RE: Euro 'house of cards' to collapse, warns ECB prophet
A bit of context: AEP is staunchly anti-EU and generally a bit of an alarmist.
That said, I think all fiat currencies are in trouble not just the EUR. In the West, my guess is that the only reason the USD has held up so well (GBP, CAD, CNY (forceably), AUD down, recently back up) is because of the US' headstart in Web commerce. But this needn't be permanent. Resistance is building.
How many non-US startups have jumped on the USD bandwagon, instead of opting for the cleaner solutions of STEEM or BTC? How many have even looked for local payment providers, instead of falling for Paypal?
Ideology aside, it is just a whole lot easier and cheaper to work without the banks and the various financial middlemen wherever possible. Most just aren't providing the level of service people need. In the past, your bank at least treated you like a person.
Mortgages are an obvious scam which are rarely questioned in the media:
An example loan of $800,000 over 20 years at 4.25%* -
*how much above the base rate?!!- equates to interest repayments of over 50% of principal! In a fair market, people wouldn't be forced to put up with this usury, forbidden in Islamic finance for example. Are the Chinese buying up Australian and Canadian real estate really paying these rates?
The traditional payment providers -esp. the US based ones - are nervous. Some will close your account without notice, or demand more and more identification. The terms and conditions are too asymmetric, exploitative.
Plus there are the security issues. On the Dark Net, hacked PP accounts are as ubiquitous as CCs.
Everyone has to get out there are convey the economic argument of doing things differently, starting by getting familiar with the Austrian school.
Users: do you want to get paid for your time and your great content, or do you want to work for free in the hope of cashing out at the Siren Server Casino? Your free choice, but did you know you had a choice?
My new site is going to use satoshi nanopayments to reward contributions (to Math and similar problems). For niche projects like this one, changing the mindset of your audience is what really matters.
Why hasn't cryptocurrency reached critical mass yet? Is part of the reason because the banks/establishment own the press? I am not sure whether AEP knows enough about the alternatives to really comment, or whether he too is enthralled by the system which is all he has ever known.
No freedom without economic freedom.