- Central banks should have absolute control over your money…
- The price of liberty…
- The rich’s time-proven income strategy YOU need to know about …
Dear Reader,
Mr. Agustin Carstens is General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements.
And he is out to strip the cash from your wallet. Why?
The answer is because cash grants you far too much privacy. He does not trust you with it.
You may, for example, employ cash to purchase illegal narcotics — or some other nefarious product.
Thus would this fellow replace cash with the Central Bank Digital Currency.
That is because the Central Bank Digital Currency records your every transaction — transactions large and small.
Thus to the federal government your account book would be an open book.
‘Absolute Control’
No transaction of yours would escape government notice. Mr. Carstens:
- In cash we don’t know who is using a $100 bill today… A key difference with CBDC is the Central Bank will have absolute control … and we will have the technology to enforce that…
- If digital currencies are needed, central banks should be the issuers and they should grant access based on identification.
And so the Central Bank Digital Currency would afford government power that would turn any king’s facial features green.
Green, that is, with deepest envy. Imagine that power in the hands of a royal despot:
‘What, I can monitor each and every transaction of every one of my subjects? I could never request of Almighty God a mightier power. I’ll have the head of anyone who violates through his purchases my slightest edict.’
Yet this absolute power is the power Mr. Carsten — and others of his persuasion — wish to hand governments.
We Represent the Good!
CBDC drummers claim they propose to abolish cash for one central reason.
Cash is the coin of the black market, they argue. That includes the drug trade and related scenes of diabolical exchange.
Place cash under the ban, they argue, and the forces of law and order will master them.
Thus a government cash excommunication would not be a power seizure. It would instead be a magnanimous act of highest benevolence.
It would set government down among the angels and saints.
Yet are you aware of any government that merits a place in such divine company?
I am aware of none. The government of the United States — certainly — offers no exception.
We must therefore suspect government of motivations far less pure.
It’s All About Government Control
Freedom Financial News contributor Jim Rickards long ago climbed upon his rooftop… and hollered warnings about Central Bank Digital Currencies… to any who would listen.
From whom:
- The fact is, governments always use money laundering, drug dealing and terrorism as excuses to keep tabs on honest citizens and deprive them of the ability to use money alternatives such as physical cash, gold and, these days, cryptocurrencies…
- The federal government would be able to track every purchase you made and punish you if it didn’t approve of how you spent your money…
- [CBDCs] would create new ways for the government to control how much you could buy of an item, or even restrict purchases altogether.
- CBDCs are direct liabilities of a central bank. That means they own the money — you don’t. With that comes control. They basically give you permission to use that money, but permission can be subject to conditions.
Just Imagine the Abuses
Cash, for example, authorizes you to purchase — anonymously — endless quantities of environmentally destructive gasoline.
What if some future government is out to restrict your gasoline purchases to “save the planet?”
The Central Bank Digital Currency would allow it to ration you.
Perhaps with your cash you purchase an abundance of sugary products the government considers ill-conducive to health.
Through the Central Bank Digital Currency, it can place you on a sort of diet.
Examples multiply and multiply.
Do not disregard the possibility, argues Mr. Rickards:
- Proponents of CBDCs argue that I’m being paranoid and that the government wouldn’t use them to control you…
- But history shows over and over again that if you grant government a certain power, it’ll eventually use it…
Here I am with Mr. Rickards. I believe history offers example upon example of government overreach.
Cash Is the Enemy of Central Bank Manipulation
The abovesaid Carsten’s concern is banking. He is, in reminder, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements.
Why would such a fellow be so hot for Central Bank Digital Currencies?
Privacy, in my practiced observation, is not his paramount concern.
Mr. Rickards has long observed this creature. He knows the thing from stem to stern, from snout to tail.
Thus he wields the answer to our question regarding this man’s ambitions.
That answer reduces to societal control. And cash — your cash – is in the way of it.
Cash is the enemy of central bank manipulation. Why?
It is because cash reduces central bank options of interest rate manipulation.
Shackles on the Hands of Central Banks
Continues Mr. Rickards:
- Cash yields no interest. Thus banks cannot impose negative rates to stimulate the economy when the rubes can merely withdraw their cash from their bank…
- So cash — your cash — is the shackle that binds them. Break the shackle and the central banks are free.
More:
- Cash prevents central banks from imposing negative interest rates because if they did, people would withdraw their cash from the banking system.
- If they stuff their cash in a mattress, they don’t earn anything on it; that’s true. But at least they’re not losing anything on it. Once all money is digital, you won’t have the option of withdrawing your cash and avoiding negative rates. You will be trapped in a digital pen with no way out.
- In other words, it’s much easier for them to control your money if they first herd you into a digital cattle pen. That’s their true objective and all the other reasons are just a smoke screen.
- Again, that’s the part they won’t tell you.
Tyranny Never Rests
Here at Freedom Financial News, we are heart and soul for liberty.
That liberty includes your liberty — and our liberty.
Thus we would keep all of us out of the digital pens about which Mr. Rickards warns.
President Trump has denounced Central Bank Digital Currencies.
He has, in fact, issued an executive edict banning the United States government from pursuing them.
Yet President Trump will not forever remain president. What is to prevent some successor from lifting the Central Digital Currency ban?
The answer is nothing.
Yet the cost may be everything.
Brian Maher
for Freedom Financial News
