Gary Shilling explains why he won’t invest in bitcoin


Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin can make an attractive investment for many people on Wall Street. But famed financial analyst Gary Shilling, president of A. Gary Shilling & Company says that this emerging currency is too opaque and complicated for him to invest. The following is a transcript of the video.

Gary Shilling: It’s a black box and I’m not a believer in black boxes. I recently met with a friend of mine, a West Coast venture capitalist. He was very early on this. He’s made a lot of money on this and so on. I cornered him at a cocktail party and I said:

“Now listen, I want you to explain to me what this really is.”

“Well you know, ok it’s a controlled deal and these minters. There’s only so many of them.”

And I said: “How about the guys behind this?”

“Well you know nobody … well we think we know who he is.”

I just … you know this … Actually back in the … Back in the South Sea Bubble, which is one of the great speculations. And there’s a book by a guy named MacKay. It’s a classic book. But he describes in there the South Sea Bubble, which was one of the great speculations. And this one guy comes out:

“Great discovery, wonderful investment, but I won’t tell you the details.” And a lot of suckers in London invested in this. And the last line was: The guy collected all the money, closed up, left for the continent that evening never to be heard of again.”

I’m just very suspicious of things that are not transparent. If I can’t understand it, I don’t want to invest in it.

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