Live data from Hacker News

France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

reuters.com

581–590 of 821 posts

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#581

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AH the bit about the goal being to make payments fast makes a ton of sense. The rest of the world has left the US in the dust with extremely fast payments systems. In India, the UPI system has taken the country by storm with direct,instant bank-to-bank money transfers which take seconds to complete and have no fees attached for the consumer

US banks created Zelle, with free instant transfers via your banking app. It’s a shame more people don’t use it. Otherwise people just use credit cards for paying for stuff.

U.S. credit cards extort big fees from businesses and give kickbacks to consumers. Hard for "free" to beat that, if consumers have the choice.

It may change now that businesses are allowed to pass on fees.

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#582

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "liberal with the truth" bit isn't about the ability to exit; it's about the EU being "externally controlled". The EU is an organization of which each Eurozone member is, well, a member. They have votes in the EU Parliament and European Council (the latter is responsible for appointing the ECB president) and a say in deciding the membership of the Executive Board. (Indeed, the German Constitutional Court generall…

i meant that the Euro, as national currency of italy and greece, is "externally controlled", cannot be bent to the needs of those countries , but to the needs of germany. Eurozone is not the EU

The Eurozone is a subset of EU members; decisions about the governance of the Euro are made by the Euro-using subset of the European Council (the upper house of the EU legislature, representing member states directly). Germany has a voting share on the Council proportional to its population.

Germany's outsized influence came 25 years ago, when it had the dominant part in writing up the rules and powers of the ECB.

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#583

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would the assets generate revenue based on? If it‘s fiat currencies you still have exposure, if it‘s Libra you run the risk of currency panic and it‘s not dissimilar to a fiat currency panic except there‘s nothing really available to stop precipitous economic effects.

Right now, they don't generate revenue when the basket is only: USD + Yen + Euros. But it is designed so they can switch those out for Gov bonds, corporate bonds, real estate (REITs), etc.

Gov bonds, corporate bonds, REITs, that today all pay USD, or Yen, or Euros, or what have you. So still based on fiat. Except this revenue basket just looks like an opaque, complex security, and we saw how well that turned out during the last financial crisis.

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Libra is a centralized, cryptocurrency. Facebook will abide by the law and not allow transactions from france & germany with the network.

I'm sure intermediary exchanges (either legal or illegal) will provide that service.

and fb will be forced to create a mechanism that bans those exchanges or ppl who use them. being centralized is an achilee's heel for a cryptocurrency

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#586
The beginning of the article reads... "In a joint statement, the two governments affirmed that “no private entity can claim monetary power, which is inherent to the sovereignty of nations”. Is this irony in the US that a private entity, the Federal Reserve, is in just such a position of monetary power. It's all smoke and vaping, chickens and eggs, hemp and da kine.

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#587

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone who disagrees with you is a paid shill. Responding to a legitimate argument with some kind of absurd accusation will always make you look like you lost the argument.

Except you know, shills exist, and are real, so lets not make up some kind of even lamer "Godwin's law" about it. Doesn't mean its (always) sensible to accuse people you disagree with of course.

Well, it's already one of the site guidelines...

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#588
post #575
post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last week I wanted to purchase a used item but discovered that, without warning or notification, Marketplace was deactivated from my Facebook account. My Facebook account is quite active, with posts, discussion in multiple groups, and hundreds of friends. I still have no clue as to what rule I triggered and no recourse to reactivate it. Now imagine that's my digital Libra bank account? No thanks.

Isn't the answer better consumer protections, though? Rather than a ban on new technology that threatens the status quo. If Facebook wants to be a bank, they should be subject to the banking regulators and there could be (should be) strong consumer protections preventing the type of corporate behavior you describe.

Doesn’t that just shift the controls on corporate behavior and consolidate the controls into a political process?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Choke_Point

Re: France and Germany Agree to Block Facebook's Libra

#589

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i meant that the Euro, as national currency of italy and greece, is "externally controlled", cannot be bent to the needs of those countries , but to the needs of germany. Eurozone is not the EU

The Eurozone is a subset of EU members; decisions about the governance of the Euro are made by the Euro-using subset of the European Council (the upper house of the EU legislature, representing member states directly). Germany has a voting share on the Council proportional to its population. Germany's outsized influence came 25 years ago, when it had the dominant part in writing up the rules and powers of the ECB.

germany has outsize influence, whether it is by choice, and whether they like it or not. Their decisions have such effects as bank bail-ins and capital controls in other euro countries
Post reply on HN