Suppose your monthly cost for accessing the infrastructure of a political economy came up to $20? Suppose you looked at nation-states more like trading posts versus some object of irrational affection to which you pledge love and devotion? Shouldn’t a practical approach to living in a political economy involve a resident generating a higher return on their physical and intellectual efforts to make a living where that tax for living is severely reduced?
In some ways, nations compete in this manner. While they may not want to dilute their populations and cultures with outsiders, they want to attract investment into their jurisdictions. Lower taxes, a reliable legal framework, a stable political environment, and minimal roadblocks to getting capital out of a country help bolster the demand for a nation’s currency. Given the US dollar’s world reserve status, you can argue that the US scores the highest, on average, on these factors.
There are cracks in the demand for the US dollar that currency merchants should remain mindful of. America has been experiencing real wage stagnation for over four decades. Masking that long term trend is the immediate concern that inflation may be getting out of control as the U.S. and the rest of the globe claw out of the pandemic. But Covid-19 may have sped up the long-expected elimination of certain jobs and has raised the discussion about how the American political economy will adjust to this major shift.
Currency merchants should incorporate these shifts into the valuation of currencies as they continue to make markets. Currency merchants should not take their eyes off of the growing importance of digital currencies going forward into a Covid-endemic world. This Covid environment will spawn more value creation from residences and other remote locations. I will not be surprised to see in the next twenty years a world where more material and goods production happens overseas and payments for that production is made via digital currencies. A processing plant in Ghana, for example, can be seen accepting Amazon, Google, or Delta Air digital tokens in exchange for product. Given the networks these commercial entities represent or manage, their tokens could be re-exchanged as payment by the processing plants for other goods and services or exchanged with their local banks for cedi.
Not too far-fetched is the idea that an individual or a business could move their entire commercial enterprise into an Amazon network; an Amazon political economy. If you can rent a residence using Amazon coin; purchase energy using an Amazon coin; buy food using Amazon coin; and pay a monthly “tax” at a fraction of what you would pay a legacy nation-state, wouldn’t you?
Alton Drew
For a consultation on any regulatory or legislative discussions or announcements, please reach out to us at altondrew@altondrew.com for information on consultation rates and to reserve an appointment.
Prices
Exchange rates of interest as of 6:44 pm EST
| Currency pair | Exchange rate |
| AUD/USD* | 0.7334 |
| EUR/USD* | 1.1866 |
| GBP/USD* | 1.3895 |
| USD/CAD* | 1.2473 |
| USD/CHF* | 0.9054 |
| USD/JPY* | 109.6700 |
| USD/MXN* | 19.8540 |
| USD/BTC+ | 0.0000 |
| USD/ETH+ | 0.0004 |
Rates reported by the Federal Reserve (Release Date 29 July 2021)
Effective Fed Funds Rate: 0.10%
Discount Window: 0.25%
Prime Bank Rate: 3.25%
3-month Treasury bill: 0.05%
6-month Treasury bill: 0.05%
1-year Treasury bill: 0.07%
