The Federalist by Justin Haskins June 30, 2022
Citizens using this new digital currency would effectively have no privacy from the government.A report published at the end of May by NRK, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, notes that the official statistics bureau of Norway will soon track most grocery store purchases made in the Scandinavian country, a development that should serve as a warning to Americans about the growing trend in Western nations to expand surveillance and tracking of everyday citizens.
In an article titled “Statistics Norway demands to know exactly what Norwegians buy in the grocery store,” reporter Martin Gundersen wrote that Statistics Norway has “ordered the grocery chains NorgesGruppen, Coop, Bunnpris and Rema 1000 to share all their receipt data with the statistical agency.” Gundersen further reports that Nets, a payment service provider that processes about 80 percent of all in-store payments, “has also been required to share detailed information on all transactions.”
Statistics Norway, “the national statistical institute of Norway and the main producer of official statistics” for the country’s government, has said, as part of its new mandate, the agency will collect all customer transaction dates, card services information, user location number, user location name, account numbers, and other relevant information related to each grocery transaction.
-----
Americans might be tempted to write off this truly disturbing overreach in Norway as something that could never happen in the United States, but the truth is, the Biden administration is currently considering the creation of a central bank digital currency that would give the Federal Reserve and federal government the ability to track virtually all transactions made with the new asset, not just purchases at a grocery store.
In an executive order issued in March 2022, the White House directed several federal agencies to study the creation of a programmable central bank digital currency. Within 180 days of the order, which falls in mid-September, a report will be issued indicating whether a central bank digital currency should be created in the United States. Although this might sound as though the Biden administration is unsure of what it will do regarding a central bank digital currency, all signs point toward Biden moving to create a new digital dollar.
According to the very same executive order directing federal agencies to “study” a digital currency and write a detailed report — which, remember, is supposed to occur within just six months of the order being issued — a full legislative proposal, with input from the Federal Reserve chairman and Treasury Department, must be delivered to the president for the establishment of a new digital dollar.
More:
https://thefederalist.com/2022/06/30/norway-is-tracking-what-everyone-buys-and-biden-wants-to-follow-suit-in-the-united-states/
