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An open letter to the Vice President

You're busy, I know.

Among other things, you have to raise a ton of money, come up with a plan to win over swing-state voters, subtly differentiate yourself from President Biden, not-so-subtly differentiate yourself from Senator Warren, remind Silicon Valley that you're from California, remind everyone else that you’re 59, not 81, and somehow be both pro-business and pro-consumer.

That’s a lot to accomplish between now and November, especially as you got off to such a late start.

So let me help you out with a tip on how to do a little bit of all those things in one fell swoop: 

Say something nice about crypto.

I know, I know.

Your arch-nemesis has beaten you to it and I’m sure it would pain you to agree with anything he says.

But do the two major political parties have to disagree about everything?

Busy as you are, you probably didn't catch much of Bitcoin Nashville, but here's all you need to know about your opponent’s rapturously received talk: You could say all the same things about crypto without compromising any of your principles.

Just the opposite: Crypto's core principles are in many ways naturally aligned with progressives’ professed mission to champion the underdogs of the world.

That may seem to go against the popular narrative that crypto is nothing more than an unregulated casino.

But here, in a nutshell, is why progressives should be pro-crypto: Decentralized technology empowers individuals over big banks, entrepreneurs over Big Tech, and humans over artificial intelligence.

Sounds like good, progressive politics, right?

Specifically, blockchains can — perhaps uniquely! — provide proof-of-humanity, combat deep fakes, undercut Western Union, bankrupt predatory lenders, bank the unbanked, bring dollars to hyperinflating countries (extending the dollar’s dominance), democratize access to GPUs, and empower the entrepreneurs building things like better digital maps, inch-precise GPS, and cheaper phone plans.

These are just some of the real-world impacts of blockchains that should make crypto as non-partisan as apple pie. 

Because who could argue with any of that?

Perhaps more importantly, why would you argue with any of that?

Substance aside, being anti-crypto is a political loser.

An estimated 52 million Americans associate with crypto in some way — and a recent Harris Poll (no relation, I assume?) found that one in five swing-state voters think crypto policy is a “major issue” in this election.

1 in 5!

What other issue offers that many potentially persuadable voters?

There is a lot of money to be had, too.

One measure of political fundraising estimates that crypto-related PACs have received $188 million of donations in this election cycle (of which only $44 million has been spent).

Another measure lists the crypto-only Fairshake PAC as the single largest fundraiser in this election, just ahead of Make America Great Again Inc.

Nothing you can say will win you any support from Make America Great Again, Inc., of course.

But just a few nice words about crypto might well win you some of that Fairshake money — or, at the very least, stop it from going straight to your opponent.

That wouldn’t require saying anything controversial, either.

You believe in due process, right?

Tell us you’ll end Operation Choke Point and allow every legal US business equal access to the US banking system.

You believe in private-sector job creation, right?

Tell us you’ll instruct regulators to work collaboratively with every rule-abiding US-based industry, crypto included.

You believe in Congress making the laws, right?

Tell us you’ll commit to ending the SEC’s tyranny of regulation by enforcement.

These and other industry demands are all quite reasonable because, contrary to popular belief, no one thinks crypto should go entirely unregulated.

(Well, I kind of do, but no one agrees with me, so you don’t need to, either.)

Most importantly, the industry simply wants formal guidance on how to design the commodity tokens necessary for blockchains to function — something that the current lack of crypto-applicable rules makes impossible.

Democrats love to make rules — promise to make us some!

That doesn’t seem like much to ask — especially considering that the political upside of the crypto issue extends far beyond crypto.

Rightly or wrongly, Democrats have increasingly been portrayed as being anti-technology and anti-innovation.

Crypto is a cheat code to disrupt that narrative.

Just saying something nice about crypto might have as much signaling value as, say, promising to cut corporate taxes — but unlike adopting that prominent plank of the Republican platform, it wouldn’t cost you any Democrat voters.

Similarly, being open to innovation in crypto signals that you’re open to innovation in AI, too — but unlike saying you’ll leave AI unregulated, it won’t terrify any voters that disagree with you.

Being pro-crypto might not lose you any voters at all — because crypto has no natural enemies, just a few manufactured ones. 

It does have a lot of friends, however, and they aren’t asking for a lot.

You don’t even have to be particularly pro-crypto, you just can’t be anti — the industry isn’t asking that you give them anything, only that you don’t stand in the way. 

In other words, all that they’re asking is that you give peace a chance.

In return, they might give you a better chance in November.

— Byron Gilliam

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Why Credit Conditions Have Actually Eased Over Past Year

Oaktree’s Wayne Dahl join the episode to discuss why defaults in high-yield bonds have been so low, how private credit has become the venue of choice for more leveraged deals, why he’s not reliant on macro forecasting skills to make asset allocation decisions and more.

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