Donald Trump Blasts Bitcoin, Facebook Libra, Demands They Face Banking Regulations (scmp.com) 229
President Donald Trump on Thursday night warned Facebook over its plan to create digital currency Libra, a move that poses a new obstacle to the company's cryptocurrency ambitions. From a report: "Facebook Libra's 'virtual currency' will have little standing or dependability. If Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they must seek a new Banking Charter and become subject to all Banking Regulations, just like other Banks," Trump said in a series of posts on Twitter. In the tweets, the president also expressed scepticism of digital currencies in general. "I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air," Trump wrote. "Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity." Trump's entrance into the debate over Bitcoin and Libra could mark a significant development for crypto enthusiasts. The White House has largely remained silent on the subject even as federal regulators like the Securities Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and units of the Treasury Department have grappled with how to regulate virtual coins.
So no worry (Score:1)
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While I am loath to defend Donald Trump, the 2 for 1 deal predates him quite a bit, and is about new regulations, not about applying existing regulation to new entities.
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It is unclear how he is going to do anything within this framework.
It's not about making things harder for the banks, but for their competition. That's why you often see large corporations in favor of certain types of onerous legislation. It might put some additional burden on them, but a billion dollar company can bare it and pass it on to the consumers, whereas it almost ensures that new startups cannot get going do the massive amount of resources that need to be invested in dealing with some regulations as opposed to the core business area. This is a favor to the banks.
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
"I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,"
As they say: "It takes one to know one."
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"Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity."
said the man who made money helping the Russian mafia launder money through New York real estate.
"I know this won't end well..." (Score:5, Funny)
Before I became President I dated a lot of Libras. Can't trust any of them."
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The truth, for once (Score:5, Funny)
"I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air,"
A bit like his wealth, then.
As opposed to the US Dollar (Score:1)
which is highly volatile, and based on thin air. It also facilitates unlawful behaviour, such as the drug trade and other illegal activities.
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which is highly volatile
[Citation Required]
For example, please point to the instance where the Dollar-to-Euro exchange rate changed by 1000x within one year.
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Having read them... (Score:5, Interesting)
Having read the actual tweets... Donald Trump did not write them. Donald Trump does not give a rat's ass about Libra. Somebody is handling his Twitter account again. That was the most pro-Establishment set of tweets coming out of that account in months, and that's very much out of line with his public persona. That, and somebody was making an effort to match his bombastic tone but they didn't pull it off.
It's going to be interesting to watch the schizophrenic behavior coming out of the White House on the subject of Libra. I predict wild swings depending on who last talked to Trump.
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This goes back to Ye Olden Times; it's not the *king* who is doing the things that make you mad, it's his wicked advisers. And people never seem to ask why the king keeps those wicked advisers around.
There's nothing schizophrenic about it. Different messages are intended for different audiences.
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This goes back to Ye Olden Times; it's not the *king* who is doing the things that make you mad, it's his wicked advisers.
Oh Trump himself is a dipshit. A sociopathic opportunist with delusions of grandeur. I would claim he suffers from a crippling case of the Dunning-Kruger affect, except to qualify for that he would have to have some actual skill in something.
And people never seem to ask why the king keeps those wicked advisers around.
To be fair, Steve Bannon is no longer allowed in the White House.
There's nothing schizophrenic about it. Different messages are intended for different audiences.
Or... Trump can't keep track of his own lies and just says whatever comes into his head at 5:00 in the morning. Nearly all of which is triggered by what he has seen on TV in the past, oooh, 12 hours. H
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So, which tweets are directly from President DJT then?
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> Donald Trump does not give a rat's ass about Libra
That's a baseless bullshit conspiracy theory
> It's going to be interesting to watch the schizophrenic behavior coming out of the White House on the subject of Libra
The only schizophrenics here are rabid partisan imbeciles like you.
You are ready to sacrifice any common sense for the sake of political attack.
You and 4 dummies that upvoted you.
He's right (Score:2)
"Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity."
Like ransomware. I feel kinda dirty agreeing with Drumpf, but I agree.
I would probably have changed the word 'can' to 'mostly.'
Trump represents old school money launderers (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Trump represents old school money launderers (Score:4, Insightful)
You read that guy's post backwards. Traditional money laundering would go away because bitcoin does money laundering more easily, not because bitcoin would make money laundering impossible.
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Most of the deals are only required to make traditional money laundering work. For (simplified) example, Russians buying condos in Trump buildings, then selling those condos.
With bitcoin, there's no need to turn the currency into a condo and back to currency. Just transfer it.
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With bitcoin, there's no need to turn the currency into a condo and back to currency. Just transfer it.
Exactly. If you're Donald Trump trying to move shitty overpriced condos bitcoin cuts into his action.
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Because cash is traceable if there's sufficient desire to trace it (there's a reason bills have serial numbers). It's also bulky, so any significant amount of cash can be "traced" using the amazingly complex method of "follow the guy who picks up the suitcase".
With bitcoin, you transfer multiple times using exchanges in multiple countries, especially jumping between countries that are not fond of each other (eg. US and Russia). Law enforcement will not be able to get the necessary records to follow the tr
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Law enforcement will not be able to get the necessary records to follow the transactions.
No they will just look at the entirely public block chain.
Bitcoin is still pretty thinly traded. If you are trying to move a few $100K worth it will be very possible to see where it began and where it ended up; even if its parted up sprayed over a largish number of transaction.
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Bitcoin is actually very private now with lightning wallets and onchain wallets like Wasabi and Samourai. The end user can decide for themselves if they want privacy or transparency with Bitcoin.
Look at what an employee of leading coinanalytics company says about coinjoin -
Initially, the difficulty was standard mixers (still are) but now I would say Wassabi is enemy number one. **There is no way to de-anonymize it, and I don't see how the government can legally take Wassabi down, so it will probably persi
He's...not wrong. (Score:2)
Sometimes the stars line up and the wind is blowing the right way, and Trump says something that I don't really disagree with.
scammer blasts scam, how ironic, LOL (Score:2)
A bank with no money! (Score:2)
It seems to me he can speak faster than he can think.
Because Banks aren't money (Score:2)
As always if it walks like a bank and it quacks like a bank it gets regulated like a bank.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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Normally I would say bitcoin is a unsustainable pyramid scheme, but now that Trump is against it I no longer know what to think..
Even a monkey randomly pounding a way at a keyboard will eventually produce a coherent sentence.
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Even a monkey randomly pounding a way at a keyboard will eventually produce a coherent sentence.
Great sentence!
Mine is longer than yours, here, have a banana.
Well, if we're on this path anyway (Score:5, Insightful)
You may as well apply the same labels and regulations to Pay-Pal.
They could use some regulating to be honest since they like to play games with your funds at the drop of a hat :|
They do (Score:2)
Uber can lie about being an employer because the rich and powerful don't give a rats ass about what they do to vulnerable workers. The rich and powerful _do_ care about the banking system though, si
Re: Well, if we're on this path anyway (Score:2)
Paypal is not a bank
same trump that wants to remove regs from banks? (Score:2)
Regulators (Score:2)
We don't trust regulators to do their job. What we need is a system where regulation is built into the system and automated - with no dependency on humans - with no human interference possible. This is what crypto-currencies promise, but whether they will deliver or not is far from certain.
he is not wrong (Score:2)
Money is type of relationship between state and economy
Re:Ha Ha (Score:5, Interesting)
Not sure how much there is to get worked up over.
Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air
Simple fact, though the definition of "money" is squishy enough that you could argue for Bitcoin if you don't think "money" needs to be a stable store of value (an argument I'd agree with).
Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.
Simple fact. In fact, that's always been it's primary appeal - first for drugs, then for capital flight from China.
This is true for the dollar too. (Score:2, Informative)
It is also literally based on nothing. And just as volatile, but artificially kept halfway stable by basically devaluing our income every time the Wall Street gamblers ruined things again.
Even for gold, stability is hardly ever a given.
If you want reliability, then only trade with reliable partners. Who do the same. Which is why local currencies (e.g. town-level) are great in times of global economic turmoil.
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It is also literally based on nothing. And just as volatile, but
This is partly because the dollar is not money, either. Not by the classical definition -- the dollar is not specie such as gold and longer an IOU redeemable for money such as specie or gold, either.
So a sense a dollar is in the same boat as any other fiat... an artificial asset backed by the force or threat of force of a government.
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Money is merely "the most readily exchanged commodity", and need not be backed by anything tangible. E.g., some retirement communities have formal "favor banks", and the points in that system are a currency.
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Any time items of value are exchanged, be it US Dollars, goods, or services, any gained received (creation of wealth) is potentially taxable and the tax liability can only be extinguished with US Dollars. US Dollars are therefore naturally backed by freely occurring economic activity. No other currency has such an advantage.
Trying to figure out if you're serious or making some very wry humor, poking fun at the USD and Democrats. Because basically what you just said is that the USD has an "advantage" because transactions in USD are taxed.
Only a Democrat could fool themselves into thinking taxation is something good... Most other people would see taxation as one of the huge disadvantages of transacting in USD. You get taxed when you earn the USD (income tax), you get taxed when you spend the USD (sales tax), and you even get tax
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Only a Democrat could fool themselves into thinking taxation is something good... Most other people would see taxation as one of the huge disadvantages of transacting in USD.
I always thought that taxation is the price that we have to pay for the privilege of living in a civilized society, rather than the default of living in a tribe of savages.
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tax liability can only be extinguished with US Dollars.
That is not entirely true. Government tax enforcement officials are happy to take any asset of value that they can auction off in order to satisfy your tax debt that includes any interest and penalties, or you can trade a small portion of your wealth created to someone else to get only the amount of US dollars needed to cover tax.
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That is not entirely true. Government tax enforcement officials are happy to take any asset of value that they can auction off in order to satisfy your tax debt that includes any interest and penalties, or you can trade a small portion of your wealth created to someone else to get only the amount of US dollars needed to cover tax.
In each of your examples, taxes are paid with US dollars. You're merely describing ways to obtain US dollars in order to pay your taxes.
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That is not entirely true. Government tax enforcement officials are happy to take any asset of value that they can auction off
Lets break this down. Assets are seized and auctioned off to raise what? DOLLARS to cover the tax liability.
or you can trade a small portion of your wealth created to someone else to get only the amount of US dollars needed to cover tax
Oh so again we are selling something to raise what? DOLLARS to cover what? tax liability.
So yes it IS a true state that tax liability (owed to us entries) must be settled using dollars.
Now lets look at the trade for the needed dollars aspect. Okay yes a micro level that can work. A macro level it makes little or no sense. Lets say whole lot of people and business decided to go bitcoin only. Except a
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It's continued use is due to the convenience of carrying a smaller(and in some cases, not alive) item with perceived (<--Key word there, hope you didn't miss it) value instead of other items with real world uses.
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Re: This is true for the dollar too. (Score:4, Insightful)
Your mistake is thinking the USD had a base when it was on the gold standard. Also, gold has almost no real world uses, and thus barely any inherent value. Much like the dollar, it's valuable by social convention.
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The USD had a gold base because US currency could be brought to a bank and redeemed for gold.
Not since FDR outlawed possession of gold by US Citizens, it couldn't. And long before then it wasn't backed anywhere near 1:1, it just got to the point of absurdity under FDR.
All currencies get watered down over time by thieving governments. Fiat currencies simply make that process open and easy to account for.
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Not really - there was not enough gold to back the dollars. Governments always cheat. And that's sort of irrelevant anyway, as there are more than 10x as many dollars in people's accounts as there is physical currency, so even if the physical currency was backed 1-1 with gold (which hasn't been true for at least a century), so what?
Backing the US dollar with gold or BTC would have almost no effect on modern finance. The Fed would still control the money supply, and we'd still have inflation as it grows.
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The dollar's continued use is a consequence of a deep global debt market for borrowers and lenders. Both sides trust it enough to use it to arbitrage between present and future. There aren't any bitcoin loans, much less a liquid tradable market in such loans.
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Re: This is true for the dollar too. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why think of 1 BTC being with $10000 USD one day, and $13000 USD the next? It's just as valid to think of 1 USD being worth 0.0001 BTC one day, and 000076923 BTC the next. LOOK HOW UNSTABLE THE USD IS!!!
The USD stays relatively stable with all other currencies though and BTC is the one that fluctuates against all of them. The overall purchasing power of the USD stays pretty stable. $5 can be exchanged for approximately the same goods on any given day as it could a month before or after that same day. The same can't be said for BTC.
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You can pay your taxes with anything.
Nonsense.
Don't believe me? Try NOT paying your taxes with USD. They'll come and take whatever they want.
And get penalties and interest, and possibly jail time, for not paying your taxes.
We need to return to a hard standard.
No such thing.
Bitcoin is far more secure and stable and trustworthy than the USD
Utter nonsense.
The fact that Bitcoin's "price" in USD fluctuates so much is a result of speculation and the underlying shittiness of fiat currency.
Not even wrong. There are objective measures of the volatility of a currency. BTC is quite volatile. USD is not.
What about PayPal? (Score:3)
Except Bitcoin is not acting like a bank, it's acting like the mint (printing money). If you want to go after tech companies acting like banks but not following the banking regulations, please start with PayPal.
Re: This is true for the dollar too. (Score:2)
Go kill yourself, you imbecile.
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Once you make the turn from thinking of money as "$VALUE", to it as "$DEBT", you'll start understanding the entire world in a better way.
Every US dollar represents a debt that exceeds that dollar. It's all created in order to keep the status quo. When the big stink happened back in 2008, the bankers didn't ask for the government to produce money, they TOLD them to produce money. The choice was basically:
"Create more money, either borrow it, or create it out of thin air, or the whole monetary system falls
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Banks, private ones, create money when they lend, and the people who get the money deposit into banks. Central bank can encourage or discourage this process.
It's been this way for at least a hundred years specifically and approximately for at least 600.
On the flip side, when loans are written off because of bankruptcy (or fraud), money is destroyed. So, in a major economic panic like 2008 policy action to create money is a good idea to counteract the destruction happening around the finance system.
"A better
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Banks, private ones, create money when they lend
No, they create debt. 'That the borrower agrees that they owe money' is the only 'object' that's created. Imagine this from the perspective of a bank that already owns a house and is providing a loan for it.
it's the bond market, stupids (Score:2)
Yes! Finally the real crux of the matter. Money isn't really useful money until there's a debt & risk market and all the finance that goes with that.
BTC and other cryptos are no such thing. It's primary intrinsic value is enabling illegal activities. Maybe those are sometimes moral (
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Money isn't really useful money until there's a debt & risk market and all the finance that goes with that.
You are correct that Bitcoin is very volatile compared to most, but not all assets, but there are plenty of companies offering BTC loans and bonds like https://blockfi.com/ [blockfi.com] as an example that will even pay you back your BTC in full for interest bearing bonds. Personally, I would never use these services, but they do exist.
It's primary intrinsic value is enabling illegal activities.
Bitcoin is primarily used for speculation and a store of value right now which is why the hodl meme is so popular. Most countries don't consider this illegal.
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Money -- currency -- is what facilitates trade between societies, so you don't need to barter boots for potatoes. But for a currency to work, it's essential that it's stable. If it fluctuates widely it impedes trade as people hesitate to sell. So cryptocurrency is weak as a currency, and it's not a commodity either since it doesn't have intrinsic value.
Bottom line until a cryptocurrency has been stable for a long time, it won't be used as currency outside of niche markets. I personally doubt that time will
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But for a currency to work, it's essential that it's stable.
It only needs to be stable for the time you intend to hang onto it. Bad currencies don't have a value that's stable for long, so people don't like to hold them for long. IMO, that makes BTC a currency, just a bad one.
I get where people are coming from who assert that a currency must be a store of value. But I'd argue that's only a requirement for a good currency, and it does not preclude the existence of bad currencies. (Of course, a currency is also bad if its value is hard to agree on, a frequent prob
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Agree, that's fair to say -- it's not that something is a currency or not, but to what degree it is. Or more precisely roughly how much a currency needs to be stable to see transactions of $1B a year or more and so on.
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No, it needs to be stable over the time that people intend to make loans with it---so they can evaluate the stability of the assets and borrowers and real world business plans instead of the stability of the currency as an added multiplicative noise.
Merely a high *variance* of a currency vs assets makes it unsuitable for finance even without a long-term trend.
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No, it needs to be stable over the time that people intend to make loans with it.
Orthogonal concepts. Both currencies and loans have been around for millennia. There were currencies in places where loans were strictly outlawed, and loan in places that did not have currency.
Merely a high *variance* of a currency vs assets makes it unsuitable for finance even without a long-term trend.
A currency does not need to be "suitable for finance" to be, in fact, a currency. Did you know there were historically "market day currencies" which were just painted rocks? Used to mediate barter, and obviously worthless at the end of the day.
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needs to be a stable store of value (an argument I'd agree with).
I agree that a stable unit of account is one of many useful properties in a currency but this would make certain fiat currencies not considered money because they are more volatile than Bitcoin thus this variable alone is insufficient. A better metric is if people are using something to buy goods and services with, which is common with Bitcoin.
Simple fact. In fact, that's always been it's primary appeal - first for drugs, then for capital flight from China.
Bitcoin is primarily used for speculation and a store of value right now which is why the hodl meme is so popular. Buying drugs online and capital flight are very use
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Not that I disagree with the above, but I do find it humorous that high frequency trading on the stock market shares many of those negative aspects yet is treated by many as valid.
I think it's well understood that stocks are not "money".
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Stock does have value based on the underlying company, though. Often that value is far less than the market value, and sometimes it's a bit more, but there is a "there" there. Bitcoin has no such promise of future earnings.
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Going to be fun to watch the resident Bitcoin haters of Slashdot defending Trump, or totally scorching their own positions.
"I am not a pedophile, nor do I associate with pedophiles. Look at all the problems with Facecoin, not at the problems with me." -- DJ T-Rump
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People have gone far off the deep end when that gets positive moderation.
The freefall of slashdot's value continues.
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Re:Ha Ha (Score:5, Insightful)
Why?
Some of us are capable of nuance. I'm for the most part anti Trump (and anti bitcoin).
This does not mean I have to hate everything he says with a passion.
He has a point in that you should be a bank if you want to do bank business. Also that bitcoin is volatile and based on thin air.
I can agree to that, and still dislike most of what he says.
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I bet it's Jared.
Ha ha? (Score:5, Insightful)
I dislike both Bitcoin and Trump. I defend neither.
Is it reassuring to have such an absurdly simplistic view of the world? "us" vs "them"? "my team" vs "their team"? Most people begin to understand the inherent complexity of life somewhere in their teenage years, in my experience. That's when most people that I know threw away the Ayn Rand because it's so reductionist as to be ridiculous.
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How the hell are they tying Epstein to Trump? Epstein and Clinton were BFFs, and Clinton enjoyed MANY trips on his planes full of underage sex slaves to his sex dungeon island.
Trump and Epstein were both in the billionaire's club, and when Trump learned of the shit Epstein was involved with he stayed miles away from him.
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>"I dislike both Bitcoin and Trump. I defend neither."
It is also possible to dislike Trump but like his *policies*... something that seems to zoom over the heads of lots of people nowadays. I know I would rather have a politician I don't like who has policies I like more than a politician I do like who has policies I dislike. It seems like having both is too much to ask, nowadays...
policies (Score:2)
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>"Trump has policies? Seriously?"
Sure. It is the things he does, not says. The bills he signs or vetos, the actions he takes, the appointments he makes, etc.
>"It seems that he makes decisions based on what he's seen on TV in the thirty minutes before he issues a proclamation."
Perhaps to you it seems that way. But he is actually pretty consistent and deliberate in his actions. Now, what he says... that is sometimes a bit confusing.
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Once again Trump is correct on this one too. If crypto currency are to gain any kind of legitimacy, outside criminal enterprises, they will need to be regulated. Until that happens then they will be useless as a currency because of how volatile they are.
Once they become regulated, I'm not sure what the point will be.
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I think he's more interested in making sure Facebook doesn't wade into his swamp by becoming a bankster.
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I'm not that bad. I just have a habit of telling the truth as I see it unencumbered by rose colored glasses or judgement clouded by Trump Derangement Syndrome. Unfortunately, for many on the left, and some on the right, my version of the truth is closer to The Truth than they want to hear.
But the key difference in myself is I am willing to listen to the other side and admit when I'm wrong. This is something the left and Trump haters can't do. Instead of listening and trying to make the world a better
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Please point to one occasion when you've said something even slightly critical of Trump.
https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]
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He is clearly delusional about his fan base. He actually thinks more people voted for him than Hillary because they liked him. Not really, true. More people voted against Hillary than voted for him.
I don't need to use sock puppets. I naturally post at +3. Don't asked me why, it's been happening for almost 2 years.
Why not both? (Score:2, Troll)
Trump is just going after Facebook because it fits his narrative that tech companies are bad and in league with his opponents (the Liberals). This is part of a broader "Us vs Them" narrative that he depends on to avoid addressing real issues like the fact that his DOJ is about to kill pre-existing condi [vox.com]
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>"Trump is just going after Facebook because it fits his narrative that tech companies are bad"
No, he is going after them because they are wielding too much power and controlling the media and its narrative. Something that should concern everyone. We might not all agree on what to DO about it, but I think most people ARE concerned, regardless of party.
>"or that his deregulation has let banks go back to risky 2008-style loans that'll crash the economy"
Regulation and government interference is what CA
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>"We repealed those regulations and a decade or so later had massive crashes. This is not up for debate"
Lots of info out there. My premise has been and remains that government action and involvement is a major cause of the crash. This is just stuff from plain 'ol Wikipedia....
Government setting the stage:
"The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA),[19] a 1977 US federal law designed to help low- and moderate-income Americans get mortgage loans encouraged banks to grant mortgages to higher risk families." ht [wikipedia.org]
You're premise is just wrong (Score:2)
One last thing, the majority of loans defaulted on in 2008 were NOT on people's primary residences. They were rental properties and houses meant for flipping. You won't read th
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I expect something along the lines of "ALL THOSE FACECOINS HAVE TO BE REGULATED BY BANKS, NOT JEFF BEZOS AND THAT ORANGE-HAIRED GIRL RUNNING BITCOIN!" followed by a lot of people asking what in the fuck Trump is talking about and trying to figure out if his tweet was anti-LGBQT or just stupid.
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Can I hate Trump and Bitcoin? Because I do.
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Going to be fun to watch the resident Bitcoin haters of Slashdot defending Trump, or totally scorching their own positions.
Myself I simply disagree with Trump on this one, although he's probably right to be wary of Facecoin.
I don't hate or love Bitcoin, and I don't like Trump, but I think Trump is at least partially right on this. Bitcoin should be partially regulated. If you make gains in bitcoin it should be treated as capital gains. I don't think the US government has any say, can have any say, or should have any say over how bitcoin is run overseas, but the US government should be able to regulate transactions that occur on US soil or with US citizens. Transactions using bitcoin should be treated the same as any other
It's easy. (Score:2)
He's right. It's not like complete morons who should have the positions they have are incapable of being right. Stopped clocks and all that.
Re: Ha Ha (Score:1)
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That's partially true, money isn't based on any one commodity's existence in a vault. But the dollar's perceived value does track fairly well with the country's economic output, and thus is much more stable than bitcoin. So the dollar isn't quite like the bitcoin. Both are made-up inventions, but one is at least tied partially to actual wealth production. Of course the big problem with the dollar now is that our economy is entirely based now on debt, which is something Trump has had lots of in his life (a
Falsehoods and blind luck (Score:3)
Going to be fun to watch the resident Bitcoin haters of Slashdot defending Trump, or totally scorching their own positions.
While I am about as opposed to Donald Trump and everything he represents as one can get, not everything that comes out of his pie hole is wrong just because he said it. He says a lot of stupid and hateful and false things and I'm not really sure he understands the issues involved here but as the saying goes, even a blind squirrel sometimes can find an acorn. Some of what he is blathering about here is actually correct. Some of course (as usual) is dead wrong too but it isn't wrong just because he said it
if Trump stumbles into the right position (Score:2)
for the wrong reasons, no pragmatic crypto skeptic will care
also, Trump will probably flip flop on this once someone close to the admin figures out how to sell him on the upside.
I can totally see Trump and Pump a 2020 possibility in this climate of normalized grift
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Going to be fun to watch the resident Bitcoin haters of Slashdot defending Trump, or totally scorching their own positions.
Much groupthink. Such conundrum. So... what!
Trump may be lousy at behaving in a presidential manner, and as near as I can tell, he has no empathy whatsoever - but none of that precludes him from having an understanding of investments and financing. Considering real estate investments are how he acquired the bulk of his wealth (and also using the court system as a after-the-fact negotiating tool to avoid paying full price to his contractors), I'd venture he knows quite a bit about investments and scams.
Th