{"id":91818,"date":"2017-12-26T10:45:21","date_gmt":"2017-12-26T14:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=91818"},"modified":"2017-12-26T10:45:48","modified_gmt":"2017-12-26T14:45:48","slug":"rickards-bitcoin-is-a-ponzi-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=91818","title":{"rendered":"Rickards: &#8216;Bitcoin Is A Ponzi Scheme&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Hedgeye TV<br \/>\nSeeking Alpha<\/p>\n<div class=\"p p1\">\n<div class=\"article-summary article-width\">\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<div class=\"a-sum\">\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;This is the only topic where I agree with Jamie Dimon,&#8221; says currency guru Jim Rickards.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;I call it a Ponzi with no one in charge. There&#8217;s no Madoff, but it&#8217;s working that way.\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;Bitcoin has not been combat tested in a business cycle.\u00a0We have not had a recession or a financial crisis since 2009.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"a-body\" class=\"sa-art article-width\">\n<p class=\"p p1\">Bitcoin has been in existence for all of eight years but a debate is raging in the investing community: Is the cryptocurrency actually useful beyond just being a vehicle for speculation? At its worst, does it help facilitate highly questionable and illegal transactions and activity?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p p1\">JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon recently called\u00a0Bitcoin a &#8220;fraud&#8221; that &#8220;won&#8217;t end well.&#8221; The cryptocurrency is up 800% in the past year. So\u00a0Bitcoin investors can have a good laugh at Mr. Dimon&#8217;s expense, for now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p p1\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/seekingalpha.com\/embed\/565\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"p p1\"><strong>Important questions and skepticism remain<\/strong>. Among the cryptocurrency&#8217;s big skeptics is currency guru and bestselling author\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/JamesGRickards\" rel=\"nofollow\">Jim Rickards<\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0He sat down to discuss this (and much more) during a new &#8220;Real Conversation&#8221; with Hedgeye CEO\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/KeithMcCullough\" rel=\"nofollow\"><strong>Keith McCullough<\/strong><\/a>. (<a href=\"http:\/\/app.hedgeye.com\/insights\/62735-trouble-ahead-an-exclusive-q-a-with-jim-rickards?type=tv-interviews\" rel=\"nofollow\"><strong>Click here<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to watch the entire interview between McCullough and Rickards.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p p1\">Rickards begins:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"p p1\"><p><em><strong>&#8220;This is the only topic where I agree with Jamie Dimon. I&#8217;ve been a pretty harsh critic of Jamie Dimon. But when he says &#8216;it&#8217;s a fraud, it&#8217;s a Ponzi'[ scheme]&#8217;&#8211; I agree completely. I call it a Ponzi with no one in charge. There&#8217;s no Madoff, but it&#8217;s working that way.&#8221;<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p p1\">While\u00a0Bitcoin has its fervent supporters, Rickards says the cryptocurrency invented in 2009 still has too much to prove and is involved in too many shady transactions to be taken seriously. He cites things like drug dealing, arms dealing, money laundering and tax evasion, as well as &#8220;worse things that I don&#8217;t want to even mention, more reprehensible than that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p p1\">He goes on further:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"p p1\"><p><em><strong>&#8220;Bitcoin has not been combat tested in a business cycle.<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>We have not had a recession or a financial crisis since 2009. I&#8217;ve seen all these other asset classes go through many business cycles. I know how they&#8217;ll behave.\u00a0Bitcoin has not been tested in that arena.&#8221;<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/seekingalpha.com\/article\/4115023-rickards-bitcoin-ponzi-scheme\">http:\/\/seekingalpha.com\/article\/4115023-rickards-bitcoin-ponzi-scheme<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}