In recent weeks we’ve seen numerous reports of how banks
are actively working with governments to restrict cash usage. JP Morgan
Chase, one of the world’s largest banks, has advised their customers
that storing cash in their safe deposit boxes is no longer allowed – for your safety, of course. The new policy sounds
ridiculous but makes complete sense when you consider that you would then be
left with no other choice than to hold your money exclusively in your bank
account, where the bank will simply charge you for the privilege of depositing your funds in their fine financial institution.
Any normal working class individual would have the same
reaction you’re problem having right now to this news: take your cash out of
the bank. While that may sound like a great plan, it turns out that bank
employees have been told by the government that they should be reporting to law enforcement officials any
suspicious looking cash transactions, especially withdrawals, even if they
are for just a couple of thousand dollars so that enforcement agents can then
seize those funds.
They want to ensure total control and by controlling your
cash flow, they control you. It’s as simple as that. As noted below, the
ideal situation for the world’s central bankers and governments is a total
ban on cash transactions. It is, after all, the 21st century. Who needs cash
when you have a debit card or phone payment systems?
Plus, there’s terrorism to contend with and we all know
that only terrorists, criminals and shady underworld types use
cash.
Moreover, in the event the President or other bureaucrat
declares a financial crisis, the government can move with unprecedented speed
to stabilize the system by simply compelling you to spend money to boost
economic activity. And by “compelling” we mean forcing you through direct
taxation and withdrawal of your funds.
If their intentions are not yet obvious, then the
following report from Zero Hedge should
make it perfectly clear.
At this stage, a sane person might be tempted to call it
a day on the monetary experiments, especially considering that at this point,
the limits have been reached. That is, there are literally no more assets to
buy and rates have hit the effective lower bound where rational actors will
eschew bank deposits in favor of the mattress. But not so fast, say folks
like Citi’s Willem Buiter and economist Ken Rogoff: the world could always
ban cash because if you eliminate physical currency and force people
to use a debit card linked to a government controlled bank account for all
transactions, you can effectively centrally plan everything. Consumers not
spending? No problem. Just tax their excess account balance. Economy
overheating? Again, no problem. Raise the interest paid on account holdings
to encourage people to stop spending. So with Citi, Harvard,
and Denmark all onboard, we bring you the latest call for a
cashless society, this time from German economist and member of the German
Council Of Economic Experts Peter Bofinger.
Via Spiegel (Google translated):
Coins and bills are obsolete
and only reduce the influence of central banks. This position represents the economy Peter Bofinger. The federal
government should stand up for the abolition of cash, he calls in the mirror…
The economy Peter Bofinger campaigns for the
abolition of cash. “With today’s technical possibilities coins and notes are
in fact an anachronism,” Bofinger told SPIEGEL.
If these away, the markets for undeclared work and
drugs could be dried out. In addition, it would have the central banks easier to enforce its monetary
policy.The teaching in Würzburg
economics professor called on the federal government to promote at the
international level for the abolition of cash. “That would certainly be a
good topic for the agenda of the G-7 summit in Elmau,” he said. (Click here
to read the full interview in the new mirror .)
Even the former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers
and economist pleaded for an end to the already cash . Likewise, the US
economist Kenneth Rogoff . He also argued that the interest rates of central
banks have less clout when banks or consumer credit rather than hoard cash.
Critics warn, however , such debates would only distract from the real problems of the
current monetary policy.
The idea is that either you start spending your money
like a good Patriotic American according to the rules and regulations, or the
government would just take it from you and reappropriate it as they see fit.
But such a thing could never happen in America – that the
government could force a private citizen to purchase a product
or service, or face financial penalties and even jail time – right?
To answer this question we direct you to the Patient
Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Besides, you don’t own that money you’re depositing at the bank anyway, because once you
deposit those funds, according to new banking rules, you become a creditor to
your financial institution and they can pretty much do whatever they want
with what was formerly your money.
We can see that governments around the world are
feverishly working to marginalize cash and criminalize those who use it.
Naturally, that will force those who prefer to keep their
spending habits outside of the purview of prying government eyes to go
underground. Currency mechanisms like gold, silver, food, medicine, Bitcoin
blockchains and other bartererable trade goods may become the cash du jour should the trend continue.
Related Reading:
What is Money When the System Collapses?
Warning: Get Your Money Out: “All Legal Bank
Deposit Protections Are Now Officially Gone
Watch Your Cash: New BAIL-IN Rules Will
Force “Failed Bank Losses on Investors”
Government Orders Bank Tellers To Alert
Police About Your Cash Withdrawals: So They Can “Seize the Funds… Investigate”
Week 50 of 52: Bartering and the Community
