Tag Archives: national debt

Does decentralized currency thwart crisis intervention?

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Here is another economics/policy question that I was asked to address at Quora.

The US used quantitative easing to deal with one monetary crisis, and a bailout of the automotive and banking industry to deal with another. If nations, economies or individuals begin to embrace a decentralized currency, they will inevitably shift away from government issued money. Won’t this hinder a nation’s ability to intervene in a crisis?

Answering this question goes to the very heart of the ethics and politics of cryptocurrency.

Yes. Without centralized control over monetary policy, government options for intervention in a money crisis would be severely limited. But this fact may lead to a false impression…

First, most money crises begin with government, and so there are likely to be far fewer monetary emergencies.

Here’s how the options would be limited:

  • Governments would have fewer ways to manipulate a public resource. They will still have the ability to budget, tax, borrow, build infrastructure and even wage war. But…
  • Governments could no longer amass debts that outstrip their ability to be accountable. That’s because they can no longer covertly tax via rampant printing of money.
  • They could not “raise the debt ceiling” without demonstrating fiscal responsibility, because they no longer control what everyone uses as money.
  • Government spending (and intervention, such as quantitative easing) would have to be balanced by revenue. Borrowing would be limited to creditors who truly believe in their will and ability to repay debt.

All of these “limitations” are good things—even for the governments and banks involved. It only seems limiting, because our understanding of what is money is tainted by millennia of authoritarian systems.

A capped, open source, transparent, traceable, immutable, decentralized, distributed and permissionless money supply is both fair and more robust than Fiat paper, promises or credit.

Let’s explore that last bullet, above. The point is subtle—yet, it is the key to answering your question…

Every individual, household, business, state and NGO must balance its books. If one cannot cover bills, they must find a creditor who believes in their ability to get back to fiscal health. Even nations are eventually forced to balance their books or seek a bail-out from neighbors.

But, this is not the case for the United States. We have had an ability whitewash our largess and declining industrial productivity by printing more money. How has this been possible while retaining a strong dollar?

The US dollar has been the world’s reserve currency for 47 years. This development was one of the most clever, yet potentially damaging developments of the post war order. It led other nations and consumers to treat it like gold (even though the link to any underlying asset or promise was severed by Richard Nixon in 1972).

Now that other nations are shifting this special status away from the US, we are gradually becoming just as susceptible to a house-of-cards collapse as Venezuela, Argentina, Zimbabwe, or Germany between the wars. Our massive consumer market cannot protect us. Eventually, we must ship the fruit of our sweat and intellectual bounty to serve others. After all, for more than a half century, we have been giving them pieces of paper (dollars or treasury bonds) for their TVs, underwear, sneakers, toys and sheet rock.

This unbalanced trade must be reversed. Building walls at the boarder and stiff tariffs are desperate acts that fail to recognize cause or containment. They are certainly not the way to restore a robust economy. There must be a better way for nations to get their houses in order. Fortunately, there is.

A distributed currency built on math, trust and transparency—rather than the integrity of transient elected officials from one nation is far less susceptible to manipulation, inflation or any form of shock. It won’t solve all problems immediately, be it will prevent us from getting further mired in a debt that blows up like a balloon.

The decoupling of a money supply from government will yield benefits that are difficult to imagine today. Money doesn’t need authoritarian oversight like airline safety. The situation is more analogous to the deregulation telephone and package delivery services. Without those blockbuster decisions of the 1980s, we would not have Smartphones or the internet today.

Ellery Davies co-chairs CRYPSA, hosts the New York Bitcoin Event and is keynote speaker at Cryptocurrency Conferences. He sits on the New Money Systems board of Lifeboat Foundation. Book a presentation or blockchain consulting.

Debt, Obamacare & Recurring Fiscal Crisis

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Senator Ted Cruz leands an assault on Obamacare

Senator Cruz: Assault on Obamacare

There are a plethora of opinions about the latest fiscal crisis. Take your pick. Senator Ted Cruz certainly has an opinion, and he will toss America down a hole to prove it.

Actually, the senator and I share significant common ground. We are both deeply concerned about debt and uncontrolled spending. But, beyond these fundamentals, the senator’s foot-shooting tactics, including a quasi-filibuster, doesn’t inspire confidence.

How, do you suppose, that our creditors view these spams of democratic process? Do you think that they worry about default? Do they care if our economy recovers?  I suspect that – like consumer creditors – they attempt to influence behavior and policy to achieve both a payment stream and a long term outcome that is, foremost, favorable to the creditor? Just as with Greece, creditors are certainly entitled to call the shots.

Today, Forbes contributor, Eamonn Fingleton offered an analysis and explanation of the creditor decision process that I find refreshingly clear. It is, quite probably, an accurate prediction of cause and effect as applied to our current fiscal crisis.

Perhaps the reason that Americans lack the intestinal fortitude to ride out a long term investment is because, as a nation, we have been debtors for too long to recall what it is to be an investor!

Americans delude themselves with the fantasy that that a massive debtor has cards to play. They imagine that a creditors’ need for (the debtor’s) continued solvency and unabated consumption gives them strength. But those things aren’t as critical as Americans think. They can always find new customers elsewhere.

It’s a big world and trade barriers are coming down everywhere. The American dream can still be achieved—even with a roaring, world class economy. But to get there from here, we must recognize that we borrowed against our future while the Chinese produced and lent and while the Arabs sucked down our borrowed cash to satisfy our self-imposed oil addiction.

Those events have consequences. Like it or not, the Chinese have earned the upper hand. Today, they hold thousands of dollars of debt over every one of us. This turn of events is not “unfair”. In fact it is wholly fair. That debt is inherent in your TV, smart phone, shoes, toys, auto parts and underwear. Throughout the 90s and 00s, we moved our manufacturing, infrastructure and innovation off shore. All the while, we soaked up Chinese toys, clothes, gadgets, and raw materials and – of course – Mideast oil. We remained faithful to our post war credo:  Consume, consume, consume!

We must stop thinking of ourselves as entitled to anything other than our freedoms, the separation of powers, Hollywood, the Internet and our past glory as historical capitalists (up through the first ⅔ of the 20th century). We are also entitled to our pretty, foreign-made gadgets adorned with American logos. We got these things, because we handed a pawn broker our marker. He trusts us, because he respects the family name. But he is surprised that we keep bowering to pay the bill. In fact, we aren’t really paying the bill. We are simply racking up debt and ignoring the principal.

Now, it’s time to pay our bills. President Obama wants to begin this process while also ensuring that we include universal access to heath insurance. Well, O.K. it’s not really universal access it’s mandatory buy in. Does Obamacare represent socialiaztion of health care? Probably, Yes! Is it the right move in a down economy? Who knows? Do most people support it? I don’t think that we can get a clear answer to that last question, but it certainly seems split across party lines.

But here’s the deal, Congress. Obamacare is a fact! The act was passed and the law was upheld by the highest court. Since then, it has survived dozens of attempts to overturn it. It’s time to apply your remarkable energy to the people’s business!

The US Congress behaves like a whiny child who wants to grab the soccer ball, furlough the players and shut down the stadium. It’s time to accept defeat without using terrorist tactics to make a point. Few Americans want a socialist economy, but through due process, we have chosen to socialize health insurance. Let’s review the logic:

  • I feel that the time for due process is over.
  • You are determined to spend all of your time and resources trying to overturn a done deal.
  • I think that you are crazy.

And it’s very unsettling to lose confidence in our elected officials.

Ellery on ObamacareListen up, Congress! We, the people, don’t like debt. We get your point of digging in. The constant debt increase is not a merry-go-round. It is more like a falling roller coaster with no tracks ahead. We must apply the brakes, and very soon. We get it! But there are two things that we cannot avoid: Paying creditors and accepting political defeat on just how a reduced budget is put together.

Get over it! Accept that you cannot defund a program that was passed and approved. One way or another, we must still deal with the spiraling cost of health care. Now get to work, dammit! Tell us where we must cut the fat and get the job done!