Congressman Tom Emmer made anti-central banking comments about digital currencies to an audience at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington.
US Ambassador Tom Emmer believes the country’s launch of a programmable central bank digital currency could erode Americans’ financial privacy.
Speaking March 9 at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Washington DC, Emmer explained that a programmable CBDC could be “easily weaponized” as a spying tool to “suppress undetected political activity,” among other things : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
“As the federal government seeks to maintain and expand its traditional monetary controls, the idea of central bank digital currencies has gained traction among US jurisdictions as government-controlled programmable currencies that can be easily installed.” in the program. weaponized as.” a monitoring tool.”
The Minnesota Congress introduced the CBDC Anti-Surveillance Act on February 22 to block the progress of the Digital Dollar Project, which has seen a lot of progress on how it will be used since Paper 2 was released in mid-January.
“The Biden administration’s recent actions make it clear that they are not only itching to create a digital dollar, but are also willing to trade America’s financial privacy rights for a surveillance-style CBDC,” he said.
Emmer suggested that the “private economy” enabled by blockchain “scares” many bureaucrats in Washington, as it “shifts economic power from centralized institutions into the hands of the people.”
While the Federal Reserve’s latest discussion paper explains that it will only issue CBDCs in the event of “government support and cross-government,” Emmer and many others worry about the risks:
“Not only does it monitor transaction-level data for individual consumers, but it’s also the ability of CBDC programs to weed out undetected political activity.”
Related: ‘The money invested in software should scare you’ – Layah Heilpern
Emmer also argued that decentralized cryptocurrencies could be a solution to the mismanagement of the US monetary system and restore many of the “American values” that made the nation an economic powerhouse in the 20th century – privacy, individual autonomy and the free market.
He added that even if it tries with the CBDC, the US will fight the number:
“There is nothing more dangerous than following the emergency thus created and ultimately creating an open, permit-free and private CBDC.”
