The Age of Financial Repression—Part 2

Jorge Jraissati

For most Americans, losing access to a bank account sounds like a customer-service hassle—not a political problem. But what if your ability to get paid, pay bills, run a business, donate to a cause, or even shop online or just withdraw cash at an ATM can be shut off quietly, without a trial, without an explanation, and without a meaningful way to appeal?

In this two-part episode, Ron Steslow is joined by economist Jorge Jraissati, President of the Economic Inclusion Group, to unpack the growing reality of debanking and the compliance machinery behind it.

In this second episode, they go upstream: who writes the rules—and how do they spread? Ron and Jorge focus on FATF (the Financial Action Task Force), a powerful global standard-setter for AML/CFT that most people have never heard of, despite how much it shapes modern banking. Jorge explains FATF’s enormous “soft power,” how gray/black lists raise the cost of cross-border finance, and why its opacity makes democratic accountability nearly impossible.

They also dig deeper into “de-risking”, the lack of public data, and how AML/CFT allegations can escalate into asset freezes. Finally, they confront the “escape hatch” many people are turning to: permissionless money. Jorge argues Bitcoin has become a lifeline for the unbanked and debanked—while warning that technology can’t substitute for defending due process and reforming the underlying system.