Do Not Fear CBDCs, the Radioactive Fire-Breathing Gorillas of Monetary Hell

They are impossible long term.

"Do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed – the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish."

~Charlie Chaplin in "The Great Dictator"

(HT @paulrybi on X for the picture.)

Call me crazy, but I am not really that worried about central bank digital currencies. At least not in the long term. It’s not because they're not terrifying. They are terrifying in the same way that a giant radioactive fire-breathing gorilla covered head to toe in an impervious suit of diamond-coated titanium is terrifying. Terrifying, but funny. It's the same thing with CBDCs, which are the radioactive fire-breathing gorilla of fiat currency. They're scary, sure, but also ridiculous in their cartoon-like villainy. How so?

First, the obvious. Yes, CBDCs would theoretically enable the ruling elite to track our every move. They would know everything we buy, everything we sell, and they would know it all in real time. They would be able to plug that data in to any outcome they desire. Limit our travel, our consumption, fine us automatically instantaneously on any imagined infraction of whatever restriction is the ridiculousness of the day for the sake of saving the world from a virus, climate change, or an invasion of rabid ferrets. And no doubt this is what the ruling elite truly want. I do not deny any of this. But I do deny that CBDCs are possible for any appreciable length of time.

I'm not talking technologically possible. The technology to implement CBDCs obviously exists. I'm talking logically, economically. They cannot possibly be implemented for long. To understand why, let's take a step back for a minute and ponder what inflation is, and why it cannot increase wealth.

Inflation is the act of creating false money derivatives – ultimately gold or silver derivatives - for the purpose of siphoning off existing resources from one party to another. It is not a fair trade where both parties benefit from the exchange. Therefore, it is necessarily theft. Anyone who believes that inflation creates wealth believes theft creates wealth. And anyone who believes theft creates wealth is by definition either a thief himself, or he's a retard. Yes - a retard. I like that word. I’m using it. If you have a problem with that, you’re a moron.

Now let's turn this around on CBDCs. What are these things at their core? Are they something new monetarily? No. Not at all. Besides the bells and whistles and blockchains and hash rates and flabargindergs and technobabble involved, when it comes down to it, monetarily speaking, CBDCs are nothing but the next layer in the inverted pyramid of money derivatives – of gold and silver derivatives. If and when they are implemented, like all derivatives before them, they will derive their value from the existing price array of currently available money derivatives.

There is no difference whatsoever – from a strictly monetary standpoint that is – between bank deposits in your bank account right now, and CBDCs in a future checking account that derives its value from your existing checking account, which derives its value from the paper dollars you can claim with it, which ultimately derive their value from gold and silver. Both forms of currency – today's digital dollars and future CBDCs – are nothing more than digital data in different forms. The only difference is that one is more trackable and traceable than the other.

The point is, CBDCs cannot and will not stabilize a damn thing any more than adding another floor to the Leaning Tower of Pisa will straighten the Tower of Pisa. What CBDCs actually do is enable even more theft at a faster rate than is currently possible with today’s digital dollars.

But here's the beautiful thing about theft. The more it happens, the less stuff people produce. Eventually, (and at an accelerating rate) you run out of stuff to steal completely. And when you finally do, stealing itself becomes literally impossible.

Ah, but CBDCs! Technology! Blockchain! Flabargindergles! It's different this time! No, it’s not. It never is. There is nothing new under the sun, as King Solomon so wisely said in Ecclesiastes.

I'd like to quote from two separate sources, both of which helped shaped my life. They were written 1,029 years apart. They both say essentially the same thing. Guess the authors and I’ll give you a souvenir gorilla. Here's source 1:

"Theft was forbidden by Divine Wisdom because, if it were permitted, some men would rely on stealing others’ wealth, and they would neither till the soil nor engage in any other productive occupation. And if all were to rely on this source of livelihood, even stealing would become impossible, because, with the disappearance of all property, there would be absolutely nothing in existence to steal."

Here's source 2:

"…If there existed a World State, or a co-operating cartel of States, with a world bank and world paper money, and gold and silver money were outlawed, could not the World State then expand the money supply at will with no foreign exchange or foreign trade difficulties, permanently redistributing wealth from the market’s choice to its own favorites, from voluntary producers to the ruling castes?

Many economists and most other people assume that the State could accomplish this goal. Actually, it could not, for there is an ultimate limit on inflation, a very wide one, to be sure, but a terrible limit that will in the end conquer any inflation. Paradoxically, this is the phenomenon of runaway inflation, or hyperinflation…

When all other limits and forms of persuasion fail, this is the only way—through chaos and economic breakdown—for the people to force a return to the “hard” commodity money of the free market.

Can’t guess the authors? The first passage was written in the year 933 by Rabbi Saadya Gaon, who pondered in his philosophical treatise "Beliefs and Opinions" why God forbade man to steal. His answer is simple. Because if theft were allowed, everyone would steal, and eventually starve to death when resources ran out, including the thieves themselves. That's true regardless of anyone's particular theology or lack thereof.

The second passage is from "Man, Economy, and State," written by Austrian School economist Murray Rothbard in 1962. If inflation is theft, then inflation cannot continue forever, just as theft cannot continue forever. Eventually, you run out of stuff to steal when hyperinflation kicks in, and the thieves die.

Charlie Chaplin, in the quote that opens this piece, is saying exactly the same thing. Theft kills mankind. That's the bad part. But built within that axiom is the very redemption from it. So long as men die, liberty can never perish.

To believe that the ruling elites can enslave us all forever with CBDCs is to believe that theft is self-perpetuating. It is the exact same thing as believing that inflation creates wealth. It does not. Therefore CBDCs cannot succeed, by definition. If you believe they can, long term, then I’m sorry, but you’re a retard.

In the end, it all comes down to gold and silver once again. Every derivative created to enslave us is tagged with more and more mechanisms of control. CBDCs would be the worst of the lot for sure, but at the same time they would also be the most effective accelerant of hyperinflation ever conceived. They would not last long. If they are ever born, they would quickly topple the entire pyramid.

In the mean time, the best way to prevent these monstrosities from ever leaving their womb of evil in the WEF, BIS, IMF, the Fed, or any other alphabet soup agency currently thinking them up, is to keep attacking the base of the pyramid on which they will necessarily stand, and that is physical gold and silver. However short their accursed existence may be, it will be hell, if Rosemary's monetary baby ever sees the light of day in the first place. So let’s make sure they are aborted.

So keep chipping away at the ever-thinning gold and silver base of that inverted pyramid. As Rothbard so wisely said, "…there is an ultimate limit on inflation, a very wide one, to be sure, but a terrible limit that will in the end conquer any inflation."

We all know what that limit is. And it is our duty to make it happen and topple this thing over for good. While we're all going about our holy duty, keep these two things in mind. First, so long as men die, liberty will never perish. And second, even giant radioactive fire-breathing gorillas covered head to toe in an impervious suit of diamond-coated titanium, eventually have to take a crap.

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