{"id":5276,"date":"2020-05-09T13:24:51","date_gmt":"2020-05-09T17:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/?p=5276"},"modified":"2020-06-28T10:43:21","modified_gmt":"2020-06-28T14:43:21","slug":"nouriel-roubini-epic-fail-tudor-jones-nailed-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/2020\/05\/09\/nouriel-roubini-epic-fail-tudor-jones-nailed-it","title":{"rendered":"The Shitsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Comedy of Prof. Roubini \u2014 Tudor Jones Nailed It"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"row vc_row wpb_row vc_row-fluid\"><div class=\"jeg-vc-wrapper\"><div class=\"wpb_column jeg_column vc_column_container vc_col-sm-12\"><div class=\"jeg_wrapper wpb_wrapper\">\n\t<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element \" >\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4089\" src=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Epic-Fail.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Epic-Fail.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Epic-Fail-300x38.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Epic-Fail-770x96.jpg 770w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Epic-Fail-1024x128.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Epic-Fail-500x63.jpg 500w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Epic-Fail-293x37.jpg 293w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the Four Horsemen of the Crypto-Apocalypse Flogs his Putrefying Stallion in Recap of 2018 Stand-up Routine<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why would a Cointelegraph columnist blow ten bucks on a Nouriel Roubini podcast? Ever? Especially one billed this way:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Are Crypto-currencies\/Shitcoins the future of money or a bubble now gone bust or a speculative store of value? Watch my views on why &#8220;Crypto, Shitcoins &amp; Blockchain are The Mother of All Bubbles Now Gone Bust&#8221; in my broadcast today May 5th at 10am ET at <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pNYvwgVFTP\">https:\/\/t.co\/pNYvwgVFTP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Nouriel\/status\/1257641699347701761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 5, 2020<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because he assumed, foolishly, that a professor at the NYU Stern School of Business would have something meaningful to add to his Bitcoin critique, particularly in light of recent quantitative easing programs undertaken by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/2020\/03\/21\/governments-epic-fail-governance-nailed-it\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">central banks worldwide<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was ten bucks (and an hour) entirely wasted. Well\u2026 maybe not <em>entirely<\/em> wasted. There certainly was some pure comedy gold in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nourieltoday.com\/archives\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">broadcast<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So What Does a May 2020 Roubini Podcast Sound Like?<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Imagine a two-year-old stand-up comedy routine parading as a fireside chat, <em>sans<\/em> Roosevelt-style words of comfort, and without a much-needed laugh track.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The jokes, though dated, certainly flew thick and fast. With his blinders pulled low over his intellectual curiosity, Roubini continued to confuse Bitcoin with altcoins and essentially use them interchangeably. To excuse his use of expletives, the good professor explained:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote align-center\"><p>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI use the term shitcoins to define them, but they are shitcoins, in substance, and this is a technical term. Google the term shitcoin, and you\u2019re gonna find 500,000 items in it.\u201d<\/span>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Premise of the Bubble Gag<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His \u201cBitcoin is a bubble\u201d argument relied heavily on a 2017-2018 graph showing how fast Bitcoin rose in price compared to tulips, the Mississippi Company, the South Sea Company, and failed dot com firms in their bubbles. (Yes, Mr. Roubini, there was a bubble. We&#8217;ve come to terms with it. You can too.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bitcoin, he explained, is now 55 to 60% below peak. Other not-entirely-shit coins like Ethereum are 85% down, and pure-as-the-driven-snow shitcoins are 95 to 99% off their all-time highs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He sure can pick his periods, though.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When the S&amp;P 500 plunged by 35% earlier this year, Bitcoin dropped 60%. There was no mention of the latter\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/bitcoin-eyes-first-9-week-bull-run-as-options-open-interest-hits-1b\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">subsequent recovery<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to its pre-pandemic value<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a feat unmatched by the stock market.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cherry-picking the months to demonstrate that crypto is a \u201clousy hedge against risky assets\u201d is a tired critique. Facebook only gained half a million users in 2018 in the U.S. \u2014 that&#8217;s essentially growth stagnation, if you&#8217;re a headline writer. But the social media platform has almost complete market saturation already, so user growth is a terrible metric on which to judge the company. Lies, damned lies, and statistics&#8230;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He went on to wax philosophical on the inherent inequality of Bitcoin, arguing himself into a frenzy over the assertion that it has a Gini coefficient of 0.86, which is \u201cworse than North Korea\u201d. (Interestingly, data on North Korean income inequality is not included in statistics compiled by the United Nations, the CIA, or the World Bank. So maybe this was for dramatic effect, because Lesotho isn&#8217;t as evocative.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, active Bitcoin addresses, notwithstanding the 2017-18 spike, have been constantly rising in number over its history, suggesting a broader number of users over time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps his mind was still in October, 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Video of me explaining how crypto is massively centralized: miners, exchanges, dictator developers, wealth inequality worse than North Korea. Decentralization is a Big Fat Lie peddled by self serving greedy crypto oligopolists and cartels. Watch the video <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JdPU4p1E9I\">https:\/\/t.co\/JdPU4p1E9I<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Nouriel\/status\/1050770350689185792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 12, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His infamous mid-October 2018 Twitter rant appears to be sneaking its way into his current stand-up routine in more ways than one. He described those involved in the industry as \u201ccriminals, terrorists, tax evaders, snake oil salesmen, carnival barkers, and human traffickers\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And then there are MAL concerns. MAL is an acronym for anti-money laundering. Most people use AML, but Roubini has twisted the shorthand to suit his poetry skills. (More on that below). Whether it is AML or MAL, some Initial Coin Offerings flaunted those regulations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But labeling Bitcoin busted because ICOs are \u201c81% scams\u201d is a little bit like slamming the latest Eminem album because the turntable is broken.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Professor Roubini The Poet?<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Roubini argued that:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt took about 100 years for the U.S. dollar to lose 90% of its value,\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">it took one year for 3,000 shitcoins to lose 99% of their value,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re smoking,\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They\u2019re a little bit joking.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s not Dylan Thomas. It&#8217;s hardly even Ogden Nash.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Poetry aside, Roubini\u2019s best one-liner wasn\u2019t the one about the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/crypto-critic-nouriel-roubini-blockchain-is-no-better-than-an-excel-spreadsheet\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Flinstones<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> having a more sophisticated monetary system than the shitcoin ecosystem (again, a rehashed 2018 joke), nor the one about the industry producing \u201c\u201cZero killer app[s],\u201d and therefore, \u201cfailing on all counts.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The prime joke of the entire hour-long podcast was a dig at crypto media outlets:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote align-center\"><p>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cFor $500 [you can] have an article written about your shitcoin for free.\u201d<\/span>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yes, the guy who can&#8217;t distinguish between &#8220;$500&#8221; and &#8220;free&#8221; has won a Nobel Prize in Economics. (To be fair, he tried valiantly to correct himself.)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So for those who doled out the $10 to listen to Roubini rehash his Greatest Wits:\u00a0 Epic Fail.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I count myself among them.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"row vc_row wpb_row vc_row-fluid\"><div class=\"jeg-vc-wrapper\"><div class=\"wpb_column jeg_column vc_column_container vc_col-sm-12\"><div class=\"jeg_wrapper wpb_wrapper\">\n\t<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element \" >\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4090\" src=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Nailed-It.jpg\" alt=\"Nailed It\" width=\"1200\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Nailed-It.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Nailed-It-300x38.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Nailed-It-770x96.jpg 770w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Nailed-It-1024x128.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Nailed-It-500x63.jpg 500w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Nailed-It-293x37.jpg 293w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From Flogging A Dead One To Riding The The Fastest Horse<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This week, Paul Tudor Jones of Tudor Investment Corp. said in a market outlook note, \u201cThe best profit-maximizing strategy is to own the fastest horse.\u201d He went on to tell investors what he thought that horse might be:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote align-center\"><p>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf I am forced to forecast, my bet is it will be Bitcoin.\u201d<\/span>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The shrewd hedge fund manager calculated that almost 7% of global GDP has been printed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which could well lead to unprecedented levels of inflation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jones <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-05-07\/paul-tudor-jones-buys-bitcoin-says-he-s-reminded-of-gold-in-70s\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">plans to invest<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u201ca low single-digit percentage\u201d of his fund\u2019s assets into Bitcoin futures, making it among the first large hedge funds to dip its toes into the crypto asset market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The investor sees the massive expansion of money supply as a threat against which he would be forced to hedge. PTJ regards the money-printing endeavors of central banks around the world as placing Bitcoin now in a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/bitcoin-hits-10k-paul-tudor-jones-buys-btc-comparing-it-to-gold\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">similar role to that of gold in the 1970s<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hardly a Novice, But Not Quite a Veteran<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jones previously dabbled in Bitcoin in 2017. But having exited after doubling his money, he now sees Bitcoin less as a speculative gamble and more as a store of value play. A hedge against inflation, in other words.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jones is on the lookout for an asset with four characteristics: <strong>purchasing power, trustworthiness, liquidity, and portability.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bitcoin fits the bill.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jones\u2019 firm <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2016\/04\/14\/tudor-hedge-fund-sees-1b-outflows.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">manages around $13 billion worth of assets<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and his sage navigation of the global financial crisis saw him become one of the most respected investment managers in the industry.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bitwise <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitwiseinvestments.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">identified<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the decision as noteworthy for three reasons: <\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The seventh highest-earning asset manager of all time is staking his hard-won reputation on the crypto asset. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He has a track record of proving right on contrary calls.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His endorsement places pressure on &#8211; and provides cover for &#8211; other fund managers to consider following suit.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For his positive analysis of Bitcoin in an era of unprecedented central bank <a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/2020\/04\/04\/fatf-epic-fail-donald-trump-nailed-it\/\">expansionist policies<\/a>, he wins the coveted Nailed It award for the week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>Opinions expressed in this column are those of the author.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fresh off his 2018 comedy tour, Roubini wowed audiences with more of the same material \u2014 while Paul Tudor Jones took a fresher look at Bitcoin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[154,62],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[1432,225,1435,1190,222,1438,1430,1439,1440,1441,1431,1425,1424,1426,1429,1428,1434,1427,263,270],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5276"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5276"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5741,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5276\/revisions\/5741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5276"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=5276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}