Digital currency gives big banks and government control of your money

Big government and big banks have joined forces to create a digital currency that can be used to routinely and covertly manipulate how people spend their money, which is why recent news of a 2023 launch of “digital wallets” should be of great concern to lovers of liberty.

Say goodbye to any remnants of financial freedom and privacy that still exists once this comes to pass (via ReclaimTheNet.org):

Big Banks in the US, including JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America are planning to launch a digital wallet to compete with PayPal and Apple Pay. The move, planned for the second half of this year, appears to be yet another push for a cashless society.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the new digital wallet will be managed by bank-owned Early Warning Services LLC (EWS), the company behind money transfer platform Zelle.

Contactless payments have been gradually becoming popular with the pandemic accelerating their adoption. However, governments and financial institutions have been pushing for contactless payments in recent years with the launch of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). (Emphasis mine)

A few months ago, the Council of Europe announced plans to launch a digital currency and ban cash payments above 10,000 euros under the guise of fighting terrorism and money laundering. Sounds nice until you realize that their digital euro comes with spending limits, giving the European Central Bank the ability to restrict how people spend their money.

Of course, big government and big bank talking heads in America claim that a digital currency is necessary to “liberate” people from the constraints of greedy bankers and governments, and they further preach how it will ensure the unfettered access of people to their own money.

What they don’t tell you, however, is how the state can centrally harness your economic power and regulate it in ways that would mark the rise or strengthening of authoritarianism (via Exposing Their Lies):

In part at least, this is a way to regulate the otherwise elusive truly decentralized version of cryptocurrencies. Because of the nature of cryptocurrencies that are based on blockchain as a ledger that records every transaction, governments would have unrestricted and easy access, and “command and control” over when, how, and what people do with their money.

Beyond simply keeping an ever-watchful eye over what citizens are up to, governments would also be able to decide on more radical and in immediate terms much more damaging moves, such as cutting people off from their money.

But imagine if that form of currency were the only one available? The unprecedented level of financial mass surveillance itself would be almost insignificant compared to the potential damage done by replacing all other forms of currency, including fiat money, and cash as one of its manifestations, say critics. (Emphasis mine)

We got a taste of what this looks like earlier last year when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seized dictatorial power under the “Emergencies Act” to squash Freedom Convoy protesters who dared to reject his COVID mandates. Using the “temporary powers” provided under the Act, Canadian officials froze truckers’ personal and corporate bank accounts, and suspended the insurance on their rigs.

And let’s not forget, Trudeau was able to do this without a centralized, government-issued digital currency.

Despite the obvious loss of privacy and liberty with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), the heads of the United States (US) Federal Reserve and European Central Bank (ECB) admitted that CBDCs will not be anonymous (via ReclaimTheNet.org):

During an appearance at a Banque de France (Bank of France) event, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said if the US were to pursue a central bank digital currency (CBDC), it would be “identity verified” and “not anonymous.”

“We would be looking to balance privacy protection with identity verification, which…has to be done, of course, in today’s traditional banking system as well,” Powell added.

The President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, acknowledged that privacy was one of the main concerns Europeans had about the European Union’s (EU’s) proposed CBDC, the digital euro. Despite these concerns, she confirmed that “there would not be complete anonymity as there is with…bank notes” when using the digital euro.

“There would be a limited level of disclosure and certainly not at the central bank level,” Lagarde added. (Emphasis mine)

The creation of a digital currency has been a top priority of the Joe Biden administration. Last year, he issued an executive order instructing a long list of federal agencies to study digital assets and to provide reports about their use and proposals on how to regulate them.

Though focused on cryptocurrencies, Biden’s executive order required the federal government and the Federal Reserve to lay the groundwork for a new digital dollar. If a digital currency like the one Biden is suggesting is ever created, it will result in one of the most dramatic expansions of federal power we’ve ever witnessed.

Every individual and business will lose their social and economic freedoms because digital dollars will be traceable and programmable.

A digital currency means that government and the Federal Reserve can create more digital dollars whenever they choose with rules and restrictions built into their design, literally putting every single cent of our money under government control to be spent (or not spent) as Big Brother sees fit.

Biden’s executive order also states that a central bank digital currency and policies governing digital assets must mitigate “climate change and pollution” and promote “financial inclusion and equity” — his executive order mentions “financial inclusion” five times along with “equity” and “climate change” being mentioned four times each.

This means that a digital dollar could, for example, be crafted to restrict fossil-fuel use; it could also be used to enact de facto price controls by preventing users from spending more than government thinks they should on particular products.

We’ve seen foreshadowings of Biden’s desire for government control of our finances in some of his other liberty-killing ideas. He demonstrated a philosophical connection with Justin Trudeau concerning government seizure of the bank accounts belonging to people fighting government tyranny. And when working as Barack Obama’s right-hand man, he helped launch Operation Choke Point, an anti-Second Amendment initiative that used banks and financial institutions to track down companies suspected of illegal activities without the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

Before turning the IRS into a Treasury Department gestapo under the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden announced plans to give the IRS power to spy on bank accounts. And with a plan I refer to it as a Patriot Act for the IRS, Biden requested additional money and manpower to build his Treasury Department gestapo — money and manpower that he received with passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Using Biden’s own words, there are plenty of reasons to believe that a digital currency will be used to create a surveillance state capable of giving big banks and big government full control over you, your money, and every aspect of American society and the economy.

When that happens, the demise of liberty in America will have officially arrived.

 

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David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.

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