More importantly, though, is your note about who this battle is between: it's a battle between groups of people who should both be viewed very skeptically when it comes to the interests of "the rest of us".
Corporate controlled money has been tried in the past; it didn't end well for workers.
Only in the world where 0 > 7; there are 7 members of the Board of Governors, all Senate-confirmed Presidential appointees.
Bitcoin has become centered on the few largest mining operations. Libra is centered on Facebook. Who elected them? How do currency holders influence them? There are no defined ways to do so.
The scary thing about Libra is that it truly has the potential for global-scale "boil the frog" ramifications.
Contrast this to abstaining from voting. There will still be a president and a Federal Reserve Bank regardless.
The president of the United States does not control the Fed, if that's what you're saying. The current U.S. president is extremely unhappy with the current Fed chairman and has repeatedly demanded that the Fed alter its policies, to no avail.
> Also, the Fed is US only...so there's that
The U.S. dollar is pretty global.
And yet he nominated him. What's your point? AFAIK he also technically has the power to fire him too.
> The U.S. dollar is pretty global.
Can you use the dollar to buy food at a foodstand in Germany? No. Just because certain aspects of the global economy are driven by the dollar, doesn't mean everything can be transacted with it. Libra is meant for companies to be able to transact business globally under one currency.
Probably not, but in a tourist place you might succeed. And there's still plenty of places where the US dollar is more welcome than local currency. It's hard money, regardless of the politics of the Fed.
You said that the U.S. president controls the Fed, and that is just objectively incorrect. My point is to correct that, so that you and anyone else reading will know better. I thought that was pretty clear.
> AFAIK he also technically has the power to fire him too.
No, he doesn't, so your knowledge doesn't go very far here.
And by the way, although the U.S. president nominates the Fed chair, he or she must be approved by the U.S. Senate. So the president can't pursue a specific monetary policy agenda via an appointee unless the Senate agrees.
> Can you use the dollar to buy food at a foodstand in Germany? No.
Sure, but the dollar is used for more international trade (e.g. oil) than any other currency, and is also a store of wealth probably more than any other currency.
For instance, many Germans hold dollars in the form of US Treasuries, because they actually pay a positive yield, unlike German government debt.
Anyway, if you are afraid of Libra, and I'm with you on that. The solution is decentralized currency like bitcoin, not fiat. The Fed is pursuing a long-term suicidal interest rate policy (too low) and the ECB is no better off. Plus, the U.S. government has started using dollar banking regulation as an international weapon (e.g. Iran sanctions), so there is a rising risk that eventually other countries will wise up and stop using the dollar, and that will destabilize it.
I don't know about Germany, but most places you can easily convert it to local currency right around the corner. Not many currencies can boast of something like that.
This kind of response derails the discussion. Yes, the Fed is centralized, too. That doesn't defeat the point you are responding to.