Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big-picture power shifts remaking our world.

The breakdown is sponsored by crypto.com, BitStamp, and nexo.io, and produced and distributed by CoinDes.

What's going on, guys? It is Monday, September 7th, Labor Day, but also my birthday.

And every year, I think because back to school coincided with my birthday, I kind of feel like this is New Year's to me much more so

than January 1st in the middle of winter. Because of that, I've always gotten really reflective

around the beginning of September and thought about what the future, what the next year might

hold. I think when we look back at this year that we've seen going back to

September of this time last year, one of the big trends is going to be a change in and a sea

change in, really, are expectations about where the United States fits in the world, and

specifically where the U.S. dollar fits in the world.

That conversation has gotten louder and louder and more and more important. It is inextricably

linked to monetary policy, be it Fed intervention in markets or fiscal stimulus, and it certainly is something that has a role in people's

day-to-day lives, even who live far away, as they try to decide whether they're going to

keep their wealth in local fiat regimes or try to get into U.S. dollars. Part of what has made

the conversation so much more dynamic this year is not just that policy

side of things, although that's certainly a big part of it, but also a new mechanism in the form

of USD stable coins for people to opt out of their local monetary regimes and into a different

version. Because it's a holiday, I needed to record an episode in advance,

because I hate skipping episodes as a whole. And so I decided that since I've gotten really

great feedback on the Long Read Sunday article reading episodes, that I would do another one

for you. And luckily, last Thursday, Nick Carter stormed in with

...