Posted on Jan 12, 2022
Trump White House had a secret crypto booster in Jared Kushner, new Mnuchin file dump shows
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"In 2019, when crypto was in the midst of a multi-year bear market, Jared Kushner — a senior adviser and Trump’s son-in-law — was quietly advocating for a U.S. digital dollar, in which the Fed would launch its own central bank digital currency. This is according to a 250-page dump of Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s crypto-related e-mail correspondence from his four years at Treasury, which was was obtained by CoinDesk through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request."
Trump White House had a secret crypto booster in Jared Kushner, new Mnuchin file dump shows
Posted from cnbc.com
Bitcoin
Donald Trump
Finance
Money
Posted >1 y ago
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LTC Eugene Chu I'm sure it was all on the up & up... NOT!
..."Other insights include details surrounding the fight between the crypto lobby and Mnuchin over the Treasury’s last-minute attempt at rolling out new rules pertaining to user-controlled digital wallets.
Neither Mnuchin nor Kushner immediately responded to CNBC’s request for comment about their crypto-related email exchanges.
Kushner backs a digital dollar
On May 29, 2019, Kushner, who was more known for his work on the administration’s foreign policy efforts rather than fiscal matters, sent an e-mail to Mnuchin to suggest that a group be assembled to “have a brainstorm” about the topic of a U.S. digital currency.
The note included a link to a blog post by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in which Altman argues that while the U.S. government cannot stop cryptocurrency, it can “create the winner.” From there, Altman riffs on a hypothetical “U.S. Digital Currency” or USDC, which would function as a second legal currency. He goes on to say that if the U.S. was the first superpower government to launch a CBDC, it would have an “enviable position in the future of the world” and exercise some degree of power over a worldwide currency.
“My sense is it could make sense and also be something that could ultimately change the way we pay out entitlements as well saving us a ton in waste fraud and also in transaction costs,” Kushner wrote of the proposal.
There is no reply from Mnuchin, so it is unclear whether the Treasury Secretary heeded his advice.
Kushner’s take on the CBDC phenomenon ultimately proved prescient.
Few countries were seriously dabbling in national digital currencies in mid-2019, but today, at least 87 countries representing over 90% of global GDP are exploring a CBDC, according to research from the Atlantic Council.
China is miles ahead of the rest, having spent years developing and piloting its digital yuan. Beijing is currently in the process of ramping up efforts to roll out the so-called e-CNY to the broader population, with the ultimate goal of replacing the cash and coins already in circulation. In the years since Kushner floated the idea of a digital dollar, talk of a CBDC in the U.S. has also proliferated among regulators and lawmakers, though with far fewer tangible steps toward implementation.
During a two-day congressional hearing in July, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said the main incentive for the U.S. to launch its own CBDC would be to eliminate the use case for crypto coins in America.
“You wouldn’t need stablecoins; you wouldn’t need cryptocurrencies, if you had a digital U.S. currency,” Powell said. “I think that’s one of the stronger arguments in its favor.”...
..."Other insights include details surrounding the fight between the crypto lobby and Mnuchin over the Treasury’s last-minute attempt at rolling out new rules pertaining to user-controlled digital wallets.
Neither Mnuchin nor Kushner immediately responded to CNBC’s request for comment about their crypto-related email exchanges.
Kushner backs a digital dollar
On May 29, 2019, Kushner, who was more known for his work on the administration’s foreign policy efforts rather than fiscal matters, sent an e-mail to Mnuchin to suggest that a group be assembled to “have a brainstorm” about the topic of a U.S. digital currency.
The note included a link to a blog post by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in which Altman argues that while the U.S. government cannot stop cryptocurrency, it can “create the winner.” From there, Altman riffs on a hypothetical “U.S. Digital Currency” or USDC, which would function as a second legal currency. He goes on to say that if the U.S. was the first superpower government to launch a CBDC, it would have an “enviable position in the future of the world” and exercise some degree of power over a worldwide currency.
“My sense is it could make sense and also be something that could ultimately change the way we pay out entitlements as well saving us a ton in waste fraud and also in transaction costs,” Kushner wrote of the proposal.
There is no reply from Mnuchin, so it is unclear whether the Treasury Secretary heeded his advice.
Kushner’s take on the CBDC phenomenon ultimately proved prescient.
Few countries were seriously dabbling in national digital currencies in mid-2019, but today, at least 87 countries representing over 90% of global GDP are exploring a CBDC, according to research from the Atlantic Council.
China is miles ahead of the rest, having spent years developing and piloting its digital yuan. Beijing is currently in the process of ramping up efforts to roll out the so-called e-CNY to the broader population, with the ultimate goal of replacing the cash and coins already in circulation. In the years since Kushner floated the idea of a digital dollar, talk of a CBDC in the U.S. has also proliferated among regulators and lawmakers, though with far fewer tangible steps toward implementation.
During a two-day congressional hearing in July, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said the main incentive for the U.S. to launch its own CBDC would be to eliminate the use case for crypto coins in America.
“You wouldn’t need stablecoins; you wouldn’t need cryptocurrencies, if you had a digital U.S. currency,” Powell said. “I think that’s one of the stronger arguments in its favor.”...
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OK, So what is wrong with thinking outside the box and perhaps one day going to a crypto type currency? In some cases it might be good idea, for example, current money can hold and pass on germs, you would not have to print money, counterfeiting would be harder, and so on. But of course there could be potential risks like hacking and so on. So again, what is the bug deal other than it having to do with former President Trump?
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