A whole set of theatrics for the commoners who still use cash, meanwhile we just press some buttons and poof a billion dollars appears out of thin air in your account (if you're rich enough).
You're right, it's much better to use payment methods that track my wants, needs, desires, habits, location, companions, financial status, political and religious preferences; and then weaponizes it against me. Stupid commoners and their freedom.
Their stance is that the average citizen is made to jump through hoops to get their cash replaced, while major players are handed money freely. The "commoners" appellation is sarcastic.
One has to do with replacing damage cash, the other with control over the money supply.
Short term, often overnight, but some are 7 days
Fully collaterialized, with good collateral like treasury bills
Interest bearing
So it seems to me like risk free money is to be made here, and sure, there's a market failure if there aren't enough private lenders, but why is it a problem for the government to step in?
The grandparent has a point but he's barking at the wrong tree. It's all about the artificially low interest rates, world wide. Money supply is a prisoner of rates. Let's see how this setup unwinds...
Consider this: "France's Richest Man Gets a Free Lunch From the ECB" https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-07/louis-...
Or this: "All-star economists urge Fed to use QE and ‘new tools’ to fight next recession — just move sooner and go bigger than crisis" https://www.marketwatch.com/story/all-star-economists-urge-f...
It does seem as if an identical-ish puff piece finds its way through the aggregators at least quarterly. I think the actual content of the story is irrelevant enough and I have some misgivings about attributing nefarious motives to this participial puff piece, but I do take issue with the kinds of non-story this article represents, and the collection distraction that journalism as infotainment represents (being neither truly informative, nor particularly entertaining).