Phat Unplugged

We've told you about the Dunning-Kruger effect before, that competence and confidence are inversely related. The more confidence you have in your thinking abilities the more it should scare you.There's also the messaging from those who know you. Everyone here sees you as fairly awash in irrationality and unsound thinking. Either he's talking nonsense, or you're unable to describe what he's saying clearly enough to make it sound like he's making sense. Decreased purchasing power is called inflation. All currencies experience a little inflation most of the time. It's a characteristic of a healthy economy, a reflection of healthy demand for goods. When demand exceeds supply by too great a margin then inflation increases. Higher inflation is seen as problematic because it decreases the value of savings, but this is far less a problem than in the past because a much higher proportion of savings are in stocks and bonds, usually by way of mutual funds.In general the U.S. is doing much better on inflation than the rest of the developed world. Missing from your missive is Taggert's reason for believing the U.S. is heading for higher inflation. By the Federal Reserve? They already do a lot of data gathering, but they've got a lot on their plate, plus they reduced staffing by 2% last year. Does Rickards think they *could* do this if they wanted to, or that they *are* doing this? I believe the former but not the latter. I'm not familiar with this use of the word transcripts. Do you mean transactions?My opinion? You still sound crazy in almost every post, and you keep forgetting that the videos you're watching are entertainment, not information.--Percy

Since yours is not a response I cannot backtrack to catch up on the conversation. You seem to have started a new topic unrelated to anything above. I'm too lazy to do too much hunting. Define your acronym, please. What the hell is a CBDC?If I'm reading this right you and your video friend have concerns about privacy in financial transactions. Too late.Unless you are totally off-grid in cash-only dealings, every credit/debit, every check, every ATM, everything that hits your bank account, is already captured in the historical database open to research and statistical analysis.You do not have privacy in ANY electronic interaction on or off the internet. Everyplace you go and everything you do is recorded.But, who cares? Nobody cares about you or me on a porn site. We are not fat enough to be worth targeted scams. Just the usual phishing scams and these new pig butchering schemes.Your individual freedoms and privacy in this online world are always in the balance and are beyond your control. Whatever a CBDC is will not make things any less secure than you are right now.

I have to agree with AZPaul3's Message 242: A standard writing practice I learned either in college or in the military (the latter, I seem to recall) is that you define an acronym the first time you use it in a document ; eg:

Examples:

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Name first then acronym:

Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

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Or reverse that order with acronym first followed by its definition:

CBCD (Constant Bearing, Closing Distance)

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In addition, larger documents (including books) may include a glossary of acronyms.

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The object is to clearly communicate information, not to baffle your audience with your bullshit. Hiding the definitions for your terms is the kind of crap that (at risk of being redundant) stupid lying deceiving creationists constantly pull in their boundless zeal to do Satan's work. Do not be that guy!Part of the problem with acronyms is that they are extremely ambiguous: the same acronym can mean many different things depending on context. For example, NBC and ABC can be broadcasting networks (first radio networks, then TV), but they can also stand for types of warfare: Nuclear, Biological, Chemical, earlier Atomic, Biological, Chemical. Or scores of other meanings (see NBC; researching the meanings of ABC is left as an exercise for the reader).BTW, you should have noticed that my own frequent practice is to define the acronyms I use the first time I use them.For example, your use of CCP kept confusing me, since it looked like you were using Cyrillics, ССР (translit: "SSR"), for Soviet Socialist Republic.And for CBDC (four different meanings given), are you sure that you didn't mean CBCD, which describes the sensor track of incoming ordnance or enemy craft on an attack run against your ship? That would certainly make more sense considering your sense of dread, since CBCD does have a definite effect on one's pucker factor.

Having records of monetary transactions isn't an infringement on the freedom of religion, freedom of the press, nor the freedom to protest the government. Debit and credit card transactions have been tracked for who knows how long now, and nothing has happened to these freedoms because of it. Actually, that wouldn't be the worst thing to ever happen. It would make US imports more profitable and drive onshoring of manufacturing. Time will tell, and I have a strong suspicion that Taggart is going to come out wrong on this one. The US is set up with what looks to be the strongest demographics and economy in the developed world for the next few decades. Oddly enough, if the US manipulated its currency like China does then the dollar would be falling in order to reduce labor costs and boost export profits.

Financial transactions are the low hanging fruit. Intelligence agencies have been capturing nearly all digital communication for quite a while now.

Who TF is Adam Taggert? Why should I give a rat's ass what he says?

My father-in-law's favorite response was: "En su propria casa se conoce." ("He's known in his own house.")

Given the subject matter I was guessing that CBDC means Central Bank Digital Currency. It's a digital form of the currency of a country's central bank. None have been implemented yet as far as I know, and I don't understand how they would differ from the digital balances that banks maintain on computers.I seem to recall that Phat has brought up CBDC's before. It doesn't appear to be something he understands. It's probably described in videos he watches as something that we should be very worried about because it will increase inflation and destroy the dollar as we know it. "The Sky Is Falling" - you heard it here first.--Percy

Why should i give a f*ck what a progressive with a "relevant degree" says?I don't listen based only on credentials or party affiliation. I listen a bit first, decide whether the individual has any insights that I am unaware of or perhaps that I have heard before, and judge them on their merit rather than their degree status. What you don't seem to understand is that having a P.hD does not guarantee wisdom.

You've already admitted that you carry on listening to the random brain farts of unqualified YouTubers if they are saying something that you already agree with and like the way they're saying it.

Thank you.I don't know how much more digital the US dollar can get. Actual cash money as bills/coins is a mere pittance of the electronic volume. The dollar IS a digital currency just without the crypto crap attached. Oh. That would be bad. Well, if that is to become the world's new store of value then so be it. It would be better than stashing obsolete greenbacks into your mattress.

A Central Bank Digital Currency. Rickards claims that the banks now have this information but that it can only be accessed by the "government" through Subpheona. Allegedly, he claims that under a CBDC system, the government itself will have the information (or the Federal Reserve) and that the private transaction information can be more easily accessed. Hypothetically, I think that the fear being peddled is that a government could profile its citizens to a degree through such transaction information.

What thought processes led you to believe that Taggart's take on digital currencies have merit? I work with many PhD's, and I can confirm that they are as human as anyone else in the wisdom department.What I am more interested in is why you think CBDC's are any more a threat to First Amendment rights than any other sort of digital recordkeeping that has been going on for the last 5 decades?

Intelligence agencies already have all this info. They have records of your internet use, movements of your cell phone, and gads of other info. I wouldn't be surprised if they DON'T have all the financial records already. This is what FISA warrants are all about. If your financial records are held by the Fed then a warrant would still need to be issued in order to recover those records. There's plenty of de-identified data sources already out there. The amount of data at Google is mind numbing. Financial transactions are a drop in the ocean.

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Rickards claims that the banks now have this information but that it can only be accessed by the "government" through Subpheona. Allegedly, he claims that under a CBDC system, the government itself will have the information (or the Federal Reserve) and that the private transaction information can be more easily accessed.

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That’s only if it’s a consumer CBDC and only if it’s actually used by consumers. Even then if you buy with cash there would be no extra record of your purchases - the only CBDC transaction would be you withdrawing cash. If you buy with a credit card it would still go through the credit card company’s systems, with no direct link to you.And if it’s not a consumer CBDC - which I understand is the proposal on the table - then there’s even less to worry about.