1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,280 Digital Euro Straight into Financial Fascism 2 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:08,576 According to a draft law by the EU Commission, the digital euro is to be introduced as legal tender in Europe. 3 00:00:08,576 --> 00:00:15,966 This is justified by the claim that cash alone cannot support the EU's economy in the digital era. 4 00:00:15,966 --> 00:00:23,471 Without the digital euro, the Commission argues, digital currencies of other states or private cryptocurrencies 5 00:00:23,471 --> 00:00:28,213 would spread in Europe and push back the role of the euro. 6 00:00:28,213 --> 00:00:34,824 How these plans are to be assessed and why they ultimately lead to the end of our freedom, you will hear in the 7 00:00:34,824 --> 00:00:39,660 following contribution by financial expert Ernst Wolff. 8 00:00:44,460 --> 00:00:49,033 Digital Euro Straight into Financial Fascism 9 00:00:49,033 --> 00:00:53,371 A commentary by Ernst Wolff 10 00:00:53,371 --> 00:00:59,244 Last week, the business newspaper Handelsblatt was leaked a draft law that the EU Commission intends 11 00:00:59,244 --> 00:01:02,580 to present to the public at the end of the month. 12 00:01:02,580 --> 00:01:10,440 It contains the framework conditions under which the digital euro is to receive the status of legal tender. 13 00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:17,460 It seems that the preparation of the most important project in the history of the EU is thus entering its next phase. 14 00:01:17,460 --> 00:01:27,660 As can be seen from the ECB's website, the investigation phase initiated in July 2021 will be completed in November 2023. 15 00:01:27,660 --> 00:01:34,265 Whether it will then take another 2 to 3 years, as announced by the ECB, until the actual introduction 16 00:01:34,265 --> 00:01:38,200 of the new currency, we may find out in a few days. 17 00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:44,882 In any case, we can assume that the ECB, politicians, and mainstream media will go on the offensive in the coming days 18 00:01:44,882 --> 00:01:52,340 and weeks due to the leaked report and will do everything to make the digital euro palatable to us in every conceivable way. 19 00:01:52,340 --> 00:01:59,230 Above all, it will be emphasized again and again that cash is not to be abolished and that the new currency will be 20 00:01:59,230 --> 00:02:06,340 absolutely secure, since it is backed by a central bank which, unlike commercial banks, cannot go bankrupt. 21 00:02:06,340 --> 00:02:08,693 But that is nothing but a smokescreen. 22 00:02:08,693 --> 00:02:17,520 Anyone who wants to know how cash will fare after the introduction of a digital central bank currency should look to Nigeria. 23 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:25,960 In the largest African industrial nation, a CBDC has been in circulation since the end of October 2021 with the eNaira. 24 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:32,940 Since so far only half a percent of the population has downloaded the necessary wallet onto their phone, the Nigerian 25 00:02:32,940 --> 00:02:36,653 government has given the abolition of cash a hefty push. 26 00:02:36,653 --> 00:02:43,145 Cash withdrawals at ATMs were restricted, cash withdrawals from accounts were subject to high fees, old 27 00:02:43,145 --> 00:02:49,253 banknotes were declared invalid and hastily introduced new ones were declared unavailable. 28 00:02:49,253 --> 00:02:56,060 In addition, cash withdrawals from government accounts have been prohibited since March 1, 2023. 29 00:02:56,060 --> 00:03:01,098 In other words: The Nigerian government has used every conceivable means to make it 30 00:03:01,098 --> 00:03:04,020 more difficult for its citizens to access cash. 31 00:03:04,020 --> 00:03:10,893 The result was riots, burning bank branches and military operations in which there were deaths and injuries. 32 00:03:10,893 --> 00:03:16,995 Anyone who would like to believe that the government in Germany has a different attitude toward cash should go to the 33 00:03:16,995 --> 00:03:23,460 website of the Better Than Cash Alliance, the world's leading organization when it comes to the abolition of cash. 34 00:03:23,460 --> 00:03:28,715 There, among the members and funders, one finds none other than the Berlin Ministry for 35 00:03:28,715 --> 00:03:31,860 Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). 36 00:03:31,860 --> 00:03:39,146 As far as the security of the new currency is concerned, central banks cannot go bankrupt and can create unlimited new money. 37 00:03:39,146 --> 00:03:45,669 Yet even they cannot prevent the increase in the money supply from leading to inflation, that is, a devaluation 38 00:03:45,669 --> 00:03:52,500 of money and thus a reduction in citizens' purchasing power, which amounts to a creeping expropriation. 39 00:03:52,500 --> 00:03:56,026 The situation is different for those who control the new money. 40 00:03:56,026 --> 00:04:02,301 It opens up possibilities for central banks and the digital-financial complex behind them to subject the 41 00:04:02,301 --> 00:04:08,926 population to their own interests, the likes of which have never existed in the entire history of money. 42 00:04:08,926 --> 00:04:15,535 Since it is a programmable currency, the digital euro will be issued for specific purposes, tied to an expiration 43 00:04:15,535 --> 00:04:21,960 date, and all users can be subjected to individual interest and tax rates as well as penalty payments. 44 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:29,584 It will be possible to tie its payout to conditions such as a climate or health certificate, to restrict its 45 00:04:29,584 --> 00:04:38,106 validity locally, regionally, or nationally, or to link it to a social credit system based on the Chinese model. 46 00:04:38,106 --> 00:04:44,240 If one looks at the history of money, historically it has always had two fundamental properties: 47 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:48,473 It was a universal means of exchange and at the same time a means of domination. 48 00:04:48,473 --> 00:04:55,340 Digital central bank money, such as the digital euro now announced, is primarily a means of domination, and 49 00:04:55,340 --> 00:05:02,040 indeed more effective and efficient than all the measures dictators have come up with in the past. 50 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:05,960 It is high time to resist this development. 51 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:13,038 The first steps can be taken by anyone by paying in cash wherever it is still possible and making it clear to those around them 52 00:05:13,038 --> 00:05:20,115 that the introduction of the new money leads us all into a future in which we can no longer live self-determined lives, but are 53 00:05:20,115 --> 00:05:26,970 guided and controlled by a tiny elite – namely through our – then exclusively digital and externally controlled – wallet.