What happens when $11 trillion is quietly shifted into a new digital system—and 80% of Americans don’t even know it’s happening?

This is the question haunting anyone paying attention to the monetary reset already underway. As central banks advance digital currencies and the U.S. dollar loses purchasing power by the day, Chase Hughes argues that when the real collapse hits, Americans won’t just panic—they’ll freeze and obey.

Today’s financial system isn’t just math. It’s manipulation. It’s behavioral control. And as Hughes makes clear, the psychological groundwork for a new monetary regime has already been laid.

The $11 Trillion Move: A Financial Reset Hiding in Plain Sight

In the last 24 months, central banks have shifted over $11 trillion into digital currency testing programs. While the mainstream shrugs, the IMF, BIS, and Federal Reserve are quietly accelerating timelines:

• IMF openly signaling a “new global financial system.”

• FedNow Phase 2 countdown already live.

• CBDCs being tested across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Meanwhile:

• 8 in 10 Americans have no idea this shift is even happening.

• Savings are losing purchasing power faster than at any time since the 1970s.

• The government is positioning itself to control not just money—but behavior.

As Hughes puts it, fiat currency is a “socially agreed hallucination.” When belief breaks, so does the system. And the belief is breaking.

Psychological Control: How a Collapse Forces Compliance

Chase Hughes spent two decades training U.S. Navy intelligence teams on behavior, interrogation, and psychological influence. His warning is chilling:

“A government doesn’t need to punish you if it can influence what you fear losing.”

Money isn’t math. It’s leverage. Debt is engineered obedience. Volatility is manufactured confusion. And confusion is the most powerful method of control:

• Confused people freeze.

• Frozen people comply.

• Compliance becomes habit.

Hughes explains that collapses don’t happen the moment we see them—they happen years earlier. What we call “the collapse” is simply the moment the public finally becomes aware.

Sound familiar?
It should. Because the U.S. dollar’s erosion began long before 2024 or 2023. The rot is already deep.

Americans Are Ignoring Red Flags—Just Like in Failing Relationships

Hughes draws a parallel that hits uncomfortably close:

“People ignore financial red flags for the same reason they ignore red flags in relationships—because comfort always beats reality.”

Which red flags?

• Record credit card debt

• Shrinking real wages

• Exploding government deficits

• De-dollarization accelerating globally

• Savings rate at multi-decade lows

• Dependence on debt to maintain a basic lifestyle

Americans don’t want to believe the dollar is failing because it threatens their identity. When identity is at risk, denial becomes a coping mechanism.

But denial gets expensive. Very expensive.

The Coming Freeze: Why Most Americans Will Obey When Markets Collapse

Chase Hughes reveals a behavior pattern seen repeatedly in crisis simulations:

• When the system shakes, people don’t panic because they lost money.

• They panic because their identity is tied to the stability of that money.

• Threaten identity → freeze response

• Freeze response → compliance

This is why governments use distraction followed by confusion to maintain control.

It worked in 2020.
It worked during major geopolitical shocks.
It will work again during the monetary reset.

The goal:
Make Americans fight sideways—never upward.

Debt as Obedience: How the System Keeps You Dependent

Hughes is blunt:

“You don’t need chains if you have compound interest.”

Debt:

• Controls behavior

• Breeds dependency

• Destroys clarity

• Keeps people too overwhelmed to question the system

Credit card debt is at historic highs. Consumer spending is now survival, not prosperity. And the holiday-buying frenzy? Engineered.

Marketing operates on two psychological triggers:

1. Make you compare yourself to others
2. Make you feel like you’re not enough

In other words:
Break people down → then sell them a temporary identity boost.

This cycle collapses completely when the monetary system resets. The shelves don’t care about your status. They care about whether you prepared.

Collapse Survival: Reduce Dependency, Increase Tangibility

Chase Hughes outlines three survival principles for the transition ahead:

1. Reduce dependency

Stop relying solely on digital systems, financial institutions, or government-defined stability.

2. Increase tangibility

Hold assets that exist outside the system—assets with intrinsic value.

3. Strengthen your identity

People with a firm identity weather crisis.
People with brittle identity obey.

These principles echo the strategies wealthy families have used for centuries: diversify into tangible assets, especially those outside the reach of counterparty risk.

The Ultimate Distraction: Manufactured Division

Hughes argues that divisiveness is being engineered by design:

• Online platforms show the most extreme, fringe voices of the “other side.”

• This convinces both sides the country is full of lunatics.

• Result: Americans fight each other instead of questioning the institutions above them.

“They want you to fight sideways, not up.”

This strategy keeps the public distracted while seismic shifts—like a new monetary system—move forward unnoticed.

Gold & Silver: Tangible Wealth for a System Built on Illusion

If fiat currency is a “socially agreed hallucination,” physical gold and silver are the opposite:

• Tangible assets that require no belief to retain value

• True wealth preservation tools during systemic resets

• Independent of digital control, Fed policy, and government decrees

• Proven inflation hedge across centuries

• The only asset class without counterparty risk

When the $11 trillion moved becomes the final signal of a forced digital monetary system, physical metals remain one of the few assets outside the reach of behavioral manipulation.

Gold and silver don’t panic.
They don’t freeze.
They don’t obey.
They simply preserve.

Conclusion

The monetary reset is no longer theoretical. It’s underway. And while most Americans stay distracted, divided, and deep in debt, Chase Hughes warns that a psychological trap has been set:

• Confusion → Freeze

• Freeze → Compliance

• Compliance → Control

But those who understand the signals—and prepare with tangible, wealth-preserving assets—won’t be on the wrong side of the collapse.

They’ll be on the other side of it.

About ITM Trading

ITM Trading has over 28 years of experience helping clients safeguard their wealth through personalized strategies built on physical gold and silver. Our team of experts delivers research-backed guidance tailored to today’s economic threats.

THINKING ABOUT PURCHASING GOLD & SILVER?

Get expert guidance from our team of analysts with 28+ years of experience.
👉 [SCHEDULE YOUR CALL HERE] or call 866-706-9061