WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:00.280 Digital Euro Straight into Financial Fascism 00:00.280 --> 00:08.576 According to a draft law by the EU Commission, the digital euro is to be introduced as legal tender in Europe. 00:08.576 --> 00:15.966 This is justified by the claim that cash alone cannot support the EU's economy in the digital era. 00:15.966 --> 00:23.471 Without the digital euro, the Commission argues, digital currencies of other states or private cryptocurrencies 00:23.471 --> 00:28.213 would spread in Europe and push back the role of the euro. 00:28.213 --> 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 00:34.824 --> 00:39.660 following contribution by financial expert Ernst Wolff. 00:44.460 --> 00:49.033 Digital Euro Straight into Financial Fascism 00:49.033 --> 00:53.371 A commentary by Ernst Wolff 00:53.371 --> 00:59.244 Last week, the business newspaper Handelsblatt was leaked a draft law that the EU Commission intends 00:59.244 --> 01:02.580 to present to the public at the end of the month. 01:02.580 --> 01:10.440 It contains the framework conditions under which the digital euro is to receive the status of legal tender. 01:10.440 --> 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. 01:17.460 --> 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. 01:27.660 --> 01:34.265 Whether it will then take another 2 to 3 years, as announced by the ECB, until the actual introduction 01:34.265 --> 01:38.200 of the new currency, we may find out in a few days. 01:38.200 --> 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 01:44.882 --> 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. 01:52.340 --> 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 01:59.230 --> 02:06.340 absolutely secure, since it is backed by a central bank which, unlike commercial banks, cannot go bankrupt. 02:06.340 --> 02:08.693 But that is nothing but a smokescreen. 02:08.693 --> 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. 02:17.520 --> 02:25.960 In the largest African industrial nation, a CBDC has been in circulation since the end of October 2021 with the eNaira. 02:25.960 --> 02:32.940 Since so far only half a percent of the population has downloaded the necessary wallet onto their phone, the Nigerian 02:32.940 --> 02:36.653 government has given the abolition of cash a hefty push. 02:36.653 --> 02:43.145 Cash withdrawals at ATMs were restricted, cash withdrawals from accounts were subject to high fees, old 02:43.145 --> 02:49.253 banknotes were declared invalid and hastily introduced new ones were declared unavailable. 02:49.253 --> 02:56.060 In addition, cash withdrawals from government accounts have been prohibited since March 1, 2023. 02:56.060 --> 03:01.098 In other words: The Nigerian government has used every conceivable means to make it 03:01.098 --> 03:04.020 more difficult for its citizens to access cash. 03:04.020 --> 03:10.893 The result was riots, burning bank branches and military operations in which there were deaths and injuries. 03:10.893 --> 03:16.995 Anyone who would like to believe that the government in Germany has a different attitude toward cash should go to the 03:16.995 --> 03:23.460 website of the Better Than Cash Alliance, the world's leading organization when it comes to the abolition of cash. 03:23.460 --> 03:28.715 There, among the members and funders, one finds none other than the Berlin Ministry for 03:28.715 --> 03:31.860 Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). 03:31.860 --> 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. 03:39.146 --> 03:45.669 Yet even they cannot prevent the increase in the money supply from leading to inflation, that is, a devaluation 03:45.669 --> 03:52.500 of money and thus a reduction in citizens' purchasing power, which amounts to a creeping expropriation. 03:52.500 --> 03:56.026 The situation is different for those who control the new money. 03:56.026 --> 04:02.301 It opens up possibilities for central banks and the digital-financial complex behind them to subject the 04:02.301 --> 04:08.926 population to their own interests, the likes of which have never existed in the entire history of money. 04:08.926 --> 04:15.535 Since it is a programmable currency, the digital euro will be issued for specific purposes, tied to an expiration 04:15.535 --> 04:21.960 date, and all users can be subjected to individual interest and tax rates as well as penalty payments. 04:21.960 --> 04:29.584 It will be possible to tie its payout to conditions such as a climate or health certificate, to restrict its 04:29.584 --> 04:38.106 validity locally, regionally, or nationally, or to link it to a social credit system based on the Chinese model. 04:38.106 --> 04:44.240 If one looks at the history of money, historically it has always had two fundamental properties: 04:44.240 --> 04:48.473 It was a universal means of exchange and at the same time a means of domination. 04:48.473 --> 04:55.340 Digital central bank money, such as the digital euro now announced, is primarily a means of domination, and 04:55.340 --> 05:02.040 indeed more effective and efficient than all the measures dictators have come up with in the past. 05:02.040 --> 05:05.960 It is high time to resist this development. 05:05.960 --> 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 05:13.038 --> 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 05:20.115 --> 05:26.970 guided and controlled by a tiny elite – namely through our – then exclusively digital and externally controlled – wallet.