Central Bank Wise to Move Cautiously with Digital Currency, Event Hears

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2022 – The Federal Reserve is “very wisely moving cautiously” about whether to adopt a central bank digital currency, an American Enterprise Institute event heard Tuesday, as other countries move forward on adopting the latest financial instrument.

“The Fed has been approaching this in a very sagacious manner by putting out the issue for public debate, thinking about the pros and cons and arguing that they will not move forward unless there is broad political and public support. But, I think the reality is this is where we are going, and it’s going to be in some ways an interesting world,” said economist and author Eswar Prasad, who published a book last year called, “The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance.”

“The world of CBDCs is going to be an interesting one,” Prasad said at the think tank event. “And this is certainly what we are moving towards.”

The current conversation surrounding CBDCs in America, which would ride on a digital ledger called the blockchain and are backed by the nation’s dollar, is delayed in comparison with other developed countries that have already made strides in government adoption of federal currencies.

“Among the advanced economies, Sweden’s Riksbank seems nearly dead-set on issuing an e-crono, while the Bank of England, European Central Bank and Bank of Canada are giving CBDCs serious consideration. The Fed seems a little bit more uncertain about it,” Steven Kamin, senior fellow at the AEI, said at the event.

At a Federalist Society event last Thursday, academics argued that such digital currencies backed by other currencies, such as stablecoins, can improve financial inclusion. It has also been said previously that these digital currencies could expedite federal payments to citizens. And because they’re backed by the government, there is a perceived added level of security and trust.

The panelists’ discussion also veered into the developments of China’s CBDCs, which are “nearly operational,” according to Kamin. This could potentially be problematic as the US economy is already grappling with the effects of China being a world leader in the manufacturing and distribution of semiconductors, a key product of important technology.

Experts have previously said that, if the U.S. is to remain competitive on the international cryptocurrency scene, the government must take key steps to solidify its digital currency systems.