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India Central Bank Chief Warns Crypto Will Cause the Next Financial Crisis Unless Banned (techcrunch.com) 42

The Indian central bank's governor said on Wednesday that it's not at war with crypto, but asserted that cryptocurrencies have no underlying fundamentals and their usage should be prohibited. From a report: RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das told a room packed with banking executives and lawmakers that crypto has a huge inherent risk to the macroeconomic and stability of the nation. "After the development of the last one year, including the latest episode surrounding FTX, I don't think we need to say anything more. Time has proven that crypto is worth what it's worth today."

[...] Das said crypto owes its origin to the idea that it bypasses or breaks the existing financial system. "They don't believe in the central bank, they don't believe in a regulated financial world. I'm yet to hear a good argument about what public purpose it serves," he said, adding that he holds the view that crypto should be prohibited. "It should be prohibited because if it is allowed to grow ... say it's regulated and allowed to grow ... please mark my words that the next financial crisis will come from private cryptocurrencies," he said.

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India Central Bank Chief Warns Crypto Will Cause the Next Financial Crisis Unless Banned

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  • by Inglix the Mad ( 576601 ) on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @10:48AM (#63147744)
    Good luck. Cryptocurrency is an extremely effective way to ensure wealth concentration at the very top.
    • by MM-tng ( 585125 )

      What is your evidence? Leaving the gold standard seems to have the opposite effect of what you are suggesting.

      • Re:Ban Crypto? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Inglix the Mad ( 576601 ) on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @11:22AM (#63147858)

        What is your evidence? Leaving the gold standard seems to have the opposite effect of what you are suggesting.

        You do realize that crypto and gold operate on the same principle. That is, sitting on wealth will usually result in greater wealth. The theory being that there is no more gold / crypto than X amount so you have to keep raising it's value and subdividing it ever smaller. This is why people "shaved" the edges of coins when they were made out of precious metals. Get enough shaved metal and turn it in for profit.

        Also it wasn't leaving the "gold standard" for currency that drove wealth disparity, it was the decoupling of pay from productivity. Jack Welch is often pointed to as the first CEO to beat down employee pay for "shareholders" (aka his pay package) but realistically it started before him for people who weren't "white collar" employees.

        Prior to the mid/late 1970's it was not unusual for the "middle class" to buy small private aircraft, or larger boats. Not pontoon or ski boats like you see today, but larger "cabin class" boats you could actually go to sea with... or cross the Great Lakes... without being completely exposed. For aircraft, they could even buy planes like Beech Baron 58P (pressurized!) for long trips. However the most common would have been single engine Bonanza 33/35/36 or Baron 55's, Piper Cherokee / Lance / Aztec, or Cessna 182/185/310. This did continue for a while after the 1970's as it took time for the economies to seriously diverge as unions were broken, and worker pay stagnated. Even white collar pay took a hit, but not as bad... at first.

        After the "Reagan Revolution" "Greed is GOOD!" and so on, unto the beginning the C19 epedemic, we've been beating down pay for the benefit of a few ultra rich. That's both Republicans AND most Democratic politicians... not just R's. Then C19 threw a monkey wrench in it all... and effed up the labor market by messing with the supply chain and movement of people. The instant that happened it became "too much work, not enough worker" and the serfs started demanding more money from multinational corporations. This continued for some time, and we had supply chain issues cause some inflation, but profit taking causing far more inflation. You want proof? See all the companies reporting record profits? No, not income, PROFITS mate. If it was purely inflation they'd be taking a hit and staying flat on profit, not increasing profit.

        This isn't some sooper seekrit item, but it's something that people tend to blink past. Go look at the pay / productivity chart and see who has been pocketing the money for increased productivity for the last 50 years. That, and not moving off the Gold Standard, is why wealth is being concentrated at the top.

        • by MM-tng ( 585125 )

          Well, in that case we are on a high speed plane to feudalism :).

          • Well, in that case we are on a high speed plane to feudalism :).

            One that had been accelerating until C19 hit and threw a monkey wrench in the works. I was terrified for my kids would be completely out of luck. C19 really did muck with things and might result in pay beginning to track upward again, if we can keep the Fed (and others) from spiking rates to "fight inflation" causing mass layoffs and a recession. The fed blaming the durty poors for inflation is also laughable. Heck it's almost as laughable as blaming people who retired for the labor shortage. Almost as lau

        • What is your evidence? Leaving the gold standard seems to have the opposite effect of what you are suggesting.

          You do realize that crypto and gold operate on the same principle. That is, sitting on wealth will usually result in greater wealth. The theory being that there is no more gold / crypto than X amount so you have to keep raising it's value and subdividing it ever smaller. This is why people "shaved" the edges of coins when they were made out of precious metals. Get enough shaved metal and turn it in for profit. Also it wasn't leaving the "gold standard" for currency that drove wealth disparity, it was the decoupling of pay from productivity. Jack Welch is often pointed to as the first CEO to beat down employee pay for "shareholders" (aka his pay package) but realistically it started before him for people who weren't "white collar" employees. Prior to the mid/late 1970's it was not unusual for the "middle class" to buy small private aircraft, or larger boats. Not pontoon or ski boats like you see today, but larger "cabin class" boats you could actually go to sea with... or cross the Great Lakes... without being completely exposed. For aircraft, they could even buy planes like Beech Baron 58P (pressurized!) for long trips. However the most common would have been single engine Bonanza 33/35/36 or Baron 55's, Piper Cherokee / Lance / Aztec, or Cessna 182/185/310. This did continue for a while after the 1970's as it took time for the economies to seriously diverge as unions were broken, and worker pay stagnated. Even white collar pay took a hit, but not as bad... at first. After the "Reagan Revolution" "Greed is GOOD!" and so on, unto the beginning the C19 epedemic, we've been beating down pay for the benefit of a few ultra rich. That's both Republicans AND most Democratic politicians... not just R's. Then C19 threw a monkey wrench in it all... and effed up the labor market by messing with the supply chain and movement of people. The instant that happened it became "too much work, not enough worker" and the serfs started demanding more money from multinational corporations. This continued for some time, and we had supply chain issues cause some inflation, but profit taking causing far more inflation. You want proof? See all the companies reporting record profits? No, not income, PROFITS mate. If it was purely inflation they'd be taking a hit and staying flat on profit, not increasing profit. This isn't some sooper seekrit item, but it's something that people tend to blink past. Go look at the pay / productivity chart and see who has been pocketing the money for increased productivity for the last 50 years. That, and not moving off the Gold Standard, is why wealth is being concentrated at the top.

          OK, please tell me where do I find that portal to the alternate reality you apparently live in, where US is still on gold standard, and middle class people had private jets in their garages in 70s. I'd very much like to go through it too.

          • OK, please tell me where do I find that portal to the alternate reality you apparently live in, where US is still on gold standard, and middle class people had private jets in their garages in 70s. I'd very much like to go through it too.

            First off I delineated how gold and crypto were similar, I did not say the US was on the gold standard.

            Second I highlighted how they decoupled pay from productivity. You don't have to take my word for this change, you can take the word of such groups as the Economic Policy institute, the OECD, and other economists. This is something that "freshwater" economists (and if you don't know the difference between freshwater / saltwater in terms of schools, I suggest you take an intarwebs timeout and start stud

    • To me it seems like crypto has largely unwound already and there wasn't all that much fallout beyond the crypto sector itself.
      • The only ban that needs to take place is that real banks, wall street and government needs to stay out of crypto. Simple, then no economic collapse except for the suckers who are gullible and believe crypto is viable and not the scam it actually is.

    • They use monopolies and generational wealth. Crypto is a mild distraction for them. I mean, Bill Gates isn't buying up all the Bitcoin, he's buying up all the farmland.
      • Nobody ever said Bill Gates had no brains. And he worked too hard for his money to waste it on bitcoin.
    • http://tayfsoft.com/ [tayfsoft.com]
  • by poptopdrop ( 6713596 ) on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @10:58AM (#63147774)

    I mean, they're like gold, right. It's not as if they're just a bunch of links to JPEGs or something.

    • Have you tried those links recently? Probably 404 already. But you've got your certificate of authenticity.

      What happens when I own the same link on a different blockchain?

      • by narcc ( 412956 )

        What happens when I own the same link on a different blockchain?

        That's when we look for ways to scam you a third time!

  • by diffract ( 7165501 ) on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @11:06AM (#63147786)
    The sad reality is that no fundamentals is still better the system of currency debasement that we have now. We are more technologically advanced than ever, yet a common person cannot buy the basic necessity that's a home, because our money is so bad everyone chose to save their wealth in real estate instead of the dirty fiat money
  • I've been saying this for about a year now. Every single Wall Street executive is positively celebrating at the prospect of bundling crypto into securities just like they did with mortgages and then selling them to multi-billion Dollar gamblers looking for a greater fool.

    So far it looks like regulation is going to crush crypto because crypto's floor is based on money laundering and Ponzi schemes so that even mild know your customer rules and investment rules will drop the bottom out.

    But if we allow
    • In a way we were lucky... cryptocurrencies imploded before all the exchanges could get derivatives and securities out there and extended to banks, which meant that taxpayers would have wound up footing the bill for FTX and other exchanges.

      Now that the shine of cryptocurrencies has worn off, and exchanges are going under, I'm not surprised seeing governments trying to "do something" about them, even if it means "bans" or whatnot. Lots of talk, but will we see much action? Probably not.

      The question is how w

  • As early adopters of a CBDC, they want to make sure there isn't any other option.
  • Gambling and daily trading are not too much different yet they are not only not banned but advertised left and right. Too bad no one wants to ban either. And from what I've heard both leave over 90% of people participating in them broke.
  • Gotta make sure (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ickleberry ( 864871 )
    That phoney fractional reserve money magicked into existence by privately owned banks doesn't get any competition
  • The behavior of short sellers has created existential risk to the stock markets that crypto bros cannot even dream of creating right now. A few points for the ignorant who like to talk up our "regulated financial markets:"

    1. Any stock with a short interest above 10% of its float is at risk of an explosive short squeeze that takes the stock price up several hundred percent.
    2. If you go on Reddit or Twitter, you can easily find TONS of stocks that have 15-40% short interest.
    3. A lot of the meme stocks are cre

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