Warren Buffett’s right-hand man and the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Charlie Munger, has urged the U.S. government to ban cryptocurrencies like China has done. “A cryptocurrency is not a currency, not a commodity, and not a security. Instead, it’s a gambling contract with a nearly 100% edge for the house,” he stressed.
Berkshire Vice Chair Charlie Munger Wants Cryptocurrencies Banned
Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger has urged the U.S. government to ban crypto in an opinion piece titled “Why America Should Ban Crypto,” published by the Wall Street Journal Wednesday. The Berkshire executive wrote:
A cryptocurrency is not a currency, not a commodity, and not a security. Instead, it’s a gambling contract with a nearly 100% edge for the house, entered into in a country where gambling contracts are traditionally regulated only by states that compete in laxity.
“Obviously the U.S. should now enact a new federal law that prevents this from happening,” Munger stressed.
The Berkshire vice chair proceeded to reference two precedents that may provide insight into how to ban cryptocurrency effectively. The first is China’s crypto ban, he said, adding that the Chinese government “wisely concluded that they [cryptocurrencies] would provide more harm than benefit.”
The second is that from the 1700s, England faced a severe depression after a speculative trading scheme failed. In response, the country banned public trading in new common stocks for 100 years, Munger explained. During that time, “England made by far the biggest national contribution to the march of civilization as it led strongly in both the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution and, to boot, spawned off a promising little country called the United States,” he opined.
Munger concluded:
What should the U.S. do after a ban of cryptocurrencies is in place? Well, one more action might make sense: Thank the Chinese communist leader for his splendid example of uncommon sense.
The Berkshire executive has long been a bitcoin and crypto skeptic; he has called BTC “rat poison” and likened crypto trading to “trading turds.”
He said in 2021 that he wished crypto had never been invented and praised China for banning cryptocurrencies. He also called bitcoin “disgusting and contrary to the interest of civilization.”
In February last year, he similarly said the government should ban bitcoin and called crypto “venereal disease.” In July, he advised everybody to avoid crypto as if it were an “open sewer, full of malicious organisms.”
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Kevin Helms
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