Monday 18 June 2018

And they should know...

From the print version of the DT Business Section:-

Bitcoin an environmental disaster with no real worth, warns 'bank of central bankers'.

Quote:

Crypto currencies "are not backed by the assets and revenues stream of an established state.  Most can be rendered worthless by fraud or digital manipulation. They are essentially Ponzi schemes that masquerade as citizen currencies beyond government control."

Oh. Right. And just how well are those government controlled currencies doing then? £100 in 1945 buys what £4101 does in 2017 (https://www.officialdata.org/1945-GBP-in-2017).


5 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

Well yeah... average 5.3% inflation for 72 years = 41-fold price increase. In most years, if you had money on deposit, you were paid interest and so only lost a couple of per cent in real terms.

As vexing as this is, it is not the end of the world and not a major loss. You aren't supposed to have your life savings in cash anyway, just your month to month money.

It's not like this crypto shite where the 'value' might evaporate overnight.

Lola said...

Well yeah indeed. Crypto currencies are not really a good idea at the present time, but there again central banks have excelled in destroying money. So it's 'pot' and 'kettle'. And cumulatively it is a catastrophic loss and has forced all sorts of savers to buy into the capital markets, people broadly who should do no such thing. My professional life is spent trying to defend modest savers from central bank failure.

I trust neither.

MikeW said...

BitCoin: Goldrush, but this time its different? Folks who make the money: own the land or sell the shovels and pans. https://www.cnet.com/news/bitcoin-boom-pc-gaming-graphics-card/

Lola said...

MikeW. The moment someone uses the phrase price gouging I lose interest. In any event - as you say - t'was always thus. And it's 'rent'. The spade sellers also get paid for risk. It's not easy to get a shovel into the Klondyke. Apart from anything else there was precious little rule of law. At the moment Bitcoin does not have a major impact on the general cost of living for the man in the street. Unlike any national(isd) currency. And over time the central banks and politicians behind those nationalised currencies have stolen from us. So for them to call out cryptocurrencies is simply hypocritical.

Dinero said...

Ironically, £20 BoE notes from the 1980s go on ebay currently for £40 , so that is 2.8% annual interest (compound).