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There is nothing cryptic about Donald Trump’s endorsement of cryptocurrency. Four years ago, he said bitcoin was a “scam”. Now he wants to make America the “crypto capital of the world”. To see that as a U-turn is to miss how Trump works. The second statement follows naturally from the first.
唐纳德•特朗普对加密货币的支持并不神秘。四年前，他称比特币是“骗局”。现在，他想让美国成为“世界加密之都”。如果将此视为转变，那就误解了特朗普的行事方式。第二个声明是第一个声明的自然延续。
On Sunday, Trump said that five cryptocurrencies would be included on the US Federal Reserve’s balance sheet. America’s “crypto reserve” would include bitcoin, ethereum and three others (solana, cardano and XRP) that caught investors unawares. Whether David Sacks, Trump’s “crypto and AI czar”, whose investment firm has stakes in all five, was also surprised is a question for the Securities and Exchange Commission. Each surged in value following Trump’s announcement.
周日，特朗普表示，美国联邦储备(US Federal Reserve)的资产负债表将包括五种加密货币。美国的“加密储备”将包括比特币、以太坊和另外三种令投资者措手不及的加密货币（Solana、Cardano和XRP）。特朗普的“加密和人工智能沙皇”大卫•萨克斯(David Sacks)的投资公司在这五种加密货币中都有股份，他是否也感到惊讶是美国证券交易委员会需要回答的问题。特朗普的声明发布后，这些加密货币的价值均大幅上涨。
A few hours later, Trump scrapped America’s chief anti-money laundering measure — the rule that US shell companies must disclose their beneficial owner. The second move also flowed from his first. Last month, he shut down the Department of Justice’s anti-kleptocracy initiative, which has been seizing assets such as mega yachts from sanctioned Russian oligarchs.
几个小时后，特朗普废除了美国的主要反洗钱措施——要求美国空壳公司披露其受益所有者的规定。第二项举措也源于他的第一个决定。上个月，他关闭了美国司法部的反盗贼倡议，该倡议一直在没收受制裁的俄罗斯寡头的资产，如超级游艇。
The most striking aspect to these steps, which amount to a charter for criminals, is that Trump is making little attempt to dress them up. This pig has no lipstick. Trump and his wife Melania have launched their own memecoins. Trump’s alter ego, Elon Musk, is also a heavy crypto investor. Indeed, there is a non-cryptic clue in Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which shares an acronym with a cryptocurrency. One of Musk’s nicknames is “Dogefather”.
这些措施中最引人注目的方面是，它们几乎相当于为罪犯制定的宪章，而特朗普几乎没有试图掩饰。这头猪没有涂口红。特朗普和他的妻子梅拉尼娅推出了他们自己的迷因币。特朗普的另一个化身，埃隆•马斯克(Elon Musk)，也是一个重度加密货币投资者。事实上，马斯克所谓的政府效率部(Doge)中有一个不加密的线索，该部门的缩写与一种加密货币相同。马斯克的一个绰号是“狗狗币之父”。
No matter how chaotic Trump’s flurry of actions, a bright thread holds them together. France’s Louis XIV first summarised it as: “L’État, c’est moi.” Trump might update that to: “The State — it’s me (and Elon for now).” The planned launch of a crypto reserve is more transparent than most; the Fed would serve as backstop for investors in a speculative asset with no obvious use value except to criminals and the dark web. It will be an insurance floor for billionaires, including the Trump family. If crypto’s value falls, the Fed can step in and buy more.
无论特朗普的一系列行动多么混乱，都有一条清晰的主线将它们联系在一起。法国的路易十四(Louis XIV)曾总结为：“国家就是我。” 特朗普可能会更新为：“国家——就是我（目前还有埃隆）。” 计划推出的加密货币储备比大多数更为透明；美联储将为投资者在一种除了对罪犯和暗网有明显用途外没有其他明显使用价值的投机资产提供后盾。这将成为亿万富翁的保险底线，包括特朗普家族。如果加密货币的价值下跌，美联储可以介入并购买更多。
It is even harder to find a public value for anonymous limited liability companies. Complying with the Treasury anti-money laundering regulations involved filling in short forms and legally signing off. Trump claimed the rules were a “disaster for small businesses nationwide”. Better-informed FT readers might suggest a legitimate business that would disguise its ultimate ownership. I cannot think of one. It is worth recalling that a Reuters investigation in 2017 estimated that a third of the units in Trump’s Florida towers were anonymously owned. It also found that Russian passport holders had invested at least $98.4mn in Trump’s seven luxury-branded Florida towers.
要为匿名有限责任公司找到公共价值更是难上加难。遵守财政部的反洗钱规定需要填写简短的表格并合法签署。特朗普声称这些规定对全国的小企业来说是“灾难”。消息灵通的英国《金融时报》读者可能会建议一个合法的企业来掩盖其最终所有权。我想不出一个。值得回顾的是，路透社在2017年的一项调查估计，特朗普在佛罗里达的公寓中有三分之一的单位是匿名拥有的。调查还发现，持有俄罗斯护照的人至少在特朗普的七座佛罗里达豪华品牌大楼中投资了9840万美元。
It gets worse. Musk’s Doge operation aims to cut public spending by rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. His declared savings do not yet add up to a decimal rounding error. But Doge’s hit to US regulatory capacity is already significant. Thousands have also been fired from the Internal Revenue Service. If Doge’s goal was fiscal efficiency, it would be doing the opposite. For every dollar invested in tax collection, the IRS yields at least five in return. Ordinary taxpayers have their income deducted at source. Musk, whose company Tesla has paid no federal income taxes in two of the last three years, employs people to ensure collection day never arrives.
情况变得更糟。马斯克的Doge计划旨在通过根除浪费、欺诈和滥用来削减公共开支。他所宣称的节省金额甚至还不够一个小数点的四舍五入误差。但Doge对美国监管能力的打击已经相当显著。成千上万的人也被从美国国税局(IRS)解雇。如果Doge的目标是提高财政效率，那它正在做相反的事情。每投入一美元用于税收征管，美国国税局至少能带来五美元的回报。普通纳税人的收入在源头就被扣除。而马斯克的公司特斯拉(Tesla)在过去三年中有两年没有缴纳联邦所得税，他雇佣人手以确保永远不会到征税日。
The Washington landscape is littered with regulatory agencies in turmoil. But Musk’s impact on the Federal Aviation Administration deserves special citation. Without public bidding, Musk’s Starlink seems to be looking to take over the FAA’s air traffic control system. In the absence of Musk identifying waste, fraud and abuse, here is an example. A hostile takeover of the FAA by Starlink would be an abuse of power that involves probable waste and is quite possibly a fraud on the US taxpayer. It could also put air passengers in danger.
华盛顿的监管机构普遍动荡不安，但马斯克对美国联邦航空管理局(Federal Aviation Administration)的影响尤其值得关注。在没有公开招标的情况下，马斯克的星链似乎正试图接管美国联邦航空管理局的空中交通管制系统。即便马斯克未能识别浪费、欺诈和滥用，这里也有一个例子。星链对美国联邦航空管理局的敌意接管将是滥用权力，可能导致浪费，并很可能对美国纳税人构成欺诈。这也可能危及航空乘客的安全。
The idea that Trump is “flood[ing] the zone with shit” no longer makes sense when his actions all point in one direction. Even his foreign policy is driven by acquisition, whether that be turning the Gaza Strip into a Middle Eastern riviera, buying Greenland or taking Ukraine’s mineral resources. Trump’s crypto move threatens a similar predation on the US taxpayer — as do Musk’s conflicts of interest. All of this is occurring under America’s nose. Trump has subverted the role of the public servant. The US state now serves him.
当特朗普的所有行动都指向一个方向时，认为他在“用废话淹没局面”的想法已不再成立。即使是他的外交政策也受到收购的驱动，无论是将加沙变成中东的度假胜地，购买格陵兰，还是获取乌克兰的矿产资源。特朗普的加密货币举动对美国纳税人构成了类似的掠夺威胁——马斯克的利益冲突也是如此。所有这些都在美国眼皮底下发生。特朗普颠覆了公共服务者的角色。美国政府现在为他服务。
虚拟货币相关活动存在较大法律风险。请根据监管规范，注意甄别和远离非法金融活动，谨防个人财产和权益受损。