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President Joe Biden and the media are excited about something new: a Central Bank Digital Currency, or CBDC. It’s a currency like Bitcoin, except controlled by the federal government.
Not everyone is a fan.
“Sometimes government does things that may appear to be benevolent but really are kind of like a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” says Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in my new video. “This is a wolf coming as a wolf.”
For months, I’ve tried to get DeSantis to sit down for an interview. What finally got him to agree was government’s plan for digital money.
“If you don’t trust central authority,” DeSantis says, “then you should see this immediately as something that is very problematic.”
Of course, a lot of people do trust central authority. The Biden administration says a CBDC will “protect consumers, investors … and the environment.”
“That last one’s a tell,” laughs DeSantis, “they would impose ideology certain criteria … ‘You’re filling up too much (with gas). Wait a minute — climate change. You can’t be doing that! You bought another firearm? No, no, no.'”
Canada’s government used its banking system to control people when truckers protested vaccine rules. The government blocked their bank accounts. That stopped the protests.
DeSantis is so upset about the Fed’s and Biden’s plan for a CBDC he just got Florida’s legislature to ban its use in their state.
I ask, “This will be a national issue. Why is it the business of a governor?”
“This is part of our role,” he responds, citing federalism. “There’s a back and forth between the federal government and the states. We’re pushing back about things we don’t think are good.”
DeSantis questions the CBDC’s legality. “The Federal Reserve has come out and said, We would only do it after ‘consulting with the legislative and executive branches. Ideally, we’d get specific congressional authorization.’ Wait a minute! It’s not ideal that you get Congress. That’s what the Constitution requires!”
Of course, the media is enthusiastic about a government-controlled CBDC.
CNBC says it will be “as trusted as cash, as convenient as a payment app, yet also benefit from the same blockchain technology which underpins cryptocurrencies.”
“When I started talking about some of the dangers from privacy,” DeSantis tells me, “the corporate press … all of a sudden (said) ‘DeSantis is trying to promote conspiracy theories!'” MSNBC even called it “unhinged conspiracy theory.”
DeSantis wonders why the media even care. “Is it really because they are really that invested in cross-border transactions?” he asks. “Of course not. It’s because this is something that could help them advance their ideology of having more central authority … over the average American.”
I push him, “America’s going to fall behind!” The Wall Street Journal says America’s financial system is outdated and CBDCs will modernize it.
“Oh, please,” DeSantis sneers. “They want to move to a cashless society, which would basically mean the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department would have supervisory jurisdiction over all of your transactions.”
“Cash is independence,” adds DeSantis. “You have the cash in your wallet … It’s not dependent on somebody else.”
In other words, cash is private. So is cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin. People can buy gas and guns without using government money at all.
Advocates of government digital money don’t like that.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren says, “Legitimate digital public money could help drive out bogus digital private money.”
“She clearly would be somebody that rejects any type of digital asset that’s not controlled by a central authority,” DeSantis responds.
The federal government, says DeSantis, wants “to displace all cryptocurrency because they can’t control that,” telling me, “the dangers so far outweigh any proposed benefits.”
DeSantis and I then talked about many other things, like sex education and what critics call the “Don’t Say Gay” law, Florida’s anti-mask mandates, America going broke and his flying migrants to Massachusetts.
I will cover those topics in a future column.
Jordan Peterson’s latest podcast discusses the government screwing up everyone economically and touches on digital currency too, very interesting discussion with Peter Schiff
How can they claim that it helps the environment when it uses massive quantities of chemicals, electricity and other resources to process a dollar transaction?
De Santis is right here.
But Mo, look at the savings from not using all that ink and paper, having to not “recycle” worn out paper money, lugging around tons of coins. Let alone the risk of contracting some kind of communicable disease from constantly touching it. It won’t fall out of your pocket and be lost or ruined in the washing machine. It won’t get jammed in the vending machine to cheat you out of your soda pop. No more drug cartels with rooms stacked to the ceiling with bundled $100 bills. If someone tries to cheat you out of your CBDC all you have to do is call your local Treasury agent, fill out 18 forms, submit them and wait 6 months for a resolution. It’ll be great! Just wait and see. /sarc/
Impressive. DeSantis is a smart fellow.
Maybe the next POTUS. Though it would be even better if John Stossel was the next president. Not going to happen, but one can dream.
Digital currency is the end of a free America.
It’s time to take our country back from the Leftist Democrats and their Communist partners.
Recently in Canada, we witnessed what government can do to steal money from citizens & block citizens who resist tyranny. It CAN happen here & it can be far worse. our Founders did not want us to trust government. That is why they did all they could to restrict government power OVER the people & divide it among the people. Giving government & large institutions power over us is suicidal.
Fascist Globalists be like Nazis or the fictional Panem in the dystopia “The Hunger Games.”
Why can’t Democrat supporters learn, if not from history, but from their Left wing Hollywood movies of Good vs. Evil? See also Batman, James Bond movies, Star Wars (the Borg), etc.
So Big Brother can Monitor what we Buy were looking at 1984 and Big Brother
God help us. 🙏 The country needs to seek God in Jesus name and seek the Holy Spirit to control our thoughts, words and actions.
All of your assets are belong to us.
Exactly. What better way to control a people than to preside over every financial transaction they make just to live their lives? The power of CBDC is the power to deny. The reasons for denial will be arbitrary and final. Participating in a “black market” or bartering, if caught, will carry a heavy penalty. It’s the first step to “you will own nothing and be happy”.
Central Bank Digital Currency is not really currency. It is a money-opoly, and those who control the rules win all of the money… especially yours. They are brazenly attacking all of our foundational elements whether it is free speech, a right to bear arms, or the means to purchase what they know we need. This malignant ideological solvent is designed to utterly destroy the United States
… whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
If this somehow comes to pass armed rebellion would be the only way out.
Vote yourself in – shoot your way out.
Maybe we can do better with the new one with a few tweeks here and there.
I am NOT advocating for anything, only exspressing where we seem to be at in our nations history.