Link to Jose Pagliery’s CNNMoney article “Ron Paul: ‘Bitcoin could destroy the dollar’”

Jose Pagliery interviewed me for a CNNMoney article on Bitcoin. Here are the 2 passages with quotes from me:

Even economists who embrace the power of central banks, like University of Michigan professor Miles Kimball, recognize the currency’s potential.

“Bitcoin really shows governments are behind the curve,” Kimball said. “It demonstrates there’s a demand for an electronic equivalent of cash.”

“Governments absolutely demand a monopoly on money and credit. They’re not going to give it up easily,” Paul warned. “They will come down hard.”

Kimball hopes politicians will take a less combative approach, choosing instead to compete.

“I suppose they could just try to crush Bitcoin, but that’s the wrong way to do it,” Kimball said. “Governments should be creating their own version of Bitcoin. They should be ashamed they haven’t.”

Our interview is also reflected in the mention of how Bitcoin dominance would take away central banks' “ability to help slow and speed up economic activity,” and in the discussion M-PESA. Jose did not fully reflect my claim that Bitcoin is an attempt at digital gold; even once things settled down, a dominant Bitcoin would give us monetary policy as bad as the gold standard did, which was pretty bad.