Their banks might be able to set up some national cooperation to transfer funds between accounts for businesses, and banks would still be able to hand out cash to individuals, but no, if the USA says no, the EU loses digital payment processing. And cash isn't going to be a good solution either because digital payment is so very common that there simply isn't enough currency in circulation to cover the population of an entire town withdrawing a 100 euros each to pay for groceries. They might have to limit individuals to withdrawing 20 euros each for months until enough bills can be printed to cover everyone. It would be a huge crisis. Most likely governments would just go into national emergency mode and start handing out food stamps instead.
Greeks had to learn on their own skin what it means to be 100% dependent on your bank for survival, back in 2015 when ATM withdrawals were restricted to 60 euro per day.
some people think these things are impossible and will never happen. they can, they did, and they will.
When Russia had to make the switch we did cover what was involved. One person was convinced that Russia could just tell all the banks to change a bit of code and everything would magically switch over.
In reality it probably took months of preparation, with ensuring that all POS and ABMs were compatible with the new system, and putting together transaction agreements with the transaction provider. Code would have to be rewritten and tested to ensure no severe issues happened when the switch over happened.
russia was to a certain extent prepared. MIR already existed and SFPS was already in place, but the US financial hand is very long, has a lot of leverage, and there are apparently folks who painstakingly close every loophole; even though Switzerland is (or was) in the SFPS system, i am unable to send money to Russia, for instance. i mean, is possible but is complicated and expensive. russia managed to survive but it was not easy, cheap or simple.
simply, as the US mediates each and every transaction worldwide through SWIFT, VISA, MC, clearing houses etc, plus can blackmail basically everyone through various means, it can isolate a country from the rest of the financial world and even single individuals. 100% of western countries are under US blackmail and basically do what the US tells them to do, plain and simple.
now, i am sure that this will backfire and i hope to live long enough to see the demise of the dollar and of the US bullying, monopolies are always bad, especially when they are under the control of madmen.
SWIFT is just a messaging system and it can be easily replaced but the problem is not SWIFT, but that behind more or less every transaction there is an US or US controlled institution.
fun story. a friend of mine works in the cargo railways. they some time ago started to hire female drivers; these could not operate the trains due to lack of physical force; for some time they were given an assistant. then they were moved to do some office work.
reason? because they have quotas of women to hire, else their DEI score drops and they get cut off financing.
This might already be happening as we speak.
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"Looking for self-propelled howitzer driver", poster was put up right when they brought up conscription last year.
Conscription in Latvia was cancelled in 2007 and in 2024 it was brought back for every male who is born after January 1st 2004. Defense minister also stated that he wants to make obligatory draft for women, but that didn't go anywhere yet. The reason for all that has been explicitly stated as "situation being unstable due to Russian invasion", and they're also building random defenses on Russian border, can't attach the video, so
linking it.
They're also using random neighborhoods in the capital, out of all places, for field tests. Shooting during random times of day, marching, that stuff. Some people speculated that it's intentional to make Russian speaking citizens uncomfortable.
I have also seen rumors here and there that some Ukrainian drones allegedly came from Baltic territory, with Baltics acting like proxy. If true, then they have already started poking the big bear.
Latvia will not be able to create any military that can worry the russians.
the problem will start when the US start ammassing there NATO hardware and personnel.
probably some drone attacks have been stages from the baltic states, after all, seems the people in the government there are raving lunatics. but yeah. it doent look good.
