The Off Switch: When Money Becomes Permission

An all-digital economy promises a world without friction. The same design that makes payment effortless makes denial effortless, and it hands every government a quiet way to decide whether you may eat. Pay for coffee with a glance at your phone. Send rent across the country before the barista finishes the pour. Split a dinner bill at the table with no cash, no card, and no fuss. The case for a fully digital economy arrives wrapped in that smoothness, and the smoothness is real. The danger sits one layer underneath, in a question almost no one asks at the register: who has to approve this payment for it to clear, and what becomes of me on the day they decide not to?

Continue reading → The Off Switch: When Money Becomes Permission

Whilst Fighting Inflation, Deflation Threatens

by Violaine Messager

This is a worldwide review of newspapers’ outlook on the evolution of the dollar, interest rates and policies at two points in the time.

End of May
The threat of deflation is overwhelming in Europe and in Asia as announced by the IMF in a recently published report. Germany is very likely to be the first and foremost victim of this phenomenon. In the same time, the US seem to be safe from this threat thanks to the flexibility of their monetary policies in this respect.

Continue reading → Whilst Fighting Inflation, Deflation Threatens