TD₿: How Legacy Finance Perceives Bitcoin by John Haar
TL;DR Observations from a 13-year career at Goldman Sachs on why Wall St. still doesn't get Bitcoin.
Hey Bitcoiners,
After nearly 14 years, it is still incredible to me how little Wall St. understands about Bitcoin.
This is despite Bitcoin being the best-performing asset over that time frame. For an industry obsessed with ROI, and money in general, it is confounding how they still refuse to take this new asset seriously.
Below shows the ROI of Bitcoin vs. the S&P 500 and gold over the last 10 years.
As you can see, it isn’t even close. Bitcoin blows all other assets out of the water, even with its short-term price volatility.
So why does Wall St. still not understand Bitcoin? There are many theories on this phenomenon. One of my favorites is from CroesusBTC, who believes that individuals who work on Wall St. don’t understand Bitcoin because they still have faith in the traditional financial system.
This is one of my favorite charts from him that illustrates his theory.
Others believe it is a function of what they are taught in school. In business schools across the country, students are taught nothing but Keynesian Economic Theory. Most people on Wall St. had to work hard in school and went to the best business schools in order to get their foot in the door of the top Wall St. firms. As such, they all studied the exact same curriculum. This inevitably creates a culture of groupthink where individuals who think outside the box do not land the jobs because they do not check all the right boxes.
It’s amazing to say, but these business schools do not teach their students, who will one day manage money and work in finance, what money is! This lack of understanding of the fundamental component of the economy is one reason why they find it so hard to comprehend why Bitcoin is important and valuable.
John Haar worked in Wall St. for 13 years before switching over to Swan, and he wrote his own theories on why Wall St. doesn’t understand Bitcoin yet here. (08/15/2022)
In the end, I’d say it’s a good thing that Wall St. hasn’t yet wrapped its head around Bitcoin. It provides a chance for Main St. to front-run Wall St. for once as they continue to accumulate the hardest money that has ever existed in history.
Tick tock next block,
Cory Klippsten
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