美国财政部前任秘书,世界银行首席经济学家和奥巴马政府经济顾问拉里·萨默斯曾在权衡对数字货币的主题接受华尔街日报采访。
尽管萨默斯没有采取对比特币表明一个明确的立场,他谨慎的批评不抹杀新的和潜在的颠覆性技术。
这位前哈佛大学校长告诉杂志:
“我还没准备好反对那些人,他们已经看到了未来,但在我看来,这是一个严重的错误,他们写文章指责比特币为考虑不周或不合法。”
“在我看来,那些自信地拒绝所有[新的支付和货币体系]的创新的人,站在了历史错误的一边。”
“我更相信,20年后,支付的世界将会发生翻天覆地的变化。”
评论:兼听则明,美国鼓励创新的精神可嘉。
Former Obama Advisor Larry Summers to Critics: Don’t ‘Write Off’ Bitcoin
coindesk
Former Secretary of the US Treasury, World Bank chief economist and Obama administration economic advisor Larry Summers has weighed in on the subject of digital currency in a new interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Though Summers didn’t take a definitive stance on bitcoin, he did caution critics not to dismiss new and potentially disruptive technologies.
The former Harvard University president told the Journal:
“I’m not ready to stand with those who are sure they have seen the future here, but it seems to me that it’s a serious mistake to write this off as either ill-conceived or illegitimate.”
Summers compared critics of digital currency to those who rejected such innovations as digital photography, plastic tennis rackets and the internet during their early days.
Summers added:
“It seems to me that the people who confidently reject all the innovation here [in new payment and monetary systems] are on the wrong side of history.”
Issues with current financial system
Though he did not address bitcoin directly in most of his talks, Summers did cite how the potential of digital currency or a similar technology could solve problems with the current financial system’s payments infrastructure.
For example, he suggested that technologies that provide quick, low-cost transactions could be beneficial to “a child within the United States or across international borders” and to immigrants that want to remit money to other nations.
Further, he cited the “enormous investment” the current financial system requires to mitigate fraud, and discussed the enduring appeal of safe stores of value.
Payments will change
Despite the fact that he wasn’t bullish about the prospects of bitcoin, Summers was able to confidently state that he believes the payments industry will change to meet the needs to consumers.
Summers said:
“I am much more confident that the world of payments will look very different 20 years from now than I am about how it will look.”
About Summers
Born in Connecticut as the son of two economists, Summers’ first prominent government position was on the Council of Economic Advisers during the Ronald Reagan administration.
In the 1990s, he served at Harvard University and World Bank before joining the Clinton administration where he eventually rose to serve as Secretary of the Treasury, though his involvement with those institutions was not without controversy.
More recently, Summers was a frontrunner to replace outgoing Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke before withdrawing in September of last year.
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