[baddox]

> Bank bailouts had positive returns.

Compared to what? You can't compare it to the results of not having done bailouts, so the comparison is largely a matter of economic prediction, and economic prediction is obviously very controversial. The only non-controversial part is that the bailouts were certainly very good for the banks receiving them.

[dllthomas]

In an accounting sense. The government received more money back then they put in - even, IIRC, adjusted for inflation. I agree that this is not actually a great metric, but then "bailouts" aren't actually a great example of the costs of dollars vs bitcoin - they mostly had to do with debt, and you could certainly still issue debt in a world run on bitcoin.

[bduerst]

Compared to adding to the transnational cost of USD, which is the context of this entire comment thread.

The bail outs stabilized the currency in lieu of massive wealth loss (e.g. toxic debt), while not adding to transnational costs because the returns were positive.

Most bitcoin evangelists fail to grasp the negative impact that volatility has on currencies, and instead think of bitcoins like assets, even hording them.