Modern Economic Nonsense — Crypto winter prolonged with high inflation persists

It’s been a challenging few months for the crypto world with prices falling since the start of January. However, this has also had an impact on the wider economy, which has resulted in high inflation rates. Cryptocurrencies are considered as a medium of exchange and are not meant to be saved or stored for future use. Therefore, holding cryptocurrencies attracts higher interest rates than holding traditional assets like government bonds or cash. The effect is that even though prices have fallen, it’s left investors with higher amounts of capital invested in cryptocurrencies than before. Furthermore, the prolonged crypto winter is another contributing factor to increasing inflation rates; as there is less demand for goods and services outside of the crypto community.

The year-on-year inflation for retail goods has remained positive since December 2018. This means that although prices have fallen over time, they’ve only fallen by small amounts on each monthly basis. Meanwhile, core inflation (i.e food, energy and housing) has increased significantly since March 2021. In other words, while foods haven’t become more expensive since then, other essential items like rent and utilities have become a lot more expensive over time. Even as prices fall further in 2020, it seems unlikely we’ll see any significant reduction…