Cross-posted from Real Economics.

I suspect that most people do not understand bitcoin and cryptocurrencies because they also do not understand how money is "created." The reality that money can be created out of nothing is so ludicrously simple that most people simply cannot believe it. John Kenneth Galbraith observed that "The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled."

This chart below is just from today!

Most charts take all year to move like that.
Bitcoin, OTOH, has compressed all that movement into 24 hours.

We all have a lot to worry about, what with neoliberals and neocons running rampant all over the world and inside our country. We already know about Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies - a Libertarian wet dream of tax avoidance, contraband selling, and protection from government asset seizure. Of course, with government increasingly dismantled by the neo-libs/cons, BTC is a "vote Trump" middle finger to TPTB for many.

A simple chart of bitcoin price doesn't do this bubble justice.

To fully grasp this bubble you must put it into a context.

The thermite of globalization has been cutting the structural steel of First World democracies since the 1970s (see the quote at end). The economic crash of 2008 was a blow an airliner impact that rattled all nations, but did not quite knock them down - except for the PIIGS victims of bankster fraud. However, 2008 began the trash fires of racism and anti-immigrant agitation.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you have heard of bitcoin.

With the exception of a couple tech stocks, Bitcoin has outperformed every other asset class this year.