HOT AIR BALLOON FLIGHT

El Salvador officially became the first country to adopt bitcoin as a national currency Tuesday. It's a fairly radical monetary experiment in a small, fragile economy. And of course, on Day One, or "B-Day" as some enthusiasts were calling it, the notoriously volatile coin tumbled. 

 

What's happening: Bitcoin is now legal tender in El Salvador, alongside the US dollar. That's great news for crypto crusaders, but it's a risky move for the poor, heavily indebted country of 6.5 million.  

 

"The government is betting more than $200 million in a virtual casino, and that's taxpayer money," one economist told the Wall Street Journal.  

 

President Nayib Bukele, a right-wing populist who rose to power in 2019, shocked the world with the bitcoin policy announcement in June, and since then he has mostly shrugged at warnings about instability or the risk of attracting illegal transactions. When bitcoin fell Tuesday, Bukele tweeted that he would "buy the dip," adding 150 more bitcoin to El Salvador's reserves.   

 

Why did bitcoin fall? Cryptos trade largely on sentiment. And Tuesday's selloff appeared to be a a "buy the rumor, sell the news" reaction among investors, said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda. In other words, investors were fired up about the idea of the Salvadoran government bestowing bitcoin with a measure of legitimacy. And when the moment finally arrived, they panicked.  

The outrage over Texas's abortion law – a measure so restrictive it's essentially an outright ban — is coming from multiple angles. But businesses have largely been eerily quiet on the matter.  

 

American Airlines and Dell, both massive Texas-based companies, have declined to issue a statement to multiple media outlets. The relative silence is a stark departure from the full-throated opposition these and other companies offered up when states including Georgia and Texas passed legislation to curb voting rights earlier this year. The Business Roundtable declined to comment last week on the abortion law.  

 

Not all are standing on the sidelines of course. Over the weekend, GoDaddy took down the whistleblower website that anti-choice advocates had set up to allow people to post tips about abortions happening in Texas. Lyft and Uber promised to cover legal fees for their drivers who are sued under the law, while dating sites Bumble and Match said they would create a relief fund for people affected by the law. 

 

And Tripwire, the videogame publisher, announced its CEO was out after his tweet in support of the Texas abortion law sparked a backlash.  

 

MY TWO CENTS

What we have here, ladies and gents, is some good ol' fashioned misogyny. What's happening in Texas is going to exclusively harm people who reproduce — and it will disproportionately harm women and girls who are poor and non-White. The issue often cuts across political divides, and Corporate America appears to be unwilling to take the risk to their bottom line. They'll be wise to remember this moment next spring, when they will inevitably fill their social media feeds with performative statements about #InternationalWomensDay.

 

RELATED: Economists are drawing attention to the financial hardships — and subsequent economic downsides — that can occur when women's reproductive rights are restricted. 

From one of CNN's finest...

 

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