Bitcoin Musings Draw Scrutiny Over Czech Central Bank Governor
By and Krystof Chamonikolas
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The Czech central bank governor's bid to invest a portion of the country's reserves into Bitcoin managed to draw more attention to the central European nation's monetary policy than any of his predecessors.
The proposal last month by Ales Michl spurred instant buzz in a cryptocurrency community eager for validation. The reaction among decision makers was different. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde diplomatically dismissed the idea.
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New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
How Poland's new President could change Europe — and America
'We won!' announced Rafał Trzaskowski to an ecstatic crowd of supporters. It was just after 9 p.m. this past Sunday, and the exit polls had declared the dashing mayor of Warsaw the winner of Poland's hard-fought, high-stakes presidential race. Trzaskowski's rival, Karol Nawrocki, is a conservative historian with a past that would make notorious 'Red Scare'-era Washington lawyer Roy Cohn proud. Weeks before the election, President Trump had invited Nawrocki to the Oval Office and blessed him. Then, just days before the vote, his homeland secretary, Kristi Noem, traveled to Poland to deliver a florid endorsement of his candidacy. 9 In early May, Karol Nawrocki met with Pres. Trump in the Oval Office, weeks before the conservative upstart was elected President of Poland in a move that affirmed Trump's transatlantic political potency, while dealing a blow to liberal-minded European integrationism. White House European mandarins who had watched the Trumpian encroachment with impotent rage welcomed Trzaskowski's triumph as a much-needed middle-finger to MAGA. Their exultation, alas, was premature. Two hours after Trzaskowski's proclamation of victory came a more comprehensive poll that put his opponent ahead in the count. As the hours passed, his numbers rose. And by 1 a.m. this past Monday, it was clear that Trzaskowski had lost and Nawrocki — the Trump proxy — was on course to become the next president of what is unquestionably the most successful post-Cold War country in Europe. The Polish presidency, though largely ornamental, matters because it is endowed with the power to paralyze the government. But the outcome of Sunday's election is more than a domestic triumph for Nawrocki and the populist-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party that backed him; it has serious implications for Europe and the transatlantic relationship. To grasp its significance, consider Poland's astounding transformation over the past quarter century. 9 Rafal Trzaskowski , the Mayor of Warsaw and former candidate for the Polish presidency walking in a Warsaw Pride LGBT Pride March in 2021. Such bold-face political gestures are part of the reason Trzaskowski lost to his more tradition-minded challenger. Getty Images Just over two decades ago, when Poland joined the European Union, it was a grim place that belched out emigrants and workers. Warsaw was a drab reliquary of communist architecture whose centerpiece was a Stalinist tower. Today, Poland's GDP is approaching $1 trillion. The living standards of its people are the envy of the world. Its army is larger than the armed forces of Britain or France. Central Warsaw is clustered with glass-clad skyscrapers. Those who emigrated abroad in search of opportunity are gradually returning home. Poles who value the EU's role in their nation's modernization view Nawrocki as a peril to Poland's democratic gains and European alignment. When the PiS party was in power, between 2015 and 2023, it tightened Poland's already severe abortion laws, packed the constitutional tribunal with loyalists, drifted toward 'legal exit' from Europe and invited retaliatory sanctions from Brussels. 9 Map of Poland and surrounding countries. Mike Guillen/NY Post Design PiS was supplanted in the 2023 elections by a motley coalition led by Civic Platform, which has since been locked in a stalemate with the incumbent president, Andrzej Duda, also of PiS. A Trzaskowski triumph would have unshackled the more liberal-minded Civic Platform to pursue its legislative agenda, including the legalization of same-sex unions. Nawrocki's win has thwarted this prospect. Much like in MAGA-world, Nawrocki presents himself as a 'family-first' conservative for whom marriage is 'a union between a man and a woman.' Is he a danger to minorities? 'Nawrocki holds strong political views, but he is certainly not an extremist,' explains Mikołaj Wild, an erstwhile high-ranking official in the prime minister's office and one of Poland's most respected civil servants. 'He represents the views of the majority of Poles, which may appear radically conservative in some other European countries.' 9 Karol Nawrocki and his family react to the release of election results last week. Nawrocki's win came as a surprise following initial indications that he had been defeated by his more liberal-minded challenger. REUTERS Nawrocki is not so much an aberration in Poland as a product of a politics torn by clashing visions of identity. Poland's success has reactivated religious, cultural and national impulses that had long been dormant. Flush with an economy their grandparents could scarcely dream of, Poles now fight over what it means to be Polish and European, Christian and modern. The presidential race has shown just how deep these divisions run. The loser, Trzaskowski, is a Polish hybrid of Adlai Stevenson and John Kerry: A polished career politician who speaks half a dozen languages, he is well-meaning, well-bred, liberal, competent and admired in Brussels. He is also way more progressive. As Warsaw's mayor, he didn't stop at marching in Pride parades. He also ordered the removal of Christian crosses from government buildings — an overreach that, while earning him the adulation of Poles in the big cities, infuriated conservatives in the hinterlands who see their history as being inextricably bound up with the Catholic Church. 9 Nawrocki met with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, in Rzeszow, Poland in late May — another endorsement from MAGA world. via REUTERS And their champion is Nawrocki. He was born into poverty in the port city of Gdansk. Ports, particularly in destitute places, draw organized crime, and Nawrocki was exposed to this world at an early age. He sought purpose in athletics, became a boxer and occasionally participated in football brawls. Working as a security guard at a hotel, he is alleged to have procured prostitutes for guests. This is not the curriculum vitae of a defender of Christian values. Nawrocki, however, became a beneficiary of a deepening resentment among Poles who — believing their social values were being eroded and their sovereignty endangered by liberal elites pandering to Brussels — were willing to overlook supposed defects in his character in favor of his commitment to put 'Poland first.' He spoke for a people who, as Wild puts it, 'are conservative and disagree with the socially progressive agenda of Rafał Trzaskowski.' This attitude is particularly strong in places such as Radom. An hour's train ride from Warsaw, Radom was once a proud center of Polish political life. Today, it is an object of mockery in the cities, 'a national joke,' as a filmmaker in Warsaw called it. Its people are dismissed as gauche and gaudy. 9 'Nawrocki holds strong political views, but he is certainly not an extremist,' explains Polish politician Mikołaj Wild. Wikipedia Radom voters I met seemed fed up with the condescension that comes their way. The owner of a café and bar there told me that nowhere else in Poland or Europe did she feel the same sense of community. Radom has a great deal in common with Rust Belt America. And what galls its people — like in the US — is the knowledge that so many of their own compatriots view them as inferior beings when they see themselves as a repository of so much that is worth preserving about their country. 'A lot of Poles in the cities want to be British, French, or Italian,' one Radom resident told me. 'We are proud to be Polish.' He was for Nawrocki. Trzaskowski, for all his liberal theatricality, proved disconcertingly flexible in the final days of the campaign as he attempted to court Nawrocki's voters by speaking their language. Rather than win them over, however, his flip-flopping alienated his own voters. 'Poles saw through the hypocrisy,' says 29-year-old entrepreneur Filip Krzewski. 9 'Poles saw through the hypocrisy' of the campaign's political flip-flopping, says 29-year-old entrepreneur Filip Krzewski. Courtesy of Filip Krzewski Nawrocki profited too from a growing frustration with Ukraine in a nation that is still intensely hostile to Moscow. Since Russia's invasion of 2022, Poland has sheltered more than a million Ukrainian refugees. It has granted them the same privileges as Polish nationals. Three years on, there is a tincture of outrage among Poles. As one Warsaw banker complained to me: 'Some of them drive Lamborghinis, but what are they contributing to Poland?' As a nationalist historian Nawrocki is alert to Poland's unresolved history with Ukraine. But he is emphatically not pro-Russian. In fact, he is on a list of wanted men in Russia for ordering the demolition of Red Army monuments in Poland. He has, however, refused to endorse Kyiv's admission into NATO in a departure from PiS's earlier position. And his pledge not to send Polish soldiers to fight in Ukraine has worked to his advantage. 'One million Ukrainian men have fled Ukraine,' a student at Warsaw University told me. 'Why should we go and fight for them?' Nawrocki's win is a gain for Trump's 'peace plan.' 9 The glass-and-steel skyscrapers dotting central Warsaw reflect Poland's almost miraculous economic expansion. FilipWarulik – Domestically, Nawrocki's victory cements PiS's chokehold on Poland's governance. His great luck as he takes office is the unwieldy nature of the government itself. Poland's ruling coalition is a brittle alliance of ideological antagonists led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Barring a miracle, Nawrocki will almost certainly obstruct legislation. Polish democracy is alive. Its health, however, depends on its democratically elected leaders' ability to work together. Abroad, Nawrocki's Euroscepticism, combined with his alignment with Trump against EU integration, is certain to impair relations with Brussels. His posture toward Ukraine could strain NATO's eastern flank and push more responsibility onto Western European states—though, to be sure, Poland's NATO and EU commitments should limit the extent of any drastic shift. And his election, reviving the MAGA movement following the demoralizing defeat of Trumpist candidates in Romania, Australia, Germany and Canada, will also revitalize populist movements across the continent and beyond. Trump has already heaped praise upon himself for Nawrocki's victory. 'TRUMP ALLY WINS IN POLAND, SHOCKING ALL EUROPE,' he posted on Truth Social after the result. 9 The Old Market Square in Radom, a town still struggling to catch up, but whose residents are traditional, proud, strongly Catholic and decidedly Poland-first in thinking. Sebastian – Going forward, Warsaw's relationship with Washington — a nonpartisan concern until now — looks destined to degenerate into a partisan sport. Democrats will console Tusk; MAGA luminaries already see Nawrocki as a missionary of their brand of nationalism. And what of Trump, who has long nursed his own grievances against Europe's political masters in Paris, London and Brussels? Well, he has just become equipped with a powerful weapon to wield against them for his entertainment.
Forbes
3 hours ago
- Forbes
Trump Confirms Imminent Fed Decision—Bitcoin And Crypto Brace For Huge Price Earthquake
Bitcoin has struggled to break out in recent months despite hitting a fresh all-time high in May and fears building over a $37 trillion 'ticking time bomb.' Front-run Donald Trump, the White House and Wall Street by subscribing now to Forbes' CryptoAsset & Blockchain Advisor where you can "uncover blockchain blockbusters poised for 1,000% plus gains!" The bitcoin price rocketed higher following U.S. president Donald Trump's November election victory but has struggled to hold onto that momentum as Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell grapples with a looming, 'cataclysmic' crisis that's headed for the U.S. dollar. Now, as Tesla billionaire Elon Musk quietly backs a shock dollar collapse warning, Trump has confirmed a decision on the next Federal Reserve chair will be coming out soon, priming the bitcoin price and crypto market. Sign up now for the free CryptoCodex—A daily five-minute newsletter for traders, investors and the crypto-curious that will get you up to date and keep you ahead of the bitcoin and crypto market bull run "It's coming out very soon," Trump told reporters on Air Force One, it was reported by Reuters, referring to his pick for the next Fed chair. 'If we had a good Fed chairman, he would lower rates and if inflation happened in a year from now or two years later, [he would] raise rates,' Trump said in a video posted to X, reiterating his earlier calls for Fed chair Powell to cut interest rates immediately. The Federal Reserve is now overwhelmingly expected to keep rates on hold during its June and July meetings, with the market split over its September decision, according to the CME FedWatch tool. Trump added that former Fed governor Kevin Warsh, who's currently the front-runner to be named as next Fed chair on the crypto-powered prediction platform Polymarket, is 'very highly thought of,' when asked what he thought of him. Last month, Warsh outlined how he believed the Fed could lower interest rates if he shrunk its balance sheet, telling a monetary policy panel at Stanford University's Hoover Institution that "if the printing press could be quiet, we could have lower policy rates." If the Fed were to cut rates, it 'would be bullish for risk assets like bitcoin,' bitcoin price and crypto market analysts with the Bitfinex exchange said in emailed comments. 'We believe if bitcoin maintains support above $105,000, it could target the $120,000 to $125,000 range in June. This will not be catalysed just from the labour market but it could be a domino in multiple catalysts prompting the Fed to cut rates at a faster than expected pace.' This week, Trump again called for Powell to lower rates, which have been held steady for months after the Fed surprised markets by beginning its rate cutting cycle in September. The Fed has pointed to the looming impact of Trump's global trade tariffs as the reason it has left rates on hold, predicting Trump's so-called Liberation Day barrage of tariffs will cause inflation to spike. Sign up now for CryptoCodex—A free, daily newsletter for the crypto-curious This coming week, the latest U.S. consumer price index (CPI) inflation data is expected to show an uptick in prices after inflation eased in the first few months of 2025. In April, the White House confirmed Trump was exploring whether he could fire Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell over Powell's refusal to lower rates, though Trump has since said he won't try to remove Powell before his term as chair ends next year. "With rate cuts looking less likely, Fed chair Jay Powell can expect to remain firmly in the president's firing line," Nicholas Hyett, investment manager at Wealth Club, said in emailed comments and pointing to Friday's stronger than expected jobs data. 'That will be taken as vindication by the Trump administration–which has been clear that the tariffs are aimed squarely at supporting Main Street rather than pleasing Wall Street. Less positive from the White Houses' point of view is that a strong economy and rising wages gives the Federal Reserve less reason to cut interest rates–pushing yields a touch higher and making the fiscal splurge built into Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' that bit more expensive.'
Newsweek
3 hours ago
- Newsweek
NATO Ally 'Can't Rely' Solely on US for Protection, Ex-Trump Adviser Warns
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The U.S. can no longer be considered a reliable ally for Britain and the other NATO members, former Russia adviser to President Donald Trump Fiona Hill said in a recent interview with British newspaper The Guardian. "We're in pretty big trouble," the American-British national said during her interview about the U.K.'s vulnerable geopolitical situation. "We can't rely exclusively on anyone anymore," she said, casting doubt on Trump's determination to tackle Vladimir Putin's aggressive expansion ambitions in Europe. Why It Matters Hill's comments reflect widespread concerns in Europe that the U.S. is no longer the reliable ally it used to be for the continent, and European nations need to quickly get ready to fend for themselves, boosting military spending, forging new alliances or strengthening existing ones. Earlier this week, most NATO members voted to endorse Trump's demand for them to increase their defense spending to 5 percent of their GDP. But this goal might be hard to reach: already in 2023, NATO leaders agreed to spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on national defense budgets, but 22 of the 32 member states are still falling short. During #DefMin, NATO Defence Ministers agreed an ambitious new set of capability targets to build a stronger, fairer, more lethal Alliance, and ensure warfighting readiness for years to come Tap to learn more ↓ — NATO (@NATO) June 5, 2025 What To Know While Hill was born in England, she lived and worked in the U.S. for 30 years, ascending to the role of the White House's chief adviser on Russia during Trump's first administration. Her role was cut short in the summer of 2019, when she was fired by the president, who later accused her of being "terrible at her job." The dismissal followed Hill's testimony at Trump's impeachment trial, where she spoke of Russian meddling at the heart of the White House. Since then, Hill has spoken repeatedly of Trump's admitted admiration for Putin, criticizing his soft approach to the Russian strongman. Fiona Hill, former senior director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council, on February 2, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. Fiona Hill, former senior director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council, on February 2, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington said that Putin had "declared war on the West" through his invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin leader presented to his counterparts in China, North Korea and Iran as "part of a proxy war with the United States." But Trump, who has long admired the Russian president, appears unwilling to take a strong stance against him and instead "wants to have a separate relationship with Putin to do arms-control agreements and also business that will probably enrich their entourage further," Hill told The Guardian. While Trump has recently shown frustration with Putin, who has largely ignored or stalled on the U.S. president's calls for an end to the invasion of Ukraine, he has remained reluctant to impose further sanctions on Moscow—a type of punishment that European leaders have instead embraced. In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Hill said: "If you offer the Russians a carrot, they just eat it, or they take it and hit you over the head with it." What People Are Saying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in March: "If Europe wants to avoid war, Europe must get ready for war. By 2030, Europe must have a strong European defense posture." Though she recently insisted that the U.S. was still "an ally," in April she said: "The West as we knew it no longer exists." France's President Emmanuel Macron, who has long advocated for the creation of an EU army and boosting military spending, said in January: "What will we do in Europe tomorrow if our American ally withdraws its warships from the Mediterranean? If they send their fighter jets from the Atlantic to the Pacific?" Earlier this week, President Donald Trump described a phone call with Putin as a "good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace." During the phone call, he said, Putin said "he will have to respond to the recent [Ukrainian] attack on the airfields," Trump wrote on social media, without adding whether he tried to sway the Russian leader from doing so. On June 1, Kyiv launched coordinated, long-range strikes on multiple Russian airbases thousands of miles from Ukraine which took out more than a third of Moscow's strategic cruise missile carriers. What Happens Next According to Hill, Putin sees the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a way toward establishing the country's dominance as a "military power in all of Europe." And the U.S., she warned, cannot be relied on at the moment to help Europe fight off this growing threat. When it comes to defense, she said, the U.K.—and the other NATO members—should not rely on the military umbrella of Washington as they did during the Cold War, "not in the way we did before." A recent survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations found that Europeans are increasingly losing confidence in the U.S. from a geopolitical perspective. A majority, according to the study released in February, considered the U.S. a "necessary partner" rather than "an ally."
