She's Not Wrong
Italy's New Prime Minister Brings up France's Monetary Colonialism
Italy’s new prime minister, Georgia Meloni, recently delivered a scathing rebuke of France’s president, Emmanuel Macron.
It wasn’t surprising to hear the bombastic Meloni - a right wing populist - criticize the smarmy Macron.
What was surprising, though, was to learn that she knows her stuff when it comes the way that France continues to exploit its former African colonies.
Take a listen to the video below from 1:12 to 1:50.
Here’s a transcript of what Meloni shared (translated from Italian) in the time frame mentioned above:
“Disgusting is France that continues to exploit Africa by printing money to 14 African countries, charging them mint fees and by children labor in the mines and by extracting raw materials, as is happening in Niger where France extracts 30% of the uranium it needs to run its nuclear reactors, while 90% of Niger’s population lives without electricity.”
Now, I have a sneaking suspicion that Meloni isn’t actually concerned with the well being of Niger’s population, but this was the first time I’d ever heard someone at such a high level of power call out how France continues to exploit Africa via its CFA (pronounced “seefa”) franc - or the franc of the Financial Community of Africa - monetary system.
I first learned about the CFA franc system when I read Check Your Financial Privilege: Inside the Global Bitcoin Revolution, by Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer for the Human Rights Foundation.
The CFA franc is the currency of 15 African countries today, all of which were former colonies of France. France still issues the currency for these countries despite the fact that it no longer even issues its own currency. Strange, no?
By issuing the CFA franc, France is able to continue to engage in a form of colonialism that is less overt than the type of used to practice. This modern type of colonialism can best be termed “monetary colonialism.”
What sort of power does monetary colonialism give France?
Well, whenever France needs raw materials from any of these 15 countries, all it has to do is print more CFA francs (AKA debase the currency) and voila, it’s created an automatic discount for itself on raw materials like cocoa, bauxite, timber and uranium.
I urge you to listen to the story of Fodé Diop, who, when he was set to leave Senegal to study abroad on January 12, 1994, woke up to find out that he couldn’t because his family had lost half of the value of its savings when France dropped the peg of the CFA franc to the French franc from 50:1 to 100:1 overnight.
From 1945, when the CFA franc was first introduced, to the late 1990s, before France adopted the euro, the CFA franc lost 99.5% of its value against the French franc.
Most Americans and citizens of countries with relatively stable currencies view Bitcoin through a very myopic, privileged lens, not as an alternative to highly exploitative monetary regimes.
But if the currencies of all other countries on Earth continue to lose strength against the US dollar, then even people in some developed countries might start to view Bitcoin as a lifeline the way Fodé Diop has.
I mean, hell, one of the most famous investors in the history of the game - Stanley Druckenmiller - is now publicly acknowledging that people may be on the verge of losing faith in central banks.
I think the amount of time it will take for broader Bitcoin adoption will be commensurate with the degree of financial and economic desperation people feel.
That being said, I hope it doesn’t come to more and more people feeling more and more financial and economic desperation.
I hope that maybe I’m missing something in my analysis, something that can lift us out of the financial and economic mess we’re in without people having to feel so much pain.
Best,
Frank
Twitter: @frankcorva
