The DTCC and the End of Real Ownership

Forthcoming: The Last Asset Standing™ (January 2026)

“This article is an opinion-based commentary intended to inform and invite dialogue. It reflects personal views based on decades of experience in finance, sovereignty, and public policy research.”

At critical moments in history, it has never taken the majority to defend freedom. This article explores why our era demands the return of the “3%”, those who refuse to comply blindly, who will protect the last real assets, and who will stand unshaken when the system collapses.

At the beginning of the American Revolution, only 3% of British settlers supported the idea of a sovereign United States. Just 3%. The rest either resisted or remained silent. Yet from that determined minority, the greatest human experiment in liberty and individual sovereignty was born. They gifted the world something few today even understand. The freedom to Think. The freedom to Speak. The freedom of Assembly. The freedom to Associate. To stand apart from the herd. That gift is being quickly forgotten.

And I am here to remind you of these Freedoms!

For the last several years, my LinkedIn profile has hovered at 39,000 followers. My LinkedIn newsletter never crosses 9,903 subscribers. The numbers do not move. The insights do not spread. This is not about lack of interest. This is the quiet hand of algorithmic suppression. The system does not fear misinformation. It fears inconvenient truths. And I am no longer surprised when the digital gatekeepers decide that my voice should not be heard.

In It Starts With Gold™, the international bestseller I co-wrote with Adrian C. Spitters, CFP®, we warned readers that the fiat financial system is crumbling. We called individuals to rematerialize their lives with real assets, real relationships, and real sovereignty. We introduced the term Sleoples. They are not asleep by accident. They choose it.

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There are two types. The Useful Idiot is the individual who parrots what they are told, believing compliance makes them informed. The Useful Tool knows the truth but plays along for a paycheck, applause, or access.

In 2022, I wrote in The Cost of Seeing Too Clearly, published on PeterMerrick.com and shared on this very newsletter:

“The hardest part of awakening is not what you see. It is realizing how long you defended what enslaved you. And worse, how few are ready to leave the prison.”

We now live inside what Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned us about. I recently reread the translated essay After Ten Years, which he wrote in 1942 from his prison cell. Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who stood against the Nazi regime. He was executed in April 1945, just weeks before Germany surrendered. What he observed then applies now more than ever.

He wrote:

“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice.”

He was not speaking of ignorance. He meant the deliberate surrender of thinking. Bonhoeffer saw individuals willingly trade their minds for group slogans. We watched it happen during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Neighbors, friends, family and even loved ones became enforcers. Cowards became heroes. Real experts were erased. The compliant were promoted. The machine did not malfunction. It operated perfectly.

In The Echo Chamber and the Empty Throne (2021), I wrote:

“The most dangerous silence is not imposed. It is invited. And once you accept it, you will find your tongue no longer remembers the taste of truth.”

I have stopped trying to convince the masses. I write for the Outliers. The individual who still thinks. Who still knows something is wrong. Who still dares to feel discomfort. Because that discomfort is not weakness. It is the signal that your mind is still alive.

I speak to men who are tired of the pretense. Men who still value strength over approval. I speak to women who sense when a man is unshaken in purpose. Who feel safety not in slogans but in the presence of one who does not bend. The truth does not need to shout. It simply refuses to kneel.

Like the child in The Emperor’s New Clothes, I will say what no one else will. The emperor is naked. And the crowd is pretending because it is safer to lie together than to think alone.

And yet, I still march on.

That is why Adrian and I are finishing the sequel to It Starts With Gold™. It is called The Last Asset Standing™, and it is scheduled for release in January 2026. This book reveals what remains when the last illusions fall. When your accounts are frozen. When your digital ID controls your access to life. When you discover that everything you thought you owned was nothing more than a conditional permission slip.

The Last Asset Standing™ is not just about gold. It is about land, food, skill, relationships, community, sovereignty. It is about what cannot be tokenized, tracked, or seized. And it is about what you must protect now before it is too late.

In Letter to a Younger Me, another blog I published and shared here on my newsletter, I wrote:

“You will walk alone before you ever lead others. But when the time comes, those who are lost will look for someone who never lost himself.”

That time is coming. You can feel it. This is your wake-up call!

Start asking the questions that make others uncomfortable. Begin the conversations that spark change. Share this message. Talk to your neighbors. Challenge the script. Refuse to play your assigned role.

Because this moment is not about mass awakening. It is about finding the 3% again. Those who refuse to sleep. Those who still carry the weight of freedom with pride. The ones who will not look away.

If you are reading this, and you feel something stirring inside… that is no accident.

It is time. I will continue writing for those who still think. For those who still lead. For those who will build what comes next. And if you understand what I am saying, you are not alone.

You are part of the 3%… Will you join me in shouting out loud that the Emperor Has No Clothes?

Peter J. Merrick… I will not be silenced!

The time to prepare is before the collapse, not after.

This is bigger than finance. It is a redefinition of property, privacy, and freedom. And once the new systems are fully entrenched, reversing them will be nearly impossible.

Draw your line now. Soon, you may not get the chance.

At our firm, we help clients protect their wealth by Owning Assets in Order of Asset Security, prioritizing what is most secure and safeguarding what is most vulnerable. Book a complimentary review to learn how to structure your wealth for what is coming.

👉 Book Your Complimentary Review Here

We expand on these urgent themes in our #1 international bestselling book, It Starts With Gold™, co-authored by Peter J. Merrick, TEP® and Adrian C. Spitters, CFP®. Visit www.ItStartsWithGold.com

In the book, we reveal how to navigate asset confiscation risks, resist surveillance finance, and rebuild wealth outside the programmable system.

Order your copy of It Starts With Gold™ on Amazon today.

1. The American Revolution: A History – Gordon S. Wood – Historical context on levels of colonial support during the American Revolution.
2. UNESCO – Disinfodemic & Digital Gatekeeping – Analysis of algorithmic suppression and the risks of digital censorship.
3. Dietrich Bonhoeffer – “After Ten Years” (DBWE Online) – Original translated essay from Letters and Papers from Prison.
4. Canadian Institute for Health Information – COVID-19 Response Review – Overview of compliance and enforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
5. Bank for International Settlements – CBDCs: Opportunities and Challenges – Examination of programmable central bank digital currencies.
6. Cato Institute – Policing for Profit – Report on asset forfeiture and property rights risks.
7. It Starts With Gold™ – Official Website – Information on the international bestselling book co-authored by Peter J. Merrick and Adrian C. Spitters.