What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future - Why Facebook Can’t Just Create a Currency
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 24 July 2019
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode Aaron Mak looks into Facebook’s plan to create a global cryptocurrency called Libra. For an expert opinion, he turns to Chris Brummer, a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center and the host of the podcast Fintech Beat. Brummer testified before the U.S. House of Representatives last week to explain why Facebook is jumping the gun with its proposal.
After the interview, Shannon Palus joins the show for this week’s edition of Don’t Close My Tabs.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to If Then, the show about how technology is changing our lives and our future. I'm Aaron Mack. |
| 0:12.0 | Hey, everyone, welcome to If Then. We're coming to you from Slate and Future Tense, a partnership between Slate, Arizona State University, and New America. We are recording this on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 23rd. |
| 0:23.8 | On today's show, we'll talk about Facebook's plans to create a cryptocurrency called Libra. The company says the goal is to make banking easier for underserved communities around the world, but lawmakers and experts have their doubts. |
| 0:35.3 | One of those experts is Chris Brummer, a professor at Georgetown University |
| 0:38.7 | Law Center, and the host of the podcast Fintech Beat. I'll talk to him about his concerns. |
| 0:44.2 | After the interview, my colleague Shannon Paulus will join me for Don't Close My Tabs, |
| 0:48.4 | where we'll talk about the best things we saw on the web this week. That's all coming up on if-then. |
| 0:54.6 | Last week, there were two congressional hearings about Facebook's plans to create a global |
| 0:58.1 | cryptocurrency called Libra. The company says that this will help people who don't have bank |
| 1:02.3 | accounts. It'll also make it easier to transmit money between countries. But lawmakers are |
| 1:07.4 | skeptical about the proposal, especially when it comes to regulating the currency. |
| 1:11.8 | Based on a white paper that Facebook released last month, it's not clear that they really thought |
| 1:15.7 | through everything. What we know for now is that Libra will be pegged to a raft of conventional |
| 1:19.9 | currencies, such as the U.S. dollar and the euro. There will also be a Libra Association, |
| 1:25.3 | which will be a committee of major companies like Uber and PayPal that will govern the currency. |
| 1:30.1 | This is a complicated area that I am personally having some trouble understanding. |
| 1:33.9 | But Libra could be immensely impactful for the way we make payments. |
| 1:37.7 | Our next guest is one of the people who testified very convincingly during the House Congressional hearing, |
| 1:42.4 | and I'm hoping he can help walk us through this. |
| 1:44.9 | Chris Brummer is a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center and the host of the podcast, |
| 1:49.1 | FinTech Beat. Chris, thanks for joining us. |
| 1:51.9 | Thank you so much for having me. |
... |
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