Author Archives: Nick Corbishley

As the US government begins setting up the regulatory guardrails for a digital dollar, the EU forms a consortium to develop a prototype for a digital euro. Its members include Amazon and dozens of large EU banks.

Given von der Leyen’s apparent allergy to basic transparency, she is the last person in Brussels to be leading the EU’s roll out of so-called “corruption sanctions”.

Political violence is back with a vengeance in South America, as death threats abound,  coups d’états are threatened and assassination attempts are carried out.

Thanks to their high levels of public trust, Canadian and Australian lenders will be the perfect guardians of people’s digital identity. At least so say the banks. 

As the US remains “grossly unprepared” to meet the exponential increase in demand for lithium, it stakes a claim to Argentina’s massive deposits of “white gold.” For Argentina’s benefit, of course. 

Like just about anything on the Internet, biometric surveillance systems are eminently hackable as well as prone to human error

After reeling from one crisis to another, Europe’s indebted and debilitated small businesses — the backbone of the economy — face the ultimate threat from energy shortages and soaring prices.

In Mexico, it is not just the government and the central bank that are trying to keep a lid on rising food inflation. So, too, is a drug cartel in the Pacific state of Guerrero. 

The reemergence of “payment strikes” is perhaps a sign that as economic conditions deteriorate, people will begin to leverage the only real power they have left in today’s hyper-consumerist societies — i.e., as consumers. 

While cash use has been declining in many places for years, the trend may have reached its apogee. In some countries, including the UK and Spain, it even appears to be making a fragile comeback.

Germany’s health minister unveils plans to launch a color-coded digital app to confirm citizens’ COVID-19 vaccination status. Different colors will confer different rights

“We could end up in jail” if we disclose details of the former government’s contract with Pfizer, says the country’s Health Minister. 

Japan is not the only G7 economy where cash is still king, and that could be bad news for the rollout of CBDCs in so-called “advanced” economies