Facebook’s Libra May Spark a Currency War
It’s no longer about competitive devaluation. The real battle will be when central banks start their own crypto projects.
Coin of the digital realm.
Photographer: Chesnot/Getty Images
It's one thing for academics in Asia to rant against the tyranny of the dollar, or to make cheery forecasts about its impending eclipse by the Chinese yuan. But now that Facebook Inc. wants to spawn a new global currency – one that could meet the “daily financial needs of billions of people” and perhaps rival the greenback one day – central banks in Beijing, Jakarta, Manila or Mumbai won't exactly be ecstatic.
To them, the prospect of being at the mercy of a cabal of tech czars and venture capitalists sitting in Switzerland could well mean swapping the yoke of the U.S. Federal Reserve for a less predictable and potentially more sinister dependence.