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The speaker introduces a special report about looming financial danger and explains why the topic matters now. He frames the discussion as urgent preparation for possible economic turmoil and invites viewers to pay attention before the paywall segment begins.
A year ago Christmas, I started um having some concerns about what we were headed towards.And back in January, I published something I had spent the Christmas holiday writing.It's a Torch exclusive special.It's called Capital Controls.It was produced to pre prepare you for the unexpected and chilling moment when Americans wake up and discover their fight family's financial future is no longer in their own hands.Take note.What you're about to see was before the Iran war, before the chaos was unraveling in Europe, the uncertainty of the global markets, the mass layoffs in the tech sector, and the cratering seemingly in China and perhaps here inAmerica of our AI companies.It was also before my urgent warning that I made last week.I think something big is coming for the West.War, but not war in the way you normally see it.And you're beginning to see the outline of these things and what happened over the weekend in Poland.
As of this recording, we are a day out from the 2026 midterm election.And I have no idea if the Democrats will take the house and the Senate, but if a big economic crash is on the horizon like some are now predicting, uh do trust do trust yourself over the parties alignedwith the globalists and the central banks, the digital currency.Are they going to protect your financial freedom and future?This The information that is in this special is too important to keep behind a paywall.I've decided to move it in front of the paywall.Our insiders have had this information for a year.That's what our Torch is really all about, give you information in advance of everyone else so you can be calm and prepared.But I want everyone to have the tools to survive any kind financial trouble that might be on the horizon just like the wealthy and the elites.
They're preparing.Are you?If you find anything in value on what I'm about to show you, please, would you consider joining our mission at glennbeck.com/torch?You are the one that pays for all of these things, but more importantly, you will be ahead of everyone else you know.Join us glennbeck.com/torch.Here's the special.
This section defines capital controls and uses a theater metaphor to show how governments can lock down money movement. It includes examples of how officials may disguise restrictions with patriotic or technical language.
What do capital controls mean?It's the moment the exit doors lock.
When you think of capital controls, it's pretty much exactly like it sounds.Instead of going into the free market and having the market make decisions on things like money and where it's flowing, it means that a government and/or a central bank is making those decisions.
Let me tell you a story.Say you're going to a theater, and not just any theater.This This one's very famous.You've been coming here your whole life.The seats are plush.The lights are always perfect.The shows are the best money can buy.But you go on this night and something feels different.Something feels off.The ushers are acting nervous.The cast keeps glancing from backstage.Maybe you've heard rumors.Just whispers at first.Something is wrong.I don't know.Maybe the building isn't sound.Foundation is cracking.And then suddenly, you hear it.Click.It's quiet, but it is unmistakable.The sound of the exit doors locking.They are the sound of a nation realizing the show is over and locking the doors before too many people try to leave at once.
And that is what capital controls are.Most Americans, when I say capital controls, it will sound like one of those economic phrases that only policy nerds or cable news guests worry about.But it's not.You need to understand it because it's personal.Because it's the moment your freedom to move your own money, protect your own savings, plan your family's future is no longer in your hands.So, let me break this down.
Capital controls are any effort by the government or by large institutions working with the government to manipulate and control how people are able to use their capital, their property, their wealth.My name is Justin Haskins.I am the vice president of the Heartland Institute.
They can be extreme or they can be mild.Uh, they often have unintended consequences.My name is uh, Jim Rickards.I'm the editor of a financial newsletter, Strategic Intelligence.
They're doing that control uh, usually because there's some sort of crisis or unusual event that they want to control.My name is Carol Roth.I am a recovering investment banker, entrepreneur, two-time New York Times best-selling author, and general explainer of economic concepts.
Capital controls are when the government, in a panic, steps in and says, "We don't like where your money is going.You can't send that much overseas.You can't buy that product.You can't buy crypto.You can't invest in that stock.You can't sell that gold without government permission."And they do it and they always call it
"temporary."
And they will always say it's for national security.But this is what it really means.You waited too long to leave.
The amazing thing about capital controls is how open many of the largest institutions and and government policy makers are about their desire to want to control how people use their own wealth.
Now, you're not going to hear it on the news that way.No anchor is going to look in the camera and say, "Ladies and gentlemen, the United States has lost control of its currency and we are locking capital down like a failing regime."It's not going to happen.Instead, they will tell you in different ways and this is why I wanted to do this tutorial.You need to hear it now so you recognize it the minute it happens if it does.
Politicians, they won't necessarily come out and say this is a capital control.They'll come up with some clever spin as to what it is that they are doing.
You'll hear things like this.The Treasury today implemented new safeguards on large-scale international transfers.
Oh, we're restricting investments in the US from China because of a national security reason.
The president has authorized emergency powers to prevent foreign manipulation of strategic American assets.Each one of those things sounds responsible, even patriotic, but really no big deal.But each one of those is the sound of the door locking behind you.
The speaker gives real-world examples of capital controls, including digital currencies, taxes, and restrictions on foreign investment. He explains why these measures often appear during crises and urges viewers to prepare before they are forced into emergency decisions.
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If you want to invest in a certain country and the US says you're not allowed to, that's a capital control.If you've already invested in a country and that country will say, "Sorry, we're not stealing your property, but you can't get it back.We're not allowing you to withdraw your investment and take it back to your home country."That's another kind of capital control.
You see this in a variety of ways.One of those ways, of course, is with central bank digital currencies, a programmable digital dollar.
Digital euro is going to have a limited amount of control.
They will be controlled, you're right.You're completely right.
We are considering whether for very small amounts, you know, anything that is around 300, 400 euros, we could have a mechanism where there is zero control.
But that could be dangerous.
Discussions at the Fed about ways to put rules and restrictions on banking.
We need to find our regulations which are in in a force all the time.We're actually working on proposals now on the regulatory side.You know, we want to get this right.
We see it in China where they don't let past a certain amount of investment leave the country.
One of them is a withholding tax.Okay, US citizen, you can invest in German government bonds, let's say.Both countries will allow it, but Germany will impose a 10% withholding tax on your interest payments.And one of the most famous cases of where these things went really badly wrong was all the way back in 1963 in the Kennedy administration, the US was worried about its balance of payments.They were afraid that Americans were investing too much in Europe.So, the United States imposed what was called the IET.And what this said was, if you're an investor and you invest in foreign bonds, we're going to put a tax on that.About a 15% tax on the amount of your investment in these foreign bonds.Well, that actually did reduce the US balance of payments, so it seemed to have the intended effect.But there was a huge unintended effect, which is a lot of US investors said, "Wait a second, I've already invested overseas or I've got a company overseas and it's making interest and dividends.
I'm not going to bring that money back to the United States because if I want to reinvest, they're going to tax me.I'm going to keep the money offshore and so I'll just let it accumulate offshore, not bring it back and not give the US a chance to tax any new investments."Here's something designed to keep US investors from moving the money offshore, but actually had the opposite effect, which is the money that was offshore stayed offshore.
There's parts of the federal code right now that very clearly give the government power to control how people are able to buy and sell investments, how they're able to participate in the banking industry.It's all there for people to see if they just are willing to look
under the hood and see for themselves.
You want to know when it's coming?Well, I don't know.I'm going to give you some facts on a chalkboard here in a second, some odds.But you just really have to watch for the signs in the headlines.Now, maybe they're going to be tucked under the fold, maybe they'll be sandwiched between stories about celebrity feuds and stock market noise, but here's the part that no one will tell you.Capital controls are not imposed when the system is breaking.They're imposed when those in charge realize we've already lost control.
In virtually every society, uh we can find examples of the government or major institutions coming in and placing controls on people's ability to uh use their own wealth, use their own property in the midst of a crisis.Of course, the most obvious example here in the United States was during COVID-19.There are plenty of other examples internationally, as well.We have examples of government institutions stepping in and controlling people's wealth.You know, you you can go back to the Nazis.You can go back to Mussolini and the fascistic movements.Of course, you have the Soviet Union.In modern times, we have the Communist Party of China, where virtually everything that people do is being surveilled and controlled through the use of central bank digital currencies and a vast surveillance state.
These are the kinds of things you normally see in countries that are dealing with more crises.In our history, certainly we saw this during World War II.Yeah, we saw food rationing, we saw yield curve control.We also had some capital controls on foreign transactions going both ways during the '60s, right before the '70s of us going off the gold standard.
It's like watching a dam crack.First, a drip, then a trickle, then they start stacking sandbags, and then one day the sirens go off, and you realize the evacuation route is flooded.There's no way out.
When we think about where we stand today with unsustainable debt levels, with interest that exceeds our our defense spending, and we also are worried about things like decoupling from China from a a national security standpoint because we don'twant to be dependent on them to produce weapons to our country.So, you know, it happens when there are these times of reset or crisis.
One of the scariest things about capital controls is that most people will have no idea that they're coming until they're actually issued.And usually this is going to occur in an emergency.You're going to have some sort of a financial crisis or maybe there's an environmental crisis or something that goes on that triggers a capital control event.And when that happens, regular everyday people who are living their lives and they think that the money that's in the bank is their money and they think that the securities investments that they have in the stock market aretheir investments are going to wake up and realize they actually don't have control of these things.That the government can basically at any time come in and force people to behave in a certain way, restrict what people are able to spend their money on, restrict whether you can buy and sell investments.
People do not have the power that they think they have when it comes to property.It's it's an illusion that people have.
You cannot wait for the government to tell you there's a problem.You must prepare while the lights are still on.I want to make it really, really clear.These tutorials are just to prepare you for eventualities.So, I'm not saying that this is going to happen tomorrow.I I pray it won't happen.But if things continue to trend the way they are, government just ballooning our debt and spending out of control, the weaponization of the dollar, the rise of alternatives like BRICS, gold, Bitcoin, that's when capital controls move from theunthinkable to the inevitable.The moment the world stops believing that we'll pay what we owe or that our dollar is worth what we say it is,
they stop lending.And when lenders stop the only way to keep the illusion alive is to trap the money the capital still inside of the house.So here's my warning to you.If you're hearing about foreign dumping of treasuries or dollar repatriation measures, you're seeing the White House talk about coordinated global monetary security or if you suddenly just can't wire money with without three weeks of paperwork and a securea security review, you're not early anymore.You're now in the seat in the theater and the curtain is falling and the doors have just locked.Do not wait for the click.This is so apropos that they are a sponsor of this special.It's Jace.Once just about every small town in America had a doctor, had a pharmacy that compound its own drugs, a hospital somewhere nearby and if you got sick, you knew where to go.
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This chapter lays out estimated risks for capital controls over one, three, and five years. It connects those probabilities to debt, de-dollarization, geopolitical conflict, and possible black swan events, then warns that foreign demand for U.S. debt is a key signal to watch.
So, let me take you over to the chalkboard to see how likely this is to happen and what are the signs we should look for.
I want to look at the possibilities over 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years.We've run this all through Glenn AI, Grok, and Chat GPT.We've also run it by experts and everybody is kind of in the same place.It was really spooky how close everything was.And we factored in geopolitical risk, economic fragility, global de-dollarization efforts, and political pressure.These are educated estimates.They're not certainties in any way, shape, or form and they are reliant on two things.Either they're staying exactly the same, so we're not making progress on anything.The The Trump economy doesn't kick in or we have a black swan event.
So, what is a black swan event?It's a massive, unpredictable event.Think September 11th or COVID-19.
If we have a black swan event, terrorist attack, a full-scale war, sovereign default, a civil war, that changes everything.So, let's look at the 1-year horizon and 2026, the end of 2026.Let me give you the global context.US political tension is still heating up.We have people on the streets, but we're not in a civil war, we're just more of the same.China, Russia, Iran, they're increasingly aligned, but everything is stable.
BRICS.You don't know what BRICS means?It started with Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.And it wants to reduce the power of the US dollar.
BRICS.It continues the dollar alternatives.We see things that are coming on the horizon.The gold back money, CBDC.
That means Central Bank Digital Currency.
Trade rails.
And that means invisible highways between payers and payees.The same kind that move money after a credit card swipe.
And domestic unrest is escalating.That's what we're looking at.Nothing shocking here in the next year.The risk was shocking to me.Load of moderate 10 to 15%.That is crazy.Now, let's say in the in the next year, there's a major crisis, a dollar crash, cyber attack, war with China, Iran.That would require emergency executive powers.And the most likely form in this window, narrow restrictions on China-linked capital or crypto flows, framed all as national security.
Okay.
Three years.35 to 45%.Here's the global context.Trump is now year plus into fixing what has been damaged.US debt is 43 to 45 trillion dollars.I mean, that's crazy.Interest payments continue to exceed defense and Medicare just on the interest on that debt.
In case you didn't realize, the US government has to pay interest on its debt, just like you do with your credit card.
BRICS is now starting to expand into trade with the yuan, the rupee's digital alternatives getting away from the dollar.
BRICS countries are moving forward with BRICS Pay, a new digital payment system that reduces reliance on the US dollar.
We could be facing a possible recession, rising inflation, and then we get to capital controls.35 to 45% is the risk.If the trade of war and tensions with China escalate, or if the dollar weakens significantly, capital controls become politically necessary at that time and they're going to be positioned as temporary emergency measures.And they'll be targeted at the bad actors, uh the China CCP, Iran, Russia, whatever it is.And it's going to be sold to the public as protection of American jobs, currency, and security.The possible triggers for this, a US debt crisis or failed Treasury auctions one after another or rapid foreign exit from US equities or bonds.
A major cyber attack on banks or markets, US military action abroad, retaliatory financial war that starts to lead us into real real trouble.But here's real trouble, just staying the course, the 5-year horizon.This is 29 to 30.The global context, end of the decades, we're at a crossroads.AI disruption is everywhere.People are losing their jobs being replaced.There is the risk of war getting worse and worse, aging population, and declining trust in all of our banks and central banks.And then there is the emergence of the BRICS bank settlement system.More nations are now abandoning the dollar in trade because they see how weak we are becoming.
BRICS countries are developing a gold-based settlement system to enhance financial independence away from the US dollar.
Growing US political polarization, uh potential currency instability, and the capital controls risk, that point are 55 to 70%.If the current trends hold, they don't have to.They could get better or they could get worse depending on every decision we make.But if they hold, we will face one or more of the following, loss of reserve status or a credible challenge to it.
That means the US dollar would no longer be the world's primary currency, which would cause a weakened dollar and higher inflation.
That changes your life.Um the dollar is devalued to manage the debt load, $45 trillion.We don't have any money to spend on anything.Rising inflation because we're most likely printing money to cover some of that debt.Or and stagflation.
Stagflation is the worst of the worst.
It means a stagnant economy, high inflation and high unemployment all at the same time.
At that point, capital controls are one of the few levers left short of austerity or collapse.And the possible forms by this time, restrictions on Americans moving wealth into foreign currency, cryptos or metals, tight limits on anything outbound on an investment by pensions and institutions, real estate transfer restrictions near key infrastructure, and wealth taxestied to patriotic contribution rhetoric.So, a quick summary here.The likelihood of capital controls, year one, 10 to 15%.In 3 years, 35 to 45%.In 5 years, 55 to 70%.Again, we ran these through several AI models and we could not believe how consistent all of it was.Now, all of this could be upended at any minute due to one of two things.In a good way, we start changing our behavior.Um the AI um industry and and all the things that Trump has been working on suddenly really start to kick in and we are the the capital of innovation and freedom and AI in the world.
That could change all of this.On the other hand, a black swan event.War.Death.Let me reiterate one final thought.Capital controls are not imposed when things are going badly.They are imposed when people in power realize they're losing control.And the key signal to watch for, always, foreign demand for US debt.
That means other countries or foreign banks want to buy US Treasury bonds because they see the dollar as stable and reliable.
If that starts to falter consistently, capital controls won't just be possible, they will be inevitable.
Don't be part of the masses trapped inside the theater.
The final section shifts from warning to preparation, describing how wealthy people protect themselves before crises hit. It recommends diversification, hard assets, land, legal structures, and watching actions rather than public statements, ending with the idea that history is repeating itself.
There's always another way out.
So, how do we prepare?
Where to go when the doors lock?I learned a lot from my grandfather.He lived through the Great Depression, and he once told me something that I still remember.Sitting in the room, it kind of gave me chills at the time.He was talking about the Great Depression, and he said, "If we'd just known what the wealthy knew, just a few months earlier, we would have made it.We would have been okay."That line has always struck me and stayed with me because the truth is, the wealthy do not wait for permission.They don't ask for warnings.They see things on the horizon that you might miss, and they act early, quietly.And then they leave the rest of us to stand in line when the music stops.So, what is it that they know that you don't?Well, capital controls.In the first part of this story, we talk about capital controls.
What it looks like when the government starts locking the financial exit doors.But, to be honest, for most people, the phrase capital controls, it doesn't mean anything to them.So, let me give you this to you straight.When it happens, you will not be told you're not free.You'll just suddenly find out that you're you're no longer allowed to do what you used to do with your money.And while the government is busy calling it temporary, the wealthy are already gone.So, what is it that they know?What is it that they do?What is it that they see that tells them it's time to move?Let me show you some of the sign post, the quiet indicators that you can look for, the ones the rich are reading right now, and how you can use the same road map.When the wealthy stop trusting paper, they buy irreplaceable things.
And you can see this if you've been watching what's happening.A 1962 Ferrari sold recently for $52 million.A rare A rare Picasso broke all kinds of auction records.A $2 million bottle of whiskey?Gold?At unheard of highs?Bitcoin rallies while stocks wobble.It's not just the rich people.They're not just showing off.What they're doing is they're buying that $2 million whiskey or that painting or that car because that's capital flight, but it's the discreet version of the first turn of it.They're turning fiat money dollars, paper that they know will lose value, into something no government can print.
One way to insulate your portfolio is with hard assets.Now, that can be gold, it can be silver, it can be fine art, um land, obviously, water, uh and even in the stock market, companies that are deep in natural resources, oil and natural gas.If you have those, you're going to be insulated from capital controls.
You don't need a Picasso.Okay?But if they're buying art and vintage cars and coins and land and physical gold.Ask yourself why.Why are they doing that?Because they're not investing, they're escaping.They are creating options before the rest of us even see the need.They set up second residences.They open foreign bank accounts in Switzerland or Singapore.Not because they want to leave America, but because they understand this.Once the system locks up, it's not a straight road downhill.It's a cliff.And they've got to get over that bridge before they close the bridge.They're building those bridges now and crossing them now.And you can do the same in your own way.Diversify.Don't keep everything in one bank.
People shouldn't have all of their wealth in one place.Too many people put the vast majority of of the wealth that they have in retirement accounts, or they put it all into their homes, or they put it all in the bank.But these are not as secure as people think.You want to diversify where you hold your wealth as much as possible.
Store some cash and some metal outside of the system.
In terms of capital controls if they go into place, the kinds of hedges here in the US, I am looking at things like precious metals that you physically custody, have a little bit of cash in US dollars, maybeeven some foreign currencies, gun, ammo, medicines, all those things that you need to get through a crisis.
It's really important that you own your essentials.Water, heat, land, most importantly, skills.And even the small steps matter.Before the Dust Bowl wiped out families in the 1930s, guess who had already bought up all kinds of farmland?Those who understood that food, water, and space never go out of style.Today, ranch land in Texas, off-the-grid properties in Idaho, even small garden-ready plots in Tennessee.They are being snapped up by people who don't trust the city to save them the next time.So, if you're thinking about a move, do not think in terms of escape.
Think in terms of resilience.Land gives you control.Food, firewood, neighbors you know, and a place no algorithm can deplatform.They'll move wealth into structures that live beyond the crisis.Trusts, LLCs, holding companies, family foundations.These sound complicated, and they are.But, at the heart of it, this is what the rich is doing.What I've built, I don't want to vanish because a bureaucrat decided I can't have access to it anymore.Now,
you might not need $10,000 to trust set up, but you can learn from the principle.Keep some wealth in forms outside of the default system.Know where your titles and your deeds are.Own assets in your name, not just digits on a screen.Don't make your IRA or 401K your only lifeboat.Those can be taxed, delayed, or frozen.The final thought here on this is, watch their moves, not their words.The rich will tell you everything is fine.The people in Washington, everything is fine.But, then they go and do something totally different.They buy more gold than at any time in 50 years.They start pulling money out of US bonds and treasuries.They buy $30 estates in the hills of Tennessee.They quietly move some wealth to Dubai or the Caymans.They're not fleeing America.They're hedging against what America is becoming.And here's the truth you will never hear in mainstream media.
By the time capital controls are announced, it will be too late.The wealthy do not wait for the government to say, "Now's the time to worry."They read the signals, and they're already worried.They move while the doors are still open, and they make sure that when that click comes, they're already out of the theater.You know, they say history doesn't repeat itself, it rhymes.And the chorus is coming again.