This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, April 21st,

2023. I'm Caleb Brown.

Joe Biden's Council of Economic Advisors

has begun officially discussing digital assets.

That's crypto.

Cato's Jack Solowie says it's worth taking note of what they say about

crypto for both the paternalism inherent in what they've said and the fact that these

particular group of economists are directly advising the president of the United

States. The Council of Economic Advisors has produced a sort of document detailing the state of the

economy.

Who's the intended audience for that?

So by law, the White House Council of Economic Advisors produces an annual report.

The report goes to the President, the President also communicates to Congress, and on March 21st, the C.E.A. did produce this report.

And what's interesting is that this year, it contained a complete chapter on digital assets.

Talking about crypto as well as a central bank digital currency and where

crypto is concerned I would say in my read the chapter on digital assets was

by turns dismissive of the potential of the technology and also

tepid about the possibility that maybe someday there could be utility to it.

Why include that chapter?

Obviously they do that because they believe that crypto has some sort of importance

either now or in the future. Why write that if this

class of assets is not great in their opinion? It's a good question and it sort of speaks to kind of the interesting nature of the

...