Housing Bubbles and Guy Got Fact-Checked

chosen this week, and I hope you enjoy listening. So today you'll hear our videos on the housing bubbles that are threatening to burst in a number of countries, and the intriguing tale of what happened when a meme I posted on Instagram about central bank digital currencies got fact checked. As inflation continues to wreak havoc across global asset markets and central banks hike interest rates in response, housing markets in a number of countries are now coming under strain.

The pandemic and its attendant lockdowns supercharged home prices in many countries, but this conceals the fact that they had been climbing for a long time before COVID nineteen appeared. The pull of a place of one's own is a strong one in many places, but global macro e can comics are making it increasingly difficult for people to turn their dreams into reality. As interest rates rise, so to do the costs of mortgages while increases in the cost of living I mean people have less and less to

save for a deposit. In places like the USA, Canada, and the UK, housing prices are now expected to fall in the coming months, and this could have dire consequences for the economies of these countries. Find out why in the first part of today's episode Next up. Not long ago, I posted a meme on Instagram which was critical of

central bank digital currencies or CBDCs. In a nutshell, it highlighted all the negative consequences of CBDCs while also pointing out that many, perhaps most people would only focus on their perceived convenience. Well. To my surprise, the post was fact checked by Instagram, so I decided to analyze the contents of the meme and show why they are factually correct, look into why it was fact checked, and examine what

the fact checkers said. It was an interesting look into both c b d c s and the whole concept of fact checking too, So have a listen and enjoy. Thanks for listening to today's episode, and there'll be more coming your way soon. And if you want even more content from Coin Bureau, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and visit us on social media too. The long anticipated housing market crash may be upon US. Prices and sales in some of the world's hottest property markets

are beginning to fall. Mortgage rates are at multi year highs, and market analysts are wondering whether this has any power arallels with two thousand and eight. So where are we going and what should you be looking out for? Well, that's exactly what I'll be covering today, So don't go anywhere. Given that it's the largest property market in the world, let's start off with the good old U S of A. It's pretty clear that America's pandemic price boom is long over.

For example, according to the SNP Case Shiller Index for the twenty largest U S cities, prices fell one pree on a month on month basis in August. This was below expectations, and it was the largest fall since March of two thousand and nine. Not only that, but home sales are also on the decline. New home sales decreased ten point nine to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of six hundred and three thousand units in September. This is down from six hundred and seventy seven thousand in August.

There are many factors that have been driving this slowdown, but perhaps one of the biggest appears to be the high cost of buying a home, not in terms of actual home prices themselves, but in terms of the cost of getting a mortgage on those homes. That's because the rate on a thirty year mortgage, at over seven percent,

is the highest it's been in twenty years. What's even crazier than this, however, is the fact that the monthly mortgage on a median priced home with a twenty percent down payment went from thirteen hundred dollars a year ago to over twenty three dollars. Now, that's an eight percent increase in payments to give you an idea of how unaffordable this is. On an annual basis, this equates to about forty of the median pre tax household income according

to this i n G report. To put that into context, this was about twenty six percent in the fourth quarter of ten and thirty seven percent at the peak of the two thousand and six housing market boom. This has forced some buyers to consider adjustable rate mortgages as well as loans that have lower rates for the first two to three years, called one to buy downs. Needless to say, the exorbitant cost of taking out these mortgages means that

the demand for them appears to be cratering. Demand is half what it used to be a year ago, and it is at its lowest level since These higher mortgage rates are of course due to the monetary policies of Jerome, Powel and Co. As the Federal Reserve aggressively increases interest rates. It's been one of the fastest periods of rate hiking in recent history. As you can see in this chart over here. In each of its last three meetings, the Fed has increased its funds rate by seventy five basis points.

It's not as if Jerome and Co. Are really that concerned about a correction either. In a press conference back in September, Jerome stated, quote, we probably in the housing market have to go through a correction, and quote the deceleration in housing prices that we're seeing should help bring prices more closely in line with rents and other housing

market fundamentals. And that's a good thing. Now. Whether you agree with him or not, the fact of the matter is that the Fed is not slowing those hikes anytime soon, and the overwhelming consensus is that we will see another seventy five bibs At the meeting tomorrow. The FEDS fundrate is expected to peek at between four point five and four point seven five. The last time rates were at this level was between October and December of two thousand

and seven, the start of the Great Financial Crisis. It's not only the fact that taking out a loan is a lot more expensive. However, first time buyers may also struggle to source the funds required for a down payment on many properties. Surging inflation is destroying purchasing power and making it a lot harder for many to save. Now. That is all on the demand side, but we also

have some troubling statistics over on the supply side. For example, the National Association of home Builders's sentiment index has fallen for ten straight months. The slowdown in sales at a time of widespread construction means that the inventory of new homes is near all time highs. In this chart over here, you can see the months housing supply i e. The months required to clear the housing infantry. This is at the highest level it's been since. So how low could

house prices fall in the US. Well, let's see what analysts on Wall Street are saying. At the lower end of the estimates, we have Morgan Stanley who are now expecting house prices to fall by about seven percent next year. While that may indeed be less than the twenty seven percent we saw in the peak to trough of the two thousand and eight housing crash, it is still a sizeable fall and would be one of the largest ones

since the Great Depression. According to Morgan Stanley's analysts quote, if we assume a seven percent mortgage rate, affordability looks materially worse than today, and the pace of its deceleration has already more than doubled compared to almost any time in history. They do note, however, that even with this price decline of seven percent, house prices would still be about thirty two percent higher than they were back in March of Morgan Stanley has a bull and a bear

case as well. This all depends on how interest rates progress over the next few months. For example, in their bull case, they assume that interest rates start coming back down next year. If this were to happen, they assume a price increase of five. However, if the US falls into recession next year, then we're looking at potential falls

of ten percent or more. According to the analysts quote, affordability is already challenged, exposing would be homeowners to an increasing rent environment that erodes their ability to save for a down payment. If that were to be combined with increasing unemployment, we could imagine a scenario in which existing home sales continue to outpace the Great Financial Crisis to the down side. In other words, a worrying state of affairs.

Moving on, though, another bank that had a change in their view of the US housing market was Goldman Sachs. Let's not forget that as recently as last month they were predicting a modest one point eight percent rise in prices. Well, they're current and estimates are for a fall of five to ten quote. We view the risks to these estimates as tilted to the downside because of a sharp deterioration in our descriptive home price outlook scores and evidence of

strong mean reversion in regional data. Meanwhile, on the ratings agency side, Moody's Analytics is predicting a drop off between five and ten percent, although they don't seem to think that we will see a two thousand and eight style housing crash. Their chief economist Marks Andy stated that plain vanilla lending, good mortgage underwriting, and low vacancy will be

enough to stave off the crash. However, as I noted earlier, housing supply is at a high level, and even Zandy admits that these factors aren't sufficient to stave off an inevitable correction. Moody's analytics actually draws up a quarterly index that looks at local fundamentals such as income levels, etcetera, that helps determine whether house prices are over or undervalued in the regions being examined. You can see what this regional index looks like over here in this Fortune article.

This shows the over and undervalued regions for Q two. If we were to compare this to the index for Q one, you can see the deterioration. I can't wait to see what it looks like for Q three. Any who in those housing markets that Moody's views as quote significantly overvalued housing prices should see declines of ten to fifteen percent. However, if we do indeed hit a recession, then these could even fall by twenty to twenty five.

That will hurt like heck anyway. Getting the perspective of another ratings agency, Fitch Ratings, seems to think that we could see prices fall by between ten and fifteen percent. Quote. The likelihood of a severe downturn in US housing has increased. However, our rating case scenario provides for a more moderate pullback that includes a mid single digit decline in housing activity

in twenty three and further pressure in four now. One final analyst with a prediction for housing prices next year is Paul Shepherdson, the chief economist of Pantheon macro Economics. He expects housing prices in the US to fall by as much as twenty in twenty three. He said, quote, we expect home sales to keep falling until early next year. By that point, sales will have fallen to the incompressible minimum level, where the only people moving home are those

with no choice due to job or family circumstances. Shepherdson also thinks that the supply of homes available for sale will shrink next year and that prices will have to fall much more to restore equilibrium. So those are the estimates for the US housing market, not exactly two thousand and eight level armageddon, but disconcerting nonetheless. But that is only the US. Are there any other housing markets that

are at risk of two thousand and eight type collapses? Well, there is one, and it's just north of the US border. That's right. Canada's housing market appears to be one of the biggest property bubbles in the world. In fact, according to ubs is recent Global Real Estate Bubble Index, Toronto is the city that scores the highest on the list. Vancouver isn't too far behind at number six. You can also see how this has progressed for the cities over the years. Ever since, it's been an upward march from

overvalued to bubble risk territory. It's not as if this is a new phenomenon either. There have long been many analysts ringing the alarm bells about the risks facing the Canadian housing market, and there are several factors which have been driving demand in these cities. They include high immigration levels, falling mortgage rates, and high investment demand. Now, the most recent housing frenzy actually began back in and only accelerated

during the pandemic. Much like central banks in other countries around the world. The Bank of Canada dropped its benchmark interest rate to near zero. This made it a lot cheaper for people to take out mortgages and gave those first time buyers who had been waiting an opportunity to get on the housing ladder. During the pandemic, property prices in Vancouver and Toronto accelerated to their highest levels in

five years, at fourteen percent and seventeen percent, respectively. This drove housing affordability in these key metros to levels that were last seen during the nine eighties real estate bubble. In this RBC research note, for example, you can see ownership costs as a percentage of household income. Houses are much less affordable in Canada than they are in the US, and if you speak to any Canadian you'll know how much of an issue housing affordability is. But beyond affordability concerns,

there's also the risk posed by bad debts. Something that is a lot more prevalent in Canada than in the US is the use of variable or adjustable rate mortgages or arms. These are essentially mortgages that lock in a lower rate of interest for an initial fixed period, but will then adjust up to a market rate after a certain number of years. In Canada, about a third of all mortgages are variable rate. That's about three times the amount in the US, where the share of ARM activity

is about eleven. Those borrowers that took out arms to buy a home in Canada between May and July two could sue and see their monthly mortgage payments start to skyrocket. That's because the Bank of Canada has been following the FED in its aggressive rate hiking policy. What may have seemed like a good mortgage deal when rates were near zero percent could become exorbitantly expensive when they adjust up.

This has already started happening, and according to Royce Mendez, managing director and head of macro strategy at djadon Quote, banks are already sending out lessers to clients whose variable rate mortgages owe more interest than their fixed monthly payment obligation. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. As these homeowners face higher mortgage payments, some of them may be forced to make the ultimate decision and sell their homes.

This could only precipitate a broader price crash as people see the value of the equity in their homes plummet. It's a de leveraging cycle of lower prices, more sales and lower prices. Again, so those are homeowners, But you also have to consider the investors who are snapping up this housing in the hope of making generous yields on their properties. Well, as interest rates are going up, the cost of servicing their debts mortgages is going up to This means that they have to rely on rising rental

rates to make up for the lost yield. While rental rates are still red hot, they could easily turn down in much the same way as they're now doing in the US. Now, if you were to combine all of these factors, you can see why housing prices are on the decline. Here you can see the steep drop in the price of an average home in the g T A Greater Toronto area. Overall prices in Toronto are down

seventeen percent as sales plunge. Now, this is something that one of the Coin Bureau team members actually witnessed firsthand when he visited his family in Canada a few weeks ago. The number of for sales signs in his neighborhood was alarming. Now, this is of course anecdotal, evidence, but I would be interested to hear the experience of some of my other Canadian viewers, so let me know in the comments down below. The point is that Canada, and especially Toronto and Vancouver

are due for a pretty nasty and long overdue correction. Okay, on to our next hot housing market, and this one is a little closer to home for me, the good old United Kingdom. The UK housing market is also starting to face downward pressure. House prices fell by zero point one in August and by the same amount in September. This left the annual growth at nine which is the weakest it's been since January. What these figures suggest is that the housing market was already cooling long before the

disastrous budget from Liz Trust and Code. For those not fully clued up, the shortest serving prime minister in our history and her chancellor released a budget that would have made Iron rand All misty eyed. The only problem was that they didn't think about how they could pay for it all, and it's sent the market into turmoil. I've done a separate video on this disastrous episode, which I will leave linked to below not for the faint hearted.

If you watch that video, you'll know that one of the side effects of that budget was that UK government bond yields went soaring. These are the interest rates that mortgage providers used to price their fixed rate offerings. Therefore, in the wake of that chaotic budget, these mortgage products were left in turmoil. Buyers were scrambling to see whether they could secure mortgages before their prices reset. In the midst of the chaos, banks and building societies withdrew around

sevre mortgage products in the space of a week. Now, while the mayhem appears to have calmed down since the budget was pulled and a new PM installed, the mortgage rates themselves have been slow to adjust back down. For example, although interest rate swaps have fallen between one point three and one point four, average rates on two and five year fixed rate mortgages have only fallen zero point one six.

You can see what that looks like over here. Quite simply, lenders are not passing on the lower interest rates to those taking out the mortgages. These higher mortgage rates are causing a great deal of uncertainty for homeowners and prospective

buyers in the UK. This is especially the case for those who took out fixed rate mortgages Now this may sound counterintuitive, but in the UK fixed rate is more akin to adjustable rate in the United States, i e. There is a fixed term that is for a limited period of time, usually two to five years, after which they will adjust up. Think of it as in the same way our public schools are in fact fee paying and therefore nothing of the sort. Makes you wonder how

we ever ruled over a third of the globe, doesn't it? Anyway? For those who took out these loans in the period when mortgage rates were low, the costs of servicing them are suddenly looking much higher. Over here you can see what that looks like. In London, for example, mortgage payments make up over fifty percent of first time buyers take home pay. Now, this is something that I myself and worrying about with my mortgage in the UK, as it's coming up for refinancing in the next couple of years.

That's because I know that interest rates are only going in one direction up. The Bank of England is also widely expected to raise interest rates by seventy five basis points this Thursday. That's the largest hike by the BOE since nine Beyond that, interest rate futures currently predict that the b o E rate is likely to tap out at almost five percent next year. That's all the more pain for borrowers already on the edge. If we were to add this to the pressures of inflation and writing

energy costs. This is all a bit too much to bear for the average UK homeowner. Some may decide to sell and this will of course have a negative impact on prices. As a result, analysts are predicting steep falls in UK house prices next year. For example, Credit Suee analysts are predicting a fall of between ten and fifteen percent. Meanwhile, Andrew Wishart, senior property economist at Capital Economics, also predicts

similar falls in prices. Quote the rise in market interest rates that has already happened will push up mortgage rates to at least six percent and reduce the size of loans that lenders can offer and Quote, the resulting drop in buying power makes a significant drop in house prices inevitable. Ouch. Okay, time for a few of my closing thoughts. It's clear that the global housing market is heading for some turbulence.

E's the era of pandemic fuel cheap credit is coming to an end, and that means a reckoning for those trying to secure a mortgage. All eyes are on the US housing market as a number of the hottest metros start to cool. Housing supply is on the rise and prices are on the decline. While a two thousand and eight style housing crash is unlikely, analysts are predicting pretty nasty falls which are likely to put a massive dent

in consumer confidence. Perhaps this is what Jerome Powell always intended when he wanted to quote bring housing prices back in line with fundamentals. But it's a bitter pill to swallow for all those who have a great deal of their wealth tied up in their homes. However, such worries are perhaps even more acute for Canadian homeowners, as concerns about a massive correction ripple through the air waves. While this has been a long time coming, it appears as

if the dominoes are beginning to fall. This could be Canada's version of the two thousand and eight housing collapse in the US, at least according to the pundits. If that is the case, it could do significant damage to the country's GDP, given that so much of household wealth is again tied up in housing. That said, it could prove a silver lining for those Canadians who have given

up on the dream of owning a home. Indeed, many younger people in the country are secretly hoping for a correction, anything for them to be able to eventually afford a place to call their own. When it comes to my native UK, things aren't looking two pretty there either. While the housing market in Britain is slightly more resilient than those in North America, it's the overall economic picture that

has me most worried. Inflation is over ten per and the recent snaffoo with the budget has thrown the country's finances into disarray. The cost of living is only likely to get higher for those homeowners who may have to refinance their mortgages at higher rates. So let's hope that our new PM can help steer the ship. Two Calma sees. Last week, a meme I posted to Instagram about Central

Bank digital currencies or CBDCs was fact checked. This came as a shock because everything the meme says about CBDCs is factually correct. It also came as a shock because it suggests that governments are slowly starting to clamp down on narratives that go against their upcoming CBDCs. If this

is true, then it is flat out terrifying. That's why today I'm going to analyze the CBDC meme I posted, explain why it's accurate, summarize what the fact checkers said, and assess whether this is an anomaly or the beginning of a bigger trend. Let's start by taking a closer look at that CBDC meme. As you can see, it features a gray NPC all excited that the government is rolling out a CBDC. This is because the only thing the NPC can see is the convenience of a CBDC.

The NPC doesn't see all the dystopian attributes that CBDC will have. Now As a fun fact, the NPC meme has its origins in psychological research, which found that many people have no inner monologue. In other words, there's a substantial percentage of people who do not reflect on their past, present and future emotions, decide, et cetera. NPC stands for nonplayer character, and any gamers in the crowd will know that this term refers to any video game character that

isn't controlled by a real person. In other words, NPCs are robots that just go along with the programming. The more you know now, you'll notice there is a social media handle on the bottom left of the CBDC meme. It reads the Freethought Project, which appears to be an alternative media website. I reckon it's safe to assume that this is the creator of this meme, and it would actually explain a lot. That's because when I searched for the Freethought Project on Google, one of the first results

was from PolitiFact, an American fact checking website. PolitiFact notes that the Free Thought Project has published two articles that it takes issue with, one of which is mostly false and another which is entirely false. This is significant because it's possible that the mention of the Freethought Project in the meme was why it was fact checked by Instagram.

In case you didn't know, Instagram's algorithm can read text in images, it might have seen that content by the Free Thought Project had been fact checked before to the alternative media sites credit. It did issue a correction on the article which was mostly false after getting called out. The other one that was deemed entirely false hasn't been corrected, and that's because it deals with a very contentious political issue that I won't even try to discuss lest I

be fact checked. Two. I also can't help but find it funny that Politi fact seems to take issue with the fact that the Freethought Project's purpose is to quote foster the creation and expansion of liberty minded solutions to modern day tyrannical oppression. I suppose that tells you all you need to know about these fact checkers. Note that I'll break down the fact check on this CBDC meme near the end of the video, but trust me when

I say you'll want to stick around until then. Now, while it's possible that the CBDC meme was fact checked because of its creator, it's equally, if not more, likely that it was fact checked because of its contents. As you can see, there are twelve statements made about CBDCs in the meme. Before I unpack those, you should know that there are two types of CBDCs, wholesale CBDCs and

retail CBDCs. Now, if you've watched any of our videos about CBDCs, you'll know that wholesale CBDCs will be used by select individuals and institutions, while retail CBDCs will be used by regular folks like you and me. What this means is that there will be two different digital currency systems, one system for the elites, the corporations, and the governments,

and another system for everyone else. The statements about CBDCs made in this meme, as well as others like it, pertain to a retail CBDC, not a whole sales CBDC. So the first statement is quote banks have full control of every penny you own. Assuming other forms of fiat currency like cash are phased out, then this is one correct. Central banks will have total control over what you can buy, when you can buy it, and even how much money you can save. You might be wondering how this is

different from the current financial system. After all, we've seen banks freeze bank accounts before. A recent example is Canadian banks freezing the accounts of protesters back in February, something that was truly unprecedented for a developed country. The difference is that the existing financial system is still relatively decentralized.

For example, there are multiple banks and payment processes. If one of them starts to limit what you can buy and when, then you can take your business elsewhere in a Canada type scenario, you can still use. More importantly, there are many non bank entities, or so called shadow banks. A great example is cryptocurrency platforms that offer visa debit cards. These platforms don't always require extensive k y C, and they can't be forced to comply with, say, in order

to freeze the bank accounts of protesters. In a CBDC system, however, there won't be any competing banks, and there certainly won't be any shadow banks. Instead, you will have an account directly with the central bank. The commercial banks and payment processes will only exist until the government has rolled out its own infrastructure. Now, in theory, the central Bank is

independent of the government, but in practice it's not. I would argue that the introduction of a CBDC would actually cause the two to merge, as many are already predicting. This means that it's really the government that will have total control over what you can buy and when. If that wasn't bad enough, The Bank for International Settlements or b i S the Bank for Central Banks, recently published a report detailing what it believes the future of the

financial system will look like. The t L d R is that they see all assets being token ized on a government and central bank blockchain. What this means is that you will un ironically own nothing and be happy. This is because you think you will own your assets, when in reality, the government will have the ability to turn your ownership off at the click of a button. So be sure to keep physical documents proving your ownership and your identity. Now, the second statement is quote vulnerability

to state and foreign actors. And this is a fact about CBDC s that is often overlooked. It's also a concern that's been mentioned in many CBDC reports, namely the Federal Reserves report about a digital dollar from earlier this year. You see, if every person in a country has their bank account at the central bank, then this creates a single point from which the entire financial system of a

country could be exploited or manipulated. History suggests that it's not a question of if this will happen, but when it will happen. This ties into the third statement, which is quote social credit scores. Now, this is not actually something I've seen discussed in any CBDC reports, at least not yet. That probably has to do with the fact that people associate the concept of social credit scores with

the Chinese Communist Party. Attempting to roll out such a system would likely result in a revolution in most other countries. That's why these other countries are taking a slightly different approach, and that's to introduce a carbon credit system for their citizens. Sounds environmentally friendly, doesn't it. An individual carbon credit system is something I discussed at length in another the video,

which I'll leave in the description. The short of it is that governments will create an elaborate incentive structure for their citizens to emit less carbon a CBDC and centralized digital I D will be required for this system. Now, the fourth statement is quote every transaction is documented, which is literally in every CBDC report. Obviously, the central banks and governments are going to want to know about every

transaction that's ever happened. Something tells me that data protection laws like g d p R won't apply with CBDCs. The fifth statement is quote access to your money can be turned off at any moment. This is essentially the same statement as banks have full control of every penny you own. And the sixth statement, which is quote frozen funds.

If you're skeptical, that CBDCs will have these restrictions. Consider the following quotes from the b I S Quote Quantity base safeguards would restrict the use of CBDC through imposing hard limits on the transfers and or holdings of CBDC. Quote limits could also be applied varyingly for different CBDC account holders. And finally, quote such limits could be imposed on a permanent basis or on a transitional basis. Now, this actually reminds me of something that's important to point out.

Believe it or not, but the money you have in your bank account technically doesn't belong to you. It belongs to the bank. It just sits in its vault store on its electronic ledgers under your name. The same is true of any other asset you hold with a third party, including any coins or tokens you have on a cryptocurrency exchange. News flash, financial freedom doesn't mean having lots of assets in custody. It means owning your assets and deciding how

and when they are spent. The value of financial freedom will become evident once central bank digital currencies are rolled out, and this will lead to serious crypto adoption. Anyways, the seventh statement is the one the NPC in the meme is focused on, and that's the convenience of CBDCs. Funnily enough, central banks, governments, and international organizations have held up the convenience of CBDCs as the fundamental justification for their rollout.

They say that CBDCs will be faster, safer, and cheaper than traditional banking. The irony is that they simultaneously admit that existing financial technologies are evolving to become even faster, safer and cheaper, including cryptocurrency. This just proves that CBDCs are about control and nothing more. Now, this relates to

the eighth statement, and that's centralization. This one is admittedly debatable because some countries want inactial banks and payment processes to run notes on their CBDC networks, whereas others want the central banks and the governments to be the only CBDC notes regardless of the setup, though it's almost guaranteed that the government will have a back door. This is

very bad because centralization is inherently unstable. This is because any issue with or compromise of the core infrastructure means that the entire financial system is pardon my French, now, what's scary is that the financial system has been trending

towards increasing centralization for quite some time. This was revealed in a twenty nineteen report by black Rock, which stated that all the financial regulations we've seen since two thousand and eight were implemented to further centralize the financial system. The reason why the financial system is centralizing is because its current iteration is collapsing. Central banks and governments are

desperately trying to keep the Ponzi from falling apart. Being able to dictate every transaction in the economy with a CBDC is the only solution as they see it. The ninth statement is similarly scary, and that's quote all your movements and actions are traceable. This is also something I haven't seen in CBDC reports, and to be honest, I think it borders on conspiracy. Then again, there is precedent for it because of all the data collection by commercial

banking apps. As per reporting by the Telegraph and others, many banks are now tracking their customers through their mobile apps. This is supposedly being done to catch scammers and criminals, but I suspect it has as much or more to do with gathering data that can be sold to advertisers for additional profits. As such, it's not far fetched to think that the mobile app you'd use to access your CBDC account would track your movements and location for similar reasons.

It's possible that it would even be required, as some central banks have discussed to limit CBDC payments to merchants within specific locations. The tenth statement is quote zero anonymity, and this one is probably the most accurate and up to date. That's because Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell recently specified that a digital dollar will be quote identity verified, so it would not be anonymous. Similar statements can be

found in most CBDC reports now. The eleventh statement is quote cyber security attacks, which is almost the same as vulnerability to state and foreign actors. It goes without saying that no central bank wants a cyber attack on its CBDC, but this is something that all of them are again extremely concerned about, and understandably so. In the case of the United States, the Federal Reserve wants to make sure that its digital dollar is resistant to cyber attacks from

quantum computers. Without getting two technical quantum computers will eventually be able to crack any encryption that exists today, and it's possible that they can already now. Although many are worried about a cyber attack on a cryptocurrency, the fact of the matter is that the existing financial system is a much bigger and much more lucrative target. This is why, according to PwC, the FED is working with m I T to make its digital dollar resistant to quantum computers.

As I've mentioned before, Algorand recently achieved quantum resistance and its founder, Sylvia McAuley is based at m I T. Not saying that Algorand is going to be the blockchain that powers a digital dollar, but it's max USDC supply of eighteen point four trillion suggests that the crypto project is trying to prepare for such a role. More about

Algorand in the description. I digress now. The final statement in the CBDC mean is quote zero privacy, which sounds the same as zero anonymity at first glance, but it's actually not, at least not according to the Central banks. It might sound strange, but CBDCs will in fact offer

privacy despite not offering any anonymity. Confused, well, consider that the definition of privacy used by central banks means that your information is not shared with any private entities, only public entities such as the central bank and the government. CBDCs will therefore be private according to that horrendous definition

of privacy. I can't wait until the fact checkers start claiming missing context on that one, any who, in addition to being private, CBDC transactions will apparently not contain any personal information about senders and recipients by default. Instead, security officials at central banks and governments will selectively reveal this

information on any transactions deemed to be suspicious. Given that you will probably have no way of knowing when you're being probed by some three letter agency, it's more than likely that this power will be abused, assuming such a restriction is even implemented at all to begin with. And finally, we have the apparent inner monologue of the NPC, which reads, quote, hey, cool, the government is trying to make my life easier with

the digital currency. I quickly want to comment on this because convenience is probably not how governments and central banks will sell their CBDCs. This is because their own statistics suggest that between four and twelve percent of citizens in g twenty countries would voluntarily adopt a CBDC. This means that they must go down another route that's been actively discussed, and that's to make CBDCs mandatory for the payment of

taxes and other forms of subtle theft. They will also use CBDCs to distribute social benefits, pensions, and any emergency stimulus in response to future financial shocks. This will force most citizens to adopt CBDCs, which they won't like. Hence why the governments and central banks want to get rid of physical cash. As per the ECB's own admission, more about the ECBs Digital euro aspirations using the link in

the description. This brings me to the moment you've all been waiting for, and that's what the hell the fact check on the CBDC meme said. Well, I'll start by saying that the fact check was removed shortly before I put together this video. This is possibly because my tweet about it went viral, but it's more likely it was an error. That's because the description of the fact check

reads quote. Social media posts claim an executive order from Joe Biden eliminates cash and enables the government to monitor transactions. This is misleading While the US President did call for additional research on a central bank digital currency, the order does nothing to limit cash use. The authors add that quote, experts say any such system would be legally required to include privacy protections and involve the independent Federal Reserve Banks

and Congress. By now you'll know what privacy means to these people, and that the FED probably won't stay independent with a CBDC. You'll also know that the CBDC meme doesn't say anything about Joe Biden or eliminating cash, even though that's something the central banks actually want. Even so, I must admit that many of the examples of this misleading information given by the fact checkers are as accurate

as the CBDC meme. What irks me is the fact checkers claim that the US government is far away from launching a digital dollar, when billions of de facto digital dollars are already in circulation today. Circles USDC is the elephant in the room here because the company is basically looking to become a part of the FED. More about

that in the description now. As expected, the fact checkers agree that quote it is probably better for privacy and civil and human rights purposes for some pieces of information to be collected by intermediaries rather than the central bank. Whatever you do, don't forget that warped definition of privacy in relation to a CBDC. The fact checkers even go as far as insinuating that a CBDC on a public and transparent blockchain is analogous to China's digital yue, which

is just insane. They also reaffirmed that the United States CBDC network would be run by a collection of entities in the private and public sector. The fact checkers finish off the article implying that the rollout of a digital dollar is justified because one d other countries are testing CBDCs according to the International Monetary Fund or i m F. This reminds me of what my mother used to say, if everyone is jumping off a bridge, should you do

it too? In all seriousness, it's clear that this particular fact check is related to the upcoming midterm elections in the United States. Historical search trends for fact check reveal that fact checks spike every time there is an election. This makes sense given most of these fact checking websites

are politically oriented. That said, you might have heard about the recently leaked documents which revealed that the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, has been asking social media companies to suppress and take down any content that quote undermines trust in financial systems. This CBDC meme certainly falls into that category, and it begs the question of just how much the DHS and others will start to censor social media once CBDCs start being rolled out around the world.

Something tells me that this won't be the last time that this crypto guy gets fact checked. Thank you so much for listening to the coin Bureau podcast. If you'd like to learn more about cryptocurrency, you can visit our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com forward slash coin Bureau. You can also go to coin bureau dot com for loads more information about all things crypto. You can follow me on Twitter at at coin bureau or one word, and I'm also active on TikTok and Instagram too,