4 ms·
> "Let’s focus on the two huge misconceptions — one practical, one philosophical — that underlie both goldbugism and bitbugism. The practical misconception here
by bitcartel 13y ago
> "Let’s focus on the two huge misconceptions — one practical, one philosophical — that underlie both goldbugism and bitbugism. The practical misconception here — and it’s a big one — is the notion that we live in an era of wildly irresponsible money printing, with runaway inflation just around the corner. It’s true that the Federal Reserve and other central banks have greatly expanded their balance sheets — but they’ve done that explicitly as a temporary measure in response to economic crisis."
If Krugman can't even get the basics of Bitcoin right, I'm certainly not going to buy into his view that the ongoing printing/digitising of funny money - $85 billion/month (US) and $76 billion/month (Japan) - is nothing to worry about. When trillions of dollars have effectively appeared out of thin air, the question needs to be addressed, is this responsible monetary policy or is this Mugabenomics?!
- venomsnake 13y agoIf a neurosurgeon can't get hip replacement surgery right I would definitely not let him operate on my brain. Krugman specialty is macro and liquidity traps. Bitcoins are way out of his comfort zone.
- beagle3 13y agoHe's not fairing so good in macro either in this piece, as https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5549839 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5549839 points out. (And if you read e.g. denninger's criticism of his columns, you'd see that this column is not a fluke: He often cherry picks evidence that fits his narrative, and ignores evidence and common sense when it doesn't)
- bitcartel 13y agoIf Bitcoin is outside of his comfort zone then he should do some research first! Seriously, how long would it have taken him to read up on Bitcoin and learn about the publicly distributed transaction ledger? > "Unlike credit card transactions, which leave a digital trail, bitcoin transactions are designed to be anonymous and untraceable. When you transfer bitcoins to someone else, it’s as if you handed over a paper bag filled with $100 bills in a dark alley."
- vinhboy 13y agoI am a developer and I spent a lot of time this week reading about bitcoin and I still don't understand it that well.. I don't think it's too far fetch to imagine that non-techy people would have a hard time grasping the concept.
- venomsnake 13y agoHow hard it is to prove beyond reasonable doubt that a person is the owner of the wallet if you don't have confession and stupid errors like having your harddrives without full disk encryption?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]