5 ms·

Government control over currency is a good thing.

svd4anything 7y ago
Is that really truly settled by economists? Objectively. I mean there have sure been a lot of currency crisis and hyperinflation events in modern world history.
- xxpor 7y ago
  I don't think pure economics are the only thing to worry about here. Anti-money laundering/sanctions/stopping terrorist financing efforts are generally a good thing that not ideal from an economic perspective.
  - svd4anything 7y ago
    > Anti-money laundering/sanctions/stopping terrorist financing efforts That looks like a pretty questionable line of logic, because, say for sake of argument, that it can be demonstrated from an economics objective that competitive private currencies produce higher levels of growth. Now the terrorists also have us hostage economically as we need to use monopoly government money as the only way to stop them! Come on, it’s lazy thinking to believe that only centralized authoritarian control of currency is how to keep everyone safe from various bad actors, terrorists, criminals and rogue nations. My intuition says that just can’t be correct, otherwise let’s also just put cameras in everyone’s homes ... just in case.
    - baq 7y ago
      the goverment's role isn't to be a monopoly, it's to provide and enforce rules. otherwise the strongest player will coerce everyone to their own rules via force. it's naive to think that without governments everything will suddenly be better and cheaper - on the contrary, there will be a period of anarchy where no fair trade is possible because fraud won't have any consequences and after that the strongest players will form a kingdom or whatever with support of many tired ordinary people who just want to live.
      - svd4anything 7y ago
        I’m confused. What rules will the government no longer be able to enforce? There is such extremism in all cryptocurrency related discussions. Why in the world would there be anarchy if central bank monetary policy was no longer effective when private currencies are used or during a Free Banking period? Why does that follow at all, by what mechanism?
  - Macross8299 7y ago
    >Anti-money laundering/sanctions/stopping terrorist financing efforts are generally a good thing that not ideal from an economic perspective. This is the same authoritarian reasoning behind things like China's capital controls, though.
- jonathankoren 7y ago
  I think you need to read up on the era before central banking, and bank notes. It was chaos. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/12/07/166747693/episode-421-the-birth-of-the-dollar-bill https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/12/07/166747693/epis...
  - abecedarius 7y ago
    Counterpoint: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_banking#Scotland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_banking#Scotland
    - jonathankoren 7y ago
      Also the exception. Ultimately, you have to wonder what problem you're trying to solve from going from a globally recognized stable reserve currency, to something that is synonymous with extreme volatility and fraud.
Sargos 7y ago
Are you going to back up your argument or just state it like it's a fact? (It's not)
- ddalex 7y ago
  > It's not Are you going to back up your argument or just state it like it's a fact?

Is that really truly settled by economists? Objectively. I mean there have sure been a lot of currency crisis and hyperinflation events in modern world history.

xxpor 7y ago
I don't think pure economics are the only thing to worry about here. Anti-money laundering/sanctions/stopping terrorist financing efforts are generally a good thing that not ideal from an economic perspective.
- svd4anything 7y ago
  > Anti-money laundering/sanctions/stopping terrorist financing efforts That looks like a pretty questionable line of logic, because, say for sake of argument, that it can be demonstrated from an economics objective that competitive private currencies produce higher levels of growth. Now the terrorists also have us hostage economically as we need to use monopoly government money as the only way to stop them! Come on, it’s lazy thinking to believe that only centralized authoritarian control of currency is how to keep everyone safe from various bad actors, terrorists, criminals and rogue nations. My intuition says that just can’t be correct, otherwise let’s also just put cameras in everyone’s homes ... just in case.
  - baq 7y ago
    the goverment's role isn't to be a monopoly, it's to provide and enforce rules. otherwise the strongest player will coerce everyone to their own rules via force. it's naive to think that without governments everything will suddenly be better and cheaper - on the contrary, there will be a period of anarchy where no fair trade is possible because fraud won't have any consequences and after that the strongest players will form a kingdom or whatever with support of many tired ordinary people who just want to live.
    - svd4anything 7y ago
      I’m confused. What rules will the government no longer be able to enforce? There is such extremism in all cryptocurrency related discussions. Why in the world would there be anarchy if central bank monetary policy was no longer effective when private currencies are used or during a Free Banking period? Why does that follow at all, by what mechanism?
- Macross8299 7y ago
  >Anti-money laundering/sanctions/stopping terrorist financing efforts are generally a good thing that not ideal from an economic perspective. This is the same authoritarian reasoning behind things like China's capital controls, though.
jonathankoren 7y ago
I think you need to read up on the era before central banking, and bank notes. It was chaos. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/12/07/166747693/episode-421-the-birth-of-the-dollar-bill https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/12/07/166747693/epis...
- abecedarius 7y ago
  Counterpoint: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_banking#Scotland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_banking#Scotland
  - jonathankoren 7y ago
    Also the exception. Ultimately, you have to wonder what problem you're trying to solve from going from a globally recognized stable reserve currency, to something that is synonymous with extreme volatility and fraud.

Sargos 7y ago

Are you going to back up your argument or just state it like it's a fact? (It's not)

ddalex 7y ago
> It's not Are you going to back up your argument or just state it like it's a fact?