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U.S. bans transactions with Venezuela's digital currency
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order barring any U.S.-based financial transactions involving Venezuela's new petro cryptocurrency, as U.S. officials warned that it was a "scam" by President Nicolas Maduro's government to further undermine democracy in the OPEC country.
"The 'petro' is a desperate effort by a corrupt regime to defraud international investors," a senior U.S. administration official told reporters, strongly warning that any transactions in the petro digital currency would violate U.S. sanctions. "Investing in the 'petro' should be viewed as directly supporting this dictatorship and its attempts to undermine the democratic order in Venezuela," the official added.
Trump's order bars "all transactions related to, provision of financing for, and other dealings in, by a United States person or within the United States, any digital currency, digital coin, or digital token," issued by Venezuela's government since Jan. 9, the White House said in a statement.
Also at the New York Times.
Previously: Enter the "Petro": Venezuela to Launch Oil-Backed Cryptocurrency
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @02:57PM (13 children)
I suppose you would have argued that Uncle Sam never prevented people from drinking beer, only added cost to doing so; you just had to fly to Europe if you wanted a pint during PROHIBITION (it's in the name), amirite?
Your comments are only ever insightful in that they are a good case study in fallacious thinking—endless examples of how intelligent people can delude themselves by all manner of rationalization.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Wednesday March 21 2018, @03:45PM (12 children)
I can sit here in los estados unidos and trade in assets converted to/from El Petro Venezolano, really no need to fly to europe. I can probably do it in my pajamas in front of a laptop. Might do some of that pretty soon, in fact, given that this announcement will probably have a temporary negative effect on the value of El Petro and thus make this a good time to "buy".
I am not saying "khallow is a genius" (that's not at issue here), merely pointing out that his point is a valid one, and yours isn't.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @04:01PM (5 children)
I have no idea why you think you've said anything useful.
You've neither rebutted the other AC's point nor bolstered khallow's "point". You also haven't raised any point of your own, except for a straw man argument that suggests you don't understand what the other AC is saying.
It's very strange. Very strange.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 21 2018, @06:16PM (4 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:24PM (3 children)
It's totally irrelevant that you can brew beer in the dark secrecy of your basement. It's still the case that Uncle Sam outlawed Beer.
There is a fundamental dispute over ownership of some resources; Uncle Sam has unilaterally declared Himself the owner of said resources, against the will of people who thought those resources were their capital.* That is not only a failure to follow Capitalism, but it's also an explicit breach of Capitalism.
* These resources include the U.S. dollars that people have; Trump has commandeered some rights over the usage of those dollars.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 21 2018, @08:53PM (2 children)
The US didn't similarly outlaw the trade of Petros (which let us note, an executive order (EO) is not a law!), but rather that the US side can't handle the Petros directly. It remains not only easy, but legal to trade in many other currencies like the dollar and Euro to which those Petros can be easily converted by another party not subject to this EO.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @09:26PM (1 child)
"That's not Law!" Why do you always take this dumb position?
When people say that an EO is "not" law, that is just shorthand for saying than EO can be overturned by any President and does not require the much more complicated deliberative process of Congress.
Yet, an EO is written within the framework established by law; it has the full force of law. An EO is just the President writing into the blank space that Congress has left for that purpose. It's the law of the fucking land.
In any case, that's all irrelevant (as usual), because the point remains that such an EO is an example of anti-Capitalism.
It's not at all clear that it would be considered by the Executive branch to be perfectly legal to transact via intermediaries who are not subject to the EO; indeed, history has shown that such "structuring" is considered to be highly illegal.
Such restrictions tend to be transitive.
Your position is just stupid. Give it up.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 22 2018, @12:04AM
Truth is an absolute defense against accusations of stupidity. The law in question was passed by Congress [akingump.com]. The EO merely interprets that law in a straightforward manner.
As I noted earlier, a very easy to circumvent point which means it is not significantly anti-anything.
And you have to yet to mention why that would be "structuring". Look, we both know that one can "consider" anything to be anything. But why will that hold up in the courts?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @04:04PM (5 children)
They both have points, though khallow is the stupider one. Obviously people can break the law, that doesn't change the actions of the US.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 21 2018, @05:11PM (4 children)
But wait, the other party merely needs to convert those Petros into some other currency, like dollars, Euros, or even bitcoins, and then the transaction may proceed. It adds some cost to the transaction from the cost of the conversion, but that's it.
I think the only thing stupid about that is not thinking about how easy it would be to do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @05:36PM (3 children)
You should have just told us directly that you have no idea what's going on here; it would have saved us all a bunch of time.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 21 2018, @06:15PM (2 children)
Why are you still typing? I explained my reasoning adequately last post. There's nothing you can add at this point that is relevant. Being territorial is the way of animals not rational men.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 21 2018, @09:49PM (1 child)
Part of the fun with posting AC is seeing other people take up the argument, I was not "still typing". You seem incapable of understanding the issue of legality here, probably because you don't want to fully confront the fact that Trump is an authoritarian dickbag destroying the US.
As for whining, that seems to be your purview. I called your point stupid and you're the one doing mental gymnastics to try and salvage your dignity.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 22 2018, @12:04AM
Maybe that's true, maybe it's not.