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The Next Capital Control: Banning The €500 Bill
As SF Fed's John Williams notes (here), cash is king, but the strange thing is that while credit/debit transactions rise exponentially, the cash in circulation is also rising at a rapid pace. So where does all the cash go? The short answer is into large-denomination bills and out of the country by his findings. While low denomination bills suffer (as we discussed here) it is worth asking who is 'hoarding' the $100 bills? This is the question that BofAML asks in Europe as the huge EUR500 Bill (the developed world's highest value note in circulation) remains in great demand (apparanelty by shady offshore types). This is not good news for the central banks of the world as they run dry of monetary policy tools to drive velocity in money (or spending).
BofAML's proposal: Ban the EUR500 Bill; force those shady people who 'stack' these high denomination bills to spend that money into circulation. This would appear to be the latest 'capital control' strawman, 'floated' to eliminate the people's right to keep cash segregated from a banking system and out of broad electronic circulation. So in both the US and Europe, high denomination bills are being hoarded (or exported to 'safe' havens) as Williams notes, "around the world, during periods of political unrest or war, cash - especially the currency of a stable country... - is seen as a safe asset that can be spirited out of harm’s way with relative ease."
This, of course, is not what the elites want - and we suspect a "ban the EUR500 Bill" legislation will be coming soon to the EU Commission.
The US Fed is worried about it (pdf here)
According to one estimate, the share of U.S. currency held abroad rose from about 56% before the tumultuous events of the past five years to nearly 66% in 2012. The chart below shows the surg ein high denomination notes dominates the low (sub-$50) deonomination for currency in circulation...
And so is Europe...
Via BofAML, Time to get rid of the €500 bill?
Demand for the euro as a store of value has started declining. We use the demand for the €500 bill, which is by far the highest currency denomination in G10, to document this trend and argue that it could eventually weaken the euro.
Although the ECB has no plans to remove the €500 bill from circulation, we argue that it should do so. It will weaken the euro, supporting the economy. It will address concerns that the bill is primarily used to hide illegal income. More importantly, we propose a scheme in which the removal of the bill will be a tax on illegal income, allowing using the proceeds to address the periphery crisis.
The €500 bill is by far the highest currency denomination in G10 and one of the highest in the world (Chart 1). Its issuance started with the introduction of the euro banknotes on 1 January 2002.
An ECB study suggests that only one-third of the €500 bills in circulation are used for transaction purposes. The remainder is used as store-of-value.
But who is 'hoarding this store of value' outside a bank?
Holding large amounts of “mattress cash” to store value outside the banking system raises many questions. A number of banks in the Eurozone remain weak after the global and Eurozone crises, but European banks were considered to be strong and enjoyed the public’s confidence in the pre-crisis years. Indeed, some evidence suggests that the €500 bill is popular with criminals and tax evaders:
- Money exchange offices in the UK stopped selling €500 notes from 20 April 2010, because of their use in money laundering. Indeed, according to the Serious Organized Crime Agency, 90% of all €500 bills sold in the UK are in the hands of organized crime.
- According to the New York Times, one fourth of the €500 notes in 2006 were in Spain, despite a GDP of only 11.5% of the Eurozone’s GDP at that time. This may have to do with the large share of the underground economy in the country. The Spanish public had nicknamed them “Bin Ladens”, as everyone knew they were there, but nobody had ever seen them.
- Reports suggest that the police in various countries use the bill to track money laundering.
- Other countries have removed large denominations because of such concerns. US President Nixon issued an order in 1969 discontinuing the US$500 bill as a way of combating money laundering by organized crime. Canada withdrew C$1,000 bills in 2000, because of growing concerns over their use by organized crime.
The fear is that the drop in demand for EUR500 bills reflects on the more general decline in the demand for the euro as a store of value...
And we can't have that... so...
and BofAML's Suggestion... Plan....
Time to get rid of the €500 bill?
Despite no plans by the ECB to remove the €500 bill from circulation, we see a number of benefits if it does so. It will reduce the demand for euro to store value, which will weaken the currency helping the Eurozone economy recover from its continued recession. It will address concerns about the use of the bill to hide income from illegal sources. And, more importantly, removing the €500 bill from circulation can help raise substantial revenue by taxing illegal activity, based on a scheme that we describe below. Consider the following:
- The public has only a month or so to deposit all €500 bills in a bank, after which the bills become worthless. The deposit can take place only in a European bank, in Europe or abroad.
- Depositors will have to present evidence of legal income sources for deposits of €500 bills above a specific amount, let’s say €10,000– such requirements are already in place regardless of the currency denomination of new deposits.
- All €500 bills that are not deposited in a bank within a month or are not justified by legal income sources become ECB profit.
- The Eurozone can then use the proceeds to recapitalize banks in the periphery, capitalize the ESM and/or reduce the periphery’s sovereign debt burden.
We believe that the revenue raised in such a scheme could be sizable. The value of €500 bills amounted to €290bn in February 2013. If most of it cannot be justified by legal sources, as our discussion above suggests, the Eurozone can raise a substantial amount of funds to help address the ongoing periphery crisis. For comparison, the capital of the ESM is €80bn. Moreover, the scheme will be politically popular, as it will be equivalent to a 100% tax on €500 bills resulting from illegal activities and tax evasion. We have seen nothing to suggest that the ECB and the Eurozone authorities have ever considered such a scheme, but we believe that it would be a win-win idea.
And so there it is, the strawman for the latest cash-liberating capital control for the world's safe-haven seeking cash hoarders...
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Banknotes, bitchez! (Well, not really.)
or just trade them in for 5 100's
Yes....but for most people that means showing up at an official money changer (aka "bank") and exposing your hoard to official eyes. This is a classic technique to flush out the black market "savers".
<Of course 'connected' people will use the private back door.>
Isn't it amazing that the US Dollar isn't even backed by paper anymore?...
please don't blame the EUR for it ;-)
meanwhile Bank of America Merril Lynch seems to hate our paper money
I wonder how people would react to Nomura asking for the ban of the $100, $50, $20 and $10 Dollar bills
suddently the distopian vision of megabanks only giving credit to those who allow an implant and private headhunters going after non-implanted humans is not that strange, anymore...
Did BOFML really suggest ONE month to deposit all $500 euro bills AND a record of where the income was coming from? And that people would be "happy" since they will assume its all money-laundering and illegal activities?
What a stupid idea! This is a suggestion you'd find a ditsy sorority girl suggest in an econ101 course.
dont see the swissies on the list with their chf 1000 bills, roughly 800 euros.
you can actually pay with it at a conveniant store buying a six pack of beer.
never the less i prefer carrying the lower denominations such as the 200 bill.
If shortage, maybe Fed is can post PDF for Open Source printing?
Is there no end to their bullshit?
and how long before they ban the €100 for the same reasons? Then the €50?
And if you can't present evidence, you can just give your banker a bit of a backhander to sign the form saying you actually did.
Yes, because why shouldn't the ECB confiscate any money you can't 'prove' is yours? That'll teach you to withdraw 'your' money!
On first glance it's easy to see why BTC has been going apeshit.. but why haven't PMs? And then it's obvious - suppress the traditional store of value (PMs) while using limitless fiat pockets to create a BTC price bubble, which can then be crashed at will... thus destroying confidence in BTC and PMs as alternatives to 'official' currency.
Probably for the author Switzerland is not a developed country... As for paying in convenience store with them it's not really as easy as you would imply but certainly doable.
You just need a larger suitcase. That's all.
Politicians should solve the problem. Not the consequence of their actions. Bloomberg banned large sodas and now people buy two smaller ones.
These guys can't see beyond a few feet.
I'll bet there are some of the homeless on the streets of Madrid who could walk into a bank with fifteen 500 euro notes, walk out with seventy-five 100 euro notes, and be paid by one of those for the transaction. Underground economy, bitchez!
"All €500 bills that are not deposited in a bank within a month or are not justified by legal income sources become ECB profit."
If the ECB is suddenly more flush with cash that was previously not in their possession, while maintaining the same euros in circulation number, to be utilized for more bank propping, wouldn't this be largely a EUR strenghthening scheme? No wonder B of A loves it. They like cheap USD.
e100's will now trade at premium
Well, there's some debate about Velocity and large banknotes not taken into complete consideration.
That being at the tip of the spear, suitcases and envelopes full of money utilized for drug, arms and other under the table financial transactions simply do not disappear form existence.
And as such are not lost to the level of real economic activity (As opposed to reported economic activity.)
Say Max the arms dealer sells a whole bunch of AKs to the East Slumberland Revolutionary Council, and receives cash for it, he usually doesn't sit on the cash and do nothing... as in creating both a lower reported and real "V".
He will in turn take that cash, buy more AKs and sell them again, the producer or provider of the AKs in turn recieveing cash in lieu of MatserCard or AMEX payments and so the economic cycle continues.
The difference being while one is unreported, the other is reported but both effect real economic activity.
Indeed, the underground economy usually does not depress actual "V" but the transaction goes unreported thereby depressing reported "V".
Thus as the proportion of cash unreported economic transactions increases, so too the "reported" "V" decreases. But only because it is not counted!
Further, as unreported cash transactions, aka the black market, the economic exchanges are not taxed, either.
And it is this latter matter which worries politicians more... for there are tax receipts being lost to the system.... Just like putting money in an "unreported offshore banking account" where earnings thereupon and estate taxes, etc., are not realized.
Moreover, politicians are the last folks who really and truly want to do away with large denomination bills. (Or off shore accounts.)
How else are they to receive their influence payments?
To wit: The current scramble in France to report all "assets".
Where the fuck you think that shit comes from in them accounts?
The Law of Unintended Consequences is a Bitch
China has done this successfully for years by pegging the Yuan to a 100 Yuan note (exchanging around $15.50 last I checked).
This makes it difficult for the little fellow to move much cash; whereas the elite in control can move whatever they wish.
This is a capital control, but it is for the untermenschen, the prole ... not people in or with power.
Your observation is noteworthy.
It is a capital control, but when you multiply the cash in hand, which could be transferred by 1.2 billion people (the remainder is the number of wealthy elites in china), then you realize that capital can simultaneously flow outward, very, very quickly, and put the Chinese elites in a world of hurt.
Only saw one when the euro started.
Nobody has seen any ever since.
Rumor are they all went into spain into their real estate bubble.
And no store accepts them so why bother.
erasing the 500 bill is just to get the grey money out of the wall.
I see every day an awful lot of them. People in Italy and in the Reich like it very much!
I saw one in Rome a couple of weeks ago. A guy flashed one to a woman working in a cafe like it was something special. I didn't realize the significance at the time. Maybe he was trying to pick her up.
Walk into any exchange kiosk at the major airports outside the EU and you get as many as you want, as the Europeans traveling outwards carry mostly 500 euronotes.
Right, it's oh-so widely accepted ... (NOT)
Fair enough. But when we need $500 to buy a carton of milk, would you agree 5 $100 bills are more convenient than 25 $20 bills?
funny we are back to 2013 highs.. despite BITCOIN being 240 lol - http://hedge.ly/12EtQhj
Red money here we come bitchez!
Go ahead and try to change/spend one of those E$500 notes.
I went to a French bank with a friend who had an account at the bank and they would not accept it.
I had to go to a currency exchange to break it up.
Good. Convert your wad of 500 Euro notes.
Take the mugging in fees, but then transfer the other currency out to a safer destination/system, where you can convert to other asset classes to store your wealth.
Third world elites have been masters at this technique for more than a century.
Forcing people to spend! What brave new economic paradigm is this!
Reminded me of this.
http://i403.photobucket.com/albums/pp112/rabscuttle-fr/misc/Ron-Paul-Don...
Ron knows the con.
Swissie CHF 1000 is higher
yeah... try to exchange those abroad...
tthere's a hunt for swiss currency right now.
Approximately 60% of the entire value of all Swiss bank notes in circulation are made up of notes of 1'000 CHF denomination.
http://www.snb.ch/en/iabout/cash/id/cash_circulation
Nice to know I don't live in the developed world according to the retards at BoAML...
love your sexyläuten city logo
One standard from each home canton, but I actually live in a gulch outside of town- something about defensible deconstructable bridges which are usually constructed over constant creeks. Fortunately my neighbor's collection of cocks never waits until sunup in case I need to make an early 20 mintue commute to the nearest tarmac and get to the other home.
(That's for making me pull out the Langenscheidts, and even then having to think...)
that,s what ZH and life is all about, to think ...,love your Langenscheidt response, it took you quite a while i guess ;)
It was a self-evident compound (based on the context) of two simple words with known meanings, however, I bought my monsterbox dictionary set in the late 1980's, so there was a huge amount of irrelevant and repetitive constructions that I wound up reading. The flexibility of the modern English language is that anyone is free to take two words and slap them together (as along as everyone else can derive the meaning) so they tend to use related words like electronic & mail, in German there seems to be a predilection for combining short simple words into longer words whose meaning is somewhat different from the root words. Of course I could always pay CHF 386 for a new dictionary, but then I would have to go read the Abfallkalender and figure out what category the old monsterbox dictionaries go in - paper or cardboard? I think I'll just be happy with what I have for the time being.
"OMG! People not putting their money in the banks but on their person!
This must stop! We must end paper currency!
We must go all digital so we can control it and tax it (and confiscate it)!"
I can hear it now, all the way from Brussels.
That's exactly what I'm thinking, too. There's so much interference and meddling by these "deep thinkers." They're creating a Rube Goldberg Contraption of epic proportions, and it will unleash hell on earth when it ultimately collapses.
Then they'll use that as an excuse to consolidate power even further.
We must go all digital
Like BitCoin?
That was not Brussels asking, that was a US megabank - just to realize how brazen they have become...
Must. Eliminate. Competition.
Everyone. Must. Use. US dollar.
Save. Reserve currency status.
Attack. Large denomination Euros.
Force usage of US dollar large denomination.
Every Euro or Dollar privately held outside of the banking system equates to 10X the face value to the bank via fractional reserve rules. The currency withdrawals also mess up their reserve requirements to loans outstanding and create the need for more deposits. It's also a way for governments to collect what they feel are their fair share of taxes (you see, it's not their spending that is the problem, it's that they aren't collecting enough in taxes!?!?!?). All this says to me is that the fallout from the Cyprus confiscations is much worse than they are letting on and the egregiously over-levered banks are feeling the pinch. Oh, what a tangled web they weave!
Good points! But actually, the amount of 'money' leveraged off cash is a LOT higher than 10x
they just want to be able to say that all that money is destroyed in a fire.
that's why it's so lucrative to change your banknotes.
There's a lot that went lost in circulation.
And than they can just print it. So they actually hope nobody turns them in.
I have an idea...stop the war on capital and wealth creation and people might just spend a little.
Please let the Obozos know.
How about just banning net worth altogether?
Force those evil people who plan for their future to spend NOW!
In fact, they should legally force people who have saved to SPEND IT ALL NOW and also GO INTO DEBT UP TO THIER ASSES so they can know how it feels to be like everyone else whom they are cruelly depriving of their saved hoardes of capital!
FUCK THE RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE G-DAMMIT!
I have a frog that jumps net worth, is he worth anything toward debt?
I think that they will put expiration dates on banknotes. Then a black market of exhanging late expiration to newer expiration notes will emerge so that when I buy an expensive item, I would exchange my long expiration notes with those who expire within a few days and get my 20% discount.
Ain't that great?
ive been reading lots of shtf fiction, oodles of practical knowledge comes from them....anybody have any solid recommendations????
I learned everything I need to know in life from Star Trek.
The needs of the me outweigh the needs of the you.
I'm a fan also.
But some interesting moral lessons can be drawn from the Twilight Zone as well... Cheers Doc...
Agreed.....One of my favorites was The Obsolete Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBB2Xs0Hko8
Terry Pratchet has best insight for every situation, and rivals Mark Twain.
what have u been reading?
going home, the blackout, lights out, one second after............
one second after was very intense...well written by william forstchen, a history professor.... also like lights out...............
thanks for the info
youve been reading any??
I stopped reading once real life became better than fiction.
no way fonz...real life is BORING..............vix is at all time lows, the central banks have made life happy and stable for the entire world, stocks are doing well, gold and silver have barely traded out of range in 2 years, bond yields have gone nowhere in the past year....you really need a good SHTF novel....
what are u doing for a garden? raised beds?
wood chips.............................
http://backtoedenfilm.com/
watch and learn fonz........................
absolutely will. thanks.
"The Sheep Look Up" by John Brunner
I'd be interested in recommendations, too. I recently read "The Long Walk," which someone on here suggested (Fonz maybe?). It was depressing as hell, but I liked it.
No practical knowledge per se, but it made me think it was inevitable that all of us on ZH would slowly go a bit insane.
"The Long Walk" 100 kids in a contest. Walk continuously at 4 mph or faster. Go slower for 30 seconds and you get a warning. Your 4th warning is a bullet in the head from some guy in a military vehicle.
The bit of practical info I got was that if you plan to do a lot of walking, get high quality socks and footwear.
"Dies the Fire" is another dystopic book I read a few years back.
Thanks for reading the long walk. that was me. I liked so many things about the book, despite it being a dark book. I can't get into all of it now. The main thing I took from it and apply to ZH is that almost everyone in that walk drew strength from each other, even though they were essentially just trying to outlast one another. In some weird kind of way i see a resemblance here.
Also known as the Hunger Games...
Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness
Philip K. Dick.
Paulie K. is a Dick.
Tampons are a great hedge for bitcoins.
I'm very sorry sir, but we can no longer accept 500 euro notes for our heroin. Please pay me in gold or silver.
I have a bunch of these laying around - https://twitter.com/FamilyRotten/status/321692950327336960/photo/1
Thousand dolla bill ya'll! Worth a good $2k now bitchez.
My best friend, Grover C.
What, me worry?
Skank of Amurkin
This all presumes that "hiding 'illegal' income" is evil...and that governments gaining even more revenue is good.
Both premises are wrong.
Exactly what I was thinking.
And why give governments any more ideas on how to rape and pillage us...
It's for the children!
And, and, better future for all!
It takes a villiage don't ya know? Childcare, for example, is too important to be left for parents-and its so expensive to get other people to do it for you! At least Fabain socialists like Hilliary think so.
>>>And, more importantly, removing the €500 bill from circulation can help raise substantial revenue by taxing illegal activity, based on a scheme that we describe below.<<<
Maybe a little bit for a little while but do you really think all those hoarders will fall into line and come back into the system or do you think they will find another, widely accepted, portable store of value?
Plus, the subsequent devaluation will hurt legal Euro holders the most.
>>>We believe that the revenue raised in such a scheme could be sizable. The value of €500 bills amounted to €290bn in February 2013.<<<
Right, and every single €500 bill will be deposited into rotten EU banks. No one will want to exchange them for €100 bills or buy gold with them (converting the cash into legal income for the PM dealer) before the deadline or anything like that.
We believe that the revenue raised in such a scheme could be sizable.
It's funny I looked up the definition for the word "scheme" and I came up with this:
an underhanded plot; intrigue
That by itself sounds illegal to me.
Yet another definition:
Make plans, esp. in a devious way or with intent to do something illegal or wrong
the rich are starting to feel the fire in their ass as the gov try and steal their money. soon the gov will mandate that everyone come in and 'swap' the old money for a new money and if you dont the old will be worthless......didnt the romans do that..?anyway the rush to the exits is getting close.
if you have $10mil and dont have it in gold coins, you are an idiot. paper money is dieing....
This whole show is getting fucking bizarre???
Is it just me?
Even Jebus would be amazed at what we allow to happen folk.?????
A similar removal of high-denomination bills has been carried in 1990 in USSR. The results were soooo great
They'll ban all but petty cash. You MUST have a bank account! We MUST be able to confiscate your money at will.
FWIW, €500 isn't so much these days.
Buy a shit old car.
Buy a bicycle.
Buy a computer.
Buy a smartphone.
All more than €500.
Or simply take all your money out of the bank because they can't be trusted.
E500 is being eliminated because it allows organized crime to operate outside the confines of organized crime.
More like because it cuts into organized crime's existing monopoly...
The FED is worried? The FED has merely noted a trend.
In the spirit of "blocking all the exits" I propose the issuance of a new totally electronic currency. Current electronic balances get a one for one swap.
Current physical $?
Two old for one new. Handling charge.
Got 'too much' old currency? The ATF takes your entire stash and then you get to argue why you should get any of it back, since it's obvious that you are a crook.
There is no end to the baksters greed. A pox on the Central Banksters.
at some point during USSR collapse 100 rubles banknotes were declared illegal and not accepted back
Here in Cyprus nobody will touch a 500 euro note. It's been that way for three years.
Here in Cyprus nobody will touch a 500 euro note.
I'll bet everyone who had more than €100,000 in their bank account wished they'd had rather more of them
I'm not buying it - here in the US. US cash is not meaningfully increasing - yet. Monetary base is skyrocketing and if cash were to do the same we would see hyperinflation. But the causation of higher cash levels because of higher MB is weak. In fact over the past 10 years the correlation is not big. I do believe that a government and central bank that wishes to prop an economy up with QE or deflate debts thruogh inflation will LIKELY find hyperinflation. However I don't believe were showing the signs yet.
I track currency per capita and it is not showing meaningful increases. the graph above looks scary because it does not take into account population growth. Adjusted for inflation M0 per cap has grown in a linear way from $1,000 to $3,000 in todays dollars over the past 60 years. Adjusted for standard of living it would probably be flat.
All these articles are just noise. i do believe that someday currency per capita will go exponential but it could be 10 or 20 years from now. Tracking this monthly I will see the parabolic shift AND IT HASN'T HAPPEND YET
A Swiss bank account is off limits for many people now. With negative interest rates becoming more common, 1,000 CHF notes may be the best (and most legal) method to store one's wealth inconspicuously.
"which will weaken the currency helping the Eurozone economy recover from its continued recession."
Who wrote that? Weakening a currency doesn't aid recovery. At best it helps to blow up another bubble underpinned by a false prosperity. It's easy to weaken a currency. Just give everyone 100,000.
Actually destroying money, so long as they aren't creating it in other forms, will strengthen the economy.
Confiscation of currency is more looting by degenerate governments.
Convert the cash into toilet paper. It doesn't spoil, and you'll get to use it later. 36 rolls of charmin ultra soft is about 20 bux at costco...180 rolls for $100, 900 rolls for $500, you get the picture.
Volume to value ratio is too high with toilet paper.
"the huge EUR500 Bill (the developed world's highest value note in circulation)"
Wrong answer soldier. The Swiss 1000CHF is very widely used as a store of wealth and it would be worth at least €1000 if Hildebrand hadn't pegged the CHF. Interesting how BofA conveniently ignores this.
Warren Buffet, who now pulls the strings at BofA, has no need for €500 notes, so take note slaves. Buffet and his cronies don't want you slaves to be able to preserve your wealth, otherwise his banks might face a fractional reserve crisis.
500€, what is that worth now, 1 BTC? Solution suggests itself.
Exchange offices in the UK have stopped selling 500 euro banknotes because of their use by money launderers.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency says 90% of the notes sold in the UK are in the hands of organised crime.
Soca deputy director Ian Cruxton said 500 euros had become the currency of choice for gangs hiding their profits.
[BBC, 13th May, 2010]
Smart people have long known that requesting funds in E500 notes will get you on a watch list (that's not counting the now almost farcical lack of liquidity in cash terms of most UK / EU banks ~ average is £/E 10,000 cash reserves, tops / location). How do you think the Italian police tracked so much Mafia cash, hmm?
p.s.
I'm watching this story at the moment: it has all the weirdness of the Cambridge tech scene sale (*cough* £8 billion *cough*) mixed with some weird vibes over attached VC cash. Turns out the wunderkid did bugger all apart from license tech from Somo, who:
"In 2000, Hynes, alongside co-founder Carl Uminski, created Overture Europe. Overture was sold to Yahoo! in 2003 for $1.6bn. In 2004, Hynes founded The Search Works, which became Europe’s largest paid search agency as well as Google’s biggest European customer. He sold the group to TradeDoubler AB in 2007 for £56m. In 2009, Hynes partnered once again with Carl Uminski to found Somo." [source]
And the source of this largesse? Not sure, however:
Well, this issue just got easier with the announcement today that London-based fund manager and investor MMC Ventures has won a competitive tender from the Mayor of London to launch the brand new MMC London Fund. The new £11m ($16.8m) fund is specifically focused on investment in London-based businesses and is a ‘matching fund’ alongside other VCs and Angels, so that pot will swell to £22 million ($33.6m).
Because the tender was in the gift of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, specifically London-based startups will be the beneficiary and in particular the most deprived parts of East London, which already has an existing organic tech cluster of startups, since been marketed by the UK government as “Tech City“. [source]
Suck that sprigot, eh? The making of the new tech digerati? $30 mil is an awfully impressive gap year present. (Note: I'm aware Business Insider / Techcrunch are hardly great sources, it's intentional)
Has anyone seen the new $100 Federal Reserve notes in circulation? Over a billion (yes, that's right) were printed about 2 years ago, and other than the news that some of them were stolen from the Philly airport on their way to Rutherford, New Jersey, no one seems to have seen one in circulation. Is there more to this than meets the eye?
Less than 30% of all printed greenbacks are used in local circulation, which should tell you something.
I'd look to Afghanistan without any concrete time frame, or probably Egypt / Libya given the events there. Actually, 2 years.. probably slush funding Libyan "democratic" groups, although I was under the impression France hoicked most of that cash. (Remember, remember, when $8 billion in $100 went missing in Iraq? Yep, kinda like that).
Next the corrupt f*cks will ban 100's then 50's and call those who horde 20's and 10's tax evaders. See how it works?
IT'S ALL A TOTAL AND COMPLETE FRAUD!
OFF TOPICish, but I put it here since it's soccer, and soccer is pretty European like Euros.
And this is pretty awesome: (but NSFW) still awesome
http://ninetymilesfromtyranny.blogspot.com/2013/04/female-streaker-score...
Hello Folks,
We have a 1000 CHF banknote here in Switzerland, which is roughly 1070 USD fiat currency (traditionally called dollars).
1000 Swissie is a pretty common thing to see here.
N.S.
I was working in a bar in Lausanne the first time I saw a 1000chf Swissie.
"Two beers and a coke please" and not even a "sorry I don't have anything smaller"!!!
Maybe there are plans to scrap the 1000 CHF Note, too?
I saw that a local gas station has now refused to take 1000 Swiss Franc notes. ($1000)
So that is the last time I fill-up with those cheap bastards.
I thought that I would inform you that a larger and safer note is the Swiss Franc.
There is a 1000 chf note that is worth at 1.20 chf to a Euro => 833 Euros.
This is the note for laundering in and out of airports and accross borders in your wallett.