Cashless America with CBDCs

“Prices are skyrocketing!”  “Buy it today because tomorrow it will cost more.”  “Gas prices are outrageous. How can we afford this?”

Sound familiar? According to a report in Epoch Times, Inflation is forcing American households to spend $709 more per month than two years ago. Over the last 100 years, the dollar has lost 95% of its value.

Banks have been failing – so much worse than in 2008.  Three banks failing in 2023 (Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, First Republic Bank) with assets totaling $532 billion was more than the total of the 25 banks that failed in 2008.

National Debt is a significant factor causing inflation. In 1971, President Nixon took us off the gold standard. Since then, the Federal Reserve has been printing fiat money – paper money with no backing. Fiat money allows the Fed to keep printing money, which devalues the dollar and increases the national debt. In 1970, the national debt was $372 million. In 2023, it is $31 trillion.

The United States has long enjoyed being the global economic superpower with its currency, the US Dollar, as the world’s primary reserve. This has given the US a great advantage. Because US inflation devalues the dollar, other nations are working to challenge that supremacy. Leaders among this challenge are Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS). About 19 other nations are attempting to join this group. All of this will further deteriorate the dollar.

What CBDC is:  Here is a definition from the Cato Institute: “A CBDC is a digital national currency. In the case of the United States, a CBDC would be a digital form of the US dollar. Like paper dollars, a CBDC would be a liability of the Federal Reserve. But unlike paper dollars, a CBDC would offer neither the privacy protections nor the finality that cash provides.”  For a complete discussion of the CBDC, please read the entire article from Cato.

Americans are already well integrated into a cashless system with credit and debit cards. Cash and Card purchasing data for 2021 shows that 29% of payments were made with debit cards, 28% with credit cards, and cash payments were only 20%. Other methods include ACH – 11%, mobile payments 3%, and the remaining 9% using different ways. 41% of Americans didn’t use cash in their purchases in 2022.

Risks of CBDCs:  Here are just a few risks discovered by the Cato Institute:   It doesn’t offer privacy protections or the finality of cash transactions. It creates a direct digital liability between citizens and the central bank. It could spell doom for what little financial privacy protections remain.   The central bank, the Federal Reserve, would have absolute control over our use of money and the technology to enforce the rules. It could be the largest single assault on financial privacy since the Bank Secrecy Act in 1970. Connected to the threat to privacy is the horrifying menace to freedom. It would give the government so much access to data about citizens that there would be countless opportunities to control citizen’s financial activity.

The potential timeline for changing to CBDCs is hard to pin down. Palm Group Research has stated: “Government to Announce National Recall on the US Dollar” Starting as soon as September 20. Others predict extended periods, perhaps even several years, before implementation in the US. But it is wise for Christians to be aware of this and prepare.

The frightful part of this for Christians is to see how this prepares the world for the antichrist, the mark of the beast, and the number 666. The technology is in place now to quickly implement this program of the beast. Revelation 13:16: “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

Although I believe Christians will be raptured (caught up) out of this world before the tribulation, we are certainly seeing forerunners of the one-world government and the absolute despotic control that will take place at that time.

But for Christians now, we should heed some Biblical principles about finance.

Know your financial situation:

Here’s a rural cultural warning that applies to our finances with or without a farming career. Proverbs 27:23 “Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.”

Prepare:  Don’t be a sluggard. Be diligent

• Proverbs 6:6-8 Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest
• Proverbs 20:4: The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.
• Proverbs 24:27 Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field, and afterwards build thine house.

Forsee the evil coming, plan and prepare

• Proverbs 22:3 A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.

Demonstrate character in your life.

• Romans 12:11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
• 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12: And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

I wrote this article to inform you of this situation – if you didn’t already know. I am not proposing a remedy. Everyone will have to determine that for himself. Possible solutions include alternate investments in gold, silver, and bitcoin. May God direct your decisions.