In a bold move that set the tone for his administration, President Donald Trump on January 23 signed an executive order (EO) barring the U.S. government from developing a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). This decisive action paved the way for further legislation introduced by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), alongside prominent co-sponsors Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN). Their mission? To make this prohibition a permanent fixture in American law.

While the CBDC monster is temporarily paralyzed in the USA, it is thriving in less free banking environments around the globe. Take, for instance, the People's Republic of China, the world’s largest banking jurisdiction, where CBDCs have already made their mark. But it doesn’t stop there; 20 nations within the European Union are also caught in the crosshairs of the European Central Bank's CBDC ambitions.

In a March 9 Substack article, renowned monetary economist Richard Werner has revealed the European Central Bank’s secretive plans to roll out a CBDC in the coming years. Confirmed by recent remarks from ECB Chair Christine Lagarde, these plans illustrate a steadily advancing agenda that could reshape the foundations of money and banking and usher in a new age of government planning and control over every European citizen.

Readers of my book, A Black Hole in Economics: Money Creation and its Consequences, will recognize Professor Werner as a primary reference. I wrote the following in the Acknowledgements section:

“I owe an equal debt to Richard Werner, the greatest living monetary scholar, whose ground-breaking work on money creation is shaking up the investment community’s understanding of money and banking.”

I strongly recommend a trial subscription to Werner’s recently launched Werner Economics. In his March 9 letter, Werner sounds the alarm on the ECB’s plan for a CBDC.

Be sure to read the entire article to understand how the ECB gradually implements its policies while staying under the radar of public scrutiny.

Europeans are slowly being led into a financial abattoir. Here, excerpted from Werner’s essay, is what awaits them should the CBDC be implemented.

• Complete surveillance and monitoring of all transactions in real time. The central planners will know where you are and what you are doing, and there will be no privacy…

• direct intervention by the central planners in your transactions: some will be allowed, others will not be allowed.…. Too high a carbon footprint? Too much beef in your shopping cart? Buying the wrong book by a conservative writer? Donating money to an organization or party, not in line with the globalist plans or approved by the World Economic Forum? The AI algorithm fashioned by the ECB to implement this “programmability” feature of CBDCs may decide that it is necessary to “nudge” you towards different consumption…

• censorship and an ever-retrenching educated middle class that is less willing to speak up against injustice.

• “negative interest rates” or automated deductions from your money when the central bank or the state wants to claim your wealth.

• the ability of the central planners to introduce further restrictions on the use of your money, such as “use by dates.”

• the end of economic growth and, thus, the end of prosperity for the middle class. I made a similar point in my book. A central theme of Black Hole is that money creation by privately owned commercial banks, operating in a free market, is productive and non-inflationary. In contrast, money creation at the government's behest is non-productive and inflationary. (See Chapter Four, “Good Money Creation: The Capitalist Money Factory,” and Chapter FIve, “Bad Money Creation: The Statist Wrecking Ball.”

• Ultimately, introducing a Digital Euro will result in the end of cash, as the whole point of CBDCs is to permit the central planners to exercise unchecked power over our lives.

Americans may have breathed a temporary sigh of relief about CBDCs, but Richard Werner says to keep your guard up. Sage advice from a freedom-loving economist.

Here are links to Werner Economics and Werner’s official academic website.

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