Regular Alt-M readers are no doubt looking forward to the FOMC's announcement next Wednesday. But I doubt they'll be sitting at the edges of their seats between now and then, much less biting their fingernails. Markets have, after all, been anticipating a modest Fed cut ever since…
What Are the True Financial Risks of the Facebook-Led Digital Currency? (Part III: National Security Risk) At yesterday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing on Libra, the digital currency project led by Facebook with 27 other partners, concerns about its potential to undermine U.S. national security featured prominently. Senators…
What Are the True Financial Risks of the Facebook-Led Digital Currency? (Part II: Monopoly Risk) Policymakers, in America and around the world, have for the most part responded to the announcement of Libra with skepticism, fear, and not a little bit of loathing. In my last post,…
What Are the True Financial Risks of the Facebook-Led Digital Currency? (Part I: Systemic Risk) In medicine, “zebra” describes an instance when the doctor diagnoses an unlikely but eye-catching condition instead of a less noteworthy but more probable one that also fits the symptoms. Professor Theodore Woodward…
Twice recently I've come across arguments to the effect that, despite what some libertarians, goldbugs, cryptocurrency fans, and Fed Board candidates imagine, the idea that the historical gold standard kept governments from managing money, leaving the job to market forces, is a myth. In his June 24th…