Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Says Bitcoin 'Ought to be Outlawed' (cnn.com)

Bitcoin "is drawing harsh criticism from Wall Street investment firms," writes Slashdot reader rmdingler -- and even from some prominent economists. CNN reports: The harshest assessment came from Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, who said that bitcoin "ought to be outlawed. Bitcoin is successful only because of its potential for circumvention," he told Bloomberg TV. "It doesn't serve any socially useful function." Robert Shiller, who won a Nobel for his work on bubbles, said the currency appeals to some investors because it has an "anti-government, anti-regulation feel. It's such a wonderful story," he said at a conference in Lithuania, according to Bloomberg. "If it were only true."

Wall Street titans were getting in on the action, too. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein told Bloomberg that the currency serves as "a vehicle for perpetrating fraud." Billionaire investor Carl Icahn said on CNBC that it "seems like a bubble." The digital currency previously attracted the derision of JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon, who called it a "fraud" that would "eventually blow up." Warren Buffett has warned of a "real bubble."
Wednesday the price of bitcoin shot past $11,000 -- just ten days after rising past $8,000.

Comments

I See

[Anonymous Coward]

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein told Bloomberg that the currency serves as "a vehicle for perpetrating fraud."

Whereas Goldman Sachs is a vehicle for what exactly?

Re: why listen to obvious idiocy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuckin' capitalism. I hate that I'm one of the wealthiest people to have ever lived by a long shot, and I'm not even the wealthiest in my neighborhood. Fuckin system sucks.

Re:I See

[blindseer]

At this point it's like the US is being run by the (D)rips and c(R)uds.

And I thought it was the c(R)ips and bloo(D)s.