Anybody who didn’t see this coming a decade ago hasn’t been paying attention.

“Payment systems are blocked for him, as US companies like American Express, Visa, and Mastercard have a virtual monopoly in Europe.”

https://www.heise.de/en/news/How-a-French-judge-was-digitally-cut-off-by-the-USA-11087561.html

Heavy-handed sanctions have mostly landed on people who deserve them, which has made them seem okay. But as I’ve been pointing out for years now, without proper rule-of-law, anybody can be crushed at the whim of a couple of people in the U.S. government.

@JohnBrady The cash economy is a nice backup to the credit and debit payments system economy, but I’ve always had a sneaking admiration for the non-money economies: www.wisebread.com/opting-ou…

@philipbrewer @JohnBrady I’ve suddenly noticed added fees for use of credit card cropping up on bills. So I’m currently carrying more cash than I prefer while exploring how low (or non-existent) the fee would be for a debit card.

@JohnBrady Canada did a rather drastic version of this, during the protests by truck drivers during the pandemic.