One of the recipients of Senator Manchin’s Bitcoin Ban letter (which Kyle Torpey of CCN dissects for misinformation here) has publicly responded. That recipient was none other than Chairwoman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors: Janet Yellen , but most people just call her Chair of the fed.
This morning, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs met to conduct a hearing on the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to Congress . The hearing was live streamed to a worldwide audience. During a question and answer session, Senator Manchin broached the topic of Bitcoin with Chairwoman Yellen and he received quite the response.
Rob Wile of BI , who was watching the event live, shared her words (emphasis mine) to the world:
“Bitcoin is a payment innovation that’s taking place outside the banking industry. To the best of my knowledge there’s no intersection at all, in any way, between Bitcoin and banks that the Federal Reserve has the ability to supervise and regulate. So the fed doesn’t have authority to supervise or regulate Bitcoin in anyway.
She went on, saying succinctly,
“One concern with Bitcoin is the potential for money laundering. [FinCen] has already indicated their money laundering statutes are adequate to meet enforcement needs.”
The full text of the Honorable Jante L. Yellen’s testimony at the hearing can be found here.
RelatedNews
Chairwoman of the Fed Janet Yellen was not the only important financial figure in US government to receive the letter from Senator Manchin. US Treasury Secretary Lew, Commissioner Curry, Acting Chairman Wetjen of the CFTC , Chairman Gruenberg of the FDIC, and Chairwoman White of the SEC also received the Bitcoin Ban letter. None of the other recipients of Senator Manchin’s letter have yet publicly informed him that they do not have the jurisdiction nor desire to “ban Bitcoin.”
Fed Versus Feds
This is for our international readers that are confused as all hell when politically ignorant Americans interchangeably use “Feds” and “The Feds” and “The Fed” to describe every three letter entity in the diaspora of United States government agencies.
“The Feds ” usually refers to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but in English English it is also a general slang term for police from all levels of government. It now becomes clear that the words “The Fed,” that we often hear in American action movies and TV shows, is often a specific reference to a particular federal agent and not the same meaning of “The Fed” as you would usually see it reported in media.
“The Fed ” refers to the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States, a “private” government institution that serves as the central bank of the United States with a most colorful history .
As always, stay tuned to CCN for fresh news!
