Econ Americas

This is Chapter 8 of Financial Sovereignty for Canadians: Untether Yourself from the Ottawa Leviathan. Central bankers increasingly sense their obsolescence, and rightly so. The more people turn to private currencies and conduct transactions without intermediaries, the less bureaucrats control the economy. In February 2019, a 33-page Bank of Canada “Crypto Money” discussion paper unwittingly admitted the vulnerability.

Bitcoin was designed to decentralize money. Ethereum, by contrast, is a programmable digital infrastructure for assets and financial markets. Ethereum supports stablecoins, ownership, tokens, exchanges, lending protocols, and settlement systems that are shaping a parallel financial ecosystem. While bitcoin is mainly seen now as a store of value, the value of Ethereum comes from the financial activity occurring on its network.

This is Chapter 8 of Financial Sovereignty for Canadians: Untether Yourself from the Ottawa Leviathan. US presidential elections elevate Canadian medical care—colloquially known as Medicare—as a role model of universal coverage. However, the COVID-19 spread has exposed its many shortfalls and triggered a public debate over allowing private alternatives. A chief concern, though not the only one, among reform advocates is waiting times for medical attention and surgery.

In November 2025, bitcoin’s bullish trend reversed, as its price fell to as low as US$81,000. As a result, bitcoin-buying companies sold at least 10,750 bitcoins on a net basis. That is according to Bitcoin Treasuries (BT), a platform that tracks bitcoin holdings by public companies, private entities, and governments. Who was buying amid the downward trend is unclear. In a sample of 100 companies with reliable, measurable data, BT found that two-thirds now sit on unrealized losses.

For decades, retail banking has operated like a walled garden, where money lies inside one institution and switching providers is intentionally onerous. This has allowed banks to charge users even when no action is done: low-balance, overdraft, and monthly maintenance fees. Moreover, in recent years, debanking has become a common concern. It usually targets political actors, controversial causes, or industries with tight compliance scrutiny.

Comedian George Carlin quipped that “you and I are not in the big club.” When it comes to public stock exchanges in the United States, Flash Boys (2014) lifts the veil on how sophisticated insiders skim the cream off the milk. That leaves non-insiders—retail investors and even many professionals—at the bottom of the totem pole paying an opaque premium, a de facto tax on participation.

This is Chapter 7 of Financial Sovereignty for Canadians: Untether Yourself from the Ottawa Leviathan. Advocates for centralized financial regulation have met their match in Canada. She is proof that competition between intranational jurisdictions can foster thriving capital markets.

My colleague Paz Gómez stepped up to the plate in April with three important analyses on how to (1) participate in broader private markets, (2) use crypto anonymously, and (3) interpret jurisdictional rankings for mining. On my end, I have been focused on getting Financial Sovereignty for Canadians converted to audio. As of today, the first eight chapters, along with the preface and introduction, are available on the Econ Americas YouTube channel.

This is Chapter 6 of Financial Sovereignty for Canadians: Untether Yourself from the Ottawa Leviathan. In June 2022, the federal government proposed the Digital Charter Implementation Act to modernize personal data protection and apply new rules for artificial-intelligence deployment. Launched in 2018, the digital charter was supposed to achieve the noble goals of expanded internet access and more trust online.

In March 2026, the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA) released The World Rewired: From Signals to Shifts—The Decade Ahead for Capital Markets. CAIA collected data from over 120 firms across eight financial centers and a survey of its 14,000-member base. The report concludes geopolitics, technology, and organizational capabilities are reshaping how capital is raised, allocated, and managed.