2017-10-11

IMF's Christine Lagarde: How We Regulate Tech Needs To Be Reinvented

IMF Director Christine Lagarde: How We Regulate Tech Needs To Be Reinvented

CNBC video above published Oct 6, 2017: IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde talks about regulating big tech, and bitcoin, with CNBC.com's Sara Eisen.

Big Tech's power remains unchallenged

Financial Times (ft.com) video above published Sep 19, 2017: Rana Foroohar, the FT's global business columnist, examines the implications of the dominance of Big Tech groups like Google, Amazon and Facebook for competition ( antitrust, monopoly), for innovation and for the health of democracy. Slide:
source: S&P Global
Transcript of Lagarde interview (YouTube.com auto-generated):
00:00  IMF Managing Director Christine
00:01  Lagarde laying out her policy agenda in
00:04  a speech ahead of the IMF annual
00:05  meetings next week I got a chance to sit
00:07  down with her for an exclusive interview
00:08  yesterday asked about the increasing
00:10  regulatory and political pressure on big
00:13  tech everything from taxes to fake news
00:16  under the microscope I asked her whether
00:17  companies like Google and Facebook
00:18  actually deserve more regulatory
00:21  scrutiny I think the way in which they
00:25  operate and the value that they generate
00:29  the activity from needs to be looked at
00:32  and I would hope that this can be done
00:34  in cooperation with them you know value
00:38  that is driven by data by information by
00:41  pattern of consumption that we volunteer
00:44  in a way without really us knowing about
00:46  it
00:47  determines the value of what they can
00:50  offer in terms of service services and
00:52  clearly revenue needs to be contributed
00:55  by those companies where it is
00:58  contributed how it is defined
01:00  how intellectual property is going to be
01:02  used as a basis to allocate revenues and
01:06  base taxation on all these things are
01:10  being need to be reinvented and I hope
01:14  that dialogue takes place rather than
01:16  you know harsh adversarial debates have
01:21  they become too powerful competition law
01:25  is there to actually deal with it why
01:27  don't you also ask you about your
01:28  comments which made a lot of waves last
01:30  week on Bitcoin you said could
01:32  ultimately give central bank's a run for
01:33  their money
01:34  mm-hmm so with countries like China and
01:37  Korea this week cracking down is that a
01:40  mistake not to embrace it you know what
01:43  what the Chinese authorities have
01:44  decided is to just ban the initial
01:49  offering of bitcoins and I think that
01:52  they've done that on the basis of the
01:53  analysis that it was at least strongly
01:55  dominated by you know speculation and
01:58  Ponzi like schemes which is certainly
02:02  showing that they are paying attention
02:04  you know when you look at a country like
02:06  like Kenya for instance where transfers
02:08  where taxes being paid totally digitally
02:11  when you look at the way in which
02:13  you know some civil servants are paid
02:15  also totally electronically and and and
02:18  without leakages in the system as is the
02:20  case in some of the developing countries
02:22  when I look at my own country where you
02:25  know of all transactions between you
02:29  know my compatriots and and and the the
02:32  Treasury Department is all now on
02:35  digital support I think there are
02:37  massive changes taking place at the
02:39  moment which everybody needs to be
02:41  attentive to would you ever buy any for
02:43  yourself
02:44  no I didn't and it's too expensive for
02:46  me at the moment we're seeing the guard
02:49  headline Bitcoin is too expensive at the
02:51  moment but seriously her comments about
02:53  the new digital economy and payment
02:55  system and and phrasing that off of the
02:58  question about whether central banks and
03:00  governments should embrace Bitcoin to me
03:03  is a very powerful statement from the
03:05  head of the International Monetary Fund
03:08  especially in light of some other recent
03:10  comments from big bankers completely
03:13  dismissing the idea as a fraud well look
03:14  JPMorgan thinks it's a fraud Bank of
03:17  America thinks it's a terrible idea we
03:18  talked to to see your professor there
03:20  and then Goldman Sachs on the other side
03:22  may be trying to either create a market
03:24  or mining it or who knows what the plan
03:26  is so it's there's everybody's coming on
03:28  in a different side she really raises an
03:30  important question though around how
03:33  taxation needs to change in this digital
03:36  era you've got huge companies like
03:37  Google Facebook they don't make stuff
03:39  like the old manufacturing companies
03:40  everybody knew how to tax those who has
03:42  the convening power to bring those
03:45  companies and others to the table so
03:46  they don't end up saying well whatever
03:48  proposal the EU has or the US has or
03:50  whomever it's unfair who's gonna bring
03:52  all these folks together at a table I
03:54  don't know and I think also that the
03:55  point on privacy is related and that it
03:58  has to be looked at and it has to be I
04:01  think her point was in conjunction with
04:02  the companies and not just regulators
04:05  starting to put all sorts of new rules
04:07  and and stricter sort of laws around
04:09  this right well let's try to figure this
04:11  out

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