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Paul Krugman: Crypto Is Still for Criming
Paul Krugman - Crypto Is Still for Criming
Democrats shouldn’t give this scam cover, but probably will
Paul Krugman
May 09, 2025
Yesterday “the president” announced a trade “deal” with “Britain.” IN CASE YOU’RE WONDERING, I’M TRYING TO EMULATE TRUMP’S STYLE, WITH RANDOM QUOTATION MARKS AND BLOCK CAPITALS, PLUS EXCLAMATION POINTS AT WEIRD PLACES!
Anyway, as I predicted yesterday, it was indeed a “deal” as opposed to an actual deal. There was very little substantive content. The 10 percent overall tariff on imports from Britain remained, although extra tariffs on British steel and cars were removed. Hey, children only need two dolls and five pencils, but the wealthy need their Rolls Royces, Jaguars and Bentleys. Britain, for its part, made vague promises to increase access for some U.S. agricultural products, and may be buying some Boeing jets.
Claims of a major deal were, in short, fake news. This was all about creating the illusion that Trump’s tariffs are accomplishing something.
Meanwhile, however, something potentially important happened in Congress. A bill that would have helped expand the use of stablecoins — cryptocurrencies that, unlike Bitcoin and other early entrants, are supposed to have a fixed value in dollars — stalled in the Senate. To advance, the GENIUS Act (gag) needed 60 votes on a procedural measure. With every Democrat and 3 Republicans voting no, it only got 48 votes.
What happened? Republicans tried to ram through a bill that literally had no text. That was too much even for crypto-friendly Democrats.
/snip
Democrats shouldn’t give this scam cover, but probably will
Paul Krugman
May 09, 2025
Yesterday “the president” announced a trade “deal” with “Britain.” IN CASE YOU’RE WONDERING, I’M TRYING TO EMULATE TRUMP’S STYLE, WITH RANDOM QUOTATION MARKS AND BLOCK CAPITALS, PLUS EXCLAMATION POINTS AT WEIRD PLACES!
Anyway, as I predicted yesterday, it was indeed a “deal” as opposed to an actual deal. There was very little substantive content. The 10 percent overall tariff on imports from Britain remained, although extra tariffs on British steel and cars were removed. Hey, children only need two dolls and five pencils, but the wealthy need their Rolls Royces, Jaguars and Bentleys. Britain, for its part, made vague promises to increase access for some U.S. agricultural products, and may be buying some Boeing jets.
Claims of a major deal were, in short, fake news. This was all about creating the illusion that Trump’s tariffs are accomplishing something.
Meanwhile, however, something potentially important happened in Congress. A bill that would have helped expand the use of stablecoins — cryptocurrencies that, unlike Bitcoin and other early entrants, are supposed to have a fixed value in dollars — stalled in the Senate. To advance, the GENIUS Act (gag) needed 60 votes on a procedural measure. With every Democrat and 3 Republicans voting no, it only got 48 votes.
What happened? Republicans tried to ram through a bill that literally had no text. That was too much even for crypto-friendly Democrats.
/snip