This is the Cater Daily podcast for Monday, November 18th, 2024.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Central Bank Digital Currency is an idea that won't die.

And one of the worst claims made by proponents of CBDCs is that the Central Authority,

in this case the central bank issuing them, simply won't use

them for nefarious privacy-invading ends. I spoke with Cato's Nick Anthony and Will Luther,

director of the American Institute for Economic Research's Sound Money Project. We spoke last

month. Nick, you and I have discussed this a number of times, and it is, it really just taxes credulity

when you hear public officials, people who are trying to advance this idea of a CBDC,

a central bank digital currency, tell us that the surveillance powers that something like that unleashes, well, we're just not going to use those.

We might have access to these powers, but we're just, out of the goodness of our hearts, we're just not going to use those.

It sounds good when you hear that. Some people nod along and they feel refreshed, they feel saved.

But I tell them you don't have to look to any conspiracy theories. You don't have to look to any crackpot schemes.

You can just look at the history of financial surveillance in this country, where people believe the Fourth Amendment

protects their financial information. It's really quite the opposite. And it's been an ever-growing

surveillance regime that we've seen. And there are really no signs to suggest a CBDC in the future would be any different from the path that has been charted thus far.

Will, are there technical ways for us to be assured that a government would not use these surveillance powers?

Absolutely. There are technical ways to preserve financial privacy with a digital currency.

You can use something like Chalmy and eCash.

But the bigger issue here is that while that technology is technically feasible, it's just not politically feasible. There is absolutely

no reason to believe that a government that has developed and taken steps to protect

its ability to monitor customer transactions would suddenly give up those abilities

...