Kenneth Rogoff, an economics professor at Harvard University and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, said central banks and governments are “way behind” in regulating cryptocurrencies. He added that authorities throw out the idea of having a central bank digital currency (CBDC) “to divert the conversation.”
Harvard professor talks about cryptocurrency regulation
American economist Kenneth Rogoff discussed cryptocurrency regulation and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in an interview with Bloomberg on Monday. Rogoff is the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He also served as chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2001-2003.
The Harvard professor explained.
I think central banks generally lag far behind governments in regulating cryptocurrencies. They are throwing around the idea of having CBDCs to deflect the conversation.
He expressed his opinion about the US issuing digital dollars.” At this point, if the U.S. is thinking about issuing CBDCs, one has to ask why they would do it. Because a lot of the same things can be accomplished in the current system by tweaking it.”
The economics professor warned that if the Federal Reserve “works too well” and if there is a “retail central bank digital currency,” there will be “massive disintermediation that we are probably not prepared to deal with,” he explained.
Professor Rogoff continued.” I think there are small central banks that want to issue CBDCs hoping to get a piece of business like crypto gets.”
When asked why central banks and governments are slow to regulate cryptocurrencies, Rogoff replied, ” It seems to me that the financial system invented all these clever new financial engineering devices and … I think it feels like the 1990s and early 2000s when they were saying, ‘Catch me if you can’ and ‘Regulate me if you can.'”
and concluded.
I hear the very same thing from young cryptocurrency pioneers and there are many ideas. But they mistakenly believe that they are not regulated.
Rogoff has long been skeptical of Bitcoin. He used to warn that governments and central banks would never allowBTCto go mainstream; BTCwill never go mainstream; in 2018, he said cryptocurrencies will likely be worth more than $100K a decade from then.” A former IMF chief economist opined, “Basically, if you take away the potential for money laundering and tax evasion, its actual use as a means of transaction is very small.
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