As the European Union seeks to ban payments of more than €3,000 to self-custodial wallets, the UK financial watchdog continues to shut off UK citizen’s access to buying and selling of cryptocurrencies.
The world has turned upside down
For many citizens in the West, what is happening in their countries financially may still not register. A frog that is placed into cold water, which is then very slowly brought to boiling point, may not notice the adverse temperature until it’s too late.
However, those who have educated themselves on the financial situation of their governments and the implications that this is forcing upon them, might think that the world has turned upside down all of a sudden.
Financial restrictions, that in the past might have been associated with repressive governments such as China, Russia, or perhaps certain dictatorial countries in Africa or Asia, are now being seen in Europe and the UK.
European financial repression
In the European Union a recent press release highlighted how EU citizens would have quite severe restrictions put on their ability to make transactions.
One of several measures put forward by the European Council is to ban payments of over €3,000 which involve “anonymous self-custody wallets”.
Of course, due care was made to put “anti-money laundering” front and centre of the entire press release, as if by doing this, every single harsh measure was given perfect legitimacy for it to be brought into force.
Banks to become “gatekeepers”
Also mentioned in the press release was that certain “gatekeepers” would play a “central role” in policing the financial system. These gatekeepers would be ”financial institutions, the banks, and real-estate agencies”, among others.
Some might think that this is akin to putting the fox in charge of the hen house. Crimes such as money laundering, among practically every other possible financial misdemeanour, have been repeatedly practised by the major banks over recent decades.
A Nasdaq article on the subject highlights how Bank of America leads the list of illicit banking activities, with all fines paid since 2000. The article was published in 2021, so further fines may have been levied.
Bank
# Fines
Total amount fined
BofA
214
$82 billion
JP Morgan
158
$35.7 billion
Citigroup
-
$25.5 billion
Wells Fargo
-
$21.3 billion
Deutsche Bank
-
$18.2 billion
If the figures in this table were put against the profits made by these banks over the same period, it might be imagined that the fines were simply the cost of doing business.
Citizens have more freedoms curtailed
It might be wondered how such swingeing financial measures against ordinary law-abiding citizens can be justified? Hog tying and shackling citizens in their financial activities, on the pretext of preventing money laundering, does seem ridiculous in the extreme.
If terrorists want to get guns and such there are probably ways and means for them to obtain them through financial channels outside of the European Union. Putting citizens under such duress is not healthy for privacy or for business.
UK banks control customer transactions
In the UK, now outside of the European monetary union, things are going in a similar direction. Banks have set themselves up as arbiters of who private citizens can and can’t transact with, and God forbid anyone who tries to buy or sell cryptocurrencies with their bank account.
Of course, according to the UK banks, this is all done in order to “protect” their customers from what they say is the prevalent fraud and scams in the crypto market.
That said, it may be argued that the real reason for the EU and the UK authorities wishing to shut their citizens inside the burning building and close all exits, is that this is all at the behest of the banks themselves.
All banks will have become aware that many of their clients are investing in alternative digital assets such as bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. The question has to be asked: If you were a bank, would you stand idly by while your customers take their deposits out and not only put them into other financial assets, but take them out of the banking system completely, putting this value totally beyond the reach of the banks and even governments?
The rot begins with central banks
Europe and the United Kingdom are the home of the central banking system. A tradition that stretches back centuries to the formation of the central bank of Sweden (the Riksbank) in 1668, and then the Bank of England, which was formed in 1694, in order to raise loans for the Royal Navy.
If one can ignore that central banks were ultimately formed in order that a country be able to raise the funds with which to go to war, some measure of financial stability existed until the Federal Reserve came into being in 1913, and then President Nixon took the dollar off of the gold standard in 1971.
Since then, the Federal Reserve, a private bank with shareholders, has been able to print currency at will. Without the restraint of being tied to gold, and being able to use the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, the Fed has printed the US into the unpayable wall of debt that the country suffers under today.
The ultimate tool to keep everyone locked in the burning building
In order to keep the banking system going, more and more debt must be entered into, and therefore the banks need to keep their customers, as on their shoulders, and on the shoulders of all poorer people who do not own assets, is where the debt burden must remain.
And finally, in order to truly keep their citizens inside the burning building of debt, a tool is coming, that will enable the banks to hermetically seal any escape routes out of the system. This tool is central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). This is money that can be programmed by the banks.
It is neither here nor there that certain governments are promising that ultimate control measures will not be implemented. The mere fact that they can be will be something that the banks will just not be able to resist once things become too difficult for them to cope with.
Having the ability to prohibit their ‘customers’ from buying any cryptocurrencies (or gold for example), giving these customers notice that they must spend a certain amount of currency by a certain date, or risk losing it, and other such measures, will grant the banks the power of God. Throw into the mix also that governments would be able to enforce a social credit system akin to what is being implemented in China, and you have the perfect recipe for totalitarianism.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
