Matthew Sparkes wrote this in the Telegraph yesterday…the best piece I’ve yet seen on the wider implications of Bitcoin.

The terrifying thing about Sparkes’s review is how easily something that could accelerate mutualised localism, turn the banks into a Maginot Line and break down the centralised State is also the same means by which that State could be replaced by a criminal, ethics-free protection racket even worse than the one we’ve got now.

Meanwhile, we still find ourselves debating whether to get out of the EU or not (why the discussion is even necessary eludes me) but within that non-decision we are left with the same dilemma as Sparkes’s article made so brutally obvious: who are the good guys, and who the bad?

For example, Nigel Farage claims he is in the business of protecting British jobs. It’s a claim I’ve always found hard to swallow….given that Mr Farage was a City trader at the height of asset-stripping and job-destruction which, let’s face it, tends to favour shareholders rather than the often innocent working man.

Anyway, if his claim is genuine, I don’t mind job protection as long as the playing field is level, and the protection is one of skills and standards, rather than idleness, truculence and sufficiency bodging on every job.

It would be good to hear in detail what Farrago’s position is on this issue, because it is a crucially important one: is he a neoliberal job-crusher who resents Brussels power, hates all East European workers, and envies Cameron’s privilege….or a man who genuinely wants to raise the game of Britain’s educational output and produce a real level playing field?

Telling black hats from white hats gets more difficult every day…just as telling truth from fiction is almost impossible, up from down and Left from Right. Perhaps the best example in the markets at minute is the Spanish cost of borrowing when set against the unpleasant and immutable econo-fiscal facts the country obviously faces. To quote from Marketwatch:

‘ Borrowing costs on 10-year Spanish government bonds ES:ES10YT -0.68% dropped below the yield on 10-year U.S. notes on Monday, as southern European assets continued to benefit from the latest round of European Central Bank measures. The 10-year Spanish yield fell by 4.9 basis points to 2.595%, according to Tradeweb, extending its fall from last week when the ECB introduced an aggressive round of stimulus measures, including negative interest rates and targeted long-term refinancing operations’.

Is this genuine magic, or conjuring? We must ask ourselves howTF one former Goldman Italian Rapscallion can make Spanish junk perform at the same level as T-Bills. And the answer is, “because the proles are asleep, and our new persecutors are master of illusion.

You know, it’s going to be such a relief when the world returns to normal. It’s just the bit between then and now that concerns me a little.

Related at The Slog: Fact and fantasy as seen through the medium of bent data