Bureaucrats American companies Visa and Mastercard now account for nearly two-thirds of all card transactions in the eurozone, while 13 EU countries lack national card schemes. Now, EU officials have sounded the alarm: an alternative means is needed to counter US interference. With the continued decline in cash use, they are suddenly alarmed that payment systems could be "weaponized" during a geopolitical conflict. This concern was expressed by former ECB President Mario Draghi, who warned that interdependence has become "a source of leverage and control." Yet it was precisely his era of centralized planning, negative interest rates, and regulatory micromanagement that brought Europe to this predicament. European banks were stifled, innovation was discouraged, and capital fled to jurisdictions offering greater scalability and efficiency. Now, the same people who engineered Europe's decline in competitiveness are preaching strategic autonomy to the public. When ...
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