PakGazette – Prominent American economist and professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Steve Hanke, said in a recent interview that he does not like the idea of the US government potentially creating a strategic reserve in the coming years.
Hanke is known as a vigorous Bitcoin opponent who frequently criticizes the world’s largest cryptocurrency on his X social media account.
US Bitcoin Reserve ‘Stupidest Idea’ According to Hanke
In a recent X post, Steve Hanke shared an excerpt from his recent interview, where he shared his opinion on a suggestion made by Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming during a blockchain conference in the US in the summer of 2024.
The prominent American economist said that converting government savings into Bitcoin would be “a drag on the economy” as those savings would not be invested in “real capital assets that produce things.” He compared buying Bitcoin to buying paintings made by old masters. Those investments would not be invested in any bankable projects that actually produce anything, he said.
“They would not increase productivity and so on in the economy,” the expert stressed, although it is very important to increase productivity to improve the standard of living and prosperity in any economy. Hanke stressed that he is “totally” opposed to a possible strategic reserve of Bitcoin in the United States, calling it “the stupidest idea.”
And in the tweet accompanying the video excerpt, Hanke wrote, again emphasizing his thought: “Savings funneled into Bitcoin do not build factories, create jobs, or drive innovation.”
Hanke calls cryptocurrency holders “psychopaths”
Last year, Steve Hanke published an X post, in which he referred to cryptocurrency holders as psychopaths. Hanke referred to the results of a psychological study conducted in Canada by researchers at the University of Toronto.
The study claimed that cryptocurrency holders have low analytical and scientific thinking and are “more likely to exhibit psychopathy than the general population,” Hanke summarized.
To complete the study, researchers surveyed approximately 2,000 Americans. They revealed that cryptocurrency holders tend to display “dark” personality characteristics, also known as the “Dark Tetrad”: narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism.
