Former Fed Economist Turned Private Market Investor Talks Inflation and Crypto

Bitcoin (and cryptocurrency generally) often has been called a long-term inflation hedge. Over the last few months, however, soaring inflation (and central banks’ efforts to counter it) has been a major driver of broad losses across the crypto market. Indeed, the U.S. dollar’s purchasing power against Bitcoin has been in an uptrend for the better part of 2022, inviting skepticism of the “inflation hedge” narrative. Joe Zhao, a former economist at the Federal Reserve and a current partner at venture fund Millennia Capital, joins Real Vision Senior Crypto Editor Ash Bennington to share insights into how the Fed makes policy and to explain why he believes all asset prices are correlated. Zhao also forecasts the stock market’s performance for the balance of 2022 and into 2023 – noting that stock-market performance will be a good gauge of Bitcoin’s trajectory. The Fed’s efforts to control inflation mean this year and next are for recovery. But, according to Zhao, we’ll start to see growth again in 2024. Recorded on July 1, 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices