Bernanke: “Eventually Governments Will Take Any Action They Need to Prevent Bitcoin”
Former Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Ben Bernanke’s recent comments about bitcoin and its network add to his growing list of hardening stances toward the world’s most popular cryptocurrency. No stranger to bitcoin, Mr. Bernanke has made several statements, at least one official, since its inception.
Ben Bernanke Makes Headline Ripples
Toronto, Canada is host to an invitation-only, exclusive event. Swell, a three day conference sponsored by Ripple, a real-time gross settlement program and favorite among mainstream banks, ends October 18.
Billed as bringing “together leaders in banking and blockchain who are committed to changing the way the world moves money today,” its opening keynote address was given Monday by Ben Bernanke, former Fed chair.
During a discussion with Ripple Board of Director Gene Sperling, himself a former administration advisor to Presidents Clinton and Obama, as well as during Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign, Mr. Bernanke praised Ripple.
“The Fed, the Bank of England, and Japan,” Mr. Bernanke is quoted by Fortune‘s Jeff John Roberts, “are very supportive of [Ripple and similar] technologies because they’ll improve payment systems.”
Bitcoin, however, “hasn’t shown itself to be a real transactional currency,” he said, adding how it is a “mostly speculative venture.”
Speaking from the complimentary event in Old Toronto’s Distillery District at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, the now Brookings Distinguished Fellow in Residence blogger continued his Swell remarks, “Bitcoin is an attempt to replace fiat currency and evade regulation and government intervention. I don’t think that’s going to be a success.”
“He also dismissed the idea, espoused by some die-hard bitcoin advocates, that the digital currency could be a rival to traditional government-controlled money,” Mr. Roberts noted.
“Eventually governments will take any action they need to prevent [that],” Fortune reported Mr. Bernanke as predicting.
Track Record: Acknowledgement, Concern, Prognostication
His statements mark a decidedly more ominous tone since his earliest published official comments on bitcoin, dating back to a Senate hearing on virtual currencies.
In that 2013 letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), he then-described bitcoin as perhaps holding “long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure and more efficient payment system.”
He was then also far away from Monday’s policing suggestion of bitcoin, arguing the Federal Reserve does not “necessarily have authority to directly supervise or regulate these innovations or the entities that provide them to the market,” he informed DHS.
A mere two years later, he again referred to the cryptocurrency as “useful” in an interview, but immediately shifted to concern as “the real serious problem that it has is [its] anonymity, which is a feature, and is also a bug, in that it has become in some cases a vehicle for illicit transactions, drug selling or terrorist financing or whatever.”
some comments
Bernanke is also the one that after stating that U.S. debt would never be monetized within a year began quantitative easing which was printing 60 billion/wk monetizing the debt and facilitating the huge raise in debt under Obama. He is also the one that forced the "too big to fail" bank bailout on banks - including several that didn't need nor want it, but he forced all to be included so as not to point out specific bad players. He was terrible FED chairman and I would take just about anything he says with a grain of salt
Bankers no like currency they can't manipulate...bankers use governments as proxy to enforce will... governments incompetent...too slow...keep the faith brothers and sisters... subscribe to and empower decentralized control
Go ahead. Every step to ban Bitcoin stands testament to why it is needed. People will flock to Bitcoin with each new regulation and restriction. China thought it could kill the market with its recent moves. Less than a month later we have record highs and increasing demand. Japan and the pacific rim are jumping on board. Their head start into Crypto will make any attempts at control by the fed look regressive and weak.
Many NY Bankers are actually left wing liberals. Even our Secretary of Treasury - a Goldman Sachs executive who also was a major hollywood producer on some o fthe biggest grossing films, Mnunchin is a liberal democrat. You have no idea what you are talking about with those labels and leaping to lots of incorrect assumptions. Way to fall into the progressive indoctrination trap, though, and castigate conservatives.
Many of the big bankers are actually liberals because they love the big government control and regulatory environment that prevents competition rather than the conservatives who believe in individual liberty and free market capitalism. But please. Keep spreading their ideological lies.
Why no upvotes? This post seems to be important and should be of interest to the crypto-steemians here.
I upvoted anyway.
thanks @joe.nobel for support, I consider votes as a one of many messures of article quality, trying to improve it and bring something interesting, important and catchy
Because this post has been plagerized. Not @palog's original content. Cheetah catches you once to many times and it draws attention. @palog will be flagged if he continues to copy-paste other's content. This is NOT the Steemit way my friend.