Zoltan Pozsar, who Until now He served as Managing Director of the investment bank Credit Suisse, providing his insights into financial markets and the issues weakening the dominance of the dollar around the world.
In his role at Credit Suisse, Bouzar’s insight into the ins and outs of the old financial system and market dynamics was much needed. His final departure from the bank came soon after It was purchased by UBS in March as an attempt to prevent it from collapsing amid the existential turmoil of banks around the world. On stage at Bitcoin 2023, Pozsar addressed how US banks will be affected.
“This is basically an episode where the big banks are pretty much insulated from trouble,” Bozar said. “It’s basically lessons in not being able to take interest rate risk, not knowing how to make a loan that weathers the storm of rising interest rates.”
He described the Fed’s responses to these bank failures as addressing only “half the problem”.
“I think it’s like foaming the runway for any of the big banks that might have problems down the road,” he added.
Pozsar was interviewed on stage by BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, who pressed him on whether he owned any bitcoin.
Bozar replied, “I don’t have any of it.” “I keep an eye on it. I don’t like to get caught up in things I don’t understand very well.”
Bozar made clear his pessimism that bitcoins can serve as money, as his historical research showed that money would have to have a direct connection with the government in order to be endorsed. As an essentially decentralized, peer-to-peer network, Bitcoin has not been able to support funds that fit its definition.
“The only thing I would say about bitcoin is that money, if you will, is a purely public thing or a public-private partnership,” Bozar explained. “When I look at Bitcoin, it’s a purely private initiative. It clearly lacks state linkage. But again, things are evolving, and there are a number of countries that have adopted bitcoin as legal tender, so things are definitely in flux.”
In his writings, Pozsar emphasized The evolving role Bitcoin is playing around the world as institutional backed funds like the US dollar get weaker. In Bitcoin 2023, he listed several global market trends, including the rising economic power of China, which threatens its role as the global reserve currency.
“There are a number of changes that are happening that I think we need to watch because all of that is going to be at the expense of the dollar share of commodity financing, trade financing, share of reserve assets and so forth,” Bozar said.