It turns out that about 5.2% of US households have no relationships with banks. They don't trust them or their fees. We aren't sure how you could run a household without a credit card or a checking account but I guess some millions of folks are doing just that.
If the government is hoping to one day have information of every single transaction, they will need to get rid of cash and have everyone sign up for some type of electronic account.
A central bank account may very well accomplish this desire and put us one step closer to what Revelation has said is coming all along.
"Experts" at the Federal Reserve and other central banks proudly broadcast the potential "financial inclusion" that could be achieved with a central bank digital currency (CBDC). In the Fed's main CBDC paper, "Money and Payments: The U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation," they make it clear: "Promoting financial inclusion--particularly for economically vulnerable households and communities--is a high priority for the Federal Reserve . . . a CBDC could reduce common barriers to financial inclusion."
The term has a ring to it that signals support for progressive goals. "Inclusion" is part of the Orwellian trio of terms "diversity, inclusion, and equity," which, as Dr. Michael Rectenwald writes, means "surveillance, punishment of the 'privileged,' sacrifice of national citizens to global interests, and the labeling as 'dangerous' and marking for (virtual) elimination those supposed members or leaders of 'hate groups' who oppose such measures." The central banks' use of "financial inclusion" involves the same reversal of meanings.
Consider that a retail CBDC would be like having a bank account with the Federal Reserve, even if it is intermediated by another bank. There is a lot of guesswork about how a CBDC will be implemented, but some say that it will not just be like having a bank account with the Fed, but that it could be exactly that.
Either way, if a CBDC were genuinely aimed at financial inclusion, it would offer something to those who have chosen to forgo a bank account entirely. This "unbanked" population constitutes about 5.4 percent of US households according to a 2021 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) survey. The survey asked each household why they do not have a bank account, and the responses indicate that minimum balance requirements, privacy, trust, and fees are the most significant factors.
A CBDC undermines privacy. Whatever a central bank might say about privacy protection with a CBDC can be safely dismissed. The Fed paper, for example, says, "Protecting consumer privacy is critical. Any CBDC would need to strike an appropriate balance, however, between safeguarding the privacy rights of consumers and affording the transparency necessary to deter criminal activity." We should not conflate the characteristics of a CBDC with those of cryptocurrencies in general, which offer anonymity and pseudonymity to their users.
Consider how the IRS recently pried open PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App accounts with transactions over $600. Consider also that the Supreme Court just ruled that the IRS can investigate your bank accounts without notification in some circumstances, including if you are a friend, family member, or associate of someone who owes the IRS.
Beyond taxes, banks also willingly hand over personal information (even without a warrant or formal request) to the FBI. This data, which includes previous firearm purchases, belongs to people who show up at the wrong protest or who were merely in the vicinity as the data is collected based on transactions within a specific geographic area.
The lack of privacy with bank accounts certainly contributes to the distrust people have for banks, as noted in the survey. This shows that "financial inclusion" is a mere buzzword as there is nothing about a CBDC that would gain the trust of unbanked households, who are not excluded from the banking system but actively avoid it.
According to the survey, fees are another commonly cited reason for being unbanked. People avoid banks because the fees are steep and unpredictable.
Although there is no certainty regarding how a CBDC would operate, many see that it could finally offer the holy grail of monetary policy: the ability to impose negative interest rates. In effect, this would be a fee for holding a CBDC.
After the 2008 crash, the Fed reached the "zero lower bound" for nominal interest rates. They were unable to stimulate more spending through their interest rate targeting approach. While there were a few outlandish ideas about imposing a negative interest rate on cash, like the idea of Greg Mankiw's student to remove the legal tender status of all currency with a serial number ending in a randomly selected digit, it is just too difficult to impose a fee on the cash in your wallet or safe.
With a digital currency, it becomes effortless, especially if the use of physical cash is significantly diminished or even eliminated altogether. The monetary policy authorities would simply press a button and deduct a certain amount of CBDC from everyone's accounts. Think of the spending they would encourage if everybody knew their unspent money would be subject to such a penalty!
Here; Digital Currency: The Ultimate Tool Of Financial Intrusion & Control (prophecynewswatch.com)
Let me re-explain that last part. If the government wants to stimulate the economy they will encourage spending money. When folks spend money to buy things then it forces factories to make more things and trucks to deliver more things and the whole economy goes around a little faster. But they can't force us to spend the cash we have sitting in our gun safes or savings accounts. They can lower interest rates to 0% so that people realize they are making NOTHING on savings and entice them to go spend it instead but they can't really force them to take it from savings.
With a CBDC, they could click a mouse and effectively say, "You have $10,000 worth of CBDC's in this account and this value will be good for the next 30 days. After this time, your account value will be $9500. Thanks for doing business with the FED."
So with a click they can impose NEGATIVE INTEREST RATES on everyone and almost force us to go buy something rather than save that money.
This could also lead people to try and save their money into hard assets like real estate which would most likely seriously increase the price of real estate...as if it isn't ridiculously high already. Or stocks could also benefit by imposing negative interest rates.
There is NO DOUBT that the world is getting very close to doing away with cash and imposing some type of electronic system. And one day every person on earth will be required to have a mark on his right hand or forehead in order to buy or sell anything.
WE ARE THE FIRST GENERATION TO HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE THIS POSSIBLE! For the past 2000 years, folks read Revelation and had no clue how that could ever become a reality....but now we do.
"Seal this up Daniel. It's not for you to understand. But the people of that day will understand!"
That's US!