As governments continue with their agenda driven policies, individuals are left to observe and plan how they will rebuild their lives in the aftermath.

April 6, 2020

By: Bobby Casey, Managing Director GWP

As new policies emerge, and ideas are swirled around, it’s clear that normal is being redefined at a rapid pace.

The more I see, the more I’m convinced that this pandemic is the cover governments are using to institute a very controlling agenda. And if that’s the case, now more than ever, it is important to watch and wait.

Imagine yourself waiting at a red light.

While tempting to keep the car moving by making a right on red, you decide to wait for the green.

What happens while you wait, is what should decide your course, not the mere impatience of having to wait.

It’s counter-intuitive to wait rather than act when times are urgent. But unlike a fire, you don’t need to make rushed decisions. You need to make smart, long term decisions (unlike the politicians).

There’s a lot of talk of digital currency. Some could use blockchain technology, but these are initiatives coming out of central banks and legislative halls.

Many countries were already moving toward this long before this pandemic. Sweden was one of them. While I have so much respect for how they are handling the Covid 19 situation, I’m a little nervous about their cashless agenda.

They are testing an “e-Krona” through February 2021. Sweden is one of the most cashless societies already, with the use of cash precipitously dropping in the past 10 years. Their central bank is running a pilot using a digital wallet for people to pay via mobile application from that wallet.

“The technology is based on the U.S.-based company R3’s blockchain platform, Corda. According to the Riksbank, Corda has important differences from cryptocurrencies, which enables the creation of a private network which is only accessible for participants approved by the central bank.”

The US Senate is trying to push a similar measure through on the coattails of the Stimulus Package. The reasons are nothing short of benevolent, of course! Getting much-needed funding to those who are under or unbanked. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) brought forward the Banking For All Act:

“At the height of this pandemic we must do more to protect the financial well-being of hardworking Americans and consumers. They are on the front lines of this crisis and are already feeling the effects of the economic fallout. My legislation would allow every American to set up a free bank account so they don’t have to rely on expensive check cashers to access their hard-earned money.”

What better excuse than a pandemic and stimulus checks to roll this out. Imagine, a digital bank run by the Federal Reserve and its member banks! What could possibly go wrong?

This bill offers a definition for digital dollars as well as for a digital dollar wallet, and provides the provision for a pass-through digital dollar wallet with the mandate for all member banks to open and maintain digital dollar wallets for all persons, including those eligible to receive the stimulus.

What is the a member bank?

They are not only supervised and regulated by the Federal Reserve, they own shares in it. Those that are not members are managed by the FDIC. The super large banks, such as Wells Fargo, are managed by the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of Currency).

There’s a mandate in there for the larger banks to offer digital wallets as well, and for areas that are under-served with banks or don’t have a Federal Reserve branch, the USPS will be looped in to broker those same banking services.

The USPS is broke. It’s pacing to be out of money by June 2020.

“…[W]hile the stimulus bill extended the Postal Service greater flexibility to borrow up to $10 billion from the federal government, it didn’t extend USPS any emergency government funding or eliminate its $11 billion in outstanding debt…”

It continues to plod along with its $8.8 billion in annual losses. But by all means, let’s rely on them to bring banking to the poorer areas of the US.

The Fed is monetizing debt, lending by the trillions daily. And somehow this is a solution for what exactly? I’m having a hard time believing that people who manage to earn money and pay taxes couldn’t figure out how to get their stimulus checks in the same way they managed to get a tax return.

Meanwhile, the US State Department has stopped issuing passports except for those with qualified life-or-death emergencies.

“Routine applications or renewal requests for passports that come after March 20 will not receive expedited service, and the State Department has said regular service may be delayed.”

For many Americans, the shelter in place keeps them not only in their homes, but in the US. Not even people who have had the corona virus and recovered or tested positive for the antibody can be an exception.

Who knows how long these measures will be in place? Who knows if this is what November through May looks like in the Northern Hemisphere every year?

Remember, just because the leash loosens, doesn’t mean the state of emergency with all its new powers and regulations lets up.

The interesting thing about states of emergency is that it doesn’t end until it either is allowed to expire, or the executive calls it off. States of emergency have been allowed to continue long after their original purposes were served.

Eventually these orders will be lifted one jurisdiction and country at a time. By no means are we going back to the way things were. In fact, I don’t even think everyone who was affected by the economic fallout will be able to recover and be made whole again.

It’s time to start planning for what’s next. The government will continue to be what it is and do what it does. What sort of world will be left once this is over? What will the rebuild look like?