'Big worry': Economist warns new bubble about to burst — and Trump may bail out 'grifters'
Sarah K. Burris
September 2, 2025
Sarah K. Burris
September 2, 2025
RAW STORY
U.S. President Donald Trump shouts to reporters as he walks on the roof of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 5, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
University of Michigan economics and public policy Professor Justin Wolfers said he has a fear that the cryptocurrency bubble will burst and that President Donald Trump will use taxpayer dollars to help bail out the crypto market, the way the United States did after the mortgage crisis in 2008.
Trump has profited over $5 billion with his own meme coin and is now opposing any regulation of cryptocurrency.
Wolfers said that the idea of "stablecoin" is a joke, noting that if people want to buy into a truly stable $1 investment, they can go to the bank and get a $1 billion.
"Those stablecoins, the value of those is currently being held up by Binance. The former CEO of Binance is in jail right now, sort of hoping for a bit of a pardon," Wolfers said, though the CEO has since been released. "And so right, there's your conflict of interest. But there's something deeper here. It's quite possible the next financial crisis is a crypto crisis. That all of a sudden the value of these things goes to zero."
He compared it to nothing more than a casino.
"And if Vegas goes bankrupt, we let him go bankrupt. But if the president goes down with it, I have a funny feeling there might be a bailout. And it's a bailout of yours and my money to keep a bunch of grifters rich. And I think it's a very, very big worry for the future of financial stability," Wolfers added.
MSNBC host Katy Tur questioned Wolfers about how Trump's sons making billions off of cryptocurrency compares with Hunter Biden selling artwork. Wolfers sarcastically answered that it's obviously due to Biden being a terrible artist and the Trump sons being geniuses.
The Bulwark's Sam Stein pointed out that the story is an important one that sounds the alarm about outright corruption, but it's being ignored because Trump and his administration are plagued by a firehose of scandal.
"You have a confluence of factors here that is unlike anything we've ever seen in terms of the corruption of the presidency. But with Trump, it's so blatant and so public that it tends to become like the, you know, 23rd or 24th most important story of the day," said Stein.
See the clip below or at the link here.
U.S. President Donald Trump shouts to reporters as he walks on the roof of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 5, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
University of Michigan economics and public policy Professor Justin Wolfers said he has a fear that the cryptocurrency bubble will burst and that President Donald Trump will use taxpayer dollars to help bail out the crypto market, the way the United States did after the mortgage crisis in 2008.
Trump has profited over $5 billion with his own meme coin and is now opposing any regulation of cryptocurrency.
Wolfers said that the idea of "stablecoin" is a joke, noting that if people want to buy into a truly stable $1 investment, they can go to the bank and get a $1 billion.
"Those stablecoins, the value of those is currently being held up by Binance. The former CEO of Binance is in jail right now, sort of hoping for a bit of a pardon," Wolfers said, though the CEO has since been released. "And so right, there's your conflict of interest. But there's something deeper here. It's quite possible the next financial crisis is a crypto crisis. That all of a sudden the value of these things goes to zero."
He compared it to nothing more than a casino.
"And if Vegas goes bankrupt, we let him go bankrupt. But if the president goes down with it, I have a funny feeling there might be a bailout. And it's a bailout of yours and my money to keep a bunch of grifters rich. And I think it's a very, very big worry for the future of financial stability," Wolfers added.
MSNBC host Katy Tur questioned Wolfers about how Trump's sons making billions off of cryptocurrency compares with Hunter Biden selling artwork. Wolfers sarcastically answered that it's obviously due to Biden being a terrible artist and the Trump sons being geniuses.
The Bulwark's Sam Stein pointed out that the story is an important one that sounds the alarm about outright corruption, but it's being ignored because Trump and his administration are plagued by a firehose of scandal.
"You have a confluence of factors here that is unlike anything we've ever seen in terms of the corruption of the presidency. But with Trump, it's so blatant and so public that it tends to become like the, you know, 23rd or 24th most important story of the day," said Stein.
See the clip below or at the link here.
Robert Davis
September 2, 2025
RAW STORY
Zach Witkoff, Co-Founder and CEO of World Liberty Financial, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump pose before they ring the opening bell to celebrate the closing of ALT5’s $1.5 billion offering and adoption of its $WLFI Treasury Strategy at the Nasdaq Market, in New York City, U.S., August 13, 2025. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
President Donald Trump's family has invested heavily in crypto ventures during Trump's second term, a move that has alarmed two analysts.
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the family's new token, WLFI, began trading and made the family $5 billion richer, which surpasses the value of the family's decades-long real estate portfolio. The token was issued by World Liberty Financial, which is controlled by his two sons, Don Jr. and Eric. World Liberty Financial was founded by Zach Witkoff, the son of Trump's chief envoy, Steve Witkoff.
Early WLFI investors could purchase coins for as little as $0.015 per coin last year, WSJ reported. The Trump family, including President Trump himself, holds about one-quarter of all of the new tokens.
Some commentators described the launch as a "rug pull," where a crypto project's creators abscond with investors' funds shortly after it launches. The price of WLFI crashed from around $0.32 to less than $0.22 within hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett discussed the launch on a new episode of "Pod Save America" on YouTube.
Favreau described the venture as a "crypto grift."
"This is just a straight-up f------ scam," Favreau said.
The Trump family has also invested in other crypto projects like a Trump memecoin and a Melania memecoin. Trump Media, the company that owns Truth Social, also buys cryptocurrencies, according to WSJ.
Watch the entire episode below or by clicking here.
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