Central Bank Digital Currencies Are a Bad Idea
This entire article is a conflation of two orthogonal arguments:<p>1. Austrian economics is right, Keynsian is wrong.<p>2. Central banks are introducing ledger based currencies to increase surveillance of consumers, using the strawman argument about China.<p>On 1), the pandemic has shown that government spending works to keep an economy from failing. The old inflation argument has been proven completely false. If anything, what has been proven is that a greater distribution of wealth is needed as Amazon and online wholesale and retail take over.<p>The boom in online sales is a superprofit, driven by a windfall that government public health measures closed other sales channels. Those profits should be subject to a windfall tax to reduce that concentration.<p>On 2) Central Banks are looking at ledger based currency as a way to allow more distribution channels beyond the existing retail banking network. It allows greater freedom for financial offerings by removing a layer of distribution.<p>In a way, ledger based currencies are the &quot;Amazon&quot; of money distribution by central banks. It allows them to push money out when needed to multiple outlets, while still maintaining regulatory control.<p>If anything, it&#x27;s a &quot;free but regulated market&quot; at work.