Bitcoin and crypto is taking economics backwards a full 300 years, according to Nobel Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. That's what he says in his latest column in the NYT.
flickr/Commonwealth Club, CC BY 2.0
According to his noble Nobel wisdom, it's all headed for a "total collapse". It's "evil" and nothing but a con, a "cryptocon" as he has put it in the past. His skepticism and dislike of bitcoin and crypto overall just keeps growing.
For Krugman, the two main problems he sees are:
- transaction costs
- lack of tethering
Uhum... It seems the "wise" Nobel winning economist is not "in the know" about some things. Bitcoin might have issues with the transactions cost, and even time, but other cryptos have improved upon those drawbacks. Steem and EOS for instance, where the cost is covered by the inflation of the currency, much like fiat inflates. It's also bling-bling fast.
Bitcoin isn't the only token, as other crypto tokens DO have tethering. It seems he's a bit confused or ignorant while still putting on the hate for crypto.
Krugman favors the current monetary system, as the most evolved we have. The credit and debt cards with digital payment methods is the evolution towards a frictionless transaction economy. Bitcoin is an evolutionary regression setting us back 300 years, he says, because friction pops back up through costs of the technology like mining, and validating blocks:
Set against this history [of money], the enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies seems very odd, because it goes exactly in the opposite of the long-run trend... In other words, cryptocurrency enthusiasts are effectively celebrating the use of cutting-edge technology to set the monetary system back 300 years. Why would you want to do that? What problem does it solve? I have yet to see a clear answer to that question."
Krugman like a centralized monetary regime, like we have, in the control of govenrments. He acknowledged they have "occasionally abused the privilege of creating fiat money", but hey, it's still done a good job. The low-friction and stable purchasing power are to-dollar metrics for him to declare the fiat empire as the winner. Bitcoin sucks, because it's not a crappy medium of exchange and not a store of value. Of course not, we should all listen to you, oh wise noble lord of money!
Krugman sees crypto as the criminal money. Since it's supposed to be a "digital cash" or "digital gold", well, criminals use gold and cash for their criminal activities in order to avoid the financial system and monitoring, like for tax evasion.
Eek! Bitcoin and crypto is criminal money! Quick everyone, give it up now! Cast away this sinful evil currency and rejoice in the comfort of your paper and digital currencies that are centrally controlled blankets to suffocate you!
Fiat currencies are better. Krugman explains it all nicely, justifying it's superiority and security at the point of a gun and taxes:
... ultimately, it's backstopped by the fact that the U.S. government will accept dollars as payment of tax liabilities — liabilities it’s able to enforce because it’s a government. If you like, fiat currencies have underlying value because men with guns say they do.
From the horses mouth himself, admitting how the money system is back by men with guns and great for paying taxes to your masters.
Crypto sucks for Krugman, because they:
"... have no backstop, no tether to reality. Their value depends entirely on self-fulfilling expectations – which means that total collapse is a real possibility. If speculators were to have a collective moment of doubt, suddenly fearing that Bitcoins were worthless, well, Bitcoins would become worthless."
He says that the guns and tax use means the "value isn't a bubble that can collapse if people lose faith." But, all money only has value because of faith in it's value. The only reason the US dollar is still valued so high and not representing real economic realities, is because of the faith, trust, loyalty and belief in it's value. That could change at any moment.
I don't think this guy really understands what he's talking about. A Nobel Economist? Seems like his title is as worthless as Obama's Nobel Peace prize.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
References:
- Bitcoin is Erasing 300 Years of Monetary Evolution: Nobel Economist Paul Krugman
- Transaction Costs and Tethers: Why I’m a Crypto Skeptic
- Bitcoin is Evil
- Paul Krugman Ignorantly Calls Bitcoin “The Long Cryptocon”
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Anything that Krugman amuses me. He’s an awful monetary policy wonk.
Oddly enough this dipshit also believes in "climate change" - I wonder whose agenda he might be working for?
I couldn't have said it any better. He's on the global elitist payroll, using their talking points and using his proud status to school us ignorant peasants to why the status quo is so much better then us changing our future financial position by investing in cryptocurrencies.
Antisemitic much?
And almost all educated people believe in and want to prevent climate change. Dipshit
Seeing as how the monetary system enslaves us, I can see why setting it back 300 years would inconvenience them. Of course they look at the people taking control of something as a digression... the endgame is slavery. What set's them back 300 years advances us 300 years.
We need a raise in consciousness to match and maintain these new systems coming into play or they will never survive and evolve into true freedom.
Haha, yeah good way to look at it as how these guys might be speaking in tongues to view it ;)
Sounds like he might be endorsing Steem :)
Nobel prize...set up by a merchant of death after he had the rare opportunity to read his own obituary and what others thought of him while still alive. Handed out now as trophies for the narrative the powers that be want now.
Yeah, some things might merit it, but when Obama wins a peace prize during his first year in office, it shows how much of a sham it can be :/
Well he won the Nobel price back in 2008 when the recession happened and he's pretty old school, He's just a leftover at this point, like the people that still think touchscreens are useless and use blackberries or the people that still think the internet is a sham and so on, he has already been left behind.
Btw would love to know your opinion of Ripple getting Bill Clinton to speak for them at a conference next october!
Fuck Bill Clinton :P I saw that, and that's what I thought of when I saw it ;) hehe But people will love it because they love the president who lied to people's faces and was caught doing it...
I should have guessed you would do a post on Krugman's crock of malarkey, and I couldn't agree more with your perspective. Treating his disinformation piece was the second write up I have done since returning from vacation, which is a sign of just how much it stuck in my craw to read such blatant pro-slavery propaganda. Krugman is obviously a gatekeeper, manufactured by the banking cartel and adorned with a Nobel Prize so the sheeple who blindly trust authority can be herded to the slaughterhouse where their savings and earnings can be ground down to a big fat nothing burger.
Yeah it's shocking what he admits too how the system works, and no one in the MSM bats an eye. You got quite a nice payday on that one ;)
I know, I had to wonder if he got any blowback from his handlers for admitting that. And I definitely hadn't been expecting that kind of response to my post, a pleasant surprise!
@krnel Always a joy to read your perspective on things. The fact of the matter is crypto is a fiat currency and absolutely gets it's value in exactly the same faith as any fiat does. Thus making Krugman's statements an exposure of the emperors not having any clothes.
Nice post!
If bitcoin has a limit supply, it's not entirely like fiat to just create it forever. Precious metals would be the ideal limited supply that requires work to go mine, yes? Thanks ;)
What an idiot. (Krugman, not krnel)
Although there is some wisdom in what he said.
(I'm sure it wasn't intentional)
It's about 300 years since the Rothschilds really started getting their teeth into banking....
He might have been referring to that, but I doubt it...
Yeah I doubt it ;)
Krugman has been right about economic outcomes in the past, such as the idea that inflation would not run rampant over the past 10 years as many gold enthusiasts feared.
It is ironic to me, however, for him to say what he's saying about cryptocurrency -especially about it's value and backing- when he himself advocated creating a $1 Trillion dollar coin to solve some of the US monetary issues. Which probably would have worked. Who knows.
But how is minting a $1 Trillion dollar coin struck from platinum better than creating a digital, hardened currency like Bitcoin?
https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/be-ready-to-mint-that-coin/
Well inflation is controlled artificially, is it not? Despite how much money is printed, they keep it around 3% per year...
I wouldn't say it is artificially controlled, just that it is controlled, and that is on purpose.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation
That it is controlled also doesn't mean that the inflation rate always acts the way the contolling body wants it to, as seen in the early 1920s, during the Great Depression, during the 1970s and post 2008.
One of the best charts is in the history section of that article. It shows how inflation used to swing wildly positive and negative, until the early 1900s (coinciding with the institution of the Federal Reserve), and is now quite stable relative to what it used to be like.
What I tell people like him: Just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean it's not a thing.
Indeed. He's confused, lost or other things ;)
He wants things to remain the same; old school 'Federal Reserve'! He’s part of the cabal ..
Yup, defending the status quo by attacking the novelty that is here
Whenever he speaks negatively about Bitcoin then it's a good time to buy some. Mainstream media will pick it up soon, they worship him.
Hehe, yeah maybe, I wonder if the price went down after he spoke :P
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Have great respect for him but he's definitely wrong on this one like you've rightly highlighted. He seems to lack a proper understanding of the whole crypto space
It's the nobel money talking, innit? Plus Obama winning it 2x or 3x? They can all stick with their banks.
Thanks for the laugh!
Otherwise I couldn't give more of a shit for what Krugman says.
:P yup
EXTREMELY GOOD