The Rise of Monetary Censorship

A superb good friend of mine not too long ago purchased a home in Florida. 

To safe the most effective price, he pledged his inventory portfolio as collateral. However he encountered an issue when he went to get a mortgage from his financial institution, Wells Fargo.

He owns marijuana shares. Publicly traded corporations that develop hashish within the U.S. Apparently this units off alarm bells at Wells Fargo.

His mortgage consultant informed him that his brokerage account is now “tainted” — even when he sells the hashish investments. My good friend has (had?) a superb credit score rating, by the best way. 

Fortunately, he was in a position to determine one other approach to collateralize the mortgage and nonetheless get the place.

Operation Choke Level

I think Wells Fargo’s actions are a continuation of an previous program known as Operation Choke Level, which began again in 2013. This Division of Justice (DOJ) initiative permits authorities officers to primarily shut down banking providers to companies they don’t like.

Right here’s what American Banker journal wrote again in 2018 about Operation Choke Level, in an article titled “There’s no downplaying the impression of Operation Choke Level” (emphasis mine):

Operation Choke Level was actual, and it exceeded authorized limits. Overwhelming proof, within the type of greater than 900 pages of newly unsealed emails and depositions, proves authorities officers illegally focused lawful companies in an ideological campaign primarily based on private disdain. 

If there have been different causes at play, these regulators wouldn’t have wanted to resort to backroom stress techniques, together with threatening the roles of Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Corp. officers and financial institution executives with prison prosecution except they lower off banking relationships with small-dollar lenders and different lawful companies.

Operation Choke Level focused no less than these three varieties of companies:

• Hashish
• Firearms
• Pornography.

No main resistance was ever mounted in opposition to this system. In 2017, the DOJ despatched a letter to Congress saying it was ending this system. However this system’s techniques seem like going robust. And the issue is getting worse.

The Canadian Trucker Convoy

A number of weeks in the past, a Canadian regulation was set to enter impact that may have required U.S. truckers coming over the border to be absolutely vaccinated in opposition to COVID. 

In response to this motion — and different restrictions — a big convoy of truckers determined it was time to get their rights again. In order that they fashioned an enormous, miles-long convoy of automobiles and headed to the capital metropolis of Ottawa.

The group had raised greater than $10 million on GoFundMe. They even obtained a donation from Elon Musk. Then the Canadian authorities demanded GoFundMe shut down the fundraiser. GoFundMe agreed to finish the fundraiser, citing studies that the truckers had been violent (of which there’s little to no proof). Now GoFundMe is protecting the cash, saying it’s going to distribute it to worthy charities. 

Finally a workaround was discovered by means of GiveSendGo, a Christian fundraising website. They’ve now raised $8.7 million. 

There are nonetheless hundreds of individuals protesting across the Parliament constructing in Ottawa right this moment. They’ve been there for nearly two weeks, they usually demand an finish to all COVID restrictions. The federal government refuses to even meet with them.

21 Bitcoin Raised for Truckers So Far

In an inspiring twist, persons are additionally elevating funds for the Ottawa protest utilizing bitcoin.

In response to well-known bitcoin advocate Greg Foss, they’ve now raised 21.25 bitcoin value greater than $900,000 from greater than 5,000 donors. The cash will assist the truckers and different protestors in Ottawa.

This demonstrates precisely why bitcoin is so necessary. We’re dwelling in a world of rising monetary censorship, and bitcoin provides us an alternate.  

As I wrote in my “Paypal Censorship Highlights Bitcoin’s Significance” article, this drawback isn’t going away anytime quickly. In actual fact, it’s nearly definitely going to get loads worse.

Sovereign types of cash — resembling bitcoin, gold and silver — are vital instruments for this era. Particularly once you consider inflation. We simply obtained an official 7.5% annual CPI print this week, so I’d say actual inflation might be effectively over 10% at this level. Money within the financial institution and quite a lot of bonds are primarily dropping 10% of their buying energy yearly. 

Mixed with the specter of monetary censorship, I’d say sovereign property are on their approach to turning into a required a part of the trendy portfolio.