 Unemployment is down and markets are up at the topsy-turvy world. There's some strange things going on Not only that but Russia just claimed the title of the second most powerful Bitcoin miner in operation So crazy times and this is what I'm talking about. There was report least today It looks like the unemployment rate slipped out of 3.5% now the Fed of course We know they wanted to actually go up so they can squash demand and crush everybody's dreams and hopes but didn't happen like that today and That's what the market wanted to seize. They wanted to see unemployment rates also Rise that didn't happen. So you would think that there'd be a little bit of a lag But no in actuality March labor report comes out and shows a very resilient economy talks about 3.5 from 3.6 Average hourly earnings increased 4.2% on a 12 month basis. So what do the markets do? Well, they said this is great news It's a funny thing. It seems like the news that we would expect things to drop to the exact opposite That's why it's very difficult to time these markets I'll take a look at NASDAQ even better and crypto. Yeah, not too good. Actually, we've slipped down negative point four percent I think one of the biggest droppers with dogecoin as Elon Musk changes the logo from the doge back to the bird So this is what we have going on I tweeted this out and there was a comment from shark puncher. They had a good point He says, you know more jobs mean nothing in my opinion What good is a job if 100% you take home pay can't even pay a mortgage let alone food transportation That's the reality for most Americans 80 hours a week still won't cover rents in the jobs location. I had to think about that and I've heard the same complaints Quite a bit. So I started to think about well, maybe there's not just the jobs and unemployment. What about under employment? This is from BLS.gov labor underutilization and just so we know the definition of unemployment per America Jobless persons who are available to take a job and have actively sought work in The past four weeks, but if we take a look at that state-by-state case as far as underutilization They break it down even further for underutilized So you won persons employed 15 weeks or longer as a percent of the civilian labor force But I just want to jump down to use six which is total unemployed plus all marginally attached workers plus Total employed part-time for economic reasons as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally Attached workers and I took a look at that. That would be like a little bit underutilized or are Underemployed you can find this on the Fred Economic data and I link this in the description same thing total unemployed all-parts and marginally attached labor force Now if we can see here, this goes back back to January 1994 and if we take that for the unemployment rate and just go back to January roughly 1994 which would be somewhere around here and we increase that We can take a look that it kind of follows the exact same pattern as far as underutilization Same type of thing, but that got me thinking even further. Well, if we're taking a look on employment, but what about? Hourly earnings, how are we doing in that department? Well, we're actually going up It looks like a big hockey stick here in America average hourly earnings were gosh look at this 2015 $24.89 and now as of March 2023 $33.18 that's pretty good, right? Wait Personal consumption expenditures is also going up. So you're making more money Unfortunately, you got to buy more stuff that costs more and we're at an all-time high And that's just the personal consumption expenditures now Let's just strip that out as far as energy and food because that's a little bit too volatile the states right here And that's even more of a hockey stick So shark puncher may be right and you can tell me in the comment section what what you see But I've seen a lot of prices go up They've reduced a little bit one of the big things that we can see also is Everything that's going on in the housing markets and then also for the automobile industry Which if you're going to look into a recession it kind of leads you in and leads you out So that's what I see and lastly I will just say this Everybody's talking about potentially look it's going to be a hard landing It's gonna be a soft landing. It's gonna be a no landing other people saying you know what no I think it's gonna be stagflation. We're gonna see economic growth slow inflation is gonna increase unemployment's gonna increase Like in the 70s, who knows I gotta tell you I don't know where things are going I don't think anybody really has a crystal ball. I'm just pretty just guessing here, but for me If I just stay in the game Longevity usually works and that's not financial vice is the things that I am doing however I will say this it is interesting But all the things that are going on things that are going up to take a look what's going on globally and this Caught my attention Russia becomes the second most powerful Bitcoin miner in the world So I'm trying to see like what are a pretty good investments and what is more bang for my buck? I gotta tell you it seems like a lot of people Maybe picking this so Russia is generating one gigawatt mining power doing a first quarter of 2023 Russia claim Kazakhstan's place is the second largest mining power and I'm not gonna go through this whole thing But what is interesting to me is that the US remain in its position as the leading country with the most significant mining power As it generates three to four gigawatts of mining capacity So I started to think to myself maybe just sensationalism that we're looking at because we always hear about how the government hates Bitcoin how these senators and these congressmen and women they hate Bitcoin But then the free market comes out and says you know what? We're going to mine Bitcoin and we're gonna be you know the largest one here in the United States We're gonna be the biggest largest Bitcoin mining operation Russia didn't really want it to too much and what have they become the second largest Bitcoin mining operation So I know when people say like well Bitcoin might not last or crypto might not last I think we're here to stay and what it really comes down to is the people that want it So when I see these things, I'm like this is a positive sign And also it just takes a long time to move forward and what I'm talking about is that We're talking about Russia And of course Russia the government isn't mining Bitcoin. I mean they may be in the but not really Making that a full-press release But it is interesting that it's the second largest Bitcoin mining operation and for over two three years This is an article from August 12 2020 Russia was ditching the dollar For both of its exports to China things take a long time to get really moving from the old way Russia drop in the US dollar for Chinese you want. This is in December 2022 and then we can see here April 3rd China's you want to replace the dollar as the most traded currency in Russia So I don't know if if this has any relevance or bearing, but I got to tell you it's interesting how they're getting with the dollar They're mining Bitcoin and who knows if it's the government or not I would what is I can't say what it is But it's just interesting how things are moving in this direction and things are changing quite rapidly Anyhow, let me know what you think about those two stories in the comment section Maybe I'm way off, but I see it a different way and lastly To talk about things that really people don't like to talk about Tax time so tax season here in US is upon us looking at April 18th. This is a story This is an old story IRS is hiring additional 20,000 new staffers of the next two years With $80 billion in new funding. Look, they're not gonna hire them today, but they're gonna phase those guys in why? Because they like to do audits. That's just what it is now. There was a email that was sent out just so you know Coin ledger now they have Cardano and XRP blockchains which you can integrate in their API integration and On top of that they're looking to roll out a service Similar to what they did with NFTs, which they were buying people's NFTs not them themselves a third party and they're saying hey Would you like to roll out a service similar to the NFT loss harvester that buys your eliquid worthless rug pulled fungible tokens for a small Amount so you can realize the loss of your taxes. These are something that we're thinking about I personally have used coin ledger for For two years now and it works out pretty well But there's a link in the description and he gets a 20% off if you'd like to use coin ledger for your taxes and Also, if you're looking for the last video that we did with coin ledger I'll link that in the description. One of the big takeaways I got from that one was to Do an extension for your taxes because who knows what's gonna happen. Anyhow, that is it for today. So look Like today's video give it a thumbs up consider subscribing I think to talk about our time sensitive crypto and digital assets investing is not a set it and forget it type of thing So it may be who of you to keep informed. Anyhow, that's it. Thanks so much for stopping by appreciate it I'll see you on the next one