The Digital Dollar is a "Dead Man Walking," a Victim of Political Polarization and Culture Wars

Hope remains for a wholesale digital dollar

The US’s digital dollar CBDC program is now a “dead man walking” as it becomes the latest victim of the election cycle, culture war, and extremist media.

Anyone following CBDC knew that a US digital dollar was a long shot. From the start, the Fed showed no interest and opined that a CBDC was a “solution looking for a problem.” Somehow the Fed didn’t take note that 2.3% of the US’s GDP is spent on payment fees or that 19.6% of the US population is underbanked or unbanked.

The movie “The Green Mile” with its meme “Dead man walking” seemed to fit the US CBDC program perfectly.

That the Fed prefers not to notice apparent flaws in the financial system shouldn’t be surprising after the Silicon Valley and Sovereign Bank collapses. To the Fed, payment as a “public good” does not exist, and your paying credit card interchange fees for eternity is simply business as usual.

The digital dollar is a “dead man walking” because while the Fed’s research into retail CBDC continues, it has no practical possibility of ever making it through congress or being accepted in a nation divided by culture wars. While a wholesale CBDC may still be possible, and I support this effort, it won’t be the transformational payment system that the US deserves!

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