15 Key Economic Questions After Russia Invades Ukraine

The Breakdown

Blockworks

Investing, Business

4.8 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2022

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode is sponsored by Nexo, Arculus, and FTX US. In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NLW explores 15 key economic questions including: Why isn’t the world going even bigger on sanctions? How is Russia’s economy tied to the rest of the world? Why isn’t Russia scared of sanctions? Will Russia retaliate by cutting off the world from its exports? Will we see SWIFT sanctions? Is there concern in the U.S. that SWIFT sanctions could threaten the U.S. dollar’s status as a global reserve? What alternatives to SWIFT exist? Does this put Bitcoin in the spotlight and shed new light on Russia’s legalization/regulation? Does this situation risk the politicization of Bitcoin? How does this change the discussion of CBDCs and stablecoins? Why did the price of BTC drop and will we see the other side? How does this change the Fed’s calculus about quantitative tightening? Does this change the discussion around green energy? What about China and Taiwan? Is there any possibility of sanctions actually working? - Nexo is a powerful, all-in-one crypto platform where you can securely store your crypto. Invest, borrow, exchange and earn up to 18% APR on Bitcoin and 20+ other top coins. Insured for $375M. Audited in real-time by Armanino. Rated excellent on Trustpilot. Get started today at nexo.io. - Arculus™ is the next-gen cold storage wallet for your crypto. The sleek, metal Arculus Key™ Card authenticates with the Arculus Wallet™ App, providing a simpler, safer, and more secure solution to store, send, receive, buy, and swap your crypto. Buy now at getarculus.com. - FTX US is the safe, regulated way to buy Bitcoin, ETH, SOL and other digital assets. Trade crypto with up to 85% lower fees than top competitors and trade ETH and SOL NFTs with no gas fees and subsidized gas on withdrawals. Sign up at FTX.US today. - “The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with today’s editing by Rob Mitchell and Adrian Blust, research by Scott Hill and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Vision” by OBOY. Image credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images News, modified by CoinDesk. Join the discussion at discord.gg/VrKRrfKCz8.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Now, that said, I do think it's an open question about what Russia does in that context.
0:05.5	Is it willing to throw its lot in with another power?
0:08.7	Especially when so many of Putin's actions seem designed not just to get it away from the U.S.
0:14.1	but to reinstate Russia as a power in its own right?
0:17.5	Does that mean that Russia instead tries to take advantage of an alternative system like
0:21.5	Bitcoin that hedges not only the U.S. dollar system, but also an emergent alternative,
0:26.2	such as a Chinese digital currency? Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. It's a daily
0:34.2	podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.
0:39.2	The breakdown is sponsored by nexo.io, Arculus, and FTX, and produced and distributed by CoinDesk.
0:46.8	What's going on, guys? It is Thursday, February 24th, and today we are asking the key economic questions after Russia invades Ukraine. This is a
0:57.6	frustrating episode to have to record, but I believe an important one. Before we get into it,
1:03.0	if you're enjoying the breakdown, please go subscribe it, give it a rating, give it a review,
1:06.7	or if you want to join the conversation, and certainly there is a lot more to discuss than ever before,
1:12.6	come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit.combe slash
1:17.2	breakdown pod. Finally, a disclosure, as always, in addition to them being a sponsor, I also work with FTX.
1:24.1	I always say that this show is ultimately about power and power shifts, and today is another reminder why.
1:32.2	We can talk about Bitcoin and Defi and NFTs till we're blue in the face, but if we don't understand the larger context in which these disruptions, these innovations, these forces are operating, we miss the forest for the trees.
1:46.0	Crises like the one that we are now all watching unfolds via Twitter and TV and TikTok,
1:51.9	lift even if briefly, the veil on all of our assumptions about what is and what will be.
1:57.3	And into that type of vacuum storms an incredible melange of competing forces, racing to drag the world as far in their direction as possible before the window closes and the norms of normal times return.
2:09.8	While this war has just become kinetic, the next stages from the Western perspective in particular, are largely economic.
2:17.4	So here are 15 questions that I think
	...

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