It turns out there’s another concern about the growing power of the deep state that the corporate media don’t want you to think about. Florida is the most recent state to pass a bill banning the use of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, and North Dakota are also considering the measure.
Why the concern about a form of digital currency that has yet to be issued?
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis refers to the idea as a “wolf in wolf’s clothing.” Both DeSantis and insurgent Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have rightly raised the issue in the presidential campaign and have been smeared by the corporate press for deliberately “misconstruing” the clearly stated intentions of the Biden administration to move toward a federal digital currency. If you weren’t sure whether their worries are justified, the furious nature of the corporate media’s pushback against their criticism of this Democratic wish-list item is an indication that they are probably onto something. The idea has been peddled for years by the World Economic Forum (WEF) crowd.
The CBDC is only in the drawing board stage, but if you’re wondering what Democrats can do to advance their agenda of greater government control of every aspect of American life, as well as to stifle dissent if they win the 2024 election, this should be on your radar.
A D.C.-Controlled Digital Wallet
The threat is clear. Imagine an America in which almost all financial transactions are not only able to be monitored by Washington but administered by it via a government-run digital currency. Such a scheme would put the government’s hands even deeper into our pockets and make Treasury Department bureaucrats the masters of your digital wallets, giving them not just detailed information about your life but power over your ability to exist in the modern marketplace.
That would make it impossible for independent contractors and small businesses to conduct operations “off the books,” increasing government tax revenue. But it would also give the feds the ability to close the bank accounts of those it disfavors for political reasons and prevent them from conducting business of any kind. That’s something already experienced by Brexit promoter Nigel Farage and dissenters in Canada who backed trucker protests against authoritarian Covid rules.
The role of cash in the economy has been gradually diminishing for decades. But in recent years, the idea of a digital-only economy has been embraced by those who believe that what we need is more central planning that would be guided by the imperatives of environmental extremists and globalist politics. That’s exactly the kind of financial world that was envisioned in “Covid 19: The Great Reset,” by WEF chairman Klaus Schwab and French economist Thierry Malleret.
A Boost for the ‘Green New Deal’
The Davos set sees the CBDCs as a way to push their “Green New Deal” ideas about ending the use of fossil fuels and preventing the eating of meat or air travel (except by elites who use their own private planes to attend global warming summits). You don’t have to be a 21st-century Luddite to know that if it is implemented, it would be a potentially fatal blow to individual freedom.
The already diminishing role of cash was helped along by the coronavirus pandemic and created much of the impetus for the creation of a CBDC. A federal digital currency would offer an opportunity to eliminate the middleman of credit card companies or online purchasing companies like PayPal. It would compete with other digital currencies like Bitcoin with the advantage of having the force and credit of the United States government behind it rather than being a commodity floated by speculation. In theory, a CBDC-dominated economy would lower costs for consumers.
There is no going back to the world that existed before credit cards became ubiquitous. But there’s more to the push toward the creation of a digital dollar, which was set in motion by an executive order signed by President Joe Biden last year, than a desire on the part of Washington to make life more convenient or affordable for the rest of us.
Data mining conducted by Big Tech and its corporate clients allows them to deluge consumers with advertisements based on the preferences exhibited when they click on links. But the willingness of social media companies, which essentially own the virtual public square on which our political discourse is now largely conducted, to act to censor unpopular opinions — such as those that contradicted establishment orthodoxies about Covid or might undermine the politicians that Silicon Valley oligarchs and their deep state allies prefer — has made them a clear and present danger to the future of democracy. Yet the Washington establishment dismisses fears about CBDCs as conspiracy-mongering by either right-wing politicians or those who might stand to lose money.
ESG Guidelines
There is every reason to believe that the new digital money will be guided by environmental, social, and governance (ESG) guidelines that will favor some forms of economic behavior and punish or ban others in much the same way those measures are already being used to restrict investment. An ESG-influenced currency could force consumers to stop buying or limit the purchase of items liberal elites don’t approve of, such as guns, meat, or gasoline. That could make it that much easier for the United States to end protests against its policies in the way Justin Trudeau’s government did. And it will all be done in the name of consumers and global competitiveness.
There’s little doubt that a CBDC will be on the agenda of a second Biden administration should one come to pass. It may be just one among many aspects of the way continued Democratic rule will implement the “Great Reset” and remake our society while diminishing our rights. Preventing this Orwellian development from becoming a reality must be a priority if we are to preserve the liberties Americans once took for granted.
Jonathan S. Tobin is a senior contributor to The Federalist, editor in chief of JNS.org, and a columnist for Newsweek. Follow him on Twitter at @jonathans_tobin.
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