#BTSpeakingOut – Novelty or just toys?

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

I recently had reason to recall part of what was supposed to be ‘a brave new world.’ This was in the late 70’s when there was much talk and writing about the ‘New World Information and Communication Order.’ I am not sure if anyone or any group was able to facilitate such an order, or if it has developed, more or less spontaneously, with the changes and improvements in technology. Of course, some may ascribe any ‘new order’ to those who have developed those new technologies. Some survived, others like the ‘bubble technology’ burst.

Fast forward to recent years, there has been ‘a lot of long talk’ about a New World Economic Order or just a New World Order. I wondered where such may be found, then a song came into my head – ‘Mighty Quinn’ by the group Manfred Mann which goes in part ‘Come all without, come all within you’ll not see nothing like the Mighty Quinn.

And so it is, ‘Come all yuh without, we got a new ting – The Mighty Fintech, come all within, we ain’t see nothin’ yet like the
Mighty Finn. Indeed fintech – financial technology, as I understand it, refers to firms, and I presume governments, using new technology to compete with traditional financing methods in the delivery of financial services. According to Wikipedia Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Cloud Computing, and big Data are regarded as the ABCD of Fintech. So, kids it’s no longer ‘A’ for apple, ‘B’ for bruggadown-brax, but ‘A’ for AI, ‘B’ for Blockchain etc. This, incidentally, has nothing to do with the ‘Chain Gang’ or the block of rock they had to hew and cut – forget that history. We now have to understand this new alphabet and how to use these tools to get us out of the new economic starting blocks.

Is there any hope or expectation that this new technology will be our main use of debit and credit, or will it be just a novelty toy? This
question arises as we were promised new paper money by the end of this year – 2022. Therefore, one has to wonder, in the new economic order, which of the two will just be a toy – fintech or the new money, neither or both?

Michael Rudder