The Pomp Podcast - #826 Financial Censorship Is Becoming Pervasive

Starting point is 00:00:00 What's up, everyone? This is Anthony Pompliano. Most of you know me as Pomp. You're listening to the Pomp Podcast, simply the best podcast out there. Now let's kick this thing off. Today's episode is commentary on the recent financial censorship, both in Afghanistan, Russia, and Canada. I hope that you enjoyed these deep dives on specific issues that are relevant and also important to the development of Bitcoin and the wider cryptocurrency industry. Before we get into this episode, though, I want to quickly talk about our sponsors. First up is LMAX Digital, the number one institutional crypto exchange. They offer clients the deepest pool of crypto liquidity on the planet,

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Starting point is 00:03:27 are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of Pomp Investments. You should not treat any opinion expressed by Pomp or his guests as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy, but only as an expression of his personal opinion. This podcast is for informational purposes only. Good morning, everyone. Bang, bang. It was reported late last week that the United States would be confiscating billions of dollars from the Central Bank reserves of Afghanistan. This seemed a little weird at first, but I didn't want to jump to conclusions since governments are always doing counterintuitive or seemingly insane things. After digging into the story, it appears that this is a highly unusual decision

Starting point is 00:04:05 that could have significant impact on finance, geopolitics, and technology moving forward. Here's an overview of exactly what is happening. First, Afghanistan's central bank reserves have been kept in various U.S.-based financial institutions. There's approximately $7 billion of total assets that belong to the Afghan central bank but are held in the United States. President Biden signed an executive order compelling all U.S. financial institutions to transfer this property into a consolidated account held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Approximately $3.5 billion of the $7 billion in assets will be routed back to Afghanistan with the hopes of helping Afghan citizens. And the remaining assets of roughly $3.5 billion in assets will be held by the U.S. government and earmarked for victims of the 9-11 terrorist attack.

Starting point is 00:04:51 Now, it is important to call out that this is a highly complex situation, but it is also a highly irregular situation as well. The Central Bank of Afghanistan was holding billions of dollars in U.S.-based financial institutions and had no sovereignty over those funds This wouldn't seem overly weird for a central bank except the United States had invaded the country and was actively occupying it for the better part of 20 years Second, the use of an executive order to compel U.S.-based financial institutions to turn over client assets to the Federal Reserve is as outrageous as it sounds

Starting point is 00:05:24 The Federal Reserve is allegedly an independent private organization So it is noteworthy that the president and his administration is forcing one private organization to allow another private organization to confiscate client assets. Third, the $7 billion of Afghan central bank assets are the property of Afghanistan. Any attempt by the United States, the president, or the Federal Reserve to prevent the country of Afghanistan and its citizens from accessing or retrieving their property is equivalent to theft. Regardless of the reasoning or the moral appeal, the United States is confiscating billions of dollars of assets from a country that we are no longer at war with and a country that we are reportedly trying to help become independent. Fourth, the United States is conducting this highly suspicious activity at the same time that it is becoming clear that the Afghan people are suffering immensely. In the White House press release related to the executive order, these are the facts outlined to highlight the dire situation on the ground. quote even prior to the events of last august afghanistan's economy was on the brink afghanistan

Starting point is 00:06:27 faced poverty rates above 50 international donor grants financed about 75 of public expenditures 50 of the government's budget a two-year-long drought had reduced many crops to 40 of their usual yields and afghanistan had one of the last developed financial systems in the world with just 10 to 20 of adults holding bank accounts rampant corruption crippled sectors that should have been profitable. The Taliban's forced takeover made the already frail economic situation worse. The IMF estimates that Afghanistan faces an economic contraction of 30 percent, and many of the senior officials and technical experts needed to provide sound economic management have fled the country as a result of the Taliban's actions. These problems reflect long-standing structural

Starting point is 00:07:12 issues that predated the events of August 2021 and have worsened due to uncertainty and perceived risks surrounding the Taliban's capacity to run the economy. This includes its ability to implement anti-money laundering measures and measures to counter the financing of terrorism, end quote. So we know the citizens of Afghanistan are struggling, and the current administration has still decided to withhold potential aid and the property of those citizens because of political motivations. It is really crazy to think about the nuances of this entire situation. So why am I writing about this. The idea of financial censorship is becoming more pervasive. We have the U.S. confiscating Afghan central bank assets. We have the U.S. threatening Russia with removal

Starting point is 00:07:54 from the SWIFT payment system depending on what actions Russia pursues in Ukraine. We have the Canadian government pressuring technology companies and financial institutions to confiscate any funds that are being sent to the truckers freedom convoy protest. Each of these situations is different, but they are all a form of financial censorship. The more aggressive that governments become with financial censorship, whether towards each other or towards their own citizens, the more popular that Bitcoin becomes in the eyes of those on the internet. Every attempt at financial censorship is a marketing campaign for Bitcoin. Bitcoin is censorship resistant money. No one can prevent you from sending it to anyone else. No one can confiscate it from you without your permission.

Starting point is 00:08:35 No one can debase the currency. Bitcoin is freedom technology. It gives a user, from individuals to organizations to nation states, the freedom to choose how to use the digital currency. You can hold it. You can spend it. You can send it to someone. Whatever you want to do, you're allowed to do it. No government, company, or individual can impose their views or desires on you.

Starting point is 00:08:57 If the Afghan central bank has sovereignty over their assets, the U.S. couldn't confiscate them easily. If the Freedom Convoy raised money through a censorship-resistant currency, no one could have taken those funds from them. That is where the world is headed. Sovereignty, censorship resistance, decentralization, individual rights, slowly but surely. Bitcoin is inevitable. It returns the world back to sound money and to individual sovereignty. Those may seem like crazy ideas on the surface, but we are watching multiple examples play out that prove why it is so important. hope you guys all have a great day and we'll do this again soon thanks so much for listening to today's episode i really hope you guys enjoyed this one make sure you're subscribed on apple

Starting point is 00:09:39 spotify or your favorite podcast player and if you're looking to try to transition to get a new job in the bitcoin or crypto industry we've got you covered head over to pompscryptocourse.com we've developed a curriculum with the top teams across the industry it's a three-week intensive training program with over 50 events packed into that three-week time period. Go to pompscryptocourse.com to learn more, and I'll meet you guys for the next episode.

The Pomp Podcast - #826 Financial Censorship Is Becoming Pervasive

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