It’s understandable: bitcoin could very well be competition to Visa, PayPal and traditional fiat currency. That’s why those on Wall Street and central banking officials have been on the defensive in the past few months when it comes to cryptocurrencies. From Jamie Dimon to Alan Greenspan, from Thailand to Russia, bitcoin is viewed as a serious threat.
John Normand, managing director and head of global FX strategy at JPMorgan, authored a new report titled “The Audacity of Bitcoin” in which he argues that the digital currency is “vastly inferior” to fiat currency. Normand reiterates the same points that many bitcoin’s (BTC) critics have been making over the past several months.
Normand attempts to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the virtual currency that offers supposed several benefits, including a store of value, a unit of account and a medium of exchange. This is done, says Normand, “without the alleged recklessness, capriciousness, siphoning and snooping inherent in traditional systems.”
“Even leaving aside this caricature of bitcoin’s underlying philosophy, there is something compelling about the idea,” the report stated. Normand added that bitcoin is only preferred by anarchists, criminals and libertarians.
He also cited the immense volatility that bitcoin has experienced in the past year.
Let’s take a look at his arguments in a nutshell:
- Fiat money is superior to all other alternatives
- Bitcoin should be avoided because of volatility
- Digital money is supported by the anti-establishment crowd
- Any other option besides the dollar is inferior to fiat money
Perhaps there is a legitimate case over bitcoin’s volatility and libertarian support, but the historic facts and economic data to say that fiat currency is vastly superior can certainly come into question and be described as ostentatious. Remember, the concept of fiat money in the United States was only instituted in 1971 when President Richard Nixon took the country off of gold and declared everyone as Keynesians.
Since the Federal Reserve was established a century ago, the U.S. dollar has lost more than 90 percent of its value. With the Fed now purchasing $65 billion per month in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, this expands the monetary base exponentially, which is the very definition of inflation. It can’t be forgotten about the Fed sending money to foreign central banks and financial institutions at the height of the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009.
Of course, that’s only the beginning when it comes to the long tale of the greenback.
For John Normand to say that fiat money is superior could be considered quite misleading because of everything that has transpired. Sure, the great fiat currency experiment is more than four decades old in the U.S. and the cryptocurrency market is only four years old, but can any kind of official definitively say any alternative to the fiat system is “inferior”?
Proponents of bitcoin might be the first to say that it has its own faults, but it is still an experiment that could very well be on the verge of a technological revolution.
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