U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that Facebook Libra “cannot go forward” until serious concerns are addressed.
“Libra raises many serious concerns regarding privacy, money laundering, consumer protection and financial stability,” Powell said during his semi-annual testimony on monetary policy before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.
“I don’t think the project can go forward” without addressing those concerns, he added later.
Being pessimistic, I wonder if they are genuinely concerned about things like privacy, or just don’t want the competition.
Check It Out: Federal Reserve Chairman Says Facebook Libra “Cannot go Forward”
” I wonder if they are genuinely concerned about things like privacy, or just don’t want the competition.”
The two are not mutually exclusive.
That sentence is actually borne out of a misunderstanding of the Fed’s history and role. The Fed is not a for-profit entity that’s watching out against competitors in the market called ‘currency services’. The Fed has no stockholders or bonus-chasing CEO’s who stand to get enormous monetary windfalls if they are able to kill all the ‘competition’. The Fed’s function is to maintain monetary stability so as to foster economic growth. Part of maintaining monetary stability is preventing fraud in the monetary and banking system because a currency or payments system that cannot be trusted leads to real economic disruption and even chaos.
A lot of the discussion about Libra and other cryptocurrencies arise from sheer ignorance of the monetary system and the role of central banks.
That makes me feel better, thanks for the input.