But who benefits from the War on Cash?
By Don Quijones, Spain & Mexico, editor at WOLF STREET.
In the wake of the attack on the Christmas market in Berlin in December, the European Commission granted customs and police authorities sweeping new powers to seize cash or precious metals carried by “suspect individuals” entering the EU. People carrying more than €10,000 euros in cash already have to declare this at customs when entering the EU. The new rules would allow authorities to seize money (or precious metals or bitcoin) below that threshold “where there are suspicions of criminal activity.”
It was the latest step in the War on Cash. The powers that want to kill off cash include private and central banks, fintech firms, Silicon Valley magnates like Tim Cook and Bill Gates, telecom behemoths, credit card giants, assorted NGOs, a bewildering alphabet soup of UN agencies and many national governments. They all have their own disparate motives for taking out physical money.
They already have vital technological and generational trends firmly on their side, as well as the the added bonus of widespread public ignorance, apathy, and disinterest. As such, cash’s days as a commonly used payment method may well be numbered anyway. But it could take decades for it to die a natural death, if indeed it does. Cash’s enemies would much rather accelerate its demise.
In Europe authorities continue to escalate their War on Cash by passing increasingly draconian laws that make it harder and harder for people — law-abiding or not — to hold or transact with physical currency. Early last year the European Central Bank announced its decision to end the production and issuance of the €500 note from 2018. Allegedly the currency of choice for organized crime outfits around the world, the so-called “Bin Laden bill” accounts for close to a third of the total amount of cash in existence in the Eurozone.
In Greece, the government has taken a somewhat different tack, by fiscally punishing those who use cash for all their daily transactions and rewarding those who don’t. To qualify for tax credits each citizen must spend a certain fraction of his or her earned income using electronic money. For incomes of less than €10,000 the minimum threshold is 10%, though expenditure on utilities, rent, phone bills or loan repayment do not count. The limit rises to 15% for incomes of between €10,000 and €30,000 and reach as high as 20% for incomes of over €30,000. These kinds of (dis)incentive schemes are going to become an increasingly common tactic in the War on Cash.
The Greek government also dropped the maximum cap for cash transactions by two-thirds, from €1,500 to €500. In simple terms, any legal purchase of a good or service over €500 will need to be done with plastic or mobile money. It’s the lowest cap on cash in the Western hemisphere.
But Spain is not far behind. During the Christmas period, its government also quietly reduced the maximum limit on cash transactions from €2,500 to €1,000, which brings Spain in line with its northern neighbor, France, which was one of the first countries to introduce a €1,000 cap on cash transactions. At the time, it was a statistical outlier but could soon become the norm.
Spain has also become home to a rather curious open-air experiment in cashless economics. The northern region of Cantabria is in the process of launching a pilot scheme across numerous localities aimed at simulating a cashless society. In the localities chosen to take part in the scheme, the use of cash will not be completely banned but it will be strongly discouraged.
The scheme is being led by the region’s somewhat Orwellian-sounding Modernization Forum and is inspired by the pioneering efforts of the governments of Sweden and Denmark to erode the role of physical currency in payment transactions. In an interview with Spain’s Cadena Ser, Emilio Ontiveros, the director of the Monetization Forum (and president of Analistas Financieros Internacionales, a major financial consultancy group, and former director of bankrupt savings bank Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo), explained why he thought cash urgently needs replacing:
- Cash is dirty, both literally and figuratively.
- Cash is expensive to print and administer.
- Cash is for criminals and tax evaders. A purely digital payment system would allow for much greater transparency, making it much easier to trace and tax funds.
An added bonus of the scheme is that it would force older generations to take a crash course in digital literacy, whether they want to or not, said Cantabria’s regional president, Miguel Ángel Revilla. Either they get with the program or they jump through hoops just trying to buy their weekly groceries. Ontiveros also mentioned, without elaborating, that cash can place unwelcome limits on the monetary policy of central banks — an oblique reference to the ECB’s beloved NIRP.
This is the key. The only way that central banks can effectively maintain negative interest rates is by abolishing cash altogether. As long as cash exists, depositors will be engaging in the logical counter measure: taking their money out of the bank and parking it where the erosive effects of NIRP can’t reach it. Therefore, central banks and governments see cash as an impediment to their power; and the tech and finance industries, which take a cut at every transaction, see cash as an impediment to their profits. And that’s what will continue to fuel Europe’s escalating War on Cash. By Don Quijones, Raging Bull-Shit.
The banking crisis in Italy and the bailout now underway conform to a well-established script. Read… Who Exactly Benefits from Italy’s Ballooning Bank Bailout?
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Aloha..let’s see here..an Official from a Bankrupt Bank lecturing and trying to Educate Europeans on a ‘Cash-less Society’…..? lololol Two things can Always be ascribed to Cash…1) Its’ Always King 2) Inherently Provides immense Freedom and Mobility in Any and All Affairs….absent Government “Snoopery” of course…lolol Debt is a very Powerful Abstract Controlling Force,little wonder the word evolved from the French word for DEATH….Aloha friends and thanks for reading….Happy New year
“2) Inherently Provides immense Freedom and Mobility”
And there it is. It’s what every phony ‘democracy’ on the planet wants: less freedom, more control. Lots more control.
“Debt is a very Powerful Abstract Controlling Force”
Get rid of cash, all that’s left is credit. Which is to say, debt, all in electronic form, and therefore amenable to fine-grained control. TPTB will always know where your money is coming from, where it’s going, and can therefore more easily devise strategies to separate it from you and take it for themselves.
Banksters have increasingly ruled the world for two hundred years, and eventually they will enslave it.
Aloha Walter…Banks as Rulers….have Enslaved most of it Already….Correct? lolol The Final Chapter is just around the Electronic-Financially Computer Driven Corner,True.
They will only enslave us IF we let them. The War on Cash is a bogus war as most of us already know. This morning I read the best article yet explain it all in excellent detail.
Nicole Foss: Negative interest rates and the war on cash.
http://energyskeptic.com/2017/nicole-foss-negative-interest-rates-and-the-war-on-cash/
Unfortunately, large parts of the population are incapable of thinking past their noses. Still arguing for more of the same.
Good grief! Where did you get such nonsense? The French word for death is “morte”. “Debt” comes from Latin “debitus” meaning “what is owed” from the verb “debere” “to owe”
He got confused with mortgage (death Pledge)…probably…
The only advantage of digital money is it is theoretically harder to steal but that advantage is vanishing. Digimoney is completely reliant on computers which are easy to hack, easier to shut down.
Bankers assume the digital present will march into the blissful future unbroken. The dominance of computers is more likely coming to an end rather than to a beginning. This is also likely for ‘AI’, self-driving cars, ‘virtual reality’ and other bits of digital detritus. All depend on grid electricity derived from burning coal running through wires loosely dangling from wooden poles along the sides of roadways.
Then again, shutting down the stream of digital funds can be a feature instead of a defect. Sadly for the system managers, they bleed and feel pain so they can be put to death slowly one at a time until the survivors ‘figure out’ how to turn the system back on and allow users access to their funds.
Americans will put up with just about anything: early closing times, traffic jams, absence of parking, lead-contaminated drinking water, choking smog, violent death at the hands of the police, safety rule violations, loss of loved ones … if you steal their money from their bank accounts the revolution is on like Donkey Kong.
The rise of digital money has occurred because the average user is technologically ignorant and the average techie is either law abiding or lazy. But all this can and will change in a New York minute. The bankers expect digital money to give them control, but its more likely they will get chaos.
If the present is a predictor, where they are too lazy or more scary too ignorant to follow a data packet around a network, I can’t wait for digital money.
Steve..they will NOT take Money from accounts,that’s Were They want it ALL to BE…thereby making Financial and Personal Control far EASIER…. They only want to Kill the ‘Cash-Cow’ lolol aloha and thanks for reading
Petunia…..What will you Do….when ALL Access to Any of Your MONEY and Accounts..is Simply Blocked by the Stroke of an ‘Orwellian’ Computer Key….?
I can still hack a stack in real time.
Digital money is safe?
Ha, ha, ha, ha. It will be automatically taxed, and taken. Look at India.
Digital is even easier to steal or confiscate. There will be no privacy. It will be watched even more closely than Facebook is.
Really, people, money can’t be wealth. It’s too transitory. Fiat or digital, currency is just trading ciphers. We all have to walk away from their definition of wealth and create our own.
@ASDf below, great point. None of the solvent countries are talking digital money.
“The only advantage of digital money is it is theoretically harder to steal”
If you are FORCED to keep your money in a bank, you could wake up one morning and listen to your leader tell you why he had to take it over night. Money gone. In Hungary they woke up one morning to listen to there leader that he had just taken ALL private pension schemes…. thank you very much. This will happen more frequently and 401k’s will be targeted. If you can get your money out of your pension in a lump sum, do it. Pension funds are collapsing all round the world.
Jerry are you the same “Jerry” who posts on USAWatchdog regularly?
I am neither of the above “Jerry’s”. Jerry Bear
Steve..they will NOT take Money from accounts,that’s Were They want it ALL to BE…thereby making Financial and Personal Control far EASIER…. They only want to Kill the ‘Cash-Cow’ lolol aloha and thanks for reading
Is the war on cash happening in solvent countries eg Switzerland, Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong.
German debt is at the municipal level plus they also run an over draft account for other EU countries that cannot afford their goods and service. This is not going to be paid back.
There was an article just today in the WSJ- the Swiss conduct most of their business using cash, and transactions under 1000Eu are not questioned. Germany, too, favors cash over credit cards, mostly out of a sense that if you cannot afford something, you wait till you can. Venezuela and India should have taught people they can not trust fiat, and much less banks. There could hardly be two better examples for bringing back silver, if not gold coinage, just as the banks are a hairs-breadth from total oppressive victory.
I notice that Scientific America is running an article that supports the ban of cash because of …….germs!
We are being herded and there is not much we can do (that I can think of).
The rule under financial repression.
I used to read Scientific American regularly, cover to cover …. until the late 90’s, when they became just another status quo shill rag periodical ….
This war-on-cash dreck just proves my point !!
Oh … regarding ‘germs’ ..humans are comprised of nothing but …..
And thus, we have antibiotics to cure that.
Use roubles. It’s a great opportunity for Russia if Putin were to be financially responsible
Wonder if the “Scientific America” is owned by the same people as the banks Wouldn’t that be a coincidence(Sara off)
Most of the popular science magazines like e.g. Scientific American and New Scientist and many mainstream scientific publications strongly support the elite, technocrat worldview – where decisions should be made for us by self-appointed scientific ‘experts’, based on scientific ‘facts’ and logic only and with endless faith in scientific and technological capabilities (e.g. around nuclear energy, genetic engineering, vaccines). History shows how that often leads to catastrophy but most scientists never learn ;-)
It is basically the same group of people that profits from the current system.
Si…when being Herded,never Follow the ‘Judas-Cow’…lolol
Keep track of the people who are saying this sort of thing so you know who your enemy is.
“Silicon Valley magnates like Tim Cook and Bill Gates, telecom behemoths, credit card giants, assorted NGOs, a bewildering alphabet soup of UN agencies and many national governments. ”
And “innocently” wonder why their Ace Hilary lost the election. Ha!
While govts are conspiring to eliminate the freedom to use the fruits of our labor as we choose, no one has brought up the most obvious solution to official digital cash. The counter to digital cash is privately issued currency. The only thing a company needs to issue paper credits is a good reputation. My guess is I’ll be ordering it on Amazon and having it delivered by UPS.
there are hundreds of privately issued currencies around the world, most of them on a very local level (e.g. county or city). Some of them work great but I’n not aware of any that are a real alternative to normal ‘money’.
And of course theseare usually confronted with many regulations from governments that fear tax evasion or other loopholes that allow people to escape their bad policies.
I demand my money back, every last cent.
It’s not your money. It’s their money. They’re Federal Reserve notes. It has their name on it. They’re just letting you use it. For now.
Once they’ve banned cash and make that money fully electronic, which they let you think is yours, they’ll have a leash on you.
Control chicken’s money, control chicken.
Great scam, huh?
Chickens are known to relish Banksters eyes for jujubes !
“Your not in Kansas anymore ….”
One might be incented to do any of the following :
(1) Keep a stash of Ben Franklins, handy but well-hid
(2) Save “junk silver” common date USA coins since they were discontinued in 1965
http://www.coinflation.com/
(3) Hoard pre-1983 common-date cents for their copper ( 1982 year was split into some copper, and some copper-pated zinc. )
(4) Hoard USA five cent nickels which are actually 75% copper, and 25% nickel
http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1946-2007-Jefferson-Nickel-Value.html
(5) . . . and if there are funds available, buy some tenth-ounce and quarter-ounce USA gold eagles.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
I do not think one can run afoul of any laws by hoarding pennies and nickels and junk-silver. And if there is a limit on having Franklins at home, I am unaware of it presently.
SnowieGeorgie
This might be a temporary solution for you, but how about the next generations? The problem has to be resolved from the root. Otherwise, banksters wining is not a matter of if, but when. Banksters are very patient.
SnowieGeorgie,
I probably would not keep a stash of $100 bills. I would keep $20’s instead. If the government decides to make $100 bills no longer useable as currency and you need to exchange them, the government may want proof of how you got them. Just a thought.
What happens if you hear that your bank is about to go bankrupt? Ask for your balance to be put on a memory stick!!
“HANDS UP… GIVE ME THE STICK !”
“What happens if you hear that your bank is about to go bankrupt?”
If you own it, you say “mission accomplished!” and call around to make sure the bailouts and bailins are still in the pipe.
What happens if you hear that your bank is about to make Greece go bankrupt? If you own it, you say “on to Italy!”
Memory stick so you can insert that into your USB to try remembering how much you once had.managed to save by the end of your career.
Mark of the beast, so to speak.
As the Germans use to say, “cash is freedom”.
TPTB will succeed in killing off cash simply because people are lazy and don’t think about the implications of things as long as things are comfortable and effortless like swiping your celly or card.
I usually get a blank stare as result when I point out to friends and collegues the implications of abolishing cash as a medium of exchange, usually otherwise mostly bright people can’t grasp such things and the usual argument is that is so easy and effortless to use a card or cellphone instead of cash …
The ideal situation seems to be that cash would be abolished and people using their cards, paying only the smallest amount due each month ;) The latter part is probably quite close to completion, I suppose ….
Or maybe I’m oldfashioned, my folks did bring me up to avoid debt and to save up before buying something, quite contrary to today’s society, ie buy now and maybe pay later ….
yeah …’maybe’ IS the operative word ……..
It’s a double edged sword for me. I don’t carry any debt, but I do use a credit card (pay it off every month) for nearly every purchase for a few reasons: cash back, credit score, ease of use, etc.
On top of that, doing all of my banking electronically through one of the “evil” big banks for my small business has significantly streamlined things and reduced my overhead.
So, while I understand the dangerous implications of moving away from gold, and now potentially cash, here I sit turning a blind eye for near term benefit. Sorry everyone.
I’m surprised this article missed the actual big story in eliminating cash, in India. Their government banned the two largest denominations recently….which affected 80% of cash reserves in public use; this move has affected hundreds of millions of Indians- All due to efforts of eliminating ‘black markets’ and ‘dark money’.
Anyway, having too much cash sitting around isn’t good in the long run for anyone (especially the individual), far better to buy some real estate or other asset which can generate a return.
Glad someone brought up India. Whatever the merits of going digital- no more harebrained place to try it can be imagined.
A majority of the population doesn’t have a bank account.
In poorer regions, basic commerce has ground to a halt.
So far it’s knocked a full percent off projected GDP and it ain’t over.
Modi is pleading for more time.
And the new notes don’t fit the ATMs.
A train wreck.
These are the people we bring to the US to take our jobs. Are you afraid yet? You should be.
Yet the average Indian citizen supports this move by Modi, since the vast majority of the populace live from payday to payday. With little to none cash hoarded as savings. The Indian people keep their savings in the form of physical gold jewelry.
To the average Indian, this cash ban move is seen as a crackdown on the rich, who use cash as a means of avoiding taxes. Little do they know that they are playing into the hands of TPTB and their ultimate financial game plan of complete control.
They are confiscating gold jewelry as well. It has been reported the police were going house to house and taking it. The govt has unleashed the wolves on the people. Who could have guessed?
It is more complicated than that. They are going after gold purchased with unknown/undisclosed wealth. If you can show you inherited the jewelry or paid with declared cash you are exempt and if the gold is jewelry there are fairly generous exemptions on that, a little over a pound per married woman and less for unmarried or men.
DQ has already written about India’s situation, twice. This was about Europe.
But India’s situation has other components than the war on cash: India replaced the notes with new higher-denomination notes (so this would be the opposite of a war on cash). But the new notes weren’t available in sufficient quantity, ATMs couldn’t use them, and other problems occurred, and the whole thing turned into chaos and hardship for many people.
Interesting Snopes article regarding stashing large amounts of cash in your home — with additional emphasis on traveling with amounts over $10,000.
http://www.snopes.com/business/money/10000.asp
QUOTE FROM NEAR THE END : “Notably, however, having a sum of $10,000 or more is not specifically illegal in any jurisdiction or under any law in the United States. You may legally store cash as you wish in your home and carry it with you in your travels, and if you’re traveling privately you need not report the transport of your own money even if you carry $10,000 or more.”
Don’t take any of this as legal advice — but rather as a take-off point for doing your own research. A trustworthy lawyer/accountant team would be nice to have if you are going to keep 1000 Ben Franklins in your home, well hidden. Or even 10,000 B.F.s, depending upon your circumstances.
Get’em while they are still available at a local bank for only $100.00 apiece.
SnowieGeorgie
They won’t be insurable re: fire.
Storing Franklins at home is JUST ONE PRONG of a multi-pronged program of (i) protecting your assets from the gubmint (ii) diversification into asset classes that will survive the war on cash, and (iii) hiding your assets from those that want to share them with you . . . . .
Just to name three of the 19 reasons to diversify out of cash-enumerated accounts, at your local bankster’s den of thieves.
Always always avoid putting all of your eggs in one basket as the truism goes. Your BFs will burn if a fire, but the gold eagles next to them will survive the fire quite well : either as multi-hued coins desired by collectors ( usually called rainbow-toned ) or as lumpen-gold, in need of an assay service to determine its value. Depending on how long your hiding place can resist going above 1948F or 1064C — for an extended period — while the building burns around the hidden storage space .
The U S Treasury will restore your burned bills to you, if there is enough left for them to satisfy their rules :
http://www.bep.gov/services/currencyredemption.html
Light ’em if you got ’em !
SnowieGeorgie
I would NOT recommend storing paper bills at home. You are likely to be robbed and killed if the slightest inkling gets out if you have horded wealth. Then also, what are you going to do if the government declares your bills to not be legal tender?
Stay out of the southern US.
SnowieGeorgie,
I probably would not keep a large amount of $100 bills. I would keep $20’s instead. If the government decides to make $100 bills no longer useable as currency and you need to exchange them, the government may want proof of how you got them. Just a thought.
You have made the point succinctly !
To withdraw 100s, I have had to resort to using the biological teller. I withdrew 50 BFs a coupla years ago, and I felt as if I was being watched, suspiciously, by the DNA machine behind the counter.
The metal machine in the lobby would have given me many Jacksons without suspicion or complaint. It would have take some extra trips for sure, but that’s no trouble compared to being questioned by the cash gestapo, coming to America when we have martial law and active FEMA camps.
Thank you much for your suggestion.
SnowieGeorgie
I could not answer JerryBear re: storing paper cash at home. ( No reply button on JB’s post )
Of course you are correct ! However, should there be an FDR-like bank closure :
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=14611
. . . . then you’ll need one to three months cash for expenses in your home. There are better and worser ways to store cash, which are personal to me, and not for public disclosure.
As I mentioned in a post above, keeping cash at home is but one of the 19 mechanisms one might need to avoid losing assets to the gubmint, or those who might want to share what you have . . . .
For example — HALF OF ALL AMERICANS DO NOT HAVE $1000.00 SAVED AS FREADY CASH — can you think of a simple way the gubmint can force a married couple with $401K in their IRA — to share their $401,000 with less-fortunate individuals ?
Too easy, I won’t even bother to list some of the ways.
SnowieGeorgie
As proof of seniority, I fumbled badly my previous post at 12:30, and listed E.O. 6102 ( gold confiscation ) — instead of “The Emergency Banking Act” of 1933 which was the bank closure to prevent a run.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Banking_Act
Getting on in years I am.
SnowieGeorgie
This would actually be a good thing if was extended to banks; say every transfer of more than 500 euros between a bank and its subsidiary in the Caribbean or Channel islands be reported to tax authorities.
**The powers that want to kill off cash include private and central banks, fintech firms, Silicon Valley magnates like Tim Cook and Bill Gates, telecom behemoths, credit card giants, assorted NGOs, a bewildering alphabet soup of UN agencies and many national governments.**
But at the top of the pile is the Vatican so that they can bring about their vatican source of Socialism to the world. And most importantly it is the vatican who pull the strings of all these other organisations.
Get lost troll! We don’t need to deal with conspiracy kooks on here. At least you didnt blame it all on the Jews. But blather your nonsense somewhere else!
Yesterday’s Minneapolis StarTribune had an interesting Opinion Commentary on the cost to businesses that customers’ use of credit cards imposes on them.
http://www.startribune.com/we-re-in-danger-of-backsliding-on-swipe-fees/409593265/
Well doesn’t that tell you that the myth of a non-cash society saves money. In the article it says that the swipe fees were businesses 2nd highest cost after wages.
Even in Thailand they are trying to sell the myth to the poor that they will be better off by using what they call “prompt payment”. I.E. plastic cards/smart phone and digital currency.
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Rev 13:17
I was about to quote Revelations but I see someone beat me to it. The point is clear. This is all about controlling people. You cannot trade with your family or neighbor without reporting and getting permission from the Feds. Any other reason given for this restriction is cover up, as 2 thousand years ago someone already called it.
No Cash. No Bank Runs. Simples.
Bank runs these days take place largely electronically. The media show pics of people lining up at the ATM to withdraw a couple of hundred bucks, even while the real money gets sucked out electronically by the millions and billions.
Albert E,
Eliminating physical cash would not prevent bank runs. Bank runs can happen just as well by having large numbers of depositors take money out of the bank electronically or by writing checks. There is also something called a silent bank run.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/silent-bank-run.asp
Only capital controls such as preventing people from closing accounts and limiting the amount one can withdrawal from their account can stop bank runs.
Thank You Mr Miller and Mr Richter. Always happy to learn and think more. I suppose what I was forseeing was for example when the GSIBs blow where would you pull your money out to, which bank would you deem safe. So the only way would be to pull it out into cash, but as you say perhaps gone are the days when we can walk into our bank and ask to withdraw it as paper money. As per DQ’s comments on transactional limits. Also if a bank were about to collapse would their electronic system allow you in to start moving your funds. I doubt it. They’d blame the technology of course.
‘Eliminating cash prevents the bank runs that these assaults on people’s savings would otherwise trigger. Money that exists only as digital entries cannot be withdrawn and stored under a mattress.’
Ellen Brown
http://londonprogressivejournal.com/article/view/2481/the-war-on-savings-the-panama-papers-bailins-and-the-push-to-go-cashless
I guess this is what I was thinking back to
Web Of Debt is still the seminal book for me on modern money mechanics
Can never watch the wizard of oz with a smile on my face again :-(