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WEF panelist suggests COVID response accustomed people to the idea of CBDCs

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2 years ago

8 minute read

Central Bank of Bahrain governor Khalid Humaidan

From LifeSiteNews

By Tim Hinchliffe

When asked how he would convince people that CBDCs would be a trusted medium of exchange, Bahrain’s central bank governor said that COVID made the digital transformation ‘something of a requirement’ that had ‘very little resistance.’

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) will hopefully replace physical cash and become fully digital, a central banker tells the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Speaking at the WEF Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy Development on Sunday, Central Bank of Bahrain governor Khalid Humaidan told the panel “Open Forum: The Digital Currencies’ Opportunity in the Middle East” that one of the goals of CBDC was to replace cash, at least in Bahrain, and to go “one hundred percent digital.”

Humaidan likened physical cash to being an antiquated “analogue” technology and that CBDC was the digital solution that would hopefully replace cash:

“I thank this panel and this opportunity. It forced me to refine my thoughts and opinions where I’m at a place comfortably now that I’m ready to verbalize what I think about CBDC,” said Humaidan.

If we think cash is the analogue and digital currency is the form of digital – CBDC is the digital form of cash – today, clearly we’re in a hybrid situation; we’re using both.

We know in the past when it comes to cash, central bankers were very much in control with all aspects of cash, and now we’re comfortable to the point where the private sector plays a big role in the printing of the cash, in the distribution of the cash, and with the private sector we use interest rates to manage the supply of cash.

The same thing is likely to happen with CBDC. Yes, the central bank will have a role, but at some point in time – the same way we don’t call it ‘central bank cash’ – we’re probably going to stop calling it central bank digital currency.

“It’s going to be a digital form of the cash, and at some point in time hopefully we will be able to be one hundred percent digital,” he added.

When asked how he would convince people that CBDC would be a trusted medium of exchange, Bahrain’s central bank governor said that people were already used to it and that COVID made the digital transformation “necessary” and “something of a requirement” that had “very little resistance.”

“Right now, many of our payments are digital. The truth is, I said that we’re in a hybrid model; there’s less and less use of cash,” said Humaidan.

I think from predominantly digital with a little physical, I think the transition to fully digital is not going to be a stretch.

People are used to it, people have engaged in it and certain circumstances did help. Its adoption rates increased because of COVID.

“This is where contactless started to become something of a necessity, something of safety, something of a requirement, and because of that there is very little resistance; trust is already there,” he added.

Meanwhile, European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde has been going around the world telling people that the digital euro CBDC would not eliminate cash, and that cash would always be an option.

Speaking at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Summit in March 2023, Lagarde said that a digital currency will never be as anonymous as cash, and for that reason, cash will always be around.

“Is it [digital euro] going to be as private as cash? No,” she said.

A digital currency will never be as anonymous and as protecting of privacy in many respects as cash, which is why cash will always be around.

If people want to use cash in some countries or in some transactions, cash should be available.

“A digital currency is an alternative, is another means of payment and will not provide exactly the same level of privacy and anonymity as cash, but will be pretty close in terms of complete neutrality in relation to the data,” she added.

A WEF Agenda blog post from September, 2017, lists the “gradual obsolescence of paper currency” as being “characteristic of a well-designed CBDC.”

Last year at the WEF’s 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, aka “Summer Davos,” in Tianjing, China, Cornell University professor Eswar Prasad said that “we are at the cusp of physical currency essentially disappearing,” and that programmable CBDCs could take us to either a better or much darker place.

“If you think about the benefits of digital money, there are huge potential gains,” said Prasad, adding, “It’s not just about digital forms of digital currency; you can have programmability – units of central bank currency with expiry dates.

You could have […] a potentially better – or some people might say a darker world – where the government decides that units of central bank money can be used to purchase some things, but not other things that it deems less desirable like say ammunition, or drugs, or pornography, or something of the sort, and that is very powerful in terms of the use of a CBDC, and I think also extremely dangerous to central banks.

The WEF’s Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy Development took place from April 27-29 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“Saudi Arabia’s absolute monarchy restricts almost all political rights and civil liberties,” according to D.C.-based NGO Freedom House.

In the kingdom, “No officials at the national level are elected,” and “the regime relies on pervasive surveillance, the criminalization of dissent, appeals to sectarianism and ethnicity, and public spending supported by oil revenues to maintain power.”

Reprinted with permission from The Sociable.

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Power Struggle: Governments start quietly backing away from EV mandates

Published on December 2, 2025

By

From Resource Works

By Stewart Muir

Barry Penner doesn’t posture – he brings evidence. And lately, the evidence has been catching up fast to what he’s been saying for months.

Penner, chair of the Energy Futures Institute and a former B.C. environment minister and attorney-general, walked me through polling that showed a decisive pattern: declining support for electric-vehicle mandates, rising opposition, and growing intensity among those pushing back.

That was before the political landscape started shifting beneath our feet.

In the weeks since our conversation, the B.C. government has begun retreating from its hardline EV stance, softening requirements and signalling more flexibility. At the same time, Ottawa has opened the door to revising its own rules, acknowledging what the market and motorists have been signalling for some time.

Penner didn’t need insider whispers to see this coming. He had the data.

Barry Penner, Chair of the Energy Futures Institute 

B.C.’s mandate remains the most aggressive in North America: 26 per cent ZEV sales by 2026, 90 per cent by 2030, and 100 per cent by 2035. Yet recent sales paint a different picture. Only 13 per cent of new vehicles sold in June were electric. “Which means 87 per cent weren’t,” Penner notes. “People had the option. And 87 per cent chose a non-electric.”

Meanwhile, Quebec has already adjusted its mandate to give partial credit for hybrids. Polling shows 76 per cent of British Columbians want the same. The trouble? “There’s a long waiting list to get one,” Penner says.

Cost, charging access and range remain the top barriers for consumers. And with rebates shrinking or disappearing altogether, the gap between policy ambition and practical reality is now impossible for governments to ignore.

Penner’s advice is simple, and increasingly unavoidable: “Recognition of reality is in order.”

  • Now watch Barry Penner’s full video interview with Stewart Muir on Power Struggle here:

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Business

New Chevy ad celebrates marriage, raising children

Published on December 2, 2025

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From LifeSiteNews

By Matt Lamb

Chevrolet’s new Christmas ad portrays the ups and downs of family life and the fun of parenting.

Car company Chevrolet launched its Christmas ad campaign with a beautiful commercial that highlights the messiness of raising kids while championing the value of having a family.

The ad, titled “Memory Lane,” shows a middle-aged married couple loading up their decades-old Chevy Suburban with food to head off to a family dinner. At this point, the ad switches between the couple in the present day and grainy, recorder-quality video of family memories.

It begins with a young family, including a baby, loading up into the same car. As the couple begins to drive, the wife and mom is reminiscing. The husband asks her not to “keep all the good stuff” to herself.

From there, the ad reflects on the ups and downs of the family’s life, including memories of mistakenly tying a Christmas tree to the car door and comforting their college-aged daughter about a break-up. As the couple pulls up to a house at the end of their trip, the wife turns to her husband and says: “They never made it easy, did they?”


“Did you want it to be easy?” he replies.

“No, I wanted it to be just like it was,” she says, before they exit the car to meet family, including a grandchild and a new dog that looks like their old dog.

“The greatest journey is the one we take together,” the ad ends.

Commercial accurately portrays that family life isn’t easy, but it is fun

Anyone who has kids knows that it is not always easy raising them, but it is enjoyable. They scream, they cause messes, they wake you up in the middle of the night. And that’s just before they turn five years old. It only gets more enjoyable, and more difficult, as they age (from what I can tell).

Even if you do not have kids, you can probably remember your own life and think about the ways you caused your parents headaches (getting a bad grade in a class or breaking the curfew), but also the ways you brought them joy (graduating from college, joining the military, or getting married).

Another thing that stuck out is that both parents remained married throughout their life and are celebrating Christmas with both of their children.

One of the kids did not avoid Christmas because dad voted for Trump or because mom has strongly held religious beliefs – something that does happen to the glee (and detriment) of leftist writers. The entire family, not just those who perfectly agree with each other, were together for the holidays. In fact, this is one way we honor our father and mother, by getting together over the holidays and at other family gatherings.

As a parent myself, I sometimes wish it would be “easy,” but the truth is the ups and downs are what make it enjoyable.

Thank you to Chevy for reminding me, and other parents, of this lesson.

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Matt lives in northwest Indiana with his wife and son. He has a B.A. in Political Science with minors in Economics and Catholic Studies from Loyola University, Chicago. He has an M.A. in Political Science and a graduate certificate in Intelligence and National Security from the University of Nebraska, Omaha. He has worked for Students for Life of America, Students for Life Action, Turning Point USA and currently is an associate editor for The College Fix.

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