Money talks.
Elon Musk gave an enormous amount to the Trump campaign: over $130 million. He was the number-two 2024 donor.
Fairshake, the leading crypto industry PAC, gave almost $300 million in the 2024 election. That is more than the next 19 biggest business PACs combined.
I am accustomed to the "usual suspects" of industry PACs. That is the reason we have the mortgage deduction and tax free exchanges of real property. (realtor PACs.) That is the reason we have private health insurance instead of Medicare for All. (insurance PACs.) That is the reason that Medicare pays the highest prices in the world for drugs. (drug industry PACs.) Politicians who play ball with those industries get financial support. Ones that don't, get attacked.
There is a big new player: crypto. Here is a chart from OpenSecrets.org. Fairshake PAC dominated the donation chart.
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| Charts at OpenSecrets.org |
Some PACs give approximately the same amount to both Democrats and Republicans. They have their industry-specific issues. These would include realtors, the insurance industry, and bankers. However, car dealers, Home Depot, and UPS give primarily to Republicans. Koch, Inc. gives exclusively to Republicans. Trial lawyers give primarily to Democrats.
The crypto industry skewed heavily toward Republicans in 2024. Biden has been skeptical of the value of cryptocurrency for anything other than tax avoidance, money laundering, and financing drug crime. Trump had been skeptical, but he made a switch when Elon Musk's and other tech people switched to him. Trump became the crypto-positive candidate. Most crypto money went to Republican candidates.
I personally have been skeptical of crypto currency. I consider its un-traceability a disadvantage, at least for legal transactions. My attitude has been formed in part by the Beanie Baby rage of the 1980s. Worthless toys were considered valuable, until they weren't. Worthless companies sometimes get bid up in price. Then they go poof.
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| Available for "$18,000.00 or best offer." Also for $6.00 |
I am probably missing the boat, but I didn't buy tulip bulbs in 1638, and I haven't bought bitcoin now. I like investments in businesses that make useful things and can sell them profitably -- companies with earnings.
Some early investors made a fortune owning crypto currencies. They spent a tiny piece of that fortune helping elect a president and Congress. Maybe the world will find a use for an alternative currency.
But isn't the U.S. dollar in some sense imaginary, just like bitcoin? Isn't money just a shared idea of value, symbolized by nothing but numbers on paper or a computer screen? Yes, money is an idea. But the U.S. dollar has a tether to a hard reality. I can use a dollar to pay the single biggest bill in my budget, my federal taxes. That gives it real value to me, so I will trade value in order to get it. So will other Americans for the same reason. That gives it reproducible, scalable value to the world, as long as there is a United States.
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5 comments:
If they donated crypto would they have had to report it since it has no official value?
"Money talks."
I like Dylan's take on it: "Money doesn't talk, it swears."
Crypto has always struck me as very expensive funny money.
If it's associated with Don Old it's a scam.
Would you want your surgery performed by someone who got their job due to a loyalty test?
Or Dylan, too: "Steal a little and they put you in jail; steal a lot and they make you a king."
People who get in early on multilevel marketing schemes like Amway also make a lot of money. They make it from the suckers who get in later.
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