Acha Etiendem

Introduction Growing up, I always wondered why there were things I couldn’t have. Perhaps that was a narcissistic way of looking at life, because it meant I prevented myself from seeing the full picture, a picture rooted in empathy, where you acknowledge what you could have but also understand why you don’t have it. As usual, it’s almost midnight, my best time to reflect, and I’m dwelling on this topic of inequality yet again. I don’t want to ramble. I want this to follow a structure, to show clearly the angles I’m approaching this from. So thank you for tuning in, and I hope it’s worth your time. The Individual I looked at my family, and we don’t look exactly alike. I looked at my village, and everyone is different. Everything and everyone differs in some way height, weight, skin color, strength, beliefs, values, and IQ. For some reason, these differences are often treated as simple or trivial, but in reality, they are anything but. So I pondered: did nature err in its design of us? S...

Hey there, thanks for sliding onto my blog. I don't post often, because I now use this place to put down some thoughts that refuse to leave my mind. It used to be because I wanted to generate some Google AdSense income from people like you coming to read. So, my target was always about retaining readers so they keep coming back to my blog; not anymore, unfortunately. Now let's get to the point.  I recently watched the Squid Game show/movie. Every time I observed participants talk about games and money, my mind would wander between fear and greed. I have talked about fear and greed in a previous post on inequality . When some participants voted to end the games, I knew it was fear driving their decision, and those who voted to continue were being driven by greed. Being someone who trades/invests in markets, I could appreciate another aspect of this show that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. I have had positions go up by thousands of dollars and still lost because I held on...

Have you found yourself wondering what all this talk about central banks holding more gold reserves than US treasuries means? Well, you’re not alone. I did a little digging and just thought I would share what I found. Like Ray Dalio, I had to look back in history for periods when this has happened before. And for that, we would look at the 1970s (Post Bretton Woods) and the 1990s (Pre-1996s Crossover). If seeing is believing, then let’s see this chart. Figure 1. Gold vs U.S. Treasuries historical crossover I may have referenced Google Gemini as a data source, but rest assured, the data comes from a variety of sources such as reuters.com, fxstreet.com, etc. I just couldn’t claim the credits to be honest. 1970s:  So, back in the 1970s, we had a gold rush when the US ceased the convertibility of dollars into gold. What happened was a spike in inflation to as high as 13.5% as many flocked to gold as a hedge against inflation. This was not the only reason for gold accumulation by centra...

Hey there! And welcome. Have you come again to read what nonsense I have to say? Well then, buckle up and please excuse my grammar. I may have a deep love for statistics and data overall, but statistics has never loved me back. But I'm a slow learner, so I haven't given up on courting statistics yet. That being said, I began June 2024 with an experiment to buy $20 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) every week. Do the math, with Bitcoin at $115,400 per BTC, it appears I'm not such a bad investor after all. Well, that experiment wasn't just because I wanted to see what could happen. No, it was because my theory around Bitcoin sees it going even higher than it is. And I will explain why below and in very simple terms so anyone can understand. The above graph just shows you that $20/week Bitcoin purchases since June 2024 (66 weeks) total $1,320 invested, with approximately 0.01652 BTC accumulated. At the current Bitcoin price of about $115,400 (as of September 15, 2025), my BTC holding...

Welcome! I may not sleep soon for the night is young. Scientists tell me I need to sleep more, but I ask myself how I can sleep more in this economy? Even when I do sleep more, the rich accuse me of sleeping while they work their ass off to get where they are. If the rich are not accusing me of being lazy, some politician is trying to get me to play the victim for his vote. Regardless of which forces point at me, I look within like a Chinese monk for the solutions. My body says sleep, my mind says the night is young. My brain cherishes the silence of the night, and tells my fingers to write and my eyes to read. I have to write for the night is young. It is in this silence that my thoughts become coherent. Here we go! The average politician earns more than the average person. In my last post, I pointed to the inequality in the world as a result of humans being greedy and fearful. What motivates most politicians isn't the love for humanity as they would have us believe, but the sheer...

Sometimes, my mind drifts from one topic to the next like someone aimlessly scrolling on social media. I think there's a lot I can conjure up, and the best way I kind of make sense of it all is to write. Oh! Sorry, I didn't welcome you. So you came to check what nonsense I have to say? Well, I hope to have been worth your time by the end of this.  You see, I have lived in Africa, Europe, and North America. This is not me bragging, but an attempt to show you that I'm writing from my lived experience and not some made-up stuff. Anywhere I have gone, there's been inequality. I have seen people live in affluence and others live in abject poverty. This is true for all societies, regardless of who they are. The fascinating thing about this is that, all through history, the same inequality has existed. We've always had the haves and have-nots. It doesn't matter which ancient empire, socialist, communist, or capitalist society you're looking at. The same damm inequa...

Hi there! Welcome to one of those my boring write-ups. In this episode, I want to convey what I think will be immediate signs that show the dollar monetary system is about to end. I'm not one of those pessimists out there, but I can be rational and recognize a problem when I sense and see one.  As much as I love the dollar system, I have to acknowledge its downsides. We've generally enjoyed no major wars like the First and Second World Wars, thanks partially to the dollar system, which has enabled some bad actors to be kept in check. This has meant the dollar has been weaponized to get some tyrants to behave. Of course, this came at a cost, as countries gradually sought ways to reduce their dependence on the dollar for trade over time. Take a look at Figure 1                                                  Figure 1. Dollar Decline When I began studying money...

Hi, and welcome. This is just a note to myself, or a record of what seems unclear in my mind. It has nothing to do with my previous post or markets at all. So if you want to stick around, you're more than welcome to waste your time haha!                                                        Find your life's purpose so you can start living When the year began, I made my speech about the year 2025, and given the tensions between the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve on the topic of Interest rates, it appears I had the foresight and accuracy of an ancient-day Israeli prophet. I feel proud that I could have made such an accurate forecast and, honestly, benefited from it financially. It's not about the benefits, but the fact that I was able to independently come up with my own conclusions and act on the recommendations.  However, what ap...

I don't know what brought you to my blog, but where I come from, it is a sign of respect to welcome/greet every stranger you encounter. In that spirit, I say thank you for checking out my tiny blog and spending your precious time entertaining whatever nonsense I have to say, haha! You'll probably have noticed from my previous posts that I greatly monitor interest rates and quite actually love them. You may have wondered how I use them to make money or guide my investments. Before we get into the nitty gritty of this episode, I want to clarify that I don't know anything and I'm just literally taking on risk based on my research on market behavior around interest changes and/or perceived future of interest rate changes. Look, you don't need to be an expert and you certainly don't really need an expert to invest successfully. The chart below will tell you why. If you just buy assets and hold them for at least 4-5 years during times of high interest rates, you'l...

I welcome you once more to my corner. I have not posted since January for the right reasons. Now that quarter one (Q1) is almost over, I know it's necessary to give a follow-up of my New Year's speech. Let's get to it. It's all about interest rates and the message hasn't changed.  What a show Trump has put on in DC. Trump came in threatening that Jerome Powell resign because Powell and co have kept rates high, despite Trump seeking lower rates.  He quickly realized or was cautioned that such an approach would not work. On 01/01/2025, I wrote that our focus should be on the US Federal Reserve (FED). This bank (if you choose to call it a bank) is the most powerful institution in the world and I want to add now that another department we need to quickly update ourselves about is the US treasury, championed by its secretary, Scott Bessent. Collectively, these guys all want lower interest rates. The FED will not drop rates until the incoming data suggests it is appropria...

 Happy New Year!!! Due to my geographical location, I was among one of the last regions to enter 2025. By the time midnight came around for me, most people had already celebrated the New Year. Well, we're all in 2025 now, and it's that time of year when I engage you again about the year ahead and what I thought of the previous year.  You know me by now to some extent that I'm mostly writing about finance and money since 2021. It's a personal task I decided to embark on to learn by doing and not follow the normal education route required for such disciplines. This has meant more of my time is spent studying economies, how inflation and central banks work their way around money, what roles politics plays in all of it, and the most important part of it all; personal finance. Famous motivational speaker Les Brown once said and I paraphrase " If you regularly read a lot of books about any particular subject for at least 5 years, in that time, you'll become one of th...