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Rising interest rates threaten to destabilise both financial asset values and the fiat currencies in which they are priced. This outcome is feared by the chattering classes who increasingly speculate about currency resets.

So far, we have seen cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, plans for the introduction of central bank digital currencies, plans to de-dollarise Asian trade, and even El Salvador adopting bitcoin as legal tender. But are these resets valid?

Except for a new currency mooted for cross-border trading purposes between Russia, its former Central Asian satellites and China only at the conceptual stage, all these plans fail in one important respect: as things stand, legally none of them can have the status of a currency. Money, that is physical gold and silver, banknotes and bank credit are exempt from property law with respect to stolen goods which otherwise can be seized from innocent parties who have subsequently acquired them.

Without this exemption embodied in lex mercatoria a currency replacement is useless. The only replacement for fiat is a currency credibly backed by gold. And that is the legal position!
Introduction

The introduction of new currencies is a topic moving increasingly into public debate driven by both the inflation dilemma faced by central banks and, recently, by the consequences of fiat currency sanctions against Russia. There is a convergence of events at play. While there are the immediate problems of rising interest rates and of the financial and commodity price war being waged between the West and Russia, there are plans for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) to give the monetary authorities greater control over the use of new currencies that could replace existing fiat.
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“Programmable Digital Currency”: The next stage of the new normal?The war on cash’s endgame is here: money replaced by vouchers subject to complete state control.

October 10, 2021

“Programmable Digital Currency”: The next stage of the new normal?The war on cash’s endgame is here: money replaced by vouchers subject to complete state control.

Building on the bitcoin model, central banks are planning to produce their own “digital currencies”. Removing any and all remaining privacy, granting total control over every transaction, even limiting what ordinary people are allowed to spend their money on.

From the moment bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies first emerged, sold as an independent and alternative medium of exchange outside the financial status quo, it was only a matter of time before the new alternative would be absorbed, modified and redeployed in service of the state.

Enter “Central Bank Digital Currencies”: the mainstream answer to bitcoin.

For those who have never heard of them, “Central Bank Digital Currencies” (CBDCs) are exactly what they sound like, digitized versions of the pound/dollar/euro etc. issued by central banks.

Like bitcoin (and other crypto), the CBDC would be entirely digital, thus furthering the ongoing war on cash. However, unlike crypto, it would not have any encryption preserving anonymity. In fact, it would be totally the reverse, potentially ending the very idea of financial privacy.

Now, you may not have heard much about the CBDC plans, lost as they are in the tangle of the ongoing “pandemic”, but the campaign is there, chugging along on the back pages for months now. There are stories about it from both Reuters and the Financial Times just today. It’s a long, slow con, but a con nonetheless.

The countries where the idea progressed the furthest are China and the UK. The Chinese Digital Yuan has been in development since 2014, and is subject to ongoing and widespread testing. The UK is nowhere near that stage yet, but Chancellor Rishi Sunak is keenly pushing forward a digital pound that the press are calling “Britcoin”.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

One Ring to Rule Us All: A Global Digital Fiat Currency

October 10, 2021

One Ring to Rule Us All: A Global Digital Fiat Currency

We’ve written extensively about the “war on cash.” In a nutshell, governments would love to do away with cash in order to better track and control their citizens. There have been numerous moves closer to a cashless society in recent years, from capping ATM withdrawals to doing away with large-denomination bills. Last year, China launched a digital yuan pilot program and the US has floated moving toward a digital dollar.

We got a first-hand look at what happens when governments restrict access to cash when India plunged into a cash crisis after the country’s government enacted a policy of demonetization in November 2016.

It’s bad enough that various countries are exploring ways to move toward cashlessness, but there’s an even worse scenario — a global digital currency.

Economist Thorsten Polleit compares it to the “master ring” in J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic Lord of the Rings.

The following article was originally published by the Mises Wire. The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.

1.

Human history can be viewed from many angles. One of them is to see it as a struggle for power and domination, as a struggle for freedom and against oppression, as a struggle of good against evil.

That is how Karl Marx (1818–83) saw it, and Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973) judged similarly. Mises wrote:

The history of the West, from the age of the Greek Polis down to the present-day resistance to socialism, is essentially the history of the fight for liberty against the encroachments of the officeholders. (1}

But unlike Marx, Mises recognized that human history does not follow predetermined laws of societal development but ultimately depends on ideas that drive human action.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The War On Cash, Is It A Real Thing? The Answer Is Yes

September 17, 2021

The War On Cash, Is It A Real Thing? The Answer Is Yes

In our bizarre economy, we hear many things, and ideas are constantly being thrown out to us. This all tends to flow together and help us develop a strategy as to how we should cope with the changing times. One thing we continue to hear is that a war is being waged to eliminate cash. Not only are most people going along with this but many have embraced the notion.Some people view carrying cash as dangerous or burdensome. This also dovetails with their desire to spend more than they can afford, when using a credit card it is far easier to continue spending money you do not have. All things considered, when asked, is the war on cash a real thing being directed from those on high, sadly we must answer yes. Cash reflects “options for the people” and it appears those in charge of such things want in gone.

Currencies were developed to facilitate and ease transactions between individuals and businesses. The war on cash is simply another way Washington can continue to show its favoritism towards big business. Small businesses often rely more on small cash transactions and often lack the ability to process other forms of payment. It is ironic that while big businesses and companies like Amazon flourish with each move government makes, the small businesses on Main Street are left worse off.

Your Wealth Will Be Locked In A Computer

A cashless society where records are made and kept reflecting every transaction we make even down to buying a candy bar also allows the government to monitor our every move. This is something Big Brother-type governments strongly aspire to under the guise it will extend its ability to protect us or tamp down on crime, tax evasion, and corruption……click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Central Bank Visions of Absolute Control

September 14, 2021

Central Bank Visions of Absolute Control

There’s not much you can do in the year 2021 that doesn’t leave a digital trail. The collusion of big tech and big government has assured this.

Still, there does remain one simple way to elude the busybodies. In fact, one of the last ways to preserve some level of economic privacy is to pay with cash.

Because when you pay with cash the authorities cannot monitor and track what you buy. They don’t know if the cash you pulled from the ATM was stuffed in your mattress, or used to buy groceries or ammo or silver coins. What’s more, the authorities don’t like this.

The control freak central planners want to know what you are buying, and where and when you are buying. They also want to know how much you spend down to the very last cent. A digital dollar, coupled with the abolition of cash, would allow them to do this. Moreover, it would provide them the ability to have full control over every transaction you make.

For example, if a purchase falls outside of the parameters established by the digital dollar’s monitoring algorithm, it could be cancelled on the spot. Should an attempted purchase not align with the buyers social credit score it would not go through. Are you overweight? Then no glazed donuts for you.

To be clear, digital dollars would have nothing to do with cryptocurrencies or decentralized finance. Rather, digital dollars would be issued by the Federal Reserve and would allow the Fed to monitor and control every transaction you make.

Absolute Control

Certainly, with digital dollars, control over how you spend your money could be executed in countless ways. Monthly limits could be placed on how much you’re allowed to spend.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Real Digital Plot

June 21, 2021

The Real Digital Plot

The move to end paper money and move toward a national cryptocurrency took a major step recently when the House Financial Services Committee task force expressed support for experiments to create a digital cryptocurrency version of the U.S. dollar. They argued that the United States had to keep pace with China, and in the process, they enable all Americans to access the digital economy. Neha Narula, who is the academic director of MIT’s Digital Currency Project, testified claiming, as they did in creating the euro, that the benefits of a digital dollar will lower costs within the electronic payment system. Of course, China also cracks down on protesters in Hong Kong. Obviously, the United States must crackdown on all dissent and cancel them from society to keep pace with China.

For years, I have watched behind the curtain how they operate. I believe that Bitcoin was “ALLOWED” to be created for the sole purpose of moving to a digital currency. Just as they float a balloon in first to see how the market reacts, which allows them to always deny it.

Nobody knows who invented blockchain. Don’t you find it curious that such a major invention takes place and nobody takes credit? Even the notorious government propaganda site, Wikipedia, states: “The blockchain was invented by a person (or group of people) using the name Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 to serve as the public transaction ledger of the cryptocurrency bitcoin.” This appears to be the perfect COVERT operation, for blockchain allows the government to trace every person who handled that Bitcoin.

This entire cryptocurrency has been sold as somehow circumventing the central banks, and it will defeat fiat currency when in fact it too is not backed by anything tangible…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Cyberattacks Are to Force the End of Paper Money

June 3, 2021

The Cyberattacks Are to Force the End of Paper Money

I find it interesting how nobody seems to distinguish between a digital currency and blockchain cryptocurrency. The former is not traceable other than that transaction. To eliminate cybercriminals, the World Economic Forum is pushing ending paper money and moving to cryptocurrencies – not digital. With blockchain, the government would be able to trace the money to the criminal. The side benefit will be to ensure everyone pays taxes on everything they ever dreamed of. This is the REAL purpose of cyberattacks that are private decisions and outside the jurisdiction of government to trace and prosecute.

This is why Klaus Schwab is warning of cyberattacks. This is to end commerce globally without government-trackable cryptocurrencies. In 1934 when Roosevelt confiscated gold if you had money on deposit in a bank, which had been in gold coin, Roosevelt seized it all. The difference between a digital currency you use today with a debt or credit card is that is not traceable beyond a single transaction. Bitcoin using blockchain allows the government to trace every person who had that Bitcoin in the flow of money. Crypto is far more than digital and they never want to talk about that either. They will tell you no more credit card theft. Everything will be 100% secure. You will no longer be able to find a $5 bill in the parking lot.

I have written before how the Romans tried to outlaw prostitution declaring you could not pay a prostitute with a coin that had the image of the emperor which they all did. So they created these tokens you would buy from a money changer, you would pay the prostitute and she accepted them because she knew she could go to the money changer and he would convert them to coin.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Dangers Of Programmable Money Explained

May 5, 2021

Dangers Of Programmable Money Explained

Dominic Frisby with Money, Markets & Other Matters talks about the war on cash and central bank digital currency, known as CBDC. He questions if CBDCs are “the final step into the brave new world – Orwellian great reset dystopia – we seem to be heading towards” or are they “the onramp to the Bitcoin motorway.” He said the answer is “both.”

Frisby points out the biggest issue with CBDCs is that digital money is “programmable,” which means the issuer, such as the Federal Reserve or the Bank of England, can build specific rules into it. He said cash grants users freedom and power.

Programmable money, such as CBDCs, means the user has even less control over their money. Frisby said almost any kind of rule could be coded into CBDCs. He provides an example of China mulling over the idea of expiry dates for its digital money. This means those holding the programmable money have to spend the money by a specific time or it disappears from their account.

For those who aren’t familiar with Chuck Palahniuk’s 2018 “Adjustment Day” book, a similar concept of expiring money was detailed. Palahniuk is also the writer behind “Flight Club.”

Back to Frisby, who said issuers could manipulate money velocity by changing expiry dates. He said the money could be programmed to work only in certain areas or jurisdictions. He then warned:

“Every transaction ever made will be visible to the all-seeing government.”

Governments will know your whereabouts and habits at all times simply by tracking your use of funds through the CBDC payment system. This can already be done, to some extent, by tracking credit card transactions, but the CBDC system will make state surveillance more pervasive.

CBDCs also allow the government to have direct access to a person’s wallet to remove taxes and other fines.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The End of Paper Money – the Digital Revolution

March 5, 2021

The End of Paper Money – the Digital Revolution

The assumption in governments has always been that WE ARE THE PROBLEM – not them! They have really believed that if they could tax the underground economy they would have balanced budgets. We all know that in reality, no matter how much money they collect, they will always spend more. This idea that digital currency will wipe out crime is rather absurd. I was talking to a young person who buys their weed, like so many these days. They make a phone call, it is dropped off in their mailbox, and they pay by some cash transfer application. So they never even see the person anymore. So the move toward digital transactions has not eliminated the underground economy, it has actually improved it making it more efficient.

Meanwhile, the criminals have to learn now how to code in order to hack into systems. It seems that this trend is forcing criminals to become much more professional in their endeavors.

Austria bucking Trend Against Digital Currency

December 17, 2020

Austria bucking Trend Against Digital Currency

The Austrian National Bank has started an information campaign to support cash. It remains to be seen whether it is on a collision course with the ECB. There will be rising resistance to this scheme to eliminate paper money and force everyone into a digital currency. I would expect you will see the same resistance rise in the United States and if the Democrats try that again, this will be simply one of the reasons to justify rebellion. They have crushed the economy with their lockdowns which have hurt the lower classes most of all who cannot work from home remotely. But this is typical of elites for they judge the world only by their own class and will never talk to anyone from the Great Unwashed.

These financial terrorists know they have a short fuse. They are going to push very hard to get their agenda 2030 going by 2022. Schwab has sent his book to every world leader and to the governors and premiers of every state/province around the world. This is his Communist Manifesto how he thinks the world should run – the typical arrogant academic with no real-world experience just like Marx. It always these types of people who feel nothing about the hardship and loss of life they unleash on the world. He claims the world MUST accept his manifesto to “avoid revolutions” which in fact will take place because of this man. I do not understand how academics can be so elitist as to justify war as long as it leads to their land of dreams. He has even enrolled the Pope which was raised in communism. The pope has abandoned religion and thou shalt not covet your neighbor’s good for Marxism.

“Monetizing Privacy”: The Fed Fans Out, Touting the “Digital Dollar.” This Time, How Consumers Would Benefit

November 24, 2020

“Monetizing Privacy”: The Fed Fans Out, Touting the “Digital Dollar.” This Time, How Consumers Would Benefit

But the problemita of pulling the rug out from under the entire banking system still needs to be addressed.

“As cash use continues to decline, the question naturally arises as to whether central banks should provide a digital alternative to cash that also provides some privacy features,” says the blog post, titled “Monetizing Privacy,” by the New York Fed. The post is based on a 26-page academic paper on digital payment methods that have been used broadly, the current market structure of digital payment methods, the data-gathering that occurs, versus cash payments that preserve privacy – and versus the “digital dollar” now being worked on.

Each time a digital payment takes place, the companies involved gather voluminous amounts of data and hang on to it because it gives them a competitive advantage in selling more goods or services to this particular consumer. This data has a lot of value for these companies – a key point we’ll get to in a moment with regards to the “digital dollar.”

While the share of cash in transactions has declined, US dollar bills are being hoarded like never before. “Currency in circulation,” which the Fed reports weekly on its balance sheet as a liability, has soared during the Pandemic, reaching another record last week of $2.06 trillion, having doubled since 2011:

The amount of currency in circulation is demand-based: Banks have to have enough currency on hand to satisfy their customers’ demand for currency, and during a crisis, people load up and hoard cash, much of it overseas, and to meet this demand, banks have to buy more currency from the Fed, usually paying with Treasury securities for this paper.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Cashless World Signals a Global End to Privacy

November 11, 2020

Cashless World Signals a Global End to Privacy

Countries are moving to digital currencies at lightning speed. This is the future of money. Digital currencies will replace cash on an ASAP agenda. We are witnessing Europe, Canada, Asia, and even China all moving toward this new digital world for (1) total control, (2) taxes, (3) to track everyone and every transaction. We have been witnessing world leaders, including Trudeau, eager to see the fall of Trump because he has stood in opposition to this movement.

Even China has begun trials of a new digital Yuan. They have already outlawed BitCoin. You are witnessing the same unfolding in Europe. In the USA, legally you are supposed to report what digital currency you have when traveling from overseas because you are carrying more than $10,000 even if you had that when you left. Bitcoin, I have warned, was allowed to operate because the government wanted people to get accustomed to digital currency. Once they broke ground, then it was just a stroke of the pen to outlaw it and convert everything to the digital sovereign currency.

The digital currency will become an international currency. Many countries are hoping this will dethrone the dollar. The Chinese are looking at this as a way to also bypass the SWIFT system that the West has used to impose sanctions on countries. In that respect, they have brought that on themselves.

However, this new world of a digital economy brings with it great damage to our freedom. This is why Bill Gates has been pushing this at the United Nations, which he seems to have bought. Gates is looking for a monopoly far beyond Microsoft. He wants a monopoly over the digital world. I think his dreams are bigger than his ego. Digital money is a way to know everything any citizen does and it will allow every government to track its citizens. In the United States, the IRS has already been using digital info to track people illegally. This is just the beginning.

Get Ready for the Next Game-Changer: the Digital Yuan

May 6, 2020

Get Ready for the Next Game-Changer: the Digital Yuan

A new, radical paradigm shift is in progress. The U.S. economy may shrink as much as 40% in the first semester of 2020. China, already the world’s largest economy by PPP for a few years now, may soon become the world’s largest economy even in exchange rate terms.

The post-Planet Lockdown world – still a hazy mirage – may well need a post-Planet Lockdown currency. And that’s where a serious candidate steps into the fray: the fiat digital yuan.

Last month, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) confirmed that a group of top banks started trials in electronic payment in four different Chinese regions using the new digital yuan. Yet there’s no timetable yet for the official launch of what is called the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP).

The man with the plan is PBOC governor Yi Gang. He has confirmed that apart from the trials in Suzhou, Xiong’an, Chengdu and Shenzhen, the PBOC is also testing hypothetical scenarios for the 2022 Winter Olympics.

While DCEP, according to Yi, “has made very good progress,” he insists the PBOC will be “cautious in terms of risk control, especially to study anti money-laundering and ‘know your customer’ requirements to incorporate in the design and system of DCEP.”

DCEP should be interpreted as the road map for China leading to an eventual, even more groundbreaking replacement of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. China is already ahead in the digital currency sweepstakes: the sooner DCEP is launched the better to convince the world, especially the Global South, to tag along.

The PBOC is developing the system with four top state-owned banks as well as payment behemoths Tencent and Ant Financial.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

COVID-19 and the War on Cash: What Is Behind the Push for a Cashless Society? [SHORT]

April 15, 2020

COVID-19 and the War on Cash: What Is Behind the Push for a Cashless Society? [SHORT]

Cash may well become a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As these COVID-19 lockdowns drag out, more and more individuals and businesses are going cashless (for convenience and in a so-called effort to avoid spreading coronavirus germs), engaging in online commerce or using digital forms of currency (bank cards, digital wallets, etc.). As a result, physical cash is no longer king.

Yet there are other, more devious, reasons for this re-engineering of society away from physical cash: a cashless society—easily monitored, controlled, manipulated, weaponized and locked down—would play right into the hands of the government (and its corporate partners).

To this end, the government and its corporate partners-in-crime have been waging a subtle war on cash for some time now.

What is this war on cash?

It’s a concerted campaign to shift consumers towards a digital mode of commerce that can easily be monitored, tracked, tabulated, mined for data, hacked, hijacked and confiscated when convenient.

According to economist Steve Forbes, “The real reason for this war on cash—start with the big bills and then work your way down—is an ugly power grab by Big Government. People will have less privacy: Electronic commerce makes it easier for Big Brother to see what we’re doing, thereby making it simpler to bar activities it doesn’t like, such as purchasing salt, sugar, big bottles of soda and Big Macs.”

Much like the war on drugs and the war on terror, this so-called “war on cash” is being sold to the public as a means of fighting terrorists, drug dealers, tax evaders and now COVID-19 germs.

Digital currency provides the government and its corporate partners with the ultimate method to track, control you and punish you.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

China’s Central Bank to Lead Real-World Pilot of Digital Yuan: Report

December 10, 2019

China’s Central Bank to Lead Real-World Pilot of Digital Yuan: Report

China is at last planning to conduct the first real-world test of its central bank digital currency (CBDC), fresh reports claim.

According to local news outlet Caijing on Dec. 9, the initial pilot for the CBDC is set for the city of Shenzhen before the end of 2019, and may possibly include the city of Suzhou.

Banks in a digital currency “horse race”

Under the auspices of China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), four major banks and major economic participants such as China Telecom will test digital currency payments.

“One step will be to rationally select the pilot verification area, scenario and service scope, and steadily promote the introduction and application of digital form of fiat currency,” Caijing explains.The article continues:

“Compared with the previous pilot, this time the central bank’s legal digital currency pilot will go out of the central bank system and enter real service scenarios such as transportation, education, and medical treatment, reaching C-end users and generating frequent applications.”

In Shenzhen, the PBoC is encouraging what it describes as a “horse race” — each bank will manage the digital currency differently, competing against each other in order to secure its model’s wider adoption in the future.

It added that other locales could be included in the testing, but the exact details remain unspecified.

PBoC beats world competition

The debut will nonetheless make the PBoC the world’s first central bank to issue a digital currency, capitalizing on China’s efforts to embrace financial technology this year.

As Cointelegraph reported, the currency itself has been under development for several years, and was already at an advanced stage when Beijing officially endorsed the use of blockchaintechnology in October.

Criticism of the CBDC plans meanwhile continues, with analysis noting interoperability as a potential major sticking point in the plans.

Last week, Cointelegraph launched a dedicated subsidiary publication, Cointelegraph China, to cover developments in the Chinese space.

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