"Shut Up... Or Else!"

Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

Certain establishment types consider my ideas extreme. They accuse me of being a conspiracy theorist or some kind of kook, way outside the boundaries of acceptable consensus.

That’s fine, I expect that. If you threaten powerful interests, you can expect that they’ll try to discredit you.

The fact is people are conditioned to accept whatever the authorities tell them. It’s a powerful urge that actually goes back to evolutionary biology.

If you challenge what the authorities say, you become a threat to group cohesiveness, and, therefore, a threat to group survival.

In that vein, I’ve been warning my readers for over a year about the dangers of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) that are being rolled out by central banks around the world.

In the U.S., I’ve called them “Biden Bucks.” I’ve warned that they could quite possibly lead to a total surveillance state in which the government can track your every purchase — and regulate the most minute aspects of your life.

Total Control

CBDCs are programmable. They allow central banks (or regulated commercial banks) to monitor your purchases.

In conjunction with artificial intelligence (AI), purchases and other uses of money (charitable contributions, political contributions, travel, etc.) can create a profile that identifies you as an enemy of the people as described by the government.

CBDCs can be used to freeze your account, require you to spend money at the risk of confiscation in the form of a “fiscal penalty” or to impose withholding tax on professionals and independent contractors who are not currently subject to withholding.

Your “Biden Bucks” could also be made to stop working at the gas pump once you’ve purchased a certain amount of gasoline in a week. Or you could be banned from buying a steak at the grocery store if you’ve exceeded your weekly quota of meat consumption.

An ad might then pop up on your phone suggesting you try the latest “meatless” meat alternative.

How’s that for control?

Financial Apartheid

Biden Bucks can also allow the creation of a segregated society based on wealth. If you’re in a higher income bracket, for example, you might have to pay more for the products you buy than someone in a lower income bracket.

“Hey, you can afford to pay $10 for a gallon of milk, while the other guy can’t. Why should he have to pay the same price as you? That’s unfair. So guess what? If you want that gallon of milk, it’s going to cost you $10.”

That could apply to any product. And you can be sure that in many cases, “the wealthy” would really mean the middle class.

Or if the government decides you have too much money, it could reduce the amount of interest you receive on your money in the bank.

This is the kind of world that Biden Bucks opens up.

The bottom line is CBDCs would create massive opportunities for social control that the worst tyrants in history would have envied.

That’s why these globalist elites are so enamored of them. It explains why they’re pursuing them so aggressively — even if nations must change their constitutions to accommodate them.

Change the Constitution!

Here’s an excerpt from a recent Bank for International Settlements (BIS) report, which it produced in conjunction with seven leading central banks, including the Fed:

Legislation may need to be enacted or adjusted to specifically authorize the issuance and distribution of a retail CBDC (e.g. changes to central bank charters/statutes, legislation in other areas related to payments or to the constitution itself).

Of course, mainstream news outlets have tried to discredit me as I raise these concerns. For example, The Associated Press tried to “fact-check” me, claiming that my warnings about government control were paranoid.

But as I’ve recently pointed out, even the general manager of the BIS, which is known as the “central bank of central banks,” has admitted that CBDCs would give central banks “absolute control” of everyone’s money — and the “technology to enforce that.”

But maybe you think that all this is years away, that you don’t have to worry about it right now. Well, think again.

We don’t have to wait until then to see how this works in practice. Government control of bank accounts to attack political enemies is already here.

And So It Begins

Nigel Farage is a popular U.K. politician and public figure. He was a member of the European Parliament and leader of the U.K. Independence Party (UKIP). Farage is best known as the leader of the Brexit movement that successfully led the U.K. to exit from the EU following a referendum to leave in June 2016.

There can be little doubt that Farage is popular among U.K. voters and despised by the U.K. political elite. Recently, the elites had their revenge.

His bank notified him that his accounts were being closed and he had a deadline to remove his funds.

He then spent weeks trying to open new accounts at other U.K. banks. He was refused time and time again. Clearly this was an orchestrated attack on his financial freedom.

It’s practically impossible to live in a developed economy without access to bank accounts, credit cards, debit cards, savings instruments and the cluster of modern financial services offered through the banking system.

At the end of the day, Farage may have to leave the U.K. and move elsewhere in order to establish banking accounts. That would suit the U.K. elites just fine. They want to force Farage out of the country.

But this isn’t just a story about Nigel Farage. It’s about elites and their plans to stifle dissenters who oppose their globalist agenda. This is a warning shot.

You Could Be Next

If they can do this to Farage, they will do it to you if you oppose them on issues like climate, globalization or immigration.

Here in the U.S., it can include issues such as gun control or election integrity. Or if you support the wrong political candidates like Donald Trump, they could target you.

As far as globalists are concerned, everyday people cannot be trusted to make the right decisions on these fundamental issues. They also can’t be trusted to vote for the “proper” political candidates. Such decisions should be placed beyond democratic control to the greatest extent possible, globalists believe.

To globalists, the moral arc of the universe bends in one direction, and that’s toward increasing globalization. Populism and protectionism are therefore moral evils that must be condemned.

Freezing their enemies out of the banking and financial system is a powerful tool elites can use to punish their enemies and deter dissent.

And when CBDCs arise, it will be easier than ever. Get ready.