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Browsing Technical Reports by Author "Ahmed, Thamin"
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Publication Cryptocurrencies and the future of money. Going beyond the hype: how can digital currencies serve society?(IE University, 2020-03-27) Seiferling, Mike; Ahmed, Thamin; ElBahrawy, Abeer Yehia; Chan, Keith; Padilha, Tales; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Since their inception in 2008 and the subsequent enthusiasm, media attention, delusion, reflection, and continuous innovation, ‘cryptocurrencies’ have become one of the most interesting and perhaps most misunderstood phenomena of the early 21st century. Their popularity and potential for ‘disrupting’ and improving traditional financial systems, however, have led to an expanding list of media commentaries, research papers, and policy reports. Unfortunately, many of these contributions have tended to focus on the contemporary positivist side of cryptocurrency without considering the normative intentions of its creators or, perhaps more importantly, the historical context under which money and monetary systems have evolved. These contributions have also tended to focus on digital money from a single disciplinary viewpoint (computer science, economics, finance) without a great deal of consideration or integration of the valuable inputs from other perspectives. The idea of money has evolved continously over time. In the context of the technological innovations of the 21st century, it has become a phenomenon with a wider range of feasible possibilities, some of which were in fact proposed as far back as the early 20th century. To give some idea of the new range of types of money, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published a series of taxonomies including the ‘money flower’ and more general taxonomies that distinguish between central bank-issued currencies (which are a liability on the central bank balance sheet) and private-sector issued digital currencies (which are not the liability of anyone). Within this wider context, there exists a variety of types of money, each of which has different underlying characteristics, or attributes. Introduction/ Preface widely accessibleComplete reportPublication Cryptocurrencies and the future of money. Money and trust in Argentina(IE Center for the Governance of Change, 2020-03-27) Seiferling, Mike; Ahmed, Thamin; ElBahrawy, Abeer Yehia; Chan, Keith; Padilha, Tales; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75It is hard to believe, but less than a century ago the US and Argentina were rivals, competing to become the economic powerhouse of the new world. In fact, a recent study by the Maddison Project1 indicates that, in the years of 1895 and 1896, Argentina was the country with the highest GDP per capita in the world. The economic fall of Argentina over the last century has been the focus of many studies in different areas of economics in what became known as the ‘Argentine Paradox’: when a developed country experiences a reversal, while the rest of the world is growing. Argentina has faced several crises over the last few decades. Between 1998-2002, Argentina went through the worst recession of its recent history. In December 2001, in a climate of political and social unrest, the country partially defaulted in its international obligations. In the following month, it abandoned the convertibility of the Argentine Peso to the US Dollar; a regime that had been in place since 1991.Publication Cryptocurrencies and the future of money. Money and trust in Brazil(IE Center for the Governance of Change, 2020-03-27) Seiferling, Mike; Ahmed, Thamin; ElBahrawy, Abeer Yehia; Chan, Keith; Padilha, Tales; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Fiat money has had a complicated history in Latin America. Still, Brazil can be considered one of the success stories of the region. Because of mismanagement of government finances, Brazil faced a period of hyperinflation in the late 80s and early 90s. Different orthodox and unorthodox plans were attempted from 1986 to 1991, with no success in tackling inflation. Finally, in 1994 when inflation was hitting 5000% a year, a group of economists working in the ministry of finance managed to implement the ‘Plano Real’ and give credibility to its currency, the Brazilian Real. Since 1994, Brazil has lived a period of stability from a currency perspective and trust in the central bank. The country has now lived for more than 25 years of fairly stable inflation and the Brazilian Real still maintains the same denomination that it had in 1994, making the it the longest living currency the country has had since its imperial money.Publication Cryptocurrencies and the future of money. Money and trust in France(IE Center for the Governance of Change, 2020-03-27) Seiferling, Mike; Ahmed, Thamin; ElBahrawy, Abeer Yehia; Chan, Keith; Padilha, Tales; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75The euro was established by the provisions of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, and is now the official currency of 19 of the 28 member states of the European Union, including France. It has replaced the previous French currency, French franc, which ceased to be convertible to euros by 2012. As of today, the euro is the secondlargest reserve currency as well as the second-most traded currency in the world after the US dollar. The euro has even surpassed the US dollar and become the currency with the highest values of banknotes and coins in circulation in the world. From the charts below, we can see that money supply and consumer prices, in both pre and post euro eras, have experienced a fairly stable increase over the 1980–2018 period.Publication Cryptocurrencies and the future of money. Money and trust in Germany(IE Center for the Governance of Change, 2020-03-27) Seiferling, Mike; Ahmed, Thamin; ElBahrawy, Abeer Yehia; Chan, Keith; Padilha, Tales; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75The euro was established by the provisions of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, and is now the official currency of 19 of the 28 member states of the European Union, including Germany. It has replaced the previous German currency, Deutsche mark, which ceased to be convertible to euros by 2002. As of today, the euro is the secondlargest reserve currency as well as the second-most traded currency in the world after the US dollar. The euro has even surpassed the US dollar and become the currency with the highest values of banknotes and coins in circulation in the world. As can be seen in Figures 1 and 2 below, the supply of money since 1980 (during both pre and post euro periods) and has a steady increase with stable increase in consumer prices (CPI)Publication Cryptocurrencies and the future of money. Money and trust in Mexico(IE Center for the Governance of Change, 2020-03-27) Seiferling, Mike; Ahmed, Thamin; ElBahrawy, Abeer Yehia; Chan, Keith; Padilha, Tales; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75As official legal tender in Mexico, Canada and the United States until the mid-1800s, the Mexican Peso is one of the oldest currencies in North America. Today, Mexico’s currency is the 15th most traded in the world, and is the the most traded of all Latin American countries1 . This reflects the strength of both the Mexican economy and it’s currency. The current denomination of the Mexican Peso comes from 1993, when, after the high inflation of the late 80s, president Carlos Gortari stripped three zeros from the Peso creating the Nuevo Peso (New Peso). In 1996, the word Nuevo (new) was removed and the currency was once again named Peso (without changing its denomination). Although Mexico faced periods of high inflation during the mid-90s, with almost 35% of annual inflation in 1995 and 1996, this can’t be compared with the hyperinflation of other Latin American countries (Argentina and Brazil) during the 90s. Therefore, we can say that, overall, since the implementation of the New Peso in 1993, Mexico’s currency has been fairly stable, helping to boost the country’s economic development in the 21st centuryPublication Cryptocurrencies and the future of money. Money and trust in Spain(IE Center for the Governance of Change, 2020-03-27) Seiferling, Mike; Ahmed, Thamin; ElBahrawy, Abeer Yehia; Chan, Keith; Padilha, Tales; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75The euro was established by the provisions of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, and is now the official currency of 19 of the 28 member states of the European Union, including Spain. It has replaced the previous Spanish currency, Spanish peseta, which will cease to be convertible to euros by 2020. As of today, the euro is the second-largest reserve currency as well as the second-most traded currency in the world after the US dollar. The euro has even surpassed the US dollar and become the currency with the highest values of banknotes and coins in circulation in the world. As can be seen in the figures below, the supply of money since 1980 (during both pre and post euro periods) and has a steady increase with stable increase in consumer prices (CPI).Publication Cryptocurrencies and the future of money. Money and trust in the UK(IE Center for the Governance of Change, 2020-03-27) Seiferling, Mike; Ahmed, Thamin; ElBahrawy, Abeer Yehia; Chan, Keith; Padilha, Tales; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75Much like the US Dollar, the British Pound has a unique place in the world. The is largely due to a combination of a long lived and “robust institutional framework” and the sterling’s monopoly as legal tender in the UK which “sets a very high bar for competing forms of money to dislodge sterling.” (Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England)1 . We can see evidence of this responsibly managed money growth in the fiat currency era and stable inflation in the figures below.Publication Cryptocurrencies and the future of money. Money and trust in the USA(IE Center for the Governance of Change, 2020-03-27) Seiferling, Mike; Ahmed, Thamin; ElBahrawy, Abeer Yehia; Chan, Keith; Padilha, Tales; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75The US Dollar has a unique place in the world. It is a reserve currency of most central banks, the currency of settlement for a large number of contracts, and widely trusted by the international community. The established independence of a highly professionalized Federal Reserve has allowed for the US Dollar to maintain this unique dominance through responsible management of money supply.