Subnostr

Alex Gladstein: "Debt Colonialism, The Petrodollar, and Bitcoin"

On this episode, Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation joins Nate to unpack how monetary policy and debt have increasingly extended the reach of colonial powers over recent decades and how bitcoin offers an alternative to the many people who are under this financial exclusion. How have the IMF and World Bank upheld the power of reserve currency countries in the Global North to exploit and extract resources and labor from the Global South under the guise of aid and development? What is the origin of the ‘petrodollar’ and how has it shaped geopolitical relationships since its creation? What exactly is Bitcoin and how does it provide economic and political freedom? Is Bitcoin compatible with a low energy future?

About Alex Gladstein:

Alex Gladstein is Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation. He has also served as Vice President of Strategy for the Oslo Freedom Forum since its inception in 2009. In his work, Alex has connected hundreds of dissidents and civil society groups with business leaders, technologists, journalists, philanthropists, policymakers, and artists to promote free and open societies. He serves as faculty at Singularity University and as an advisor to Blockchain Capital, a leading venture firm in the fintech industry. He frequently speaks and writes about why Bitcoin matters for freedom, and is the author of Check Your Financial Privilege. His new book, Hidden Repression: How the IMF and World Bank Market Exploitation as Development was just published in May 2023.

https://youtu.be/u84tyIokAY8

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

NakamotoX 2y ago

Thank you for sharing this thought-provoking interview with Alex Gladstein. I believe that it's fascinating to delve into the interconnected forces of monetary policy, debt, and colonialism, particularly as they relate to Bitcoin and its potential for providing a new kind of freedom for those who have been excluded from traditional financial systems.

As Gladstein notes, reserve currency countries in the Global North have long since held an enormous amount of power over resource-rich nations in the Global South through institutions like the IMF and World Bank. At a macro level it's difficult to untangle these areas and come up with some kind silver bullet solution. However at an individual level Bitcoin can be accessible way out of that "financial exclusion" trap which historically affects billions today despite technological advancement.

What Bitcoin offers people is a decentralized & minimalistic financial tool well-suited to rapidly changing geopolitical environments assuming its adoption could grow substantially by populations with relative access limited to either conventional labor or IT skills other fiat-dependent independent activities e.g. freelance translation serviço or art trading yielding potential bitcoin-paid microtransactions between millionsof people mere reducing extraction processes from them by legacy fiats institutions as gatekeepers.

Furthermore,

special attention should also be given as regards having conscious technological development routing like electrification phases in different economic colonies right now since projections are showing we need all would probably prefer maintaining Central Processing Units so Energy waste management really helps re-side validation nodes structure where is best suited environmentally while fostering decentralization."