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Krugman On Bitcoin and the Gold Standard

twoallbeefpatties writes "Prominent Keynesian economist Paul Krugman has left a note on his blog at NYTimes about his view of Bitcoin, discussing its similarity to the gold standard and suggesting a drop in 'real gross Bitcoin product' as its users hoard the currency rather than spend it."

4 of 601 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Bitcoin by zill · · Score: 5, Informative

    First of all, taking electricity from the hallway is obviously theft.

    But more importantly you are trolling because each 6990 consumes at least 300 watts during mining, which means you need 7.2kw for your whole setup. This far exceeds what a single outlet can provide.

  2. Re:Bitcoin by zill · · Score: 4, Informative

    how easy it was for people to scam you out of bitcoins by contesting Paypal payments

    1. Scammer buys bitcoins on ebay.
    2. Seller sends the bitcoins
    3. Scammer pretends he never received them, and reports this as a fraudulent transaction to Paypal
    4. Paypal asks the seller for evidence that he has sent the goods (i.e. a tracking number)
    5. Sellers explains what bitcoins is, digital revolution, bring back the gold standard, Ron Paul 2012 et cetera
    6. Instead of a tracking number, Paypal gets a bunch gibberish, so it rules in the scammer's favor
    7. Rinse and repeat

    This applies to pretty much all virtual goods on eBay, so it's not really a bitcoin problem as much as it is a Paypal problem.

    This whole digression is moot in the end because there are dozens of bitcoin exchanges out there now, so there's no need to rely on Paypal. Admittedly it was a problem in the early days before exchanges were established, so that's no longer the case.

  3. Re:STOP by AuMatar · · Score: 5, Informative

    The peace prize is a real Nobel, it's one of the original group set up by Alfred Nobel. The economics one isn't, it's a separate award that uses a very similar name, set up by the bank that handles the Nobel grant because they wanted to give their field some legitimacy off of the name.

    --
    I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  4. Re:Keynesian? by brainzach · · Score: 5, Informative

    The over extension of debt can be corrected by devaluing the the currency. You pump more money into the economy during the process, which creates jobs and stimulates economic activity. It will make your exports more attractive to other nations and while decreasing the demand of imports, which improves the trade balance.

    This works and is how the US got out of the great depression with help from the New Deal and WW2.