Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s right-hand man and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, has called on the US government to ban cryptocurrencies as China has done.” Cryptocurrency is not a currency, a commodity, or a security. Instead, it is a gambling contract with an almost 100% edge for the house,” he stressed.
Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger wants to ban cryptocurrencies
Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger urged the U.S. government to ban crypto in an opinion piece titled “Why America Should Ban Crypto,” published Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal. A Berkshire executive wrote:
Cryptocurrency is not a currency, a commodity, or a security. Instead, it is a gambling contract with a nearly 100% edge for the house, entered into in a country where gambling contracts are traditionally regulated only by lenient states.
“Clearly the United States should now enact new federal legislation to prevent this from happening,” Munger stressed.
The Berkshire vice chairman mentioned two precedents that hint at how to effectively ban cryptocurrencies: one was China’s crypto ban, which the Chinese government “wisely concluded that they [cryptocurrencies] would cause more harm than good.”
The second was that, beginning in the 1700s, England faced a severe recession after a speculative trading scheme failed. In response, the country banned new public trading of common stock for 100 years, Munger explained. In his view, “During this period, Britain was a strong leader in the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, and also made by far the greatest contribution to the progress of civilization, including the creation of a promising small country, the United States.
and Munger concluded.
What should the U.S. do once the cryptocurrency ban is implemented? Well, another course of action might make sense. Thanks to the brilliant example of the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership’s lack of common sense.
A Berkshire executive has long been skeptical of Bitcoin and crypto, calling BTC a “rat race” and likening crypto trading to “an anthill,” calling BTC a “rat poison” and comparing crypto trading to “trading in shit.”
He praised China for banning cryptocurrencies in 2021, saying he wished crypto had never been invented. He also called bitcoin “disgusting and against the interests of civilization.”
Last February, he similarly said the government should ban Bitcoin and called crypto a “venereal disease. “In July, he advised everyone to avoid crypto like “an open sewer full of malicious creatures.”
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