I don't want to deal in crypto

[XanaDUer2]

No matter what I read, I don't understand it. I just want to use cash. I'm scared they'll switch currency to crypto, and the money I saved will be worthless. I'm having panic attacks.

[XanaDUer2]

3. What? Nt

[hatrack]

5. Alerted

[hatrack]

4. Buh-bye

.

[hatrack]

2. They could try it, if they really truly wanted the economy to implode in 12 hours . . .

What they want is to offer some official (wink wink) imprimatur to this bullshit scam so that Shitstain and his Clown Caucus can cash in.

[Happy Hoosier]

6. They are NOT going to eliminate the USD. No reason to have panic attacks.

They are just pump and dumping crypto schemes to fleece the rubes.

Just don;t buy any crypto. Problem solved.

[thinkingagain]

7. I do not either

If I look in my hand and see coins and bills
If the other holds crypto it’s invisible
Why would I want invisible?

The other thing is crypto takes energy / electricity to generate
If the power goes out no crypto

At least that’s how I see it

[confoosed]

17. If the power goes out, so does the stock market

But people put trillions of $ there. Crypto is just another investment option.

[ParanoidAndroid]

9. actually, dollars are losing value

ignoring crypto for a minute...
The value of a dollar is going down by about 8% a year. That is what causes inflation, and why prices always go up, and don't go back down after "inflation" is allegedly "lower".
The Fed prints money out of thin air. This devalues the dollar. So, money in a savings account loses value over time, if you are not making more than 8% in interest.
Reagan started the "deficits don't matter" claim, and they have been printing money out of thin air ever since. The US deficits keep growing, now at a rate of a trillion every 3 months, and they are at just below 36 trillion now. That is a stack of dollar bills high enough to reach 1/4 the way to Venus.
W Bush spent trillions for his wars. When the banks destroyed the world economy in 2008-10, they bailed out the banks by printing money. Trump added 8 1/2 trillion in his 4 years (part of that was covid stimulus), and lowered taxes for the rich and corporations so that taxes can never come close to paying government expenses ever again.

As for real paper currency, it is increasingly used less often. Most people pay with debit or credit cards. If I put $20 in my wallet, I may never get around to using it for months. Your paycheck is transferred to your bank account as a digital signal. Yes, if the power goes out, all that is gone.
In the coming years, money will be converted into a CBDC (central bank digital currency), which is a Federal Reserve version of crypto, a digital dollar.

[WarGamer]

11. exactly... an example:

It's 1959 in Southern California and Dr.Tom and Mary Smith have a great idea... since owning a home is the foundation for success... they put $40,000 in a cigar box with the express directions to give it to their first descendant who graduates from Med School

Bob Smith graduates from USC School of Medicine in 2023. In his home town, Irvine... the home city of Tom and Mary 65 years earlier, the money in the box is no longer equal to the price of a home in Irvine.

As you stated, inflation directly decreases the VALUE of money.

[ParanoidAndroid]

12. the idea is

The idea is that the debasement of the dollar by printing money out of thin air is the cause, part of which is perceived as inflation. Of course there are other factors to inflation, supply and demand, crises, periodic economic crashes, corporate greed.

So... that $40000 was a lot of money back then. You could have bought a new Rolls Royce with it. If they had bought a home with it instead of putting it in a box, they could sell that same home now for maybe $600000. With that 600000, they could buy... a new Rolls Royce. $40 back then is worth the same as $600 now. (just just guessing at those numbers)

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Though US inflation is 2.6%, not the "8%" you conjured out of thin air

No, "if the power goes out", all that is not "gone". I guess you're new to the concept of computers, but they have permanent storage. They have always had permanent storage. Your computer is not wiped if you turn it off, or there's a power cut.

The US federal deficit is about $1.8 trillion in 2024. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD . I suspect you don't know the difference between "deficit" and "debt", but you ought to learn that before trying to use figures to talk about either.

So I take your prediction of "money will be converted into a CBDC (central bank digital currency), which is a Federal Reserve version of crypto, a digital dollar" with a pinch of salt, given the knowledge you've shown.

[ParanoidAndroid]

14. no reason to be hostile

no reason to be hostile, I am a democrat too. I was also a computer tech. Power does go out for extended periods, such as during a hurricane and the aftermath, so then stores and your bank may be closed and debit cards don't work. If there is a permanent power out, well there is no money, crypto, or anything anymore.
Yes I was referring to the total national debt, not the yearly budget deficit. I apologize for any confusion.
Many central banks are working on cbdc plans. The Fed is researching it also, though have not announced any concrete plan or timeline. J Powell says it won't be any time soon.
Inflation was 9.1 percent in June 2022, so it goes up and down. I was talking about an annual rate of monetary debasement which causes confusion with inflation sometimes. That also can vary, though it gets worse the faster money is being created out of thin air.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. You claimed "the value of a dollar is going down by about 8% a year", which is inflation.

I'm not happy about someone turning up on DU and exaggerating how big inflation is, after this election. No.

[ParanoidAndroid]

18. it is not quite the same thing

The 8% number comes from Raoul Pal, former Goldman Sachs and hedge fund manager, now with his own businesses.
You may see the djia, nasdaq, generally going up over time, but unless you are invested in the top tech stocks, most are losing value over time. It may look like your portfolio is rising, but in reality you lost value over time in terms of what you could buy now with that money compared with what you could when you started.

Maybe you see my low post count and think I'm some repuke troll. I actually have been here since the early W bush years. When the site went down for a long time from the hack on election day 2016, I never got around to re-enrolling. I only recently created a new account. But i have been here reading regularly all along.

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. I don't care if Raoul Pal thinks he has some special definition of "the value of a dollar"

To the world, it's measured by US inflation. It certainly has nothing to do with stock price growth. Pal would really know that, but he's clearly trying to con someone.

[ParanoidAndroid]

20. actually

most of the world is now leery of the US dollar and they are not buying our treasury bonds, notes. Many are joining the Brics nations now. As they stop financing our debt, the Fed has to make up the difference, printing more money, and increasing the national debt even faster, debasing the dollar ever faster. As I mentioned before, the US is going into debt by another trillion every 3 months. How long do you think that can keep going on before it all goes boom?

[WarGamer]

10. that should be the LAST of your worries... seriously, relax.

Even proponents of crypto don't want that.

[PeaceWave]

16. The scariest rumor going around is that Trump will create a strategic bitcoin reserve...

According to this rumor, Trump would order the Treasury to use taxpayer dollars to purchase bitcoin - which would send the price of it soaring and thoroughly enrich those already owning it. Whether or not you currently regard bitcoin as a threat to fiat currency, it most certainly could, under Trump, become a debt risk factor pushing the nation toward default.

[Initech]

21. There's a lot of seriously shady shit in crypto.

No surprise Fuckface has attached himself to those characters.