Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari talked about cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, at a Town Hall event in Kashkari, Montana, on Tuesday. He took office as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in January 2016.
The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Neel Kashkari, said on Tuesday that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are “like a giant garbage dumpster.”
He would rather his one-year-old daughter have a low yielding Treasury bond than a bitcoin, emphasizing that all that’s emerging from the crypto world “is burning garbage.”
Bitcoin and Crypto ‘a Giant Garbage Dumpster’
Washington Companies CEO Larry Simkins moderated the QA session at the event. He asked Kashkari: “Your daughter is a year old and if I want to buy her a gift, would you prefer I give her a low yielding Treasury bond or a bitcoin?” The Minneapolis Federal Reserve president laughed and then replied, “Between those two, I think low yield treasury bond.”
Kashkari elaborated:
The bitcoin and cryptocurrency, it’s basically, it’s like a giant garbage dumpster. The reason that the dollar has value is because the U.S. government has a legal monopoly on producing the dollar.
He continued: “If you go in your basement and start photocopying your dollar bills, the Secret Service will come and knock on your door and arrest you. Only the U.S. government has the authority to produce dollars, scarcity is in part what makes them valuable.”
Thousands of Garbage Coins
Kashkari further said: “Well, the virtual currency, cryptocurrency world, there are thousands of these garbage coins out there, thousands of them literally, people have been fleeced for tens of billions of dollars, and finally, the SEC is getting involved in cracking down on this, but people are just getting fleeced by nonsense.”
“So I can create Neelcoin, you can create Larrycoin”, he told Simkins. “I can create something that looks just like bitcoin … it’s just a giant garbage dumpster at this point”, the Minneapolis Federal Reserve president opined, concluding:
Maybe five years from now, or 10 years from now, or 20 years from now, something useful will emerge from this but so far all that’s emerging is burning garbage.
“So no, don’t give my daughter bitcoin”, Kashkari reiterated to Simkins.
The statements by the Minneapolis Federal Reserve president echo President Donald Trump’s view on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Trump tweeted in July: “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.” He emphasized that the dollar is the only real currency in the U.S.
