The World Bank has downgraded its original annual growth forecasts for 2019. In January, it anticipated a growth of 2.9 percent, but now that number has decreased to 2.6 percent. This would make for the slowest global economic growth in three years.
It also leaves global trade at its lowest since 2008. Government debt is up from 15 percentage points of global GDP in 2007 to 51 percent of GDP in 2018. Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Have we shot ourselves in the foot by aggressively regulating the cryptocurrency industry at national levels?
Heightened Economic Tensions and Subdued Investments
The World Bank’s June 2019 report is no bedtime story unless you like them high drama and full of anxiety. Investments, especially those in emerging markets, just aren’t happening the way they should. Tricky political climates mean trade conflicts are on the horizon — and debt is the global economy’s Achilles’ heel. It’ll give you everything you want, then take it all away.
Not that the organization is an independent bystander reporting on the state of the nations. Though their mission is to eradicate poverty in developing countries, their debt policies aggravate international debt. The very problems the report highlights show how systemic these issues are. You can’t separate the perpetrator from the watchdog.
According to the Foundation for Economic Education, “If the Third World is poor because it lacks capital, it lacks capital because it lacks economic freedom.” We can say the same of the global economy. We lack alleviation from the impending latest economic recession.
Despite Satoshi’s efforts and all those who came after, we still lack economic freedom. Globally, we’re all beholden to the same overlords with the power to sprout the same lies. Cryptocurrency bad, hard currency (read: debt, since the two are synonymous by now) better.
The World Bank used Ethereum to transfer a bond to the Commonwealth Bank. Together with its sister institution the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it launched an “educational cryptocurrency.”
In April 2019, the IMF ran a Twitter poll, asking respondents how they envisioned they’d be paying for lunch in 5 years. Nearly 60 percent of respondents answered cryptocurrencies. With bank cash coming in at 8 percent and bank cards at 9 percent, it’s clearly not a digital-first answer. People are losing faith in ‘real money.’
The Satoshi Failsafe: We Need an Alternative
Eleven years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto planted a seed that would change the world.
At the time, government economic policies were leading us further and further into the abyss. The ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ model was blinding society. No one was told that what it really meant was ‘Debt Today, Financial Ruin Tomorrow.’
Nothing has changed, and history is doomed to repeat itself.
Quoting the World Bank report:
“…the cost of rolling over debt can increase sharply during periods of financial stress and result in financial crises; high debt levels can limit the ability of governments to provide fiscal stimulus during downturns; and high debt can weigh on investment and long-term growth, especially at a time when investment momentum is already weak.”
In the wake of the 2008 recession, Satoshi took action. We’re not yet seeing the effects of that revolutionary act to the extent we’d like, and to the extent that’s needed. But, we are all Satoshi. We’re investing in cryptocurrencies financially, technologically, philosophically, and politically. This will end up making all the difference, no matter how tiresome the swim upstream can be.
Do you think the global economy is truly in trouble? Will cryptocurrencies gain increased adoption if the global system begins to falter? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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