War on cash

[TrumanCash]

Who is the governments’ strongest ally in their War on Cash? (http://wolfstreet.com/2015/11/07/first-they-came-for-the-pennies-in-the-war-on-cash/)

The War on Cash is advancing on all fronts. One region that has hogged the headlines with its war against physical currency is Scandinavia. Sweden became the first country to enlist its own citizens as largely willing guinea pigs in a dystopian economic experiment: negative interest rates in a cashless society. As Credit Suisse reports, no matter where you go or what you want to purchase, you will find a small ubiquitous sign saying “Vi hanterar ej kontanter” (“We don’t accept cash”):

Whether it’s for mulled wine at the Christmas market, a beer at the bar, even the smallest charge is settled digitally. Even the homeless vendors of the street newspapers Faktum and Situation Stockholm carry mobile card readers.

A similar situation is unfolding in Denmark, where nearly 40% of the paying demographic use MobilePay, a Danske Bank app that allows all payments to be completed via smartphone. With more and more retailers rejecting physical money, a cashless society is “no longer an illusion but a vision that can be fulfilled within a reasonable time frame,” says Michael Busk-Jepsen, executive director of the Danish Bankers Association.

World’s Biggest Cashless Laboratory

While Sweden and Denmark may be the two nations that are closest to banning cash outright, the most important testing ground for cashless economics is half a world away, in sub-Saharan Africa.

In many African countries, going cashless is not merely a matter of basic convenience (as it is in Scandinavia); it is a matter of basic survival. Less than 30% of the population have bank accounts, and even fewer have credit cards. But almost everyone has a mobile phone. Now, thanks to the massive surge in uptake of mobile communications as well as the huge numbers of unbanked citizens, Africa has become the perfect place for the world’s biggest social experiment with cashless living.

Western NGOs and GOs (Government Organizations) are working hand-in-hand with banks, telecom companies and local authorities to replace cash with mobile money alternatives. The organizations involved include Citi Group, Mastercard, VISA, Vodafone, USAID, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

In Kenya the funds transferred by the biggest mobile money operator, M-Pesa (a division of Vodafone), account for more than 25% of the country’s GDP. In Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria, the government launched a Mastercard-branded biometric national ID card, which also doubles up as a payment card. The “service” provides Mastercard with direct access to over 170 million potential customers, not to mention all their personal and biometric data.

The company also recently won a government contract to design the Huduma Card, which will be used for paying State services. For Mastercard these partnerships with government are essential for achieving its lofty vision of creating a “world beyond cash.”

A New Frontier

In India an even more ambitious project is under way: the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which aims to create a centralized voter enrolment system for 1.2 billion people. It will be the largest identity platform and biometric database in the world. There’s only one snag: according to its creators, the only way to make the system work effectively will be through the widespread adoption of electronic payment systems, side by side, as always, with biometric recognition systems.

Given that cash is still king on the subcontinent, the government may have its work cut out. Finance minister Arun Jaitley has repeatedly underscored the need to transform India into a cashless economy, supposedly to “rein in the problem of black money.” However, with its huge informal economy, India remains the largest producer and consumer of currency notes after China (as well as the biggest consumer of gold).

Here’s more from India’s Financial Express:

Currently less than 5% of all payments are done electronically. Results from the ICE 360 Cash Survey 2014 show that cash is the preferred mode of payment even in Delhi, the most affluent and developed metropolis. Nearly 73% of all purchases by Delhi consumers are paid for in cash and only 17% by card.

Naturally the Indian government will do all it can to change this situation. In an article in the Daily Mail Nandan Nilekani, one of the technocrats behind UIDAI, urges the government to lead the way. “The government must be the initial driver, using the heft and reach of its social security schemes to drive the adoption of an electronic payments model,” Nilekani asserts. “As momentum grows, private players can step in.”

Those private players will no doubt include banks. After all, in a world where every transaction – or at least every “official” transaction – must be electronic, the power of banks over individuals is likely to dramatically increase, as Brett Scott warns in an article for The Guardian:

With this comes the specter of bank surveillance, where every transaction you ever partake in is authorized and recorded by a privately run commercial bank, giving it a transaction-by-transaction history of your entire commercial life. If such a bank does not like an enterprise – such as Wikileaks – it can just freeze it out.
The New Cost of Doing Business

An oft-overlooked benefit of cash transactions is that there is no intermediary. One party pays the other party in mutually accepted currency and not a single middleman gets to wet his beak.

In a cashless society there will be nothing stopping banks or other financial mediators from taking a small piece of every single transaction. They would also be able to use – and potentially abuse – the massive deposits of data they collect on their customers’ payment behavior. This information is of huge interest and value to retail marketing departments, other financial institutions, insurance companies, governments, secret services, and a host of other organizations.

Another very important perk of cash is that it significantly limits central banks’ ability to continue conducting arguably the greatest financial heist of the modern age, i.e., negative interest rate policy (NIRP). The only way that central banks can maintain negative interest rates ad infinitum is by abolishing cash altogether, as the Bank of England chief economist Andrew Hadlaine all but admitted. As long as cash exists, there’s no way of preventing depositors from doing the logical thing – i.e. taking their money out of the bank and parking it where the erosive effects of NIRP can’t reach it.

So in order to save a financial system that is morally beyond the pale and stopped serving the basic needs of the real economy a long time ago, governments and central banks must do away with the last remaining thing that gives people a small semblance of privacy, anonymity, and personal freedom in their increasingly controlled and surveyed lives.

The biggest tragedy of all is that the governments and banks’ strongest ally in their War on Cash is the general public itself. As long as people continue to abandon the use of cash, for the sake of a few minor gains in convenience, the war on cash is already won.

A war conducted by bankers, politicians, academics, even startup guys.

[Fanna]

Seems like an appropriate time to remind us of the crusaders who are on a war against money in a different way. This guy (https://sites.google.com/site/livingwithoutmoney/).

You want to talk democracy? This is living with your vote. You want to talk conviction? This is tieing the threads into a rug to lay down one's head on. The only ONLY way we can stop these "too big to fail" models is to change our vote and rob them of their power. It is no less than death, but also no less than birth.

I say this on internet that i am paying for, so I'll preach no more.

As for such dubious projects, the veil is being lifted. The Koch brothers had an interview recently that RTs show Redacted Tonight made fun of. Just proves what we have been saying forever about their motives and goals. The veil is lifting. It is time for action. NOTHING is wasted.

[Hervé]

Related: Government/Bankers War on Cash (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?81638-Government-Bankers-War-on-Cash)

[ThePythonicCow]

Who is the governments’ strongest ally in their War on Cash? (http://wolfstreet.com/2015/11/07/first-they-came-for-the-pennies-in-the-war-on-cash/)

The War on Cash is advancing on all fronts.
Bitcoin might be viewed as one of the weapons in this war.

Us serious hackers can run our own full blown bitcoin wallet servers ... but most people will rely on services partially or almost entirely "in the cloud" (they won't know which), and even us serious hackers rely on major financial services to exchange between bitcoin and other currencies.

Part of the problems with major online bitcoin services stealing money could just be a setup to make sure that they too are "well regulated" before they go "big time."

... so like much of the Web, the very thing that us serious hackers think might be a salvation of humanity risks instead becoming more of another tool of enslavement.

Doubtlessly, guns and swords demonstrate a similar dichotomy. The guns will make us free crowd has no chance against a major military or police force.

[Camilo]

In Colombia the governement and the banksters have tried by all possible means to fight cash transactions, but 90% of all transactions are still made in cash, mainly because people don't trust banks at all. I guess some times people still get away with what's best for them.

[Lifebringer]

and with the new bank chip in the "Master" card they can track you forever where ever if in your wallet or pocketbook/pocket. One scan and they know who and what you are.

[wnlight]

Fanta, You do know that the ballot box is broken in the USA and much of the world. It is much better to vote with your money - hopefully cash. Or vote with your feet and stay out of the big banks. All of these types of voting require an informed public.

[Cidersomerset]

A few articles from David Ickes headline page, most days he posts financial related
articles , I don't have the time or expertise to post them as threads , and leave that
to others unless it happens to tie into something I'm already posting. There is one
that is a bit worrying to freedoms that is the war on cash. Most transactions are
done digitally but its always handy and reassuring to keep so cash in my wallet in
case at the supermarket or garage " The computer says No " !......

AJQ3TM-p2QI


The Money Scam ....related articles

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/category/the-money-scam/

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US saddled with debts of $65 trillion: Former comptroller

By David Icke on 8th November 2015 The Money Scam

http://www.davidicke.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Untitled-52.jpg

The real US debt is over three times bigger than what is officially announced,
standing at about $65 trillion, says the former comptroller general.

When all of the country’s unfunded liabilities are added up, the national debt
is [over]three times as much the oft-cited figure of $18 trillion, said Dave
Walker, who headed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) under former
Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

“If you end up adding to that $18.5 trillion the unfunded civilian and military
pensions and retiree healthcare, the additional underfunding for Social Security,
the additional underfunding for Medicare, various commitments and contingencies
that the federal government has, the real number is about $65 trillion rather than
$18 trillion, and it’s growing automatically absent reforms,” Walker told host John
Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on New York’s AM-970 in an interview airing
Sunday.’

Read more: US saddled with debts of $65 trillion: Former comptroller

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/11/08/436759/US-economy-debt

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Bitcoin spikes as Russian fraudster starts Ponzi scheme in China
By David Icke on 8th November 2015

Da0oBmhguzo

Published on 6 Nov 2015

The bitcoin exchange rate surged to above $490 on November 4 - its high point of
the last year. This spike is supposedly linked to the rising popularity of "financial
social network" MMM created by entrepreneur Sergey Mavrodi in China.
READ MORE: http://on.rt.com/6vqj

RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air



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War on Cash: Banks to start charging for cash deposits

By David Icke on 30th October 2015 The Money Scam

http://www.davidicke.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Untitled-712.jpg

‘Few could have envisioned it even just a few years ago, but it’s happening now,
and on an ever-widening scale. More big U.S. banks are shunning cash, because
the banking system has become so dependent on other “assets” that large cash
deposits actually pose a threat to their financial health, according to The Wall
Street Journal.

State Street Corporation, a Boston-based institution that manages assets for
institutional investors, has, for the first time, begun charging some customers
for making large cash deposits, according to people familiar with the development.

And the largest U.S. bank in terms of assets — JP Morgan Chase & Co. — has
dramatically cut “unwanted” deposits to the tune of $150 billion this year alone,
in part by charging customers fees.

What gives? What kind of world do we live in when banks no longer want cash?’

Read more: War on Cash: Banks to start charging for cash deposits.’

http://www.naturalnews.com/051762_cash_deposits_criminalization_banking_regulations.html

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Former Reagan Administration Official Warns That Financial Disaster Is Dead Ahead

By David Icke on 7th November 2015 The Money Scam

‘Why won’t the American people listen to the warnings? David Stockman was a member
of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1981, and he served as the Director
of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to
1985. These days, he is running a website called ‘Contra Corner’ which I highly recommend
that you check out. Stockman believes that a global ‘debt super-cycle’ that has been
building for decades is now bursting, and he is convinced that the consequences for the
U.S. and for the rest of the planet will be absolutely catastrophic.’

Read more: Former Reagan Administration Official Warns That Financial Disaster Is Dead Ahead

http://rinf.com/alt-news/editorials/former-reagan-administration-official-warns-financial-disaster-dead-ahead/

[Jhonie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQgW4dxBciQ

[earthdreamer]

I would think that the CIA and secret gov't ops depend on cash sales for their black budgets/ opaque power.

[TrumanCash]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQgW4dxBciQ

Good point: CASH = PRIVACY = FREEDOM

[Apophenia]

All information I uncovered suggests the elite experiments with ideas that go against or counteract the system they succeed very well in, at least on appearance. The Marxist-Leninist experiments certainly show this; in which people line up for miles waiting to get their daily sustenance and basic survival needs met, and where only 1 outlet exists for any good or service provided. These systems also attempted, and initially failed at implementing systems where money would be eliminated, in the end they settled for direct control over banking in foreign states.

When John Rockefeller stated that 'competition is a sin', he certainly wasn't kidding. Putting that in this context helps a great deal.

Whether or not there is a reliance on cash, similar problems exist, and the prevailing theme is that the actions they take all lead to whole nations becoming dependent on them and by extension, subservient to their global agenda. In that case, I would say it is naive to believe a system continuing to utilize cash will change the balance of power all that much, remember... what digital currency was in place during the Napoleonic Wars? There may be truth in the claim that a cashless society opens up the possibility of 'undesirables' being removed covertly, but I see the entire game as rigged or easy for a handful of people to manipulate, at best the argument boils down to a 'not as bad as' viewpoint, or the 'least worst' option.

[TrumanCash]

Let us not forget what Nick Rockefeller told Aaron Russo about their goal of a cashless society where everyone is "chipped".

And if you spoke out against the system they would turn your "chip" off and leave you with no money at all.

This is not speculation; Aaron Russo was told this by a member of the Rockefeller family.

If you haven't yet watched this interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3NA17CCboA) with Aaron Russo, by all means watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3NA17CCboA


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3NA17CCboA

[TrumanCash]

They’re coming for your cash

By Mark Nestmann • November 10, 2015

It might sound like a conspiracy theory spun by right-wing crazies. But judging by the increasing desperation of governments to reboot the world economy, it just might happen.

“It” is the recall or confiscation of cash, i.e., dollars, euros, pounds, etc., in physical form. And a key justification that those calling for this radical measure cite is that it reinforces the ability of central banks to impose negative interest rates.

Negative rates mean that lenders literally pay businesses and consumers to borrow money. They also penalize savers for hoarding it. The Danish and Swiss national banks have gone the farthest into negative territory, with interest rates of -0.75%. That means €100,000 in a euro-denominated account in Switzerland would be worth only €99,250 after one year. While these rates apply only to “excess reserves” banks maintain at the central bank, nothing stops banks from requiring depositors to share the pain.

But that’s not enough, according to some economists. Citicorp’s chief economist, a technocrat named Willem Buiter, thinks the US needs much lower interest rates to push the economy out of the doldrums. He thinks negative interest rates around -6% would do the job. But there’s one condition: For his plan to work, he says, the government must abolish cash.

It’s easy to understand why Buiter might not have warm and fuzzy thoughts about cash. After all, if your bank is taking 6% from your savings, $100 in your account would be worth only $94 at the end of one year, $88.36 after two years, and $83.06 after three years. On the other hand, a $100 bill with Ben Franklin’s picture on it would still be worth… well, $100. Buiter understands that as long as cash exists, no one will voluntarily keep their savings in accounts with negative interest rates.

And Buiter isn’t the only one pointing out that outlawing cash could stimulate the economy, especially in a crisis. In a recent article, Michael Pento, president and founder of Pento Portfolio Strategies, observed:

“Strategies such as pushing interest rates into negative territory, outlawing cash, and sending electronic credits directly into private bank accounts may appear more palatable in the midst of market distress.” (emphasis added)

And the Fed seems to be catching on to the prospect of negative interest rates. At the latest meeting of the Fed’s Open Market Committee, at least one member suggested that negative interest rates might be worth considering.

As for abolishing cash altogether, proposals to do so are much further advanced outside the US. Italy and France have banned allcash transactions over €1,000. Spain has banned cash transactions exceeding €2,500. Similar restrictions are in place in Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Mexico, Russia, Uruguay, and other countries.

In the US, cash transaction limits don’t yet exist, but de facto limits already are enforced. I’ve received reports from several clients of interrogations by banks if they withdraw more than a few thousand dollars in cash from their accounts. And depositing or withdrawing more than $10,000 in cash from an account requires that banks (as well as other “financial institutions”) file a Currency Transaction Report with the IRS. “Structuring” a single cash transaction into multiple transactions to avoid this requirement is a crime. And if the circumstances surrounding a transaction above $5,000 are “suspicious,” financial institutions must file a Suspicious Activity Report.

Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies consider cash holdings inherently suspicious. Under the Alice-in-Wonderland legal process of civil forfeiture, they can seize your cash if they believe that it’s somehow connected to a crime. That’s easy, since nearly 100% of cash circulating today contains tiny concentrations of narcotics residues – primarily cocaine. All police need to do is bring in a drug-sniffing dog to inspect the cash. If the dog alerts, police seize the cash. And under civil forfeiture rules, it’s up to you to prove that the cash has a legitimate origin.

If the government decides to restrict cash transactions or outlaw cash altogether, how would they do it? Actually, efforts along this line are already well under way. Many airlines accept only credit or debit cards for inflight purchases. Louisiana forbids cash for some secondhand sales of scrap metal. A proposal in Wisconsin would ban cash payments for treatment at pain clinics.

But for negative interest rates to really take hold, the Fed will need to step in. One proposal is for cash to be recalled in a very short period – as little as 10 days. Anyone turning in more than a relatively low threshold – perhaps as little as $1,000 – would be required to prove that the cash was generated legally and that all taxes on the income had been paid. Otherwise, 30% or more of the cash would be confiscated.

The article continues here (http://www.nestmann.com/theyre-coming-for-your-cash#.VkkRCL_3iee)....

[TrumanCash]

The War on Cash: Joseph Salerno (https://mises.org/library/joseph-salerno-war-cash)

This is a very interesting audio of Joseph Salerno (https://mises.org/library/joseph-salerno-war-cash) about the war on cash.

Governments, at least modern western governments, have always hated cash transactions. Cash is private, and cash is hard to tax. So politicians trump up phony reasons like drug trafficking and money laundering to win support for bad laws like the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, which makes even small cash transactions potentially reportable to the Feds.

Today cash is under attack like never before. Ultra low interest rates are the norm for commercial bank accounts. In Europe, as the ECB ventures into negative nominal interest rates, certain banks threaten to charge customers for depositing cash. Meanwhile, certain European bonds now pay negative yields, effectively turning them into insurance products rather than financial assets. And some economists now call for the outright abolition of cash, which shows just how far some will go in their crazed belief that economic prosperity can be commanded by forcing us to spend rather than save.

The War on Cash is real, and it will intensify. Here to explain is Dr. Joe Salerno, who spoke on the subject at our recent Mises Circle event in Stamford, Connecticut.

[TrumanCash]

In a cashless or nearly cashless society here is what will happen to truth tellers when they speak out against corruption in government:

As Joseph Salerno (https://mises.org/library/joseph-salerno-war-cash) has observed, the elimination of physical cash makes it easier for the state to keep track of private persons, and it assists central banks in efforts to punish saving and expand the money supply by implementing negative interest rate schemes.

A third advantage of the elimination of physical cash would be to more easily control people and potential dissidents through the freezing of their bank accounts. As William Grigg recently reported, federal regulators have the ability to freeze the bank accounts and credit card accounts of citizens, even without charging them with a crime or providing any other due process:

“My drone operators went public this week and now their credit cards and bank accounts are frozen,” Radack lamented on her Twitter feed (the spelling of her post has been conventionalized). This was done despite the fact that none of them has been charged with a criminal offense – but this is a trivial formality in the increasingly Sovietesque American National Security State.

Michael Haas, Brandon Bryant, Cian Westmoreland and Stephen Lewis, who served as drone operators in the US Air Force, have gone public with detailed accounts of the widespread corruption and institutionalized indifference to civilian casualties that characterize the program. Some of those disclosures were made in the recent documentary Drone; additional details have been provided in an open letter from the whistleblowers to President Obama, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, and CIA Director John Brennan.

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/drone-pilots-bank-accounts-credit-cards-frozen-feds-exposing-murder/#zBCjKpSBKMzBPeWr.99

[umar]

Excellent discussion guys. Here in India they are pushing for unique id for all citizens and talking about giving incentive for cashless transactions to boost it.

The argument is for "financial inclusion" of the poor in banking system.

Most people do not seem to realize what they are getting into and even small shops prefer card payments even with a fee of 2-3% just for the convenience.

The newly elected our Mr. Modi champions these cashless deals.

It is unbelievable how confident the politicians can be when selling their ideas without any regard to long term consequences and the silly people nod their heads and buy all that logic and go back to watching cricket or soap in TV.

Dangerous days ahead. That Aaron Russo interview with Alex Jones I saw few years back changed my perspective forever. Salute to Aaron for exposing the evil ones.

[Hervé]

The International War On Cash

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Submitted by Tyler Durden (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) on 01/12/2016 19:00 -0500

Submitted by Jeff Thomas via InterntionalMan.com, (http://www.internationalman.com/articles/the-international-war-on-cash)

Back in 2008, I began warning of increasing capital controls that we would see in the future, as a component in the decline of Western economies (Western in the broad sense, including Japan, Australia, etc.)

Along the way, it occurred to me that, at some point, governments might collectively attempt to eliminate paper currency in favour of an electronic currency - transferred from party to party solely through licensed banks. Sound farfetched? Well, maybe, but what if the U.S. and EU agreed on an overall plan, then suggested it to other governments? On the face of it, this smacks of conspiracy theory, yet certainly, all governments would benefit from this control and would be likely to get on board. In fact, it might prove to be the only way out of their present economic problems.

So, how would it play out? Here’s roughly how I saw Phase I:


Link the free movement of cash to terrorism (Create a consciousness that any movement of large sums suggests criminal activity.);



Establish upper limits on the amount of money that can be moved without reporting to some government investigatory agency;



Periodically lower those limits;



Accustom people to making all purchases, however small or large, through a bank card;



Create a consciousness that the mere possession of cash is suspect, since it’s no longer “necessary”.

When I first wrote on the subject, there was considerable criticism as to the possibility that such a programme would ever be attempted, let alone succeed. And, granted, it was so Orwellian that it was understandably seen as a crackpot idea. But since that time, the programme has been developing extremely rapidly. In the last six months alone, it has become so visible that it has even garnered a name - “the War on Cash”.

References in the media have been made that terrorist groups fund their attacks with cash. Dozens of countries have placed limits on the maximum amount of money that can be moved without reporting. Some, notably France, have already begun lowering their limits. Banks in some countries, notably Sweden, are already treating all cash transactions as suspicious. The previously theoretical Phase I is now well under way.

This issue has expanded more quickly than I’d anticipated. Clearly, the governments that are forcing it into being are running out of time. There can only be one reason why they’d rush a programme that normally would be given more time for people to accept, and that’s that they see a crash coming before they can get Phase II of the programme underway.

Although most anyone who’s paying attention recognises that Phase I is in motion, Phase II (as I perceive it) is not yet on the radar, but I believe it will be soon. Phase II will be the second wave of measures and they will be more draconian than Phase I:


Create a definitive false flag event that demonstrates how physical cash is the primary means of funding evil acts in the world;



Declare a date on which paper currency will become illegal (Until that date, it can be deposited into a bank. After that date, it becomes criminal to possess it.);



Once all cash has been deposited in banks, increase negative interest rates;



Confiscation of deposits can then be implemented, as desired, by banks (Confiscation of deposits is already legal in Canada, the U.S., and the EU.);



Confiscate contents of selected safe deposit boxes;



End “voluntary” taxation. All taxation will, in future, be by direct debit;



Declare money to be the property of the State that issued it. (The people are allowed to trade in it, but it is not truly theirs. The State therefore can freeze or confiscate the funds in any account, if any crime is “suspected”.).

In recent months, I’ve warned repeatedly that, since confiscations of deposits will take place, we must assume that banks will additionally raid safe deposit boxes, as stated in the above list. Some banks, beginning with JPMorgan Chase, have placed limits on what forms of wealth can be placed in safe deposit boxes. Since then, Greece has taken this one step further. In future, Greek citizens will be required to declare cash exceeding €15,000, jewellery and precious stones valued at over €30,000 and declare the location of the safe deposit box in which they’re stored.

The declaration is fraught with difficulties for the depositor, as he bears the obligation to accurately appraise each item. Should authorities disagree with the appraisal of, say, Grandma’s diamond brooch, the depositor would be suspect and may face confiscation.


State Wealth Control

Once Phase II is completed, state wealth control will exist. And, again, this prediction will seem at first glance to be Orwellian - a mere fiction. But then, less than a year ago, the War on Cash was regarded by only a few as being even within the realm of possibility, let alone right around the corner. And so it is with Phase II. Now that Phase I is in motion, it’s accepted as an unsettling reality, but Phase II is the obvious sequel.

If you have cash in a bank, you think of it as your own. This is not the case. It’s wealth that you’ve loaned to the bank. In the future, the bank (with governmental approval) will have the power to decide if and when they will return all, or a part, of that cash to you. They will set the rules as to how that decision will be arrived at and those rules will be changed periodically. Since those rules will be arrived at by the banks (without need for your consent), the outcome will most certainly not be in your favour.


Those who read this statement might react in one of three ways:


“This can’t be happening.”



“Okay, it’s happening, but there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s global.”



“There must be something I can do to keep from being robbed.”

The first group will be the largest. They will freeze up, do little or nothing, and become victims.

The second group may complain and even struggle a bit against these developments, but won’t prepare sufficiently and, ultimately, will also become victims.

The third group will seek alternatives, and here’s where the light appears at the end of the tunnel. Yes, this effort will be international, but it won’t be fully global. There will be those jurisdictions that, traditionally, have not been willing to fall into line with the world’s foremost powers. They will not wish to go off the same cliff as the others and will take a different tack. They will be the recipients of those people who seek to escape the collapsing system. But, more than ever before, time is limited; the window is clearly closing.


Escape from Confiscation

The solution is surprisingly simple, although it will take work and dedication:


If you’re a resident of any jurisdiction that’s presently going down this road, move your money to a jurisdiction that has a consistent history for stable government, low (or no) direct taxation, and minimal interference or regulation over wealth;



Convert your wealth into those forms of assets that are hardest for rapacious governments to confiscate (foreign-held precious metals and real estate);



Create an exit plan for your own physical escape, should it become necessary.


Editor’s Note: The War on Cash and negative interest rates are radical and insane measures. They are a sign of desperation.

They are also huge threats to your financial security. Central planners are playing with fire and inviting a currency catastrophe.

Most people have no idea what really happens when a currency collapses, let alone how to prepare…

How will you protect your savings in the event of a currency crisis? This just-released video will show you exactly how. Click here to watch it now. (http://www.caseyresearch.com/go/uyik9-2/MAN)

[Hervé]

From your friendly bank-teller...

Having Cash While Black — Rapper Attacked by Police After He Withdrew $200K to Buy Car (http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cops-assault-pull-gun-rapper-money-bank/)

By John Vibes (http://thefreethoughtproject.com/author/goodvibes/) on January 10, 2016


http://thefreethoughtproject.com/wp-content/themes/_stylebook/timthumb.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fthefreethoughtproject.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F01%2Frapper-assaulted-by-police-money.jpg&q=90&w=702&h=412&zc=1

Atlanta, GA – On Friday afternoon, a wealthy rapper was assaulted by police and had guns drawn on him because he took a large sum of money out of the bank. Blac Youngsta, born Sam Benson, withdrew $200,000 cash from a bank so he could purchase an expensive vehicle and was attacked by police as soon as he reached the parking lot because he was confused for a forgery suspect.

“I come out the bank, I see the police, I’m walking to my car, I see one of them point to my bag like ‘him,’. They come bum-rushing me at the car, put me on the ground, putting guns to my head. I’m like ‘What I’d do,’ A lady was like I’m not supposed to have $200,000 on me. I’m like, ‘I’m a millionaire. How can I not have $200,000 on me?’” Benson said.

“They couldn’t believe I was young, Black, handsome as hell, and they couldn’t believe I was getting $200K out. I had my Rolex on with all the diamonds in it, all my rich stuff today,“ he added.

Benson’s bank account reportedly has nearly $1.5 million deposited.

According to police, the bank called 911 to report a forgery suspect who attempted to cash a bad check worth $24,000.

Sgt. Warren Pickard of the Atlanta Police Department said that the incident was a “mistake.”

“It was quickly discovered that the person providing the description to police had provided the wrong description of the suspect. It was determined that the occupants of the vehicle were not involved. They were immediately released,” Pickard said.

“This incident did not directly involved Blac Youngsta, nor was he accused of committing a crime,” Pickard added

Benson told reporters that he withdrew the large sum of money to buy a new Mercedes as a celebration for his recent success in the music industry.

“The thing is I’m a rapper. How I live my life, I don’t believe in checks. I’ve always dreamed about going in the bank, getting a half a million out and taking it to the car lot. Where I come from we don’t believe in taking checks to the car lot we pay cash money,” he said.

In the photos taken of the incident, the police can be seen laughing as Benson is on the ground.

However, the police did not leave without confiscating $100,000 from Benson, under the pretenses of investigating his finances to determine whether or not his money was “legitimately earned.”

Benson showed reporters the $100,000 that he had left and told them, “I might just take this right here and throw it in the strip club tonight just cuz they made me mad.”


Zi-UZwrWeDQ

[Hervé]

The International War on Cash (http://www.internationalman.com/articles/the-international-war-on-cash)

by Jeff Thomas (http://www.internationalman.com/authors/jeff-thomas)


https://d24g2nq85gnwal.cloudfront.net/images/authors/War_on_cash11.jpg


Back in 2008, I began warning of increasing capital controls that we would see in the future, as a component in the decline of Western economies (Western in the broad sense, including Japan, Australia, etc.)

Along the way, it occurred to me that, at some point, governments might collectively attempt to eliminate paper currency in favour of an electronic currency - transferred from party to party solely through licensed banks. Sound farfetched? Well, maybe, but what if the U.S. and EU agreed on an overall plan, then suggested it to other governments? On the face of it, this smacks of conspiracy theory, yet certainly, all governments would benefit from this control and would be likely to get on board. In fact, it might prove to be the only way out of their present economic problems.

So, how would it play out? Here’s roughly how I saw Phase I:


Link the free movement of cash to terrorism (Create a consciousness that any movement of large sums suggests criminal activity.);



Establish upper limits on the amount of money that can be moved without reporting to some government investigatory agency;



Periodically lower those limits;



Accustom people to making all purchases, however small or large, through a bank card;



Create a consciousness that the mere possession of cash is suspect, since it’s no longer “necessary”.

When I first wrote on the subject, there was considerable criticism as to the possibility that such a programme would ever be attempted, let alone succeed. And, granted, it was so Orwellian that it was understandably seen as a crackpot idea. But since that time, the programme has been developing extremely rapidly. In the last six months alone, it has become so visible that it has even garnered a name - “the War on Cash”.

References in the media have been made that terrorist groups fund their attacks with cash. Dozens of countries have placed limits on the maximum amount of money that can be moved without reporting. Some, notably France, have already begun lowering their limits. Banks in some countries, notably Sweden, are already treating all cash transactions as suspicious. The previously theoretical Phase I is now well under way.

This issue has expanded more quickly than I’d anticipated. Clearly, the governments that are forcing it into being are running out of time. There can only be one reason why they’d rush a programme that normally would be given more time for people to accept, and that’s that they see a crash coming before they can get Phase II of the programme underway.

Although most anyone who’s paying attention recognises that Phase I is in motion, Phase II (as I perceive it) is not yet on the radar, but I believe it will be soon. Phase II will be the second wave of measures and they will be more draconian than Phase I:


Create a definitive false flag event that demonstrates how physical cash is the primary means of funding evil acts in the world;



Declare a date on which paper currency will become illegal (Until that date, it can be deposited into a bank. After that date, it becomes criminal to possess it.);



Once all cash has been deposited in banks, increase negative interest rates;



Confiscation of deposits can then be implemented, as desired, by banks (Confiscation of deposits is already legal in Canada, the U.S., and the EU.);



Confiscate contents of selected safe deposit boxes;



End “voluntary” taxation. All taxation will, in future, be by direct debit;



Declare money to be the property of the State that issued it. (The people are allowed to trade in it, but it is not truly theirs. The State therefore can freeze or confiscate the funds in any account, if any crime is “suspected”.).


In recent months, I’ve warned repeatedly that, since confiscations of deposits will take place, we must assume that banks will additionally raid safe deposit boxes, as stated in the above list. Some banks, beginning with JPMorgan Chase, have placed limits on what forms of wealth can be placed in safe deposit boxes. Since then, Greece has taken this one step further. In future, Greek citizens will be required to declare cash exceeding €15,000, jewellery and precious stones valued at over €30,000 and declare the location of the safe deposit box in which they’re stored.

The declaration is fraught with difficulties for the depositor, as he bears the obligation to accurately appraise each item. Should authorities disagree with the appraisal of, say, Grandma’s diamond brooch, the depositor would be suspect and may face confiscation.

State Wealth Control
Once Phase II is completed, state wealth control will exist. And, again, this prediction will seem at first glance to be Orwellian - a mere fiction. But then, less than a year ago, the War on Cash was regarded by only a few as being even within the realm of possibility, let alone right around the corner. And so it is with Phase II. Now that Phase I is in motion, it’s accepted as an unsettling reality, but Phase II is the obvious sequel.

If you have cash in a bank, you think of it as your own. This is not the case. It’s wealth that you’ve loaned to the bank. In the future, the bank (with governmental approval) will have the power to decide if and when they will return all, or a part, of that cash to you. They will set the rules as to how that decision will be arrived at and those rules will be changed periodically. Since those rules will be arrived at by the banks (without need for your consent), the outcome will most certainly not be in your favour.

Those who read this statement might react in one of three ways:


“This can’t be happening.”



“Okay, it’s happening, but there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s global.”



“There must be something I can do to keep from being robbed.”


The first group will be the largest. They will freeze up, do little or nothing, and become victims. The second group may complain and even struggle a bit against these developments, but won’t prepare sufficiently and, ultimately, will also become victims.

The third group will seek alternatives, and here’s where the light appears at the end of the tunnel. Yes, this effort will be international, but it won’t be fully global. There will be those jurisdictions that, traditionally, have not been willing to fall into line with the world’s foremost powers. They will not wish to go off the same cliff as the others and will take a different tack. They will be the recipients of those people who seek to escape the collapsing system. But, more than ever before, time is limited; the window is clearly closing.

Escape from Confiscation
The solution is surprisingly simple, although it will take work and dedication:


If you’re a resident of any jurisdiction that’s presently going down this road, move your money to a jurisdiction that has a consistent history for stable government, low (or no) direct taxation, and minimal interference or regulation over wealth;



Convert your wealth into those forms of assets that are hardest for rapacious governments to confiscate (foreign-held precious metals and real estate);



Create an exit plan for your own physical escape, should it become necessary.



Editor’s Note: The War on Cash and negative interest rates are radical and insane measures. They are a sign of desperation.

They are also huge threats to your financial security. Central planners are playing with fire and inviting a currency catastrophe.

Most people have no idea what really happens when a currency collapses, let alone how to prepare…

How will you protect your savings in the event of a currency crisis? This just-released video will show you exactly how. Click here to watch it now. (http://www.caseyresearch.com/go/uyik9-2/MAN)

[Hervé]

War On Cash Escalates: China Readies Digital Currency, IMF Says "Extremely Beneficial" (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-20/war-cash-escalates-china-readies-digital-currency-imf-says-extremely-beneficial)

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Submitted by Tyler Durden (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) on 01/20/2016 19:20 -0500


Remember when Bitcoin and its digital currency cohorts were slammed by authorities and written off by the elite as worthless? Well now, as the war on cash escalates, officials from The IMF to China are seeing the opportunity to control the world's money through virtual (cash-less) currencies. Just as we warned most recently here (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-12/international-war-cash), state wealth control is the goal and, as Bloomberg reports, The PBOC is targeting an early rollout of China's own digital currency to "boost control of money" and none other than The IMF's Christine Lagarde added that "virtual currencies are extremely beneficial."

By way of background, as we explained previously, What exactly does a “war on cash” mean?
It means governments are limiting the use of cash and a variety of official-mouthpiece economists are calling for the outright abolition of cash. Authorities are both restricting the amount of cash that can be withdrawn from banks, and limiting what can be purchased with cash.
These limits are broadly called “capital controls.”

Why Now?
Why are governments suddenly so keen to ban physical cash?

The answer appears to be that the banks and government authorities are anticipating bail-ins, steeply negative interest rates and hefty fees on cash, and they want to close any opening regular depositors might have to escape these forms of officially sanctioned theft. The escape mechanism from bail-ins and fees on cash deposits is physical cash, and hence the sudden flurry of calls to eliminate cash as a relic of a bygone age — that is, an age when commoners had some way to safeguard their money from bail-ins and bankers’ control.

Forcing Those With Cash To Spend or Gamble Their Cash
Negative interest rates (and fees on cash, which are equivalently punitive to savers) raise another question: why are governments suddenly obsessed with forcing owners of cash to either spend it or gamble it in the financial-market casinos?

The conventional answer voiced by Mr. Buiter is that recession and credit contraction result from households and enterprises hoarding cash instead of spending it. The solution to recession is thus to force all those stingy cash hoarders to spend their money.

* * *
And so now we see China pushing for the early unleashing its own virtual currency, as Bloomberg reports

Issuance of digital currency can help reduce costs, curb crimes and money laundry, facilitate transactions and boost central bank’s control on money supply and circulation, PBOC says in statement on website after concluding a seminar today.

PBOC has asked its research team, which was set up in 2014, to study application scenarios for digital currency and strive for an early rollout. PBOC Statement (http://www.pbc.gov.cn/goutongjiaoliu/113456/113469/3008070/index.html):

People's Bank of China digital currency seminar held in Beijing. From the People's Bank, Citibank and Deloitte digital currency expert, respectively, on the overall framework of digital currency currency evolving national digital currency, encryption currency issued by the State and other topics of discussion and exchange. People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan attended the meeting, the People's Bank of China Deputy Governor Chair Fan Yifei. Relevant research institutions, major financial institutions and advisory bodies of experts attended the meeting.

The meeting pointed out that with the development of information technology and mobile Internet, cloud computing Trusted controlled, secure storage terminal evolution, block chain technology worldwide payment undergone tremendous changes, the development of digital currency is central Bank of currency and monetary policy has brought new opportunities and challenges. The People's Bank attaches great importance from 2014 to set up a special research team, and in early 2015 to further enrich the power of digital distribution and business operations monetary framework, the key technology of digital currency, digital currency issued and outstanding environment, digital currency legal issues facing the impact of digital currency on economic and financial system, the relationship between money and private legal digital distribution of digital currency, digital currency issuance of international experience conducted in-depth research, has achieved initial results.

The meeting held that China's current economy under the new norm, explore the central bank issued digital currency has a positive practical significance and far-reaching historical significance. It can reduce the traditional distribution of digital currency note issue, the high cost of circulation, improve convenience and transparency of economic transactions and reduce money laundering, tax evasion and other criminal acts to enhance the central bank's money supply and currency in circulation control, better support economic and social development, the full realization of inclusive finance help. Future, digital currency issuance, circulation system also helps build our new financial infrastructure construction, further improve China's payment system, improve payment and settlement efficiency, promote economic quality and efficiency upgrades.

The meeting urged the People's Bank of digital currency research team to actively absorb the important results and practical experience of digital currency research at home and abroad, continue to advance on the basis of preliminary work to establish a more effective organizational guarantee mechanism, to further clarify the strategic objectives of the central bank issued digital currency and do key technologies, multi-scene digital currency research applications for the early introduction of digital currency issued by the central bank. Design of digital currency should be based on economic, convenience and safety principles, and ensure the application of low-cost digital currency, wide coverage, digital currency payment instruments with other seamlessly, enhance the applicability and vitality of digital currency.

The People's Bank in advancing digital currency research work with relevant international agencies, Internet companies to establish a communication link with the domestic and foreign financial institutions, traditional card-based payment institutions were widely discussed. At home and abroad to participate in discussions of attention to this work, and related research on expert theory, practice and exploration and development path with the people in the banking system conducted in-depth exchanges. Which was readily followed by yet another blessing from The IMF:


*IMF’S LAGARDE SAYS VIRTUAL CURRENCIES ARE EXTREMELY BENEFICIAL
*VIRTUAL CURRENCIES ALSO COULD BE DESTABILIZING: LAGARDE


The International Monetary Fund extolled the potential benefits of virtual currencies and said they warrant a more nuanced regulatory approach, at a time when the future of bitcoin, the most well-known example, is in doubt.

“Virtual currencies and their underlying technologies can provide faster and cheaper financial services, and can become a powerful tool for deepening financial inclusion in the developing world,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a statement Wednesday to accompany the report.

"The challenge will be how to reap all these benefits and at the same time prevent illegal uses, such as money laundering, terror financing, fraud and even circumvention of capital controls.” * * *

However, as we detailed previously. (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-29/war-cash-why-now) there are three enormous flaws in this thinking.
One is that households and businesses have cash to hoard. The reality is the bottom 90 percent of households have less income now than they did fifteen years ago, which means their spending has declined not from hoarding but from declining income.


https://mises.org/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/July%2028%20graph%20one_0.png?itok=-a1xCS6L

While corporate America has basked in the glory of sharply rising profits, small business has not prospered in the same fashion. Indeed, by some measures, small business has been in a six-year recession.


https://mises.org/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/July%2028%20graph%20two_0.png?itok=uVklHuqP


The bottom 90 percent has less income and faces higher living expenses, so only the top slice of households has any substantial cash. This top slice may see few safe opportunities to invest their savings, so they choose to keep their savings in cash rather than gamble it in a rigged casino (i.e., the stock market).

The second flaw is that hoarding cash is the only rational, prudent response in an era of financial repression and economic insecurity. What central banks are demanding — that we spend every penny of our earnings rather than save some for investments we control or emergencies — is counter to our best interests.

This leads to the third flaw: capital — which begins its life as savings — is the foundation of capitalism. If you attack savings as a scourge, you are attacking capitalism and upward mobility, for only those who save capital can invest it to build wealth. By attacking cash, the central banks and governments are attacking capital and upward mobility.

Those who already own the majority of productive assets are able to borrow essentially unlimited sums at near-zero interest rates, which they can use to buy more productive assets. Everyone else — the bottom 99.5 percent — is reduced to consumer-serfdom: you are not supposed to accumulate productive capital, you are supposed to spend every penny you earn on interest payments, goods, and services.
This inversion of capitalism dooms an economy to all the ills we are experiencing in abundance: rising income inequality, reduced opportunities for entrepreneurship, rising debt burdens, and a short-term perspective that voids the longer-term planning required to build sustainable productivity and wealth.


Benefits To Banks and the Government of Eliminating Physical Cash
The benefits to banks and governments by eliminating cash are self-evident:


Every financial transaction can be taxed.
Every financial transaction can be charged a fee.
Bank runs are eliminated.

In fractional reserve systems such as ours, banks are only required to hold a fraction of their assets in cash. Thus a bank might only have 1 percent of its assets in cash. If customers fear the bank might be insolvent, they crowd the bank and demand their deposits in physical cash. The bank quickly runs out of physical cash and closes its doors, further fueling a panic.

The federal government began insuring deposits after the Great Depression triggered the collapse of hundreds of banks, and that guarantee limited bank runs, as depositors no longer needed to fear a bank closing would mean their money on deposit was lost.

But since people could conceivably sense a disturbance in the Financial Force and decide to turn digital cash into physical cash as a precaution, eliminating physical cash also eliminates the possibility of bank runs, as there will be no form of cash that isn’t controlled by banks.

So, when the dust has settled who ultimately benefits by this war on cash - government and the central banks, pure and simple.

[ThePythonicCow]

So, when the dust has settled who ultimately benefits by this war on cash - government and the central banks, pure and simple.
That will depend on whether the central authorities control digital currency.

Unfortunately, the odds are heavily in favor of their getting that control.

[Wide-Eyed]

So, when the dust has settled who ultimately benefits by this war on cash - government and the central banks, pure and simple.
That will depend on whether the central authorities control digital currency.

Unfortunately, the odds are heavily in favor of their getting that control.

I can't seem to be able to start a new thread on Global 3.0 as Catherine Austin Fitts often states so I'll post here.
https://youtu.be/4PQrz8F0dBI?list=PL4F1C94B5063C669E- 94' Charlie Rose with Sir James Goldsmith warning about globalization and GATT (General Agreements on Tariffs &Trade- which was the beginning of end.

[ThePythonicCow]

I can't seem to be able to start a new thread on Global 3.0 as Catherine Austin Fitts often states so I'll post here.
https://youtu.be/4PQrz8F0dBI?list=PL4F1C94B5063C669E- 94' Charlie Rose with Sir James Goldsmith warning about globalization and GATT (General Agreements on Tariffs &Trade- which was the beginning of end.
Expanding and embedding, here is this 1994 Charlie Rose interview of Sir James Goldsmith warning about the GATT global trade treaty:
4PQrz8F0dBI

[Hervé]

Norway's Biggest Bank Demands Cash Ban (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-23/norways-biggest-bank-demands-cash-ban)

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) Submitted by Tyler Durden (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) on 01/23/2016 17:10 -0500


The war on cash is escalating faster than many had imagined. Having documented the growing calls from the elites and propagandist explanations of the "benefits" to their serfs over the last few years, with China, and The IMF entering the "cashless society" call most recently (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-20/war-cash-escalates-china-readies-digital-currency-imf-says-extremely-beneficial), International Business Times reports (http://www.ibtimes.com/norways-biggest-bank-calls-country-stop-using-cash-2276140) that Norway - suffering from its own economic collapse as oil revenues crash (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-31/darkness-falls-upon-norway%E2%80%99s-key-figures-going-2016) - has joined its Scandi peers Denmark and Sweden in a call to "ban cash."

By way of background, as we explained previously, What exactly does a “war on cash” mean?
It means governments are limiting the use of cash and a variety of official-mouthpiece economists are calling for the outright abolition of cash. Authorities are both restricting the amount of cash that can be withdrawn from banks, and limiting what can be purchased with cash.These limits are broadly called “capital controls.”


Why Now? Why are governments suddenly so keen to ban physical cash?
The answer appears to be that the banks and government authorities are anticipating bail-ins, steeply negative interest rates and hefty fees on cash, and they want to close any opening regular depositors might have to escape these forms of officially sanctioned theft. The escape mechanism from bail-ins and fees on cash deposits is physical cash, and hence the sudden flurry of calls to eliminate cash as a relic of a bygone age — that is, an age when commoners had some way to safeguard their money from bail-ins and bankers’ control.
Forcing Those With Cash To Spend or Gamble Their Cash
The conventional answer voiced by Mr. Buiter is that recession and credit contraction result from households and enterprises hoarding cash instead of spending it. The solution to recession is thus to force all those stingy cash hoarders to spend their money.
And the benefits of a cashless society to banks and governments are self-evident:
1. Every financial transaction can be taxed.

2. Every financial transaction can be charged a fee.

3. Bank runs are eliminated.

In fractional reserve systems such as ours, banks are only required to hold a fraction of their assets in cash. Thus a bank might only have 1 percent of its assets in cash. If customers fear the bank might be insolvent, they crowd the bank and demand their deposits in physical cash. The bank quickly runs out of physical cash and closes its doors, further fueling a panic.

The federal government began insuring deposits after the Great Depression triggered the collapse of hundreds of banks, and that guarantee limited bank runs, as depositors no longer needed to fear a bank closing would mean their money on deposit was lost.

But since people could conceivably sense a disturbance in the Financial Force and decide to turn digital cash into physical cash as a precaution, eliminating physical cash also eliminates the possibility of bank runs, as there will be no form of cash that isn’t controlled by banks.
So, when the dust has settled who ultimately benefits by this war on cash - government and the central banks, pure and simple.

Which explains why Norway's biggest bank, DNB, (http://www.ibtimes.com/norways-biggest-bank-calls-country-stop-using-cash-2276140) has called for the country to stop using cash which is just the latest move in a country that has been leading the global charge toward electronic money in recent years, with several banks already not offering cash in their branch offices and some industries seeking to cut back on paper currency.
DNB's proposal suggests eliminating the use of cash would cut down on black market sales and crimes such as money laundering.


“Today, there is approximately 50 billion kroner in circulation and [the country’s central bank] Norges Bank can only account for 40 percent of its use. That means that 60 percent of money usage is outside of any control. We believe that is due to under-the-table money and laundering,” Trond Bentestuen, a DNB executive, told Norwegian website VG, the Local reported.

“There are so many dangers and disadvantages associated with cash, we have concluded that it should be phased out,”
he added. The country has already moved in this direction. Bentestuen estimated that only about 6 percent of Norwegians use cash on a daily basis, with the numbers higher among elderly people.
Norway’s Ministry of Finance is opposed to the proposal, however, and other critics have raised concerns about privacy issues as well as how the change would affect tourists. Privacy advocates in Norway have expressed worries for years that, without cash, there would be no way for an individual to purchase something without being tracked.

In 2014, Finans Norge, a financial industry organization in Norway, said the country was on pace to be a cashless society by 2020, Ice News reported. While DNB said its proposal will take time to complete, executives suggested the country start phasing out cash by discontinuing the 1,000 kroner note so it could focus on updating its banking system.

“Eighty-five percent of our customers say that they never or only very rarely go to the bank. Therefore we think it is a mistake to maintain a very old structure with local branch offices. It is better to follow the customers and improve the offers where the customers are: digital,”
Bentestuen said. In the meantime, DNB and Norway’s second largest bank, Nordea, have already stopped using cash in their branch offices. And the movement toward a goal of no cash has been going on for a while. The Norwegian Hospitality Association pushed to eliminate consumers’ right to pay cash at all stores and restaurants in 2013, The Local reported.

Other countries including Denmark and Sweden (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-18/worlds-first-cashless-society-here-totalitarians-dream-come-true) have made similar pushes as their populations also rely largely on electronic money.
If allowed to continue, state wealth control will exist.

And thus, as we concluded previously (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-12/international-war-cash), if you can’t withdraw your money as cash, you have two choices: You can deal with negative interest rates...or you can spend your money. Ultimately, that’s what our Keynesian central planners want. They are using negative interest rates and the War on Cash to force you to spend and “stimulate” the economy.

If you ask us, these radical and insane measures are a sign of desperation.

The War on Cash and negative interest rates are huge threats to your financial security. Central planners are playing with fire and inviting a currency catastrophe.

[ThePythonicCow]

.
The war on cash continues. This was just posted on Zerohedge: So It Begins: Bloomberg Op-Ed Calls For An End Of Cash (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-31/bloomberg-op-ed-calls-end-cash):

=========


In a moment of curious serendipity, a little over 90 minutes after we showed (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-31/what-cashless-society-would-look) what a dystopian, centrally-planned, cashless society unleashed in a negative interest rate world would look like ("by forcing people and companies to convert their paper money into bank deposits, the hope is that they can be persuaded (coerced?) to spend that money rather than save it because those deposits will carry considerable costs"), and briefly after we laid out the countless recent warnings from "very serious people" that cash is evil and should be banned:

Norway's Biggest Bank Demands Cash Ban (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-23/norways-biggest-bank-demands-cash-ban)
Bank Of England Economist Calls For Cash Ban, Urges Negative Rates (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-18/bank-england-economist-calls-cash-ban-urges-negative-rates)
Citigroup's Gold "Expert" Demands A Cash Ban (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-16/another-shill-statism-central-planning-demands-cash-ban)
Leading German Keynesian Economist Calls For Cash Ban (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-16/cash-ban-calls-continue-german-economist-says-bills-and-coins-obsolete)

... while warning to await a full-on coopted media assault about the dangers of cash "which is an anacrhonysm from a bygone era, and that the world will be so much better if only everyone dutifully exchanges the physical currency in their pocket for digital, traceable, and deletable 1s and 0s", none other than Bloomberg issued an editorial Op-Ed in which it had one simple message: "Bring On the Cashless Future. (http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-01-31/bring-on-the-cashless-future)"

For those who were amused by our warning that a cashless world may be coming, here is precisely why the warning was issued, in Bloomberg's digital ink:

===



Bring On the Cashless Future

Cash had a pretty good run for 4,000 years or so. These days, though, notes and coins increasingly seem declasse: They're dirty and dangerous, unwieldy and expensive, antiquated and so very analog.

Sensing this dissatisfaction, entrepreneurs have introduced hundreds of digital currencies in the past few years, of which bitcoin is only the most famous. Now governments want in: The People's Bank of China says it intends to issue a digital currency of its own. Central banks in Ecuador, the Philippines, the U.K. and Canada are mulling similar ideas. At least one company has sprung up to help them along.

Much depends on the details, of course. But this is a welcome trend. In theory, digital legal tender could combine the inventiveness of private virtual currencies with the stability of a government mint.

Most obviously, such a system would make moving money easier. Properly designed, a digital fiat currency could move seamlessly across otherwise incompatible payment networks, making transactions faster and cheaper. It would be of particular use to the poor, who could pay bills or accept payments online without need of a bank account, or make remittances without getting gouged.

For governments and their taxpayers, potential advantages abound. Issuing digital currency would be cheaper than printing bills and minting coins. It could improve statistical indicators, such as inflation and gross domestic product. Traceable transactions could help inhibit terrorist financing, money laundering, fraud, tax evasion and corruption.

The most far-reaching effect might be on monetary policy. For much of the past decade, central banks in the rich world have been hampered by what economists call the zero lower bound, or the inability to impose significantly negative interest rates. Persistent low demand and high unemployment may sometimes require interest rates to be pushed below zero -- but why keep money in a deposit whose value keeps shrinking when you can hold cash instead? With rates near zero, that conundrum has led policy makers to novel and unpredictable methods of stimulating the economy, such as large-scale bond-buying.

A digital legal tender could resolve this problem. Suppose the central bank charged the banks that deal with it a fee for accepting paper currency. In that way, it could set an exchange rate between electronic and paper money -- and by raising the fee, it would cause paper money to depreciate against the electronic standard. This would eliminate the incentive to hold cash rather than digital money, allowing the central bank to push the interest rate below zero and thereby boost consumption and investment. It would be a big step toward doing without cash altogether.

Digital legal tender isn't without risk. A policy that drives down the value of paper money would meet political resistance and -- to put it mildly -- would require some explaining. It could hold back private innovation in digital currencies. Security will be an abiding concern. Non-cash payments also tend to exacerbate the human propensity to overspend. And you don't have to be paranoid to worry about Big Brother tracking your financial life.

Governments must be alert to these problems -- because the key to getting people to adopt such a system is trust. A rule that a person's transaction history could be accessed only with a court order, for instance, might alleviate privacy concerns.

Harmonizing international regulations could encourage companies to keep experimenting. And an effective campaign to explain the new tender would be indispensable.

If policy makers are wise and attend to all that, they just might convince the public of a surprising truth about cash: They're better off without it.

To contact the senior editor responsible for Bloomberg View’s editorials: David Shipley at davidshipley@bloomberg.net.
===

And so it begins. It will most certainly not end there.


=========

[Hervé]

Germany Unveils "Cash Controls" Push: Ban Transactions Over €5,000, €500 Euro Note
(http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-03/germany-unveils-cash-controls-push-ban-transactions-over-%E2%82%AC5000-%E2%82%AC500-euro-note)
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Submitted by Tyler Durden (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) on 02/03/2016 09:43 -0500


http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user92183/imageroot/2016/02/02/Euros_0.png

It was just two days ago that Bloomberg implored (http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-01-31/bring-on-the-cashless-future) 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 (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-23/norways-biggest-bank-demands-cash-ban) 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 (https://global.handelsblatt.com/edition/354/ressort/finance/article/the-death-of-cash) (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.

[TrumanCash]

Article by Nick Giambruno, editor of the Crisis Speculator and Dr. Joe Salerno interview:

The War on Cash: Transparently Totalitarian (http://www.internationalman.com/articles/the-war-on-cash-transparently-totalitarian)

by Nick Giambruno, Senior Editor
The War on Cash: Transparently Totalitarian


George Orwell once wrote “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”

Not exactly a cheery thought, and one I don’t agree with.

While the forces pushing for centralization of power have been prevailing for decades, they haven’t won a total victory yet. Technologies that empower the individual and that tend toward decentralization—including the Internet, encryption, 3D printing, and cryptocurrencies—offer a powerful ray of hope, reasons to be optimistic about the future.

So the tug of war between the collectivists and the rest of us continues.

One thing that would tip the scales heavily in favor of the collectivists would be victory in the War on Cash. Their goal is to eliminate the use of hand-to-hand currency, so that governments can document, control, and tax everything.

It’s exactly like what Ron Paul said: “The cashless society is the IRS’s dream: total knowledge of, and control over, the finances of every single American.”

One way they are waging the War on Cash is to lower the threshold at which reporting a cash transaction is mandatory or at which paying in cash is simply illegal. In just the last few years…

Italy made cash transactions over €1,000 illegal;

Switzerland has proposed banning cash payments in excess of 100,000 francs;

Russia banned cash transactions over $10,000;

Spain banned cash transactions over €2,500;

Mexico made cash payments of more than 200,000 pesos illegal;

Uruguay banned cash transactions over $5,000; and

France made cash transactions over €1,000 illegal, down from the previous limit of €3,000.

I recently spoke about this with Dr. Joe Salerno, an Austrian economist with the Mises Institute. Joe is the best chronicler of the global War on Cash and is here to offer an Austrian rebuttal to the economic nonsense peddled by advocates of this war.

I am happy to bring you his informed insight.

Until next time,


Nick Giambruno
Senior Editor
INTERNATIONALMAN.com

Nick Giambruno: What is the War on Cash?

Joe Salerno: The War on Cash is the attempt by governments to phase cash out of their economies. Governments hate cash because they hate the financial privacy cash makes possible. And they prefer that you keep your money in a bank to help prop up an unsound fractional reserve banking system.

Nick: How did you get interested in this topic?

Joe: I noticed that every time there was a war on something—a war on crime, a war on drugs, a war on terror and so forth—the more the government encroached on financial privacy. The US government has long been waging a hidden war on cash.

One symptom of the war is that the largest denomination of US currency is the $100 note. US currency used to be issued in denominations running up to $10,000 (including also $500; $1,000; $5,000 notes). The US government stopped printing large denomination notes in 1945 and officially discontinued their issuance in 1969, when the Fed began removing them from circulation.

Since then, the largest currency note available has a face value of $100. But since 1969, the inflationary monetary policy of the Fed has caused the US dollar to depreciate by over 80%, so that a $100 note today has less purchasing power than a $20 bill in 1969.

So in addition to lowering the nominal size of the largest bill, they also reduced the bill’s purchasing power through inflation.

Despite this enormous depreciation, the Federal Reserve has steadfastly refused to issue notes of larger denomination. This has made large cash transactions extremely inconvenient and has forced the American public to make much greater use than is optimal of electronic-payment methods. Of course, this is precisely the intent of the US government.

Nick: Looking around, what are the latest examples of the War on Cash?

Joe: One right here in the United States occurred in 2011. It flew under the radar for a while. The State of Louisiana banned “secondhand dealers” from making more than one cash transaction per week. The term has a broad definition and includes Goodwill stores, specialty stores that sell collectibles like baseball cards, flea markets, garage sales and so on. Anyone deemed a “secondhand dealer” is forbidden to accept cash as payment. They are allowed to take only electronic means of payment or a check, and they must collect the name and other information about each customer and send it to the local police department electronically every day.

Continued here (http://www.internationalman.com/articles/the-war-on-cash-transparently-totalitarian)....

[TrumanCash]

Banning Cash: Serfdom in Our Time (http://www.freemansperspective.com/banning-cash-serfdom-time/)

"Negative interest rates mean that your bank account shrinks day by day, automatically."

Over the last few months a stream of articles have crossed my screen, all proclaiming the need of governments and banks to eliminate cash. I’m sure you’ve noticed them too.

It is terrorists and other assorted madmen, we are told, who use cash. And so, to protect us from being blown up and dismembered on our very own street corners, governments will have to ban it.

It would actually take some effort to imagine a more obvious, naked attempt at fearmongering. Cash – in daily use for centuries if not millennia – is now, suddenly, the agent of spring-loaded, instant death? And we’re supposed to just accept that line?

But there are good reasons why the insiders are promoting these stories now. The first of them, perhaps, is simply that they can: After 9/11, a massive wave of compliance surged through the West. It may not last forever, but it’s still rolling, and if the entertainment corporations can pump enough fear into minds that want to believe, they may just get them to buy it.

The second reason, however, is the real driver:

Negative Interest Rates

The urgency of their move to ban one of the longest-lasting pillars of daily life means that the backroom elites think it will be necessary soon. It would appear that the central banks, the IMF, the World Bank, the BIS, and all their backers, see the elimination of cash as a central survival strategy.

The reason is simple: cash would allow people to escape from the one thing that could save their larcenous currency system: negative interest rates.

To make this clear, I like to paraphrase a famous (and good) quote from Alan Greenspan, back from 1966, during his Ayn Randian days: The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves.

That was a true statement, and with a slight modification, it succinctly explains the new war on cash:

The preservation of an insolvent currency system requires that the owners of currency have no way to protect it.

Cash is currency that you hold in your own hands, that stands more or less alone. It is primarily external to bank control. Electronic money – bank balances, credit, etc. – remains inside the banking system and fully subject to bank control.

A combination of no cash and negative interest rates would be a quiet, permanent version of what was done in Cyprus, where the government simply shut down everything, allowed only the smallest deductions via ATMs, and then stole money from thousands of bank accounts at once.

The Cypriot spectacle was fairly large, however, and that tends to undermine the legitimacy of rulership. So, it is much better to have no ATMs and no cash at all. There would be no lines of angry people talking to each other, only isolated losers with no recourse, licking their wounds while the talking heads on television tell them to stay calm and watch the flashing images.

Negative interest rates would give the banks 100% control over your purchases. They could, even in the worst pinch, allow you to purchase food while freezing the rest of your money. The average person would have no recourse and would simply be robbed… but very smoothly and with no human face to blame on.

Negative interest rates mean that your bank account shrinks day by day, automatically. Your $1000 in January becomes $950 by December. And where does that money go? To the banks, of course, and to the government. They syphon your money away, drip by drip, and there’s nothing you can do about it. This accomplishes several things for them at once:

It finances government, limitlessly and automatically. Forget tax filings; they can just take as they please.

It pays off the bad debt of the big banks. (And there are oceans of debt.)

It forces you to spend everything you’ve got, as soon as you get it. (Otherwise it will shrink.)

It gives the system full control over your financial life. Everything is monitored, everything is tracked, and every single transaction must be approved by them (or not). If they decide they don’t like you, you’re instantly reduced to begging.

In short, this is a direct return to serfdom.

I suggest that you start talking to your friends and neighbors about this now, before it’s too late. Don’t let them comply without a fight.

Paul Rosenberg
www.freemansperspective.com

[Wide-Eyed]

I had companies that worked with barter exchanges in SF ,Ca. in the 90's. It is a fair and reasonably powerful means of exchange. It did go full circle across the goods and services sectors in the city and was viewed by most or both sides of the exchange as efficient, and fair. Perhaps this digital currency growth will serve as wake up call to develop barter exchanges further rather than capitulate to war on cash.

[TrumanCash]

I had companies that worked with barter exchanges in SF ,Ca. in the 90's. It is a fair and reasonably powerful means of exchange. It did go full circle across the goods and services sectors in the city and was viewed by most or both sides of the exchange as efficient, and fair. Perhaps this digital currency growth will serve as wake up call to develop barter exchanges further rather than capitulate to war on cash.

What exactly is a "barter exchange" and how does it work?

[TrumanCash]

The War On Paper Currency Begins: ECB Votes To "Scrap" 500 Euro Bill (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-15/war-paper-currency-begins-ecb-votes-scrap-500-euro-bill)

"In other words, if overnight the €307 billion worth of €500 bills were eliminated, the notional value of the entire amount of European physical currency in circulation would decline by 30% to €700 billion!"

Draghi Denies ECB Waging War on Cash With Big Banknote Review (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-15/draghi-denies-ecb-waging-war-on-cash-with-big-banknote-review) (Yeah, right, even though it would eliminate 30% of all cash)

I am wondering if they are just going to just stop printing them or if they are going to make people turn them in.


Harvard "scholar" and former Standard Chartered CEO Peter Sands who just last week said the US should ban the $100 note as it would "deter tax evasion, financial crime, terrorism and corruption."

What if the US actually followed Peter Sands' advice? --

"...$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."

[ThePythonicCow]

I am wondering if they are just going to just stop printing them or if they are going to make people turn them in.
Perhaps, just guessing here, they will:

Stop issuing them (banks would accept them for deposit or exchange for smaller bills, but no longer hand them out).
Start charging "Negative Interest" on them ... their value if submitted to a bank teller window would start declining.

[TrumanCash]

Larry Summers Launches The War On Paper Money: "It's Time To Kill The $100 Bill" (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/16/its-time-to-kill-the-100-bill/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_100dollars-840am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory)

This is a Washington Post oped (today) written by Larry Summers, former US Secretary of the Treasury.

"What should happen next? I’d guess the idea of removing existing notes is a step too far. But a moratorium on printing new high denomination notes would make the world a better place."

[ThePythonicCow]

In related news, from Zerohedge, Larry Summers Launches The War On Paper Money: "It's Time To Kill The $100 Bill" (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-16/larry-summers-launches-war-us-paper-money-its-time-kill-100-bill):

========


Yesterday we reported that the ECB has begun contemplating the death of the €500 EURO note, a fate which is now virtually assured for the one banknote which not only makes up 30% of the total European paper currency in circulation by value, but provides the best, most cost-efficient alternative (in terms of sheer bulk and storage costs) to Europe's tax on money known as NIRP.

That also explains why Mario Draghi is so intent on eradicating it first, then the €200 bill, then the €100 bill, and so on.

We also noted that according to a Bank of America analysis, the scrapping of the largest denominated European note "would be negative for the currency", to which we said that BofA is right, unless of course, in this global race to the bottom, first the SNB "scraps" the CHF1000 bill, and then the Federal Reserve follows suit and listens to Harvard "scholar" and former Standard Chartered CEO Peter Sands who just last week said the US should ban the $100 note as it would "deter tax evasion, financial crime, terrorism and corruption."

Well, not even 24 hours later, and another Harvard "scholar" and Fed chairman wannabe, Larry Summers, has just released an oped in the left-leaning Amazon Washington Post, titled "It’s time to kill the $100 bill" in which he makes it clear that the pursuit of paper money is only just starting. Not surprisingly, just like in Europe, the argument is that killing the Benjamins would somehow eradicate crime, saying that "a moratorium on printing new high denomination notes would make the world a better place."

Yes, for central bankers, as all this modest proposal will do is make it that much easier to unleash NIRP, because recall that of the $1.4 trillion in total U.S. currency in circulation, $1.1 trillion is in the form of $100 bills. Eliminate those, and suddenly there is nowhere to hide from those trillions in negative interest rate "yielding" bank deposits.
========

Hmmm ... ceasing the printing of new notes ... sounds to me like a sensible step to take, a few months before a monetary reset that exchanges our (US) Federal Reserve Notes for some Treasury Notes, as part of a world-wide monetary reset that removes the US Dollar from its Reserve status.

... start collecting the old paper now, especially the high denomination notes, so that a re-issuance, only in smaller denominations, later on, would be less disruptive.

Perhaps one would then also want to start removing the $500 Euro, if for no reason other than to ensure that it didn't start replacing the disappearing $100 US Fed note, in common usage.

(P.S. -- Looks like TrumanCash beat me to this one by ten minutes, in his post just above.)

[Wide-Eyed]

I had companies that worked with barter exchanges in SF ,Ca. in the 90's. It is a fair and reasonably powerful means of exchange. It did go full circle across the goods and services sectors in the city and was viewed by most or both sides of the exchange as efficient, and fair. Perhaps this digital currency growth will serve as wake up call to develop barter exchanges further rather than capitulate to war on cash.

What exactly is a "barter exchange" and how does it work?

BayAreaBarterExchange- http://california.14thstory.com/bay-area-barter-exchange-inc.html- closed due to the California Franchise Tax Board failing to recognize their system of bartering businesses excess goods and services amoungst themselves as tax free events.

An example of another company currently performing well as bartering exchange is BAY BUCKS. http://www.shareable.net/blog/bay-area-launches-business-currency-network

Here is another Barter Co.- https://www.imsbarter.com/san-francisco-barter

[Wide-Eyed]

In related news, from Zerohedge, Larry Summers Launches The War On Paper Money: "It's Time To Kill The $100 Bill" (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-16/larry-summers-launches-war-us-paper-money-its-time-kill-100-bill):

========


Yesterday we reported that the ECB has begun contemplating the death of the €500 EURO note, a fate which is now virtually assured for the one banknote which not only makes up 30% of the total European paper currency in circulation by value, but provides the best, most cost-efficient alternative (in terms of sheer bulk and storage costs) to Europe's tax on money known as NIRP.

That also explains why Mario Draghi is so intent on eradicating it first, then the €200 bill, then the €100 bill, and so on.

We also noted that according to a Bank of America analysis, the scrapping of the largest denominated European note "would be negative for the currency", to which we said that BofA is right, unless of course, in this global race to the bottom, first the SNB "scraps" the CHF1000 bill, and then the Federal Reserve follows suit and listens to Harvard "scholar" and former Standard Chartered CEO Peter Sands who just last week said the US should ban the $100 note as it would "deter tax evasion, financial crime, terrorism and corruption."

Well, not even 24 hours later, and another Harvard "scholar" and Fed chairman wannabe, Larry Summers, has just released an oped in the left-leaning Amazon Washington Post, titled "It’s time to kill the $100 bill" in which he makes it clear that the pursuit of paper money is only just starting. Not surprisingly, just like in Europe, the argument is that killing the Benjamins would somehow eradicate crime, saying that "a moratorium on printing new high denomination notes would make the world a better place."

Yes, for central bankers, as all this modest proposal will do is make it that much easier to unleash NIRP, because recall that of the $1.4 trillion in total U.S. currency in circulation, $1.1 trillion is in the form of $100 bills. Eliminate those, and suddenly there is nowhere to hide from those trillions in negative interest rate "yielding" bank deposits.
========

Hmmm ... ceasing the printing of new notes ... sounds to me like a sensible step to take, a few months before a monetary reset that exchanges our (US) Federal Reserve Notes for some Treasury Notes, as part of a world-wide monetary reset that removes the US Dollar from its Reserve status.

... start collecting the old paper now, especially the high denomination notes, so that a re-issuance, only in smaller denominations, later on, would be less disruptive.

Perhaps one would then also want to start removing the $500 Euro, if for no reason other than to ensure that it didn't start replacing the disappearing $100 US Fed note, in common usage.

(P.S. -- Looks like TrumanCash beat me to this one by ten minutes, in his post just above.)

Spot on Paul; scary developments http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-17/ban-cash-coming-soon

[ThePythonicCow]

So ... why are they going after cash, especially larger denominations?

War on terrorists
War on crime (drugs and prostitution)
War on positive interest rates (allow NIRP)
Setup for a global monetary reset, including replacing US Federal Reserve Notes

We're hearing variations of 1 through 3.

I suspect the critical motivator is 4.

But it's going to take a few months, at least, of major stress on Europe and the US to "sell" such a monetary reset. So far, the stress is not at that level, at least not in most of the US.

May we live in interesting times.

[TrumanCash]

The Political War on Cash
So long, Ben Franklin. Politicians want to coerce you to spend. (http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-political-war-on-cash-1455754850)

Originally posted Op-Ed via The Wall Street Journal:

These are strange monetary times, with negative interest rates and central bankers deemed to be masters of the universe. So maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that politicians and central bankers are now waging a war on cash. That’s right, policy makers in Europe and the U.S. want to make it harder for the hoi polloi to hold actual currency.

Mario Draghi fired the latest salvo on Monday when he said the European Central Bank would like to ban €500 notes. A day later Harvard economist and Democratic Party favorite Larry Summers declared that it’s time to kill the $100 bill, which would mean goodbye to Ben Franklin. Alexander Hamilton may soon—and shamefully—be replaced on the $10 bill, but at least the 10-spots would exist for a while longer. Ol’ Ben would be banished from the currency the way dead white males like him are banned from the history books.

Limits on cash transactions have been spreading in Europe since the 2008 financial panic, ostensibly to crack down on crime and tax avoidance. Italy has made it illegal to pay cash for anything worth more than €1,000 ($1,116), while France cut its limit to €1,000 from €3,000 last year. British merchants accepting more than €15,000 in cash per transaction must first register with the tax authorities. Fines for violators can run into the thousands of euros. Germany’s Deputy Finance Minister Michael Meister recently proposed a €5,000 cap on cash transactions. Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan predicted last month that cash won’t survive another decade.

The enemies of cash claim that only crooks and cranks need large-denomination bills. They want large transactions to be made electronically so government can follow them. Yet these are some of the same European politicians who blew a gasket when they learned that U.S. counterterrorist officials were monitoring money through the Swift global system. Criminals will find a way, large bills or not.

The real reason the war on cash is gearing up now is political: Politicians and central bankers fear that holders of currency could undermine their brave new monetary world of negative interest rates. Japan and Europe are already deep into negative territory, and U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said last week the U.S. should be prepared for the possibility. Translation: That’s where the Fed is going in the next recession.

Negative rates are a tax on deposits with banks, with the goal of prodding depositors to remove their cash and spend it to increase economic demand. But that goal will be undermined if citizens hoard cash. And hoarding cash is easier if you can take your deposits out in large-denomination bills you can stick in a safe. It’s harder to keep cash if you can only hold small bills.

So, presto, ban cash. This theme has been pushed by the likes of Bank of England chief economist Andrew Haldane and Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff, who wrote in the Financial Times that eliminating paper currency would be “by far the simplest” way to “get around” the zero interest-rate bound “that has handcuffed central banks since the financial crisis.” If the benighted peasants won’t spend on their own, well, make it that much harder for them to save money even in their own mattresses.

All of which ignores the virtues of cash for law-abiding citizens. Cash allows legitimate transactions to be executed quickly, without either party paying fees to a bank or credit-card processor. Cash also lets millions of low-income people participate in the economy without maintaining a bank account, the costs of which are mounting as post-2008 regulations drop the ax on fee-free retail banking. While there’s always a risk of being mugged on the way to the store, digital transactions are subject to hacking and computer theft.

Cash is also the currency of gray markets—amounting to 20% or more of gross domestic product in some European countries—that governments would love to tax. But the reason gray markets exist is because high taxes and regulatory costs drive otherwise honest businesses off the books. Politicians may want to think twice about cracking down on the cash economy in a way that might destroy businesses and add millions to the jobless rolls. The Italian economy might shut down without cash.

By all means people should be able to go cashless if they like. But it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the politicians want to bar cash as one more infringement on economic liberty. They may go after the big bills now, but does anyone think they’d stop there? Why wouldn’t they eventually ban all cash transactions much as they banned gold and silver as mediums of exchange?

Beware politicians trying to limit the ways you can conduct private economic business. It never turns out well.

[conk]

Don't you just love the commercials for bank cards? Everyone is dancing around, partying at Starbucks or where ever, sliding their draft cards through the machine. Everyone is smiling and happy ...... until some hillbilly tries to pay in cash. Screeech, the party stops and everyone stares at the fiend holding cash.

Subtle if you are ignorant. Like a rock in your face if you are wise to the agenda.

[TrumanCash]

THE WORLD SAYS YES TO CASH!

Good news on the banksters' Orwellian push for a cashless world:

Guardian: German plan to impose limit on cash transactions met with fierce resistance (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/08/german-plan-prohibit-large-5000-cash-transactions-fierce-resistance)

“It would be fatal if citizens got the impression that cash is gradually taken away from them.” -- Bundesbank President Weidman.

"In Germany, such measures clash with deeply engrained habits and social attitudes. According to a recent Bundesbank study, 79% of payments in Germany are made in cash – compared with only 48% in Britain. Even among 14- to 24-year-olds, two-thirds say they prefer paying in cash to electronic means. In a YouGov survey, 72% of Germans said they considered it safer to pay in cash."

As War on Cash Escalates, Cash Lovers Fight Back (http://wolfstreet.com/2016/02/18/war-on-cash-escalates-cash-lovers-fight-back-germany-japan/)

"Germany’s neighbor to the south, Austria, has similar reservations about the EU’s plans to suppress cash. The Deputy Economy Minister Harald Mahrer recently said that Austrians should have the constitutional right to protect their privacy."

“We don’t want someone to be able to track digitally what we buy, eat and drink, what books we read and what movies we watch,” Mahrer said on Austrian public radio station Oe1. “We will fight everywhere against rules” including caps on cash purchases, he said.

"Meanwhile, in tech-obsessed Japan, the country that first popularized mobile wallets and smartphones, cash is king. It is offered and excepted reverentially even when paying for groceries. Every ¥10,000-note is treated with utmost care. As a rule, they’re pristine. Demand for cash remains solid, to the increasing consternation of global credit card companies. In a 2013 report, MasterCard estimated that 38% of the total value of the country’s retail transactions were in cash. That’s almost twice the rate in the U.S. and five times the rate in France."

Greek Attempt To Force Use Of Electronic Money Instead Of Physical Cash Fails (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-21/greek-attempt-force-use-electronic-money-instead-physical-cash-fails)

"The government has told taxpayers that they will have to spend up to a certain amount of their incomes via bank and card transactions in order to qualify for an annual tax-free exemption."

"Greek businesses are not ready for the expansion of plastic money through the compulsory use of credit and debit cards for everyday transactions....an estimated half of all businesses do not have card terminals. "

In the United States Cash Continues to Play a Key Role in Consumer Spending (http://www.frbsf.org/cash/publications/fed-notes/2014/april/cash-consumer-spending-payment-diary): Evidence from the Diary of Consumer Payment Choice

"Evidence from the Diary of Consumer Payment Choice (DCPC), conducted in October 2012 by the Boston, Richmond, and San Francisco Federal Reserve Banks suggests otherwise. Not only is cash a very different payment instrument than checks, but consumers choose to use cash more frequently than any other payment instrument, including debit or credit cards. Cash plays a dominant role for small-value transactions, is the leading payment instrument for many types of purchases, and stands as the key alternative when other options are not available."

"In October 2012, the average American consumer had 59 transactions, including purchases and bill payments, and 23 of these 59 payments involved cash."

[TrumanCash]

Cash is the Currency of Freedom (http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/02/29/100-dollar-bill-cash-inflation-larry-summers-federal-reserve-column/81080728/)

As Fed inflates away dollar's value, government gains more control to manipulate taxpayers and savers

Former Treasury secretary Larry Summers wants to get rid of the $100 bill. But I think he has it exactly backward. I think we need to restore the $500 and $1000 bills. And the reason is that people like Larry Summers have done a horrible job.

Summers wrote recently in The Washington Post that the $100 bill needs to go. The reason, he says, is that it’s a favorite of criminals, along with the 500 euro note, which is likely to be discontinued. The New York Times editorialized in agreement, writing: “Getting rid of big bills will make it harder for criminals to do business and make it easier for law enforcement to detect illicit activity. ... There is no need for large-denomination currency. Britain’s top bill is the 50-pound note ($72), which has been perfectly sufficient. The United States stopped distributing $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills in 1969. There are now so many ways to pay for things, and eliminating big bills should create few problems.”

Reading this got me to thinking: What is a $100 bill worth now, compared to 1969? According to the U.S. Inflation Calculator online, a $100 bill today has the equivalent purchasing power of $15.49 in 1969 dollars. Likewise, in 1969, a $100 bill had the equivalent purchasing power of $645.55 in today’s dollars.

So even if we brought back the discontinued $500 bill, it wouldn’t have the purchasing power today that a $100 bill had in 1969, when larger denominations were discontinued. And carrying around a $100 bill today is basically like carrying around a $20 in 1969.

And although inflation isn’t running very high at the moment, this trend will only continue. If the next few decades are like the last few, paper money in current denominations will become basically useless.

Of course, as CATO Institute analyst Daniel J. Mitchell writes, to our ruling class this isn’t a bug, but a feature. Governments want to get rid of cash for two reasons. First, it gives them more control over citizens: They justify it in the name of fighting terrorists and organized crime, but what they really care about is making sure that nobody escapes their scrutiny, for purposes of taxes, regulation and political finagling. Second, if you’re stuck putting your money in a bank, they can force you to spend it (and thus “stimulate” the economy) by subjecting you to negative interest rates, in which money that just sits in the bank shrinks away, providing an incentive to spend.

The Federal Reserve and various other financial regulatory bodies were sold politically in no small part as protections against inflation. But inflation has run rampant. According to the inflation calculator, today’s $100 bill is worth only as much as $4.18 in 1913, the year the Federal Reserve was established. When you realize that inflation helps debtors and that governments are the world’s biggest debtors, this makes a certain amount of sense — for them.

But at a time when, almost no matter where you look in the world, the parts of it controlled by the experts and technocrats (like Larry Summers) seem to be doing badly, it seems reasonable to ask: Why give them still more control over the economy? What reason is there to think that they’ll use that control fairly, or even competently? Their track record isn’t very impressive.

Cash has a lot of virtues. One of them is that it allows people to engage in voluntary transactions without the knowledge or permission of anyone else. Governments call this suspicious, but the rest of us call it something else: Freedom.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor, is the author of The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself, and a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors.

[TargeT]

Korea shifting to cashless society
http://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/newsV2/images/K2016030100157-650.jpg
Cash is giving way to credit cards and fintech payments in Korea, slowly losing its significance as a means of trade. And those who have left wallets at home find they can do perfectly well without banknotes and coins, as long as they carry credit cards with their smartphones.

According to a central bank survey, Koreans carry on average 1.91 credit cards, 2.03 mobile cards and 1.26 check or debit cards. Four out of 10 picked credit cards as the means of payment they use most, up from three out of 10 the previous year. The ratio of those picking cash, meanwhile, continues to fall.

As Koreans are carrying less cash, with the average standing at 74,000 won last year, down 3,000 won from the previous year, the central bank is also issuing less cash. It released 12.3 percent fewer 10,000 won banknotes last year from the previous year, while the issuance of 5,000 won notes dipped 5.9 percent and 1,000 won bills 3.7 percent.

The Bank of Korea is planning a "cashless society" by 2020. If a shopper buys a 9,500 won item and pays with a 10,000 won banknote, for instance, the shopper will be credited 500 won to his or her prepaid card instead of getting a 500 won coin in change.

Korea is not the only country wanting to become cashless.

"A number of developed countries are turning to non-cash policies to enhance the effectiveness of their economic systems," said Lee Hyo-chan, the head of the research center at the Credit Finance Institute. Sweden, which is one of the pioneers in this move, has a cash payment ratio around 20 percent, much lower than the global average of 75 percent. It restricts using cash for public transportation, and many banks do not handle cash. Some countries, mostly in Europe, ban using cash for large transactions, according to the institute.

The move comes from the expectation that a cashless society will partly solve the problem of the underground economy, according to Kwak Hyun-soo, an analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp.

"There are positive aspects of a cashless society," he said. "It can open the underground economy, and thus enhance equivalence in taxation. The shoe box full of 50,000 won banknotes that you see in movies will disappear in reality (with the advancement of a cashless society)."

Based on a McKinsey report, Kwak estimates the cashless society will cut costs equivalent to between 0.1 and 1.1 percent of GDP. According to the consulting firm, countries where the ratio of payment in cash is below 50 percent were relatively transparent, with the shadow economy taking only 12 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). But countries where cash is used for over 80 percent of payments had the ratio surge to 32 percent of GDP.

On top of decreasing crimes where cash is involved, such as tax evasion, drug transactions and bribery, Lee says going cashless can help monetary policy. For example, some countries have adopted the minus interest rate to stimulate their economy, but it will not work if people continue holding cash in their safes. When cash becomes electronic, people will have to spend it to avoid losses from the minus interest rate.

"To accelerate the transition into a cashless society, there should be more tax benefits for non-cash transactions while increasing costs and burdens for those holding or managing cash," Lee said.

The internet-only banks, to be launched by Kakao and KT, will also accelerate the cashless society. Following Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, LG Pay will be launched soon to replace wallets, and the competition is heating up, with diverse players jumping into the new payments market. Gartner, a U.S. IT research firm, expects the global mobile payments market to reach $720 billion 2017.

But the cashless society is not without side effects, according to Kwak. "If cash disappears from our hands, all of the monetary transactions will be done on the Internet. Just like freedom is accompanied by duty, convenience is followed by a cost called surveillance. The end of cash means the start of the ‘Big Brother' era. At the core of the Big Brother era, of course, is IT."
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2016/03/488_199146.html

[TrumanCash]

Failure of the War on Cash (http://www.internationalman.com/articles/failure-of-the-war-on-cash) by Jeff Thomas

Some years ago, when I suspected there would be a War on Cash at some point, everything in the behaviour of the central banks pointed to the idea—it fit exactly into their own informed, yet unrealistic, pattern of logic. I therefore decided that it would be a likely development and would take place at a time when they had tried everything else and had run out of other ideas. As to a date when this might happen…I had no idea.

When several countries had begun to limit the amount of money that a depositor could take out of a bank, I decided that the first shots in the War on Cash had been fired and began to publish my prognostications as to what shape it would take. First, there were the benefits to the bank (the elimination of cash transactions, which would assure that virtually all monetary transactions, large and small, would have to be passed through banks, allowing them to effectively “own” all deposits, charge for every transaction and even refuse transactions). The governments would also benefit. In approving the banks’ monopoly on monetary transactions, they’d benefit primarily through the new ability to tax people by direct debit, ending any remnant of voluntary payment of taxation.

What I didn’t anticipate at that time was that, within a few months, the War on Cash would be escalated quickly—more quickly than was safe for them to do, as it could alarm depositors. (As in the old analogy of boiling a frog, it’s always best to turn up the heat slowly, to lull the victim into complacency as he’s being done in.)

This indicated to me that the central banks had decided that they’d already waited too late and had better hurry up the programme to assure that it was in place before a currency crisis could heat up.

Since then, someone came up with an excellent name for the phenomenon, one that succinctly describes the plan in a nefarious way, as it deserves to be described—the War on Cash. Today, anyone who is paying attention is aware of the War on Cash and what it might do to him. As each new salvo by the banks and governments is uncovered, attentive observers are publishing such developments on the Internet.

However, there’s another facet to the War on Cash that no one (to my knowledge) has yet addressed. The war is still new, and those who will be attacked are understandably still scrambling for their muskets and hurrying to the ramparts. (Musing on how a war will play out usually comes later, as it’s winding down and a victor seems apparent. However, in my belief, it’s wise to examine what the landscape will look like after the war is over, as it can serve to inform us as to what battle tactics should be employed.)

So, let’s have a look. First off, we know that whenever there’s a coming monetary collapse, major banks look forward to employing their political influence to assure that legislation and emergency government measures protect them in a way that results in putting upcoming competitors out of business. We can expect the same this time around. These smaller banks arise during boom times by creating many small branches—the type seen in strip malls and shopping villages. Typically, they have only 1,000 or so depositors per bank—just barely enough to create profit, but, as “convenience banks,” they can count on a steady business from those who live nearby.

Larger banks also tend to create numerous branches during good times, in order to hold down the rising competition; however, they resent the need to create endless less-profitable entities that tie up funds that could otherwise go out as directors’ bonuses. Consequently, when a monetary crisis occurs and the government steps in to help out the major banks, many of the smaller competitors are driven under, as they don’t receive the same governmental support. At such times, we see the edifices in the city remain, whilst the little banks in the strip mall disappear. The majors can now be rid of them. During a banking crisis, a country returns to 19th-century banking in terms of available institutions. Want to make a deposit? Make a trip into the city.

In keeping with the War on Cash, ATMs will also be eliminated. All transactions will be by plastic card or smartphone.

Certainly, as a result of the dangerous position the banks will already be in, we shall witness a steady increase in the charges by banks for the privilege of having them control depositors’ economic worth. Worse, we shall witness the outright confiscation of deposits (as in Cyprus in 2013) and the control of how much a depositor may debit his account in any given week (as in Greece today). It’s at this point that a universal trend to get around the banks’ control will unquestionably take hold. This, I believe, will manifest itself in two ways: top down and bottom up.
Top Down

As I write, bank branches—all of them in small towns—are already closing in “lesser” countries like Romania. This will both grow and spread eventually, to more prominent countries. Banking will be increasingly difficult for depositors, as the ability to actually talk to individuals at the bank will dry up. The bank will become more like a faceless authority that holds power over depositors’ money and will grow to be hated in a relatively short time. (Most of the people of the world have already learned to be deeply distrusting of banks and bankers; outright hatred would not be a major next step.)
Bottom Up

In the Eastern provinces of Mexico, the Campesinos already eschew banks, choosing instead to store their money privately. (Chiapas Province is in a virtual economic war with Western Mexico. They value the Libertad as East Indians value gold.) Those Mexicans who live further to the west regard their eastern brothers as somewhat lawless and uncivilised at present. However, when the Campesinos prove to be surviving the crisis better than their western neighbours are, the western provinces will, of necessity, follow their lead. Mexico will be amongst the first countries to return to precious metals as the primary (if not sole) currency, setting the stage for other countries.

Countries such as Romania and Mexico will serve as an early-warning system. The solutions they and other “fringe” countries employ will spread quickly to the larger world. In order to keep from being controlled by banks, the average person in the EU, U.S. and other “civilised” jurisdictions will learn quickly that, if other forms of trade (alternate currencies, precious metals, barter, etc.) allow him to feed his children when the banks restrict him, he’ll resort to any and all forms of black market dealing that he can find.
The Treaty of Versailles

Following World War I, the victors decided to economically cripple the losers—the Germans. The Treaty of Versailles was ruthless in its purpose—to strip Germany of all possibility of future prosperity, so that it could never rise again.

Of course, what happened was the opposite. Following an economic collapse just five years after the war, the German people, now desperate, chose to follow a new leader who promised that he would “make Germany great again.” The more arrogant he became, the more support he received. The oppression of the treaty failed, as Germans, pushed to the wall, came out fighting.

I believe that the War on Cash will end without such an extreme, but, just as with the Treaty of Versailles, will be stopped by the people of the world as a result of a monetary stricture that is simply too oppressive to be tolerated. This will by no means be a pleasant historical period to travel through. Many people will have their savings wiped out. Many will literally starve. But the anger that’s created in them will reveal the banks as the clear “enemy” in this drama, and those citizens who are presently respectful of the laws of their country will increasingly defy the enemy. They will resort to an alternate system. This is historically what has always occurred when people have been squeezed to this degree, and it will repeat itself this time around. [Source: International Man] (http://www.internationalman.com/articles/failure-of-the-war-on-cash)

[TrumanCash]

JAPAN IMPLEMENTING CASHLESS FINGERPRINT PAYMENTS (http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002859676)

Starting this summer, the government will test a system in which foreign tourists will be able to verify their identities and buy things at stores using only their fingerprints.

The government hopes to increase the number of foreign tourists by using the system to prevent crime and relieve users from the necessity of carrying cash or credit cards. It aims to realize the system by the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The experiment will have inbound tourists register their fingerprints and other data, such as credit card information, at airports and elsewhere.

Tourists would then be able to conduct tax exemption procedures and make purchases after verifying their identities by placing two fingers on special devices installed at stores.

The Inns and Hotels Law requires foreign tourists to show their passports when they check into ryokan inns or hotels.

The government plans to substitute fingerprint authentication for that requirement.

A total of 300 souvenir shops, restaurants, hotels and other establishments will participate in the experiment. They are located in areas that are popular among foreign tourists such as Hakone, Kamakura, Yugawara in Kanagawa Prefecture, and Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture.

The government plans to gradually expand the experiment by next spring, to cover areas including tourist sites in the Tohoku region and urban districts in Nagoya.

It hopes to realize the system throughout the country, including Tokyo, by 2020.

Introducing the system is part of the government’s efforts to increase the annual number of foreign tourists to 40 million by 2020.

It is also aiming to demonstrate the country’s advanced technology by having tourists use the system when they visit Japan for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

Data concerning how and where foreign tourists use the system will be managed by a consultative body led by the government, after the data is converted to anonymous big data.

After analyzing tourists’ movements and their spending habits, the data is expected to be utilized to devise policies on tourism and management strategies for the tourism industry.

However, there are concerns that tourists will be uneasy about providing personal information such as fingerprints.

The experiment will examine issues including how to protect one’s privacy and information management.

Attempts to put similar systems into practical use are under way at a bank and a theme park in Japan.

In October last year, the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, introduced on a trial basis a similar system in which visitors can make payments with just their fingerprints at about 30 stores and restaurants.

An official from the theme park said, “The system has been well received by customers, including those with children, since it saves them the trouble of taking their wallets out.”

By the end of this month at the earliest, Tokyo-based Aeon Bank will become the first bank in Japan to test a system in which customers will be able to withdraw cash from automatic teller machines using only fingerprints for identification and omitting the use of cash cards.

“The system is also superior in the area of security, such as preventing people from impersonating our customers,” an official from the bank said.

COMMENT: I wonder how many people will end up losing a finger before they rethink this one. :facepalm:

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Which would you rather have stolen by a criminal?

A. your credit card;
B. your cash; or
C. your finger

(Please choose one of the options above)

[TrumanCash]

Lyin' Larry Summers pushes the war on cash in this recent Financial Times article entitled:

Europe is right to kill off the criminals’ favourite banknote (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/c9bfe780-12b4-11e6-91da-096d89bd2173.html#axzz485T0t7MZ)

They keep pushing the very transparent lie that only criminals need large denomination "bills" when this is blatantly false. Also, the large denomination bills keep losing value as prices rise so people actually need even higher denomination bills.

(Actually, we need real money but that's for another thread.)

[TrumanCash]

PayPal's Ceo, Daniel Schulman, had this to say about cash:


http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000481335

"But the biggest competitor that I see is cash. 85 percent of the world's transactions are still in cash today. And cash is an incredibly inefficient form of currency so this secular tail wind towards digital payments, towards mobile payments, the big enemy is really going after cash and seeing that move toward the digital payment. But with the world moving toward mobile phones, they have all the power of a bank branch in the palm of your hand right now. I think its sort of a matter of time before we start to crack that element of cash which is a very stubborn piece of the monetary system."

[Carmody]

Insertion of a layer into reality, no matter how thin or transparent, is key to suspending and breaching the given reality....to make it what one will.

Without anyone ever noticing.

Cash, was and is one of those thin transparent 'tricks'.

A cashless society is an even greater 'x' value insertion. where x can be whatever they want it to be.


A cashless society is a good thing.

a cashless society is a bad thing.

Both are true.

The trick is to walk away from cash or 'monetary value' as having any value in any system, whatsoever. If one clings to the idea of monetary value, in anything, then one is destined for manipulation via that lever.

[TrumanCash]

The Shift to a Cashless Society is Snowballing (http://www.visualcapitalist.com/shift-cashless-society-snowballing/)

Very interesting chart and article at http://www.visualcapitalist.com/shift-cashless-society-snowballing/

http://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/war-on-cash.jpg

[ThePythonicCow]

So, presto, ban cash. This theme has been pushed by the likes of Bank of England chief economist Andrew Haldane and Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff, who wrote in the Financial Times that eliminating paper currency would be “by far the simplest” way to “get around” the zero interest-rate bound “that has handcuffed central banks since the financial crisis.” If the benighted peasants won’t spend on their own, well, make it that much harder for them to save money even in their own mattresses.

Kenneth Rogoff, a former senior fellow for economics at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and currently Professor of both Public Policy and Economics at Harvard University, and the current CFR President Richard Haass, continue to advocate for a nearly cashless society. They recommend removing the $100, $50 and $20 bills from the US, leaving just $10 and under bills and coins, for small purchases.

Doug Casey calls our Haass and Rogoff in this article: Doug Casey on the Self-Identified Elite (http://www.internationalman.com/articles/doug-casey-on-the-self-identified-elite), in which he denounces a new Haass article in the Wall Street Journal (I don't find a link for this Haass article offhand), and an even worse article by Rogoff, also in the Wall Street Journal, dated 25 August 2016, at The Sinister Side of Cash (http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sinister-side-of-cash-1472137692).

Jeffrey Folks also posted a rebuttal to the above recent Rogoff article, on the American Thinker, at The Sinister Side of a Cashless Society (http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/08/the_sinister_side_of_a_cashless_society.html).

I stand with Casey and Folks. The people have an inherent right to be free from unwarranted (without specific probable cause) searches of our "persons, houses, papers, and effects", as recognized in the Fourth Ammendment to the US Constitution (http://constitution.findlaw.com/amendment4.html).

[Satori]

A so-called cashless society will give them even more power and control. And that's were it's at for these gutless beings.

[ThePythonicCow]

In a news article in a major financial magazine, Fortune, Apple CEO Cook joins the call for a cashless society: Apple’s Next Goal Is Killing Paper Money Once and For All (http://fortune.com/2016/10/17/apple-tim-cook-cash/):

===========


Apple CEO Tim Cook has an idea for the future—eliminating cash.

Apple Pay could be the “catalyst” that ultimately gets the world to switch from cash to digital payments, he told the Japanese news service Nikkei in an interview published on Monday.

“We would like to be a catalyst for taking cash out of the system,” Cook said. “We don’t think the consumer particularly likes cash.”

Apple AAPL released Apple Pay, a digital payment service, in 2014. Users who store their credit cards, debit cards, and gift cards with the service can pay at checkout in stores by waving their iPhones near a terminal. Taking out cash or a credit card is unnecessary. Apple Pay’s top competitors in mobile payments include Samsung and Google.

The challenge initially for Apple was to get banks and retailers to sign onto the service. But in the last two years, Apple has recruited a number of new banks, stores, and ATM locations. Recently, Apple announced that Apple Pay will work with FeliCa, a mobile-payment standard in Japan that allows Apple to quickly roll out Apple Pay in the country.

It’s unclear how Apple could achieve Cook’s goal of eliminating cash. Apple Pay must be linked to plastic to work, and while smartphones and payment terminals are ubiquitous in the U.S., that’s not the case in most other countries. And even then, Apple Pay is only compatible with Apple’s own products, leaving the more than a billion people worldwide who use Android-based handsets out of luck. And that says nothing of people whose phones use other operating systems and people who don’t own smartphones.

Therefore, the idea that Apple Pay could replace cash seems unlikely in the near term. Even if Apple is one of several companies offering a mobile-payment option, it’s far more likely that credit and debit cards would be the first casualty to mobile payments. Cash, if it ever dies, would likely be killed off sometime after.

Still, Cook’s comment on Apple Pay is notable. Apple Pay competes in a fledgling market and isn’t generating substantial revenue for Apple. Cook’s hopes for a cashless future suggests he’s bullish on the technology’s potential and believes Apple Pay could eventually become a major part of Apple’s business. Apple is believed to take a 0.15% cut on all Apple Pay transactions in the U.S. Rates vary elsewhere around the world. The notoriously secretive Apple hasn’t publicly shared the fees it charges banks on Apple Pay transactions.

But Apple Pay might not be the only tool that Cook believes will make a big impact on Apple. He told the Nikkei that artificial intelligence, a technology that allows computers to think more like humans, will play a major role in the company’s future. Cook said that Apple would like to see artificial intelligence used to “increase your battery life” and “help you remember where you parked your car,” for example. Last week, Apple announced that it would open an artificial-intelligence-focused research-and-development center in Yokohama, Japan.

===========

[avid]

Ho ho ho, how the heck am I going to pay my fortnightly pittance to the window cleaner, or to the poor guy who mows my lawn for next to nothing? One of them has no mobile phone. The other is a technophobe, so am I really, keeping up with apps at my age without constant pep-talks with young folk is impossible. Bottom line is a vast tranche of people deliberately cut out of society, as we are not profitable? 😡
The only useful thing above is to enable me to remember where I parked my car, but my keyring bleeps me to it... 🙄

[TrumanCash]

In a fiery address to the Indian nation, PM Narendra Modi just took a major step in the war on cash that is being waged worldwide. Talking tough on fighting corruption and the black market economy, Modi decreed that the INR500 ($7.50), and INR1000 ($15) bills will no longer be legal tender and that ATM withdrawals will be limited to INR2000 ($30) for some.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slIVJit2TCw

"Fake money and terrorism are ruining the nation's fabric," Modi exclaimed, adding that "it was very important to keep this news under wrap. Due to this, RBI and post office have a major task ahead and RBI has also decided that all banks will be shut for the public on November 9."

"Honest man cannot buy a house, cannot get proper education due to black money."

"Cash economy aides black money, corruption and makes life difficult for the poor."

"Government is imposing a limit on high denomination notes. In the history of nations, such a moment comes when you realise that you must be part of this historical moment. This, is one such day. Every common man who is tired of corruption and black money is welcome to contribute to this catharsis. It is very important to cleanse the nation of the corruption."

"Come, let's all celebrate the festival of honesty"

[My note: If you were really honest wouldn't you be saying "slavery" instead of "honesty"]

Read more... (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-08/war-cash-strikes-india-pm-scraps-some-currency-notes-limits-atm-withdrawals-fight-co)

[TrumanCash]

"There's Chaos Everywhere" - Indians Angry As ATMs Run Dry After Cash Ban (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-12/theres-chaos-everywhere-indians-angry-atms-run-dry-after-cash-ban)

[TrumanCash]

Chaos in the Wake of the Ban (http://www.acting-man.com/?p=47842)

This is a very interesting article about what happens when cash is banned! (Excerpts below)

Today India is on the verge of a major social-political crisis, unless either the government backs off from the decision of banning the currency or some real magic happens. There is chaos in the streets and daily life is slowly but surely coming to a full halt.

What Modi did was not only heavy-handed, hugely arrogant, and of no value, it has been very badly implemented to boot — as everything in India always is — and carries the real potential of escalating and snowballing into something horrific. They could have seen that this was not going to end well by simply using primary school math.

People are now converting whatever they can into gold, silver, and mostly for the first time into the US dollar and other foreign currencies as well, all of which are trading at huge premiums. Money is also moving out of the country. Gold has shot up to as much as $2,800 per ounce, if you can find it.

Half of India’s citizens do not have a bank account and around 25% do not even have an ID card. These are the country’s poorest people, who have no way of converting their money – even if they learn how to do it, which is already a nigh insurmountable hurdle. Also, those who are old, disabled or sick have no choice but to suffer, for without personally visiting a bank branch office, one cannot convert one’s banknotes.

[TrumanCash]

War on Cash intensifies: Citibank to stop accepting cash at some branches (https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/war-on-cash-intensifies-citibank-to-stop-accepting-cash-at-some-branches-20495/?inf_contact_key=647cc93465349a1bf455d248ad2913271436b2ed0c153e4ef1f0e6cf79b425e2)

Less than a week after India’s surprise move to scrap its highest denomination cash notes, another front in the War on Cash has intensified down under in Australia.

Yesterday, banking giant UBS proposed that eliminating Australia’s $100 and $50 bills would be “good for the economy and good for the banks.”

(How convenient that a bank would propose something that’s good for banks!)

This isn’t the first time that the financial establishment has pushed for a cashless society in Australia (or anywhere else).

In September 2015, Australian bank Westpac published its “Cash Free Report”, suggesting that the country would become cashless by 2022.

In July 2016, Australian payments firm Tyro published an enormously self-serving blog post touting the benefits of a cashless society and saying, “it’s only a matter of time.”

Most notably, two days ago, Citibank (yes, THAT Citibank) announced that it was going cashless at some of its Australian branches.

The media and political establishments have chimed in as well.

In February of this year, the Sydney Morning Herald released a series of articles, some of which were written by officials from Australia’s Department of the Treasury, suggesting that eliminating cash will “save billions”, and that “moving to a cashless society is the next step for the Australian dollar”.

This is how it works.

The government, media, banks, and even academia have formed a single, unified chorus to push this idea out to consumers that “cashless” is good for everyone.

Read more... (https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/war-on-cash-intensifies-citibank-to-stop-accepting-cash-at-some-branches-20495/?inf_contact_key=647cc93465349a1bf455d248ad2913271436b2ed0c153e4ef1f0e6cf79b425e2)

[Hervé]

Chaos in the Wake of the Ban (http://www.acting-man.com/?p=47842)

This is a very interesting article about what happens when cash is banned! (Excerpts below)

[...]

Reposted here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?88526-The-Big-Squeeze&p=1114549&viewfull=1#post1114549) (<---) as well.

[TrumanCash]

The War on Cash is Not Over… It’s About to Intensify (http://gainspainscapital.com/2016/11/21/war-cash-not-intensify/) -- Phoenix Capital Research

The Trump Presidency has distracted from the next major move to be implemented by Financial Elite.

That move is a cash ban.

Cash, particularly physical cash (as in bills and coins) is a huge problem for insolvent banks.

Indeed, it is the ONLY problem they have yet to address.

If you’re a large bank and you’re overleveraged due to excessive assets to capital ratios (particularly assets that are at risk of losing value or default) there are three key issues you need to control.

You need to be able to value your assets however you please.
You need access to liquidity without lowering you asset to capital ratios.
You need to be able to stop bank runs or capital flights.

The Central Banks have already fixed #1 and #2 by suspending “mark to market” accounting standards and implementing QE, respectively. And thanks to rehypothecation, banks can sell assets to Central Banks via QE and still use those same assets as collateral on their derivatives trades.

That leaves #3: capital flights.

At the end of the day, no matter how many tricks the Financial Elites employ via accounting gimmicks and QE programs, depositors can still choose to take their money out of the banks and transfer it to physical cash.

Hence the call for cash bans, particularly of large bills.

The Elites claim that they want to do away with $100 bills (or greater denominations) to stop money laundering or other illicit practices.

The reality is that banning large bills makes it much more difficult for depositors to move their money into cash. Taking out $20,000 or more in deposits when it’s broken down into $100 bills isn’t too difficult.

Taking out $20,000 in $20 bills or smaller denominations IS.

In effect, a cash ban is an attempt to stop bank runs. The process is starting with large denominations, but it will be spreading to even small bills. The process is already underway in France, India, Spain, Uruguay, even Australia have begun implementing or preparing to implement similar schemes.

This is just the start. In the coming months the Fed will be announcing similar plans for a cash ban in the US.

Read more... (http://gainspainscapital.com/2016/11/21/war-cash-not-intensify/)

[ThePythonicCow]

As reported on a number of websites, the war on cash has increased over the last week.

For example, in the article War On Cash Just Got Real – India and Citibank In Australia (MaxKeiser.com) (http://www.maxkeiser.com/2016/11/war-on-cash-just-got-real-india-and-citibank-in-australia/), Mark O'Byrne opens with this list of points that he covers in his post: War On Cash Goes Global – India, Australia and Citibank
India shock cancellation of nation’s two highest-denomination notes
India effectively invalidates & removes 86% of cash from circulation
India sees “runs on banks” & severe financial difficulties
Citi to makes all Australian branches cashless
Australian pilot programme restricts 80% of payments on card
UBS proposes Australia eliminates $100 and $50 bills
What can we do about this?
ConclusionThis "War on Cash" meme might be a partial misdirection.

I suspect that the war is on the world economy. The economy is first pumped up with excess liquidity (cash, credit, whatever ...), and then it is crashed (taking back the cash, refusing new loans, calling in existing loans, crashing pension funds and stock markets, whatever ...)

The collapse of a monetary system happens from the outside in. India is further outside than Europe, which in turn is further outside than the US (since the current monetary system is US Dollar denominated.)

To crash India, you take the cash out of the system. India is now entering into a broad economic collapse, as an immediate result.

To crash the US, you shut down banks and pull back credit. Our long food supply chains depend on a constant supply of bank credit, and banking transactions, to fund many of the critical production, transportation, distribution, storage and retails sales steps in the process.

I expect that the "War on Cash" will show up in the US in a different form, not as the primary means to detonate the economic collapse, but rather as part of how "they" get us to exchange our green US Federal Reserve Notes for multi-colored US Treasury Dollars. That exchange will decouple the currency used inside the US from the currency in which the world monetary system is denominated, enabling other major national currencies, SDR denominated debt, and/or gold backed trade notes to become major parts of the world's monetary system.

Always and forever, to gain control over an economy, whether that be local, national, or global, first "they" over-excite that economy with "easy money" (cash, credit, silver coins, whatever), and then "pull" back that supply and pick up the pieces.

It's like how one might farm for fruit that grows on trees. First water and fertilize the tree, then when the fruit is ripe, shake the tree hard and pick up the fruit off the ground.

For centuries, this is how the uber-elite have farmed humanity.

The "Great Shaking" has commenced.

[ThePythonicCow]

The "stronger US Dollar" is another critical component of this global economic collapse.

For the world's debt is substantially denominated in US Dollars, or other closely integrated currencies such as the Euro. That's a key part of what it means to be "the world's reserve currency". That debt is heading toward default, because the supply of US Dollars is shrinking. Oil exporting nations earn fewer dollars due to the low price of oil. International traders and exporting nations earn fewer dollars due to declining world trade.

The bastard banksters get you addicted to easy money, to monetary heroin, and then they squeeze the supply, forcing desperation and collapse.

That's what bastard banksters do.

As weaker financial assets, such as other national or regional currencies, such as the dollar denominated debt of (other than the US) nations, such as the balance sheets of major Western banks, such as assets now ending major bubbles (real estate, stocks, US Treasuries, college degrees in the US), and such as, this week, cash in India's rupee, ... as these weaker financial assets collapse or are confiscated, the rush is to the core asset, which in the world monetary system post World War II is the US Dollar.

As one side of this Titanic world monetary system sinks, the rush is to the other side of the ship. As the higher stories of the Tower of Babylonian Money collapse, the rush is the ground floor, the US Dollar.

The Dollar will rise, and rise, and rise some more ... until poof, it's gone, replaced within the US by colorful Treasury Dollars, and replaced on the global scale by whatever.

[TrumanCash]

This Is Where I Get Off (https://www.sprottmoney.com/News/this-is-where-i-get-off-jeff-thomas.html)- Jeff Thomas (sprottmoney.com)

November 25, 2016

We began writing on the War on Cash some time ago, when it was still just a theoretical ploy that we believed banks and governments were likely to employ as their economic adventurism continued to unravel.

But, in the last year, several countries have, as a part of the War on Cash, begun removing larger bank notes from circulation in order to force people to perform all economic transactions through the banking system, assuring that the banks would gain total control over the movement of money.

Of course, the banks could not admit their true goal to the public. They instead used the governments to claim that the measure was being undertaken to restrict crime (money laundering, drug deals, black marketing, terrorism, etc.)

Recently, without any fanfare, ATM’s in Mexico have ceased issuing the 500 peso note US$24). The largest note is now the 200 peso note (US$10).

At about the same time, Citibank in Australia declared that it will no longer accept coins or banknotes.

India has joined those countries that have done away with larger notes. They did so quite suddenly and the effects are already being felt by the Indian people. The elimination of the 500 rupee and 1000 rupee notes has, of course, not limited the level of spending in India, but it has caused a sudden demand for considerably more smaller notes through which to accomplish the same transactions.

A problem with the removal surfaced immediately when people using ATM’s were withdrawing far more notes than ever before in order to have enough cash to function normally. The ATM’s were quickly being emptied of the smaller denominations. The people of India cried foul, as 86% of all money in circulation had vanished from the system overnight. The limit for withdrawal per day is 2500 rupees (US$37) – which for some is sufficient to pay for daily expenses, but is most certainly not sufficient to carry on a business or facilitate larger transactions.

Although deliveries of notes to the ATM’s has increased, the banks simply cannot make up for the sudden loss of 86% of the nation’s money. Not only can the delivery trucks not meet the demand, the machines cannot store the volume of notes needed.

The result has been a partial breakdown of commerce. With millions of people beginning each day with insufficient funds to function, one bi-product of the money shortage is that over 9.3 million trucks have simply been abandoned by their drivers. (Nearly two thirds of all freight in India moves by road.)

In January of 2016, we published an article that made reference to the turning point of World War Two on the western front. Although the German war machine was collapsing, a major last-ditch effort was made at the Battle of the Bulge to reverse the tide of the war. German tanks raced to the battle and might well have made the Germans the victors, but they ran out of gasoline along the way .

The crews, understanding that the game was well and truly over, simply left the tanks and began to walk back to Germany. The great significance of this event is that, no matter how much bluster a political or military leadership presents, and no matter how obediently the soldiers respond to such posturing, once it’s clear that the game is up, the pretense amongst the soldiers evaporates.

The same is true in commerce. When those who make the decisions in banking and government try to game the system one time too many, dysfunction sets in and the “soldiers” – the countless minor participants in the system – simply walk away.

The lesson to be learned here is that, in all countries where a War on Cash is being destructively waged, the end will not be a positive one. The people of each country will increasingly become unable to function normally, as in Greece, where there have been riots due to the banking squeeze. Banks and governments have colluded to tie up wealth in order to have their hands on as much of it as possible, as they grow nearer to economic collapse. As the situation drags on, their intent is becoming ever-more transparent to those who have to suffer the difficulties caused by the squeeze.

But, as difficult as it may be to accept, these are “the good old days”. The direst events to come have not yet begun to surface.

As I’ve mentioned in past articles, the problem reaches its nadir when trucks that move the country’s food come to a halt. As long as sufficient food remains available to us, we treat it as just another commodity. But unlike clothing, hardware, vehicles, etc., when our source of food is cut off, even for a very short period, we become frightfully aware that its level of importance is far beyond that of any other commodity.

It’s been said that the average person abandons his moral inhibitions after three days without food. After this time, an otherwise morally responsible man is literally prepared to kill his neighbour for a loaf of bread.

To date, none of the countries that have declared a War on Cash has yet experienced a food panic. It would not be surprising if India becomes the first, as their trucking problem has them on the edge already.

However, it’s ironic that the War on Cash problem is most pronounced in what was called “the free world” only two generations ago. Many of those countries that we’ve come to regard as being both prosperous and “safe” are becoming less so with great rapidity.

Small wonder, then, that an increasing number of people are exiting these once-choice jurisdictions and seeking those that are not similarly in economic decline. Although we cannot predict how far the elimination of cash will spread, the further you are from the epicentre of the problem, the greater your chances of coming out with your skin on.

The trick, of course, is to say, “This is where I get off,” well before (as we are beginning to see in India) the driver himself has abandoned the bus.

[ThePythonicCow]

The lesson to be learned here is that, in all countries where a War on Cash is being destructively waged, the end will not be a positive one. The people of each country will increasingly become unable to function normally
... as intended

As I’ve mentioned in past articles, the problem reaches its nadir when trucks that move the country’s food come to a halt.
... as anticipated, and intended.

===

Would Parker Brothers, the makes of the board game Monopoly, be concerned that there was a risk of a "board run" ... a panic buying of Monopoly games and extra Monopoly cash?

http://thepythoniccow.us/Monopoly_Money.jpg

Heck no ... they'd print it until the cows came home, and start anticipating their over sized year end bonuses.

===

Old fashioned bank runs, over a century or more ago, when money was gold and silver, meant the bank risked the loss of its "capital", disenfranchised.

In India, something like this is apparently still somewhat the case, where it seems that rupee paper notes and physical gold fuel the domestic economy.

But the fundamental goal, in each case, has been and will be not necessarily the preservation of retail bank outlets, or to limit bank runs.

The fundamental goal will be to crash the economy, to stop the trucks that move a country's food to market.

Banks, cash, ... are all tools, means used to accomplish that goal.

Whatever would enable a people, in a particular country, to continue to have reliable access to food must be, and will be, and is being, removed, or tightly controlled so that it can be removed, when the time comes.

In the US, that's primarily credit cards, debit cards, and "food stamps", which currently uses a debit-like card to pay for food, under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), as administered by JP Morgan, that "offers nutrition assistance to millions of eligible, low-income individuals and families".

In the US, "bank runs" would not put banks at much risk, but "excessive" cash withdrawals could enable the wealthier half of the nation (that actually has money deposited in bank accounts) to continue to purchase food, and could enable some food production, distribution, storage and sales to continue.

So, in the US, to stop the food, it means stopping credit cards, debit cards, SNAP cards, and the banking transfers and credit used by larger food stores and distributors to fund daily operations, and it means throttling cash withdrawals from bank accounts.
Thus it shall be.

As with the Holodomor (Ukraine famine in 1931-32) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor), and as with the Irish Potato Famine of 1845–49 (https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Famine-Irish-history) (which brought my Irish ancestors on my father's side to the US), one of the "best" ways to control a population is famine.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse) are Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death.

Access to food will be controlled, and at the appointed time, harshly limited. In "advanced" nations, including India, this is being done, or will be done, by limiting access to the cash, credit, banking, and government handouts that fund food distribution.

[ThePythonicCow]

So, in the US, to stop the food, it means stopping credit cards, debit cards, SNAP cards, and the banking transfers and credit used by larger food stores and distributors to fund daily operations, and it means throttling cash withdrawals from bank accounts.
Thus it shall be.

One way to stop banking transfers, transactions and withdrawals would be using a "cyber-attack" on banking, as explained by Jim Rickards in his (*) interview with Albert Lu starting at 8:13 (https://youtu.be/aTl9DehjGVg?t=8m13s). That would also setup the enforcement of greater global Internet security regulations, which, as always in such cases, is the public face of a monopolization of some means of power by the most powerful. Laws and regulations are for the "little people"; they don't apply to the uber-elite.

===

(*) P.S. -- sorry -- I realize now that's an old interview, from late March of 2016, though the possibility of a cyber-attack as part of a banking shutdown remains, so far as I can see. Here's an earlier posting of this interview: Jim Rickards: Central Banks Will Send Gold to $10,000 or Higher (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2j3msGymws).

[ThePythonicCow]

.
In his article The War on Cash – One Giant Leap Forward For Government (https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/taxes/the-war-on-cash-one-giant-leap-forward-for-government/), Martin Armstrong (certainly one of the sharpest knives in the financial drawer) made a point about the War on Cash that had not occurred to me before.

A key property of cash is that it allows instant transfer of money from someone (person or business) who banks at Bank A, to someone else who banks at Bank B. Almost all the other ways we have of doing this presently, such as credit and debit cards, checks, wire transfers, automated clearing house (ACH) transfers, ... typically involve at least an overnight delay to complete the inter-bank transfer.

The few exceptions that I know of, offhand, such as PayPal, and the artful use of Amazon gift cards, involve various restrictions and limitations in their use, and so are not general purpose replacements for cash.

So to replace cash (and thus to be able to tax such transactions), some sort of instant settlement that works across financial institutions, under the immediate electronic, network connected, control of two individual persons or businesses, is required.

Martin Armstrong is writing in this article about SEPA Credit Transfer Scheme that the European Payments Council is developing, that supports instant transfers between accounts at two different banks, on individual request.

However ... cryptocurrency technology springs to my mind as another means to this end, if it is developed to handle the much higher volume of transactions required for such an application as the wide spread replacement of cash.

[TrumanCash]

Greece Unleashes 'Soft' Cash Ban (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-03/greece-unleashes-soft-cash-ban) ZEROHEDGE

The spread of global cash bans continues with Greece unveiling their so-called 'soft' approach by which taxpayers will only be granted tax-allowances or deductions when payments are made via credit or debit cards. As KeepTalkingGreeece reports, the new guidelines refer to employees, pensioners, farmers, and also the unemployed.

Accepted expenditure will be: purchases for food and supermarket products, electronic and electric devices, household equipment, footwear, clothing, fuel, furniture, cigarettes, drinks
Restaurants, cafeterias,bars and hotels
Services like by hairdressers and beauty parlors, gyms and dance schools, car repair, plumbers, electricians, painters, carpenters, lawyers and accountants.
For doctors and pharmacy the same practice will be valid as in last year. The tax office will accept the expenditure only if payments are made per credit card or bank transfer.
Expenditure for utility bills, landlines and mobile phones, heating, rent, loan repayments that in fact swallow the largest amount of monthly expenditure for private households will not be accepted. Also not accepted is expenditure for toll and transport tickets.


In its “wisdom” the Greek Finance Ministry has determined the amount the taxpayers will have to pay with electronic money in order to be able to get the tax allowance:

10% for annual income up to €10,000
15% for annual income €10,001-€30,000
20% for annual income over €30,001

The famous Greek wisdom in times of austerity, bailout agreements and economic crisis remains the same also in 2017 and as neoliberal as possible since 2010: crack the low and medium incomes, let the rich fly free

income €7,000: expenditure per plastic money must be €700
income €10,000: expenditure per plastic money must be €1,000
income €30,000: expenditure per plastic money must be €4,500
income €60,000 expenditure per plastic money must be €12,000

Should a taxpayer not be able to spend the necessary percentage of the annual income according to the guidelines, the punishment will be a penalty of 22% imposed on the missing difference.

I heard on television that couples will have to spend separately – but better check with your accountant. The average taxpayer in Greece needs an accountant anyway, someone who will follow the revenue-expedience balance month by month for the sake of the tax office.

In the bizarre Greek world we live in, households will be obliged to spend money even if they do not want to. As the large part of monthly need coverage (utilities etc) is not accepted by the tax office, households who do not manage to reach the necessary percentage through supermarket percentages will have to go and spend like crazy in retail, dance schools and gyms and other goods and service providers.

Exempted from the compulsory usage of credit/debit cards are seniors over 70 years old, residents of remote areas and people with disability over 80%. I suppose they will have to continue the collection of paper receipts.

KTG understands that with these new system, taxpayers will not need to collect the stupid receipts from cash register, where the amount had faded away when they were supposed to be brought to the tax office in a huge plastic bag.

The cap for cash transactions falls from 1,500 until 31.12.2016 down to 500 euro. In simple words: any purchase of good and service over 500 euro will need to be done via plastic money.

[ThePythonicCow]

Greece Unleashes 'Soft' Cash Ban (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-03/greece-unleashes-soft-cash-ban) ZEROHEDGE

The spread of global cash bans continues with Greece unveiling their so-called 'soft' approach by which taxpayers will only be granted tax-allowances or deductions when payments are made via credit or debit cards. As KeepTalkingGreeece reports, the new guidelines refer to employees, pensioners, farmers, and also the unemployed.
This sort of mass scale micro-management is disgusting.

I see that this applies on a couple of levels.

On one level, such intrusive policy enables mass scale monitoring and manipulation. By that I mean watching and controlling, on a large scale, whole people. I don't mean custom, hands-on, individual surveillance or control of single individuals, but bulk
surveillance and control.

On another level, such intrusive mechanisms enable, whenever they want, surveillance and control on an individual level.

In other words, if I lived in, or should I say, as I increasingly live in, such an Orwellian society, I would not expect anyone to actually be paying conscious attention to what I did, except when I happened to get on their radar. But when I did get on their radar, it would be difficult and risky to try to hide anything that they might consider to be of significance from them, in any way.

The mass manipulation, increasingly elaborate, would always be there however.

http://media.ifunny.com/results/2015/02/20/kfx3z9g7ci.jpg

[TrumanCash]

Davos Elites Call For a Ban on Physical Cash... in the US. (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-17/davos-elites-call-ban-physical-cash-us)

Roughly two weeks ago, when writing about the cash ban in India, I stated:

If you think the Elites aren’t watching this unfold with sheer delight you’re mistaken. Globally a war on cash has been declared. And India has now proved that it can be done with little consequence. The fact it INCREASE tax hauls (something every Government on the planet wants) is just icing on the cake.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-05/elites-dream-cash-ban-now-closer-ever

Fast forward to this week at the Davos Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, and Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz all but said the exact same thing.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already removed 86% of his country's currency from circulation in an attempt to curb tax evasion, tackle corruption and shut down the shadow economy.

Should the US follow suit?

Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist, thinks so. Phasing out currency and moving towards a digital economy would, over the long term, have “benefits that outweigh the cost,” the Columbia University professor said on day one of the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos…

“I believe very strongly that countries like the United States could and should move to a digital currency,” he said, “so that you would have the ability to trace this kind of corruption. There are important issues of privacy, cyber-security, but it would certainly have big advantages.”

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/the-us-should-get-rid-of-cash-and-become-a-digital-economy-says-this-nobel-laureate-economist

Again… the War on Cash is not slowing down. India effectively removed 86% of the physical cash in circulation and no one was forced to resign.

Put simply, India signaled to the global elites that you can implement a near complete ban on physical cash, and there are no real consequences as far as political aspirations.

We believe that the Elites will be pushing for this policy to hit the US. If you think this is impossible consider that Stiglitz openly called for the US to ban cash in the article above.

Indeed, we've uncovered a secret document outlining how the Fed plans to ban physical cash and incinerate savings in the coming months.

More.... (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-17/davos-elites-call-ban-physical-cash-us)

[TrumanCash]

India – On a Downward Spiral (http://www.acting-man.com/?p=48415)

This is just an excerpt from the whole article:


Modi issued 70 official notices announcing changes to his original demonetization plan. Ultimately, people were required to deposit all the banned banknotes in their possession at a bank branch office by 30th December. By this date about 97% of the banned currency had in fact been deposited. The banned banknotes were used openly until the very last day. These notes were funneled to the banks using the most effective channels.

Interestingly, over the last five weeks before the deadline, it was possible in parts of India to sell the banned banknotes at a premium. The reason was that many companies belatedly realized that while they had force-fed the banned notes to their workers and suppliers in earlier days, legally they should not have done so.

If they had a cash balance in their balance sheet on 31st October 2016, they were supposed to deposit the banned banknotes in a bank pursuant to the law on the currency ban. This meant that if one had bags full of banned currency, one could suddenly sell them at a premium – which made an utter mockery of the entire demonetization exercise. Ironically, Modi expected that many of these notes would never make it back to the banks.

Who were the people who failed to deposit their banknotes? For one thing, the Indian government made no provision to enable those holding banned notes outside of India to deposit them. Tens of millions of people of Indian origin who kept some Indian cash for their future visits to India, were unable to deposit their banknotes.

Many tribal people and people who simply didn’t get the information on demonetization, or those who were too sick, old or disabled, and/or could not afford to stand in queues, failed to deposit their cash as well. While only 3% of the total amount of banned notes was affected in the end, it was all that millions of desperately poor Indians had.

With most of the currency deposited, the demonetization exercise ultimately was an utter failure. The corrupt and rich lost nothing. But it created havoc with the lives of hundreds of millions, it killed more than 150 people in queues alone, and destroyed the economy to boot. As you continue reading this and watch the videos, pay attention to the wretched poor and look at their faces. [URL="Modi issued 70 official notices announcing changes to his original demonetization plan. Ultimately, people were required to deposit all the banned banknotes in their possession at a bank branch office by 30th December. By this date about 97% of the banned currency had in fact been deposited. The banned banknotes were used openly until the very last day. These notes were funneled to the banks using the most effective channels. Interestingly, over the last five weeks before the deadline, it was possible in parts of India to sell the banned banknotes at a premium. The reason was that many companies belatedly realized that while they had force-fed the banned notes to their workers and suppliers in earlier days, legally they should not have done so. If they had a cash balance in their balance sheet on 31st October 2016, they were supposed to deposit the banned banknotes in a bank pursuant to the law on the currency ban. This meant that if one had bags full of banned currency, one could suddenly sell them at a premium – which made an utter mockery of the entire demonetization exercise. Ironically, Modi expected that many of these notes would never make it back to the banks. Who were the people who failed to deposit their banknotes? For one thing, the Indian government made no provision to enable those holding banned notes outside of India to deposit them. Tens of millions of people of Indian origin who kept some Indian cash for their future visits to India, were unable to deposit their banknotes. Many tribal people and people who simply didn’t get the information on demonetization, or those who were too sick, old or disabled, and/or could not afford to stand in queues, failed to deposit their cash as well. While only 3% of the total amount of banned notes was affected in the end, it was all that millions of desperately poor Indians had. With most of the currency deposited, the demonetization exercise ultimately was an utter failure. The corrupt and rich lost nothing. But it created havoc with the lives of hundreds of millions, it killed more than 150 people in queues alone, and destroyed the economy to boot. As you continue reading this and watch the videos, pay attention to the wretched poor and look at their faces." [URL="Modi issued 70 official notices announcing changes to his original demonetization plan. Ultimately, people were required to deposit all the banned banknotes in their possession at a bank branch office by 30th December. By this date about 97% of the banned currency had in fact been deposited. The banned banknotes were used openly until the very last day. These notes were funneled to the banks using the most effective channels. Interestingly, over the last five weeks before the deadline, it was possible in parts of India to sell the banned banknotes at a premium. The reason was that many companies belatedly realized that while they had force-fed the banned notes to their workers and suppliers in earlier days, legally they should not have done so. If they had a cash balance in their balance sheet on 31st October 2016, they were supposed to deposit the banned banknotes in a bank pursuant to the law on the currency ban. This meant that if one had bags full of banned currency, one could suddenly sell them at a premium – which made an utter mockery of the entire demonetization exercise. Ironically, Modi expected that many of these notes would never make it back to the banks. Who were the people who failed to deposit their banknotes? For one thing, the Indian government made no provision to enable those holding banned notes outside of India to deposit them. Tens of millions of people of Indian origin who kept some Indian cash for their future visits to India, were unable to deposit their banknotes. Many tribal people and people who simply didn’t get the information on demonetization, or those who were too sick, old or disabled, and/or could not afford to stand in queues, failed to deposit their cash as well. While only 3% of the total amount of banned notes was affected in the end, it was all that millions of desperately poor Indians had. With most of the currency deposited, the demonetization exercise ultimately was an utter failure. The corrupt and rich lost nothing. But it created havoc with the lives of hundreds of millions, it killed more than 150 people in queues alone, and destroyed the economy to boot. As you continue reading this and watch the videos, pay attention to the wretched poor and look at their faces."

[TrumanCash]

Proposal for an EU initiative on restrictions on payments in cash (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-27/europe-proposes-restrictions-payments-cash) 23/01/2017

ZeroHedge: Having discontinued its production of EUR500 banknotes, it appears Europe is charging towards the utopian dream of a cashless society. Just days after Davos' elites discussed why the world needs to "get rid of currency," the European Commission has introduced a proposal enforcing "restrictions on payments in cash."

With Rogoff, Stiglitz, Summers et al. all calling for the end of cash - because only terrorists and drug-dealers need cash (nothing at all to do with totalitarian control over a nation's wealth) - we are not surprised that this proposal from the European Commission (sanctuary of statism) would appear...

Excerpt from the EC proposal:

While being allowed to pay in cash does not constitute a fundamental right, the objective of the initiative, which is to prevent the anonymity that cash payments allow, might be viewed as an infringement of the right to privacy enshrined in Article 7 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. However, as complemented by article 52 of the Charter, limitations may be made subject to the principle of proportionality if they are necessary and genuinely meet objectives of general interest recognised by the Union or the need to protect the rights and freedoms of others. The objectives of potential restrictions to cash payments could fit such description. It should also be observed that national restrictions to cash payments were never successfully challenged based on an infringement to fundamental rights.

[TargeT]

Great breakdown on the India moves to cashless society and Tokyo's proposed "cashless" olympics

mA3Nt5bLrFs

[TrumanCash]

Utah Bill Would Set Stage For State Gold and Silver Depository, Further Encourage Use of Metals as Money (http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2017/02/utah-bill-would-set-stage-for-state-gold-and-silver-depository-further-encourage-use-of-metals-as-money/)

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (Feb. 1, 2017) – A bill introduced in the Utah legislature would build on the state’s Legal Tender Act, creating a foundation for further action to encourage the use of gold and silver as money, and take another step toward breaking the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

Rep. Ken Ivory (R-West Jordan) introduced House Bill 224 (HB224) on Jan. 27. The legislation would add several provisions to state law designed to encourage the use of gold and silver as legal tender. Passage would set the stage for expansion of gold repositories in the state and authorize further study on several sound money policies.

Specifically, HB224 would authorize the investment of public funds in specie legal tender held in a commercial specie repository. Under existing code, “specie legal tender” means gold or silver coin and bullion. “Commercial specie repository” means an institution that holds or receives deposits of specie legal tender that is located within the state. Practically speaking, passage would give the state the option to hold funds in gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve notes.

The legislation would also direct the State Money Management Council to make rules governing quality criteria for a commercial specie repository, in consultation with the state auditor.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74v7hqxgOQM

A “GOLD BANK” FOR UTAH

Gov. Greg Abbot signed legislation creating a Texas gold bullion and precious metal depository in June of 2015. The facility will not only provide a secure place for individuals, business, cities, counties, government agencies and even other countries to to store gold and other precious metals, the Texas law also creates a mechanism to facilitate the everyday use of gold and silver in business transactions. In short, a person will be able to deposit gold or silver – and pay other people through electronic means or checks – in sound money.

Ivory said “secure public transaction is the ultimate goal” in Utah as well.

In fact, the United Precious Metals Association (UPMA) already offers publicly available accounts denominated in gold and silver dollars in Utah. According to the UPMA, in the past year it has grown 700 percent in assets under management and made up 2 percent of the market for U.S gold and silver coins.

“Despite a couple of zerohedge articles, most people remain unaware of Utah’s gold bank,” UPMA head of sales and marketing Jeremy Cordon said. “We are a few years ahead of Texas.”

According to Cordon, passage of HB224 would give UPMA and similar repositories a special recognition by the state, and that would likely expand the market for their services. The state of Utah will also be able to hold legal tender gold and silver in such repositories under the proposed law.

HB224 would also authorize Federal Fund Commission “to study and assess the taxpayer reporting requirements for specie legal tender income and the remittance of taxes on specie legal tender income; the collection of severance taxes in specie legal tender for taxes assessed under Section 59-5-202 on gold and silver production; and (viii) the issuance of bonds denominated and payable in specie legal tender for the purpose of retiring existing government debt.”

LEGAL TENDER

In 2011, Utah became the first state in over 80 years to pass a law making gold and silver coin legal tender. The following year, the legislature followed up, approving a bill clarifing several tax measures and more importantly, expanding the definition of specie to include gold and silver coin approved by the state.

Passage of HB224 would take the next step forward and further open the door for the use of gold and silver in everyday transactions in the state.

In a speech to the UPMA announcing the legislation, Ivory emphasized the connection between sound money and liberty. He told the story of a woman who tried to pay her bill at Walmart with gold coins. The cashier told her she needed “real money.” When the lady went to the bank, the teller gave her face value for the 14 Double Eagle coins – $280. The value of the gold itself was over $20,000.

“Think about where we are when we don’t understand the value. The nature of our property, the nature of our liberty embodied and represented in money that has a fixed standard.”

IMPACT ON FEDERAL RESERVE

The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” States have simply ignored this constitutional provision for years. It’s impossible for states to return to a constitutional sound money system when it taxes gold and silver as a commodity.

State actions like Utah’s Constitutional Tender Act, and the creation of a bullion depository in Texas take steps toward that constitutional requirement, ignored for decades in every state and sets the stage to undermine the monopoly of the Federal Reserve by introducing competition into the monetary system.

By making gold and silver available for regular, daily transactions by the general public, the state depositories create the potential for wide-reaching effect. Professor William Greene is an expert on constitutional tender and said in a paper for the Mises Institute that when people in multiple states actually start using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve notes, it would effectively nullify the Federal Reserve and end the federal government’s monopoly on money.

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a ‘reverse Gresham’s Law’ effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes).

“As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state by state level is what will get us there.

NEXT

HB224 was referred to the House Rules Committee, where it must pass by a majority vote before being referred to a standing committee for further consideration.

[TrumanCash]

Arizona Committee Passes Bill To Support Sound Money (http://www.activistpost.com/2017/02/arizona-committee-passes-bill-support-sound-money.html)

By Mike Maharrey

An Arizona bill that would eliminate state capital gains taxes on gold and silver specie, and encourage its use as currency, passed an important House committee today. Final approval of the legislation would help undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Tucson) introduced House Bill 2014 (HB2014) on Jan. 9. The legislation would eliminate state capital gains taxes on income “derived from the exchange of one kind of legal tender for another kind of legal tender.” The bill defines legal tender as “a medium of exchange, including specie, that is authorized by the United States Constitution or Congress for the payment of debts, public charges, taxes and dues.” “Specie” means coins having precious metal content.

In effect, passage of the bill would “legalize the Constitution” by treating gold and silver specie as money.

HB2014 passed the House Ways and Means Committee by a 5-0 vote, with four members abstaining.

Under current Arizona law, gold and silver are subject to capital gains tax when exchanged for Federal Reserve notes, or when used in barter transactions. If the purchasing power of the Federal Reserve note has decreased due to inflation, the metals’ nominal dollar value generally rises and that triggers a “gain.” In most cases, of course, the capital gain is purely fictional. But these “gains” are still taxed — thus unfairly punishing people using precious metals as money.

A STEP FORWARD

Passage of HB2014 would allow Arizonans to deduct the amount of any net capital gain derived from the exchange of one kind of legal tender for another kind of legal tender or specie (gold and silver coins) from their gross income on their state income tax. In other words, individuals buying gold or silver bullion, or utilizing gold and silver in a transaction, would no longer be subject to state taxes on the exchange.

Passage into law would mark an important step towards currency competition. If sound money gains a foothold in the marketplace against Federal Reserve notes, the people would be able to choose the time-tested stability of gold and silver over the central bank’s rapidly-depreciating paper currency. The freedom of choice expanded by HB2014 would allow Arizona residents to secure the purchasing power of their money.

“This isn’t going to end the fed’s monetary monopoly overnight, but it sets the foundation and opens the door for more market activity by the people,” Tenth Amendment Center executive director Michael Boldin said. “This is an important part of the overall strategy, and activists in Arizona should continue working to get both bills passed.”
BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Currently, all debts and taxes in Arizona must be paid with either Federal Reserve Notes (dollars), authorized as legal tender by Congress, or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them.

But the United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.”

The Arizona bills take a step towards that constitutional requirement, ignored for decades in every state. Such a tactic would undermine the monopoly or the Federal Reserve by introducing competition into the monetary system.

Professor William Greene is an expert on constitutional tender and said when people in multiple states actually start using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve Notes, it would effectively nullify the Federal Reserve and end the federal government’s monopoly on money.

Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.

Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state by state level is what will get us there.

UP NEXT

HB2014 now moves to the House Rules Committee where it must pass by a majority vote before moving forward in the legislative process.

[TrumanCash]

Indian Economy Collapses As 'Demonetization' Crushes Small Business (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-02/indian-economy-collapses-demonetization-crushes-small-business)


The Sales Managers Index (SMI) is one of the earliest monthly indicators of Indian economic activity. February's data shows the catastrophic after-effects of the December demonetization policy which was intended to crack down on corruption and 'black money'.

The February Headline SMI has fallen to an index level of 60.2 in unadjusted terms, the lowest level in over 3 years.

Managers are reporting a big drop in monthly sales for both the consumer and industrial sectors, with small to medium size businesses that predominantly deal with cash transactions, being hardest hit....

Overall, February SMI data suggests an erratic situation for Indian businesses as they meet market challenges with considerably lower levels of confidence, slower monthly sales and higher prices caused by the currency situation.

Complete article on ZeroHedge (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-02/indian-economy-collapses-demonetization-crushes-small-business)

[TrumanCash]

The Tyranny Of A Cashless Society Coming? (http://www.westernjournalism.com/tyranny-cashless-society-coming/)

by Capt. William E. Simpson February 23, 2017



Like many people, I am a careful person when it comes to digital commerce, yet nonetheless I had two of my credit cards hacked (twice in the last four years) — one time by a supposedly reliable online retail company, another time when I rented a trailer. And both times, it required an incredible amount of time, police reports, phone calls, etc., just to get back to square one and get my money back.

But my experience was not unusual. Nearly 18 million Americans suffered from some form of identity theft in 2014 alone.

Digital commerce and credit cards are very problematic and are not the panacea that companies and the government want the public to believe.

Looking to a future in which governments abolish cash in useful denominations, it follows that they will then focus on eliminating personal and commercial commerce through the use of compact high-value commodities such as gold and silver, a natural progression if $100 bills are taken out of circulation in the United States.

People today who are living in the legacy of the Barack Obama economy already need a fistful of $20 bills just to buy a week’s supply of groceries. And it’s easy to spend $400 a week on fresh groceries for two people, especially if you buy premium products and organic.

If we consider the increasing trend where banks, institutions and big retailers are regularly hacked, combined with identity theft, digital commerce and credit cards aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, and in reality are posing an ever-increasing level of liability on all levels through their use.

The relatively few people who may ultimately control all of the digital wealth of Americans will virtually have control of all the people in a cashless society. This results in a definite loss of freedom and liberty.

There are many, many other ways for law enforcement to hammer criminals and curtail their enterprises, if that is truly the goal. But any method that inhibits or erodes the freedoms of Americans in any way, including limiting or infringing upon person-to-person commerce and personal privacy in any manner, is to be shunned and runs counter to the intents and spirit of our beloved U.S. Constitution.

Digital currency transactions in lieu of cash would allow virtually 100 percent tracking of all Americans, including law-abiding citizens and all that we do.

We have already learned over the past eight years of the Obama-led government that governments don’t necessarily work for or even represent the will of the people. So how can anyone justify giving the government this much power over Americans? There is no such justification.

The vast majority of Americans are not criminals, and therefore any action by government that affects or targets the vast majority of people in order to deal with a small factional percentage of criminals in the population is manifestly unfair. Politicians simply need to do the jobs they are being paid to do, and come up with anti-criminal tactics that strictly focus upon the bad actors, not the majority of law-abiding Americans.

If the minds behind a cashless society are allowed to have their way, America would become little more a monumental ant farm, where the elitist class studies Americans to a much greater extent than ever before — how we move around and what we do, use, eat, watch and listen to — and then uses this deeply insightful personal information, potentially to plot how to control everyone. Things like if we’re allowed to be born (abortions already control this to some extent), how long we get to live, and what we are allowed to do in between. Orwellian, yes, but possible nonetheless.

Brazil played around in past decades on many occasions with reissuing, devaluing and recalling currency to limit amounts in circulation. And the Marxists paid close attention to that exercise.

However, India’s currency games are more immediate and could have a sinister effect, since it is already a socialist state and we know how fond socialists and communists are of controlling all aspects of their populations.

Here’s a video (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38973042) that should be alarming.

Is India executing a plan similar to what may soon be in the works for Americans?

I have to say, it’s looking like living in the countryside on a piece of land that provides sustainable sustenance and a firewall from a population that may recoil and strike out in anger sometime soon is the only viable path to surviving past what may be an ugly and austere future. Anyone who cares to look at the news these days will see riots, murders and unrest all around inside the United States, a result of numerous factors.

Even as much as many Americans admire and respect President Donald Trump, the Marxist-socialist momentum that has already metastasized in America might be too much for him and his team to overcome. Our new president definitely needs our continued strong support more than ever.

Smile and pray for the best, but adequately prepare for the worst.

[TrumanCash]

Arizona Challenges the Fed’s Money Monopoly
Written by Ron Paul (http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2017/march/05/arizona-challenges-the-fed-s-money-monopoly/)
Sunday March 5, 2017

History shows that, if individuals have the freedom to choose what to use as money, they will likely opt for gold or silver.

Of course, modern politicians and their Keynesian enablers despise the gold or silver standard. This is because linking a currency to a precious metal limits the ability of central banks to finance the growth of the welfare-warfare state via the inflation tax. This forces politicians to finance big government much more with direct means of taxation.

Despite the hostility toward gold from modern politicians, gold played a role in US monetary policy for sixty years after the creation of the Federal Reserve. Then, in 1971, as concerns over the US government’s increasing deficits led many foreign governments to convert their holdings of US dollars to gold, President Nixon closed the gold window, creating America’s first purely fiat currency.

America’s 46-year experiment in fiat currency has gone exactly as followers of the Austrian school predicted: a continuing decline in the dollar’s purchasing power accompanied by a decline in the standard of living of middle- and working-class Americans, a series of Federal Reserve-created booms followed by increasingly severe busts, and an explosive growth in government spending. Federal Reserve policies are also behind much of the increase in income inequality.

Since the 2008 Fed-created economic meltdown, more Americans have become aware of the Federal Reserve's responsibility for America's economic problems. This growing anti-Fed sentiment is one of the key factors behind the liberty movement’s growth and represents the most serious challenge to the Fed's legitimacy in its history. This movement has made “Audit the Fed” into a major national issue that is now closer than ever to being signed into law.

Audit the Fed is not the only focus of the growing anti-Fed movement. For example, this Wednesday the Arizona Senate Finance and Rules Committees will consider legislation (HB 2014) officially defining gold, silver, and other precious metals as legal tender. The bill also exempts transactions in precious metals from state capital gains taxes, thus ensuring that people are not punished by the taxman for rejecting Federal Reserve notes in favor of gold or silver. Since inflation increases the value of precious metals, these taxes give the government one more way to profit from the Federal Reserve’s currency debasement.

HB 2014 is a very important and timely piece of legislation. The Federal Reserve’s failure to reignite the economy with record-low interest rates since the last crash is a sign that we may soon see the dollar’s collapse. It is therefore imperative that the law protect people’s right to use alternatives to what may soon be virtually worthless Federal Reserve notes.

Passage of HB 2014 would also send a message to Congress and the Trump administration that the anti-Fed movement is growing in influence. Thus, passage of this bill will not just strengthen movements in other states to pass similar legislation; it will also help build support for the Audit the Fed bill and legislation repealing federal legal tender laws.

This Wednesday I will be in Arizona to help rally support for HB 2014, speaking on behalf of the bill before the Arizona Senate Finance Committee at 9:00 a.m. I will also be speaking at a rally at noon at the Arizona state capitol. I hope every supporter of sound money in the Phoenix area joins me to show their support for ending the Fed’s money monopoly.

Copyright © 2017 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.
Please donate to the Ron Paul Institute

I find it very ironic that states have to resort to passing a law "officially defining gold, silver, and other precious metals as legal tender" when it's already mandated in the Supreme Law of the Land, the US Constitution. And even more ironic, it's written in the federal legal tender statutes (of course, they don't reconcile how one silver dollar equals about twenty paper dollars, yet they each are defined as a "dollar". Go figger. :facepalm:

[ThePythonicCow]

Dang - this war on cash just got a bit more serious: India Outlawing Cash Altogether in 75 Cities (https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/taxes/india-outlawing-cash-altogether-in-75-cities/):

==========

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Friday the 14th, that 75 cities (http://www.ptinews.com/news/8609406_Modi-launches-75-cashless-townships-across-12-states.html) will be designated cashless/less-cash townships, with an overwhelming 56 of them being in Gujarat. Modi is determined to bring India into the 21st century. He is being cheered behind the curtain and every government is keenly watching the results. The townships were actually selected on the basis of a recommendation by none other than Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) furthering the G20 agenda to stamp out tax evasion worldwide.
==========

The above article in turn sources this article in Press Trust of India (PTI) - Modi launches 75 cashless townships across 12 states (http://www.ptinews.com/news/8609406_Modi-launches-75-cashless-townships-across-12-states.html):

==========

Nagpur, Apr 14 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched 75 cashless/less-cash townships, with an overwhelming 56 of them being in Gujarat.

The towns span across 12 states contributing to around 1.5 lakh cashless transactions per day and around 5.5 crore transactions a year.

Some of the prominent townships include those of state- owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), NTPC, SAIL and BHEL, as also those of cooperative firms like IFFCO and KRIBHCO.

Townships of private firms Reliance Industries, Adani, Essar and Welspun as also paramilitary forces BSF and CRPF also figure in the list.

Essar in a statement said two of its townships in Gujarat at Hazira (near Surat) and Vadinar (near Jamnagar) were today recognised as among townships pan-India that are less cash townships.

"The initiative was launched by NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog that declared Essar townships as 'Cashless Role Model Township, which inspires other corporates to follow," the statement said.

The townships were selected on the basis of a third-party assessment by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC).

To qualify as a less-cash townships, the conditions included the township must have completed deployment of a payment acceptance infrastructure, and all the families residing there would have to covered under training programmes. Also, more than 80 per cent of the total number of transactions must have been done through digital modes of payments during the review period.

"Of the two Essar townships, the Hazira township, also known as Nand Niketan, is India's first private sector township to go cashless with the help of The Mobile Wallet (TMW), a Mumbai-based financial technology company," the statement said.

==========

[norman]

"Follow the money" just took another turn. If they are not going to use cash, who's technology interests are filling the gap?

[ThePythonicCow]

Dang - this war on cash just got a bit more serious: India Outlawing Cash Altogether in 75 Cities (https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/taxes/india-outlawing-cash-altogether-in-75-cities/):

And there's more ... cash is becoming harder to get in a northern region of India. From an article in the Times of India - ATMs run out of cash in north coastal AP (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/atms-run-out-of-cash-in-north-coastal-ap/articleshow/58198216.cms):

==========

VISAKHAPATNAM: Five months have passed since the demonetisation drive, but the people of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam continue to face shortage of cash in banks and ATMs.

Sources said more than 90 per cent of the ATMs in the region do not have cash while in the plains and Agency areas running dry.


"The last date for paying my daughter's tuition fees at Visakha Valley School was April 10, but I could not pay due to unavailability of cash. Moreover, the school does not have any online payment system," said a worried P Srinivasa Rao.


Speaking to TOI, State Bank of India (SBI) deputy general manager Ajoy Kumar Pandit said the customers are losing confidence in them due to the crisis. "Nearly 70 per cent of our 648 ATMs in the three districts are out of cash. The rest will also become dry in the next few days as we do not have cash to refill the machines. We are helpless from our side," he said.


A banking source said the RBI has diverted most of the cash to north India due to the recent elections. This has affected the southern parts of the country. "The government's intention is to encourage smart payment systems, but the infrastructure is not up to the mark," the source said.


Many ATMs have not been upgraded with the new software required for handling the new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 denominations, the source added.
==========

[TargeT]

The "stronger US Dollar" is another critical component of this global economic collapse.


Is trump playing 7d Backgammon??
pKyOMZ7xxjk

[ThePythonicCow]

Is trump playing 7d Backgammon??
That sharp drop from 1225 to 1223 on the Bloomberg Dollar Index (R1) looks dramatic on a short term chart (just 12 hours long) but it's lost in the noise over a longer term. For the last 4 years, that US Dollar index has been basically flat. Back in March of 2013 for example, it was at 1222, and right now, it is at 1219. It has gone nowhere in over four years. Foreign nations and corporations owing dollar denominated debt continue to have a hard time finding dollars to make their debt payments, as I (cynically) presume is intended.

[TargeT]

Is trump playing 7d Backgammon??
That sharp drop from 1225 to 1223 on the Bloomberg Dollar Index (R1) looks dramatic on a short term chart (just 12 hours long) but it's lost in the noise over a longer term. For the last 4 years, from that US Dollar index has been basically flat. Back in March of 2013 for example, it was at 1222, and right now, it is at 1219. It has gone nowhere in over four years. Foreign nations and corporations owing dollar denominated debt continue to have a hard time finding dollars to make their debt payments, as I (cynically) presume is intended.


the vid was about the currency drop, but i'm more interested in trumps 180* on "strong dollar".

[TrumanCash]

Myths Behind the War on Cash

Mises.org -- 06/28/2017 Ronald-Peter Stöferle (https://mises.org/library/myths-behind-war-cash)

The attacks on physical cash from a phalanx of economists, central bankers, commercial banks, and politicians have not diminished in recent years. On the contrary, in the face of the worldwide increase in terror attacks, particularly in Europe, and ongoing pressure on public budgets, the cash ban issue is increasingly dragged into the spotlight.

In a highly-recommended study entitled “Cash, Freedom and Crime. Use and Impact of Cash in a World Going Digital,” Deutsche Bank Research demolishes numerous popular myths surrounding cash, inter alia in the context of crime and terrorism. Without cash there are no longer bank robberies at gun point, instead there are now electronic bank robberies. Fraud involving credit cards and ATM cards is massively increasing in Sweden, the country considered the pioneer of the cashless society. The argument that adopting a cashless payment system would facilitate the fight against terrorism doesn't hold water either:

As regards terrorism in Europe, an analysis of 40 jihadist attacks in the past 20 years shows that most funding came from delinquents’ own funds and 75% of the attacks cost in total less than USD 10,000 to carry out — sums that will hardly raise suspicions even if paid by card.

Moreover, many terrorists, particularly if they are prepared to risk their own death, won't be deterred by prohibitions, just as stricter gun laws have no impact on people who must use unregistered weapons for their crimes. Often, they are unable to get hold of a weapon by legal means anyway if they have a criminal record. Planned terror attacks are as a rule characterized by a meticulous and careful approach. At best a cash ban might make financing of terrorism more difficult (even that is doubtful), but at the price of subjecting the law-abiding peaceful population at large to even more intrusive surveillance.

Legislators have passed additional regulations in the past 12 months which at least restrict the use of cash; bans of high-denomination banknotes (e.g., the 500 euro note) and (lower) thresholds for legal cash payments. There are however also technological developments that are significantly reducing the transaction costs of cashless payments and are therefore making cash comparatively unattractive.

In Sweden, an app called “Swish” introduced by the country's leading banks has revolutionized cashless payments. To this point, the app has been downloaded 5.5 million times. In the Scandinavian country only 2% of all payments are settled in cash these days.

Sweden's central bank expects that this percentage will decline by another three-quarters to 0.5% by the end of the decade. 900 of the 1,600 bank branch offices in the country no longer have any cash in store.

The academic debate continues unabated. A paper that has recently triggered intense debate is the IMF working paper “The Macroeconomics of De-Cashing,” which was published in March 2017. Its author Alexei Kireyev examines the possible macroeconomic consequences of abolishing cash. His central conclusions are:

A cashless payment system would make the monetary policy transmission mechanism more efficient, as there would be very little or no cash available anymore. In particular, it would become possible to implement negative interest rates on a broad front, in order to boost consumption.
Since a decline in cash holdings would go hand in hand with an increase in demand deposits at banks, the banking sector would be able to extend more loans. That would lower the level of interest rates and boost economic growth.
A sudden increase in the demand for cash is a sign of an imminently impending financial crisis. Shortly before the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, demand for cash currency increased significantly. That was a sign that bank customers increasingly lost confidence in the solvency and liquidity of commercial banks. This warning signal would no longer be available if cash were abolished.
A cashless economy makes tax collection easier, as the example of Sweden illustrates.

Regardless of a superficially balanced approach in large parts of the text, the article clearly evinces an underlying bias toward supporting the abolition of cash. Several arguments in the paper are fallacious and represent little more than intellectual kowtowing to the prevailing zeitgeist. Thus a cashless economy is supposedly going to improve “financial inclusiveness” — as every citizen and economic actor would be forced to open a bank account; it would reduce illegal immigration — as employment of illegal immigrants would become more difficult; and it would help protect the environment — because the production of paper or polymers for banknotes has a greater impact on the environment than electronic money.

Whether the given objective of fighting crime and black markets can be realized by banning cash remains a highly controversial issue. Thus, Professor Friedrich Schneider, one of the most renowned experts in the areas shadow economy and tax evasion, shows that a cash ban would reduce illicit employment be a mere 10% and organized crime by less than 5%.

The paper's conclusions ultimately read like a political manual for the abolition of cash by means of salami tactics. In other words, to prevent the population from getting alarmed, it is to be weaned off cash in tolerable doses through a piecemeal approach. Economic incentives for cashless payments are to be put in place, i.e., specifically, fees for cash payments are supposed to be introduced or raised. In our assessment, the most important point though concerns the notion that “de-cashing” would be “critical for the efficiency” of a negative interest rate policy.

[conk]

Senate bill S.1241 Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017, if passed, will severely limit that amount of cash anyone can carry on them, as well as other egregious assaults on our freedom.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1241

[TrumanCash]

Visa Trying to Bribe Merchants to Stop Taking Cash (http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/07/visa-trying-bribe-merchants-stop-taking-cash.html)

July 13, 2017 by Yves Smith

The war on cash is escalating. A big driver isn’t central banks who want to be able to inflict negative interest rates on savers, or Treasuries who see cash transactions as hiding revenues from their tax collectors, but the payment networks that want to kill cash (and checks!) as competitors to their oh so terrific (and fee-gouging) credit and debit cards.

However, one bit of good news is there doesn’t appear to be much enthusiasm on the buyer, as in merchant, end.

First, the overview from the Wall Street Journal:

Visa Inc. has a new offer for small merchants: take thousands of dollars from the card giant to upgrade their payment technology. In return, the businesses must stop accepting cash.

The company unveiled the initiative on Wednesday as part of a broader effort to steer Americans away from using old-fashioned paper money. Visa says it is planning to give $10,000 apiece to up to 50 restaurants and food vendors to pay for their technology and marketing costs, as long as the businesses pledge to start what Visa executive Jack Forestell calls a “journey to cashless.”

There are good reasons to think this initiative won’t get far.

Customer resistance. Food vendors, and in particular restaurants, are low margin businesses with fickle customers who have little to no loyalty. Why risk driving business away?

Aside from the fact that some customers prefer cash, a related issue is that using cards and smartphones often seem to be a tax on time. I really hate using chip cards. Mag cards were often faster than cash, since you swiped and could stuff the card back in your wallet while the transaction was being approved. Chip cards, by contrast, require you to keep the card in the machine while it is being approved, so one is very much aware of the wait. And when I’ve seen people using phones (often to buy small stuff like coffee, which really amazes me), I find that they are slower with it that they would probably be with cash, in that they seem to have to fumble with the phone to get the right app readied and then the payment doesn’t always go right through either.

And that’s before you get to the fact that ApplePay and other smartphone payments time stamp exactly when you paid, adding to the information the surveillance state is gathering about you. By contrast, even if you use a credit card at a store, Clive informs us that the card network typically retains only the date of transaction.

Read more at link above

[TrumanCash]

People Not Amused by EU Efforts to “De-Cash” their Lives (http://wolfstreet.com/2017/07/14/people-not-amused-by-eu-efforts-to-de-cash-their-lives/)

By Don Quijones, Spain & Mexico, editor at WOLF STREET.

In January 2017 the European Commission announced it was exploring the option of imposing upper limits on cash payments, with a view to implementing cross-regional measures as soon as 2018. To give the proposal a veneer of respectability and accountability the Commission launched a public consultation on the issue. Now, the answers are in, but they are not what the Commission was expecting.

A staggering 95% of the respondents said they were opposed to a cash ceiling at EU level. Even more emphatic was the answer to the following question:

“How would the introduction of restrictions on payments in cash at EU level benefit you, or your business or your organisation (multiple replies are possible)?”

In the curious absence of an explicit “not at all” option, 99.18% chose to respond with “no answer.” In other words, less than 1% of the more than 30,000 people consulted could think of a single benefit of the EU unleashing cross-regional cash limits.



Read rest of article at Wolf Street...

[Helene West]

Today, Zerohedge - "It's Your Money But You Can't Have It - EU Proposes Account Freezes To Halt Bank Runs

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-29/its-your-money-you-can’t-have-it-eu-proposes-account-freezes-halt-bank-runs

And we're not even cashless yet. Imagine if we were...

[TrumanCash]

War on Cash Proposals in Australia: Microchip Expiring $100 Bills, Forcing People to Keep Receipts (https://mishtalk.com/2017/08/02/war-on-cash-proposals-in-australia-microchip-expiring-100-bills-forcing-people-to-keep-receipts/)

Australia’s Black Economy Taskforce has come up with a list of 35 “consumer-focused” proposals to crack down on cash. The taskforce blames consumers for holding cash and for not getting receipts.

Michael Andrew, the head of the taskforce, proposes nanochips in $50 and $100 notes so the government knows where the cash is. Cash will expire after a designated period of time.

Andrew believes “consumers are part of the problem”. He wants to punish people who pay in cash and don’t get a receipt....

[Callista]

I have heard that you can just pop the notes in a microwave for a few seconds and that will take care of the chips :gossip:

[ThePythonicCow]

I have heard that you can just pop the notes in a microwave for a few seconds and that will take care of the chips :gossip:
Well - dang - that microwave that I put away in my closet years ago, because it's bad for healthy food ... just might have a use!

[ThePythonicCow]

I posted another take on this war on cash, as part of an analysis of some related matters (such as silver, Clif High and NSA influence on crypto-currencies) in a new thread: Bitcoin, the war on cash, Clif High, and the NSA's long range plans (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?99133-Bitcoin-the-war-on-cash-Clif-High-and-the-NSA-s-long-range-plans).

[ThePythonicCow]

Here's a good article on the advantages, and the major disadvantage, of a cashless society: After Cash: All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses a Bank Account (https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-03-15/the-end-of-cash-and-the-rise-of-government-power).

The advantages include a variety of conveniences and security improvements.

The major disadvantage: it gives governments way too much power over each of us.

[TrumanCash]

Why Elites Are Winning the War on Cash (https://dailyreckoning.com/elites-winning-war-cash/)

Visa recently unveiled its own offensive in the war on cash. Visa is offering certain merchants a $10,000 reward if they refuse to accept cash in the future.

Not surprisingly, Visa’s competitor is also part of the war on cash. Mastercard is increasing its efforts to encourage merchants to refuse cash. Here’s Bloomberg, quoting the CEO of Mastercard:

“Mastercard Chief Executive Officer Ajay Banga has been one of the most ardent supporters of ditching paper currency in the U.S. The 57-year-old first declared his war on cash in 2010.”

These private efforts by Visa and MasterCard exist side by side with official efforts to eliminate or discourage the use of cash coming from governments in India, Australia, Sweden as well as the United States.

These efforts are always portrayed in the most favorable light. Private parties talk about convenience and lower costs. Governments talk about putting pressure on tax cheats, terrorists and criminals.

Governments always use money laundering, drug dealing and terrorism as an excuse to keep tabs on honest citizens and deprive them of the ability to use money alternatives such as physical cash and gold.

But the so-called “cashless society” is just a Trojan horse for a system in which all financial wealth is electronic and represented digitally in the records of a small number of megabanks and asset managers.

Once that is achieved, it will be easy for state power to seize and freeze the wealth, or subject it to constant surveillance, taxation and other forms of digital confiscation.

The war on cash has two main thrusts. The first is to make it difficult to obtain cash in the first place. U.S. banks will report anyone taking more than $3,000 in cash as engaging in a “suspicious activity” using Treasury Form SAR (Suspicious Activity Report).

The second thrust is to eliminate large-denomination banknotes. The U.S. got rid of its $500 note in 1969, and the $100 note has lost 85% of its purchasing power since then. With a little more inflation, the $100 bill will be reduced to chump change.

Last year the European Central Bank announced that they were discontinuing the production of new 500 euro notes. Existing 500 euro notes will still be legal tender, but new ones will not be produced.

This means that over time, the notes will be in short supply and individuals in need of large denominations may actually bid up the price above face value paying, say, 502 euros in smaller bills for a 500 euro note. The 2 euro premium in this example is like a negative interest rate on cash.

The real burden of the war on cash falls on honest citizens who are made vulnerable to wealth confiscation through negative interest rates, loss of privacy, account freezes and limits on cash withdrawals or transfers.

The whole idea of the war on cash is to force savers into digital bank accounts so their money can be taken from them in the form of negative interest rates. An easy solution to this is to go to physical cash.

The war on cash is a global effort being waged on many fronts. My view is that the war on cash is dangerous in terms of lost privacy and the risk of government confiscation of wealth. India provides the most dramatic example.

How would you like to go to bed one night and then wake up the next morning to discover that all bills larger than $5.00 were no longer legal tender? That’s essentially what happened in India not long ago.

The good news is that cash is still a dominant form of payment in many countries including the U.S. The problem is that as digital payments grow and the use of cash diminishes, a “tipping point” is reached where suddenly it makes no sense to continue using cash because of the expense and logistics involved.

Once cash usage shrinks to a certain point, economies of scale are lost and usage can go to zero almost overnight. Remember how music CDs disappeared suddenly once MP3 and streaming formats became popular?

That’s how fast cash can disappear.

Once the war on cash gains that kind of momentum, it will be practically impossible to stop. That’s why I’m always saying that savers and those with a long-term view should get physical gold now while prices are still attractive and while they still can.

Given these potential outcomes, one might expect that citizens would push back against the war on cash.

But in some places, the opposite seems to be happening.

A recent survey revealed that more than a third of Americans and Europeans would have no problem at all giving up cash and going completely digital.

Specifically, the study showed 34% of Europeans and 38% of Americans surveyed would prefer going cashless.

Notably, Germans are the most resistant to going cashless. Almost 80% of transactions in Germany are done in cash, and many Germans never use credit cards.

The German experience with hyperinflation after WWI and additional monetary chaos after WWII certainly plays a part in this resistance to the cashless society.

Incidentally, the German word for debt, schuld, also means guilt.

Other countries, such as Romania and Bulgaria, which have recent experiences with currency and financial crises, also tend to use cash extensively.

Of course, there’s no denying that digital payments are certainly convenient. I use them myself in the form of credit and debit cards, wire transfers, automatic deposits and bill payments.

The surest way to lull someone into complacency is to offer a “convenience” that quickly becomes habit and impossible to do without.

The convenience factor is becoming more prevalent, and consumers are moving from cash to digital payments just as they moved from gold and silver coins to paper money a hundred years ago.

But when the next financial panic comes, those without tangible wealth will be totally at the mercy of banks and governments who will decide exactly how much of your own money you’re allowed to have each day.

Just ask the citizens of Cyprus, Greece and India who have gone through this experience in recent years.

It will come to the U.S. soon enough.

Other dangers arise from the fact that digital money, transferred by credit or debit cards or other electronic payments systems, are completely dependent on the power grid. If the power grid goes out due to storms, accidents, sabotage or cyberattacks, our digital economy will grind to a complete halt.

That’s why it’s a good idea to keep some of your liquidity in paper cash (while you can) and gold or silver coins. The gold and silver coins in particular will be money good in every state of the world.

I hold significant portion of my wealth in nondigital form, including real estate, fine art and precious metals in safe, nonbank storage.

I strongly suggest you do the same.

Regards,

Jim Rickards
for The Daily Reckoning

[TargeT]

Why Elites Are Winning the War on Cash (https://dailyreckoning.com/elites-winning-war-cash/)

Visa recently unveiled its own offensive in the war on cash. Visa is offering certain merchants a $10,000 reward if they refuse to accept cash in the future.


That wouldn't be attractive to me at all, my businesses pays more than $10,000 in credit card processing fees annually... if they wanted to REALLY get sneaky they'd waive processing fee's and maybe toss in some other benefit.... but I doubt those greedy SOB's will do anything like that.


However, if they did; I could see a landslide of acceptance from smaller businesses like mine. As it is currently, we tell every customer we prefer cash (soon to accept bitcoin too!)

[ThePythonicCow]

Governments always use money laundering, drug dealing and terrorism ...
Well, they should know, shouldn't they?

As best as I can figure, governments, especially the Imperial American Empire, are the world's leading money launderers, drug dealers and terrorists.

:focus:

[TrumanCash]

IMF Working Paper: The Macroeconomics of De-Cashing, Alexei Kireyev of the International Monetary Fund advises abolishing cash without having the citizens aware of the process. (https://gefira.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/iwf.pdf)

First, large banknotes are to be withdrawn from circulation, next limits on cash transactions are to be imposed, then computerization of the world’s financial system and control of international cash transactions are to be enforced and, finally, private companies are to be encouraged to avoid cash transactions.

[ZoSo925]

I believe there is a war on Cash, but there always has been a war on cash. It's a constant re-distribution of wealth if any form and does not have to be physical monetary money but commodity items as well.

We are entering a strange point in time. Lot of the World Word 2 Baby Boomers retiring and passing their inheritance down to children, people's pensions..etc The Big Boys want all this and keep control of the population. They will use All and Any Means necessary to steal your money. The biggest war on cash was in 1964 disguised as the Civil Rights Act that is a so-called is a landmark civil rights and US labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin...bla bla bla

The U.S. Government does not overall have a favorable treatment towards the black population in it's history. We all know the story of what happened. Population grew and Black people wanted to be treated like equal human beings in this New American society. Protests, and Riots and various shades of bloodshed. The U.S. Government was pushed up against the wall with very few choices left what to do. No one should be fooled that the U.S. Government during this era wanted the Black Population to have equal rights, the majority of our government was racist and hated Blacks. Our government is run by the most powerful think-tank minds that still operate on the same mentality to this very day.

We want rights, we want rights..... ok, ok, we will give you rights and they passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Guess what ? This was just to shut them up while our own government decided to punish everyone, black and white, jewish or christian..etc. Right after the 1964 Act was passed the people who really run the country ordered the U.S. Treasury department to stop minting coins in Silver in the U.S. Currency. As we know our government lies and they can give any reason why they do things and is not true. They can say all they want why they decided not to mint coin currency with Silver all they want but is it really the truth ? These same type of Bait & Switch tactics are still used today in politics and the even working for the most powerful corporations in their work environment....just punish everyone

I was never a Gold or Silver bug and I don't really consider myself to be fully one but the truth is since the beginning of human history - GOLD has always been the #1 form of money and will always will remain the true king. Cash is not King, it's Gold. Kings and royalty never used paper money. It's all about the Gold and Gems. Every Monetary System through human history and evolution has come and past while Gold will always be here forever. Don't believe any of the lies... Audit the Fed, Where is the Gold in Fort Knox... it's just a bunch of hoopla and earth will never run out of Gold. Natural Earthquakes Create Natural Gold and can go on and on.

It's 2018 now and the War on Cash is going on. Personally I never keep Cash on me and the last 20+ years I just use my Debit Car or Credit Card. I don't even own any physical Gold or Silver either except for some Jewelry, but nothing major. There is a lot of Doom And Gloom websites and personalities claiming to be professionals but it's all Speculation and none of these people are Oracles. If we had a true Oracle at our disposal, we would not even need a money system at all.

What exactly is Cash ? I need someone to paint my fence, do I pay them in Cash ? Maybe if I find the right person I can give them an Ounce of Weed and a good meal and they would be happy to paint my fence without any Cash at all. The Dollar can be anything and whatever it's current form is can be anything in the future. Our Government is very good at sprinkling magic fairy dust and making the impossible - possible. A Crash is going to happen ? People can say all they want and if any crash happens your bank account will be FDIC insured for the X amount of Money promised.

Bitcoin is new Materialistic method being introduced. The Roller-coaster ride leading to nowhere has taken off a great speeds and no one knows where the heck this is going, but this device really is but looks cool and curiosity killed the cat; sure why not, lets get on. No matter how you slice it and dice it, Bitcoin, Blockchain, Crypto / Encryption anything is all based on Binary Code and can be hacked and will never be safe. Anything electronic can be hacked, it's a completely flawed system of design that can never be safe. Safe Electronic Vehicles or any kind of money system electronic will never be safe and can be hacked.

There are lot of people who believe the Dark Web is Safe or this Qanon guy is really posting anonymously. This is a total joke. The CIA knows who this Qanon person is and can shut him down and can track exactly where his location is every time Qanon posts. If anything thinks they are going to lead a life of Cowboys and Indians being hackers and live like Gods on the Electrical Grid that is controlled by the CIA, they are sadly mistaken.

[ZoSo925]

Something else popped into my mind. The magic Fairy dust is hilarious but true :ROFL:

The Black Swan Events come and go causing destruction while the magic Fairy dust fixes things for the time being. (This can be Vise~Versa or any Mixed) A quote I've been using a while is a Unicorn can fart Blueberry Muffins and that is a perfect excuse why the market can be up or down on any given day.

FDIC is like a Psudo Shadow Government. If the dollar crashes, our government can easily flip on a light switch and money in FDIC accounts is still there and good, whether it's on a Gold standard or anything.

FDIC is not part of the Federal Reserve and a totally separate Corporation.




Edit: Wow, my mind is completely melted. After reading about Engineering Woo and the fact Blacks Swans exist and all around everywhere this is beyond anyone's conception and will melt your mind.

FDIC is a Chess Piece that has never been used. FDIC in itself is a Black Swan ... Break The Glass Plan and still a whole range of Black Swans will spawn off that as well.

We need a gosh darn Oracle , but that still requires Engineering Woo and Black Swans

[TrumanCash]

Retailers Rejecting Customers' Cash As More Ban Paper Money

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-29/your-cash-not-welcome-more-retailers-banning-paper-money

I have been observing that more people are paying with plastic instead of cash. Only a small minority of people pay with cash at the grocery check stand even though paying with cash is faster than paying with plastic.

Paying with a credit/debit card is not more "convenient"--It is less convenient and takes longer than paying with cash.

I've seen many instances when someone will buy a couple candy bars with their plastic card which always takes longer than just whipping out a five-dollar bill (or whatever) to pay for it. Even when the checker has to count out change, paying with cash is faster.

Then there is the rather frequent situation where the card does not go through which further holds up the line. I have to laugh when this occurrence takes several minutes only to stand patiently in line while the customer finally gives up and pulls out cash to pay for the purchase! I find this to be very funny. :bigsmile:

I always have cash at the ready and often carry enough coins in my pocket to pay the exact amount so the checker does not have to count out change, thus keeping the customer line moving faster. Unfortunately, nearly everyone else slows down the line by paying with an electronic transaction.

So far I have not seen any business refusing cash in the area in which I live--thankfully.

The solution is to pay in cash whenever possible. If we don't use it, we lose it. The alternative is a cashless world and that will be the final nail in the coffin of enslavement to the globalist banksters.

[meeradas]

... funny...

I know what you mean, but it ain't, at all.

It literally hurts me to see that stupidity, every time.

"Convenience"? It's a VOTE. They don't realize it.

I vote daily, too. I pay CASH, whereever and whenever possible.

[mountain_jim]

I also pay with cash whenever possible and have exact change handy.

I became religious about this as part of my generate-as-little-personal-data as possible strategy.

But eventually the grocery store value cards did that in, where I 'saved' over a thousand dollars last year by using, according to our local store's running data tab printed on receipt.

[ThePythonicCow]

I became religious about this as part of my generate-as-little-personal-data as possible strategy.
I grew up in a small town, where many of the families, farms, churches, schools, and other structure and culture had been around for centuries (not the many centuries of some places in Europe, but a couple of centuries anyway.)

Our grade school teachers could remember teaching our parents and occasionally our grandparents. Anyone, any other child, whose parents had not been born in the town felt, even to us little children, as "outsiders".

What was known to one, of any common interest, was known to all.

Now, in the new world of technology, I've had the (good?) fortune of following, closely, for a half century, the evolution of what is known of each of us, in the "digital cloud", and how it is known and used.

So, by instincts that are rooted in my childhood, I instinctively track myself as essentially two beings, consistently connected and overlapping, but distinct. One of these beings is the private self, unknown to the "digital cloud", and the other being is what is visible to, or might be inferred within, the digital cloud.

It essentially bothers me no more that one website shows me ads for boots, two days after I read articles on boots at some other website, in some other browser, than it bothered me as a child that my grade school teacher knew that I had annoyed the neighbors ducks the week before (both fictional examples.)

I realize that what I just wrote above is of little direct use to those who don't have those two life experiences to build upon. I can only suggest that the way out of fear and feeling oppressed is understanding.

A saying from the Bible (the book of the religion of my ancestors) is relevant here: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."

The understanding, the wisdom, is the key.

[TrumanCash]

Will Globalists Sacrifice The Dollar To Get Their 'New World Order'? by Brandon Smith of alt-market.com:



I predict according to the current pace of the trade war and Fed liquidity tightening that de-dollerization will hit the mainstream by 2020. The process of "resetting" the global monetary system would likely take at least another decade to complete. The globalist preoccupation with their "Agenda 2030" sustainable development initiatives suggests a decade long timeline.

Without ample resistance, the introduction of the cashless society will be presented as a natural and even “heroic” response by the globalists to save humanity from the “selfishness” of destructive nationalists. They will strut across the world stage as if they are saviors, rather than the villains they really are.

Read entire article at http://www.alt-market.com/articles/3633-will-globalists-sacrifice-the-dollar-to-get-their-new-world-order

[TrumanCash]

Crossing Borders with Gold and Silver Coins by Doug Casey

https://internationalman.com/articles/crossing-borders-with-gold-and-silver-coins/

Gold coins are in many ways an excellent way to subvert capital controls. And I think they’ll become much more popular in that role.

That’s because, all over the world, paper cash is disappearing. People are moving away from paper cash. That’s partially because there are fewer and fewer bank branches where you can cash a check, and ATM machines are costly to use. And partially because everybody has a cell phone and they’re starting to use them for even trivial purchases, like a cup of coffee. Governments are encouraging this because if all purchases, sales, and payments are made electronically, they’ll know exactly what you’re doing with your money.

From their point of view, the elimination of cash will have several major benefits: It decreases the opportunity for tax evasion, it decreases the possibilities of “money laundering,” it eliminates the expense of printing currency, it obviates counterfeiting, and it gives the state instant access to all of any individual’s cash. From an individual’s point of view, however, the safety and freedom offered by a stack of paper cash will disappear.

Much of the safety and freedom offered by foreign banks and brokerage accounts has already disappeared. Few people seem aware of the fact that not so long ago, there was no limit to the amount of cash you could transfer in or out of the US without reporting. Or that you didn’t have to report the existence of offshore bank or brokerage accounts (although you did have to report taxable income from them).

That changed in 1970, first with the passage of USC 3156, and then the perversely-named Bank Secrecy Act. The 1986 Tax Reform Act made it highly inconvenient, and largely uneconomic, to invest in passive foreign investment companies (PFICs). In 2010, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) required every foreign financial institution in the world to report info on US persons to the US government. The enormous regulatory burdens and potential penalties it imposes now make it very hard to find a foreign institution that will even open an account for an American. These are all de facto capital controls.

Read entire article at https://internationalman.com/articles/crossing-borders-with-gold-and-silver-coins/

[TrumanCash]

Globalists Are Bringing Their One World Currency Plans Out Into The Open (http://www.alt-market.com/articles/3716-globalists-are-bringing-their-one-world-currency-plans-out-into-the-open) By Brandon Smith

[Spix]

Now I have had the time to dive my head right into the understanding of the global reset. I feel the coming of age is upon us and we need to display light on the fact that banks are doing what is supposed to be done... Following the flow of money.

Now, I wanted to further understand the value of the word "money" and how the belief system polarises with Amish folk.

Amish people work in a community.

We work in a society that revolves around effort for reward. The ideal satisfaction for crypto usage in a technological environment is represented to be a freedom enclosure.

The real world use case with crypto is to work well with a community in an environment that thrives on effort under reward.

If we represent the freedom under effort analogy to be the new slogan of the real world crypto usage, A foundation can be grown.

Do we flow with the money? or display freedom under effort.

Referencing Globalists Are Bringing Their One World Currency Plans Out Into The Open By Brandon Smith

Fallacy #2: There Is No Other Currency Mechanism In The World That Can Take The Dollar's Place

"This fallacy relies on two assumptions – One, that no currency has the liquidity to match the dollar and fill the void in global trade if it were to fall. Two, the majority of reserves held in central banks around the world are denominated in dollars, therefore a replacement is unlikely because the world is “used to paying with dollars”.

First, liquidity is meaningless. Liquidity in any currency can be created on a whim. In fact, the Chinese have been ramping up the liquidity of the Yuan for the past ten years. Trillions in Yuan have been conjured from nothing, which is a development I have warned about repeatedly along with the Yuan's inclusion into the IMF's SDR basket.

This is not to say I think the Yuan will replace the dollar as the world reserve, far from it. That honor will go to another mechanism entirely, which we will discuss in a moment. The point is, fiat currencies are not limited by their liquidity, they are only limited by the restrictions that central banks set upon them. If global central banks decide in unison that they will dump the dollar as the world reserve and use another currency, then that is exactly what will happen. Liquidity can be created with the push of a button."



A sentence that says it all. "Liquidity can be created with the push of a button." this says something to my revolution of freedom self. If Freedom can be displayed as effort, we can display the use of the word "money" as a point of global stabilisation that does not work in this new coming of age technological environment.

Now.. Does this feel like I am helping with the growth of how the globalists can manufacture their plan to develop a stable transition? The answer is yes! Because I am actually scared of how civilians will counter-act to the change of a cashless society.

I feel we NEED the foundation to be mirrored as of how the amish live their lives. Its as of a community we seek clarity of a sustainable foreground rather than display the reaching for manipulation in the years to come.

[Delight]

Life After Cash Food and Shelter

JkJDO7rrh1I

[Matthew]

https://twitter.com/PeterSweden7/status/1532473015912521734

PeterSweden
@PeterSweden7
THEY ARE GOING TOO FAR

Norway has announced they will be tracking card payments and the food purchases of all citizens.

In other words, the state will know what you ate for lunch!

This is literally 1984.

Retweet if you think this is a bad idea

[East Sun]

What if,

...when we buy gold and silver, to change from dollars to a
new currency and only credit cards are recognized as legal currency
and we can not use gold or silver to buy or sell we will, have to
use our metals at a near nothing exchange rate or try to barter with
it. Either way we loose.

Any thoughts or ideas?

[Gwin Ru]

...

... Nigel Farage: ‘There is an all-out war on cash which is about controlling our lives at every level!’ (https://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=270957)

by tts-admin (https://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?author=39262) | Jul 11, 2023 | 4 comments (https://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=270957#respond)


https://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/No-cash-payments-accepted.jpg


Nigel Farage – GB News via YouTube.com July 10, 2023

Source (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcVKIOjuacg)

GcVKIOjuacg

[Matthew]

https://twitter.com/StanVoWales/status/1685902658580647936


Stan Voice of Wales (@StanVoWales)
Piers Corbyn and team at Aldi APP ONLY store Greenwich Thurs 27 July. Piers gained entry. Chose a Box of strawberries 🍓 and put down CASH Payment on the HELP TABLE while the security said he wasn't allowed to pay by cash. And then left the shop advising the staff to call the Police... @Iromg

[gini]

About Thailands (political party Pheu Thai)plan to give 10.000 bht-(around 300 usd)for anyone over 16,to open a digital id/money account....c93aR7ipmIw--31/7/23--5 min