MONEY: A surveillance masquerading as currency?

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

https://www.theadvocates.org/beware-the-ecb-digital-currency-is-coming/https://www.theadvocates.org/beware-the-ecb-digital-currency-is-coming/

Beware: The ECB Digital Currency Is Coming
By Daniel Lacalle
Published in Economics – 5 mins – Apr 25

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The digital euro, which Lagarde described in 2022 as “a digital banknote with a little less anonymity than the paper banknote because it is issued and guaranteed by the central bank,” is an unnecessary and dangerous tool.

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) have been gaining attention as the technology of the future for monetary systems, but beneath their promise of efficiency and innovation lies a more pessimistic reality: they can serve as tools for surveillance, eroding personal privacy and financial freedom.

In the European Union, where limits to freedom of expression and the cancellation of elections are already a concern, a CBDC can be seen as surveillance masquerading as currency.

*** end quote ***

From the people who made the stereotype Nazi “Vere Is UR Pa-pers!”, they want to know and control the every actions of the people under their thumb.

Even the movies made a issue of it.

https://www.artofmanliness.com/odds-ends/odds-ends-april-25-2025/

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… … movies from our teenage years: Swing Kids. Set in pre-WWII Hamburg, it follows a group of German youth who rebel against Nazi conformity through their passion for forbidden American swing music.

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Coming soon to a country near you?

Argh!

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MEME: “… the poor of today can afford the things that affluent of yesterday could only dream about” — Thomas Sowell

Monday, March 17, 2025

[JR: Stunningly simple statement about human progress.]

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MONEY: What about “where’s george” and political messages in the margins or stamped

Friday, November 22, 2024

https://www.ecoticias.com/en/dollar-bill-wont-be-accepted/8835/

This dollar bill won’t be accepted as of November: This will happen if you try to pay with it
by Sarah I.
11/20/2024

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Dollar bills have consistently gone through updates to increase security. As of October this year, new parameters were introduced stipulating what cash will be accepted at major retailors, banks, and ATMS. As we head into the final month of November and families begin preparing for the upcoming festive season, you may need to ensure that your cash is up to scratch with new standards set by the U.S. government.

*** and ***

As we enter into the final few weeks of 2024, certain dollar bills will no longer be accepted. These new regulations are tightening stricter measures with regards to damaged bills. Walmart, Target, and Dollar Tree have already begun implementing these new measures. The following damage to cash will not be accepted or exchanged at major retailers, banks, and ATMS:

  •     Mutilated banks notes with tears or missing corners
  •     Bills which have become significantly distorted or damaged where it become difficult to determine their authenticity. This could be from through water damage or from being burnt as an example.

*** and ***

If you find yourself with a mutilated bill which will not be accepted or exchanged, you will need to contact the Bureau of Engraving and Printing directly. From there, you will need to file a mutilated currency claim. “The BEP will evaluate the note. They have special tools to examine the authenticity and assess the full value of the note. After they do that, they can issue a check back to the consumer,” a Fed currency representative explains.

*** end quote ***

Well, what happens to those bills with political messages stamped on them or written along the edge?

Will those be declared “mutilated”?

That’ll be “yet another way” “they” take away or First Amendment rights.

What happened to only gold and silver would be money?

 


MONEY: “Inside Money” standard and the “Outside Money” reality

Monday, March 14, 2022

https://tomluongo.me/2022/03/13/ins-outs-whose-money-is-it-anyway/

MONEY, POLITICS
The Ins and Outs of Whose Money is it Anyway?
Date: March 13, 2022Author: Tom Luongo

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Today’s “Inside Money” standard, known colloquially as the Dollar Reserve standard, is actually what I like to call “Milton Friedman’s Nightmare.” It is nothing more than a system of competitively devalued and inflated debt-based scrips running around drinking each other’s milkshakes until everyone’s glass is empty.

FYI, there are a lot of empty glasses around the world right now and more are being created everyday as the financial system turned predatory after the Lehman Bros. collapse in 2008.

It was then that the Central Banks and governments turned fully against the people sucking up more and more outside money by inflating inside money egregiously to control more and more of the real wealth of the world.

There is only one problem with that, however. Eventually, you run out of property to squeeze out of people’s hands. The more you take, the less people are restrained by little things like laws.

Eventually two things happen. The first is what we’ve been seeing from Russia and China for the past twelve years — steady accumulation of gold and other hard assets, outside money, including the building of real manufacturing infrastructure as well as the financial infrastructure to house it.

The second is just over the horizon — the moment where all the legal claims to controlling outside money mean nothing when enforcement of those legal claims gets exposed as a bluff because there aren’t enough enforcers capable of keeping the looters from taking it.

*** end quote ***

I’m am waiting for the “Great Reset” to drop on “We, The Sheeple” of which I am part of in someways.  I know this is going to hurt the poor, the seniors, those on fixed incomes, as well as the non-super rich.

Wonder what the price of gold will go to … … (the fellow’s guess)  about 45k$.  By other guesstimates, that’ll translate to 80$/gallon for gas.  Now I’m not predicting this but even if gas goes from 4 to 8$/gallon, the economy is totally screwed.

The U$D would be near worthless.

Argh!

The future is murky and there could be a cliff in the fog.

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ECONOMICS: Inflation reduces real wages

Thursday, February 10, 2022

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/05/fed-raise-interest-rates-shaft-american-workers-robert-reich

The FED is about to raise interest rates and shaft American workers – again
Robert Reich — Sun 6 Feb 2022 01.00 EST

  • Policymakers fear a labor shortage is pushing up wages and prices. Wrong. Real wages are down and workers are struggling

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Fed policymakers are poised to raise interest rates at their March meeting and then continue raising them, in order to slow the economy. They fear that a labor shortage is pushing up wages, which in turn are pushing up prices – and that this wage-price spiral could get out of control.

It’s a huge mistake. Higher interest rates will harm millions of workers who will be involuntarily drafted into the inflation fight by losing jobs or long-overdue pay raises. There’s no “labor shortage” pushing up wages. There’s a shortage of good jobs paying adequate wages to support working families. Raising interest rates will worsen this shortage.

There’s no “wage-price spiral” either, even though Fed chief Jerome Powell has expressed concern about wage hikes pushing up prices. To the contrary, workers’ real wages have dropped because of inflation. Even though overall wages have climbed, they’ve failed to keep up with price increases – making most workers worse off in terms of the purchasing power of their dollars.

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It’s a fact of life the at the FED’s 2% inflation target is a joke.  The FED has debased the currency of 99% of its value with its “2% target”!  But over and above that, the inflation has been robbing poor people, working slobs, and senior citizens on fixed income.

So maybe a good liberal like Reich might be enlisted into the “End The Fed” movement.

IMHO we need to go back to “real money” aka gold and silver.

Under hard money, prices go down and real wages go up naturally.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: The Gooferment is bluffing to get people jabbed

Friday, October 8, 2021

https://brownstone.org/articles/bidens-vaccination-mandate-where-are-the-regulations/

Biden’s Vaccination Mandate: Where Are the Regulations?
BY JEFFREY A. TUCKER   OCTOBER 6, 2021

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Writer Alex Berenson has taken notice of this too and did some quick research. He found a blog that says there is no order, confirming exactly what the congressman told me. 

If there is no [private sector] mandate yet, then obviously, none of the companies are under any obligation to enforce it.

OSHA is apparently the federal agency responsible for framing a set of regulations for the mandate, including fines. But federal agencies only construct regulations after a law has been passed or an EO is issued.

If I’m correct, and no EO has been published, we have an odd situation, to say the least.

Governors and lawyers have been threatening to sue, because the EO is unconstitutional and overrides state powers. But if there is no Presidential EO, then all these legal cases would be meaningless, because, again, there is no official mandate.

Is the White House stalling? Do they realize the EO and the mandate will be overturned in court? Are they hoping to achieve corporate compliance without an official mandate?

I’ve queried several lawyers. One suggested that so far, in this situation, the feds are mandating by bluffing.

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The Emperor has no clothes!

“We, The Sheeple” should reject corporate mandates that allude to “regulations” because there are none.

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VOCABULARY: OWI (Opining While Ignorant)

Friday, March 8, 2019

2019-Mar-08

Famed economist Murray Rothbard touched on the answer: “It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.” — Murray Rothbard

# – # – # – # – # 2019-Mar-08 @ 11:43


POLITICAL: Abolish the IRS

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2015/04/enough-is-enough-abolish-the-irs/

Enough Is Enough: Abolish the IRS
By Editor on April 12, 2015

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The income tax is absolutely crazy if one takes a moment to think about it. We’ve become so conditioned to accept it that we don’t even realize how ridiculous it is. The government taxes one for being productive, for creating income for one’s family, for doing one’s part to grow the economy. It doesn’t make any sense.

*** and ***

The IRS has also become a political tool as the Lois Lerner debacle illustrated. 

*** and ***

We should seriously consider a flat tax. Forget consider, we should institute a low flat tax tomorrow. 12.5% across the board. I could live with that (for right now.) 1 postcard on April 15th. No forms. Easy. Actually EZ.

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I say 10%!

With reduction every year.

Until it’s zero.

Like Prohibition, “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs”, and the Federal Reserve, “We, The Sheeple” have allowed a lot of mistakes to be made.

Argh!

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RANT: Gas is going up and staying up?

Monday, December 10, 2012

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/this-chart-implies-something-very-troubling-about-the-price-of-gas/

THIS CHART IMPLIES SOMETHING VERY TROUBLING ABOUT THE PRICE OF GAS

Posted on December 4, 2012 at 12:50pm by Becket Adams

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See that? Although the price of crude has fallen in recent months, as the above chart clearly indicates, the price of gasoline remains at a record high.

“Anecdotally, it feels like when oil prices rise, gas prices at the pump rise; but when turmoil pauses in global geo-politics – or some entity decides that high oil prices just will not do for the world’s economy – gas prices at the pump seem not to drop so quickly,” writers are Zero Hedge note.

“Yes there are pipeline, inventory (and even tax) issues but the following chart suggests ‘gouging’ on a national level,” they add.

It’s also worth noting that what we’re seeing today with the price of gasoline and crude is eerily similar to what we saw right before the economic collapse of 2008.

*** end quote ***

I think there maybe a big overhang on the markets due to increased costs (i.e., Obamacare) and increased taxes (i.e., the fiscal cliff).

Given the “gouging rules” passed after Sandy. Or used during Sandy. I wouldn’t lower my price un my competition forces me to.

Hmmm?

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RANT: The election results sadden me

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Huge unemployment, record numbers not working, welfare at an all time high.

Debt soaring, deficits increasing, fiscal irresponsibility.

Foreign policy in shambles. More wars, less peace.

Lying, cover ups, media bias.

Assault on the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Tenth Amendments.

Corruption and fraud in the elections.

Obamacare fundamentally seizes control of healthcare. Death panels start killing us. Cost exponentially increase.

Pro-Life and Catholic values rejected. Marriage redefined. I am taxed to fund activities I deem abhorrent and immoral.

A second term of even more radical action can be expected.

Sorry, but the American Experiment in Liberty is traveling down the road to ruin.

If anything, this election convinces me more that we have to figure out how to secede.

Looks like, things are going to get much much worse. As the takers have outvoted the makers. And, like the nursery story, The Little Red Hen, the producers have no incentive to cooperate in the theft of the fruits of their labors.

I’d predict that the “productive class” will coast and the economic will get even worse.

I just don’t understand the logic.

But, I will not be abused. I will not be robbed, I will not kneel.

I do NOT consent.

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