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Here come the regulators to spoil everyone's fun

First up, poor Trevor Milton got himself arrested for (allegedly) pretending that Nikola could produce hydrogen trucks or something...

The report was amazing the first time round. If you're not familiar with the details, give this thread a read... 👇👇

Somehow, the stock closed yesterday at $12, still valuing Nikola at $4.7bn...

And now the SEC want to protect people from investing in Chinese company IPO's and losing loads of money...

Exclusive-U.S. regulator freezes Chinese company IPOs over risk disclosures -sources

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has stopped processing registrations of U.S. initial public offerings (IPOs) and other sales of securities by Chinese companies while it crafts new guidance for disclosing to investors the risk of a new regulatory crackdown...

ReutersEcho Wang, Scott Murdoch, Kane Wu

It's been coming for a while, due to Chinese companies not respecting the same accounting practises as US companies.

The Didi IPO debacle was clearly the final straw 👇

Then there's the crypto space...

Crypto exchange Binance to wind down derivatives in Europe

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance said on Friday it would wind down its futures and derivatives products offerings across Europe, the latest move by the platform as pressure grows from regulators across the world.

ReutersTom Wilson

With immediate effect, Binance users in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands would be unable to open new futures or derivatives products accounts, the exchange said in a statement on its website.

And the same is happening on ByBit 👇

While regulation is a good thing for the future health and insitutionalisation of the cryptosphere, the anti-establishment, under the radar origins are behind us ...

I mean, who could have imagined that Germany's pension funds would be allowed to invest in crypto? 👇👇👇

Germany to Allow Institutional Funds to Hold up to 20% in Crypto

Germany plans to allow certain institutional funds to invest billions of dollars in crypto assets for the first time.

BloombergStephan Kahl

Germany plans to allow certain institutional funds to invest billions of dollars in crypto assets for the first time.

A law taking effect on Monday will let so-called Spezialfonds with fixed investment rules put as much as 20% of their holdings in Bitcoin and other crypto assets. The funds, which can only be accessed by institutional investors such as pension companies and insurers, currently manage about 1.8 trillion euros ($2.1 trillion).

Hey Siri, what's 20% of $2.1 trillion?

Yep, a $420 billion allocation will be permitted...

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About that 'massive' infrastructure deal...

Not too long ago, the US were going to spend SIX TRILLION DOLLARS on a huge, ambitious plan reaching into every aspect of American life, lifting the economy out of recession, restoring blue collar jobs, improving infrastructure, the full works...👇

Factbox: Joe Biden’s $6 trillion ambition

In his first 100 days in office, President Joe Biden has offered up roughly $6 trillion in spending proposals and so far has delivered on roughly a third of it.

ReutersReuters

Negotiations haven't gone so well and this is how it looks now... 👇

There's still hope for more spending via the budget resolution...

Democrats say they have the votes to advance $3.5T budget measure

Senate Democrats say they have the votes needed to pass a $3.5 trillion budget resolution, which would green light a massive spending measure packed with President Biden’s top legislative priorities.

The HillJordain Carney

But they might not have the votes to pass this.

You see, politicians still worry about debt ceilings and budget deficits as if they actually matter.

We'll be hearing a lot about the debt ceiling in the coming month or two

They're already running a $3 trillion deficit this year.

What's another couple a trillion between friends?

This situation and the pandemic response have been a perfect illustration of Kelton's deficit myth:

“But what if the federal budget is fundamentally different than your household budget? What if I showed you that the deficit bogeyman isn’t real? What if I could convince you that we can have an economy that puts people and planet first? That finding the money to do this is not the problem?”

The budget hasn't 'balanced' for decades now and Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) isn't going away anytime soon.

The TL;DR rundown of Kelton's book 👇👇

I Read It So You Don’t Have To: ‘The Deficit Myth’

We’ve been thinking about the government’s finances all wrong

MarkerMatthew McFarlane

There's plenty to disagree with in the book (such as the guaranteed jobs for all idea) but there's no denying the deficit myth.

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