Loading ...https://wallstreetonparade.com/2023/02/charlie-mungers-oped-in-the-wsj-is-spot-on-about-banning-crypto-but-calling-it-gambling-fails-to-capture-its-dangers/
Munger is correct and so is this article. I do have one bone to pick with the Marten’s (and Jesse who often features their work on his blog post) While WSOP does great investigative journalism in the area of finance and politics, their bias towards Democrats is annoying to say the least. I give them credit for going after anyone who is corrupt, they like Jesse, always call out Republican and Conservative big money corruption like the Koch brothers and numerous others. They are a bit hypocritical and biased because they never label the big Democratic and liberal or progressive corruption in the same manner. Yes, they will call out a specific corrupt Democrat, but never paint them with the same broadbrush that they do with Republicans and Conservatives every chance they get. I have been reading them for years and their bias is just as obvious as with the mainstream media. Again, great investigative work in their chosen area of financial journalism but they would increase their credibility immensely if they would stop being so one sided about politics.
Disagree ! Munger is an old fart with zero understanding of the crypto space…Like me
But he is even an older fart
Banning ANYTHING Financial that is so entrenched in peoples portfolios and psyches is Pure Communism
Crypto is another form of exchange and if there is a large group of individuals who want to use it who is this old shit to tell them they can’t
Crypto is and always will be a form of Money NOT controlled by Big Gov. That’s why it was created. Banning Crypto is the same agenda as banning cash !
I doubt he wrote it himself …As always someone has an agenda
Crypto is a fraud and not money. Only gold and silver are money everything else is debt. All the exchanges and NFT’s etc are fraud. There is no there, there. If you want to take the position that people should be free to throw their money away on anything they want to, I agree in theory. However, since we don’t have totally free markets in investments or anything else, then if you have regulations and rules such as the SEC and laws to prevent fraud then crypto should be banned. I agree Munger is an old fart and wrong about a lot of things. This isn’t one of them. The messenger may be flawed but the message isn’t.
Who are WE to tell people what money is and isn’t …The US Dollar is MORE a Fraud than Crypto…There is definitely NO “There” there
At one point in some cultures..Rocks were money …and it worked…If people agree to a medium of exchange who is this Munger from Dunger to tell them NO it isn’t
Bitcoin was created for the same reason gold and silver FUTURES were created to distract people from possessing real money, gold and silver. Like I said above,in theory if people want to throw away their money fine, but when governments create frauds to cover up for their financial shenanigans, that isn’t.
Sorry to dusagree Chartmaster, but money is whatever people believe it is and Bitcoins following is so large that ill conceived statements from Munger is not going to change that. Indeed I expect Bitcoin to grow in popularity and acceptance over time.
Let me tell you a story to prove my point. In Ethiopia they used salt blocks as money and medium of exchange. They were called Amoli. Dirty salt bricks wrapped in fibres about the size of remote controller. Europeans arrived and laughed. They said, that’s not money! They used gold and silver coinage at the time. But it was indeed money because that was the medium of exchange the majority of people accepted and it remained in use for hundreds of years. The blocks were still being traded in rural Ethiopia as late as the 1950’s!
So you are wrong dear friend.
Nice story but it doesn’t make me wrong. People can and have used lots of things “as money”, that doesn’t make it money and it certainly doesn’t change the fact that crypto is a fraud just like Comex futures used to suppress the price of real money(gold&silver)with paper contracts are also a fraud. People are free to use any commodity as money, Munger’s point that I agree with, is crypto is a fraud and the gov’t shouldn’t stand by and allow it the same way they knew and stood by while Madoff got away with his fraud.
The US Dollar is a Fraud too…what should the CFTC and other BIG GOV entities do about it ?
I agree with farmer…a medium of exchange is whatever people agree it is !
You are correct, the US dollar is and has been a fraud since we went off the gold standard. What the government should do is what it says in the Constitution. It should return to gold being money and if you are going to have paper currency it has to be both backed and convertible into actual gold.(gold certificates redeemable in gold) No more FED and worthless paper Federal Reserve Notes.
Chartmaster, you wrote “people can and have used lots of things as money, but that doesn’t make it money”.
Did you want a second chance to make your case because that line is defeating your absurd insistance that crypto is not money. Of course it is money. Just look at the definition of money and you may reconsider your statements.
There are 7 properties of money. Bitcoin as one example meets all the criteria. A currency must be fungible, durable, divisible, portable, acceptable, uniform and limited in supply to be called money. Durable means it can be used repeatedly. Fungible means that any one unit can be swapped for any other unit with no loss to either party. Acceptable means anyone can use it. Now please tell me again, going by the widely accepted definition of money, that Bitcoin does not meet the requirements.
Or maybe just read the words of Milton Friedman who defines money as follows:
“Money is a commodity accepted by general consent as a medium of economic exchange. It is the medium in which prices and values are expressed; as currency, it circulates anonymously from person to person and country to country, thus facilitating trade, and it is the principal measure of wealth”.
My last point is with the way you assert yourself. You may want to take care to know who your audience is before writing comments that are so easily challenged and discarded.
You should try and keep your comments to the argument at hand and stop showing how smug and stupid you are. You chose all the definitions that describe traits of money and conveniently left out the most important quality that makes money, money, A STORE OF VALUE.So far Bitcoin may be a great speculation if you bought it ten years ago but it is NOT a store of value.To repeat since you can’t seem to follow what I said previously, just because people have used all kinds of things as money in the past doesn’t make it money. Tulip bulbs weren’t money, they were a great speculation until they weren’t and that will be the same thing with Bitcoin. I said only gold and silver are money nothing else. Everything else is debt. Not my definition, fact. That is why it is in the US Constitution.
And you had no answer to my point about the 7 traits of money.
Gold and silver meanwhile are speculative commodities. Just as Bitcoin is a speculative commodity. Its very curious you deny it acts as a store of wealth though. Does it not have a dollar figure associated with it? I mean a dollar figure that is not a zero?
You seem to be bothered about crypto because its value rises and falls dramatically. It is volatile in other words. And yet you appear totally unaware that gold was trading for as little as 200 dollars not so long ago. I bought down at those prices actually. So my advice to you is that you look at a 100 year chart of inflation adjusted gold before you write one more foolish word.
It has been extremely volatile.
https://www.macrotrends.net/1333/historical-gold-prices-100-year-chart
As an aside Chartmaster, your “facts” are not really facts at all. They are assumptions and personal opinions. Money my dear friend is anything that two people agree upon. We can make chickens or eggs money if we choose. Or we can use seashells, salt blocks, feathers, beads, rifles or stamps as the case may be. Every single one of those items functioned as money at one time. Please read some history. You are lecturing to the wrong person.
Excellent Debate Guys.
One of you convinced me
🙂
You continue to repeat the same fallacies and don’t address the facts. Bitcoin, tulip bulbs or anything else that fluctuates up and down by such large percentages in very short time intervals are NOT a store of value. You keep saying my facts. Facts are facts they are not mine, yours or anyone elses. Fact, Gold is money. Fact people have and will continue to USE all kinds of objects as money for transactions, that doesn’t make them money just SUBSTITUTES for money. We can continue to go back and forth but to do so is a waste of time. Everyone, including you is entitled to your opinion and I am not trying to change your opinion and just because you keep repeating it isn’t going to change your opinion into fact. So I am done with this thread. Time to move on to a new topic. Bitcoin isn’t now, never was and never will be money.People may continue to use it in whatever form they like, for transactions, speculations etc. It doesn’t make it money just as toothpicks used in a poker game or cigarettes used to barter may have been used as money for transactions but neither of them were or ever will be money. Have a good day.