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The economy as a whole isn't centralized but the commercial banking system is centralized by each nation's respective "central bank" [1]. It would be kind of aw

by Kranar 5y ago

The economy as a whole isn't centralized but the commercial banking system is centralized by each nation's respective "central bank" [1]. It would be kind of awkward to claim that economists are unaware that a central bank isn't a form of centralization, specifically of a nation's monetary system. That said, most people can pick up the meaning of centralization based on the context without every discussion having to spend a paragraph defining it. A discussion about a centralized Internet isn't too hard to understand, nor are discussions about finance, media, markets, governments, etc etc... The idea that people can't figure out what decentralization means in the context of a discussion about the Internet or finance unless someone spells it out in precise detail is kind of obtuse. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_bank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_bank

lottin 5y ago
Economists are fully aware of central banks and the role they play in the monetary and the financial system. Still they won't use the term 'centralised' because it doesn't describe the current system well. In fact, it does a terrible job of describing it. For example, consider the fact that 90-95% of the currency in circulation is not issued by the central bank, but created by commercial banks via fractional reserve banking.
- Kranar 5y ago
  Then it's not clear in what way you expect economists to hypothetically use that term, even in principle. Your argument becomes unfalsifiable. If using the term central to describe the "central bank" isn't a prime instance of economists using the term centralized, then it's not clear that anything could ever possibly satisfy your standard. I could go on to show you how "centralized finance" returns over half a million scholarly publications on Google Scholar, many of which predate Bitcoin, to discuss centralized payment systems, centralized monetary systems, centralized exchanges, centralization of finance in China but as I said before, this is such an obtuse discussion at this point it's not clear that anything I ever produce could ever change your mind. It's not like "centralized psychology" returns half a million results, or "centralized math" returns half a million results (centralized math mostly refers to centralization in the education system)... but "centralized finance" does. All I can say then is that empirically, if I talk about a centralized Internet (700,000 results), people are able to understand what it means... if I talk about a centralized monetary system or centralized banking system, people understand that too. These all appear to be commonly discussed and researched topics that people are aware of. Someone might need a precise definition of "centralized psychology" or "centralized chemistry" since those topics do not seem to produce much of any academic research, but centralized finance appears to be well understood. If you don't believe it, you can see for yourself by doing a search and going over the abstract of several academic papers that use the term without having to spend paragraphs precisely defining it.
  - lottin 5y ago
    > I could go on to show you how "centralized finance" returns over half a million scholarly publications on Google Scholar Do you not know how to use Google? "Centralized finance" returns 685 results, and if you go through the results you'll quickly see that most don't even talk about the financial system.

by Kranar 5y ago

lottin 5y ago

Economists are fully aware of central banks and the role they play in the monetary and the financial system. Still they won't use the term 'centralised' because it doesn't describe the current system well. In fact, it does a terrible job of describing it. For example, consider the fact that 90-95% of the currency in circulation is not issued by the central bank, but created by commercial banks via fractional reserve banking.

Kranar 5y ago
Then it's not clear in what way you expect economists to hypothetically use that term, even in principle. Your argument becomes unfalsifiable. If using the term central to describe the "central bank" isn't a prime instance of economists using the term centralized, then it's not clear that anything could ever possibly satisfy your standard. I could go on to show you how "centralized finance" returns over half a million scholarly publications on Google Scholar, many of which predate Bitcoin, to discuss centralized payment systems, centralized monetary systems, centralized exchanges, centralization of finance in China but as I said before, this is such an obtuse discussion at this point it's not clear that anything I ever produce could ever change your mind. It's not like "centralized psychology" returns half a million results, or "centralized math" returns half a million results (centralized math mostly refers to centralization in the education system)... but "centralized finance" does. All I can say then is that empirically, if I talk about a centralized Internet (700,000 results), people are able to understand what it means... if I talk about a centralized monetary system or centralized banking system, people understand that too. These all appear to be commonly discussed and researched topics that people are aware of. Someone might need a precise definition of "centralized psychology" or "centralized chemistry" since those topics do not seem to produce much of any academic research, but centralized finance appears to be well understood. If you don't believe it, you can see for yourself by doing a search and going over the abstract of several academic papers that use the term without having to spend paragraphs precisely defining it.
- lottin 5y ago
  > I could go on to show you how "centralized finance" returns over half a million scholarly publications on Google Scholar Do you not know how to use Google? "Centralized finance" returns 685 results, and if you go through the results you'll quickly see that most don't even talk about the financial system.