Comment by kjksf
7 months ago
I would expect a Nobel prize winner, MIT and Princeton professor and New York Times contributor to be able to construct proper arguments not emotional outbursts:
> Republicans say that they’re worried about invasion of privacy, that a CBDC would open the door to widespread government surveillance. But remember, these are the people who have handed over personal Medicaid data to ICE to facilitate arrests and abductions
Instead of providing an argument for why CBDC is not invading privacy and enables government surveillance he goes for ad-hominem of "they're bad and don't care about what they say they care about".
I don't need Republicans to care about privacy. CBDC would be a privacy and surveillance nightmare and if Republicans ban it, it's a good thing regardless of their motivations or thoughts.
Imagine a giant bank, potentially mandatory for citizens, run by government.
Today if government wants to look at your bank account and transactions they have to convince the judge to sign a warrant.
With CBDC they'll just have this information, they'll control your ability to send money which is essential to modern living.
We'll inevitably be one supermajority away from your ability to use money will vanish because you say something government doesn't like or call a politician fat.
This is not future dystopia, this is today dystopia.
In Canada during Covid protest the government gave itself emergency powers and shut down bank accounts of protesters.
In Brazil the new government just made it criminal to do and share interviews with previous president.
In Germany they're prosecuting someone for calling politician fat.
Governments will abuse any power they get so it's best to give them as little power as possible.
Politicians love it because they love every tool of control.
I don't know why Krugman loves it but you should be against it.
Sending money is not a problem and it doesn't need government to provide a "solution".
> a Nobel prize winner
Mandatory comment pointing out the "Nobel" in Economics is not a real Nobel Prize. It was made up by the central banking cartel to reward economists who say the things they like. From MMT to ideology stuff.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Econom...
> established in 1968 by Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden's central bank)
> Some critics argue that the prestige of the Prize in Economic Sciences derives in part from its association with the Nobel Prizes, an association that has often been a source of controversy. Among them is the Swedish human rights lawyer Peter Nobel, a great-grandnephew of Alfred Nobel.
Every government should have a tool to check if a transaction is illegal or not. In normal countries this should be done via a judge order if there are serious suspicions. This is how governments suppose to work. And there are checks and balances against power abuse, which were invented centuries ago. If a government doesn't work like that - then this is a problem of this specific government, not the laws. "All governments are bad" is a stupid idea, intentionally put onto the masses by the current US ruling party and their enablers (Musk), who are trying to seize all the power for themselves.
I think we should be equally afraid of government and banks. That's why allowing both would be better for everyone.
> I would expect a Nobel prize winner, MIT and Princeton professor and New York Times contributor to be able to construct proper arguments not emotional outbursts:
¿Porque no los dos? This is is popular culture newsletter, not a peer reviewed journal. He can write articles that are more or less wonkish, geared more or less to academics or the general public, as he feels.
> In Canada during Covid protest the government gave itself emergency powers and shut down bank accounts of protesters.
They did not shut down bank accounts of protestors but of occupiers. Occupiers that did not disperse when ordered and were deemed a threat to public order. An inquiry mandated by the legislation found the events met the threshold for invocation:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Order_Emergency_Commiss...