Shuttering
Daily Ramble
I’m in late-night Ramble mode. It’s a rare occurrence caused by the alignment of a four-hour session opening a business account, a puking child, and work obligations. Now that we have the business account opened, the child in bed, and my other work obligations complete, I’ve got the space to slide an email into your inbox far later than normal.
The low-hanging fruit today would be to describe my loathsome attitude towards banks. It’s not enough that they take each of our hard-earned euros, fractionalize them, and then lend them out while we risk government seizure in times of economic crisis (it’s happened before here). On top of that, they’ve got to provide the worst customer service experience known to man. At least that’s what happened today at our new Portuguese bank. And it’s not isolated to the bank we chose — it’s a disease that’s spread across every bank I’ve interacted with here.
The morning started promising enough. We walked into the bank at 10 AM, our lawyer by our side, all necessary business papers in hand, signatures made, and IDs copied. Our first task was to take a ticket and wait twenty minutes to be seen. No problem there. Once at the teller, I let my wife take over the conversation with our lawyer’s support while I kept Naia entertained. Almost an hour later, we had all the papers ready, and we began the document signing process. I’m not exaggerating when I state that we signed at least 12 different documents between my wife and me. At this point, I was ready to grab a treat at the cafe next door to celebrate with our lawyer on successfully opening an account.
Nope. Next was the process of scanning all the documents for safe record keeping. We were advised it’d take 20 minutes and to come back to sign the rest of the documents. I couldn’t believe there could be any documents left on the planet that I hadn’t signed, but so be it. Red tape is measured in kilometers, not millimeters here. An hour later, our fresh juices were long gone, we had just completed swapping life stories, and we had completed the 47th time hearing The Itsy Bitsy Spider on repeat. We went back into the bank and had the second document signing ceremony. I’m pretty sure I was signing papers to say I had signed papers. What else was left? But our ever-patient banker told us she needed to get her manager’s stamps of approval to finalize the process. It was best if we went and had lunch in the meantime.
Despite dying small talk, we did lunch and came back to discover our banker had stepped out to lunch herself. No problem. We’ll take a ticket and wait 20 minutes. Naia was going stark raving mad at this point, having sat her squirmy butt still for more hours than I could have dared at 3 years old, so I took her to see the trains, spin in circles, and practice using crosswalks. Then, I got a call from my wife asking me to grab €500 in cash from the ATM. Dutifully, I did since the bank only allowed bank transfers from existing account holders. Why not? Our lawyer, Ana, and the bank manager were wrapping up the process for us when I came back with my fist full of cash. Another 30 minutes ticked by while the last documents were signed, and everyone successfully exited the bank. 4.5 hours, top to bottom, for 5 different people (our lawyer brought his assistant-in-training). That means humanity lost 22.5 hours of life force by opening a bank account.
I will have exactly zero tears to shed when banks shutter their doors in the crypto economy we’re hurtling towards.
Sobering Things on the Interweb
Collect your clout Julian! Oh wait, you’re rotting in a UK prison for speaking the truth.
Bitcoin Price Prediction
Yesterday: $43.8k - $46k
Today: $43.8k - $46.6k
Tomorrow: $43.8k - $49k
Bitcoin has been in a bearish downtrend for the last four out of five days. In total, it’s been just over a 10% pullback, which is not much considering the 60% up move in the last month. Today, Bitcoin is attempting a bullish pivot. Should the price clear $46k, we should be heading towards $49k before much longer. On the opposite side, if we lose $44k by the end of the day, then the doors open for more downside, although I can’t imagine seeing further than $40k if the short-term downtrend continues.
Bitcoin Q & A
Q: Besides hope.com, what other resources do you suggest for Bitcoin education?
A: The Case for Bitcoin is my other favorite website to recommend for education.
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