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(Kitco News) The Federal Reserve is about to launch its new FedNow Service, allowing banks to transfer money instantly. But what many describe as just back-end plumbing for real-time payments could be a slippery slope to an "evil" central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to Rich Checkan, President and Co-Founder of Assets Strategies International.
"I'm a big fan of FedNow. But I don't like that it's a slippery slope that leads to the evil of CBDC," Checkan told Michelle Makori, Lead Anchor and Editor-in-Chief at Kitco News. "This is not happening tomorrow, but the cornerstone is being laid, and now is the time to look at whether we can structure them in a way that is more suitable for freedom."
Watch the video above on why this new FedNow System will pave the way to a CBDC.
Is CBDC inevitable?
A CBDC could be inevitable in the U.S. due to the rising pressure on the greenback to remain the dominant reserve currency. "From the U.S. standpoint, it's about the global lead in this effort," Checkan said.
There are 130 countries exploring a CBDC, and the U.S. doesn't want to be left behind. "That's a real concern for our leaders," he noted.
The U.S. has benefited from being the world's reserve currency, with the rest of the world buying American debt. "It has a big impact on our standard of living. And if it goes away, our standard of living will suffer," Checkan said.
And with the de-dollarization trend gaining speed, central banks worldwide hold fewer reserves in U.S. dollars, preferring gold and other currencies, Checkan described.
?"There are two things that we're doing that are driving people away from dollars. We're mismanaging the dollar. And we weaponized it," he said.
The West freezing nearly half of Russia's $640 billion of gold and forex reserves last year has triggered a shift, encouraging many other countries to look for an alternative to the U.S. dollar.
Watch the video above to get more insight into the pressure the U.S. is feeling to keep the greenback as the world's reserve currency.
'Evil' CBDCs
The negatives of CBDCs are overwhelming, including total government control of the populace, noted Checkan.
"The biggest one for me is just the complete loss of individual privacy. There's no financial privacy with the CBDC," he said.
Also, CBDCs are programmable and can be used to control how the money is being spent.
"If you control the money, you control the people. And there's no doubt in my mind that a lot of central banks around the world are looking at this as a means of control of the populace," he added.
To get more information on why Checkan views CBDCs as "evil" and extremely dangerous, watch the video above.
Checkan also sees gold, silver, and Bitcoin as playing a crucial role if CBDCs are adopted globally. Watch the video above to get more details.
