EconWithNick / Nick Anthony is on Nostr

Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives and Fellow at the Human Rights Foundation. Covering CBDCs, financial privacy, and cryptocurrency. Opinions are my own.

Last Notes

2025-12-25 16:53:42 UTC

I guess there are no days off. The latest in ECB CBDC marketing is a Christmas post from president Christine Lagarde.
To be honest, I would have preferred coal, but here we are... so let me put down the eggnog and break down what's happening here. https://blossom.primal.net/2069da3df3f2b5e44efdc5887eac0a9244f5adb14d98a10df24eb0372d39bbc5.png
As she noted, the EU Governing Council has given the green light for the digital euro (the ECB's CBDC). In short, the Council said that the digital euro should work both online and offline, have holding limits, allow a "high degree of privacy" while still being AML/KYC compliant, and be free for consumers to use.
This green light from the council does not mean, however, that the digital euro will be launched. Now it's up to the European Parliament to weigh in.
Sadly, though, this process might appear democratic from the outside, but it's really just a formality. It's unlikely that Parliament will alter the course.
As @nprofile…8xhx noted on X, the ECB is just waiting for the Parliament's rubber stamp to move forward.
https://blossom.primal.net/e582f7723aaed84a03e98a4eb6f6e35e133aa0906dc907da62e58588db0de2fd.png
As CBDC marketing ramps up, it's important to be vigiliant (even on holidays).
As I've noted repeatedly, the ECB's marketing campaign borders on false advertising when it comes to claims about competition and freedom.
https://www.cato.org/blog/digital-euro-isnt-about-freedom
2026 is going to be an eventful year on the CBDC front. And as always, you can find out everything you need to know in the @nprofile…rzcm CBDC Tracker.
https://cbdctracker.hrf.org/home

2025-10-03 14:19:18 UTC

It’s incredibly disappointing that the Department of Justice has denied my FOIA request and appeal.
President Biden requested a report on how to create CBDC legislation, but the folks currently in charge have decided this information should be hidden from the public.
https://blossom.primal.net/da0fd6844938e5555cf3726556f2c05750e7ecdf71692683fbb1fcc5d1ace6a6.png
The issue dates back to 2022 when President Biden placed “the highest urgency on research and development efforts into the potential design and deployment options of a United States CBDC.” As part of this effort, President Biden instructed the Department of Justice to put together an “assessment of whether legislative changes would be necessary to issue a United States CBDC.”
Yet, the report never saw the light of day.
When it became clear that the report wasn't going to be published, I submitted a FOIA request and members of Congress wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland. Still, nothing.
https://www.cato.org/blog/white-house-doj-keeps-cbdc-legislation-secret-cato-rep-hill-seek-answers
I thought the change in administration might mean I would get the documents faster given how vocally opposed President Trump has been to CBDCs.
Yet, instead, the request still ended in rejection.
In explaining the rejection, the Department of Justice says releasing the information “would harm the interests” of the government.
Given how the rise of CBDCs has increasingly become a public concern, the American people deserve to know what the Department of Justice and the White House think needs to be done to create a CBDC.

2025-09-29 15:37:09 UTC

"If you maintain nonviolent discipline, you'll exclusively win.
You have 100,000 people in a nonviolent march, one idiot or agent-provocateur throwing a stone. Guess what takes all the cameras? That one guy. One single act of violence can literally destroy your movement." - Srdja Popovic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo7w3g24DWo

2025-08-30 17:19:34 UTC

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Amazing. Thank you for flagging!

2025-08-19 20:47:53 UTC

Who else should I be following on here?

2025-08-18 18:03:11 UTC

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If that's your argument, then there is no difference between using a debit card and using a CBDC. Is that your stance?

2025-08-18 15:33:41 UTC

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Generally speaking, they differ in terms of direct control (government vs private sector), access (permissioned vs permissionless), identity requirements (government ID vs pseudonymity), and reach (geofenced vs global).
That's not to say there are no similarities. Neither truly embodies open and free monetary technology. However, only CBDCs give the government direct access and control over your financial activity by default.
https://www.cato.org/blog/are-stablecoins-cbdcs-disguise-no

2025-08-11 16:02:15 UTC

A "cashless economy is the preferred choice for the central bank."
I mean... at least they are upfront about it. https://blossom.primal.net/9936d75f5d2b6c5ae8e109a7cfeed465f06c564b74e2963ceaa657098c28be51.png
https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/server/api/core/bitstreams/e74bc0c3-e866-4b31-a00d-3eebf8f83f03/content

2025-08-04 19:03:34 UTC

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The Bank Secrecy Act requires existing actors to file around 27.5 million reports a year. Even if requiring stablecoin issuers to do similar reporting doubled the number of reports, then that's still a fraction of the 200 billion digital transactions Americans make each year.
I don't like either scenario. But that's a big difference in terms of state surveillance.

2025-07-31 19:25:26 UTC

Everyone who uses money needs the digital euro?
Wild take from Bloomberg.
https://blossom.primal.net/d6f2ab1230b2b8fb7dccd343d4fe2bdbffb3f3735ec57f8710b8d11869c33293.png
To their credit, the authors acknowledge that electronic payments are widely available.
https://blossom.primal.net/a2955c4b4cc2d4fa92fd26ac94f2b0208bb574db2535793598d01b040565127a.png
So why? Why do people need a digital euro when they are already served by a wide array of options?
And there it is: Control.
https://blossom.primal.net/6170a25539c7037b714d3d9c1142c9dfa3b67822d98e508361d9415956f5615c.png
The authors do well to be upfront about one risk of CBDCs. Although the only one they mention is the risk that a CBDC could undermine banks and so they propose restrictions on how much people can own.
https://blossom.primal.net/73dac3725908e659a15e48da13efc3fced0b9566ace4fe11f8a8cd129816893d.png
However, there are many other risks at play with few benefits to justify the cost.
https://www.cato.org/visual-feature/risks-of-cbdcs
Check out the full piece in Bloomberg below.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-07-31/digital-euro-everyone-who-uses-money-needs-tech-forward-currency

2025-07-09 13:05:43 UTC

Despite banks spending $59 billion in compliance and filing more than 27 million reports, the US government still struggles to prove this regime is effective.
Only 370 investigations at the IRS were initiated by the 27 million reports last year.
https://www.cato.org/blog/reporting-fincens-suspicious-activity-again

2025-07-06 15:06:02 UTC

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It's interesting seeing this video pop back up considering Lagarde just did an interview with Chinese state news and said that she started working on the Digital Euro just after her last visit to China.
Check out the HRF CBDC Tracker below for more: https://cbdctracker.hrf.org/currency/eurozone
#nevent1q…3z0w

2025-07-02 15:14:29 UTC

Dang! I just reached 200 subscribers on my Substack!
Thank you, everyone, for the support here. I was on the fence about starting this newsletter, but it's turned out to be a great way to get my work out there. https://blossom.primal.net/b62a5cd07fa15bdf19260e5219d7b5da399bfd9f452f3ce90c195ee33e55042e.png

2025-06-23 15:54:56 UTC

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I'm excited to start sharing my long-form content here. To kick things off, here's a brief introduction to my latest paper explaining how the Federal Reserve (and the US government at large) has slowly taken over payment services.
#naddr1qv…58hj

2025-06-05 13:49:14 UTC

Bitcoin as it was intended: "Peer-to-peer, face-to-face, friend-to-friend" and no one in between.
Props to Lea and the whole Vexl crew for making the original mission of bitcoin (and financial privacy) easier for everyone to take part in.
https://blossom.primal.net/2e353a450cb8052523b3c68d3480a8c6f2f28b01303b72106c2dcf2e6a3d2361.mp4

2025-05-28 13:07:25 UTC

If you’re not in Oslo, you can watch the livestream of the Freedom Tech track below.
Check it out for discussions on Nostr, Bitcoin, CBDC, and more.
https://www.youtube.com/live/NVPhJ0aCKOw?si=_drDoiXLnbPa6PJ1

2025-04-01 16:01:45 UTC

According to the @nprofile…rzcm CBDC Tracker, more than 138 governments are working on CBDCs.
Sadly, that is not an April fool's joke. Despite widespread criticism, many governments continue to push forward.
https://cbdctracker.hrf.org/home

2024-07-28 19:09:48 UTC

"As long as the final decision on the digital euro has not been taken, it makes little sense for the Eurosystem to launch a large-scale public awareness drive." - Deutsche Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel
I could not disagree more. People should know what their governments are doing.
The need for this transparency is precisely why I have been working with the Human Rights Foundation on the @npub17xv…c9as CBDC Tracker to document CBDC development around the world.
Furthermore, the need for transparency is also why I wrote my book to provide everything you need to get up to speed on CBDCs.
From the myths to the risks, this book will help you decode what "CBDC" means for the future of money.
https://cbdctracker.hrf.org/home