True liberty cannot exist without economic and financial autonomy. Every individual, regardless of their background, must have the right to protect their wealth. They must have the right to access open markets by transacting freely, without the shadow of state corporatism or financial surveillance.
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are a direct threat to these rights.
They are money that can be programmed by the government. They can be turned off completely or just for spending on items the state disapproves of. They are a surveillance-punishment system dressed in the language of financial innovation. They are not “just another digital form” of money.
That is why my Cato colleagues and I have worked so hard to get the truth out about CBDC’s.
Last week, my colleague Nick Anthony was invited to Prague to talk about his work and the danger of CBDC’s. Here’s an excerpt from the speech that he gave:
This is not a distant threat. It is not a story about authoritarian governments in faraway places. It is a story about the architecture of money itself—and who controls it. That affects all of us.
When money becomes programmable, the question is no longer just “How much do you have?” It becomes “What are you allowed to do with it?” That is different from the power to tax or the power to inflate. It’s the power to permit.
The rest is available here and is worth checking out.
As we prepare to commemorate Juneteenth, it’s also worth remembering that liberty has historically been undermined not just by social codes but also by institutional barriers that locked vulnerable populations out of commerce and wealth creation. These kinds of top-down financial systems have always placed the heaviest burdens on those with the least economic power, and they always will.
That’s why CBDCs are not compatible with freedom.