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A comment on Across the West powerful firms are becoming even more powerful. Parent comment

Re:Across the West powerful firms are becoming even more pow... by wpietri on Friday November 16, 2018 @04:56PM (#18472293)
The US government already has a legitimate way to stop air travel. And the government already has significant persuasive power; if the Secretary of the Treasury asked all the banks to stop electronic transactions for a legitimate reason, I'm sure they'd comply.

So what you're talking about is neither a legal government power or something where people would trust the government and follow along. You're looking for a way for the people in power to seize further power illegally when they think it appropriate. There's no "for good" there; that's just authoritarians undermining the rule of law.

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Re:Across the West powerful firms are becoming even more pow... by JumpCrisscross on Friday November 16, 2018 @09:37PM (#18473589)
> if the Secretary of the Treasury asked all the banks to stop electronic transactions for a legitimate reason, I'm sure they'd comply

“Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed a Bank Holiday...that shut down the banking system” in 1933 [1]. This is an old power pre-dating our current hyper-centralised banking system.

[1] https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/epr/09v15n1/0907silb.htm...

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