The Death Of Cash? All Over The World Governments Are Banning Large Cash Transactions

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: The Death Of Cash? All Over The World Governments Are Banning Large Cash Transactions

Safety deposit box? Home safe?

Maybe I'm naive but I don't worry much about where to store $5,000 cash.
The two used cars in my driveway are worth a lot more; visible at all times; and often left unattended.

[Fiat Currency]

Re: The Death Of Cash? All Over The World Governments Are Banning Large Cash Transactions

The slow assault continues ….

Canada Warns its Citizens Not to Take Cash to USA


The Canadian government has had to warn its citizens not to carry cash to the USA because the USA does not presume innocence but guilt when it comes to money. Over $2.5 billion has been confiscated from Canadians traveling to the USA funding the police who grab it.

If you are bringing cash to the land of the free, you will find that saying really means they are FREE to seize all your money under the pretense you are engaged in drugs with no evidence or other charges. It costs more money in legal fees to try to get it back so it is a boom business for unethical lawyers to such an extent than only one in sixth people ever try to get their money back and the cops just pocket it. That’s right. Money confiscated is usually allowed to be kept by the department who confiscated it.

This is strangely working its way into funding police and pensions. This is identical to the very issue that resulted in the final collapse of Rome when the armies began to sack cities to pay for their pensions. We are at that level now with respect to seizing whatever they want knowing you will have to spend more in legal fees to assert your rights that do not really exist.

Those trying to flee tyranny elsewhere can not bring money with them for the police get to take it on this end. This pretend war on terrorism is really a wholesale war against the people. It serves as the justification to seize whatever they desire ever since 9/11 as reported by the Washington Post.

[gwynedd1]

Re: The Death Of Cash? All Over The World Governments Are Banning Large Cash Transactions

The slow assault continues ….

Not really all that slow.

[LorenS]

Re: The Death Of Cash? All Over The World Governments Are Banning Large Cash Transactions

Not really all that slow.

SO does the assault on credit:

http://www.bing.com/search?q=operati...ZI&form=MOZSBR

[Fiat Currency]

Re: The Death Of Cash? All Over The World Governments Are Banning Large Cash Transactions

France joins the party ...

Fighting the "War on Terror " by Banning Cash

• 

MARCH 22, 2015 Joseph T. Salerno

It was just a matter of time before Western governments used the trumped up "War on Terror" as an excuse to drastically ratchet up the very real war on the use of cash and personal privacy that they are waging against their own citizens Taking advantage of public anxiety in the wake of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket, France has taken the first step. It seems the terrorists involved partially financed these attacks by cash, as well as by consumer loans and the sale of counterfeit goods. What a shockeroo! The terrorists used CASH to purchase some of the stuff they needed--no doubt these murderers were also shod and clothed and used cell phones, cars, and public sidewalks during the planning and execution of their mayhem. Why not restrict their use? A naked , barefoot terrorist without communications is surely less effective than a fully clothed and equipped one. Despite the arrant absurdity of blaming cash and financial privacy for these crimes, French Finance Minister Michel Sapin brazenly stated that it was necessary to "fight against the use of cash and anonymity in the French economy." He then announced extreme and despotic measures to further restrict the use of cash by French residents and to spy on and pry into their financial affairs.

These measures, which will be implemented in September 2015, include prohibiting French residents from making cash payments of more than 1,000 euros, down from the current limit of 3,000 euros. Given the parlous state of the stagnating French economy the limit for foreign tourists on currency payments will remain higher, at 10,000 euros down from the current limit of 15,000 euros. The threshold below which a French resident is free to convert euros into other currencies without having to show an identity card will be slashed from the current level of 8,000 euros to 1,000 euros. In addition any cash deposit or withdrawal of more than 10,000 euros during a single month will be reported to the French anti-fraud and money laundering agency Tracfin.

French authorities will also have to be notified of any freight transfers within the EU exceeding 10,000 euros, including checks, pre-paid cards, or gold.

http://mises.org/blog/fighting-war-terror-banning-cash

[Fiat Currency]

Re: The Death Of Cash? All Over The World Governments Are Banning Large Cash Transactions

Soon legal tender won't even be legal. They are going to force us all on e-fiat, since they control all the electronic gateways in & out of the money system/supply.

I will not even be surprised to see the €500 note taken out of circulation.

I hate being right on topics like this ...

===========================

Germany Unveils "Cash Controls" Push: Ban Transactions Over €5,000, €500 Euro Note


It was just two days ago that Bloomberg implored officials to “bring on a cashless future” in an Op-Ed that calls notes and coins “dirty, dangerous, unwieldy, and expensive.”

You probably never thought of your cash that way, but increasingly, authorities and the powers that be seem determined to lay the groundwork for the abolition of what Bloomberg calls “antiquated” physical money.

We’ve documented the cash ban calls on a number of occasions including, most recently, those that emanated from DNB, Norway’s largest bank where executive Trond Bentestuen said that although “there is approximately 50 billion kroner in circulation, the Norges Bank can only account for 40 percent of its use.”
That, Bentestuen figures, “means that 60 percent of money usage is outside of any control." "We believe," he continues, "that is due to under-the-table money and laundering.”

DNB goes on to say that after identifying “many dangers and disadvantages” associated with cash, the bank has “concluded that it should be phased out.”

On Tuesday we got the latest evidence that officials across the globe are preparing to institute a cashless “utopia” when Handelsblatt reported (in a piece called "The Death of Cash) that the Social Democrats - the junior partner in Angela Merkel’s coalition government - have proposed a €5,000 limit on cash transactions and the elimination of the €500 note.


Berlin is using a familiar scapegoat to justify the plan: the need to fight "terrorists" and “foreign criminals."
“Limits on cash transactions would discourage foreign criminals from coming here to launder money,” says a paper penned by the Social Democrats. “If sums over €5,000 have to pass through traceable bank transactions, laundering would be severely hampered, it adds.”

On Wednesday, we got confirmation of the plan from Deputy Finance Minister Michael Meister who told reporters that Germany is proposing a euroarea ban on cash transactions over €5,000 to combat terrorism financing and money laundering.

“Since money laundering and terrorism financing are cross-border threats,” it makes sense to adopt a bloc-wide “solution”, but “if a European solution isn’t possible, Germany will move ahead on its own,” he added.

This comes at a rather convenient time for policy makers in Europe. Rates are already sitting at -0.30% and are likely to be cut by an additional 10bps in March. But that’s not likely to do anything to curb the disinflationary impulse. Mario Draghi isn’t anywhere close to his inflation target and it says a lot about how ineffective the ECB has been when everyone is relieved to see annual inflation running at the “brisk” pace of 0.4%.

As a reminder, the gradual phasing out of cash strips the public of its economic autonomy. Central bankers can only control interest rates down to a certain “lower bound.” Once negative rates are passed on to depositors - and trust us, that’s coming - people will simply start pulling their money out of the bank. The more negative rates go, the faster those withdrawals will be.

When you ban cash you eliminate this problem. In a cashless society with a government-managed digital currency there is no effective lower bound. If the economy isn’t doing what a bunch of bureaucrats want it to do, they can simply make interest rates deeply negative, forcing would-be savers to become consumers by making them choose between spending or watching as the bank simply confiscates their money in the name of NIRP.

Obviously, banning transactions above €5,000 is a long way from a wholesale ban on cash and several other countries have similar limits on cash transactions. Still, there’s no reason why the same rationale (i.e. fighting terror financing) can’t be applied to smaller sums - or all cash transactions. After all, it’s not as though “foreign criminals” only transact in amounts over €5,000 and since “follow the money” is usually the best way to get to the bottom of a perceived “problem,” having a ledger of everything someone or some group does financially would likely be an effective way to crack down on illicit activity.

We would argue that the cost to society of creating an economy wherein people’s economic decisions are completely dictated by small groups of economists far outweighs any benefits that would accrue from using a centrally planned digital currency to deter crime.

As for how a cash ban would go over in Germany, we seriously doubt the public would take it laying down given that only 18.7% of transactions in the country involve plastic cards.

[santafe2]

Re: The Death Of Cash? All Over The World Governments Are Banning Large Cash Transactions

I hate being right on topics like this ...

===========================

Germany Unveils "Cash Controls" Push: Ban Transactions Over €5,000, €500 Euro Note

This is all about tax collection and traceability. You see this same issue when building large software applications in business. There are a certain percentage of employees that will always prefer to use shadow systems of their own making to a more universal system that allows management control over the business environment. There are a lot of cowboys out there and the modern world has become less and less accommodating. I don't see that trend changing.

[Fiat Currency]

Re: The Death Of Cash? All Over The World Governments Are Banning Large Cash Transactions

Pot of gold 76x80.gif Time to dust off a 6-year old thread.

On the one hand, not much has changed regarding the War on Cash. Slow steady progress towards the now cleverly-adopted "less-cash" Battle for your mind as the article below discusses. Some here don't care, others will say it's inevitable, that there's little to nothing you can do about it, it's simply technological progress, oligarchs will always be oligarchs etc. ... heck, a select few of us probably even sleep well at night, knowing that we have at least taken steps to prepare for ourselves and loved ones as best as we could. On the other hand, it's shocking to me how much progress the NWO has achieved just in the last decade.

The current US election cycle will most certainly become a catalyst for any number of things that are already at various stages of evolution - rapid change, civil strife, political polarization, racial tensions, inequality, malfeasance, moral turpitude, erosion of rights and privacy, the hawkish offspring of the marriage between .gov & MIC, the militarization of your local police force, immigration, and a whole host of others.

No matter where your thoughts stand on any of those issues - at the very centre of them all will be the $USD, the Fed, and for the 95% of us who do not live in the USA - your local fiat currency and its man behind the curtain.

It's funny, I never had a problem thinking of the Lottery as a tax on the mathematically challenged (sure somebody eventually wins $). I have a serious problem with thinking of a Windfall Tax as a tax on the Intelligent and Observant amongst us. The legal and political system has failed people who believe in Sound Money and the tenets of true Capitalism that made it work for thousands of years.

I have always been a bit of a keen follower of US elections. I am enjoying "that" particular thread as an observer. However, as I write this there are only 72 days left until a new President is chosen.

Perhaps this thread will trigger an economic link, because I think a lot of regular people are going to get caught off guard at how delicately some things are perched on the ledge, and at how fast currencies, economies and supply chains can collapse, especially in a highly-interconnected world where proxies for labour, capital, value, and money literally & physically move at the speed of light.

If it wasn't clear to you before - the War on Cash is also the War on physical gold. I'd like to think that resistance is not futile. "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth" comes to mind.

Harvard Professor Launches The War On Paper Money

Six months since Larry Summers first suggested "it;'s time to kill the $100 bill," and three months after The ECB actually killed the €500 Note, another Harvard 'scholar' is reinvigorating the war on cash. Amid claims that paper money fuels corruption, terrorism, tax evasion, and illegal immigration, Ken Rogoff (ironically of "It's Different This Time" infamy) says the US should get rid of the $100 bill (and $50s and $20s) proposing, in his words, "a 'less-cash' society, not a cashless one, at least for the foreseeable future."

According to the esteemed ivory tower academic, paper currency lies at the heart of some of today’s most intractable public-finance and monetary problems. As Rogoff explains in The Wall Street Journal, getting rid of most of it - that is, moving to a society where cash is used less frequently and mainly for small transactions - could be a big help.
Rogoff's begins by stating factoids as facts...

There is little debate among law-enforcement agencies that paper currency, especially large notes such as the U.S. $100 bill, facilitates crime: racketeering, extortion, money laundering, drug and human trafficking, the corruption of public officials, not to mention terrorism. There are substitutes for cash—cryptocurrencies, uncut diamonds, gold coins, prepaid cards—but for many kinds of criminal transactions, cash is still king. It delivers absolute anonymity, portability, liquidity and near-universal acceptance. It is no accident that whenever there is a big-time drug bust, the authorities typically find wads of cash.

Cash is also deeply implicated in tax evasion, which costs the federal government some $500 billion a year in revenue. According to the Internal Revenue Service, a lot of the action is concentrated in small cash-intensive businesses, where it is difficult to verify sales and the self-reporting of income. By contrast, businesses that take payments mostly by check, bank card or electronic transfer know that it is much easier for tax authorities to catch them dissembling. Though the data are much thinner for state and local governments, they too surely lose big-time from tax evasion, perhaps as much as $200 billion a year.

Cash also lies at the core of the illegal immigration problem in the U.S. If American employers couldn’t so easily pay illegal workers off the books in cash, the lure of jobs would abate, and the flow of illegal immigrants would shrink drastically. Needless to say, phasing out most cash would be a far more humane and sensible way of discouraging illegal immigration than constructing a giant wall.

So to clarify - Cash (and Donald Trump) are at the center of all of America's and the world's ills and therefore - as a PhD who knows best - we must destroy it (for your own good)...

Obviously, scaling back cash is not going to change human nature, and there are other ways to dodge taxes and run illegal businesses. But there can be no doubt that flooding the underground economy with paper currency encourages illicit behavior.

To be clear, I am proposing a “less-cash” society, not a cashless one, at least for the foreseeable future. The first stage of the transition would involve very gradually phasing out large denomination bills that constitute the bulk of the currency supply. Of the more than $4,200 in cash that is circulating outside financial institutions for every man, woman and child in the U.S., almost 80% of it is in $100 bills. In turn, $50 and $20 bills would also be phased out, though $10s, $5s and $1s would be kept indefinitely. Today these smaller bills constitute just 3% of the value of the currency supply.

The point of getting rid of big bills is to make it harder to carry and store large amounts. A million dollars in $100 bills weighs approximately 22 pounds and can fit comfortably into a large shopping bag. With $10 bills, it isn’t so easy. Think of lugging around 220 pounds in a giant chest. Hoarders and tax evaders would find small notes proportionately costlier to count, verify, handle and store. The use of cash could be further discouraged by putting restrictions on the maximum size of cash payments allowed in retail sales.

But we need to think of the poorest people... (oh wait so what you mean is, we really only care about ensuring those with any 'real' money are unable to easily transport it away from the soon-to-be-pernicious banking system?)...

If cash is so bad, why retain small bills of $10 and under? For one thing, cash still accounts for more than half of retail purchases under $10, though the share fades off sharply as payment size rises, with debit cards, credit cards, electronic transfers and checks all far more important than cash for (legal, tax-compliant) payments over $100.

Retaining small notes alleviates a host of problems that might arise if cash were eliminated entirely. For example, cash is still handy if a hurricane or natural disaster knocks out the power grid. Most disaster-preparation manuals call for people to keep some cash on hand, warning that ATMs might be paralyzed.

But times are changing. Nowadays, cell towers and large retail stores typically have backup generators, allowing them to process bank cards during a power outage. And there are always checks. In due time, smartphone technology is likely to overtake all other media, and one can always keep a spare charging cell for emergencies.

And finally - Rogoff explains why sacrificing your personal privacy for the greater good is what really matters... are you a patriot??

Perhaps the most challenging and fundamental objection to getting rid of cash has to do with privacy—with our ability to spend anonymously.

But where does one draw the line between this individual right and the government’s need to tax and regulate and to enforce the law? Most of us wouldn’t want to clamp down on someone’s right to make the occasional $200 purchase in complete privacy. But what about a $50,000 car or a $1 million apartment? We should be able to reduce the problems I’ve described here while also ensuring that ordinary people can still use small bills for convenience in everyday transactions.

So, summing up - it appears Rogoff has identified the true evil behind today's dismal economy - cash - and suggests a "just the tip" approach to solving this with a "less-cash" society... which we are sure will never go any further than that... If you like your $10 bill, you can keep it...
Go ahead and cut, then: after all who really needs the Benjamins, right? Think of the criminal cost savings... Well, as we noted previously, here's the thing:

As the Treasury chart above shows, $100 bills account for for $1.08 trillion of the $1.38 trillion total in circulation. So should the Fed react to the ECB's "scrapping" of the €500 bill, which accounts for 30% of the value of currency in circulation, then the Fed would respond in kind, by eliminating 78% of all paper currency in circulation by value.

Not a bad way to launch a global ban on paper currency ahead of a global NIRP regime, and all, of course, in the name of fighting "tax evasion, financial crime, terrorism and corruption."
Of course, there is one 'asset' in which to store wealth that is easier to transport than shoeboxes of dollar-bills...


But then again, they can always confiscate that too... (but as we noted previously, even that might be different this time)...

Today, only a tiny fraction of the U.S. population owns gold. Heck, I’d bet most Americans have never even seen a gold coin, much less appreciate its value.

This wasn’t the case in 1933, when the U.S. was still on a variation of the gold standard. That’s why the government probably won’t repeat the 1933 rip-off. It’s simply not worth the effort.

If the government wants to confiscate wealth, it’s far more likely to go for the easy option… steadily debasing the currency by printing money. It’s a stealthy way to confiscate from savers.

That doesn’t mean gold owners are in the clear.

I think the government will try a new scam: taxing windfall profits on gold. This would make it much easier for the government to accomplish something similar to its 1933 heist.

There’s precedence for it, too. In 1980, Congress passed the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act, which taxed up to 70% of “windfall profits” of domestic oil producers.

What the heck is a windfall profit anyway?

As far as I can tell, it’s whatever politicians decide it is. It’s completely arbitrary. There are no objective measures to define it.

In short, a windfall profit is simply a profit politicians don’t like. The whole concept is a scam—a word trick to camouflage and sanitize legalized theft.

If the price of gold explodes, I wouldn’t be surprised if Congress passes a Fair Share Gold Windfall Profit Tax Act levying a tax of 80%, 90%, or more on gold profits.

[jk]

Re: The Death Of Cash? All Over The World Governments Are Banning Large Cash Transactions

a lot of u.s. currency circulates abroad, especially $100 bills. just a quick google got a 2011 estimate by a fed economist that 2/3 of the $100 bills in existence do their existing abroad. "getting rid" of them at home and abroad would be a very interesting process. let's say the fed announces that starting 6 months from now banks won't accept them or exchange them for other bills. all holders would have to deposit or exchange them within 6 months or see them become worthless. i'm sure officials would be watching closely for major deposits.

is that what happened to the 500euro note? no. just looked it up. the ecb stopped producing them but they remain legal tender.

i think a gold tax would be hard to implement. what about etf's? gold mining shares? gold royalty stocks? what if they're held in non-taxable accounts like an ira? a lot of wrinkles to iron out. gold would also continue to serve as a black market means of exchange. you don't need a bank as an intermediary. you can transport it out of the country if need be.

[Chris Coles]

Re: The Death Of Cash? All Over The World Governments Are Banning Large Cash Transactions

There is another aspect to this debate; what happens if we lose access to electricity? Yes, you may well subscribe to the notion that that is either alarmist or even "Nuts". But the fact is there is a quiet debate regarding the very real possibility of a solar storm creating precisely the conditions to destroy the entire planets electricity infrastructure. Even to the point where it may take a decade to replace it.

" The online Operations Manual of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) cites geomagnetic storms of 1957, 1958, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1979, 1982, and 1989 as causes of major power system disturbances. However, "major" is a comparative term and may be inappropriate for those storms considering the destructive capability of the storms of 1859 and 1921. The former is the strongest ever recorded but the weaker 1921 storm was many times stronger than those cited by NERC. If a storm of that intensity were to occur during the increasing solar activity of the next few years, it would destroy most of the power equipment on our grids."
http://www.energycentral.com/gridtan...rstood-Threat/

Food for thought?

[Milton Kuo]

Re: The Death Of Cash? All Over The World Governments Are Banning Large Cash Transactions

Another article related to the "war on cash" from former Fed governor Narayana Kocherlakota: "Want a Free Market? Abolish Cash." Yes, it's a real doozy of specious reasoning.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/artic...t-abolish-cash

Of note:

We’ve endured a deep recession and a miserable recovery because the government, through its provision of currency, interferes with the proper functioning of financial markets.

I had no idea that the Federal Reserve is part of "the government!"

Also, Kocherlakota seems to suggest that a free market can be achieved by eliminating cash all the while ignoring the much more heavy-handed market interventions of the Fed through its purchases of Treasuries and mortgage backed securities. If we did eliminate cash altogether, does Kocherlakota suggest that the Fed would take its thumb off the scales?

Ladies and gentlemen: I present to you your idiots at the Federal Reserve!