[hyko]

the church of central bankers

That's not a HN thing, that's the mainstream view. The last time hard/sound money was in vogue was long ago, and even when it was based on physics and not software it came with a host of ultimately intractable problems for society. The current system is no utopia either, but poor returns on savings are not the fault of central banks but the symptoms of prevailing economic conditions. There are of course limits to monetary policy, but "sorry there's just no more money available for some arbitrary reason" shouldn't be one of them.

From a technology perspective, Bitcoin is an interesting invention, but from a monetary point of view it's a backward step. That's partly why there are so many skeptical voices about the prospects of basing the money system on cryptocurrencies here.

I say this as an early adopter and friend of the technology.

[roenxi]

> ultimately intractable problems for society

So sayth the people who want to borrow lots of money and not pay it back. The economists may have evidence to back the idea up, but that evidence isn't what is driving the political discourse.

The political discourse is driven because voters with loans go ballistic when rates go up. And so do wealthy businessmen who can't afford to repay their debts.

[hyko]

The people who want to borrow lots of money and not pay it back don’t care about monetary policy, they just borrow lots of money and then default on it. One can do that in fiat currency, gold, Bitcoin, or cigarettes.

The intractable problems come when there’s a mismatch between economic activity and the money supply. In the case of shiny metal money, that’s usually deflationary, but not always: see the Spanish Price Revolution of the 15th Century https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution

[roenxi]

> they just borrow lots of money and then default on it.

I don't think anyone is claiming that the US government is going to do a straight default on their debts. If anything troubles them they will use monetary policy.

> In the case of shiny metal money, that’s usually deflationary, but not always: see the Spanish Price Revolution of the 15th Century https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution

I'm not going to see anything useful to me an economic event from 500 years ago in a language I don't speak, enmeshed in a foreign legal system, totally different technological and social conditions and potentially questionable record keeping with uncertain customs around law enforcement.

Even the frame there is incomparable; Wikipedia is quoting 1–1.5% inflation as 'high'. I wish that was considered high these days, I think low inflation leads to good results.

Honestly that just looks like supply and demand. Lots of new metal -> price changes. Hardly a problem.