Category: Featured Posts for February 2023

• In 2023, 11 countries have fully launched a digital currency while more than 20 more will move toward starting one

• 114 countries, which represent more than 95% of global GDP, are looking into CBDC — up from just 35 countries in 2020

• Finance guru Catherine Austin Fitts details 10 practical steps individuals can take to stop implementation of CBDCs

• Tips include using cash as much as possible and minimizing your use of digital systems, including avoiding biometric technology and QR codes

• Doing business with local people and entities you know and trust, and ditching large, multinational banks in favor of trustworthy local banks or credit unions will also help

Central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, are government-backed digital currencies issued by a central bank. They’re being rapidly rolled out to bring about a new economic transaction system that could lead to a new form of modern-day slavery.

CBDCs are promoted as digital tokens that can simplify monetary policy and bring about convenient cashless societies. They’re also sometimes said to be similar to cryptocurrency

due to their digital nature, but there are important, and major, distinctions.

While cryptocurrencies are decentralized and allow anonymous transactions, CBDCs are centralized and can track every transaction. They can also be controlled by the powers that be — meaning all your CBDC assets could be taken away or turned off by a central power, and there’d be nothing you could do about it.

Finance guru Catherine Austin Fitts — publisher of The Solari Report

— warns that a slavery system, steeped in the ideologies of transhumanism and technocracy, is being created right before our eyes. The complicated, “messy” plan used the pandemic to engineer a total remake of world currencies and our entire way of life.

Comparing the move to herding sheep to a slaughterhouse, Fitts explains how the pandemic lined people up to depend on their governments for protection from an invisible enemy (COVID-19) and then used fear to keep people from living what once was considered a normal life.

The herd mentality includes encouraging debt entrapment to the point that people become desperate for any type of cash flow that can help them meet their day-to-day living expenses, until they willingly give up their rights in exchange for any relief offered to them.

In The Corbett Report video above, you can hear Agustín Carstens, executive director of the Bank for International Settlements, describe the chilling truth about CBDCs. Corbett describes the Bank for International Settlements, by the way, as the “central bank of central banks — the apex of the financial monetary pyramid, identified by Carroll Quigley in ‘Tragedy and Hope’ — and others as the capstone of the Pyramid of Power.”

Carstens says:

“We don’t know, for example, who is using a $100 bill today. We don’t know who is using the 1,000-peso bill today. A key difference … with the CBDC is central bank will have absolute control on the rules and regulations that will determine the use of that expression of central bank liability. And also we will have the technology to enforce that.”

CBDCs are an integral part of a social control system. By removing paper currency and replacing it with CBDCs, your ability to engage in transactions can be monitored and turned on and off. What could this look like in your day-to-day life? British activist Maajid Nawaz put it into simple terms, likening CBDCs to vouchers instead of currency — vouchers that have a finite limit for certain purchases, and once your quota is met, you can’t obtain any more:

“They want to replace fiat paper money with digital money as a competitor to Bitcoin and crypto money, right?

But instead of being decentralized currency, it will be controlled by a government … So instead of having a bank account with … HSBC or Bank of America, you’ll have a bank account directly with — in the American context, with the Fed — in the UK, directly with the Bank of England. You have a personal bank account, and you’re given digital money in that bank account.

… This money that you will earn from work, instead of having paper money, you have this digital money. It’s programmable so that you can’t buy certain foods, or if you do something that your employer doesn’t like … you won’t be able to spend your money. In other words, it’s not money, they’re vouchers.

They’re like food vouchers. And they can be programmed. So that, like the Chinese social credit system, if you try and use them on a certain thing, it won’t work. Say you want to buy a burger, and they want you to buy a box … if you start to try and buy unhealthy meat, it just won’t work … you tap your card, you can’t buy the thing, because you’ve met your quota that month, for burgers.”

“We’re talking about a world where most people are under 24/7 surveillance and then their financial incentives and their financial power are related to how well-behaved they are,” Fitts explains. Corbett uses parking tickets as another example of how CBDCs may come to dictate your every move:

“Do you remember that parking ticket you forgot to pay last month? Well, your central bank issued CBDC, it remembers, and it will just subtract those funds plus a late payment fee from your account when you’re not looking.

Got caught supporting the wrong fundraiser or the wrong political cause, like the freedom convoy in Canada? Don’t worry. In a world of CBDC transactions, you wouldn’t have even been allowed to donate to that cause in the first place because your wallet wouldn’t let you.”

Let’s say, for another example, that you miss an appointment to get a vaccination. The system will know and your access to banking might be cut off until it registers that you got your shot. According to Fitts:

“It is essential to understand the proposals underway. In my opinion, CBDCS (central bank digital currencies) are an essential part of the ongoing financial coup d’état which — if successful — will end constitutional government and human liberties in the U.S. and G7 nations. You need to take this seriously.”

Implementation of CBDCs is moving ahead, fast. In 2023, 11 countries have fully launched a digital currency while more than 20 more will move toward starting one. All G7 nationals are now actively developing CBDCs, including the U.S. Further, 114 countries, which represent more than 95% of global GDP, are looking into CBDC — up from just 35 countries in 2020.

However, widespread CBDCs are not yet inevitable. “It is important to recognize that there is a great deal that each one of us can do to take action,” Fitts says. “In a highly leveraged financial system such as we have, a single individual counts for a lot.”

In response to the many requests she’s had from people wondering how to stop CBDCs, Fitts compiled these 10 top actions.

1. Use cash — Fitts recommends using cash as much as possible — and not frequenting shops that don’t accept it:

   “Walk out on establishments that refuse to accept cash. When using remote facilities where cash is not possible, use checks if you can. We understand from one subscriber that check companies are scrambling to fill the orders of all of the bank customers who have requested checks recently. Whether the indicator is banking statistics or anecdotal reports from our subscribers, cash use is clearly rising.”

   In addition to using cash, Fitts recommends keeping a stash of cash on hand, safely stowed in several locations. “Think small, and start thinking about all the ways you can spread your cash around and put it in different places, including outside of the banking and brokerage system,” she says, “but also how you can use your cash to permanently lower your expenses and permanently lower your risk.”

   Think like a squirrel does when stashing away acorns for the winter. You want to have your cash spread out, in “little pots all over the place.” This starts with keeping cash on hand in your home, ideally in a fireproof safe. Then you can expand to a safe deposit box at a bank, a small, local bank or investing in silver and gold coins.

2. Embrace analog — While some digitization is OK, an entirely digital system is at risk of being manipulated and controlled by a central power. Fitts recommends minimizing your use of digital systems, including avoiding biometric technology and QR codes. “Get invasive surveillance systems out of your home. Use hard-wired Internet connections, not Wi-Fi … While you are at it, refuse to use or support vaccine passports,” she says.

3. Do business with people you trust — Focus on finding people of integrity with whom to conduct business. Even if it costs more, Fitts says, it’s worth it. “In the end, fraudsters and others who contribute to unhealthy systems through their own greed or lust for power cause untold losses. All those little expenses related to transacting with integrity can end up being lifesavers …”

   Corbett refers to this as “freedom cells” and recommends joining with a small group of eight or so other people, then connecting to other groups, engaging in a local exchange trading system or using some form of community currency. This “will facilitate actual productive economic activity if we arrive at the Mad Max apocalyptic scenario … or the government coming down and cracking down on dissent to the point of taking you off the payment grid,” he says.

4. Choose a small, local bank — Ditch large, multinational banks in favor of trustworthy local banks or credit unions. While you’re there, let bankers know about the dangers of CBDCs. The Solari Report even has a template letter

   you can use to inform your bankers about the downsides of CBDCs. It reads, in part:

   “It strikes me that creating a different, yet centrally controlled fiat currency that can be created from thin air and manipulated by unelected central bankers does not promote U.S. financial stability or provide citizens with consumer and investor protections — except in the sense that totalitarian governments can be financially stable through the power of taxation without representation and the ability to micromanage and regulate the spending of families and small enterprise.”

5. Finance friends, not enemies — While limiting the number of online and digital financial transactions you make, avoid supporting credit card companies and financial technology (fintech) firms intent on expanding digital IDs, vaccine passports and CBDCs. Instead, focus on making financial transactions with like-minded people and entities.

   “Financing your local farmer or farm distribution service may not look like a great money-maker,” Fitts explains, “but it means you will have a better chance of not being cornered into eating insects and lab-grown meat.”

   The idea is to establish of form of survival currency that allows you to eat, maintain shelter and survive in a worst-case scenario.

   “When you are in a survival situation,” Corbett explains, “where you were literally scrambling to provide food for your family… let’s start from that point of the survival currency. What can I do to facilitate exchange with people in my area, who I want to exchange with, but we don’t have access to these dollars or pesos, or whatever.”

   Examples of survival currencies, which each have their own pros and cons, include precious metals, cryptocurrencies and bartering.

6. Ask state officials to support financial freedom — Fitts recommends asking your state legislators to start a sovereign state bank that protects the right to free financial transactions. She explains:

   “Make sure it is a sovereign bank that supports (and does not and cannot compete with) private community banks and credit unions, and helps to ensure they can provide free private financial transactions.

   While you are at it, ask them to start a state bullion depository. Then, in the worst-case scenario, you can use your gold and silver as a local currency (if your state has been smart enough to cancel sales tax on precious metals — if not, that’s another matter to bring up with state legislators).”

7. Hold the New York Fed accountable — The New York Federal Reserve Bank, which acts as the depository of the U.S. government and stores the largest known depository of gold in the world, holds immense power over U.S. financial policy.

   Fitts suggests contacting your congressional representatives to demand an audit of the New York Fed, including tracing $21 trillion in funds missing from the U.S. government — which amounts to $65,000 per person in the U.S. — and returning it. She adds:

   “Clearly communicate that congressional representatives are not to pass any legislation or grant the Fed (most notably the New York Fed) any more powers or funding until the Fed is audited, transparent and held accountable, and makes restitution for all illegal transactions in U.S. government accounts held by it or its member banks.

   Congress should not accept any argument that the executive branch has the authority to proceed with the institution of CBDCs without congressional approval.”

8. Tell the US to leave WHO — The U.S. government has close ties to the World Health Organization. Not only does it provide between $200 million and $600 million in funding annually, but it’s actively engaged with the organization.

   “The WHO, among other unacceptable actions, is using the health care system to institute vaccine passports,” Fitts says, “which is simply a way of getting the authentication system needed for CBDCs and spatial control.” The Solari Report has a template you can use to send to your representatives regarding WHO’s pending amendments to existing International Health Regulations.

9. Reject taxation without representation — CBDCs will rapidly usher in an era of taxation without representation, leading to the end of liberty. By granting complete control of individuals’ financial transactions to central bankers, CBDCs allow the government to maintain complete control.

   “Under a CBDC system in which government maintains and controls all financial transactions, if a citizen objects to taxation without representation by refusing to pay federal taxes in the face of gross violations of the Constitution and human rights, the central bankers can simply take the taxed amounts from such individuals’ accounts,” Fitts explains.

10. Share your knowledge with friends and family — Tell everyone you know about the true intention of CBDCs so they can also take action against them. This includes educating yourself and others to resist propaganda tactics being used by Big Tech to influence public opinion and individual minds.

    If we can decentralize financial power, it will lead to an improved economy and future, Fitts notes, and practical opportunities are all around us. For instance, embrace local farmers and grow as much of your fresh food as possible. “If we grow our own food supply, it will make it much harder for the bankers to control the transaction system,” Fitts says.

    So, rather than feeling defeated, recognize that the opportunity exists to win this battle, one action and one individual at a time. As Fitts explains, there’s room for everyone to get involved:

    “Central banks are pushing for central control — they believe if they do not do so, they will lose control. Given that they do not provide essential functions and their exercise of control is exceptionally damaging and expensive, that could be a very good thing for both our freedom and our pocketbooks.

    The opportunity depends on our leadership. So start leading where you can and as you can. You never know what can happen until you try!”

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Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your health care professional before using products based on this content.

• A rapid decline in men’s sperm concentration and count is occurring worldwide

• While the rate of sperm decline was just over 1% a year beginning in the 1970s, by 2000 the rate of decline more than doubled to 2.64% a year

• One class of chemicals appears to be particularly detrimental to sperm — endocrine disruptors, such as phthalates and bisphenols

• Much of the damage occurs in early pregnancy during crucial developmental windows; the damage can be passed on to future generations

• Beyond phthalates and bisphenols, pesticides have also been shown to lower sperm count, even down to zero in adult men

• For those interested in protecting their own fertility — and that of future generations — as much as possible, avoiding hormone-disrupting chemicals is essential

Shanna Swan, Ph.D., a reproductive epidemiologist with the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, New York, has been studying declining sperm counts for decades. In 2017, she and colleagues published a study that went viral because it predicted an impending fertility crisis.

Men experienced a 50% to 60% decline in sperm counts from 1973 to 2011, the 2017 study found, amounting to a decline of over 1% per year over the last 50 years.

The team then expanded the study, adding seven years of data and an expanded geographical range. The new study, published in Human Reproduction Update in November 2022,

includes data from six continents and 53 countries, including years 2011 to 2018

— but the results reveal an equally disturbing trend.

The original 2017 study included men from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand but was criticized because it didn’t include global data. “At that time, there were too few studies with data from South/Central America-Asia-Africa (SAA) to reliably estimate trends among men from these continents,” the research team explained.

In the time that elapsed since their first study, however, more research was published, enough to show a clear significant decline in sperm concentration and count in men in Asia, Africa and South America. This means the decline is worldwide.

The rate of decline also changed when more recent data was added in. While the decline was just over 1% a year beginning in the 1970s, by 2000 the rate of decline more than doubled to 2.64% a year.

“That is very fast and very unusual, given that this was only in the last 18 years, from 2000 to 2018,” Swan said. “Extremely rapid decline.”

The pertinent question is what’s triggering this rapid decline in sperm counts and concentration. Genetics comes to mind, but Swan has ruled this out because the steep decline took place over just two generations — much too rapid of a change to be caused by genetics.

“That leaves us with environment,” she says, breaking it down into two categories — lifestyle and chemicals.

Lifestyle factors such as smoking, drinking alcohol, stress, diet and exercise all affect sperm. So, too, do chemicals in the environment via our air, drinking water, household dust, food and more.

While there are many factors contributing to this reproductive calamity, Swan believes one class of chemicals to be particularly detrimental to sperm decline — endocrine disruptors.

Sperm are germ cells produced by the reproductive system. “The production of germ cells is governed by hormones,” Swan explains.

And sex hormones are altered by these chemicals, including phthalates, which lower testosterone levels, and bisphenols, including not only BPA but also BPF, BPS and other variants that have been used to replace BPA. Where are these toxic chemicals found? All over the place:

• Plastics

• Canned food liners

• Epoxy adhesives

• Cash register receipts

• Toys

• Caulks and adhesives

• Vinyl flooring

• Flexible PVC pipes

• Food packaging

• Teething toys

• Personal care products

• Sports equipment

Beyond phthalates and bisphenols, pesticides have also been shown to lower sperm count, even down to zero in adult men, according to Swan.

A man’s sperm count can recover from pesticide exposure in about three months, provided he stops being exposed. But if a pregnant woman is exposed to pesticides, her unborn son can be affected — and his sperm count will not recover.

Grandchildren are also affected, as the changes are passed through generations.

Research by Swan and colleagues found that women’s exposure to phthalates during pregnancy is also linked to male babies’ anogenital distance (AGD) — the distance from the anus to the base of the penis — with higher exposure associated with shortened AGD.

Later in life, shorter AGD is linked with a smaller penis

and poorer semen quality, such that Swan believes AGD at birth is predictive of adult reproductive function.

The more testosterone exposure in utero, the greater the AGD distance. If there’s not enough testosterone exposure, or if it comes at the wrong time, Swan says, then that genetic male will have an AGD that’s smaller than it should be:

“There are consequences. And it turns out that if a young man has a shorter than expected AGD for his body size, then he’ll have a lower sperm count and he’ll be more likely to be infertile. So this is undoubtedly part of the picture of declining sperm count.”

During critical phases of development in early pregnancy, if phthalates occupy the testosterone receptors in the fetus, it signals its body to not produce enough testosterone on its own.

At that point, the AGD stops growing and the boy will be under-masculinized, Swan says. “That also affects the germ cells that will go on to become sperm when he’s a young man. And so they are impaired by this as well. So when he goes on to … try and have a child, he won’t do as well. His sperm count will be lower and he won’t be able to do the job.”

While much of the damage occurs in early pregnancy during crucial developmental windows, when the fetus is first forming and cells are rapidly dividing, exposure then continues, accumulating throughout life. Worse still, the damage that occurs can be passed on to future generations, and it’s not only boys that are affected.

“A female fetus, in utero,” Swan explained, “is growing the eggs that she will use to have her own children. These chemicals can make their way to those germ cells, too.”

A PLOS Genetics study also demonstrated generational effects of hormone-disrupting chemicals, with effects worsening with each subsequent generation until, by the third generations, some of the animals could not produce any sperm.

Swan’s book, “Count Down,” goes into detail about how the modern world not only is threatening sperm counts but also altering reproductive development in males and females,

and in so doing “imperiling the future of the human race.”

In terms of reproductive consequences, this means it’s going to be harder to conceive a child, a trend that’s already becoming apparent. Since 1996, U.S. births that occurred via assisted reproductive technology are up more than threefold.

This may also have consequences, Swan says, as research suggests boys born through couples that have gone through assisted reproductive techniques have lower sperm counts themselves.

Meanwhile, men with lower sperm counts tend to die younger than men with higher counts. “Sperm count tells us not just about ability to conceive, but it also tells us something about longevity, which is pretty important.”

Overall, when the fertility rate goes down it means fewer children are being born.

While some believe that’s a good thing, Swan says, the data suggest the world’s population will continue to increase until about 2040 or 2050. At that point, it’s predicted that it will drop “and it will never come back.” This means there will be fewer young people around to support older people. “This is a social problem that’s growing” and already being felt in Japan, China and other Asian countries.

Swan warned in 2021 that if the curve of declining sperm counts from the 2017 study continues, by 2045 the median sperm count will be zero. “It is speculative to extrapolate, but there is also no evidence that it is tapering off. This means that most couples may have to use assisted reproduction,” she said.

Further, now we know declining sperm counts have not tapered off but actually accelerated.

Swan’s findings have implications for the whole of humanity. But in the immediacy, she shared advice for people interested in starting a family in the near future:

“They should think about what they’re allowing into their bodies, even right now, in terms of the kind of food, the kind of drinks, the kind of air, the kind of products they use in their house, the cosmetics they use. Mostly just be aware that it all matters … And then, I would say, men should bank a semen sample. Why not? It’s not difficult. It’s not particularly expensive. Now you can do it at home with a mail-in sample …

If you want to conceive a child in the next 10 years, why not have a sample that’s probably OK. By the same measure, I would say that every man should have his sperm tested. If it’s not great quality, he can think about what to do to improve that in terms of his lifestyle, exposures and so on.”

I believe electromagnetic fields (EMFs) are another significant factor for the observed decrease in male sperm count. Writing in Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine, researchers noted that many in vivo and in vitro studies have revealed the EMF exposure can alter reproductive function, including sperm motility, with effects varying according to the frequency, duration of exposure and strength of EMFs.

For those interested in protecting their own fertility — and that of future generations — as much as possible, reducing your EMF exposure and avoiding hormone-disrupting chemicals are essential. Swan also recommends some simple solutions like eating unprocessed foods that you cook yourself as much as possible to reduce your exposure to plastic food packaging, and using only simple, unscented personal care and household products.

One silver lining is that phthalates leave your body quickly, in a matter of hours, after exposure. They’re nonpersistent chemicals — unlike other toxins like dioxin, PCBs or lead, so if people stop taking them in, the damage done to fertility would stop — at least from this class of chemicals.

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Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your health care professional before using products based on this content.