Mark T. Williams

Mark Thomas Williams

@UcontrolRisk Mark Thomas Williams (born August 19, 1963) is an academic, financial author, columnist and risk management expert, better known in the Bitcoin community as “Professor Bitcorn”. In 2013 Williams predicted that bitcoin “could” trade for less than 10 dollars by mid-2014,[1] and provided testimony before the New York State Department of Financial Services hearing on virtual currencies.

In 2015, he co-authored a report with Harry Markopolos, the Bernie Madoff whistleblower about the growing risks associated with the MBTA pension.[2]

Contents

Career

In 1985, he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from the University of Delaware. He became a bank trust officer for Wilmington Trust Company and joined TD Banknorth in 1987. In 1993 he earned a Master of Business Administration from Boston University and joined the Federal Reserve Bank as an examiner in Boston and San Francisco. In 1997 he joined Citizens Power LLC, a Boston-based energy trading company and became a senior vice president, Head of Global Risk Management. Since 2002, he has been on the faculty of Boston University as Executive-in-Residence/Master Lecturer.[3]

Williams is a member of the Standard & Poor’s Academic Council, a senior advisor at the Brattle Group.

Williams is a frequent guest contributor for the Financial Times,[4] Reuters, and Business Insider. He has also written articles for Bloomberg, the Boston Globe, Foreign Policy magazine.

Bitcoin criticism

Major Bitcoin Exchange Goes Offline

He said in the testimony, “to transform Bitcoin into a virtual currency would require regulation, centralization, creation of a legal framework and strong regulatory oversight.” He raised concerns about Bitcoin, including lack of consumer protection, it being a high-risk virtual commodity, having an artificially inflated price, extreme hoarding, hyped demand, high potential for market manipulation, and fraud.[5]

On April 2, 2014, Williams provided congressional testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business discussing the 10 major risks associated with Bitcoin.

On October 21, 2014 he presented on virtual currencies at The World Bank and on April 23, 2015 at the Bretton Woods Committee. The Bitcoin community remains critical of his concerns. Williams also continues to assert that the virtual currency is in a hyper bubble and will eventually suffer a price collapse. In 2013, after Bitcoin peaked at $1,200, Williams predicted that it was in a bubble and would trade for less than 10 dollars by mid-2014.

On January 29, 2014, he provided risk testimony before the New York State Department of Financial Services hearing on virtual currencies.[6] Bitcoin prices dropped by over 50% but bottomed out above $200 through 2014 and didn’t reached $10 like he said it would. Other academics including Robert Shiller consider Bitcoin a speculative bubble.[7]

Awards

  • Beckwith Prize for Excellence in Teaching – Boston University, 2008
  • New England Book Show Best Reference Book of 2013, New England Book Show, 2014

Publications

  • Williams, Mark T. Uncontrolled Risk: The Lessons of Lehman Brothers and How Systemic Risk Can Still Bring Down the World Financial System. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010.[8] Chinese Version Published McGraw Hill, 2014.
  • Williams, Mark T. & Lawson, Alan. Longwood Covered Courts: And the Rise of American Tennis. Boston: 2013.

External links

See Also on BitcoinWiki

References

  1. ↑ http://www.businessinsider.com/williams-bitcoin-meltdown-10-2013-12
  2. ↑ Madoff whistle-blower sounds alarm on T pension fund
  3. ↑ Learning from Lehman Brothers
  4. ↑ “MF Global Gives Fed a Lesson in How to Pick its Friends” The Financial Times – November 6, 2011
  5. ↑ Testimony of Mark T. Williams The New York State Department of Financial Services: Hearing on Virtual Currencies – January 29, 2014.
  6. ↑ http://www.dfs.ny.gov/about/hearings/vc_01282014/williams.pdf
  7. ↑ In Search of a Stable Electronic Currency
  8. ↑ Learning from Wall Street’s failures