The Great Taking: Consequences of Global Asset Seizure

The text, seemingly an excerpt from a book titled "The Great Taking: Consequences of Global Asset Seizure," warns that the indefinite immobilization of €210 billion in Russian central bank assets by the European Union on December 12, 2025, is not merely a political sanction, but rather a precedent for the systematic expropriation of all pooled securities. The author argues that decades of legal changes have dematerialized ownership into a "pro-rata claim" against central security depositories like Euroclear, making all investors, including nations, unsecured creditors in the event of an intermediary's insolvency. This situation, exacerbated by the Russian lawsuit against Euroclear, threatens a cascading default where "safe harbor" legal provisions would allow secured creditors, such as central banks and clearinghouses, to seize collateral without judicial interference. Ultimately, the text posits that the freeze of Russian assets is a testing ground for a global financial collapse that will engulf pension funds and retail brokerage accounts, prioritizing institutional players over individual ownership rights.