With inflation at a 14-year high, Irish consumers are facing one of their priciest Christmases yet. Prices in Ireland rose by 5.1pc year-on-year in October — the highest level since the boom years. In some areas, the rate of inflation is even higher — the price of flights and home heating oil has almost doubled. “Anything over 3pc inflation starts to create problems,” said economist Jim Power.

lthough some expect high inflation to taper off in time, these record prices have kicked in just ahead of the Christmas rush — pushing up the cost of the festive season and putting many under huge financial pressure.

So what can you expect to pay more for this Christmas — and how might you avoid the worst of rising prices over the festive season?

 

1 Turkey and ham

You could pay 5pc or 6pc more for your turkey or ham this Christmas than last year because of the rising costs faced by producers, according to Dave Lang, head of development at Associated Craft Butchers of Ireland. “Energy costs have gone through the roof,” said Lang. “Refrigeration costs have gone up too — as has the price of feed for turkeys and pigs.”

Some of these higher input costs will make their way through to the prices consumers pay for their food. “Locally, growers are seeing turkey feed prices up about 20pc year-on-year,” said Kieran Rumley, executive director of Love Irish Food. “These growers will have got chicks in from June — and they’ll have to recover the cost.”

A shortage of labour in the UK could also see Irish consumers pay more for fresh turkeys. “In the UK, the slaughtering side of the business is being hampered by lack of labour — that’s leading to a shortage of poultry in the UK, specifically turkey,” said Rumley. “That will feed through to [the availability of] frozen turkeys here and fuel demand for home-grown turkeys.”

You can expect to pay around €60 and upwards for a 7kg fresh whole turkey (which should be plenty to feed a family of six for two days) this year, depending on the type of turkey and where you’re buying it from. You’ll usually pay more for a Bronze (referring to the breed), organic or free-range turkey.

A 6kg organic turkey from an organic farm could set you back €100, for example, while a 7kg free-range Bronze turkey could cost €80 to €95. From December 19, you can buy a 5kg fresh free-range turkey from Dunnes Stores for €40.

To cut down on the price of your Christmas dinner, don’t buy more turkey, ham or veg than you need.

“You don’t need to buy a whole turkey — you could just buy 2kg of turkey breast [depending on how many you’re feeding],” said Lang. “You don’t have to buy a whole ham either — buy half a ham or a corner of ham and so on.”

A frozen turkey is another option if trying to keep costs down.

Go easy on the turkey sandwiches on Christmas night and St Stephen’s Day too: bread prices jumped 4pc in the year to October — one of the highest inflation rates recorded for food that month.

 

2 Cranberry sauce

“Condiments like ham glaze, cranberry sauce and so on could be more expensive this year,” said Lumley. “A lot of these items come in from the UK and will be strongly impacted by Brexit, so there could be extra charges.”

Remember you don’t have to buy a jar of ham glaze — you can make your own ham glaze very cheaply and easily. 

Shopping locally can help you avoid Brexit charges. “A lot of retailers have switched to locally produced products,” said Rumley. “Shoppers buying traditional Christmas items in supermarkets today will find differences in the brands on the shelves, more local products and for items imported, pricier products.”

 

3 Sweets

Confectionery imported from the UK could prove pricier this year. “For retailers bringing in confectionery [from the UK], there will be additional costs associated with that — especially if confectionery is being brought in early as it will need to be warehoused, though retailers will try to offset these additional costs through efficiencies elsewhere,” said Rumley. 

 

4 Christmas stamps 

The cost of sending a Christmas card overseas has almost doubled over the last six years. In Christmas 2015, it cost €1.05 to post a Christmas card abroad — today, it costs €2. It costs €1.10c to post a Christmas card within Ireland today — up from 70c in 2015. Time for virtual Christmas cards perhaps?

 

5 Flying to the relatives

You’ll likely pay through the nose to fly abroad to visit relatives this Christmas — the price of flights jumped by about 72pc in the year to October, according to the CSO.

 

6 Christmas trees

The ongoing global supply chain issues could see you pay more for an artificial Christmas tree this year than last. A shortage of artificial trees from Asia — as well as a big jump in the cost of transporting them here — is pushing up the prices of some artificial trees by almost 50pc, according to some vendors.

Consider buying a real Christmas tree instead — you may even get one for the same price as last year.

“We took a decision not to put up the prices of our trees,” said Christy Kavanagh, who runs Kavanagh Christmas Trees in Dublin and Wicklow. “There’s no shortage of real trees this year.” Sales of real Christmas trees are up 10pc on last year, according to Kavanagh — who attributed the increased demand to a desire among people to buy locally and sustainably.

Some of the most popular types of real Christmas trees are the Noble Fir and Nordmann Fir, according to Kavanagh. You’ll pay between €50 and €70 for either of these trees at Kavanagh Christmas Trees, depending on whether you’re buying a five-foot, six-foot or seven-foot tree. By comparison, you’ll often easily pay €150 for a seven-foot artificial tree in a shop — though assuming you reuse the artificial tree, you might never need to buy another one.

 

7 Trip to Santa

A visit to Santa could cost a family of five more than €100 this year — and the cost of some of the more popular Santa ‘experiences’ have increased in recent years.

For example, a trip to Santa in Christmas Island in Wicklow cost €59.50 (including a €1.50 booking fee) in 2015 for a family of two adults, two children and a baby less than six-months-old. Today, such a family would pay €100.95 (including €4.95 booking fee) to visit Santa in Christmas Island.

It costs between €23.95 and €26.95 per child (aged one plus) and between €14.95 and €17.95 per adult to visit Santa in Rathwood in Carlow this year. In 2015, it cost €15 per child and €10 per adult.

 

8 Warm home

Everyone likes to be cosy at Christmas — however, with the price of home heating oil up a staggering 71pc in the year to October, you’ll think twice about turning on the heating this Christmas if you rely on kerosene to heat your home. There have also been big price hikes in natural gas, solid fuels and electricity over the last year.

 

9 Christmas tipple

Go easy pouring the wine over Christmas dinner this year — prices are up about 3pc over the last year. Spirit prices are up too.

 

10 Meals out & hotel stays

The jury’s out on whether Ireland could face another lockdown in the coming weeks — if it does, hotel stays and Christmas meals may not happen. Even if Covid doesn’t disrupt such plans, meals out and hotel stays will likely be pricier.

“Hotel accommodation and eating out in restaurants have already become more expensive since these services opened up again after the pandemic,” said economist Alan McQuaid. “I expect that trend to continue well into next year.”

 

A Pricier New Year?

Consumers are likely to be battling with higher prices well beyond Christmas.

“Holidays, whether it is home or abroad, will be dearer in 2022 than in 2021,” said McQuaid.

Irish people are likely to pay more for rent, houses, cars and public services (such as health and education) in 2022, according to Power. The price of the weekly shop could creep up further too.

“Food price inflation has been very subdued for decades but this could change due to Brexit, higher costs of food production, and climate change impacts on the food supply chain,” said Power.

Energy prices have been a major driver of rising inflation — and there is huge uncertainty around the direction of energy prices.

“There are tentative signs that we may be close to the peak of the current bout of energy price inflation,” said Simon Barry, chief economist with Ulster Bank. 

Tighter monetary policy — such as an increase in interest rates — will probably be needed to bring inflation under control, according to McQuaid. Central banks have so far been reluctant to raise interest rates because doing so could damage the economic recovery.

However, there could be worse to come if central banks don’t act.

“A bout of stagflation — a situation where the economy is stagnant and unemployment is rising and at the same time prices are rising — cannot be entirely ruled out in my view,” warned McQuaid.

Perhaps surging inflation has set the scene for a perfect storm in 2022. Let’s hope not.

Who elected Elizabeth Warren president of the US economy? 

All signs point to Joe Biden, who between naps and licks of his ice cream cone has bestowed upon Warren de facto presidential powers to appoint people to key government posts that influence the nation’s economy.

I know this because bankers hire lobbyists to sniff out who is getting what jobs so they can plan their business accordingly. These lobbyists are telling the C-suite leaders that the man who was elected president is largely checked out on many issues including these appointments. (Surprise!)

Even worse, Biden has farmed out decisions like these to a coterie of progressive advisers (domestic-policy adviser Susan Rice apparently has a big say on stuff), who in turn take too many of their marching orders from Warren on who regulates the US economy.

That makes the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, in the words of one top Wall Street executive monitoring White House economic appointments, “president for financial regulation.”

What makes Warren so qualified for such power over the $22 trillion US economy is truly baffling. Of course she’s smart; her ascent began in academia and Harvard Law School. But we’re not talking Milton Friedman or even Larry Summers here. Warren’s academic research focused on bankruptcy and consumer issues, not how best to prime an economy to lift wages and produce jobs.

Yet the consumer stuff and her Harvard pedigree made Warren a go-to TV talking head to bank-bash during the 2008 financial crisis. Before long, she had the ear of President Barack Obama as he was weighing the post-crisis ­future of banking.

Her brainchild was a new, largely duplicative layer of government called the Consumer ­Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Warren had grand ambitions for the agency as a prosecutor of malice and greed in banking. Its record was far less impressive. The CFPB was credibly accused of conjuring fake scandals; running interference for trial lawyers looking to squeeze a quick buck out of targeted industries; and coming to the rescue of consumers only after scandals had been uncovered by the media (see the Wells Fargo fake-account mess).

Still, the media loved her. Over the years, Warren managed to leverage her fanatical outbursts to reporters to become a US senator, a presidential candidate and a darling of the progressive wing of the party, even if her halo has dimmed somewhat after falsely claiming she’s of Native American ancestry.

So important she is to the lefty-dominated Democratic Party that when Joe Biden is asleep (which is very often), she’s playing matchmaker on key White House regulatory appointments, Wall Street execs tell me. The Goldman banker and super-progressive SEC chair Gary Gensler is a Warren creation. Her fingerprints are all over the latest possible appointment of her old pal, Richard Cordray, formerly chief of the bank-hating CFPB during the Obama years, to a key role at the Fed as vice chair for banking regulation.

It doesn’t end there. Warren is said to be behind the White House nomination of Saule Omarova. This proud graduate of Moscow State University who never shed her Marxist past is remarkably Biden’s (I mean Warren’s) pick for comptroller of the currency, another key bank regulator.

Then there’s this Warren-inspired doozy: The nomination of Gigi Sohn as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC is one of the most important regulators of business since it provides oversight of our biggest industries: Telecom, media and tech. Sohn’s qualifications are that she is a legal academic and progressive activist who co-founded a left-wing organization that received funding from billionaire left-winger George Soros. She served as special counsel to Obama’s FCC chief Tom Wheeler when he famously pushed for “net neutrality” rules that undermined telecom innovation until it was ­reversed during the Trump years.

Sohn oddly gets some nods from conservatives for her plans to regulate evil Big Tech companies. Look deeper into Sohn’s record, and particularly at her tweets, and you find stuff that should make conservatives — or anyone who cherishes the First Amendment — want to vomit.

She has called into question whether the right-leaning Sinclair Broadcasting is qualified for an FCC broadcast license and if social media companies should moderate “misinformation and disinformation,” which many believe is code for censoring conservative speech.

Sohn once bizarrely suggested that my employer, Fox News, is more “dangerous to our democracy” than the filth that fills social media. Sohn apparently doesn’t like the fact that Fox is one of the few alternatives to the likes of CNN and MSNBC. Word on Wall Street is that the White House will eventually flick in Sohn as chair of the FCC if she’s confirmed because that’s what Warren wants.

Some of these appointments will be shot down in Senate confirmation, but others won’t. The result: More costly regulation that will crush consumers and hinder innovation because it always does. Banks will have to spend time and money answering progressive calls to reduce their carbon footprint instead of ensuring the local bakery can get a loan to expand.

The Gigi Sohns in Washington will play politics with free speech. All thanks to President Warren.

Engine production in the UK fell by -34.6 percent in October, a fifth consecutive month of declines, a trend which some industry experts say, “shows no sign of easing”. Compared with the year to date in 2020, the manufacturing of engines in the UK has seen a decrease of almost seven percent.

Paul Mauerhoff, senior media manager at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), explained how the semiconductor shortage could have an effect on the UK market.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, he said: “There’s been a real squeeze on supply of semiconductors and that is still ongoing.

“There’s no quick fixes. You can’t suddenly open a factory and start producing these hence why we think it could last a long time.

“It’s such an important part of a modern car, and until that squeeze on supply is eased, but we still think there’s a strong demand for cars.”

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Around 180,000 people are directly employed in automotive manufacturing in the UK, with a further 680,000 in the wider automotive sector.

Collectively, the motor industry directly contributes £15billion in gross added value for the UK economy.

The SMMT also believes more needs to be done to ensure the UK remains a strong influence in the automotive world.

Paul continued, saying: “I think it’s all about making sure the UK stays competitive for manufacturing.

The Coronavirus pandemic and Brexit have created countless additional challenges for manufacturers in the UK.

With the ongoing semiconductor shortage, car brands will not be able to produce as many vehicles as they previously were able, but with extra barriers in the way for exporting cars, it may become a bigger issue.

With the 2030 ban on the sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles, the SMMT warn that over 90,000 jobs could be lost by 2030 if the industry fails to make a transition to a more sustainable practice.

They said: “If we want to preserve and build on the automotive sector’s current economic contribution, significantly more Government support will be needed to accelerate change.

“The current Automotive Transformation Fund is not large or broad enough in scope to deliver the scale of change needed.

“Given the long lead times of much of this investment, many crucial policy decisions will need to be taken in the next twelve months.”

They also called on the Government to create a Build Back Better Fund to support the transformation of automotive production lines, skills retraining and energy costs relief.

The announcement that David Marcus is leaving the company formerly known as Facebook marks the departure of the last name associated with its Libra stablecoin debacle.

As the head of what was then called the Calibra wallet (now Novi), Marcus headed up the launch of — and then defense of — Facebook’s stablecoin project (now Diem). Formerly president of PayPal, Marcus took up a wider role as the head of FinTech for the social media giant now called Meta.

From the start, Facebook and the stablecoin’s backers pitched it as a tool of financial inclusion, with the project described at its unveiling as “a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people.”

The tagline was: “Reinvent money. Transform the global economy. So people everywhere can live better lives.”

In the Tuesday (Nov. 30) Facebook post announcing his departure, Marcus returned to that theme, saying “I remain as passionate as ever about the need for change in our payments and financial systems.”

That said, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comment on that post talked about the as-yet-unlaunched Diem in a decidedly past tense, at least from his company’s perspective.

“We wouldn’t have taken such a big swing at Diem without your leadership and I’m grateful you’ve made Meta a place where we make those big bets,” Zuckerberg wrote.

Novi launched on Oct. 19, before Diem, which is something Marcus had said would be done only as a “last resort.”

Immediate Backlash

Formally announced on June 18, 2019, the Libra/Diem project met with such immediate and fierce resistance from the political and financial worlds that it’s fair to say that it brought cryptocurrency regulation from a topic that was the purview of mid-level financial regulators to cabinet members and finance ministers, central bank presidents and CEOs, and mainstream media outlets around the world.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney’s response to the launch announcement was that a stablecoin with instant access to Facebook’s 2.3 billion customers “will become instantly systemic and will have to be subject to the highest standards of regulation.”

By “systemic,” Carney meant the fear that an unregulated, globally available stablecoin suddenly usable by billions of people was threat to national currencies, governments’ control of their economies, and the global financial system as a whole.

Which is roughly why stablecoin regulation remains such a hot topic today. Speaking before the Senate banking Committee on Nov. 30, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that while stablecoins could make payments easier and less expensive, “there are significant risks associated with them, including risks to payment systems and risks related to the concentration of economic power.”

A Brand Battered

First, Libra’s key financial industry backers jumped ship under enormous political pressure — and outright threats — with Mastercard and Visa, payments processors Stripe and Mercado Pago, and eBay departing in early October.

Read also: The 4 Key Clues To Understanding The Future Of Facebook’s Libra

In a move that must have hurt, they were following PayPal, the first Libra Association member out the door.

Ultimately, the name Libra was jettisoned in favor of Diem, the June 2020 launch date was scrapped, Facebook’s Calibra wallet became Novi, and even the stablecoin’s basic design mutated from a single global means of payment backed by a mixed basket of fiat currencies to a series of national stablecoins backed by that country’s fiat.

And while it’s wildly overstating Libra/Diem’s impact and importance to say that it was behind Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent decision to change Facebook’s name to Meta, the reaction to the stablecoin project was fueled in part by the widespread distrust of Facebook by governments and financial leaders around the globe. The outcry at least underscored how damaged the brand it was.

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey announced Monday that he has stepped down from his role as CEO. Replacing Dorsey will be Twitter board member and chief technology officer Parag Agrawal, who was unanimously appointed to CEO by the company’s board of directors.  

Dorsey also serves as the CEO and chairman of crypto-friendly payments tech firm Square, and it is unclear if he left Twitter to solely focus on the platform’s plans to develop a decentralized Bitcoin (BTC) exchange. He did note, however, that the company does not need to be founder-led to thrive.  

“I believe it’s really important to give Parag the space he needs to lead,” said Dorsey. “I believe it’s critical a company can stand on its own, free of its founder’s influence or direction.”

 

On Monday, 14-year Wall Street veteran and former Citi banking executive Matt Zhang announced a $1.5 billion multi-strategy fund called Hivemind Capital Partners that is aiming to support up-and-coming crypto projects.  

In particular, the fund will place a strong emphasis on crypto infrastructure builders, virtual worlds and Metaverse projects, and programmable money. The fund’s first technology partner will be proof-of-stake-based blockchain Algorand. 

While Hivemind is yet to announce any major funding, Zhang said the firm will support crypto entrepreneurs with infrastructure that cannot currently be offered by traditional asset management models.

 

Speaking of Square, the firm revealed on Wednesday that it had rebranded to Block, suggesting it may be ramping up its focus on the blockchain sector. 

The company said the rebrand will bring the payments firm together with Cash App, the decentralized Bitcoin exchange project tbDEX, and music and video streaming platform Tidal. As part of the rebrand, Square Crypto, the cryptocurrency-focused unit of the payments firm, will be changing its name to Spiral and joining the Block family.

“Block references the neighborhood blocks where we find our sellers, a blockchain, block parties full of music, obstacles to overcome, a section of code, building blocks, and of course, tungsten cubes,” said Square.

 

MicroStrategy, the analytics software firm led by fervent Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor, announced on Monday that it had snapped up a 7,002 BTC worth $414.4 million. 

After the purchase, Saylor stated that the company’s total BTC holdings stood at a whopping 121,044, acquired for roughly $3.57 billion at an average price of $29,534 per BTC. To fund that latest shopping spree for digital gold, the firm sold 571,001 shares of company stock between Oct. 1 and Nov. 29 at $732.16 apiece. 

MicroStrategy first bought Bitcoin back in August 2020 as part of its treasury strategy, and with Saylor at the helm, the firm has purchased the asset relentlessly since—regardless of price—and is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.

 

Social media virtual reality firm Meta expanded the eligibility requirements for running crypto ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram this week, enabling companies more freedom in running digital asset product-related promotions. 

Prior to Meta’s latest update of its crypto advertising guidelines, a limited number of crypto firms were able to advertise on Facebook as the platform only recognized a small number of regulatory licenses. 

According to the updated policy, crypto exchanges, trading platforms, wallet providers, mining infrastructure firms, crypto lenders and borrowing services can now receive written permission to run ads on Facebook. The firm cited maturation and increased regulation of the sector as the reasons why it changed its tune.

 

 

 

Winners and Losers

 

 

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $55,468, Ether (ETH) at $4,407 and XRP at $0.95. The total market cap is at $2.54 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Terra (LUNA) at 62.30%, Stacks (STX) at 33.85% and Polygon (MATIC) at 29.04%. 

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Gala (GALA) at -30.67%, WAX (WAXP) at -19.18% and Immutable X (IMX) at -17.85%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

 

 

Most Memorable Quotations

 

“There are certain services that we have that don’t really fit the regulatory mold. So there’s this gray area that the whole industry exists in, and that’s not specific to us. […] That’s just the nature of the fact that we’re dealing with an innovative technology that really doesn’t necessarily fit the criteria that existing regulators perceive as possible.”

Jonathon Miller, managing director for Kraken Australia

 

“A CBDC would be one of the tools to fight crypto. […] We assume that people would find CBDC more credible than crypto. CBDC would be part of an effort to address the use of crypto in financial transactions.”

Juda Agung, assistant governor of Bank Indonesia

 

“If a coin has a large number of users, then we will list it. That’s the overwhelming significant attribute. Consider, for example, meme tokens; even though I personally don’t get it, if it’s used by a large number of users, we list it. We go by the community, my opinion doesn’t matter.”

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance

 

“There’s always hope for the Chinese crypto industry. We still have information sources and we keep getting more and more users, evangelists, developers and others. There’s nothing to worry about. Everything happens for the best.”

Anonymous, executive at a Chinese crypto publication 

 

“It is one thing to say that a stablecoin issuer itself must be a regulated bank — I think that is probably overkill, as there are perfectly effective ways for nonbanks to meet our legitimate regulatory concerns, but there is at least a clear relation between the existing framework of bank regulation and the specific measures that stablecoin issuers must address to operate safely. It is, however, quite another thing to contemplate that wallet providers may need to be completely separated from commercial firms.”

Randal Quarles, exiting U.S. Federal Reserve governor

 

“Innovations are coming, proof-of-stake is much more computational efficient and low on energy consumption. Innovation is key here and it is coming.”

Gary Nuttall, emerging technology consultant at Distyltics

 

“Cryptocurrency may be tricky to understand, but the value of a major crypto donation converted into cash is not.”

James Lawrence, co-founder and CEO of Engiven

 

“Undoubtedly, metaverse land is the next big hit in the NFT space. Outputting record sales numbers and constantly increasing NFT prices, virtual worlds are the new top commodity in the crypto space.”

DappRadar post

 

Prediction of the Week 

 

Bitcoin started the week on Nov. 28 with a drop from nearly $55,000 down to almost $53,300, followed by a push up past $58,000, according to Cointelegraph’s Bitcoin price index. Following Sunday’s price action, most of the rest of the week saw BTC trade in a range between $55,800 and $59,300.

In a Wednesday tweet, crypto trader Michaël van de Poppe gave his thoughts on the crypto market, noting a desire to see sub-$60,000 BTC turn to support. 

“It’s very simple. Below $60K I’ve remained cautious/bearish as I’d like to see that area flip,” he tweeted. “Levels to watch for buys; $53K-54K zone and $47-50K zones for #Bitcoin,” he added. “When to buy #altcoins? December. Nothing has changed past weeks.” 

In a separate tweet on Wednesday, van de Poppe also provided his thoughts on a few possible price targets for the bull cycle top, noting price ranges between $350,000 and $450,000 for Bitcoin and between $10,000 and $17,500 for Ethereum, in addition to ranges for other assets as well. He tweeted out the same list with the same numbers back in April 2021, with the exception of Elrond, for which the new list gave an updated possible price range target.

 

 

FUD of the Week 

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin, a man with a squeaky-clean reputation who has most certainly never engaged in any nefarious activity, took time out of his busy schedule this week to voice his concerns over the risky nature of crypto speculation. 

According to reports from local media outlets on Tuesday, Putin aimed criticism at the “Russia Calling!” investment forum in Moscow. The 69-year-old called for greater monitoring and regulation of crypto in Russia and astutely pointed out that certain countries are seeing significant adoption of digital currencies.

“It is not backed by anything, [and] the volatility is colossal, so the risks are very high,” he said. “We also believe that we need to listen to those who talk about those high risks.”

 

Bitcoin failed to hit the November closing price of $98,000 demanded by Twitter personality PlanB’s so-called “floor model.” With Bitcoin sitting at $57,000 on Nov. 30, the actual price was roughly 71% below the forecast price.

In a Wednesday Twitter post, PlanB noted that he would give his famous model one more month, but was adamant in stating that $100,000 per BTC is still “on track” by year-end as he pointed to the S2F model. He further explained:

“No model is perfect, but this is a big miss and the first in 10y! Outlier/black swan? I will give Floor model 1 more month. S2F model unaffected and on track to $100K. Watch out for trolls confusing Floor and S2F model!”

 

DeFi protocol BadgerDAO reportedly suffered a $10 million security breach this week, with users on Twitter highlighting a “nasty frontend attack” where funds had been taken out of people’s wallets using “rug approval” at about 2 a.m. UTC on Thursday. 

While BadgerDAO hadn’t officially confirmed the attack at the time, it said that all smart contracts on the platform had been paused to prevent additional potentially malicious withdrawals.

The malicious actors targeted the protocol on the Ethereum network at contract address 0x1fcdb04d0c5364fbd92c73ca8af9baa72c269107, and users that have interacted with this contract are urged to revoke permission from their wallet.

 

Best Cointelegraph Features

NFT digital art sales generate headline after headline, though this is not the real mass-market use of this novel technology.

“There are too many members of Congress that don’t have enough of a base of understanding. Congress needs to come in and bring regulations to this space.”

Here’s how “wear-to-earn” NFTs will impact the fashion sector and what may happen if they become a trend.

While Mr Johnson won the support of the public with his “Get Brexit done” slogan, Professor Curtice believes some support for the UK’s exit may now have been “shaved off”. Speaking to Express.co.uk, Prof Curtice claimed Mr Johnson will only retain Leave voters if they are convinced Brexit is working. He claimed issues such as the petrol shortage and the lorry driver crisis may begin to reduce Mr Johnson’s popularity.

Prof Curtice said: “Brexit works for as long as people think it does.

“It is probably true that some of the support for Brexit has been shaved off.

“People might be more likely to say Brexit was negative.

“Some of the arguments around lorry driver shortages may have driven that.

“But it’s true that for so long as Leave voters are convinced Brexit is working, he will have their support.

“It also depends on whether we have a substantial debate about Brexit is working or not, like we did last autumn and that may change matters.”

Some commentators have claimed the Prime Minister has used post-Brexit issues, such as the Channel crisis and fishing licences, as a way of showing his strong leadership.

Writing for The Guardian, columnist Polly Toynbee said: “When in trouble, Boris Johnson flees to his comfort zone.

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“Just as Brexit havoc made him, so Brexit mayhem may yet save him.”

However, despite storming to a resounding 2019 general election win and delivering Brexit, Mr Johnson’s approval rating has plummeted.

On April 13, Mr Johnson’s approval surged to 66 percent but according to YouGov’s latest polling, it has now fallen to 29 percent.

In contrast, Mr Johnson’s disapproval rating sunk to a low of 26 percent on April 13 but has now risen to 64 percent on November 22.

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In Conservative Home’s cabinet league table, which it conducts every month, Mr Johnson has slipped to -17.

That figure is the second-worst net approval rating among the Cabinet with only chief whip, Mark Spencer, who scored -21.

The Prime Minister has been damaged by the recent Tory sleaze scandal which saw Owen Paterson, former MP for North Shropshire, resign.

Mr Johnson was also given a shock to his leadership credentials when, despite having a 77-seat majority, the Government’s Health and Social Care Bill only passed by 26 votes.

A further 67 Tory MPs abstained from the vote on November 23.

The Prime Minister has also come under fire for scrapping the eastern leg of the HS2 project.

The line between Birmingham and Leeds will now be scrapped which sparked fury among Blue Wall Tory MPs.

The Prime Minister instead pledged to spend £96billion on investing in rail in the Midlands and northern England.

EXCLUSIVE: Tottenham star Eric Dier hopes they can reboot their trophy challenging days under ‘special’ Antonio Conte… as he gives his views on Brexit, cancel culture and the disappointment of not winning a trophy under Mauricio Pochettino

• There is a renewed sense of optimism at Tottenham following their poor start
• Eric Dier has described the Antonio Conte effect at the club as ‘special’
• Tottenham are some way off the team that reached the Champions League final
• Not winning a trophy under Mauricio Pochettino will haunt Spurs players
• Dier is hopeful the Conte era will reboot the trophy challenging years

By Rob Draper for The Mail on Sunday

Published: 17:31 EST, 4 December 2021 | Updated: 17:31 EST, 4 December 2021

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