Typo of course. I meant to say, "When they start." However, it could be a single entity. At some point down the line governments will not like the fact that the power is in the hands of the people. If banks have no control over how money is spent and the governments are no longer able to control the banks, or vice versa, something will happen to change that. Putting a mark to buy or sell on people seems like a plausible solution doesn't it? Even if you don't agree with what the Bible says it should at least raise some eyebrows. It seems very profound to me that when John was given the book of Revelation something like this was even foreseen so long ago.
I don't find this profound. People managing animal herds have marked individuals to help with various kinds of tracking and make rational decisions about how to cull the herd and so forth. Slavery was common in John's time and slaves were often marked. I think it a fair statement that many people in the higher positions of authority see 'the masses' as being more akin to livestock to be managed (and often enough, exploited) than to 'peers' in a traditional sense. Having them 'marked' makes sense to anyone who has been involved with or considered the mechanics of herd management. One of the authors of the bible was careful to stipulate 'free-men and bonds-men' as I recall (not a bible scholar) which I though was notable.
Every individual born (except identical twins) comes with their own high quality markers built in in the form of DNA and the various manifestations of it (e.g., fingerprints, retina patterns, facial features, etc.) A more convenient interface (a mark or chip) would be nice but not necessary. One of the Manning documents referenced a directive for state department officials to obtain genetic material samples from foreigners with positions in their respective governments. That was something like a decade ago. That there were robust efforts to develop a worldwide database of DNA samples at that time is pretty interesting. Interesting mostly that the effort and technology existed, but secondarily interesting since obtaining biometric evidence is typically something that intelligence personal would be charged with and it is risky for non-intelligence personal to engage in such activity. So, it must have been considered a very high value operation.