Thread by @HiddenForcesPod

Today's international monetary system is the result of four hundred years of consolidation in banking networks, clearing houses, and exchanges. The destruction brought about by WWII laid the foundation for a new, gold-backed system of fixed exchange rates that arguably...

…represents the closest humans have ever come to creating truly global money. At this year's Jackson Hole Symposium, Governor of the @bankofengland Mark Carney, gave a speech in which he acknowledged the challenges facing the current international monetary system of floating...

…exchange rates backed by the US Dollar as the de facto global reserve standard. Pointing to the recent announcement of Facebook's "Libra" - a stablecoin, digital payments infrastructure backed by a basket of currencies - the Governor openly pondered whether "such a new...

…Synthetic Hegemonic Currency (SHC) would be best provided by the public sector, perhaps through a network of central bank digital currencies." His conclusion, though open-ended, was nonetheless clear on one point: "...monetary history suggests that this centre won’t hold."

The question before all of us is: "Are we on the cusp of a transformation in the international monetary system, and if so, what form is it likely to take?" Will it resemble the chaos of the interwar period or will we see a consolidation similar to that of the post-WWII period?

Or, is there a third-way? Could we see the emergence of a global standard whose value is derived independently of governments? Could that be Bitcoin? Could it be a privately issued currency like Libra or some cryptocurrency backed by the world's largest, private corporations?

This is a question we openly pondered ourselves in a recent episode w/@RaoulGMI on "The Future of Global Money." It is the biggest trade of our generation. Getting it right may be the single most important decision that you will ever make in your lifetime.