US President Donald Trump has hosted an unscheduled meeting with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as of Monday. Despite claiming to have discussed “everything,” cryptocurrency appears to have been left entirely off the agenda.
President Trump tweeted about the impromptu meeting with Powell earlier today. He claims the pair talked about “interest rates, negative interest, low inflation, easing, dollar strength and its effect on manufacturing, trade with China, EU, and others.”
Just finished a very good & cordial meeting at the White House with Jay Powell of the Federal Reserve. Everything was discussed including interest rates, negative interest, low inflation, easing, Dollar strength & its effect on manufacturing, trade with China, E.U. & others, etc.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2019
Consistent Remarks, but No Cryptocurrency
According to The Street, the Federal Reserve issued a statement following the meeting. In it, the institution claims that Powell’s comments to Trump were “consistent with his remarks at his congressional hearings last week”. The Federal Reserve wrote:
“Chair Powell said that he and his colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee will set monetary policy, as required by law, to support maximum employment and stable prices and will make those decisions based solely on careful, objective and non-political analysis.”
Despite China being one of the topics of conversation during the meeting, and the nation having recently endorsed blockchain technology along with being known to be exploring the launch of its own digital asset, cryptocurrency appears to have been completely absent from today’s conversation. This is somewhat more surprising given the growing numbers of US central bankers advocating for a state-backed digital currency for use in the nation. BeInCrypto reported on how Facebook’s Libra has brought the issue back into the minds of Federal bankers last month.
Whereas China appears to be pushing hard for the formation of a fully digital economy, the USA risks being left behind if it continues to drag its feet in terms of both regulation and the adoption of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain.
Dismissing Digital Assets
That said, it does not come as much of a surprise to see Donald Trump not bringing up the impact digital currency could have on the US and global economy with Powell. After all, he famously dismissed all of cryptocurrency as inferior to the dollar and simply a means for orchestrating criminal activity. Earlier this year BeInCrypto reported on him tweeting the following:
I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2019
Likewise, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who was also present at today’s meeting, called digital currencies a potential threat to national security. Both made their comments shortly after Facebook detailed its own digital asset, Libra earlier this year.
Although not expressly clamping down on blockchain innovation and digital currency use, the US government is nowhere near as proactive as China has been in recent weeks in promoting the use of the technology. At the end of last month, Chinese premier Xi Jinping publicly encouraged the nation to adopt distributed LEDGER technology and all manner of different Chinese blockchain initiatives are now coming to light.
Images are courtesy of Twitter, Shutterstock.
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