BREAKDOWN: CBDCs Aren't About Money, They're About Power
CoinDesk Podcast Network
CoinDesk
4.8 • 689 Ratings
🗓️ 9 May 2021
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A China-focused discussion on this week’s “Long Reads Sunday.”
This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io, NEAR.org and Genesis Trading.
On this week’s “Long Reads Sunday,” NLW reads Sune Sorenson’s “China Is Opting Out of US-Run Financial System.” He also discusses recent pieces by Niall Ferguson and The Economist that point to a growing conversation about CBDCs that is fundamentally about power and the global system.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. |
| 0:09.1 | It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big-picture power shifts remaking our world. |
| 0:14.8 | The breakdown is sponsored by nexus.io, neer.org, and genesis trading, and produced and distributed by CoinDess. |
| 0:22.6 | What's going on, guys? It is Sunday, May 9th, and that means it's time for Long Reads Sunday. |
| 0:29.6 | First up, however, a big happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there, especially Jesse, the mom to our two little blighters. |
| 0:39.3 | We literally would not make it through without you. But let's now talk about CBDCs. The central thesis of this episode is that |
| 0:47.7 | CBDCs aren't about money. They're about power. That thesis will be obvious to many of you, |
| 0:53.8 | certainly those who have listened to me |
| 0:55.1 | discuss why China is so keen to get a CBDC and why the U.S. is comparatively slow moving. |
| 1:01.4 | Today's LRS selection puts China's motivation clearly. It's by Soon Sorensen and it's called |
| 1:06.7 | China is opting out of the U.S.-run financial system. So let's read it and then we'll talk a little bit more about power. China is opting out of the U.S.-run financial system. So let's read it and then we'll talk a little bit |
| 1:11.7 | more about power. China is opting out of the U.S. run financial system. If the U.S. government |
| 1:18.0 | doesn't lead financial innovation, China will leapfrog it and control the world's emerging |
| 1:22.6 | monetary infrastructure. An ancient Chinese proverb states that the man who moves a mountain |
| 1:27.2 | begins by carrying |
| 1:28.1 | away small stones. China has perfected that like no other nation and has been working to |
| 1:33.0 | create the infrastructure to leapfrog to global reserve currency status by innovating building |
| 1:38.1 | and controlling the plumbing of a competing global financial system. Digital currencies are a |
| 1:43.2 | key part of this great game. The U.S., with |
| 1:46.3 | Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler and the lead, has taken notice and is |
| 1:50.7 | finally beginning to stir. Gensler once told NPR, quote, markets work best when there's a cop on the |
| 1:55.7 | beat. His observation speaks to the competition among international central banks, but it's the People's Bank of |
... |
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