Robert F. Kennedy Jr: “CBDCs are the ultimate mechanisms for social surveillance and control”
By Tom Parker
Opposing the pro-CBDC stance of several high profile Democrats.
Since announcing his presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made it clear that he’s pro-digital and financial freedom by opposing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), calling out debanking, and slamming digital IDs.
Kennedy’s criticism of CBDCs has been geared around FedNow — an instant payment infrastructure developed by the Federal Reserve that’s set to launch in July.
Kennedy initially described FedNow as a CBDC before later clarifying that he fears it’s “the first step toward a CBDC.”
114 countries, which represent more than 95% of the world’s global domestic product (GDP), are exploring a CBDC. The Biden administration has said CBDCs “have the potential to offer significant benefits.” And the heads of major central banks have confirmed that CBDCs will be identity-verified, lack the privacy of cash, and be programmable. This programmability means that central bankers or governments can make your CBDCs expire, impose spending limits, or control what you’re allowed to spend your CBDCs on.
Kennedy has recognized that these powers “grease the slippery slope to financial slavery and political tyranny.”
In a tweet, the presidential candidate warned:
“While cash transactions are anonymous, a #CBDC will allow the government to surveil all our private financial affairs. The central bank will have the power to enforce dollar limits on our transactions restricting where you can send money, where you can spend it, and when money expires.”
Kennedy has also noted that the surveillance and control will likely not be limited to financial data because CBDC users have to verify their identity. This link to identity means that governments or central banks can bring in lots of additional data linked to your identity, combine this with the financial data they extract from your CBDC use, and create an expansive social credit score that dictates how or if you can spend your money.
The presidential candidate has suggested that such a score could be tied to compliance with arbitrary government decrees such as being vaccinated.
Kennedy believes that COVID-19 and the banking crisis will be used by governments as an excuse to usher in CBDCs and has predicted that as governments introduce CBDCs, they’ll start to crack down on cryptocurrencies and other assets that serve as an “escape route” from government control of the financial system.