Why the Fed Is Considering a Digital Dollar | WSJ

The Federal Reserve is trying to figure out how to keep cash relevant in a cashless world. It’s considering digitizing the U.S. dollar, giving people money they can access on their phone and bypassing electronic payments that can be slow and costly for businesses. Illustration: Jacob Reynolds/WSJ

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#WSJ #Economy #DigitalCurrency

[NicholasBall]

The US economy cannot survive without continuous credit and debt creation. The FED will print more money and the average American will go just that much further in debt. Meanwhile, foreigners lust for the greenback. Their economies are in worse condition than the US... if that's even possible. Someone is going to be left holding the bag...

[erock]

Witnessing what the Canadian government just did should be all the reason anyone needs to make sure cash never goes away.

[dasfahrer]

The main reason for doing this is to track money easier. Every penny you spend, what it's spent on and exactly how much money you take in will be known to the federal gov't at all times.

[silvermica]

Digital money run by the government would probably make tracking and seizing your assets even easier! Perhaps at some point in time simply having cash will become a crime.

[WorldsOkayestSorcerer]

The biggest reason they’re considering it?
CONTROL.

[ajbarb]

FED: Printing digital money is cheaper

[Mneypt]

It's all about CONTROL! Monitoring, taxing & restricting your transactions. As an added bonus, your Digital Dollars will have an expiration date.

[kingadii]

I think this will lead to the ability to cut off your access to finances altogether if they wish to.

Right now, you can grab some cash and buy whatever you need from the store but in the future if there’s something you don’t comply with you’ll just get cut off and have no way of surviving.

[hydroaegis]

IRS would be VERY happy to know every transaction you do.

[simony]

We would be utter fools if we let politicians do this to us and we would deserve everything we get.

[jaredspencer]

Crypto: let's make a decentralized, grass-roots, privacy-focused digital currency.
Central Banks: agreed, let's make a...digital currency.

[ryanphillips]

3 reasons why they want to do this
1. To track your purchases
2. Tax everything
3. Print money out of thin air
Bad idea

[skankhunt]

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the Government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs." Thomas Jefferson

[giancarlo_rc]

People in 2008: _The fed has essentially become the finance industry._

*Year 2021:* _lol_

[ebyrnes]

So they can track every single transaction 👀

[enceladus]

A digital US dollar means:
1) The government has complete control over what you spend money on
2) You completely lose anonymity

This is a terrible idea

[edgarplummer]

Digital Currency scares me because it sound too much like Script Money. Money you can only use at the "Company Store."

[kuxophl]

What happens when the grid goes down and your phone doesn’t work temporarily or long term?

[BoyBombay]

because the People's Bank of China has a digital currency

[toddmaek]

"John Spartan you've been fined one credit".... Thats why. Personal sanctions if you get outta line.