U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) on Wednesday introduced a bill to prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or using a CBDC to control monetary policy.
Emmer’s bill would also require the Federal Reserve to be transparent with Congress about any attempts it makes to study the implementation of digital currency systems in the U.S.
Centralized governments are increasingly exploring the possibility of using crypto-currency inspired digital currency technology to digitize money and financial systems, but freedom and privacy advocates warn that such CBDCs would give unprecedented power and control to the Fed and federal government.
Using CBDCs, central governments could enforce social credit systems, like those used by the Communist Party in the People’s Republic of China.
That’s because a CBDC would use programmable money, which would mean a central authority could determine how much money you can spend, what you can spend it on, and even how much money you’re allowed to save.
CBDCs could even be used to program negative rates on savings accounts if central authorities wanted to encourage spending to stimulate the economy.
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