Zoltan Pozsar, Who Just Left Credit Suisse, Addresses the Issues Facing the Dollar in 2023, the Federal Reserve and Bitcoin

zoltan possar, who until recently Worked as managing director of investment bank Credit Suisse, offering his insight into financial markets and issues weakening the dollar’s dominance around the world.

In his role at Credit Suisse, Posser’s insight into the legacy financial system and market dynamics was highly sought after. His recent departure from the bank comes shortly after It was bought by UBS in March As an attempt to save it from collapse amid existential turmoil for banks around the world. On stage at Bitcoin 2023, Poser addressed how US banks have been affected.

“This is basically an episode where the big banks are largely insulated from problems,” Pozser said. “It’s basically a lesson in not being able to ride interest rate risk, not knowing how to make a loan that will weather a rising interest rate storm.”

He described the Federal Reserve’s responses to these banking failures as only addressing “half the problem”.

“I think it’s like foaming the runway for any big bank, which could be a problem down the road,” he said.

Poser was interviewed on stage by BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, who pressed him on whether he owned any bitcoin.

“I don’t have any,” replied Pozser. “I’m looking at it. I don’t like to get into things I don’t understand very well.

Poser outlined his pessimism that bitcoin could ever truly function as money, as his historical research has shown him that money must have direct ties to the government in order to bear fruit. As a fundamentally decentralized, peer-to-peer network, bitcoin cannot be backed by money that fits its definition.

“The one thing I would say about bitcoin is that money, if you will, is a completely public or public-private partnership,” Poser explained. “When I look at bitcoin, it is a completely private initiative. It clearly lacks a state link. But again, things are developing, there are many countries that have adopted bitcoin as legal tender. So things are definitely in flux.

Posser has underlined this in his writings The emerging role that bitcoin is playing around the world as institution-backed money like the US dollar weakens, On Bitcoin 2023, he listed several global market trends, including the growing economic power of China, which is threatening its role as the global reserve currency.

“There are a lot of changes happening that I think we need to keep an eye on because it’s all going to be at the expense of the dollar portion of commodity finance, trade finance, shares of reserve assets and so on,” Pozsar said.