The Digital Euro - The Next Step to a Cashless Surveillance State

As my long-term readers know, I have a fixation with digital currencies (aka central bank digital currencies) and the impending cashless society.  The European Central Bank (ECB) is taking additional steps toward implementing a digital euro through its work with all of the national central banks of Europe.

Here's how the ECB describes the digital euro:

"We are working with the national central banks of the euro area to look into the possible issuance of a digital euro. It would be a central bank digital currency, an electronic equivalent to cash. And it would complement banknotes and coins, giving people an additional choice about how to pay." 

Here are its key features:

The digital euro would be stored in an electronic wallet that was set up with a person's bank or other public intermediary such as a post office.  People will be able to deposit money into the digital wallet through a linked bank account or by depositing cash (until cash no longer exists).  Withdrawals from the wallet would be in the form of digital euros.

In this recent contribution from ECB Executive Board Member Piero Cipollone as found on the ECB's website:

....we find the following quote:

"Being a key player in digital payments and digital finance should be a priority for Europe." 

As Mario Draghi pointed out in his recent report, the productivity gap between the United States and the European Union is mostly explained by technology and finance.  If we take the information and communications technology (ICT) and financial sectors out, the gap disappears.  

If we want to close the productivity gap with the United States, we need to focus on these areas. Digital payments and digital finance stand at the intersection of these two sectors. And they are developing fast, driven by changes in habits and technology. This is both an opportunity and a risk for Europe. It is an opportunity to close the gap by developing innovative and competitive European solutions. But if we do not seize that opportunity, we run the risk of weakening our competitiveness, resilience and strategic autonomy....

We must move swiftly to counter the risks stemming from Europe’s current inability to secure the integration and autonomy of its retail payment system. This is one of the key reasons behind the digital euro project: to bring central bank money into the digital age. Doing so would provide firms and households with a digital equivalent to banknotes and would strengthen our monetary sovereignty....

Complementing banknotes, the digital euro would give all European citizens and firms the freedom to make and receive digital payments seamlessly.

The digital euro would provide a single, easy, secure and universally accepted public solution for digital payments in stores, online and from person to person. It would be available both online and offline, and would be free for basic use. 

For merchants, the digital euro would provide seamless access to all European consumers. Moreover, it would offer an alternative that would increase competition, thereby lowering transaction costs in a more direct way than is possible through regulations and competition authorities." 

Of course, the ECB is terribly concerned about privacy when it comes to its CBDC:

"Guaranteeing the privacy of digital euro users is an essential part of the project, and the proposed Regulation reflects this with strict provisions on data protection and privacy for both online and offline transactions. The offline functionality would offer users a cash-like level of privacy, both for person-to-person payments and payments in physical shops. The Eurosystem has indicated its readiness to explore the possibility of making a few improvements to the user experience of the digital euro, so that citizens with a stronger privacy preference can benefit from cash-like privacy for all their digital euro payments made in physical proximity. One possible improvement could be to give users the option (i) to make all their low value payments carried out in the proximity of the payee’s device offline payments by default and (ii) to decide on the amount they wish to regularly hold offline and benefit from automated funding, so they do not worry about their offline balance. In order to ensure that this improvement is convenient for users, the offline functionality should be available on mobile devices." 

According to the ECB, the digital euro is still in the preparation stage and the bank has called for applications, seeking potential providers of digital euro components and related services.  New user research and experimentation activities are now underway to gain insight into users' preferences and to inform decision-making for the digital euro; these include online surveys and interviews which will focus on special target groups such as small merchants and vulnerable consumers.  The findings of this phase will be published in mid-2025.  Following a call launched in November, the ECB will join with key stakeholders, including merchants, payment service providers, fintech companies and universities, to form innovation partnerships to test conditional payments (i.e. payments that are made automatically when predefined conditions are met) and explore other innovative use cases for a digital euro. An outcome report is expected to be published in July 2025. 

With the call for applications for providers of the components of a digital euro now underway, it's starting to look like a digital euro is more-or-less a given.  In fact, if you look at this graphic, you'll notice that the ECB's Governing Council will make a decision for the potential launch of the next phase of the digital euro project in October 2025:

In May 2024, eIDAS 2.0 (the European Digital Identity Regulation) entered into force, meaning that 400 million Europeans will now be eligible to soon avail themselves of an EU Digital Identity Wallet which will shift Europeans from physical documents to digital IDs.  This is a key step in the issuance of a European CBDC since digital euros will be stored in a digital wallet.  Here is a video showing the "benefits" of Europe's Digital Identity Wallet:

Let's close with this recent news from Reuters, a potential fly in the ointment for a digital euro and, for that matter, all CBDCs:

A late February 2025 unprecedented outage in the ECB's Target 2 (T2) payment system caused widespread chaos for ten hours, blocking payment for more than 15,000 elderly and poor Greeks, pensions and salaries in Austria and several financial trades thanks to malfunctioning hardware.  There was no backup system in place.

Here's more on the issue:

"Representatives from four of the eight groups that make up the European Parliament said the incident raised some questions about the ECB’s ability to deliver on its digital euro project, a new payment system open to all euro zone residents.

"This instance is a blow to the ECB’s credibility," said Markus Ferber of the European People's Party, the largest group in the current parliament.

"People will ask legitimate questions how the ECB will be able to run a digital euro when they cannot even keep their day-to-day operations running smoothly."   

Despite this brief setback, the progress on the implementation of a digital euro continues to march forward and with end of the preparation phase of the payments ecosystem expected by October 31, 2025 and a potential development and rollout projected from November 2025 as shown here:

Unless the unforeseen should occur, it would appear that the implementation of the world's first advanced economy central bank digital currency is a sure thing.

A Digital Canadian Dollar - The Future of Mark Carney's Canada

Now that 130,000 Liberals have picked Canada's next Prime Minister, a former two-time central banker, we would be wise to think about where Canada is headed under a Mark Carney government, particularly when it comes to our personal financial futures.  His coronation brought back thoughts from late 2023 when the Bank of Canada, Carney's former employer, released a survey asking Canadians about their views on a digital Canadian dollar aka a central bank digital currency.  Let's look at an excerpt from the results of the survey which found the following:

1.) Canadians place a high value on holding cash that is backed by their central bank and want to maintain access to bank notes.

2.) Canadians value their right to privacy and many expressed concerns that a digital dollar could compromise that right.

3.) A digital dollar should be easily accessible and should neither add barriers nor worsen existing ones.

4.) A digital dollar should not add to financial stability risks.

Basically, Canadians who responded to the survey were strongly against a digital Canadian dollar and strongly backed the continued existence of bank notes, responses which the bank appears to have taken to heart at least publicly, however, it did leave itself one significant loophole as quoted here with my bold:

"In an era of rapid digitalization, the Bank is undertaking the necessary work to be ready if Canadians’ payment preferences or needs change. Ultimately, the decision about whether or when to issue a digital dollar will be up to Canadians and their elected representatives in Parliament."

Here's a screen capture showing the "What's Next" section of the report on the Bank of Canada's survey for posterity's sake:

 

And, there you have it.  The ultimate decision about whether to implement a digital Canadian dollar lies in the hands of Canada's Parliament which is now led by a former central banker and strong advocate of central bank digital currencies.  The stumbling block to Canada's CBDC has now been removed and I don't think that Mark Carney cares one whit about what Canadians think about a cashless society.

The only question now is how long will it be before Canada adopts a central bank digital currency?  Canada's only hope is that a Carney-led Liberal party is either defeated in the next election or remains in minority status as long as the other parties are anti-digital Canadian dollar.

Mark Carney, CBDCs and the United States Dollar - Dealing with Donald Trump

For some reason or another, Canadians believe that Mark Carney is best suited to negotiate trade issues with Donald Trump.  This is likely due to the non-stop coverage that Canada's left-biased media has deluged Canadians with since Carney entered the race for replacement Liberal leader/Prime Minister in December 2024.  If we look back at comments that Carney made at a speech in 2019 which get no coverage on Canada's mainstream media, it would appear that Carney might well have an uphill battle with President Trump.

On August 23, 2019, Mark Carney in his role as Governor of the Bank of England gave this speech to the Jackson Hole Symposium, an annual gathering of central bankers, finance ministers and other economic experts from around the world:

In this rather mind numbingly boring and very technical speech, he delves into the international monetary and financial system (IMFS), focusing on how the current system challenges monetary policy.  He notes that the world economy is being reordered (thanks to the growing impact of the BRICS nations on the global economy) with the U.S. dollar remaining as important as it was when other currencies were pegged to the U.S. dollar which was pegged to the price of gold ($35 per ounce) at the Bretton Woods meeting in 1944.  This was the case until 1971 when President Richard Nixon announced his New Economic Policy, suspending the conversion of the U.S. dollar into gold.

Carney states that there is a growing "destabilizing asymmetry" at the heart of the IMFS and, with the U.S. dollar's continuing importance to the economy, it is having a significant spillover into trade performance and financial conditions of emerging economies.  This makes it difficult for central bankers to provide the stimulus necessary to achieve their objectives and, as a result, there is a growing risk of a global economic slowdown. To summarize his comments, the near-zero interest rate policies adopted by the central bankers of the United States and other advanced economies made it nearly impossible for them to lower rates further. 

 Here is a quote:

"Today, the combination of heightened economic policy uncertainty, outright protectionism and concerns that further, negative shocks could not be adequately offset because of limited policy space is exacerbating the disinflationary bias in the global economy.

What then must be done? In the short term, central bankers must play the cards they have been dealt as best they can."

He then states that central bankers need to "change the (reserve currency) game" in the new multipolar  international monetary and financial system and that (with my bolds):

"When change comes, it shouldn’t be to swap one currency hegemon for another. Any unipolar system is unsuited to a multi-polar world. We would do well to think through every opportunity, including those presented by new technologies, to create a more balanced and effective system."

Note the use of the words "new technologies".  We will see what those are later in this posting.

Now, let's see what he has to say about the U.S. dollar (again with my bolds):

"The dollar represents the currency of choice for at least half of international trade invoices, around five times greater than the US’s share in world goods imports, and three times its share in world exports.  The resulting stickiness of import prices in dollar terms means exchange rate pass-through for changes in the dollar is high regardless of the country of export and import, while pass-through of non-dominant currencies is negligible. As a result, import prices do not adjust efficiently to reflect changes in relative demand between trading partners, in part because expenditure switching effects are curtailed, and global trade volumes are heavily influenced by the strength of the US dollar....

Huge network effects mean the dollar has remained dominant in the IMFS despite the transformation of the global economy. At the time of the Latin American debt crisis, EMEs made up a little more than one third of global GDP. Since the last Fed tightening cycle, their share of global activity had risen from around 45% to 60%. By 2030, it is projected to rise to around three quarters.

As well as being the dominant currency for the invoicing and settling of international trade, the US dollar is the currency of choice for securities issuance and holdings, and reserves of the official sector. Two-thirds of both global securities issuance and official foreign-exchange reserves are denominated in dollars. The same proportion of EME foreign currency external debt is denominated in dollars and the dollar serves as the monetary anchor in countries accounting for two thirds of global GDP.

Basically, Carney blames the U.S. dollar for the woes in the global economy.    You'll note that he stated that in "changing the game" when it comes to new reserve currencies to replace the U.S. dollar, new technologies must be considered.  What are these new technologies?  Here you go:

"The Bank of England and other regulators have been clear that unlike in social media (and its attempts to create new payment systems like Facebook and Libra/Diem), for which standards and regulations are only now being developed after the technologies have been adopted by billions of users, the terms of engagement for any new systemic private payments system must be in force well in advance of any launch.

As a consequence, it is an open question whether such a new Synthetic Hegemonic Currency (SHC) would be best provided by the public sector, perhaps through a network of central bank digital currencies.

Even if the initial variants of the idea prove wanting, the concept is intriguing. It is worth considering how an SHC in the IMFS could support better global outcomes, given the scale of the challenges of the current IMFS and the risks in transition to a new hegemonic reserve currency like the Renminbi.

An SHC could dampen the domineering influence of the US dollar on global trade."

He also notes that the most likely candidate for a replacement reserve currency is China's Renminbi but that it still has a way to go before it becomes truly a global reserve currency.  This is very noteworthy given that the Trump Administration appears to be viewing China as their "foe of choice".

So, given that Mark Carney believes that the issuance of central bank digital currencies (aka a Synthetic Hegemonic Currency) are necessary to reduce the global reliance on the U.S. dollar as the "hegemonic reserve currency" and that China's Renminbi is the heir apparent in a multi-reserve currency world, I wonder how Donald Trump will view a Prime Minister Carney, particularly given that one of his Executive Orders banned the development and use of a central bank digital currency in the United States and that his core belief is to make America the great sole superpower that it was prior to the rapidly developing multipolar reality of today.

Central Bank Digital Currencies - A Primer on a Cashless Society

In recent weeks, it has become increasingly apparent to me that many people are completely unaware of the concept of a central bank digital currency or CBDC.  In this posting, I will outline the key aspects of CBDC, how it will be implemented and why and will encapsulate all of the things that I have learned about our looming cashless society for your illumination.

  

Let's start by looking at the definition of a CBDC.  

"A CBDC is a form of digital currency issued by a nation's central bank and is equivalent to its physical national fiat currency (i.e the bank notes that are circulated in an economy)."

  

There are two types of CBDCs:

 

1.) Retail CBDCs - these CBDCs will be used by consumers and businesses.  There are two types of retail CBDCs:

 

a.) Account-based retail CBDCs which will require a digital identification to access an account.  These CBDCs could cause disruption in the commercial banking sector and could lead to identifying, tracking and profiling of all end-user's transactions.

 

b.) Token-based retail CBDCs which will be accessible with private keys, public keys or both which will allow an individual to execute transactions anonymously, however, central banks could choose to implement specific identity requirements to access the network, negating anonymity. 

 

2.) Wholesale CBDCS - these CBDCs will be used for transactions by the financial/commercial banking sector.

 

Here is a quote from a study on CBDCs from the European Data Protection Supervisor regarding the definition of a CBDC:

"A CBDC consists of a digital representation of coins and banknotes in the form of digital tokens. It is an electronic file that embodies a specific value with a reference to its owner attached to it. By just changing that reference, the value is transferred and a payment is made. CBDC is usually presented by central banks as a complement to cash, equipped with similar features (notably, having regard to the legal tender status), but adapted to some functional needs and to the ‘digital’ nature referred to above."

 

Some central banks (i.e. the Bank of England) are selling the benefits of a CBDC by stating that while CBDCs will be implemented, bank notes will still remain in circulation (i.e. the payment system will not become entirely digital) however, they give no time frame for the implementation of a fully digital/cashless payments system which is certain to follow.

CBDCs could be administered in one of two main architectural ecosystems:

 

1.) the direct model where the central bank provides a direct service to the end user such as a reloadable card or online digital wallet.

 

2.) the indirect model where commercial banks provide the ledger for retail transactions with the central bank maintaining the wholesale ledger of CBDC transactions with the commercial banks.

 

Under a hybrid model of CBDC administration, commercial banks will provide retail services to its customers and the central bank retains a ledger of retail transactions.  According to the Bank for International Settlements (the central bank for central banks), this is currently the architecture that most central banks are currently considering.

 

Here is a graphic showing the two types of CBDC architecture and the resulting data flow:

 

Some people comment that we already have a digital payments system which consists mainly of debit and credit cards.  While this is true, there is a key difference between CBDCs and the current digital payments system.  CBDCs will be legal tender and must be accepted if offered as payment within the jurisdiction of its issue whereas other electronic means of payment (i.e. credit cards etcetera) can be refused.

 

There are at least two issues that will make the implementation of a CBDC ecosystem difficult:

 

1.) Resilience - the CBDC banking system must be resistant to cyber security threats and must operate when the power grid is unavailable.

 

 2.) Privacy - we will have to trust that central banks and governments will not use CBDCs to track and trace our behaviours.  Here is a quote about CBDC-related privacy from a study done by Payments Canada with my bold:

  

"A CBDC with the same level of privacy as traditional cash is highly unlikely. As with cash, privacy may be limited in the service of public safety priorities around money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion and parallel market activities, particularly for large CBDC transactions."

  

One might ask, why do we need CBDCs.  Here are some of the reasons given by central bankers:

 

1.) reinforcement of monetary sovereignty, strategic autonomy and monetary policy implementation

 

2.) creation of a more reliable form of payment than new form of private money by private actors (i.e. Bitcoin etcetera) that bypass the existing bank-based payment systems

 

3.) to stimulate competition and innovation in payments, removing barriers and avoiding closed payment

systems created by platforms (i.e. Meta's proposed Diem)

 

4.) to foster financial inclusion, rendering the process easier for people that currently do not have a bank account 

 

5.) to improve cross-border retail payments

 

6.) reduce or eliminate money laundering, tax evasion, fraud and terrorist financing since  CBDC contain features of identifiability of the end-user and traceability of their transactions

Banking inclusiveness is always part of the sales pitch for CBDCs but you wouldn't be the only person who thinks that central bankers really don't care about the unbanked since, in general, they contribute less to the economy than the banked.

Now, let's look at the downsides to CBDCs:

 

1.) lack of privacy - all transactions can be tracked and traced

 

2.) central banks could limit the amounts of digital currency that could be owned by each person/entity

 

3.) a tiering approach could be used where there are no limits to the amount of digital currency that can be held but that amounts above a certain threshold could receive a negative interest rate which would destroy the value of the individual's savings

 

To me, the most frightening aspect of a CBDC is the potential for a programmable digital currency which is defined as a "CBDC with built-in rules, imposing restrictions on the usage of that money."

 

By implementing a programmable money through a CBDC, a government could do the following:

 

1.) define a positive or negative interest rate to incentivise or disincentive the use of money 

 

2.) limit its use to a certain category of services for example placing limits on purchases of alcohol, tobacco, gasoline, meat or other items that the government deems unnecessary or unhealthy.  This could act as a de facto rationing system which would be particularly compelling during a "climate emergency".

 

3.) set a CBDC expiry date which could be used to incentive spending during economic downturns.

 

4.) CBDCs could be linked to an individual's social credit system by way of a digital identity.  If an individual has views or behaviours that are contrary to what the current government powers believe are acceptable, this could be considered when CBDCs are issued to an individual.  In this case, CBDCs could be used to promote or impede social and political changes. 

 

The development of CBDCs is being undertaken by many nations around the world and implementation is at various stages as shown on this CBDC tracker from the Atlantic Council:

 

 

Effective in September 2024, 134 nations and currency unions representing 98 percent of global GDP are exploring a CBDC with 66 nations currently at an advanced stage of development.  Three nations have launched a full-fledged CBDC with varying results; Nigeria and its e-Naira which launched in October 2021, the Bahamas and its Sand Dollar in October 2020 and Jamaica with its Jamaican Digital Exchange or JAM-DEX in May 2022.

 

Let's close with this commentary about CBDCs from Agustin Carstens, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements, once again, the central bank for central bankers:

  

That tells you all that you need to know about CBDCs and how they will be used.

It is my belief that the "boiling frog" analogy is most apt when it comes to the issuance of CBDCs.  With the vast majority of the world currently exploring the development of a central bank digital currency, we are slowly but surely being led down the garden path to a cashless society where transactional privacy is non-existent and governments will have the ability to use a heavy-handed approach to curtailing what they believe is unacceptable behaviour by their citizens through the implementation of programmable digital currencies in conjunction with a digital identification program.   All that it will take is some sort of crisis in the world’s financial markets to give the powers that ought-not-to be the excuse that they need to send the sweaty masses down the road to monetary slavery.

The Trump Administration's Ban on Central Bank Digital Currency

Since Donald Trump occupied the Oval Office for the second time on January 20th, 2025, he has signed a significant number of Executive Orders covering a very wide range of issues.  As someone who has been following the development of digital currencies for many years, one Executive Order that caught my eye was "Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology" which was signed on January 25th, 2025:

Inside this executive order, we find this under section 1 (v) (my bolds throughout):

 

"...taking measures to protect Americans from the risks of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), which threaten the stability of the financial system, individual privacy, and the sovereignty of the United States, including by prohibiting the establishment, issuance, circulation, and use of a CBDC within the jurisdiction of the United States."

 

The Executive Order defines Central Bank Digital Currencies as "a form of digital money or monetary value, denominated in the national unit of account, that is a direct liability of the central bank."

 

In Section 5, we find this:

 

"a)  Except to the extent required by law, agencies are hereby prohibited from undertaking any action to establish, issue, or promote CBDCs within the jurisdiction of the United States or abroad.

 

(b)  Except to the extent required by law, any ongoing plans or initiatives at any agency related to the creation of a CBDC within the jurisdiction of the United States shall be immediately terminated, and no further actions may be taken to develop or implement such plans or initiatives."

 

It is important to note that the Federal Reserve is not an agency of the United States federal government and that it exists because of an act of Congress. According to the Fed, it 

"...enjoys a unique public/private structure that operates within the government, but is still relatively independent of government to isolate the Fed from day-to-day political pressures in fulfilling its varying roles. As stated in The Federal Reserve System Purposes & Functions:

The Federal Reserve System is considered to be an independent central bank. It is so, however, only in the sense that its decisions do not have to be ratified by the President or anyone else in the executive branch of the government. The entire System is subject to oversight by the U.S. Congress….the Federal Reserve must work within the framework of the overall objectives of economic and financial policy established by the government."

  

While this particular Executive Order isn't as attention-grabbing as the Executive Orders that covered issues like America's withdrawal from the World Health Organization and ending DEI programs, to those of us that have been paying attention to the unceasing movement toward global adoption of central bank digital currencies, this could be a game-changer.  In my opinion and in light of this development, there could be one of two scenarios that play out:

 

1.) with the American economy being the largest economy in the world, Washington's ban on central bank digital currencies could slow up adoption of CBDCs by other economies.

 

2.) the creation of a crisis in the world's financial markets which could be used to negate the Trump Administration's ban on CBDCs, all in the name of rescuing the global economy.

 

In any case and until proven otherwise, I think that the Trump Administration's ban on CBDCs has done all of us a great (and perhaps temporary favour) by preventing the world's most influential central bank from issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency within the jurisdiction of the world's largest economy.  You can just imagine central bankers' heads exploding all over the world thanks to this development.

The Bank of England and the Digital Pound - The Next Phase of the Development of a U.K. CBDC

 The Bank of England recently announced that it was ending the "consultation and response phase" of the United Kingdom's central bank digital currency plans and was beginning its "design phase". 

Here is a screen capture showing the pertinent section of the latest progress update for the Bank of England's CBDC or, as they term it, digital pound:

 

The Bank claims that the digital pound will complement physical banknotes and that it "could offer households and businesses another way to make and receive payments, in step with an increasingly digital economy."  The digital pound would be:

 

"...seamlessly exchangeable with cash and bank deposits, ensuring the continuity of a trusted, uniform and accessible means of payment. As a publicly provided platform, it could foster innovation by enabling a varied range of private sector firms to develop innovative and user-friendly services."

  

The Bank has set four outcomes that it desires in the retail payments sector as follows:

 

"Outcome 1: Singleness of money

 

a.) the design, operation and supervision of retail payment systems must support confidence in the one-for-one exchange between central bank money and private money – whether commercial bank money or stablecoins. Put another way, all different forms of money must be exchangeable with each other at par value and at all times.

 

Outcome 2: Innovation

 

a.) The retail payments ecosystem and the regulatory environment must support safe and sustainable innovation in payments, consistent with the UK retaining its place within a competitive global financial system while also reducing the potential for disruption.

b.) Retail payment methods must be responsive to consumer choice and needs. They should be quick, easy, secure, cost effective and widely available to support financial inclusion.

 

c.) This should include access to a diverse landscape such that there are alternative forms of payment to those currently in existence (such as credit and debit cards), including the ability to make account-to-account payments to businesses at the point of sale in a broad range of use cases.

Outcome 3: Resilience of infrastructure and the wider ecosystem

a.) There must be end-to-end resilience across the payments chain for retail payments. This includes the need for agile risk management frameworks that enable providers to respond to emerging threats.

 

b.) Policymakers must also have the tools to address single points of failure arising from concentration in service provision at critical points in the chain, for instance through expanding the Bank of England’s regulatory payments perimeter.

Outcome 4: Effective governance and funding

 

a.) Payment systems must have governance frameworks that reflect the views of direct and indirect users of the infrastructure and enable effective supervision.

 

b.) Regulations and financial market infrastructure rulebooks must keep pace with a changing consumer landscape to maintain public confidence in payment systems. This includes tackling authorised push payment (APP) scams through better prevention and detection as well as appropriate consumer protection arrangements.

 

c.) Infrastructure providers must have sustainable and coherent funding and revenue models to ensure they can invest in their resilience and modernisation."

 

Under the National Payments Vision which was announced in October 2024, the government wants to "...achieve a trusted, world-leading payments ecosystem delivered on next generation technology, where consumers and businesses have a choice of payment methods to meet their needs" and that this payments ecosystem is "a critical underpinning to the government's central growth mission and its ambition to deliver world-leading rates of GDP growth".  Note the word "choice"; you'll have a choice of payment methods until they decide that you don't.

  

In closing, let's pick out the most pertinent section of the update with my bolds:

 

"No decision has been made on whether to proceed with a digital pound. After completing the design phase over the next couple of years, including taking account of developments in the wider payments landscape, the Bank and Government will assess the policy case for a digital pound and determine whether or not to proceed. A digital pound would only be introduced with Parliament’s approval, requiring primary legislation. This legislation would safeguard users’ privacy, guaranteeing that neither the Bank nor the Government could access users’ personal information nor control how households and businesses use their money. Further public consultation would precede the introduction of primary legislation by the Government."

 

With 134 nations proceeding with the movement toward a CBDC according to the Atlantic Council's CBDC Tracker as shown here:

 

...it's just a matter of time before the Bank of England launches a full-fledged CBDC ecosystem no matter what they are telling a reluctant public now.  The idea that a CBDC will be used alongside physical banknotes is just a way to lull consumers into an eventual full-fledged CBDC ecosystem in which cash is no longer used.  I cannot imagine a situation where Parliament would act against the will of the Bank, particularly given that the U.K. government has already taken the important pre-step of announcing the launching a digital ID mobile app aka GOV.UK.Wallet which will be available in mid-2025 as shown here:

 

Mark Carney - The Globalists' Globalist

In part one of this two part posting, we looked at Mark Carney - The Globalist Environmentalist.  In part two, we'll take a look at this influential individual and his connections to the global elite and how he most definitely is not "one of us" and has absolutely no understanding of what the unwashed masses face no matter what he may proclaim.   While you are reading this posting, you should know that Carney has announced that he was withdrawn from all of his corporate and organizational leadership positions because he is now all about becoming Canada's Prime Minister, however, should he lose the race to leadership, one still does have to wonder how long it will be before his name once again appears on the boards of these or other organizations.

1.) The World Economic Forum - The World Economic Forum, created and led by Klaus Schwab and architect of the Great Reset and the dystopian "It's 2030, I don't own anything and I'm happy" mantra, defines itself as follows:

"(The World Economic Forum) serves the needs of the international community by providing a platform for advancing systemic improvements in cooperation and governance through the engagement of multiple stakeholders, industries, technologies, regions and intellectual disciplines. The Forum’s vision and role are uniquely suited to these fast-moving and complex times, requiring agility, engagement and support from leading stakeholders from all walks of life, the creative application of interdisciplinary skill and a high-performance team."

Mark Carney was one of 31 members of the WEF's Board of Trustees as shown here:

...and here:

While he no longer appears as a member of WEF's Board of Trustees, he is still listed on the group's website as an "Agenda Contributor":

2.) The Group of Thirty (G30): G30 describes itself as follows:

"The Group of Thirty, established in 1978, is an independent global body comprised of economic and financial leaders from the public and private sectors and academia. It aims to deepen understanding of global economic and financial issues, and to explore the international repercussions of decisions taken in the public and private sectors. The Group is characterized by the extensive experience of its members and open-minded, forward thinking."

The Group has 31 members in addition to 8 senior members and 17 emeritus members who held leaderships positions in the public and private sectors as well as academia.  Currently, the G30 has six leaders within the central banking community and several others who became members while they were central bankers.  Thirty-four of G30's members formerly held senior positions in central banking of which 28 served as central bankers while a G30 member.  

 

Mark Carney is one of G30's current members as shown here:

...and here:

3.) Bank for International Settlements (BIS) - BIS is known as the central bank of central banks.  Its mission is to "support central banks' pursuit of monetary and financial satiety through international cooperation and to act as a bank for  central banks."

 

While Mark Carney is not currently a member of BIS, in the past, he has given a substantial number of speeches that are found on the organization's website as shown here:

He also served as Chairman of the Bank for International Settlements Committee on the Global Financial System (CGFS) from July 2010 to January 2012 as shown here:

4.) The Council for Inclusive Capitalism with the Vatican - The "Council" is "a historic new partnership between some of the world's largest investment and business leaders and the Vatican, launched today. It signifies the urgency of joining moral and market imperatives to reform capitalism into a powerful force for the good of humanity. Under the moral guidance of His Holiness Pope Francis and His Eminence Cardinal Peter Turkson, who leads the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development at the Vatican, and inspired by the moral imperative of all faiths, the Council invites companies of all sizes to harness the potential of the private sector to build a fairer, more inclusive, and sustainable economic foundation for the world.".  The Council is led by a core group of global leaders who are known as "Guardians for Inclusive Capitalism". They meet annually with Pope Francis and Cardinal Turkson.  Mark Carney is one of the "Guardians/Stewards" or Council Members as shown here:

 

...and here:

...and here from the original announcement of the formation of the Council where he is part of the group then called "Guardians":

 

Now, let's look at four additional bonus Carney connections:

 

5.) Brookfield Asset Management - Brookfield Asset management is, in their words:

 

"...a leading global alternative asset manager with over $600 billion of assets under management across real estate, infrastructure, renewable power, private equity and credit. Our objective is to generate attractive long-term risk-adjusted returns for the benefit of our clients and shareholders.

We manage a range of public and private investment products and services for institutional and retail clients. We earn asset management income for doing so and align our interests with our clients by investing alongside them. We have an exceptionally strong balance sheet, with approximately $59 billion of capital invested, primarily in our listed affiliates: Brookfield Property Partners, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Renewable Partners and Brookfield Business Partners. This access to large-scale capital enables us to make investments in sizeable, premier assets and businesses across geographies and asset classes that few managers are able to do."

Mark Carney is one of Brookfield's directors as shown here:

Given Carney's position as the United Nation's climate change czar, it is interesting to note that Brookfield has significant investments in hydrocarbon businesses as shown here:

...and here:

While Brookfield has pledged to support the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, there is absolutely no guarantee that this target will be met.  The company also has significant greenhouse gas emissions from business air travel which have grown substantially on both a year-over-year basis between 2022 and 2023 and since the 2019 base year as shown here:

6.) Stripe - Carney is a member of the board for Stripe, a global digital payments company building infrastructure for the internet as shown here:

Given Carney's penchant for Central Bank Digital Currencies, this directorship really shouldn't surprise anyone since Stripe's mission is "to increase the GDP of the internet".

7.) Carney is the Chair of the Advisory Board for Canada 2020, a "leading, independent, progressive think tank" founded in 2020 as shown here:

 

8.) While he is not part of the organization's "management team", in June 2024, Carney was a featured speaker at the Century Initiative's "Building for Growth - Housing and infrastructure for an expanding nation" event:

The Century Initiative proposes that Canada needs to have a population of 100 million people by 2100:

....despite the fact that Canadians are already suffering from shortages of housing that is severely unaffordable thanks to a broken immigration system under the Trudeau government that has seen Canada's population surge over the past four years and a health care system that is on life support.  Obviously, Mr. Carney's appearance at one of their events suggests that he believes in this vision of Canada.

I would have to imagine that there is significant air travel and resulting greenhouse gas emissions associated with all of Mr. Carney's commitments to the leadership of these organizations and corporations.  One would not be far from wrong if they thought that this was yet another example of "rules for thee but not for me" when it comes to the globalist ecosystem.

From these two postings on Mark Carney, I hope that you have learned quite a bit about one of the members global ruling class.  Canadians must ask themselves whether this slick globalist bankster is actually interested in improving their lives or even has a basic understanding of what it is like to be a Canadian today given that he has spent substantial time overseas over the past decade and a half.    With his position as climate czar for the United Nations, his links to some of the world's most influential NGOs as well, his links to the world's central banking system, we can be certain that his agenda will see the light of day if the global technocracy gets their way.  

With Carney's penchant for central banking and the environment, it is my proposition that, under a Prime Minister Carney, Canadians could well find themselves as the advanced economy's lab rats for programmable central bank digital currencies linked to their carbon footprint.