The Global COVID-19 Pandemic Gave People the Mandate of Independent Money

Naturally, many people have jumped to inflation as the forgone conclusion.

Central bank expansion can spare millions of unemployed people a great deal of pain, and to view cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as merely a check against inflation is to miss the forest for the trees.

Whether consumers choose to predominantly save, invest or spend the new money determines the effectiveness of the stimulus and sets the stage for the next boom-bust cycle to come.

Following the 2008 global financial crisis, the subprime mortgage crisis and the "Great Recession," the world has been in the longest boom cycle since 1991, when the internet was born.

Although economists disagree about how we escape these cycles, few would argue that they're not a concern.

We are now experiencing an economic dislocation at the tail-end of a boom-bust cycle triggered by a natural disaster.

The ?Federal Reserve has intervened? with a number of decisions intended to limit economic damage, but will it exacerbate the cycle again? What will be the unintended consequences?

Stimulating the economy against the natural demand of markets may spare near-term pain, but this relief comes at a cost down the road. The cost might be inflation, but it might also be an even larger boom-bust cycle.

What about Bitcoin?Bitcoin creates value by giving investors the option to exit into an asset outside the traditional cycle of consumption and production.

Its lack of consumptive utility distances it from traditional business cycles.