Trump’s Crypto Reserve Put & US GDP Math

Bitcoin’s value surged when Trump posted his support of a federal “strategic crypto reserve.” If Uncle Sam were to invest in cryptocurrencies, bitcoin would no longer be independent of government influence—and neither would the financial markets broadly. Today, Ed explores the potentially significant implications of the notion in advance of the White House’s first Crypto Summit on Friday. … Also: A look at the math of how recent trade and PMI data chopped the Q1 real GDP growth projection of the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model. We’re more sanguine than the model, expecting January’s weakness to be temporary; we see Q1 real GDP growing between 1.5% and 2.5% y/y.