“Black Swan” Author Nassim Taleb Calls Bitcoin “Tumor”

In a recent interview with CNBC, Lebanese-American statistician and risk analyst Nassim Nicholas Taleb slammed Bitcoin as a “tumor.”

Taleb claims that the largest cryptocurrency was able to metastasize because of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s highly accommodative monetary policy that he likens to Disneyland.

“I think that we’ve had 15 years…of Disneyland that basically has destroyed the economic structure…The Fed overshot by lowering interest rates too much.”

The near-zero interest rate policy led to the creation of various market bubbles, according to Taleb.

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The “Black Swan” author says that it is now time to go back to a normal economic life.

The fact that Bitcoin is still trading at the $20,000 level means that there are still some things that need to be “corrected.”

The original cryptocurrency thrived in the era of low-interest rates. Its launch came shortly after former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke slashed interest rates close to zero in order to stimulate the economy in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Crypto rode the gravy train all the way to 2022, the year the Fed started to aggressively hike interest rates in order to combat inflation.

Hotter-than-expected core consumer price index (CPI) data prompted the market to price in the possibility of a 100-basis-point hike in September.