If Bitcoin Is Successful, ‘They’ll Kill It’
Founder of world’s largest hedge fund weighs in on cryptocurrency.
2 min
“I think at the end of the day if it’s really successful, they’ll kill it. And they’ll try to kill it. And I think they will kill it because they have ways of killing it. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a place—a value and so on.” – Ray Dalio
Ray Dalio, billionaire investor and founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, said that the more successful that Bitcoin becomes, the more likely that it will get neutralized by governments and regulators supporting traditional monetary systems.
In an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, Dalio reiterated comments that he has made in the past, repeating that governments have the power to undercut the growth of the nascent cryptocurrency market, including Bitcoin and Ether on the Ethereum blockchain, which may pose a threat to conventional finance and global central banks.
Dalio said that Bitcoin may not “have intrinsic value” but said that it could still be useful in a diversified portfolio. The hedge-fund manager said that he thinks it’s worth considering all the alternatives to cash and all the alternatives to some of the financial assets.
“I’m no expert on it … I think diversification matters,” he said. “Bitcoin has some merit,” he said.
“The real question is how much [does an investor] have in gold versus how much you have in Bitcoin,” he noted.
For his part, Dalio explained that he maintains “a certain amount of money in Bitcoin… it’s a small percentage of what I have in gold, which is a small percentage of what I have in my other assets.”
Dalio’s comments come as traditional markets are struggling to rise, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq Composite aiming to break a recent downbeat trend in trading.
Dalio, a prominent figure in the world of finance, has a networth of US$20 billion, according to Forbes.
In the past, Dalio, founder of the world’s largest hedge-fund firm, Bridgewater Associates, has said that he’s “very bullish” about crypto as a digital-clearing mechanism, perhaps referring to decentralized finance, or DeFi.
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Governments around the world are offering incentives to reverse a downward spiral that could threaten economic growth
2 min
The Australian birth rate is at a record low, new data has shown.
Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics have revealed there were 286,998 births registered around the country last year, or 1.5 babies per woman.
Birth rates in Australia have been in a slow decline since the 1990s, down from 1.86 births per woman in 1993. Declining fertility rates among girls and women aged 15 to 19 years was most stark, down two thirds, while for women aged 40 to 44 years, the rate had almost doubled.
“The long-term decline in fertility of younger mums as well as the continued increase in fertility of older mums reflects a shift towards later childbearing,” said Beidar Cho, ABS head of demography statistics. “Together, this has resulted in a rise in median age of mothers to 31.9 years, and a fall in Australia’s total fertility rate.”
The fall in the Australian birth rate is in keeping with worldwide trends, with the United States also seeing fertility rates hit a 32-year low. The Lancet reported earlier this year that, based on current trends, by 2100 more than 97 percent of the world’s countries and territories “will have fertility rates below what is necessary to sustain population size over time”.
On a global scale, the Lancet reported that the total fertility rate had “more than halved over the past 70 years” from about five children per female in the 1950s to 2.2 children in 2021. In countries such as South Korea and Serbia, the rate is already less than 1.1 child for each female.
Governments around the world have tried to incentivise would-be parents, offering money, increased access to childcare and better paid maternity leave.
Experts have said without additional immigration, lower birth rates and an ageing population in Australia could put further pressure on young people, threaten economic growth and create economic uncertainty. However, a study released earlier this year by the University of Canberra showed the cost of raising a child to adulthood was between $474,000 and $1,097,000.
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Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.
