Why is the inflation target 2%?

The sacred 2% inflation target turns out it's not the product of divine economic wisdom, but simply the result of the impromptu TV remarks made by Roger Douglas, the New Zealand finance minister in 1988.

Douglas, desperate to curb 10% inflation, pulled "0 to 1 percent" out of thin air, which his team later rounded up to 2% for "wiggle room."

Central bankers then proceeded to adopt this target like it was gospel, spreading it across the globe through their exclusive Basel club meetings. No rigorous science, no grand design.

The global financial elite built their monetary policy castle on the sand of a casual statement. And now, decades later, we are all stuck with this arbitrary figure, as if it is some immutable law of the universe.

TL;DR: Central Banks inflation target is basically a meme that got out of hand.

This article tells the story in more details: https://qz.com/2022696/where-did-the-feds-2-percent-inflation-target-come-from

Spend & Replace is easier said than done. If you don’t account for capital gains taxes, you could face significant unexpected costs.

Here in Italy, the tax on capital gains is 33%! As in most countries, gains are computed using the LIFO (Last-In, First-Out) method. This means that when you pay for a product or service with Bitcoin, your "cost basis" is determined by the price of your most recently acquired Bitcoin.

Therefore, a more effective approach is Replace & Spend: buy the Bitcoin you need immediately before making your purchase. By doing this, you ensure the cost basis is nearly identical to the spending price, minimizing the capital gains tax triggered by the transaction.

Is it effective? Yes. Is it convenient? Not really.

Manually timing every purchase is tedious. For me, maintaining a consistent DCA (Dollar Cost Averaging) strategy is a more practical way to achieve tax efficiency.

(image created by @BitPopArt, thanks!)

There are now 142 MiCA-licensed entities in Europe.
(As reported yesterday, still zero from Italy!)

Today, I took a deep dive into the data to see who they actually are. Sadly, only 8 are Bitcoin-only providers (kudos to the Netherlands for leading there). While most are standard crypto exchanges, the real surprise is the lineup of traditional banks and financial institutions securing licenses, especially in Germany. Clearly, the fiat finance sector is taking "better safe than sorry" to heart.

How many from Italy? Zilch. Nada. A big fat zero.
Does anyone have a plausible explanation for this?
Or is the Italian ecosystem of CASPs even smaller than I thought?


#asknostr /cc @melaviola

I made this chart myself from the data available here: https://www.esma.europa.eu/esmas-activities/digital-finance-and-innovation/markets-crypto-assets-regulation-mica)

No politics, no algorithms, just 3D images of sandwiches spinning on their axes like greasy little planets. From the humble grilled cheese to the mighty Leberkäse, it's a hypnotic, high-carb carousel without any purpose. It’s perfect.
https://rotatingsandwiches.com/

<rant>

I discovered Bitcoin in its early days, back in 2011. I was lucky. I was simply searching the internet for a way to receive donations anonymously for Clipperz.is, an online password manager I created with a friend, a small project with a truly paranoid threat model.

Happy users wanted to send us money, but we did not want to know their names, their email addresses, or, even worse, the details of their PayPal or bank accounts. Bitcoin was the right solution to our very specific problem.

To me, Bitcoin was a tool, not a religion or a get-rich-quick scheme. It was a tool that nicely complemented our little project and served the interests of its small user base of geeks. It took me time and effort to understand the much larger potential of Bitcoin, and this was only possible because of the people I met along this journey of discovery. A remarkably eclectic crowd: techies and laypeople, young and seasoned, spanning the entire political spectrum, all united by a shared fascination with Bitcoin.

This tiny community of Italian Bitcoiners was full of enthusiasm, and it fueled my passion for the technology. Quite naturally, Bitcoin became the cornerstone of my professional life.

For several years, I was completely absorbed in startup life and didn't spend much time attending Bitcoin events or following the Bitcoin Twitter bubble. Bitcoin itself was more than enough to keep me busy, enthusiastic, and intellectually stimulated.

Now that my life is no longer so hectic, I am able to spend more time here on Nostr or attending Bitcoin events, big and small. And I’ve realized that things have changed dramatically. What is most disconcerting to me is this: where has the openness to diversity and the richness of ideas from the early days gone?

I’m encountering almost exclusively Bitcoiners who rigidly conform to a standard set of beliefs, individuals who identify with some combination of the following totems: no taxes, no vaccines, pro-guns, anti-immigration, global warming is a hoax, the EU is a dictatorship, long live Mises, long live Milei, long live Bukele, HODL, bull run, to the moon, God, family, gym, steak and eggs…

Never a dissenting voice. Yet back in the distant year of 2011, it was clear to us that Bitcoin was for everyone. Even today, I keep hearing that, but at the same time, a narrative, sometimes delivered in a harsh tone, has emerged that pushes away a large portion of potential users who don’t necessarily identify with this bundle of convictions.

Understanding and embracing Bitcoin requires significant effort and genuine intellectual curiosity. Let’s not make the journey of discovering and understanding Bitcoin harder than it already is.

Bitcoin is for everyone. Even today.

</rant>

Indeed!

An open letter from 70 European renowned economists asks for an acceleration in the launch of the digital Euro.
While these academics correctly identifies the risks of Europe’s current dependence on foreign payment monopolies, its proposed solution (the Digital Euro) suffers from a profound ignorance of an existing, superior alternative: Bitcoin.

The signatories frame the Digital Euro as the "only defense" for European sovereignty, yet they overlook a battle-tested technology that already achieves their stated goals without the inherent risks of a centralized state currency.
They claim that a European CBDC is the "only" way to ensure resilience. However, Bitcoin has operated 24/7 since 2009 with 99.9% uptime, providing a globally available, robust payment infrastructure that is "immediately available" today, unlike the Digital Euro which remains a project with mired in political negotiations with undefined technological foundations.

The economists all belong to SFL (Sustainable Finance Lab), an independent academic think tank stemming out of Utrecht University’s School of Economics. “The mission of the Sustainable Finance Lab is to contribute to a financial sector that serves people and planet.”
And yet, in 2025, they still ignore Bitcoin.

You can find the letter (PDF) here: https://sustainablefinancelab.nl/wp-content/uploads/sites/506/2026/01/The-Digital-Euro-Let-te-public-interest-prevail.pdf