The War on Cash with Brett Scott
Upstream
Upstream
4.9 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 15 August 2022
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Is the growing ascendance of digital money simply an organic evolution away from the purported inconveniences of physical cash? Or is this transition actually a nefarious, corporate-engineered, neo-enclosure of money by Big Finance and Big Tech? In his latest book, Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto, and the War for Our Wallets, author, journalist, and financial hacker Brett Scott lays out an extremely compelling case arguing that corporations are engineering an enclosure of money — transforming it into a completely digital form which they alone will control. In this Conversation, we take a deep dive beneath the surface of the global financial system to explore the technical and political differences between various forms of money, why corporations are attacking physical cash and plotting to completely replace it with digital money, who will really benefit from a cashless society, and why the fight for ownership of our digital footprints is one of the most pressing battles of our time.
This episode of Upstream was made possible with support from listeners like you. Upstream is a labor of love — we couldn't keep this project going without the generosity of our listeners and fans. Please consider chipping in a one-time or recurring donation at www.upstreampodcast.org/support
If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship
For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky.
You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Before we get started on this episode, if you can, please go to Apple podcasts and rate, |
| 0:05.0 | subscribe, and leave us a review there. You can also go to Spotify to leave us a review there too. |
| 0:10.2 | It really helps us get in front of more eyes and into more ears. We don't have a marketing |
| 0:15.0 | budget or anything like that for upstream, so we really do rely on listeners like you to help |
| 0:20.2 | grow our audience and spread the word. And also, upstream is a labor of love. It's really important |
| 0:26.7 | for us to keep our bi-weekly conversation series and quarterly documentaries free of charge |
| 0:32.0 | and accessible to anyone who's interested. But it all takes a lot of time and resources. |
| 0:38.4 | If you can, if you're in a place where you can afford to do so and if it's important for you |
| 0:43.6 | to keep this content free and sustainable, please consider going to upstreampodcast.org |
| 0:50.0 | forward slash support to make a one-time or recurring monthly donation. Thank you. |
| 1:03.1 | Oh |
| 1:17.7 | capitalist systems go through phases, essentially, where they're expanding. And at one point in time, |
| 1:24.5 | government cash would have been an agent of expansion of capitalist systems. At one point, |
| 1:31.6 | it would have been a tool of elites to expand markets. You'd have the state issued money and |
| 1:36.6 | so on. They would help to expand market systems. But as, of course, systems develop and expand, |
| 1:44.4 | older forms can sometimes become blockers. So right now, cash actually is something that's |
| 1:52.1 | becoming almost anti-capitalist in the sense that it slows down the expansion of capitalist systems. |
| 1:59.8 | And it actually also offers various forms of protection to people who don't believe in or |
| 2:05.1 | trust the institutions that uphold large-scale corporate capitalist systems. You are listening |
| 2:11.7 | to upstream upstream upstream upstream a podcast of documentaries and conversations that invites |
| 2:19.3 | you to unlearn everything you thought you knew about economics. I'm Robert Raymond and I'm |
| 2:24.7 | Dela Duncan. Is the growing ascendance of digital money simply an organic evolution away from |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Upstream, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Upstream and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.