A warning that today's turmoil — from the Hormuz Strait disruption to rising food prices — could be setting up governments to grab more control over money and daily life, bad news for anyone who values financial privacy and freedom.

• The theory: like COVID fear pushed through emergency powers and vaccine passports in weeks, today's supply chain and food price stress could soften people up to accept new controls, including a digital money system.
• The Hormuz Strait disruption is squeezing supply chains and pushing food prices higher, and more grocery payments are shifting digital.
• That financial stress forces central bankers into a tough choice: protect the currency or protect the bond market, since they can't do both.
• The stock market going up may reflect bets that central bankers will choose to weaken the dollar to save the bond market.
• Bailing out bond markets, on this view, gives central planners cover to keep building out more digital financial control.

Outlook: Expect continued pressure on bond markets and the dollar, with the bet being that authorities lean toward propping up bonds even at the cost of a weaker currency.