garratt received his phd from cornell. dr. norbert michel, of the heritage foundation, where he studies and writes about financial markets, cryptocurrency and financial policy. before rejoining heritage, michel was a tenured professor at nicholls state university's college of business, teaching finance, economics and statistics. he has a doctoral degree in economics from the university of new orleans. is professor of economics at cornell university, also a senior fellow at the brookings institution, where he holds the new century chair in international trade and economics, and a research associate at the national bureau of economic research. he's a former head of the imf's china division. his extensive publication record includes top academic journals. he has co-authored an edited numerous books on financial regulation and on china and india. finally, mr. alex pollock, distinguished fellow with the r street institute, providing thought and policy leadership on financial systems, cycles of booms and busts, financial crises, ris

dr. garratt. all the different attributes that make classifications difficult, what is the appropriate framework for us to use if congress approaches legislation addressing the digital currency? >> that's a very difficult question. >> that's why i ask it to you. >> people have the ability to issue these private currencies and one can't make something illegal because it might be used for illegal purposes. what i'm arguing is that i believe that the central bank does a good job at providing payment services and not only just at the interbank level but also for small payments by the public. and i think the central bank should continue to provide the best possible product along those lines and i'm arguing at a future date that best possible product might involve some of these new technologies but issued by the central banks to remain competitive as opposed to these private currencies, which, you know, are less able -- we're less able to monitor and less able to -- >> gentleman's time has expired and t