The End of Money and the Struggle for Financial Privacy

Technology has fast outpaced governments' ability to maintain control of electronic finance. Advances in fiberoptics, encryption, and smart-card technologies make it ever easier to transfer funds from one person to another anywhere around the globe almost instantaneously, and without the use of paper and coins. Global financial networks and systems allow any asset whose value is recognized and guaranteed by a reliable financial institution to be instantly transferred from one person to another.

Private institutions are already developing "digital dollars" that will someday reduce transaction costs and monetary instability, thus leading to grater economic efficiency and higher standards of living. Unfortunately, this new world f digital money is fiercely resisted by many government officials. The full benefits of digital money will not be realized unless people are left free to move their financial assets around the globe in a private fashion.

He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1972, taught in several graduate schools and served as head of the graduate Department of Management of the Polytechnic University of New York. During the 1980s, he was Vice President and Chief Economist of the US Chamber of Commerce, helping to shape important tax reforms of that decade. He served as an economic advisor to US and foreign government officials and coordinated several economic transition teams in Eastern Europe.

Dr. Rahn is a frequent commentator on economic issues in the news media and has testified before the US Congress on tax and economic policy issues more than seventy-five times.

He works in Washington, D.C. and lives in Northern Virginia. In addition to his business role and Discovery Institute position, he serves as an adjunct scholar of Cato Institute and an adjunct fellow of Hudson Institute.