I doubt the banks' predicament of owning underwater treasuries was planned. The problem arose because unqualified people were put in control of Investment and risk management policy. Inexperienced, unsophisticated, careless and reckless individuals, without any sort of position management strategy if the market value dropped below a certain level. Some were obviously much better than others, and it may be that the worst have already suffered market discipline, and no more pain has to be felt by the vast majority of banks.
If we go to a mandated CBDC, it will have to be for other reasons. My guess is it will start as a way to buy things cheaper. We're already seeing that at places like Walmart, where if you buy your computer in the store, the price is $300, and if you buy the same computer online from Walmart, and have it delivered to your home, the price is $150. Large retailers will begin to make cash buyers pay a premium for everything, because they don't want to have to pay the price to manage your cash at the register, to the store safe, to the armored truck, and finally to the bank, where there is risk of loss every step of the way. Not to mention, a certain percentage of the customers who walk into stores nowadays shoplift some or all of what they walk out with. When the elite are ready to crash VISA/MASTERCARD/AMEX/DISCOVER and the big banks where everyone has their debit cards, then they implement a CBDC.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle are probably ready to screw all the holders of dollars outside the country by turning them into worthless confetti. So they'll probably arrange a discrimination scheme where you can't spend paper dollars in the US without a US REAL ID. Whatever they do will not be quick, so we have plenty of time to get our ducks in a row. I keep my liquid assets on deposit with the casinos via cage accounts in Vegas, which are MUCH safer than any bank. Plus they spin off all kinds of fringe benefits that banks can't match (free rooms, food, entertainment etc). Everyone with reasonably large resources should move to Vegas and take full advantage of these amazing arrangements!! <g> |
