2023-10-22
Well, here's a new slant on CBDCs ... We need them!
They will obviate the debanking suffered by many (not just Nigel) on the whims of the retail banking fraternity, and still won't provide the authorities with the details of your purchases, so "they" won't be able to control our spending even if they wanted to.
Yes, as always, the devil is in the detail.
Of course, if your purchasing power is held in a CBDC then it's not going to be subject to loss if your banker of choice goes bankrupt, because your banker of choice will be the central bank, which by definition cannot go bankrupt, or if it did it would take the whole country down with it. This would be an advantage of the CBDC - CBDCs are not inherently worse in all respects than the current system of banking.
It will all depend upon the way in which the system is set up and who gets what data out of it at which point.
It would absolutely be possible to set up a CBDC to preserve and safeguard our privacy and to prevent interference in our affairs by or via the bankers, but ... how would we know? And once on board with a CBDC, how would we prevent a system "upgrade" from introducing all the controls that the central bankers have already declared as desirable?
No, such an upgrade couldn't be done overnight, but over time, a series of "minor changes" could build an effective control grid, which even if it worked perfectly to spec, might be impossible to challenge. Who would you call to explain the position and obtain redress?
Mind you, it's also not impossible to imagine that the current decentralised retail banking system could be upgraded to control your purchases according to rules imposed on the banks centrally. All it would take is to add the information about your purchase to the data sent to your card company, who could then apply the rules handed down from the central bank (or whatever authority) and determine if your purchase can be permitted to proceed. Yes, this would be horribly complex and subject to all sorts of over-simplification that would lead to massive problems - but in principle those would be the same exact problems that would be encountered by imposing such restrictions via a CBDC, the only difference would be the internal point at which the restrictions are executed.
It would however be more difficult to get numerous retail banks to do the job reliably than to get the single central bank to do the job. The minefield to sort any problems would be impenetrable to all intents and purposes - but that might not matter to the authorities.
So - it's your view that counts:
Are CBDCs to be welcomed? Cautiously permitted?
Or avoided like the plague?
(15 minutes)
