“I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own!”
– No. 6, The Prisoner
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August 7, 2024 — The dip buyers turned much of the market around yesterday, including Microsoft and Nvidia… the incestuous pair leading investment in Large Language Model (LLMs).
For a breather ourselves, Grey Swan’s managing editor Andrew Packer shares his recent experiences in Portmeirion, Wales, a unique piece of architecture with a unique history. And a lesson in public policy Tim Walz could most definitely learn from. Enjoy ~~ Addison
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The Unmutual Society: Finding Freedom In an Increasingly Unfree World
Andrew Packer, Grey Swan Investment Fraternity
Portmeirion, Wales – In November 1936, the United States started issuing its first Social Security cards.
Unlike today’s cards, which are printed on low-quality paper and we’re told not to laminate, they were made of higher-quality stock. I even have my great uncle’s old card, which he had bronzed.
There’s another major difference between the first run of cards and today’s. Before the early 1970s, the card had a specific line of text on the bottom of the card.
Right there at the bottom: “Not for identification.”
Of course, today, your Social Security number is a crucial piece of identification for just about anything, not just your taxes and calculating your benefits.
That’s one of the major problems with government programs: mission creep.
There were legitimate concerns about how Social Security numbers could be used to track and identify American citizens. The program had to walk a fine line to ensure that Americans would be aided and benefitted, while also respecting their right to privacy. Today, however, identification is the primary purpose of the card.
But there’s something else about it too. Just consider your tax form…
When you file your taxes, are you John Q. Public, everyday man of the grand American republic? Or are you a bureaucratic number, devoid of any humanity?
It’s the number, isn’t it? It’s hard not to file your taxes and think of yourself as No. 6, the protagonist of the colorful and surreal 1960’s British television series, The Prisoner.
The series involves a British agent who submits his resignation. He’s gassed in his home, and wakes up in a mysterious village. Those who run the village want information, starting with why he resigned in the first place.
Each episode is either a test of wills with N0. 6 and the village leader (an ever-changing No. 2), or an attempt to escape. The opening credits end with the memorable:
“I am not a number, I am a free man!”
For four weeks in the summer of 1967, The Prisoner filmed its exterior shots in the resort of Portmeirion in Northern Wales, providing the iconic location of “The Village” from the show.
Built between 1925 and 1975, the resort is a mismatch vastly of architectural styles and bright colors, all fit into a remarkably small geographic area, along the steep Welsh slopes overlooking a tidal basin. No description can truly do it justice…
It’s thrilling, but surreal, to see The Villiage in person. Amid the gorgeous scenery, replete in English-summer gray, it’s easy to get the sense of entering a land from a children’s story… or a Kafkaesque nightmare.
The village of The Prisoner hides an underground facility beneath the bright, cheery topside of Portmeirion. Behind the cheery faces of the prisoners belies technological and medical terrors designed to keep life docile.
If that sounds similar to some dangers being posed in today’s post-Covid age, it’s for a good reason…
Beware Today’s Monetary Mission Creep
In The Village, prisoners can get better creature comforts by earning work credits or work units. We don’t see any paper currency, as accounts are simply debited or credited as needed.
For 1967, that concept was ahead of its time. Credit cards were still in their infancy. But for a surveillance state, it’s a logical way to organize a monetary policy.
Last year, the Federal Reserve launched a program called FedNow.
The program is designed to allow the central bank to more efficiently settle payments globally.
However, it could also provide the infrastructure necessary to roll out a U.S.-based central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Essentially, a CBDC is programmable money. It can be provided – or withdrawn – instantly, with no settlement time. It’s also controlled and monitored in real-time.
Who programs this money? Central bankers. What is their goal? Precision control.
A CBDC could radically change your life. And not for the better. Perhaps the government thinks you shouldn’t buy a firearm. It could program a CBDC so that it couldn’t be used to make that purchase. And remember, as a fully digital currency, you wouldn’t be able to use physical cash.
Perhaps the government thinks you’ve donated too much to political parties that it disagrees with. The same thing could happen. If the operator of a CBDC decides that you’re “unmutual,” to borrow another word from The Prisoner, you could be fully cut off from all the money you’ve earned. Ever.
Even without a fully digital central currency, this is on par with China and its vile social credit system.
Think that sort of thing can’t happen in the United States? Think again.
The Federal Reserve likes to claim that it’s an independent central bank. And, while high-level members are appointed by Congress, it’s largely an untouchable institution.
If they’re able to roll out a CBDC, even politicians who have the spine to fight against it may not have the clout to succeed.
Just as your Social Security card wasn’t initially designed for identification, your money wasn’t designed to be fully controlled and observable at all times.
If a CBDC rolls out, we, too, will find our country much like the Village of The Prisoner.
And the rollout might occur amid a market crisis (yen carry trade unwind 2.0?) when investors clamor for policymakers to “do something.” ~ Andrew Packer, Grey Swan Investment Fraternity
So it goes,
Addison Wiggin
Founder, The Wiggin Sessions
P.S.: The Prisoner is available on Amazon Prime right now (regrettably with ads), and certainly worth a watch (or rewatch).
P.P.S.: How did we get here? An alternative view of the financial, economic, and political history of the United States from Demise of the Dollar through Financial Reckoning Day and on to Empire of Debt — all three books are available in their third post-pandemic editions.
(Or… simply pre-order Empire of Debt: We Came, We Saw, We Borrowed, now available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble or if you prefer one of these sites:Bookshop.org; Books-A-Million; or Target.)
Please send your comments, reactions, opprobrium, vitriol and praise to: addison@greyswanfraternity.com
Past performance is not indicative of future returns, investing involves risk. See disclosures masterworks.com/cd
