Mary Mellor has a new article in The London Economic entitled “‘Scam’ Cryptocurrencies and the ’looking glass’ world of finance.”
In the real world, the looking glass world of crypto-business – selling things that don’t materially exist – would be seen as a scam. However the non-tangibility of crypto-assets is seen as a source of their value as in the celebration of the non-tangible uniqueness of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) such as digital art.
What can be done to bring the financial sector back through the mirror? First, the existence of financial inflation should be recognised. There is too much money chasing too few socially useful investments. Purely speculative activity must not be funded by bank loans and must be taxed as gambling. Genuine investment should be linked to the provision of actual goods and services and shares should have to be held for a minimum time. Instead of the looking glass lunacy of financial markets, there needs to be a focus on the real productivity of the economy and the needs of the populace. We need money for the real world, not the world of smoke and mirrors.
