The Federal Reserve’s new service for banks, called FedNow, promises increased flexibility, faster transactions, and instant payments with one, small cost: The potential END to your financial freedom. In this clip, Glenn is joined by Justin Haskins, co-author of their new book, ‘Dark Future.’ Haskins explains how — despite what the Federal Reserve may say — this new service is NOT an alternative to a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)…rather, it’s a giant stepping stone toward it. Watch Glenn tackle this topic further in his upcoming Glenn TV Wednesday Night Special, airing on YouTube and BlazeTV.com on March 29th.
TranscriptBelow is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Justin Haskins is with us. Justin is the -- he's with the socialism research center, at the Heartland Institute, where he is the director. He has been working tirelessly on stopping socialism.
He is also -- he was one of our main contributors to our Arguing With Socialists book.
He is also my coauthor of the book, The Great Reset. And our fourth coming book. We're all going to die.
I'm not sure exactly -- what did we name it, Justin?
That was my working title for quite some time.
JUSTIN: Are we telling people? Is this the first time?
GLENN: I don't know. Can we?
Check Amazon, see if it's up for sale.
If it's up for sale, we'll announce it. It's supposed to be in the next few days.
JUSTIN: The name of the book.
GLENN: Don't say it. Don't say it.
So, Justin, you wrote to me something kind of disturbing.
Last hour, I played these happy little commercials from the Federal Reserve about the Fed Now.
It's a new service for all of the banks, which will -- which will make the transfer of funds, you know, whether you're out shopping or you're a business owner, or you're doing bank-to-bank transactions.
You just run everything through the Federal Reserve, and it will happen fast. And I thought --
JUSTIN: Yeah. Isn't that exciting?
GLENN: Very exciting. Now, they're claiming that this is the alternative to a CBDC, which is a Central Bank Digital Currency.
It doesn't really sound so much like an alternative, as much as, I don't know, a system to run that on.
JUSTIN: Yeah. Basically, this is -- this is like Jason Buttrill, your head researcher. Because he and I are now best friends. We exchange emails all the time.
He came up with this great analogy.
This is like the drug dealer, who is new on the block. And he will not just start injecting people with heroin. That's not how you sell lots of drugs. That's not how you do it.
First, you get them hooked.
You just give them a little taste. And then after they get a little taste, now they're hooked. Then you can start really pushing the hard stuff. That's what this is all about.
The Federal Reserve is basically a drug pusher. Okay?
And this is the start of it.
Normally, regular folks like you and me, and people in the audience, we don't interact with the fed. We're not used to that.
We don't like the fed.
We don't trust them very much. And so what they want to say is, just have a little taste. You'll see. It will be great.
Just have a little taste. This is a steppingstone to a CBDC.
This is our first interaction to using the fed directly.
So that we can become more comfortable with it. So it's normalized. And then after this, you'll get a central bank digital currency.
We already know this, because there's a billion government reports talking about how they'll design it, what it will look like.
Why people should use it.
What the principles should be, behind it. All of that kind of stuff.
So we know a CBDC is coming. This is just the first step in that process, to try to normalize people interacting directly with the fed in this sort of high-tech instant transfer payment portal.
GLENN: So we've been talking about the uniform commercial code, which is complicated. And it's -- it's usually nothing anyone should ever have to think about. However, they have included central bank digital currency as the new definition of money.
But money makes us think of money, that you can take from the bank. That you own it. You get paid. You get to do what you want with it.
But central bank digital currency, is not really money. Correct?
JUSTIN: Yeah. What's happening in more than 20 states across the country right now, and it's going to happen in all 50 states eventually. Is lawmakers are looking at updating the Uniform Commercial Code so that a foundation is being laid for a future central bank digital currency.
And not just any kind of central bank digital currency, but a central bank digital currency that is programmable, trackable. That you won't have any privacy with the things that you're doing with the CBDC, that it can be controlled and manipulated. This kind of thing is being manipulated into the code. They don't use the world central bank digital currency. But they outline it, in such a way so that that has to be what they're talking about. So it's not creating the CBDC. That's not what this is aiming to do. It's just laying the foundation to make it easier to use it in certain kinds of commercial transactions.
GLENN: So people know, and this is what you really have to understand. This is not like Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is such a danger, because you get to do with it, what you want to do with it.
And the Federal Reserve is not aware of anything, and can't do anything.
You have the ultimate power with your money. The opposite is true with the fed coin, that they will be introducing. And this is what makes it so dangerous. Not just the tracking.
They're not -- they will not just know absolutely everything that you spend. But Justin said a key word that most people don't really understand. It's programmable. Meaning, it is programmable for the individual. So, in other words, if the government decides that they're going to -- you know, we need to get -- we need to cut down on fat, fat, fatties. Then my digital coin, will not allow me to buy fatty foods. I wouldn't be able to go to McDonald's. I'm using this as an example. There's not anything in the works to do this.
Except, this is what programmable means. They can program it, so if they say, you know what, nobody is going to work. You're not an essential employee.
Your coin will not buy gas.
So you can go to -- try to fill up. But when you put your digital card in the fed, it will say denied. And you won't have any way, other than that card, to be able to buy what you need. It's absolute control of your life.
JUSTIN: Yes. That is exactly right.
And there actually have been things. Statements that have been made by the Biden administration itself. Where it is said, as part of its reports, studying CBDCs and the benefits of it. And how it would be designed.
If they were to make a CBDC, even though they've haven't committed to doing that exactly. They have done all of the groundwork for it.
They've said flatout, that a CBDC needs to account for climate change. It needs to have financial inclusion built into it.
It needs to have equity built into it.
It needs to have concerns about pollution, built into it. They have worked with hundreds of stakeholders. And we all know what that means. Nonprofit groups. And labor organizations and others.
GLENN: Community activists.
JUSTIN: To help design the CBDC. So why are they doing all of that? Because it is going to be programmed, so that you can use it in certain ways, so that it can be prohibited in other ways.
And it can change on a dime. See, that's the other important thing.
It's not -- when it's programmable, they can change the rules whenever they want. It's not as though, they set the rules at the beginning, and that's the rules forever.
They can change the rules as they go. That's the threat of a programmable currency. So it's a huge threat to liberty.
GLENN: And all they will concentrate on is the one fact, and mark my words, this is the way it's going to happen.
We'll have a banking collapse.
Because there's a banking collapse, that will cause the dollar to skyrocket in inflation, possibly hyperinflation. Because you won't be able to have a supply chain anymore.
So many people will be unemployed. There's so much money awash, that if you want to buy something, well, you have 100 bucks?
Yeah. I'll buy that for $100. And it might be something that was worth $4 before the collapse.
And people will pay it. Hyperinflation will go crazy.
The fed will say, look, we have to stop it. Inflation is too much.
We will give you digital currency. It's already in a bank with your name.
All you have to do is sign in, and it will give you the money. And that is what will change inflation.
How do we know about that? Because we wrote about it, in a arguing -- I believe it was in Arguing with Socialists. A chapter we almost didn't put in about Modern Monetary theory. And Modern Monetary theory, is what we're operating on.
We can spend as much money as we want, don't worry about inflation. If they have digital control of everyone's spending.
JUSTIN: Right. Exactly right. We talked about it both in Arguing with Socialists and The Great Reset.
It's a huge part of both socialist plans and Great Reset's elites plans. And those are not necessarily the same group. But there's no doubt about it, that that's the goal.
So why are there 20-some-odd states in the United States right now? Many of them are red states. Texas, Kentucky, Arizona, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Missouri, Montana, Arkansas, et cetera.
Why are they all doing whatever they possibly can, on the UCC code, updating it to make it at least a little bit easier for a CBDC to be utilized in the future. When a CBDC doesn't even exist yet.
Why would they be doing that? That is a really, really important question. But it's much worse than everything we've said so far.
And that's -- having worked with these lawmakers across the country. We have started to discover things in the UCC.
In the commercial code, that are incredibly, incredibly disturbing. Things that most of us just didn't realize were true. And if CBDC's happen, we're in for a world of hurt, that we didn't see coming.
And the reason for that, is under commercial code. When you take money, like if you have cash right now, under the current code. And you go to the bank, and you put money into the bank.
That money is no longer your money. That money is actually now owned by the bank.
GLENN: Hang on just a second.
This is why you -- and this changed. Part of this changed in 2008. You are the lender of last resort, right?
You are the last person in line, to get money, if you have deposited into the bank. Because the bank, when you give them that money, and deposit it. They are then taking that money.
They don't have to ask for permission to loan it out.
They take that money as theirs. And they loan it out.
So what happens to your money?
Well, you don't have money. You -- what you have is a number in the bank, that the bank can now give back to you, or if they go belly-up? Well, then, you lose your money because it wasn't yours anyway. Correct?
JUSTIN: Yes. It's not your money. It's owned by the bank now.
Now, you can go to the bank and say, I want my money back. And then they hand you the money in cash, and you can walk out the door. And that money is yours.
You own that money. But here's the thing about a central bank digital currency: And this is what we're beginning to learn.
How the commercial code deals with that. When you -- you can't put Central Bank Digital Dollars, okay? Digital fed coin. You can't put that in your pocket, and walk out the door. Can you?
It has to be somewhere. It can't be in your actual possession. And because of that --
GLENN: Well, wait. Bitcoin, you can put on a thumb drive. And so you can walk away with it. But digital currency, central bank, no.
JUSTIN: Yes. Correct. They're not going to design it so you can put it into a hard drive or something like that.
But even if -- even if they did, the uniform -- that's why they're updating the uniform commercial code the way they are.
They're putting rules into place, so that you could use a CBDC, even if it is possible to download it on to a hard drive or something like that.
But the layers behind the uniform commercial code, acknowledge in their various meetings and comments and other things, that it's highly unlikely that a CBDC would ever be designed in that way.
It's not -- you will have to put it into some kind of account. So what does that mean?
What it means in effect is that all of the money. All of the CBDC money that exists in society. Will be owned by whoever owns the account.
Which means the fed, or the bank. Or whoever is designated by the Federal Reserve Bank to operate that system.
But you, the individual person, will not own the money.
The money will belong to someone else. It will not belong to you. You will not own it. Under the commercial code, as it is written right now.
Forget about what they're advising it to. Under right now, you would not own any money.
It would all belong to someone else. So forget about whether it's programmable from a design perspective. In practice, it will not be your money anyway.
And so how can you not think of that famous article for the World Economic Forum, we've talked about a thousand times.
In the future, you will own nothing.
And you will have no privacy. Well, it seems like that's what the purpose of this is. So it is not enough to simply kill the UCC bill updates that we're talking about all across the country. That is essential. But we need to do more than that. We need to rewrite that code so that CBDCs cannot be used in a variety of other contexts as well.
GLENN: All right. Stand by. Stand by.
I think that we have to -- we have to really, truly get down to a basic line here, that you have to do in your own state.
And I'm not sure. And I want to talk to Justin. That the UCC code is enough.
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GLENN: All right. Justin, we have -- we have been talking about the UCC code. And we've been telling people not to allow it to pass. Now you've been working with legislatures, all over the country. And these legislators are telling you, no. There's much more to the code. We have to change it.
Would it be better just to go for states passing law, that CBDCs can't be used for commerce?
JUSTIN: So it's a really complicated question because there are all sorts of issues related to the Constitution and who has the authority to regulate money.
And whether or not a state can even pass a law, that outright rejects the use of -- of an established form of money, at the federal level.
Because it's a federal responsibility, to coin money.
Of course, there are people who say, well, yeah. But coining money means physical money, not digital money.
And so maybe they are allowed to do it. And so I think there are a lot of open questions about that, that we don't necessarily know.
I think that the most effective thing that legislators can do.
And legislators actually do not know a lot of the things I've told you today. I've gotten that from a lot of UCC lawyers, actually.
But what they need to do. They need to focus first, in my opinion.
I think Americans would be much better off, if lawmakers killed the UCC bills. Okay?
If they killed the UCC bills to update them right now, they would be much better off.
But then they also need to update the UCC and all other state laws that they can possibly find, in ways, that would make it so that a central bank digital currency, is undermined in the state, in financial transactions.
For example, can you use a CBDC? A programmable digital currency, when you're using -- for collateral and a loan, let's say.
Okay?
State laws dictate some of that, and they can undermine that.
They can do things like that, to undermine the use of a CBDC, and I think that's what they have to do.