International Man: Recently, the State Bank of Vietnam deactivated more than 86 million bank accounts as part of its shift toward a new national digital ID system.
Officials call it a ‘security upgrade,’ but it effectively cut off millions from their own money overnight.
In Thailand, we’ve seen a similar push to tie financial and online activity to state-issued digital IDs.
Is this part of a coordinated global push toward centralized control through digital ID systems?
Doug Casey: Without doubt.
Money is a primary manifestation of personal freedom. Money isn’t just an economic good; it’s a moral good. It represents the hours of your life you spent earning it, and all that you hope to provide for yourself and others in the future. It is, in effect, congealed or crystallized life.
Those who want to control other people—collectivists, statists, Marxists, the Woke, socialists, and the like—naturally want to limit the uses and the value of money. Enforcing the use of fiat currencies issued by central banks is the ideal way of doing that. It amounts to a giant fraud. But the average person stupidly accepts it as part of the cosmic firmament.
People have been told that in a democracy, they’re the rulers. In reality, democracy in today’s world is just mob rule dressed up in a coat and tie. It amounts to a secular religion, where the State is a god, and politicians are its priests. When it comes to financial matters, the public has become accustomed to doing what they’re told.
This is nothing new. Few remember that when Roosevelt confiscated gold in 1933, he used an Executive Order—the same vehicle that Trump uses for so many things today. You’d have thought that, almost a hundred years ago, Americans would have resisted the president’s wholesale theft. But they were already used to the Federal Reserve issuing currency, and the government collecting income tax. When ordered to turn in their gold, they acted like obedient little lambs.
The average American is even more supine and indoctrinated now than he was then. So I expect little resistance to digital currency, which will be a final nail in the coffin of economic freedom.
I’m not a religious person, but it may yet turn out that the New Testament, Revelation 13, is correct where it says: “He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
That verse is quite predictive.
International Man: In the UK, Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently said people won’t be able to work without a digital ID.
What does it tell you when access to employment becomes the leverage point for forcing digital ID adoption—and could we see the same tactic used in the US?
Doug Casey: Absolutely. Governments would prefer everybody to be an employee. They don’t like entrepreneurs because they have too independent a mentality. Entrepreneurs and independently employed people are in a much better position to avoid or evade taxes and regulations. Employees have taxes extracted from their paycheck before they even see it. Then, when they file their tax return and get a refund for overpayment, they stupidly see it as a gift from the government.
Furthermore, big government likes big corporations partly because government employees can easily move laterally into a big corporation to cash in on favors done. This doesn’t happen with small entrepreneurial corporations. Only big corporations can act effectively in a highly politicized environment, because only big corporations can afford the lawyers and accountants to interpret the regulations, and subtly bribe the politicians to have laws passed in their favor.
Having every individual use a digital ID helps to pigeonhole them, make them less independent, and easier to control. In a bureaucratic world where everything is computerized, if you don’t have a number, you don’t exist.
International Man: In the US, we’re also seeing early steps—things like digital driver’s licenses, biometric airport programs, and proposals tied to central bank digital currencies.
How close are we to a comprehensive digital ID system? How could that unfold?
Doug Casey: Everybody already uses their iPhone for everything— scanning their airline tickets, digitizing their credit cards, keeping their bank records, and so forth. People are quite used to being totally computerized.
I have a question. Is this simply a natural progression because technology can make things smoother, cheaper, and more accurate? Or is it a conspiracy of the elite to better control their subjects? It’s both. I’m not sure that we can avoid this trend, especially as computers become ever more powerful, cameras are everywhere, and everyone has their personal iPhone with them everywhere. Storage capacity is nearing almost infinite levels, and the developing quantum computer will accelerate the trend. It seems unstoppable now.
In a dystopian science fiction book, “This Perfect Day,” written in 1969, all citizens were required—for their own safety, of course—to flash their tattoos whenever they passed numerous identification kiosks. The government always knew where they were. The iPhone does that and acts as a listening device as well.
Technology has been both a friend and an enemy of the average person since Day One. The problem is that the “powers that be”—the State—always get the technology first. Gunpowder is the perfect example of this. The elite of the 14th century got it first and used it to control the plebs. But it wasn’t long before the technology filtered down, so the plebs could use gunpowder to take armored knights off their horses and destroy their castles.
Hopefully, all of these dystopian digital developments will have more silver linings than subtle chains. But things are likely to get worse before they get better. Much worse, as the Greater Depression becomes more evident, and the hoi polloi stupidly beg the State to kiss everything and make it “better.”
International Man: What’s your take on whether digital IDs will become required for financial access, travel, or even internet use?
Doug Casey: For the “good of society” and your own good, you’ll have to identify yourself. To fight crime, drugs, climate change, racism, or whatever the flavor of the day might be. But the question is, with controls becoming more onerous, how do you insulate yourself?
Probably the most important thing you can do is to grow your personal wealth. In all areas of life, strive for the equivalent of flying private as opposed to flying commercial—who wants to be herded like a bovine and inspected by the TSA?
Money can’t completely insulate you from government, but there are bright spots emerging, such as the BRIC countries, who are dumping the dollar because they can see that it’s something the US Government uses to control them. Other countries are following suit, since the dollar and the international commercial banking system are the easiest and simplest ways for the elite to control us plebs. The ongoing death of the dollar can be a good thing.
Things happening in places like El Salvador—where Bitcoin is a national currency—give me hope. I expect that other countries will arise in the future to act as replacements for what Switzerland used to be: a haven for financial freedom. Switzerland has mostly lost its old status. But with any luck, others will emerge, especially as World War III develops.
I expect that many of the current nation-states will break up into smaller ones, and many currently oppressive governments will disappear and, at least for a while, be replaced by smaller ones. When it comes to transferring money, I hate using the SWIFT system, the dollar, or the conventional banking system at all. Perhaps the hawala system that the Islamic world uses—or equivalents of it—will arise to move money privately and outside the conventional system. Gold or Bitcoin—not the dollar—will be the numeraire.
With any luck, unregulated private banks will appear that aren’t members of the Federal Reserve System and don’t rely on conventional credit or dollars. In the 19th century, when rich people traveled, if you had an account with a substantial bank, correspondents in major cities around the world would offer you a letter of credit. It was strictly between you and the bank, with no intermediary and no interference from the government.
There was no necessity for Visa or MasterCard, both of which used to be your friends but, like most things in the commercial banking system, are now just arms of the State. Hopefully, the market will come up with informal solutions, especially since most of today’s commercial banks, as well as governments, are actually bankrupt. As they fall apart, there will be a void in the market, and new things can grow up.
International Man: What can the average person do about this growing trend?
Doug Casey: One important thing is to become crypto- and Bitcoin-competent, so that you don’t have to use the corrupt and controlled conventional system and the dollar.
Also, own lots of gold and silver coins for cash—not paper gold or paper silver, but the actual coins in your possession. You should also own them abroad, such as with SWP in the Cayman Islands, the Perth Mint, or other similar outfits.
But most important of all is to make sure that you have as many skills and abilities as possible, so you can prosper no matter what happens in the world. Intellectual and moral wealth trumps physical wealth.
Editor’s Note: Governments around the world are racing to roll out digital ID systems—often sold as “convenient” or “secure.” But as Doug Casey warns, they could also become the ultimate tools of control. The shift toward programmable money and centralized identity systems isn’t just coming—it’s already here.
To help you prepare, we’ve put together a free special report: How to Survive and Thrive in the Era of Digital Control—revealing practical steps to protect your privacy, wealth, and freedom in a fully digitized world.
Click here to get your free report now.
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