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,…
As if central banks' powers and balance sheets haven't grown quite enough since the outbreak of the subprime crisis, we've been hearing more and more calls for them to expand their role in retail payments, by supplying digital money directly to the general public. Some proposals would…
In 2014 the government of Ecuador, under then-President Rafael Correa, announced with great fanfare that the Ecuadorian Central Bank (BCE) would soon begin issuing an electronic money (dinero electrónico, or DE). Users would keep account balances on the central bank's own balance sheet and transfer them using…