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DeSantis doesn’t like the Digital Dollar
His office tweeted this today:
The movement to establish a central bank digital currency is an attempt to surveil & control the finances of Americans. It would violate privacy, limit consumer choice & undermine market competitiveness. CBDC has no place in FL & we are proud to lead the fight against it.
The tweet had this graphic.
So what? some say. It’s all digital now anyways, who pays cash. This is different, and there’s absolutely no way it won’t be misused. You know exactly how it’ll go:
1. “Don’t worry, Cletus, you can still use your wadded-up dollar bills to buy your lottery tickets. If you like your cash, you can keep your cash.”
A few years and 247 WaPo / NYT editorials later:
2. “Actually, cash is bad, because criminals use it. Also, look how much more tax revenue we’d get with an all-digital currency, and that’s money that could be used for infrastructure and solving income inequality. Banks would prefer if you didn’t bother them with cash – it’s expensive, they have to hire tellers, buy machines to count it. So 20th century! So you have five years to trade it all in. P.S. Sorry, same thing with gold.”
Five years on:
3. “Enclosed is your monthly ESG expenditure statement, broken down by the professed identity (PI) of the business owners, compared with the percentages of each group in your city, in accordance with the Professed Identity Transaction Interaction Act of 2034. The information is provided for your own use and will not affect your credit score.”
And so on, and so on.
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Not with that attitude it won’t!
Hey, Arch!
The key to accurate self-assessment is diligently gathering data to support your rating.
I have found that more and more often, my opinions are correct. It would be pure vanity to pretend that I am less astute than I am.
But don’t take it from me.
Ask anyone on Ricochet,
Unless you happen to ask someone who is not a huge fan of mine (that would be sampling bias…correct technique in that case is to discard that reply, to avoid distorting the data) the answer will be:
“the Camper, no doubt about it!”
Dude, that’s three words!
You are my go-to guy!! Also, Archie should loosen up a bit . . .
You can’t go wrong if you follow my Uncle Reuben’s advice: find a product you like and buy stock in the company–others are bound to like it, too.
The Rube-meister embarked on his road to fortune when, on a whim, he stopped at a new fast food drive-thru. Turned out that they were selling plant-based simulated lobster-rolls, made from organic, sustainable Fair Market protein, extracted from a kale-quinoa hybrid from a Wuhan lab with…and here is the kicker: ethylene glycol recycled from junked automobile radiators.
It was obviously going to be a hit, once other people tried the product. The rest is day-trader history.
So. Bitcoin? Yes.
But invest in a kind of bitcoin that you have personally tried, and fallen in love with.
Or wait a little longer and let the dust settle, because there’s a new player in the crypto space: Qbitcoin. It exists in a superposition of exchange rates, and it doesn’t collapse to an actual value until you spend it. It adds a whole new dimension to speculative currency investing.
Henry, you totally got me!
I thought I knew who would get back to me on that, and what the tone would be, if not the exact words.
I will wait till you aren’t expecting it and get you back for this.
As Jack Benny used to say, “Now, that’s funny.”
Wow.
Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize you two were an item.
It’s a purely editorial relationship. Before I mash the Publish button on anything, I stop and think…
Would Susan approve of this?
Digital money sounds like the most fiat of fiat currency. The government can make it magically disappear or devalue it on a whim. Complete and total control.
I am old. I like tangible things. I was a late converter to digital audio and video. I buy my music online and my movies online. But I liked buying CDs and cassettes because I could hold them, look through the liner notes etc. But alas, I no longer have a CD player or DVD player. Cassettes went the way of the dodo. I still won’t buy books on digital if I can avoid it. I like holding books and magazines in my hands and turning pages. I love the smell of paper in the bookstore if it hasn’t been overwhelmed by the damned coffee bar. I like little green rectangles with dead presidents that I can exchange for goods and services. Because it’s mine, mine, mine. Digital stuff is ultimately controlled by other people.
I’m liking the digital world less every day but I don’t count for much today.
That’s already true, and has been for a while now. See: quantitative easing.
In fact the more I think about it, objecting to a central bank digital currency seems a bit like bolting the stable door after the horses have left the barn. The government has had complete and total control ever since we went off the gold standard.
Maybe for now, but I’m thinking a Central Bank Digital Currency would put an end to that. One account/card per person, regardless.
You can buy a DVD player at Walmart for $29 (or less) that will also play CDs. Nobody did that TO you, other than yourself.
Or go to a Goodwill store (or Salvation Army, or St Vincent DePaul, or what-have-you) and get one for $5.
Because of inflation in Argentina, Argentinians heavily use the physical US $100 bill, according to Devon Zuegel. What would happen to Argentina’s economy if they didn’t have access to all that paper mooola?
No problem once Argentina switches to the Chinese Yuan.
I read a book written by a guy in Argentina who went through one of the many currency crises, this one in the 1990s.
He said that at some point you could only barter or spend actual gold or silver as money. The Argentine paper money was simply not accepted. He told of paying for something with a pair of his mother’s gold earrings.
CDs are obsolete, I’m told all the cool kids buy their albums on vinyl these days.
Well there is that, too. But CDs are more long-lasting and they can’t change them on you or make them unplayable after you’ve already paid, as can happen with Amazon.
I only buy movies on digital when it’s out of sheer convenience. For movies I truly want to own and rewatch, it’s blu-ray all the way. There are great companies like Arrow, Criterion, Kino Lorber putting out pretty high quality editions of movies, often with original additional content, liner notes, artwork, etc. If you like collecting physical things (I agree with you on books and the smell of paper and feel of turning pages), and you like movies its something to consider.
If they [”They!”) institute social credit scores and don’t let the wrong people buy stuff, we end up with a black market. Don’t we?
Presumably, not using the official “money” would be a crime.
Sort of like when gold was made illegal and confiscated. But that would never happen.
Isn’t barter already illegal unless reported as income for the in-kind value exchange under federal tax law?
Also Vinegar Syndrome
Yup, and you know how people pay for black market goods online?
All together now: Bitcoin.
Whiskey and ammo.
And more whiskey.