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Eswar Prasad, a Cornell University professor, has warned that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) – with their expiry dates and restrictions on “less desirable” purchases – could lead economies to a much dark path. Prasad issued the warning during the 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions hosted by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
During one of the 30-minute panel discussions at the WEF event, also known as Summer Davos, Prasad said programmable CBDCs and other new forms of money could take the international economic landscape toward financial collapse.
He noted that one of the “huge potential gains” for digitizing money is the programmability of CBDC units.
“You could have a potentially better – or some people might say a darker world – where the government decides that units of central bank money can be used to purchase some things, but not other things that it deems less desirable like ammunition, or drugs, or pornography or something of the sort,” Prasad explained. “And that is very powerful in terms of the use of a CBDC, and I think also extremely dangerous to central banks.”
A digital currency has unique characteristics that can serve as the conduit for economic policies in a very targeted way, or more broadly for social policies that could affect the integrity of central bank money and the integrity and independence of central banks. “So, there are wonderful notions of things that can be done with digital money, but again I fear the technology also has the potential to take us to a pretty dark place,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Epoch Times reported that putting expiry dates on CBDCs is currently being discussed across the globe, with the Bank of Canada (BoC) doing a piece on its pros and cons. The institution insisted that an expiry date would “automate personal loss recovery.”
“With this feature enabled, digital cash could not be spent after its expiry date. Consumers whose digital cash expired would automatically receive the funds back into their online account without having to file a claim,” BoC wrote. “We show that offering the option of personal loss recovery could substantially increase consumer demand for digital cash. However, the length of time to expiry plays a key role. An expiry date that is too soon is inconvenient, but a date too far in the future slows down the reimbursement of lost digital cash.”
China has also considered integrating the best-before dates on the digital yuan, creating a policy that would invalidate the money after the specified timeframe.
“Expiring money would increase both the velocity of money and overall economic activity, similar to applying a negative rate to digital cash,” the World Bank wrote. “In practice, a carrying fee on money would encourage people to spend it and thus prevent it from being hoarded.”
Survey: Only 16% of Americans open to using CBDCs
What experts are worried about echo in the nation’s pulse. The Cato Institute’s 2023 CBDC National Survey finds that only 16 percent of Americans support the CBDC adoption despite their regular use of digital dollars via credit cards, debit cards and other digital platforms. (Related: Only 16% of Americans would support adoption of CBDC, survey finds.)
According to the study, 34 percent of Americans oppose the Federal Reserve offering a central bank digital currency and only 16 percent favor it. Nevertheless, the plurality of Americans (49 percent) has not formed an opinion, allegedly because of the fact that only 28 percent of Americans are familiar with CBDCs and 72 percent are clueless. Based on political affiliations, only 11 percent of Republicans favor using digital money, exactly half of the 22 percent of Democrats who support it.
Although CBDCs are advertised as enhancing financial inclusion in the economy, lower-income groups do not support a CBDC more than higher-income groups. Among those earning less than $20,000 a year, 19 percent support it; among those earning more than $100,000 a year, 21 percent support one form of digital currency.
The survey also found that 68 percent of Americans would oppose it if the government could monitor their purchases. While both Democrats (71 percent) and Republicans (82 percent) would oppose a CBDC if the government could control what people spend their money on and when. Also, 76 percent of people are more concerned about CBDCs’ potential risks than their promised benefits.
Visit CurrencyCrash.news for more news related to the phasing out of physical money amid the proliferation of digital currencies. Watch this video that talks about the Bank for International Settlements releasing the new plan for a global CBDC.
This video is from the Pool Pharmacy channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
IMF workingking crisis to usher in central bank digital currency, experts warn.
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Will America-First News Outlets Make it to 2023?
Things are looking grim for conservative and populist news sites.
There’s something happening behind the scenes at several popular conservative news outlets. 2021 was bad, but 2022 is proving to be disastrous for news sites that aren’t “playing ball” with the corporate media narrative. It’s being said that advertisers are cracking down, forcing some of the biggest ad networks like Google and Yahoo to pull their inventory from conservative outlets. This has had two major effects. First, it has cooled most conservative outlets from discussing “taboo” topics like Pandemic Panic Theater, voter fraud, or The Great Reset. Second, it has isolated those ad networks that aren’t playing ball.
Certain topics are anathema for most ad networks. Speaking out against vaccines or vaccine mandates is a certain path to being demonetized. Highlighting voter fraud in the 2020 and future elections is another instant advertising death penalty. Throw in truthful stories about climate change hysteria, Critical Race Theory, and the border crisis and it’s easy to understand how difficult it is for America-First news outlets to spread the facts, share conservative opinions, and still pay the bills.
Without naming names, I have been told of several news outlets who have been forced to either consolidate with larger organizations or who have backed down on covering certain topics out of fear of being “canceled” by the ad networks. I get it. This is a business for many of us and it’s not very profitable. Those of us who do this for a living are often barely squeaking by, so loss of additional revenue can often mean being forced to make cuts. That means not being able to cover the topics properly. Its a Catch-22: Tell the truth and lose the money necessary to keep telling the truth, or avoid the truth and make enough money to survive. Those who have chosen survival simply aren’t able to spread the truth properly.
We will never avoid the truth. The Lord will provide if it is His will. Our job is simply to share the facts, spread the Gospel, and educate as many Americans as possible while exposing the forces of evil.
To those who have the means, we ask that you please donate. We have options available now, but there is no telling when those options will cancel us. We have our GivingFuel page. There have been many who have been canceled by PayPal, but for now it’s still an option. Your generosity is what keeps these sites running and allows us to get the truth to the masses. We’ve had great success in growing but we know we can do more with your assistance.
Thank you, and God Bless!
JD Rucker
