The head of the European Central Bank just admitted that the EU has been planning to roll out a "digital Euro" for OVER 5 YEARS. Wait, we were told that was a conspiracy theory! But now that it's ready to go, the EU is bragging about it. Glenn explains why CBDCs are a dangerous pivot away from the emphasis on personal freedom that the West has long championed. If the EU adopts a CBDC, it should fracture our alliance, Glenn says. Anybody who's advocating for a currency that the government can PROGRAM and TURN OFF is no friend of America or the Trump administration. But it's not just the EU, Glenn warns. Our Federal Reserve is also developing one. Glenn makes the case that Trump and Congress must BAN THIS NOW.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Let me start with Europe. With the president of the European Central Bank. The ECB. I love central banks. Don't you, Pat?
PAT: Oh, they're the best.
GLENN: Pat sitting in for Stu again, who is just so sick.
Yesterday, he was vomiting from all the truffles he was eating on the couch, while he was watching soap operas.
Anyway, Christine Lagarde. She's the president of the Central Bank. It's basically our Fed. And they're all the same. Here's what she said, and it's a lot of blah, blah, blah. So I don't know how long I can take it. I'll summarize it if I can't take it for two whole minutes. But here she is.
VOICE: Nature doesn't like vacuum.
GLENN: Vacuum.
VOICE: And we started working on the digital euro.
GLENN: Hmm.
VOICE: Way back.
GLENN: Way back.
VOICE: Actually when I started my term five and a half years ago. And I'm not claiming, you know, parental -- parentality on the digital euro, because my colleague Benoit Kura (phonetic) had already committed a speech on this matter before I arrived, but I certainly carried on with that project, and subsequently Fabio Panetta on the board, and then Piro (inaudible) who has replaced Fabio.
GLENN: Okay. Okay. Okay. I can't listen to somebody who is talking about Fabio. Look, here's what she's announcing. First of all, let's remember that for years, Christine Lagarde and everybody else, both here, foreign, and domestic, have said that any worry about a CBDC is just a conspiracy theory. They have silenced. They have discredited anyone who warned of the dangers of this. But now, all of a sudden, I guess we all forgot that. Because now they're ready! And the steaks cannot be higher. We, I'm telling you, 18 to 48 months, our whole world is going to be different. They are ready to launch this now, and the stakes for privacy, free markets, and individual liberty, especially anybody who kind of likes the Constitution, they're at risk. Okay? This is a really dangerous pivot that is going on right now, and I think it should fracture our alliance. Anybody who is advocating for small government, personal freedom. You know. Hey. Privacy.
I don't think you should be in bed, and Defending those who are going down the road of Europe right now.
Years ago, CBDC. That's central bank digital currency. That's like Bitcoin. Except, the point of Bitcoin is, it's untraceable.
It's completely private. And nobody can stop you from using it.
CBDC. That's a tinfoil hat conspiracy. I'll never do that.
Why would we do that?
In fact, in 2019, Mark Carney, who was the head of the Bank of England back then. He said, CBDC, you are so misguided with your fears.
And he said that, while he was at Jackson Hole. You know, they have that economic symposium, where all the really cool people go to. And they talk about things. And when we, who are not the cool people in attendance go, that sounds spooky. You're just a tinfoil hat person.
Anyway, that's where he made that speech. That it's just misguided.
There's nothing to fear here.
Because we are just experiment. Oh. Kind of like Mengele.
I'm sorry. That was bad. Kind of like, let's say, the atomic bomb. There is nothing to atomic bomb, we're just doing experiments. Why would you be experimenting, if you didn't think that it would be something that you would eventually use.
So, anyway, 2021, Jerome Powell, who is our central bank guy. The Federal Reserve.
He said, quote, CBDCs. I love this one.
Not on the immediate horizon.
Okay. So you're admitting that it is on the horizon!
So in 2024, she, Lagarde, she -- she comes out, and she told the European parliament, that CBDC skepticism stem from conspiracy theories. Saying, the digital euro is not going to be big brother, surveillance.
Remember, what a central bank digital currency can do, and will do, at least over in the Soviet -- I mean, in Europe. Will be that it will track everything that you buy. Everything you sell.
Everything you make. Okay. Not a problem. That's fine.
I don't have anything to hide. Except, it can be turned off! You don't own -- like, I can go to the bank and say, I want cash. I want my cash out. Okay?
You'll be suspected of being a terrorist, if you do that. What's the problem? Hey, that's freedom, baby.
But you can take the cash. With the central bank digital currency, you don't own that. There's nothing to take out. They own that. The central bank and the government, they own that. So you have no place to go, but through them. And if you decide with be I don't really like that, they can turn your currency off.
And make no mistake, that's not a tinfoil hat conspiracy, that's what's happening in China!
So people have been -- there's a guy, practice sawed, I think his name is. He wrote a book, The Future of Money.
It came out in 2018. We talked about it on the program. And he was made to look ridiculous.
Theft!
Anybody who is a Libertarian, they've been talking about, you're crazy.
Anybody who spoke about it, on any platform during the Biden administration.
They're crazy!
And you were throttled or suspended, because you were spreading misinformation. Okay?
So I got the message. It's a farce. It's not happening.
Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Except, now they've just announced that it is happening. Okay?
Back in 2020, the European central bank said, 86 percent of all central banks are working on this right now.
Oh! Okay.
Okay. Then as she said, in 2024, there's a two-year pilot. But now she said, there's a rollout coming for digital currency, from the central bank of Europe.
So it went from conspiracy, to reality, in a year!
Love how that works. And we're all just supposed to not notice it!
Okay.
So here's -- here's why this is so dangerous, and something you must pay attention to.
I am convinced that especially ASI, is going to be a tool. Remember, like everything. Like everything, even Scriptures. Scriptures, that's a tool.
It's a gift given to you, if you would like to use it. But know that that powerful gift that you have, can fall into the hands of somebody else.
And they can twist it, and use it for very powerful, nefarious purposes. That's just the written word of the Scriptures.
Okay!
It will always -- everything can be used for good or bad. It depends on the people who are holding it in their hands. All right.
And I really am convinced that ASI, digital currency, that's all found in the Bible!
I mean, I'm in Bible territory here.
Specifically the last part of the Bible.
That -- are these the tools that are very much like the tools foretold.
That will be employed by the Antichrist, to snuff out anyone who dares to say, I'm really not with him.
Now, so they are -- China has already done this. They launched in 2020, with their digital yuan. It tracks everything.
And that gives you your -- your -- your currency. But it also gives you the currency to be somebody in good standing. If you don't do exactly what the state tells you to do, you're tracked, you're monitored. And guess who doesn't get to go on an airplane. Guess who doesn't get to take the train.
If we say who can't go into certain buildings. You!
Because you're no longer in good standing. And it gets worse and worse and worse, until you are literally living on the streets, only because you disagree with the government.
Don't believe me! Look it up. Now, the US is not far behind. We have got to pass -- and Donald Trump said he would sign it. We have got to pass legislation right now!
No central bank digital currency, ever!
In America. No -- no digital passport, ever, in America!
Because we're already working on a digital dollar here.
Europe's move is not isolated. It is a chess move. Well, they're doing it. And China is doing it.
Or we will do it. Because we will be left behind. I want to be left behind. There is going to come a time where you will hear me -- you probably will. Maybe. I don't know.
There will come a time where I will be like, you know, the Amish have it right. Maybe we should all be Amish. Now, I might just be saying that in a barn with cows and people all dressed in black. I don't know.
But there's going to come a time where I'm like, I think we should all get out of here. And go the other direction.
And it could be coming quickly!
Because what that means for privacy, for free markets.
For your individual choice, is beyond most people's understanding, today!
But you've got to educate. Remember, I said, there's going to come a time, where things are happening so fast, you will not be able to keep up with them.
You've already seen this in a good way with Donald Trump.
He came in. And it's not just that he had a plan.
It's also that we're using AI to find all of these things to correct!
Okay. That's why Elon Musk is there!
Tech support!
That's what speeding things up. Does and you haven't seen anything yet.
So when I give you these warnings.
Saying, hey, you've got to -- please, bone up on it. Please, go ask Grok today.
CBDC from Europe. What does that mean?
What could it do?
What are the good things. What are the possible bad things?
I think, in this case, the bad outweighs the good. Because it takes away any kind of privacy whatsoever. And hands it directly to a government!
Really bad! We'll go more in this in just a second. And so much more, just left this hour on the podcast.
GLENN: Okay. So let me explain. CBDC, central bank digital currencies. Their digital dollars, or euros. And they're issued by central banks. It's like Bitcoin.
Except, not. Here's the big difference: This will replace your cash with what are called programmable, trackable tokens.
Programmable, meaning, hey. We have inflation for gas. Or we don't want you buying so much gas, because we have to reduce emissions. Who is a central person who needs to go to work?
Everybody who has money in their bank, that's not deemed essential. You no longer can fill your tank with gas.
It won't work with any gas pump.
Okay. That's a programmable currency.
Every single transaction from buying bread, paying rent, everything, is programmable by the state.
Now, they say, oh, there's not going to be any data access. That's a conspiracy theory.
I don't believe you on the conspiracy theory, anymore.
You've lied and lied and lied.
And, by the way, in parliament. When they were talking about this, maybe in 2018, they were arguing that we can't pass any of this, until it's programmable.
It must be programmable.
And that means the government can cap your spending, block purchases.
Because, you know, can't buy fossil fuels.
Freeze your account, because you're no longer in favor with the government.
And free markets die!
Because they have a complete monopoly on money.
I don't know if you know this, but monopoly, isn't just the longest, most frustrating, most boring game ever invented. It's also a bad thing, when it comes to free money, free markets.
Bad!
Tenth amendment, by the way, reserves the power to states and individuals. CBDCs. They centralize control. They undermine federalism.
This is a betrayal of everything our republic stands for. It replaces liberty with technocratic tyranny. And if Europe embraces CBDCs and they're still allies, I don't think they're allies to small government, freedom-loving Americans. They're not. They're not.
This path puts them right, directly in the path of every brutal dictator, every fascist. Every German who was on stage after J.D. Vance was speaking to them.
That wept and said, if they want freedom of speech. We don't have anything in common with them anymore.
Because we're about to roll out a CBDC. And that will make sure that everybody only says the things we want them to say.
It is no longer a conspiracy theory. Europe is rolling theirs out, a social credit system will be next.
