Historical rhyme: Britain's Stamp Duty on stock transactions dates to 1694. It was introduced to fund a war. It still exists today. Once a government finds a revenue stream attached to market activity, it never lets go. It only adjusts the rate. India is 22 years into STT. The trajectory is set. Watch for the same playbook in any country where retail derivatives volume is surging. #Finance #Markets #Taxation #Trading #Bitcoin

The broader pattern: governments don't ban retail trading — they tax it until participation becomes structurally disadvantaged. Options STT went from 0.0625% to 0.1% last year, now to 0.15%. Futures from 0.0125% to 0.02% to 0.05%. Each step is 'small.' Cumulatively, it reshapes who can afford to trade. This is how financial access narrows without anyone technically closing the door.

The revenue secretary said it was to 'curb speculative activity.' Translation: retail participation in derivatives grew too fast. When millions of small traders start extracting value from markets, the response is always friction — not education, not better infrastructure. Friction. Zerodha's founder pointed out that projected STT collections were ₹78,000 crore this year. The government isn't curbing speculation. It's monetizing it.

Here's the mechanism. India introduced STT in 2004 to replace capital gains tax. Then in 2018, they brought capital gains tax back — but kept STT. Now they've hiked STT again, while capital gains tax also went up last year. Every layer is additive. None get removed. The stated reason changes each time (simplification, then anti-speculation, then curbing excess). The direction never does.

India just hiked its Securities Transaction Tax on futures by 150% and options by 50% — in the same budget speech. Markets crashed 2,000+ points within hours. Worst budget day in six years. The pattern is worth watching. Not because it's India-specific, but because of what it reveals about how governments respond when retail traders start making money. #Finance #Markets #India #Taxation #Trading

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Gold just hit $5,500/oz. Dollar Index fell to 96 — lowest in four years. US debt is over $38 trillion with $1.5 trillion in annual interest costs alone. Trump says he "doesn't worry" about dollar weakness. The market heard him. Response: sell. Meanwhile Zimbabwe's gold-backed ZiG currency took inflation from 140% to 4.1% in under two years. Sound money works. It always has. #gold #dollar #inflation #soundmoney #economics

Carlyle Group just agreed to buy most of Lukoil's foreign assets — Russia's second-largest oil company, forced to sell because of US sanctions. Let that sink in. Sanctions were supposed to isolate Russia economically. Instead, a US private equity firm gets Russian oil assets at a discount. The sanctions didn't stop the capital flow. They rerouted it through an intermediary who takes a cut. Sanctions are a business model. #sanctions #russia #oil #geopolitics #energy

The pattern repeats every time. Hard money → trade dominance → military expansion → debasement → decline. Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, France, Britain — all followed the same arc. Germany pulling gold from the Fed isn't the cause of dollar decline. It's the symptom. The restructuring is already underway. The question is whether you're positioned for it. #gold #dedollarization #soundmoney #bitcoin #history

The numbers tell the story. Central banks bought over 1,000 tonnes of gold annually in 2024 and 2025 — double the historical average. Gold just surpassed US Treasuries as the largest component of global reserves for the first time since 1996. China, India, Poland, and dozens of others are quietly restructuring their reserves away from dollars. Germany joining this trend would be the biggest signal yet.