Hi All,Here in the US, we think that we can use dollars for everything. Since the USD is the strongest currency in the world, can’t we use it for both spending and saving? Most of the world doesn’t work this way. When you have a currency in a developing country that doesn’t hold value well, you can’t store wealth over time in that currency. People in these countries have a multi-currency mindset. They spend in the local currency but try to save in US dollars, since dollars hold value better. Us though? We only think in dollars. Yet we intuitively know that we can’t just save money by keeping it in the bank. We need to ‘make our money’ grow, right? So we invest it. Well - investing and saving are not the same thing. And this turns out to have consequences. Take a listen to learn about how American saving has become financialized, and why people in the US need to start adopting a multi-currency mindset. If you like the newsletter - please subscribe. You can also follow me on Twitter @seancover. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected] for listening!Sean This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit questioningmoney.substack.com

Hi,Most of us have heard the expression that time is money. When people say that, they’re saying that their time is valuable so you should probably stop wasting it. The expression is backwards though. It’s not that time is money. It’s really that money is time. What do I mean? Money is how we store time. When you work for 8 hours, you have converted your labor into that pay. You are storing the time you spent in the form of money. Our modern system of money messes this up though. This one is a little bit cosmic. Buckle up.If you like the newsletter - please subscribe. You can also follow me on Twitter @seancover. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected] for listening!Sean This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit questioningmoney.substack.com

Hi,As the world has become increasingly digital, so too will our money. You may have heard of regions like China and Europe are considering launching digital currencies, but what does that mean? What’s the difference between a digital currency and the debit/credit card banking system we have today?Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) are the next evolution that our monetary system will take and they present numerous possibilities for the future of finance. Not all of what CBDC’s have to offer is good though…If you like the newsletter - please subscribe. You can also follow me on Twitter @seancover. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected] for listening!Sean This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit questioningmoney.substack.com

Hi All,If there is one thing that’s clear about 2020, it’s that our institutions are failing. Why though? The answer is not the tired left vs right dynamics that usually get thrown around in our political discussions. It’s much more fundamental than that. Simply put, our institutions are unable to adapt to a changing world. In order words - they don’t scale.If you like the newsletter - please subscribe. You can also follow me on Twitter @seancover. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected] for listening!Sean This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit questioningmoney.substack.com

Hi All,We all know that we use paper money today. Most of us probably think that paper currency is part of the natural evolution of how money has developed. That’s not true though. It turns out, paper money has been around a lot longer than you may think. It’s just never worked before.If you like the newsletter - please subscribe. You can also follow me on Twitter @seancover. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected] for listening!Sean This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit questioningmoney.substack.com

Hi All,People love to criticize companies that buy back a lot of their own stock. If a company has to declare bankruptcy during a recession because they depleted their cash reserves by buying back too much stock, then why should that company be bailed out? It’s certainly fair to a degree.But why do these companies buy back so much stock in the first place? Why do they feel the need to? That’s the topic for today.If you like the newsletter - please subscribe. You can also follow me on Twitter @seancover. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected] for listening!Sean This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit questioningmoney.substack.com

Hi All,Today’s newsletter issue is about the minimum wage, an issue where the arguments from both sides miss the main point.I’ll let the newsletter itself do most of the talking for this one. All I’ll say is that I won’t make most of the claims that you normally hear when this topic comes up in conversation.If you like the newsletter - please subscribe. You can also follow me on Twitter @seancover. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected] for listening!Sean This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit questioningmoney.substack.com

Hi All,Today’s newsletter issue is about Bitcoin.To those who don’t think about how money works, Bitcoin might not make a lot of sense. Why would we need some weird internet money? Bitcoin is different though. It’s something that has never existed before - a non-sovereign, decentralized, global, and natively digital store of value. The concept can be difficult to comprehend. So what actually is Bitcoin? What are it’s properties? What’s the point? That’s the topic for todayIf you like the newsletter - please subscribe. You can also follow me on Twitter @seancover. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected] for listening!Sean**There is one error in the audio newsletter - there are 100 million satoshis in a Bitcoin, not 80 million as I said. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit questioningmoney.substack.com

Hi All,Today’s newsletter issue is a history episode. When we think about ancient Rome, we usually talk about the advancements the Romans made in architecture, literature, and science. As always, the role of money gets forgotten. Without a strong currency, Rome would not have been able to develop into the empire it became. Remember - money is the base layer which all civilizations are built on top of. All great societies throughout history have one thing in common - a strong currency for the time. The fall of the Roman Empire can be traced to its money as well. If you like the newsletter - please subscribe. You can also follow me on Twitter @seancover. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected] for listening!Sean This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit questioningmoney.substack.com

Hi All,It can be daunting to consider just how much of our personal data is being revealed with every action we do. Every location we go, good we buy, or website we view reveals information about us that was once considered personal and private. Yet the consensus opinion seems to be that it’s too late to fix this, that there are no meaningful ways we can protect ourselves and our data.That is not true.Today’s newsletter is a beginner’s guide, detailing three of the most basic actions one can take to considerably improve their information privacy.If you like the newsletter - please subscribe. You can also follow me on Twitter @seancover. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected] for listening!Seanhttps://twitter.com/seancover This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit questioningmoney.substack.com