Guest Post by Nick Giambruno
Weekends and holidays are the perfect time to catch people off guard…
Like a street thug committing a mugging, capital controls blindside most people—otherwise, they wouldn’t be effective.
The government declares a surprise bank holiday and shuts all the banks—mere hours after they denied they were even thinking about such actions.
They impose capital controls to stop citizens from taking their money out of the country.
Cash-sniffing dogs, which make drug-sniffing dogs look friendly, show up at airports and border crossings.
At this point, your savings are like a lobster in a trap. It’s not hard to see what comes next…
Once a desperate government has your money within its reach, it’ll find a way to take as much of it as possible.
Don’t be surprised if your local currency suffers a massive devaluation, bank deposits are suddenly worth a fraction of what they were just yesterday, or the government imposes an emergency tax.
Whatever the method or pretext, the outcome is always the same: a wealth transfer from you to the government.
This familiar story has played out in many countries in recent years. The pattern is clear and should surprise no one the next time it happens.
It’s all but certain governments in financial trouble will turn to capital controls as a desperate, misguided solution—with devastating consequences for ordinary people.
Argentina, Lebanon, Venezuela, Iceland, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, China, India, South Korea, and governments in countless other countries have recently imposed capital.
The lesson from these examples is capital controls can happen anywhere and anytime.
Although it seems unthinkable to most, there is an excellent chance capital controls are coming to the US—they’ve happened before and could happen again soon.
Remember, in 1933, through Executive Order 6102, President Roosevelt forced Americans to exchange their gold for US dollars under penalty of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine (or more than $242,000 in today’s debased confetti).
Of course, the official government gold exchange rate was unfavorable. It amounted to around a 41% confiscation of purchasing power.
The US government continued prohibiting private ownership of gold bullion for 41 years until they reluctantly allowed the plebs to own it again in 1974.
So, there is a clear historical precedent for implementing capital controls in the US, especially during a crisis.
Today, it’s self-evident the fiat currency system centered on the US dollar is self-destructing at an alarming rate.
After more than 52 years, it’s long past the end of its shelf-life, like a carton of spoiled milk.
Even the global elites running the system can see that and openly talk about what they want to come next.
That’s why there’s all this talk about a Great Reset… and without a doubt, capital controls will be part of it.
All it would take is a crisis—real or contrived—or some other pretext and the stroke of the president’s pen on a new executive order.
Expect it to happen.
Why and How Governments Impose Capital Controls
Capital controls are government restrictions on how people can use their money—something that should be abhorrent to anyone who believes in property rights and a free society.
Here’s how capital controls work…
Governments might allow people to buy foreign currency (or gold) only at an “official” rate that they set, which is always less favorable than the free-market rate. The difference between the fake official rate and the real free-market rate amounts to a wealth transfer to the government.
Another form of capital controls is steep taxes on international money transfers or purchasing foreign assets.
Governments could also flat-out prohibit ownership of foreign assets or moving any form of wealth outside the country.
No matter what flavor they come in, capital controls always help a government trap money within its borders so it’s easier for them to take.
A propaganda campaign is also necessary to gaslight people into believing such actions are required to protect the average person.
Expect politicians to make disingenuous claims to make them appear as saviors instead of aggressors.
The mainstream media will amplify this false narrative and demonize those opposed to capital controls as disloyal citizens or worse.
What Happens After Capital Controls
Capital controls are always a prelude to something worse.
That’s because once governments trap money inside a country, it’s probably only a matter of hours before there is wealth confiscation. Anything they don’t steal immediately, they box in for future thefts.
That’s why you must act before they impose capital controls.
How much time do you have?
While it’s impossible to know, acting well in advance is advisable. It’s better to be a year early than even a minute late.
However, there is one common feature I’ve noticed when countries impose capital controls that indicates the situation is imminent. It’s like someone waving a big fat red flag.
That warning sign is a government official denying that they are considering imposing capital controls.
Whenever you hear a central banker or politician say something won’t happen, you can almost be sure it will happen. And probably soon.
Coming from a bureaucrat, the real meaning of “no, of course not” is “it could happen tomorrow.”
It’s like the old saying: “Believe nothing until it has been officially denied.”
These deceptions have a purpose: Politicians and central bankers must surprise the public to get the desired results.
When you hear the official denial, you probably have only a matter of hours before they impose capital controls. Urgent action is required.
Four Ways To Beat Capital Controls
The solution is simple.
Place some of your savings outside your home country so it’s not trapped when the government imposes capital controls. It will be waiting for you safely on the other side.
Below are four ways you can do that.
First, obtain a foreign bank account. Capital controls imposed in your home country are unlikely to affect a bank account in another country.
Second, real estate in a foreign country is an excellent way to store significant capital abroad. Your home government won’t be able to seize it without a literal act of war.
Third, another solution is physical gold bullion coins held in a non-bank vault in a friendly foreign jurisdiction.
Last, there is Bitcoin, which is like kryptonite to capital controls.
Bitcoin is the most portable asset in the world. It’s a digital bearer asset that can achieve final international settlement in 10 minutes for pennies.
Anyone with a smartphone can use Bitcoin to send and receive value anywhere in the world—capital controls be damned.
Going through airports and crossing borders with Bitcoin is much more practical than other forms of wealth.
If you hold Bitcoin on your phone, laptop, or flash drive, it can be accessible to border agents if they search you and you reveal your password. However, those things are much less conspicuous than gold or stacks of cash.
Further, many popular Bitcoin wallets use a 12-word phrase to recover your funds. If you memorize the 12-word phrase, you can potentially store billions of dollars worth of value just in your head with nothing else.
That’s why Bitcoin skyrockets in popularity in countries with capital controls.
Conclusion
The current dollar-based monetary system is on its way out. Even the central bankers running the system can see that.
They are preparing for what comes next as they attempt to “reset” the system. It’s a virtual certainty they will impose capital controls.
I suspect it could all go down soon… and it won’t be pretty for most people.
We are likely on the cusp of a historic financial earthquake…
One that could alter the direction of the US forever and mark the biggest economic event of our lifetimes.
Yet few people are aware of what is happening.
And even fewer know how to prepare.
That’s exactly why legendary speculator Doug Casey and I and a special guest have prepared an emergency online video summit.
It’s called:
Doug Casey’s Proven Strategy To Survive and Thrive During the Coming Collapse
It’s all about your ultimate Plan B.
You won’t want to miss the crucial information we will reveal.
As governments resort to capital controls, you must know how to prepare.
Click here to reserve your spot now.
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If your saving are in the form of paper, you have not been paying attention.
Are beanie babies still a safe investment?
If I remember correctly, it was the bears that were most sought after.
90% of all dollars are held overseas. what will be the point of capital controls in the u.s.?
To finish killing America.
The point is that capital flight, Forex becoming a panicked herd, capsizes a nation’s economy.
Keeping the Fed’s T’notes held by U.S. pensions, commodity trading bourses and Wall Street Bank/Casinos “here”, as well as choking off transfers by immigrant to their countries and by expatriates to wherever they are, staunches capital flight.
I’m getting as much $ as possible out of the U.S. into the Mexican Peso ASAP. As a permanent Mexico resident, it is easy.Otherwise, not so much. Someday, just like 100 years ago, the Peso will be 2 for 1, if not 1 for 2. Look at the $/Peso chart! The dollar is toast within 10 years.
When the world stops buying T-bills, count on NOT being able to get your money out of the country by any legal means.
Our government is led by people who never keep their promises.
They do keep their promises, just not to their constituency, but to their paymasters.
Exactly how does one pay off the devil? By keeping promises? That barbed-tailed horny toad would be first on my list for breaking promises. What would happen that ain’t already going to happen?
CIA officially not backing Biden-Harris 2024 horse:
America’s longest serving deep state mouthpiece calls for Biden (and Harris) to step down
Longtime intel asset David Ignatius says duo should step aside.
https://www.dossier.today/p/americas-longest-serving-deep-state?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=69009&post_id=137020760&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=9atnc&utm_medium=email
So, then, who IS deep state appointing for ROTUS (R.esident) in ’24? We shall see, very soon. Big Mike? Will they let Trump back in to placate some folks, while they reconfigure the depop reset? Tune in to the fake news for some truth from deep state.
It is a bit amazing a US Senator that makes $174,000 per annuman can become a multimillionaire in mere 6 years!
It’s amazing that the insouciant and bedazzled electorate keeps insisting on their continued employment . . . doing what, we can only guess – until the tribunals that will never happen.
I think for the foreseeable future it means we are as likely to see hyper-inflation as a fish is to drown, but it is changing. The pond will dry up. I went fishing the other day for Garr and it surprised me how long our bait fish lived out of water. All the Garr jumped the hook before we got them all the way in. They are wily.
Amen, and almost all the illegals they allow in send US dollars out of the country back home, bleeding the US system.
Who in their right mind thinks an America that has descended to capital controls, wealth seizures and the embargo of assets in general will leave a pristine and untouched international financial system intact? Seriously?
The world is intertwined with the dollar, both holding it and owing it by contract settling terms. I don’t know the upshot but I do know the idea that a Third World bank is not where I would place my trust, or my assets.
Oh, and forget about the desirable places like Switzerland. They will be bottled up tighter than Dick’s hatband.
I love the cavalier remark, “It will be waiting for you safely on the other side.” Sure it will. The financial analog to safe and effective vaccines.
I counsel staying in the USA and joining with the millions of others who have had enough of this shit and will be at the point of real insurrection, not the Jan. 6 variety. Why go to some place as a national representing the country that just blew everything up. Oh, and you took your assets with you. And you may not own a weapon.
Great plan. Sounds like Jake Sullivan started doing finance seminars on the side.
Aside from pensions, property and vehicles, silver eagles (buried somewhere) are the only financial asset I’ll keep in the U.S., for bartering.
I am pretty certain that the plutocrats know the potential of gold in a currency collapse and have taken measures to ensure us plebes will not profit from it. I am not certain they can pull it off, though.
The world’s finance will be done being digitized any minute now, and Blackrock’s Aladdin algo will control the spigot, depending on social credit scoring. Call it the FICO score: Fatal Injection Coronahoax Oligarchy. Nah. I’ll do better after a night’s sleep.
CBDC this!
Donkey brides, PMs only!
Gold is the money of kings, Silver is the money of gentlemen, Barter is the money of tradesmen, and debt is the money of serfs.
Lead, I’d guess, is the money of the desperate.
Lead will be turned into gold, Silver will be the catalyst, Debt, the currency of corrupt governments where untitled serfs will rule the land.
Even pennies now have so little copper in them they are worthless. Canada got rid of their pennies years ago.
2023 Lincoln Shield Cent
Copper Plated Zinc Penny – Metal Composition: 97.5% Zinc – 2.5% Copper
That happened in 1982 so earlier pennies are copper.
sorry, too late to “beat capital controls”. Solutions that are discussed are for the more affluent and imagine the punishment if your caught. Thus its nothing more than a pipedream, false hope. Go bury your assets (gold, $$) in a remote area along with some food, guns and tools. BTW….bitcoin is nothing more than a ponzi. It was designed by your gov and corrupt jewish bankers and it acts to dampen inflation by stealing your money thru another scam.
If you havent figured that out yet, you’re well behind the curve. this is global takeover by your favorite scum. khazar ashkenazi, jews…whatever you call them. There goal is to have an electronic currency but unless you are useful asset, you wont be a part of this.
I wouldnt spend too much money on precious metals, bitcoin since they’ll be no way to conduct an unobservable financial transaction. Best spend your reserve $$ on survival gear, healthy canned and freeze dried foods, prescriptions, tools, dirt bike and other resources that you can use or barter with.
Your not going to stop this boulder rolling down the hill. You should have listened to the “conspiracy theorist” many years ago. You scuttled your own boat, and thus sabotaged your own survival. The only way out is to accept you will have to fight them and possible pay the ultimate price. Most americans dont have those attributes and havent for many decades.
Once again your site is tapping out my memory well over 1 gig. Why is that?
Become your own bank. I like silver and Bitcoin. Chickens and rabbits. greenhouses and gardens.