Anthony Ostrander

This past Easter Vigil, I was baptized into the Catholic Church, confirmed, and received the Holy Eucharist for the first time. It was the most meaningful night of my life — and it started years ago with a question about money. A thread on how I got here. 🧵

Trump has lost the plot.

If the money supply is growing by 6% per year, if you aren’t gaining that much that you’re getting poorer. Your 5% raise is actually -1%. Your 3% savings account is bleeding -3%. Your 8% return on your stocks is 2% Fiat disguises the truth.

The US fertility rate is at an all-time low: 1.6 births per woman. You need 2.1 to replace a population. Since 2021: prices up 22.7%. Wages haven't kept up. A young couple delays because the math doesn't work. It's not a fertility crisis. It's a purchasing power crisis. Fiat doesn't just steal your money. It steals your future.

$STRC is an interesting product and the 11.5% yield makes it a very attractive place to park some cash if you need current income especially for retirees. However, if you are young and trying to build wealth this is not the product for you. This is a tool bringing money from fixed income investors into $BTC but if you’re young just stay focused and stack sats.

Bitcoin is the only hope for a generation who’s government borrowed from their future. Peaceful resistance.

@c64f7e94 @Gianpattention @saifedean Not only do money market funds not outpace true inflation, but you are also saying in order to keep the money you’ve earned have to then lend it back to the government.

@anthonyost3 @Gianpattention @saifedean Putting your money in a money market fund which beats inflation is very far from speculation. Inflation encourages you to hold less cash, which is bad, but Saifedean's theory is badly argued and mostly ridiculous.

As @saifedean brilliantly explains in The Bitcoin Standard: when your currency loses 3-4% yearly, saving becomes mathematically irrational. Prudence (the cardinal virtue that orders all the others) requires a future worth saving for. Fiat severs that link. The result? You get a generation that: -Can't delay gratification (no point) -Accumulates debt (incentives are inverted) -Collapses into hedonism (present consumption seems like the only rational move) -Loses the ability to build — children, communities, skill, institutions

This would work out to over $400,000 per year if the dollar had kept pace with gold btw. And that was MINIMUM WAGE.

@PrayTheRosary @ruggedrosaries This was my first rosary @ruggedrosaries are great!

Pray the Rosary everyday

I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

When the money supply is growing by 5% per year an investment that is losing 3% per year looks like its gaining 2% per year. This is why we have such massive misallocations of capital.

$1.60 per hour was minimum wage in 1971 That’s 1.82 ounces of gold per week That’s today’s equivalent of about $8000 a week. Let that sink in.

Catholic priests at the University of Salamanca worked out the foundations of Austrian Economics in the 1500s. Subjective value. Quantity theory of money. Currency debasement as theft from every citizen. All of it grounded in Aquinas and natural law — not in "the science of economics." When we severed economics from theology, we didn't gain objectivity. We lost the moral foundation that exposed debasement for what it is: injustice. Bitcoin is a return to moral economics.

If your currency is losing value at 3% a year than an investment which is losing 2% in real terms looks like it’s profitable in nominal terms. This leads to miss allocation of capital. A sound money that appreciates over time would indeed make people more prudent when it comes to what projects they invest in but that is a good thing.

@Jackw46_ @anthonyost3 @saifedean having a "guaranteed" option to carry your money in the future at no risk with positive yield is a disaster for society. It increases the required ROI to start a real project, and so far fewer investment projects happen

@Gianpattention @saifedean If your currency is being debased you are forced to speculate on investments in order to save. It’s become so normalized that people don’t even think about it but not only do you have to earn money from your work but you have to then speculate just to keep it.

@anthonyost3 @saifedean this is retarded , because you save in money-like assets that generate a yield which is , in the vast majority of cases, >= inflation. Pure cash simply isn't for savings, you have it for the payment function, and a zillion options for actual savings.

God > Government

Bitcoin restores the ability to work and save rather than gambling your hard earned money in the stock market just to keep up with inflation.

The modern monetary system isn't a neutral technical arrangement. It's a 110-year experiment in institutionalized usury — blessed by no saint, condemned by most of them. The Church was right. The Austrians were right. And the exit exists. ✝️🟠

The Church's answer was always the same: money should be honest. A fixed supply. Not subject to manipulation by kings, banks, or bureaucrats. Something that stores the fruit of your labor faithfully across time. The School of Salamanca knew this. Mises knew this. Bitcoiners know this. There's a reason the phrase "sound money" is a moral claim, not just an economic one.

The Catholic Church condemned usury as a mortal sin for over 1,500 years. Then we built the entire modern economy on it. Credit cards. Student loans. The Federal Reserve. Fractional reserve banking. Your entire financial life runs on something the Church once called robbery. A thread🧵: