Getting Frank About Crypto

by Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham


Anyone who has ever met Barney Frank, a former Member of the United States House of Representatives (D-MA) and Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, knows that his name becomes him.

This is a man who speaks his mind, with a keen intelligence and an extremely sharp wit, humorously dubbed as “saber tooth” by former President George W. Bush.

Having managed to salvage his political career following his own public scandal and personal struggles, going on to become one of the most notable and well-loved contemporary Members of Congress, he is a survivor.

Frank is also a man who seeks stability. In 2010, responding to the 2008 financial crisis, he co-authored, with Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 4173), more commonly known as “Dodd-Frank”, US legislation increasing the accountability and transparency of financial institutions and other market actors, as well as protections for financial consumers.

Truly “shocking”, then, that Signature Bank, for which Barney Frank served as a Member of the Board since 2015, after retiring from Capitol Hill, should “fail”.  In a twist of fate, the very mechanism by which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) seized a Signature Bank which it deemed to be insolvent, allegedly set aside its USD 4 billion in digital asset deposits (the two main points of contention here), and sold off its cash deposits to Flagstar Bank, N.A., a subsidiary of New York Community Bancorp, Inc., was established under Dodd-Frank.

Barney Frank did not let Signature Bank “go gentle into that good night”.

The day following the shuttering of Signature on Sunday, 12 March 2023, in a series of telephone interviews with the likes of CNBC and Bloomberg Radio, Frank, quite frankly, sought to set the record straight:  Signature was solvent on the date of closure, and would have survived the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on Friday, 10 March 2023, had it been allowed to open that Monday;  Signature was closed by financial regulators in order to send an “anti-crypto” message to market; and, finally, existing US financial legislation, namely as crafted in part by Frank’s own hands, has not yet created a solid regulatory framework for cryptocurrency.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) Superintendent Adrienne Harris maintained that the closure of Signature Bank had nothing to do with cryptocurrency, looking rather to the threat of destabilization posed by the run on deposits suffered by the bank, triggered by the closure of SVB.

Barney Frank confirms that Signature suffered a sudden run on deposits that Friday, in the amount of approximately USD 10 billion.  He also contends that the situation had stabilized, and that the threat to liquidity was no longer present, when Signature Bank was forced to close its doors the following Sunday.  There is no denying that, while both “crypto-friendly”, SVB and Signature were very different banks in terms of how they treated their digital assets banking business.

If Signature Bank was, in fact, solvent on the date of closure, we should be concerned.  Regulation which is based on anything other than economic fundamentals is little more than politically-motivated maneuvering, also threatening to global financial stability, at a cost of USD 2.5 billion in the case of Signature.

After Reuters later reported on Wednesday, 15 March — the “Ides of March”, a dreaded deadline for the payment of debts outstanding, as well as a day of religious significance, in ancient Rome — that the FDIC was quietly requiring prospective buyers of the newly formed Signature Bridge Bank, N.A. “to give up all the crypto business”, it was duly noted by the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal on 20 March, following the announcement of the purchase by Flagstar, that “Barney Frank was right”.

As American companies holding deposits in digital assets frantically seek refuge in the Caribbean, Europe, or the Middle East, Martin Gruenberg, FDIC Chairman, publicly maintains that his agency is not seeking to discourage banks from participating in any particular activity (in other words, that this all has nothing to do with crypto).

There is no doubt that existing US legislation, and particularly Dodd-Frank, has yet to sufficiently treat cryptocurrency and its impact upon financial markets.

Both the financial lawyer and the artist in me wholeheartedly believe that an investment in a tangible asset which holds an intrinsic value — such as a bag of flour, a bar of gold, or a work of art — will forever be more sound than any investment in Bitcoin or its cryptocurrency counterparts;  I am a bit of a “crypto-skeptic”.  That being said, even I have been “paid in crypto” at least once in my life.  The growing need of a solid regulatory framework for cryptocurrency is evident.

Getting frank about crypto, “saber tooth” is right, once again.

______________________________

Ruth Rachel Yvonne Anderson-Avraham (née Yvonne Michele Anderson) is a JD graduate of Harvard Law School and an MBA graduate of HEC-Paris.  She is Co-Producer of Let’s Get Frank (2003), a documentary film following former United States Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) through the Clinton Impeachment Hearings.

On the Sale of Beeple's "Everydays: The First 5,000 Days"for USD 69.3 Million

 by Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham


"I was living in Prospect Heights when the 'Sensation' exhibit came to the Brooklyn Museum in 1997, and had the opportunity to see the exhibit personally several times.

While it is true that many of the works were controversial and did play upon some level of 'shock value', as well as the savvy marketing of Charles Saatchi, these works were far from negligible. They were, indeed, inherently noteworthy, and did, in fact, demonstrate artistic merit, whatever one's personal artistic tastes or preferences.

In my humble opinion, the work of Beeple (b. 1981) does have intrinsic value, both artistically and monetarily. The real question is whether or not the price which the market has afforded to this work is too high, whether or not this work is overvalued...

The same question has been posed about the work of Damien Hirst (b. 1965), one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) featured in the Sensation exhibit, who is, today, one of the wealthiest living artists in the world, if not the wealthiest living artist in the world, and whose work also remains extremely controversial (in a manner in which the work of Beeple is not, both in terms of theme and process).

The market price afforded to a work of art is not merely determined by the demonstration of artistic merit by the artist and his or her work. There are many other factors which contribute to the pricing of a work of art beyond artistic merit, such as 'uniqueness' or perceived 'uniqueness'; cultural tempo (a determination of whether or not an artist or a particular genre or work of art is considered to be in high demand or what's 'hot' at any given time); economy (a determination of whether or not potential buyers have an incentive at any given time to invest in art, or to invest, generally, as well as a determination of the potential for any such investment in art to turnover in the market at any given time, etc.); and marketability (whether or not an artist or work of art has access to a small or large market, to experienced intermediaries such as dealers, galleries, and auction houses, to less wealthy or more wealthy buyers, etc.).

While there is no question that digital artwork, including NFTs, has intrinsic value and integrity - even moreso than the Bitcoin, in my humble opinion, I believe that this work has been dangerously overvalued, as is the Bitcoin, generally (also, in my humble opinion).

One day, this bubble will burst, and prices will reset, but a market will most certainly remain..."

America in the Balance:Voter Fraud, Political Instability, and the Pursuit of Justice

by Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham


Just shy of one year prior to his death, my 83-year-old father, known affectionately by many as “Abe”, a Jamaican national of diverse heritage who was the holder of a Green Card and a Permanent Resident in the United States, received letters from the General Registrar of the City of Norfolk, Virginia Department of Elections and the Democratic National Committee (the "DNC"). The Department of Elections encouraged him to complete a Virginia Voter Registration Application which had been presumably partially filled in and submitted by him online. The DNC wanted him to complete the official 2018 Democratic Party Survey, and had addressed my father with designated DNC membership and registration numbers.

At the time, my father’s renewal of his Permanent Resident Card was overdue, and I was afraid that he would have problems with the normalization of his immigration status if he were falsely suspected of voter fraud under a Trump Administration implementing a hard-line immigration policy. I therefore helped my father to draft and sign letters addressed to the General Registrar of the City of Norfolk, the Virginia Board of Elections, and the DNC clearly stating that he was a not a U.S. Citizen, had never applied to register to vote in the Commonwealth of Virginia, had never registered as a member of the Democratic Party, and requesting that his name be cancelled and removed from all relevant voter and Party membership rolls.

When my father suddenly passed away on 22 January 2019, he had had lived more than 5o years in the United States, where he studied at Howard University – the undergraduate alma mater of Kamala Harris, where his brother, my uncle, is also Professor Emeritus – and became a physician, married and had children, and paid taxes. His Permanent Resident Card had still not yet been renewed. Although he was not a U.S. Citizen, he was concerned about and committed to making positive contributions to the public welfare in the country in which he lived, as a family man, medical professional, teacher, and member of the larger community.

He felt honored to have witnessed seeing Barack Obama, with whom I share the honor of having graduated from Harvard Law School, elected as the 44th President of the United States. He would have loved to have seen Kamala Harris elected as Vice-President alongside Joe Biden, the 46th.

In respect of politics and the economy, however, my father and I had differences in respect of which we enjoyed many lively debates. Myself a centre right Conservative who has lived over 10 years of her adult life abroad, and who now remains decidedly Independent of the Democratic or Republican parties, I am profoundly concerned about the future of America, whether one looks to the “Left” or the “Right”.

In 2016, as a woman, I admired Hillary Clinton’s historic Presidential campaign, and her aspiration to become the first female President of the United States. At the same time, I also believed in and defended the idea of Donald Trump – the idea that the contribution of the layperson in the building and governance of our country is at the very heart of the United States Constitution. However, ideologically, I did not feel that either candidate truly captured the whole of what The United States of America so desperately needs. Hillary Clinton was not in tune enough with the economic concerns of “middle America” and the working class. Donald Trump was too insensitive to the concerns of women, minorities, and immigrants, although a great defender of Israel.  As in 2000, the Electoral College, contradicting the popular vote, ultimately decided America’s fate in a hotly contested race.

In 2020, while working as a Contractor for the United States Small Business Administration Coronavirus Relief Project, I mailed in an absentee ballot to the City of Norfolk Department of elections for the second time in my life in order to protect myself from COVID-19 (the first time I was living abroad in Paris, France), and took great care to track my ballot online in order to ensure that it was received prior to 3rd November, Election Day. I wanted to be certain that my vote would be counted, and not cast aside.

Feeling that corruption is a growing problem for the country of my birth is something that I never would have imagined as a child or young adult. Today, however, I have the deepening sense that unacknowledged elitism, lack of communication, the growth of armed domestic extremism and terrorism, and disconnect with the daily hardships now being experienced by the average American household have taken their toll on the political landscape of our nation's Capital.

Do I think electoral fraud exists in the United States? Yes. Was it so widespread in November 2020 that it cost President Trump re-election? In my humble opinion, not at all. Nevertheless, the violent pro-Trump attack on the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021, during the course of which at least 5 people — including at least one police officer and one military veteran — lost their lives, makes the growing need for electoral and economic reform in the United States tragically apparent. Likewise, the fact that more people died in the United States from COVID-19 on that same day than ever before serves as a chilling reminder of the pressing need for stability in healthcare reform providing access to affordable healthcare for all Americans.

And so, as a Jewish woman of color with a diverse heritage and a global sensibility, who is still all too often made subject to judgment based upon physical form and appearance rather than internal substance, the victory of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the loss of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, the victory and ensuing loss of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, and the victory of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, are all bittersweet for me.

Domestic markets, and, by reaction, international markets, currently fluctuate within the rift between the potential for the America we know at its best, and the America which we know is sincerely struggling today.

Nevertheless, three years after Charlottesville, “Johnny Reb”, towering eight stories high at the intersection of Commercial Place and East Main Street, not far from City Hall and the City of Norfolk Department of Elections, came down peacefully in June 2020; I wholeheartedly support his final resting place in a Civil War museum or the Elmwood Cemetery. A ferry ride away, just across the Elizabeth River, in Portsmouth, Virginia, however, the battle over the future of the Confederate Monument has been much more fierce, foreshadowing the entry of the Confederate Flag into the Capitol Building for the very first time in American history on 6 January 2021.

American political, social, and economic stability in the pursuit of justice hangs in the balance. In the era of COVID-19, the international prowess of the United States as the model democracy is no longer a post-Civil Rights assumption, although imperfect, but something for which Americans, whatever their heritage or background, must now find some way of coming together in order to defend.

___________________________

When Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham first published the above article on Tuesday, 12 January 2021, she was not aware that her father passed away in 2019 on the anniversary of the historic Roe v. Wade decision, 22 January 1973 (410 US 113 (1973)).  Such came to light during the controversy following the handing down of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization on 24 June 2022 (No. 19-1932, 597 US ___ (2022)).

As stated in his Obituary published by the Virginian-Pilot:, Dr. Anderson was "a champion of a woman's right to choose." (Anderson, Abraham S. Dr., The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Virginia, Friday, 25 January 2019, Obituaries, page 10).

THE PEOPLE ARE RISING

by Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham
 

WE ALSO STAND WITH THE PEACEFUL PROTESTORS.    

Please remember, however, that #Coronavirus / #COVID-19 / #TheRona is still very much a pandemic disproportionately affecting the lives of seniors, people of color, medical professionals and staff, and law enforcement authorities (including all upright members of law enforcement, who also seek social justice in the institutions to which they belong).

Although we fully understand the need to stand up and be heard, doing so in the present state of pandemic is clearly dangerous.  The lives of people are clearly placed at risk.

Therefore, if you are participating in public events, please take every precaution to protect yourself and your family from this devastating disease:

☑️  1) WEAR YOUR MASKS (AND GLOVES, AS THE CASE MAY BE).

☑️  2) COVER YOUR SKIN AND REFRAIN FROM HANDLING FOREIGN OBJECTS TO THE GREATEST EXTENT POSSIBLE, ESPECIALLY WHILE IN UNKNOWN ENVIRONMENTS.

☑️  3) WASH / SANITIZE YOUR HANDS FREQUENTLY, AS NEEDED.

☑️  4) DO YOUR VERY BEST TO KEEP SOCIAL DISTANCING.

☑️  5) BE VERY AWARE THAT PERSONS AFFECTED WITH NOVEL CORONAVIRUS / COVID-19 DO NOT ALWAYS SHOW SYMPTOMS; IT IS VERY POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE COULD FEEL AND SEEM COMPLETELY HEALTHY AND STILL BE INFECTED.

🔸🔸 REMEMBER:  WHEN YOU CHANT, SCREAM, YELL, OR BREATH HEAVILY DUE TO GREATER PHYSICAL EXERTION, DROPLETS ARE RELEASED INTO THE AIR AT A HIGHER RATE AND PROJECTED INTO THE AIR AT A LONGER DISTANCE.

THE DROPLETS RELEASED INTO THE AIR OF A PERSON INFECTED WITH CORONAVIRUS / COVID-19 CAN BE INHALED BY YOU OR WIPED BY YOU ONTO YOUR SKIN AND INTO THE MOIST AREAS OF YOUR MOUTH, NOSE, EYES, ETC...

THIS IS WHY COVERING YOUR SKIN, AND EVEN YOUR HAIR, IS ALSO A PROTECTION.

BE STRONG.  BE SAFE.  BE WELL.

#BLM

On Heroes, Part II

 by Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham


“Killmonger is trying to achieve greatness…but there’s an expectation of greatness for me [as T'Challa, the Black Panther]...I don’t know if we as African-Americans would accept T’Challa as our hero if he didn’t go through Killmonger. Because Killmonger has been through our struggle, and I [as T’Challa, the Black Panther] haven’t”.

~ Chadwick Boseman, "T'Challa" / the Black Panther (2018), "Black Panther in Conversation", hosted by The Atlantic, AFROPUNK and The Apollo Theater, 27 February 2018

~ ❧ ~

"Isn't it two sides of the same coin?

Could the Civil Rights Movement in the United States have progressed without MalcolmX and the Black Panthers in addition to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thurgood Marshall?

Proportionate self-defense against unjust violence is also moral and legitimate and just means, and, in the Jim Crow South, African-American people were the victims of unjust organized violence on a daily basis...

While I am a great admirer of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Thurgood Marshall (my natural inclination is towards non-violent means), I certainly would not deny the importance and legitimate contributions of MalcolmX and the original Black Panthers to the liberation of people of African heritage in the United States. I certainly would not deny my legitimate right to proportionate self-defense if such were absolutely necessary in order to defend my life.

Therefore, in my humble opinion, both T'Challa and Killmonger have legitimate points, legitimate philosophy, legitimate means, in core principle.

Eventually, Killmonger lost himself in his own resentment, however.  At a certain point, his anger consumed him so much so that his desire to defend himself legitimately moves towards the immoral and unjust use of violence and unjust means, not only as a soldier (he scars his skin for every person that he killed, celebrating death), but also as the interim leader of his own people (after coming to power in Wakanda, he seeks to destroy the very 'Heart-Shaped Herb' which has blessed his people, and to usurp power in permanence, denying the tradition of the just challenge).

In the end, it is T'Challa who, in honoring the legitimacy of Killmonger's struggle, steps to the fore as a truly great leader. Influenced by the legitimacy of Killmonger's core philosophy, while also recognizing Killmonger's tragic descent into immorality, T'Challa opens Wakanda to the world in the desire to save life, preserve life, embetter life (in the desire to save the life of the young boy that his own father did not save...). Thus, I agree with Chadwick Boseman completely when he says that, 'I don't know if we would accept T'Challa as our hero if he didn't go through Killmonger.'

Had he not met, sought to understand, and confronted the character of Killmonger, T'Challa would not have become the great King that he became to be..."

________________________________

Copyright © Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham,
22 Iyar 5778 / 7 May 2018 (morning)

(As republished from the original text published in a commentary made by Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham to the AFROPUNK article " Chadwick Boseman Agrees: 'T'Challa is the Enemy, Killmonger is Trying to Achieve Greatness' " during the week of 18 Adar 5778 / 5 March 2018.)

AFROPUNK (Official Website; article and video in English):
https://afropunk.com/2018/03/chadwick-boseman-agrees-tchalla-enemy-killmonger-trying-achieve-greatness

AFROPUNK (Official Website; article in English):
https://afropunk.com/2018/02/black-panther-conversation-featuring-chadwick-boseman-ta-nehisi-coates-lupita-nyongo

On Heroes, Part I

by Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham


"Fleshing out ideas for my own projects, I saw three 'hero' movies today:

Black Panther (2018), The 15:17 to Paris (2018), and Samson (2018).

Black Panther (which I viewed in realD 3D RPX Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound (!)) was impressive and the best of the three by far, though the remaining two films — among the genres closest to my heart (documentary, historical fiction, historical drama, including the the chronicling of Biblical or religious histories and accounts) — are certainly well done and cinema worthy.

The 15:17 to Paris stars the three real heroes of the August 2015 Thalys terrorist attack: Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos, and Anthony Sadler. In my humble opinion, the film would have been excellent if the script had not only included the 'backstory' of these three courageous young men, but also the backstory of Ayoub El Khazzani, the thwarted terrorist, who was of the same age as the young men who ultimately confronted and overpowered him (though he was misrepresented as seemingly older in the film, in my humble opinion — another deficit for the film, sadly), thereby putting down the terrorist attack within minutes after it had begun. Had El Khazzani's backstory been included in the film, the eventual meeting of these four young men would have touched on a much deeper level, and the growing tragedy of young men becoming radicalized to terrorist ideology and terrorism (becoming 'anti-heroes', or 'tragic heroes' within the immoral context of the terrorist ideology which they have adopted) would also have been brought to the fore.

What life experiences and choices led Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos, and Anthony Sadler to define themselves as 'heroes'? What life experiences and choices lead Ayoub El Khazzani to tragically define himself as a 'villain' (or a 'tragic hero' within the immoral context of the terrorist ideology which he adopted)? What could each of these young men learn from the lives (experiences and choices) of the others?

Samson — told more from a Christian perspective than a Jewish one, in my humble opinion — would have been infinitely better if the Biblical story of his Divinely ordained conception and birth had been included, and if the character of the Philistine Prince Rallah had been more human, more complex, less one-dimensional (just as for Ayoub El Khazzani in The 15:17 to Paris).

The representations of Philistine women in Samson — Taren and Delilah, namely — approach greater depths, but also could have been even more well-developed. Sadly, female Jewish characters are not well-developed at all in the film, including Samson's mother. Here, particularly, including the Biblical story of Samson's 'miraculous' birth would have caused the film to blossom.

In Black Panther, it was lovely to see African people — both men and women, heroes and villains, African culture and African tradition (albeit, in a fictional context) represented with such depth and humanity.

Sadly, in The 15:17 to Paris and Samson, this same depth and humanity is lacking for Middle Eastern (or Middle Eastern and North African, in the larger sense) and Arabic culture, tradition, stories and people, including not only the antagonists Ayoub El Khazzani and Prince Rallah, but also the tragic Jewish hero, Samson, himself, as well as his own mother.

A true Middle Eastern (or Middle Eastern and North African, in the larger sense), Arabic, Muslim hero — whether historical or fictional — is something which the world is also direly in need of today."

________________________________

Copyright © Ruth Rachel Anderson-Avraham,
5 Adar 5778 / 19 February 2018 (night)

(As edited from the original text and published in other media
on Sunday, 23 Nisan 5778 / 8 April 2018.)