james22

Sure, for good reason. Evolutionary psychology still has us uncertain about future rewards.

Right. I'm guessing it's probably more likely to be approved now than not though, as crypto has become political. And Biden will most likely not veto the crypto custody bill. Either to offset the ETF denial or as reflecting their new support.

Big week: Will Biden veto the bill overturning the SEC's rule against crypto custody? Will the SEC approve the ETH ETF?

Joanne Hsu, who is the director of the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey, told CNBC on Friday that she thinks Americans have abandoned plans to save money as they see their financial goals look less attainable and are spending money instead. “This positive spending is not a reflection of some sort of internalized secret sense of confidence that consumers have,” he explained. “And instead my interpretation is that consumers see that a lot of aspirational goals that we talk about as part of the American Dream—homeownership, paying for college, paying for college for your kids, having a comfortable retirement—with high prices and high interest rates right now, those aspirational goals just feel increasingly out of reach.” And as a result, consumers have “given up” on saving for those goals, Hsu added, noting that the still-strong labor market allows them to spend now. https://fortune.com/2024/05/19/economic-outlook-consumer-sentiment-inflation-high-rates-saving-american-dream-spending-labor-market/

To be fair, there's a boating forum I frequent that has convinced me some really do understand the costs but choose to spend when young when they can best enjoy it and because no one can take their memories away. The older members don't regret their decisions at all.

Great.

The U.S. state of Wisconsin purchased 94,562 shares of BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) in the first quarter of the year, a filing shows. The shares are worth nearly $100 million. . . . "Normally you don't get these big fish institutions in the 13Fs for a year or so (when the ETF gets more liquidity) but as we've seen these are no ordinary launches," Bloomberg Intelligence senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wrote in a post on X. "Good sign, expect more, as institutions tend to move in herds." https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/05/14/state-of-wisconsin-buys-nearly-100m-worth-of-blackrock-spot-bitcoin-etf/

https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Curve-Life-Better-After/dp/1250078806

Sure. Unless you believe Bitcoin has inherent risk anything like MBS (speculation) or ESG (political)? Or you believe he's learned nothing from his experience? Or doesn't wish to go out on top? And even so, if does end in disaster, isn't there money to be made in the runup?

Jared Bernstein (born December 26, 1955) is an American "economist" who is the chair of the United States Council of Economic Advisers. He is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden in the Obama Administration. In 2008, Michael D. Shear described Bernstein as a progressive and "a strong advocate for workers". In February 2023, President Joe Biden nominated Bernstein to serve as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers despite not having a formal background in economics. He was confirmed to be chair on June 13, 2023. He was ceremonially sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris on July 10, 2023. Bernstein graduated with a bachelor's degree in music from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied double bass with Orin O'Brien. Throughout the Eighties Jared was a mainstay on the jazz scene in NYC. He also earned a Master of Social Work from Hunter College as well as a DSW in social welfare from Columbia University's school of social work. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Bernstein

Don't be fooled by the first break in inflows into spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) after 71 straight days. The current lull is likely to be followed by a new wave from a different type of investor, said Robert Mitchnick, head of digital assets for BlackRock, the world's largest asset-management company. The coming months could see financial institutions such as sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and endowments start to trade in the spot ETFs, Mitchnick said in an interview. The firm is seeing “a re-initiation of the discussion around bitcoin,” which turns on the topic of allocating to bitcoin (BTC) and how to think about it from a portfolio construction perspective. “Many of these interested firms – whether we're talking about pensions, endowments, sovereign wealth funds, insurers, other asset managers, family offices – are having ongoing diligence and research conversations, and we're playing a role from an education perspective,” Mitchnick said. And the interest is not new: BlackRock has been talking about bitcoin to these sorts of institutions for several years, he said. Pent-up demand for the much-anticipated ETFs has seen more than $76 billion accumulated across these products since their approval in January. So far, some registered investment advisors (RIAs), a decent-sized subset of wealth advisory, are already offering BlackRock’s IBIT ETF, but only on an unsolicited basis. The next step is expected to be the unrestricted offering of bitcoin ETFs to clients of large wealth advisory players like Morgan Stanley. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/05/02/blackrock-sees-sovereign-wealth-funds-pensions-coming-to-bitcoin-etfs/

No, but I'm betting Blackrock is targeting higher than 1%.

Can Turning Office Towers Into Apartments Save Downtowns? Nathan Berman has helped rescue Manhattan’s financial district from a “doom loop” by carving attractive living spaces from hulking buildings that once housed fields of cubicles. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/06/can-turning-office-towers-into-apartments-save-downtowns