I speculate here and should add that I have no training in economics but, with the way things are going, I wonder if something is happening with the major Northern Hemisphere currencies that will lead to even greater control over the money we earn, and which will not benefit the ordinary citizen. I am referring to the US dollar, the pound sterling and the euro.
We are already moving towards central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in all their inflationary glory. Of course, the globalists are keen on these as it hands our money over to them in such a way that our spending can be monitored and, in addition to control of that money, there is the potential to control our spending, our movements and to punish us for transgressions that violate the climate change agenda. It is already happening in China.
Fabio Panetta, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank explained the ‘virtues’ of CBDCs as follows: “…in a digital world CBDCs are necessary to preserve the role of central bank money as a stabilising force at the heart of the payments system and to safeguard monetary sovereignty.” First, they create digital currencies and then they use that to justify their need to control it.
The dangers of CBDCs were explained by Neil Oliver in one of his recent monologues. Our spending is already monitored across banks and building societies each time we use a credit card when the banks do their daily reckoning and move our money between themselves to balance the books. That information is available to anyone in these organisations who wants to see it. Spending on debit cards is monitored only by our banks. Only cash spending is anonymous.
However, if we move towards a CDBC, all our spending will be monitored and in real time. Oliver went on to explain, much as is already happening in China, how this could be misused. For example, if another lockdown is brought in to deal with the next international dose of the sniffles, restricting our movements would be very easy. We could be prevented from purchasing fuel or rail and air tickets. If we buy one too many beefburgers, we may be prevented from buying more and forced to buy ‘vegetable-based foods’ and if we choose to get too toasty in our living rooms on a cold winter’s evening, our electricity could be turned off.
The ‘pandemic’ has already seen a levered reduction in the use of cash with an ever-increasing number of outlets refusing to take it. Our use of digital currency was encouraged by increasing the amount we could spend by the uber convenience of contactless payment. Originally set at £10, in 2010 it was increased to the lofty heights of £15 and over the years, in line with inflation and increasing use it was raised to £45 in 2022 before being increased to its current maximum of £100 in 2021. Of course, in addition to the convenience and normalisation of contactless spending and thereby increased use of digital currency, there is the increased risk of losing up to £100 if your card is dropped or stolen. Small change for a merchant banker, but the difference between food on the table and a visit to the food bank for many people.
In terms of the potential for the concept of CBDCs to be taken to the next level, I recall the days when, if you went to the USA, you got a fistful of dollars to the pound, and it was deeply disappointing to exchange those dollars on the return journey. Now the Conservative government has tanked our economy and shattered any confidence that other countries had in our currency the pound is historically low relative to the US dollar and the euro. It is not only the drop that is the issue, it is the fact that the pound and the dollar are almost on level pegging (approximately one dollar to the pound), likewise the euro to the dollar.
The highest point for the pound relative to the dollar was in 1972 when you could get 2.65 dollars to the pound and the previous recorded low was in 1985 when it dropped to 1.05 dollars to the pound. Currently you will get 1.13 dollars to the pound.
Turning to the euro, against which the pound was strongest in 2000 at 1.75 euro to the pound, this is now at its highest point of 0.89 in 2022 against an all-time average of 0.77 euro to the pound. Of even more interest is that the dollar is currently worth 1.01 euro.
It may just be me, but I sense considerable convergence in these currencies whereby they will each, approximately, be worth the same as each other. How long before they converge totally, and it is suggested at a World Economic Forum meeting that we may as well abandon them and move towards a CBDC across these three currencies? I suggest that this yet fictional currency could be called the ‘davos’ with one of these being worth 100 ‘schwab’. You heard it here first.
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