Last week, the march toward a centrally controlled payment-and-identity grid crept forward under the radar: Visa quietly struck a seven-year pact with TECH5 to accelerate “Digital Public Infrastructure” — a phrase as harmless-sounding as it is authoritarian.



https://www.biometricupdate.com/202509/tech5-and-visa-to-integrate-biometrics-digital-wallets-and-payments-for-dpi

Visa’s new partnership with TECH5 fuses global payments with biometric surveillance—faces, fingerprints, and irises—all sold as “convenience.” Their integrated “identity wallets” promise frictionless access to services, but in reality, they create a centralized system where every credential and payment can be monitored, controlled, and exploited, with privacy protections trailing far behind.



https://reclaimthenet.org/visa-enters-the-digital-id-race

Let’s not mince words: merging biometric ID systems with Visa’s global payment network is a step toward a digital gulag, where dissenters risk being locked out of economic life. For anyone determined to remain financially independent and outside this tightening net, the case for holding physical gold has never been clearer.

Huge thanks to Geopolitics & Empire for hosting The Macro Butler — we went full throttle on Trump-Stagflation, global chaos, and the coming digital Big Brother.

Epic chat, zero sugarcoating.

https://themacrobutler.substack.com/p/interview-with-geopolitics-and-empire-4fd

The ECB, poised to roll out the first G7 CBDC, tells citizens to “keep calm and carry cash”—a warning that chaos looms. Bank runs, defaults, wars, grid failures: the system is fragile, and cash is the last line of defence. But make no mistake, governments want it gone. Cash is anonymous and free; CBDCs will be traceable, taxable at will, and revocable. The war on “money laundering” is really a war on privacy—soon, every transaction will be watched, and dissenters can be silenced with a keystroke.

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/economic-bulletin/articles/2025/html/ecb.ebart202506_02~1a773e2ca3.en.html

The ECB admits that every major crisis—from Greece’s 2014-15 debt meltdown to COVID and the Russia-Ukraine war—triggered surges in cash withdrawals, proving the irreplaceable role of physical currency. But it also quietly acknowledges the system’s weakness: banks simply don’t have enough liquidity to meet a real bank run. In other words, your “money” is mostly digital promises—until it isn’t.

Central banks are quietly telling citizens to prep for crisis — literally. The Netherlands, Austria, and Finland now advise keeping €70–€100 per person on hand, enough for 72 hours of survival spending. Finland is even testing “disruption-proof” ATMs, a clear sign that the ECB sees turbulence ahead.

Keep cash for emergencies, but don’t be fooled — its use will shrink, and crossing borders with it will be nearly impossible. The true safeguard is in tangible assets that can’t be frozen or deleted with a keystroke. Forget stuffing a suitcase with euros — most countries will confiscate it under civil forfeiture, and you may never see it again even if you’re innocent.

In the end, money is just what someone agrees to accept — which is why gold and silver coins, portable and universally recognizable, remain one of the most practical hedges when fiat inevitably falters.

With World War 3 warming up on the runway for its grand debut, the US Treasury just unloaded $70B in a lackluster 5Y auction. The high yield landed at 3.710% — the lowest since last September — tailing the WI by a microscopic 0.1bps, making it the fourth straight 5Y snoozefest in a row.

Bid-to-cover limped in at 2.34, just under last month’s 2.36 and the recent average — hardly inspiring. Indirects grabbed 59.4%, also below par, while Directs strutted in with a hefty 28.6% (still on a post–Liberation Day sugar high), leaving Dealers stuck with a meager 11.9% — one of their lowest scraps ever.

In short: after a weak 2Y auction, the 5Y followed suit — another forgettable sale as investors keep bailing on what was once the “risk-free” asset, now looking like the riskiest ticket to ride in the looming Trump Stagflation.

As the “Malthusian” West frets about sanctions, China is busy finding creative detours — like suddenly importing record volumes of “Indonesian” crude from a country that barely produces enough for itself. In August alone, Beijing hauled in 2.7 million tons — 630,000 barrels a day — a curious feat given Indonesia’s domestic demand is triple its output. Translation: China just turned sanction-dodging into an Olympic sport.

China’s “officially zero” Iranian crude imports keep magically reappearing with new passports. After months of Malaysia “exporting” more oil than it pumps, its reported flows to China plunged 30% — just as Indonesia’s mysteriously surged. Tankers now stop by Kabil, a port with no crude-export facilities, grab a new identity for their cargo, and head to China. One trip even involved taking oil from a U.S.- and U.K.-sanctioned tanker before unloading at a terminal later blacklisted by Washington — and then turned around for another run. Same oil, new flags, same game.

In a nutshell, China has turned sanction-dodging into an art form, rebranding Iranian oil as “Indonesian” and sailing it home under a parade of fresh flags.

The ever-optimistic, propaganda-ready US Q2 GDP print magically jumped from 2.96% to a final 3.83% — its best showing since Q3 2023 — thanks to a conveniently “strong” consumer who somehow spent more despite being visibly broke. Imports fell (helpful math trick), inventories dragged, and government spending was flat — but voilà, growth! Nothing like a little statistical alchemy to keep the recovery narrative alive.

Industry-wise, Q2 GDP got a big boost from private goods production (+10.2%) and services (+3.5%), while government shrank (-3.2%). Real gross output rose 1.2%, with services doing most of the heavy lifting. The BEA’s annual update tweaked the past five years slightly but kept average growth at 2.4% — a neat narrative of pandemic rebound turned “steady trend,” even if inflation still looms in the background.

In a nutshell, US Q2 GDP “soared” to 3.8% — a masterclass in statistical alchemy where broke consumers spend big, imports vanish, and the recovery tale lives on.

As the world inches closer to World War 3, as the self-styled “Peace Maker In Chief” seems ready for a showdown with the Global South — and in the midst of this geopolitical drama, the U.S. Treasury capped the week with a $44 billion 7-year auction, yielding 3.953%, just a smidge above last month and tailed its When-Issued by 0.6 bps, the largest wobble since August 2024.

The bid-to-cover tumbled to 2.395, down from 2.489 in August — the lowest since March 2023 — but the real shocker was the internals: foreign buyers (Indirects) plunged from 77.5% to 56.4%, marking the steepest monthly drop in four years and the lowest overseas demand since the near-disastrous 7-year auction of March 2021.

Meanwhile, Directs swooped in for 31.6% — up sharply from 12.8% in August and among the highest on record — leaving Dealers with 12.0%, up from 9.79% last month, painting a picture of an utterly abysmal demand breakdown.