J.P. Koning
Fellow, Sound Money Project
J.P. Koning is a financial writer and blogger with interests in monetary economics, economic history, finance, and fintech. He has worked as an equity researcher at a Canadian brokerage firm and a financial writer and publisher at a large Canadian bank. More recently, he has written several papers for R3, a distributed ledger company, on the topics of central bank cryptocurrency and cross border payments. He founded the popular blog Moneyness in 2012. He designs economics and financial wallcharts at Financial Graph & Art.
Koning earned his B.A. in Economics from McGill University.
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Bitcoin Financial Literacy and Crypto-Twitter
“It is sad to see an excited gambler sell their house to go all-in on a longshot, whether that be on lottery tickets or on cryptocurrencies. It is shameful to encourage such behaviors. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are a game. Play responsibly.” ~ J.P. Koning
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Citibank’s $900 Million Mistake and the Finality of Payments
“Cases like Citbank’s $900 million mispayment and $846,000 bank drafts stuck in financial limbo make for interesting stories. But keep in mind that the participants in these transactions are the accidental victims of a payments system that provides hard finality. What is unseen is the huge amount of trade that the certainty of hard finality…
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AMPLs and YAMs aren’t Monies; They are Gambling Technologies
“It’s hard to see why AMPL or YAM could ever replace a dollar. While the price of these tokens is relatively benign, their quantity fluctuates wildly. So the total purchasing power of AMPLs (or YAMs) held in one’s wallet is quite volatile despite the purchasing power of a given AMPL (or YAM) being stable. Put…
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So-Called Stablecoins
“Regular consumers are slowly becoming more interested in financial privacy. But they shouldn’t have to rely on systems that ignore the law. A more durable solution is to work towards changing those laws.” ~ J.P. Koning
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What Can Be Done to Remedy the Coin Shortage?
“The US Mint could focus all of its resources on producing dimes and quarters, not silly pennies. This would put an end to the US’s coin shortage, almost immediately.” ~ J.P. Koning
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Should Those Passing Counterfeits be Treated like Counterfeiters?
“It seems odd that the crime of uttering currency is considered to be so grave an offense in this day and age. Reducing the punishment might cause law enforcement officers to approach cases of uttering as they do other less serious, non-violent offenses.” ~ J.P. Koning
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It’s Time for a Taxpayer Debit Card
“Distributing EIP cards instead of checks should reduce the government’s costs of paying relief, speed up the payments pipeline, and provide Americans with a cheaper way of accessing funds than going to check cashing outlets.” ~ J.P. Konig
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Negative Interest Rates: A Free Market Phenomenon
Negative interest rates are not unnatural. They are a regular phenomenon in unregulated free markets.
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Why Relief Payments Are So Slow to Arrive
The Federal government has started sending relief funds to Americans. But, according to the New York Times editorial board, it is not doing so quickly enough. “The government has made matters worse by dawdling,” it writes. The editorial board is right. Americans have been promised $1,200 in relief funds. But it took almost a week…
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Cash Is King in COVID-19
We’re still early in this crisis, so who knows what patterns in cash demand will emerge. But for now, cash is filling its normal role as alleviator of uncertainty. To cope with the turmoil, people are withdrawing a bit more of the stuff. And that’s fine!
-
•
Bitcoin Financial Literacy and Crypto-Twitter
“It is sad to see an excited gambler sell their house to go all-in on a longshot, whether that be on lottery tickets or on cryptocurrencies. It is shameful to encourage such behaviors. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are a game. Play responsibly.” ~ J.P. Koning
-
•
Citibank’s $900 Million Mistake and the Finality of Payments
“Cases like Citbank’s $900 million mispayment and $846,000 bank drafts stuck in financial limbo make for interesting stories. But keep in mind that the participants in these transactions are the accidental victims of a payments system that provides hard finality. What is unseen is the huge amount of trade that the certainty of hard finality…
-
•
AMPLs and YAMs aren’t Monies; They are Gambling Technologies
“It’s hard to see why AMPL or YAM could ever replace a dollar. While the price of these tokens is relatively benign, their quantity fluctuates wildly. So the total purchasing power of AMPLs (or YAMs) held in one’s wallet is quite volatile despite the purchasing power of a given AMPL (or YAM) being stable. Put…
-
•
So-Called Stablecoins
“Regular consumers are slowly becoming more interested in financial privacy. But they shouldn’t have to rely on systems that ignore the law. A more durable solution is to work towards changing those laws.” ~ J.P. Koning
-
•
What Can Be Done to Remedy the Coin Shortage?
“The US Mint could focus all of its resources on producing dimes and quarters, not silly pennies. This would put an end to the US’s coin shortage, almost immediately.” ~ J.P. Koning
-
•
Should Those Passing Counterfeits be Treated like Counterfeiters?
“It seems odd that the crime of uttering currency is considered to be so grave an offense in this day and age. Reducing the punishment might cause law enforcement officers to approach cases of uttering as they do other less serious, non-violent offenses.” ~ J.P. Koning
-
•
It’s Time for a Taxpayer Debit Card
“Distributing EIP cards instead of checks should reduce the government’s costs of paying relief, speed up the payments pipeline, and provide Americans with a cheaper way of accessing funds than going to check cashing outlets.” ~ J.P. Konig
-
•
Negative Interest Rates: A Free Market Phenomenon
Negative interest rates are not unnatural. They are a regular phenomenon in unregulated free markets.
-
•
Why Relief Payments Are So Slow to Arrive
The Federal government has started sending relief funds to Americans. But, according to the New York Times editorial board, it is not doing so quickly enough. “The government has made matters worse by dawdling,” it writes. The editorial board is right. Americans have been promised $1,200 in relief funds. But it took almost a week…
-
•
Cash Is King in COVID-19
We’re still early in this crisis, so who knows what patterns in cash demand will emerge. But for now, cash is filling its normal role as alleviator of uncertainty. To cope with the turmoil, people are withdrawing a bit more of the stuff. And that’s fine!