to-blow-up-africas-86-billion-banking-system.html
I'm not being funny, but this bit made me laugh:
"As Dorsey said in Africa, “More and more mass adoption will, in my belief, take away all the oxygen” from governments attempting to control behavior through financial oppression.
“So what do we do? We build, we build, we build, we build, we build, they can’t stop us. And that’s what’s important.”"
Seriously, African Governments will do whatever they want, if Bitcoin was perceived as a threat they'd just punish users in whichever way they please. I bet if Dorsey was banged up in an African prison and they said give us your private Bitcoin security keys, or else, he would give them up in an instant. I don't think these people live in the real world. Bitcoin makes it easier to steal peoples money, not harder. If someone's kidnapped, or banged up, or there's a ransom demand, Bitcoin is a lot easier to handle than Gold stored in a safety deposit box in another country.
"In this crazy, upside down world it actually wouldn't surprise me"
If enough whales swooped in and mopped up every Bitcoin that became available for sale, then it could go up to a million. It would cost the Whales more than they could probably afford, as they'd have to chase the price all the way up and they'd be left sitting on Tokens that nobody else could afford; The chance of that happening is infinitesimally small, because many would look to cash out as the price climbed so lots of tokens would continually hit the market meaning liquidity would likely hold up until the last available Bitcoin is sold and bought. If that scenario unfolded, it would value the Bitcoin market at just under $20 Trillion, which would put it just over $2 Trillion higher than China GDP and around $3.4 Trillion below US GDP.
I don't believe it'll happen, and view this sort of rhetoric as part of the hype to suck the naïve in.
I watched the Crypto and Banking sections of his video and decided to bin it when he ran out of relevant things to cover. He backed up my way of thinking that Bitcoin has been manipulated by the exchanges and Whales, what I didn't realise is how much Binance control the Bitcoin market and that they'd traded stable coins to build BTC assets. He also backed up my thinking on the Banks too, it's basically Banks with issues that have suffered. I was quite surprised his thoughts agree with mine.
To add to my last post, I think the biggest risk is a tightening of lending, in other words a credit crunch. In the event of a credit crunch risky lending goes out of the window, with Risk-On stocks and assets starved of investment, which is the exact reason SVB failed. The defining events leading up to the bank run on SVB was depositors having to draw on their reserves of cash, as VC cash was drying up and when SVB needed to shore up its capital by $2 Billion, the withdrawals turned into a stampede for the exit.
The Banks will probably eventually come out of this OK, but Crypto and Growth stocks will likely struggle to raise cash going forward. The current turmoil in banking which the Crypto community are celebrating, and using to promote their sector, will probably backfire on them as the law of unintended consequences kicks in. I believe we're coming to the end of the growth cycle and no amount of coercion to persuade Central Banks to cut rates will help Risk-On investments going forward.
I'm watching the Video now, the truth is its impossible to tell how much banks have exposure to other banks. Lloyds Annual report has loads of entries under the heading of "Loans and advances to banks", so it's anyone's guess. Am I worried? Not really, but I am watching my Lloyds investment closely. Iconsider Lloyds to be one of the safest Banks in the World, due to the domestic nature of their business and low exposure to investment banking.
"Page 61 shows liabilities, deposits from banks £7.2B"
A deposit isn't a loan. All bank deposits fall under the Liability category, since they have a responsibility to pay that out on request.
The information I pointed to is on page 318 of the Annual report:
https://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/assets/pdfs/investors/financial-performance/lloyds-banking-group-plc/2022/full-year/2022-lbg-annual-report.pdf
"Loans and advances to banks"
Chain Reaction aren't the only ones looking at this and there are prizes for whoever gets there first.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-and-us-governments-collaborate-on-prize-challenges-to-accelerate-development-and-adoption-of-privacy-enhancing-technologies. The acronym covers various technologies and quite a few companies are active in the space.
https://research.aimultiple.com/privacy-enhancing-technologies/
"On a different topic I was looking at Lloyds results. Do you know much about their inter bank lending ? As in who it's lent to ?"
They have low exposure to Credit Suisse and I'm not sure it would matter anyway unless they were in Coco bonds. It looks as though Lloyds have considerably reduced their LIBOR Inter bank lending, with loans to other Banks reducing from £4.106 Billion in 2021 to just £67 Million in their latest report.
"Mark Yusko said they were invested in an Israeli firm that makes Asics which are about to launch a miner that was so fast and so efficient he says it caused Intel to close down the new division they recently set up"
I've taken a quick look at Chain Reaction, it's as short on detail as QBT's website. Chain Reaction mentions "Privacy Enhancing Technologies on encrypted data" and their Mission to "To radically accelerate complex technological solutions for blockchain and privacy technologies".
Yusko is talking his own book as far as Chain Reaction's concerned, "Chain Reaction raised $70M Series C Round led by Morgan Creek Digital (Mark Yusko)".
https://meet-global.bnext.com.tw/articles/view/47822
I'm not sure about the 10,000 times faster claim and what that's related to. Sometimes speed and efficiency increases can be obtained through the manufacturing process, by moving down the nm scale and fitting more on a chip and requiring less power. If there's anything behind these claims, and it isn't just hype, then they'll probably be eyed up by the bigger players.
They mention their 3PU (Privacy Processing Asic), so their main focus seems to be on accelerating encryption, but time will tell if there's anything behind the company. I'm extremely skeptical when it comes to claims made in relation to AIM type companies.
At least their commentary is sensible, I started watching this Mark Yusco video and became bored, because of the conspiracy nonsense he was coming out with. I just couldn't take him seriously.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZj7xrI6Bys