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Honestly as much as people complain the US Federal Reserve really just proved their enormous value and thoroughly vindicated fiat currency. The financial crisis
by tootie 4mo ago
Honestly as much as people complain the US Federal Reserve really just proved their enormous value and thoroughly vindicated fiat currency. The financial crisis of 2007-8 should have been a new Depression and it wasn't. Instead we've seen uninterrupted growth for close to 20 years. Markets have really internalized that the US economy is indestructible and the Fed will always protect us from disaster. Will it last forever? Of course not. But like Keynes said, "in the long run, we're all dead".
- trollbridge 4mo agoEuros, dollars, pounds, francs, and yen are all more stable and easier to use than cryptocurrencies. It gets even easier once you toss in Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Amex, various debit card and regional networks, and ubiquitous banking services. Checks and online ACH payments are free or nearly free. Payment card platforms are cheap in consideration the value you get for them. Meanwhile actually spending crypto is quite expensive - worse than Visa’s transaction fees, and far less consumer and merchant protections.
- glitchc 4mo agoThe key difference is that they all require identity to use and can be traced back to a person.
- atomic_cowprod 4mo agoThat is by design and is a good thing to everyone except cartels and communist governments.
- inigyou 4mo agoWhat about people wanting to buy abortion pills?
- trollbridge 4mo agoCash, at a pharmacy. Crypto doesn’t make that any better. Neither does online ordering. Online orders have to have a degree of KYC.
- inigyou 4mo agoIt's illegal to sell abortion pills. What now?
- trollbridge 4mo agoCash seems to have functioned pretty well for the illegal drug trade for a long time. What’s your point? Crypto somehow facilitates illegal financial transactions? That is not going to make normal people eager to use it.
- inigyou 4mo agoAt least not until normal things become crimes.
- trollbridge 4mo agoCash requires no such thing. Neither do easily available gift cards. There is a little more friction involved. As a merchant I have zero desire to sell online to an anonymous buyer because the fraud risk is too high. I have to know whom I’m shipping to and how they’re paying for it.
- glitchc 4mo agoWe were talking about digital payments right? Cash isn't digital.
- inigyou 4mo agoThe fundamental structural problems from 2007-8 are still here. The system has been running with paper over the cracks in the foundation for almost 20 years.
- derangedHorse 4mo agoBanks racked up huge losses on subprime mortgages, get bailed out to save customer deposits which the banks continue to profit from, most bank execs walk away scot-free, and that's a vindication of the system? They literally gambled with customer funds, lost it all by enriching incompetent sellers of bad MBS, and got it replaced by the government. With the money supply being inflated from the replacement, the only people who benefitted were the bad actors who still have a share of the now diluted supply of customer funds.