This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.

The War On Cash: Transparently Totalitarian

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Nick Giambruno via Doug Casey's International Man blog,

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: 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.

Nick: What about Europe?

Joe: In France recently, the limit on cash transactions was lowered from €3,000 to €1,000. The reason given was the attacks on Charlie Hebdo. It turns out that those attacks were financed in part by cash. Well, what a big shock that criminals use cash to finance their operations. They also use, of course, public sidewalks and automobiles, they buy clothing and so on. So this whole thing is ridiculous. It’s just a way of obscuring the government’s true goal, which is to get rid of financial privacy. Governments don’t really think that by lowering the limit of legally allowable cash payments that it’s somehow going to cut down on terrorist attacks. That’s just the narrative we’re given.

Nick: What is the mindset of someone who would advocate the elimination of cash?

Joe: Let me give you an example. Recently Willem Buiter—a prominent economist for Citibank—came out with a proposal to abolish cash. The reason is to enable the Fed to push interest rates into negative territory. He suggested that we could have avoided a lot of the problems with the financial crisis if the Fed could have set the interest rate at negative 6%.

But of course the availability of hand-to-hand currency would get in the way of that plan. People would say “I’m not going to put my money in the bank and have them take 6% every year.” They would avoid the bite of negative interest rates simply by holding hundred-dollar bills.

This really shocked me, that a prominent economist would make a case for abolishing cash, so that the central bank could set interest rates at a negative level. This is really crazy thinking, but it’s their mindset. It’s nuts.

Nick: Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff made a similar argument. Did you hear about that?

Joe: Yes, I did. In fact, Buiter took his cue from Rogoff. But there are a number of hyper-Keynesian economists who want to remove all barriers to negative interest rates, so that you’ll hurry up and spend whatever cash you have. But the only way they can do that is to corral everyone’s money in to the banking system.

It’s absurd, and they’ve gone way beyond Keynes with this craziness.

Nick: It reminds me of how Paul Krugman advocated for faking a space alien invasion as an excuse for the government to waste money on countering it. Or how he later supported minting a trillion-dollar coin. The real scary part is that he—and his juvenile solutions—are taken seriously by many people. Krugman, Buiter, Rogoff and their ilk have the government’s ear, they are presented respectfully by the mainstream media and are given Nobel prizes in economics. How do people not see what they are advocating, like eliminating cash, as transparently totalitarian?

Joe: I think that harkens back to the progressive era, from 1900 or so to the end of World War I. Government-employed experts supposedly were disinterested and dispassionate and would apply their knowledge and skills to do what was best for society. They would be the technocrats.

That’s how they pulled the wool over the American people’s eyes, by saying, well, you know, we are fixing the economy’s problems. This has nothing to do with politics. This has nothing to do with totalitarianism. We are trying to make the economy better for you and for everyone else.

That was just a bunch of nonsense, and it still is. People who believe it are still living in the 1930s, always worried about deflation, rather than worrying about the real problem, which is, of course, the Fed’s monopoly control of money and the inflation the Fed promotes.

Nick: What is the response of Austrian economists to this way of thinking?

Joe: Fortunately, the free market provides the prospect of an escape from the fiscal police state that seeks to stamp out the use of cash through either depreciation of central-bank-issued currency combined with unchanged currency denominations or direct legal limitation on the size of cash transactions. As Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian School of economics, explained over 140 years ago, money emerges not by government decree but through a market process driven by the actions of individuals who are continually seeking a means to accomplish their goals through exchange most efficiently.

Every so often history offers up another example that illustrates Menger’s point. The use of sheep, bottled water, and cigarettes as media of exchange in Iraqi rural villages after the US invasion and collapse of the dinar is one recent example. Another example was Argentina after the collapse of the peso, when grain contracts priced in dollars were regularly exchanged for big-ticket items like automobiles, trucks, and farm equipment. In fact, Argentine farmers began hoarding grain in silos to substitute for holding cash balances in the form of depreciating pesos.

Austrian economists would think that the War on Cash is really absurd and unscientific. We would say, allow people to choose the form of payment they want to use, whether that be cash, gold, debit card, or something else. We want to remove all barriers to people using different kinds of currency, take all excise taxes, sales taxes, capital gains taxes off gold and silver and off foreign currencies. And also get rid of all legal tender laws. You can keep the dollar in existence, but allow people to use currencies that compete with the dollar.

So we want to move in the exact opposite direction from abolishing cash. In fact, we want to encourage people to withdraw money from banks they don’t trust. Fractional reserve banking, apart from the ethical question, is unsound economically.

Nick: We recently published an article from Doug Casey on sound and unsound banking.

If you look at all the skirmishes in the War on Cash in recent years in so many different countries and map it all out, it looks like there is coordination among those governments. Is that right?

Joe: Formation of the Better than Cash Alliance in 2012 is one piece of evidence. The partners in the Better than Cash Alliance include the Ford Foundation, USAid, Citibank, MasterCard, Visa, and a number of UN agencies. They want to abolish the use of cash and force all payments to be made electronically, especially in emerging nations. These are international organizations that influence almost every government in the world. They could be the basis of coordinated efforts to discourage the use of cash.

They are promoting the idea that the use of cash excludes poor people from the economy. But that’s nonsense. Poor people don’t have checking accounts or credit cards; they depend on cash.

Also, so deeply ingrained is cash in the Italian culture that over 7.5 million Italians do not even have checking accounts. The Italian government will continue to attempt to dragoon these “bankless” Italians into the banking system. That way the notoriously corrupt Italian government can more easily spy on them and invade their financial privacy.

Nick: What happens next?

Joe: I don’t see any end in sight. What keeps this movement going are wars—made-up wars—like the war on terror, the war on organized crime, the war on poverty, war on drugs. That’s what allows governments to ratchet up the intrusiveness into our financial affairs. So I don’t see an end in sight to that. I see the US right now with its Russia policy, for example, goading Russia and inviting more hostility. This feeds a warlike atmosphere in the US so that people just give in, time after time, as the laws become more despotic and intrusive.

What might save us is that we’re due for another crash, we’re due for another financial crisis. In the aftermath, politicians might be forced to move to more free-market-oriented policies. I don’t think that’s a done deal, but I’m hopeful.

Nick: What can International Man readers do to protect themselves from the sociopaths waging the War on Cash?

Joe: I think keeping a good part of your assets outside the banking system is extremely smart. Keeping some cash in a safe is also smart, especially in an era when financial crises are likely. I wouldn’t encourage that as a strategy for earning income, but as a way of protecting yourself and your family.

Nick: One solution I like is the 1,000 Swiss franc note (picture below). It’s the most purchasing power you can pack into a single bill of a relatively sound currency. So if you want to hold cash outside the banking system, having a stash of these might make sense. Any last thoughts?

Joe: The War on Cash reflects the desperation of governments. They want to squeeze every last penny out of their citizens. And they are at wits’ end on how to cure the stagnation of the global economy that began in the 2008 financial crisis. So it really says that they are bankrupt, both literally, in the sense that they can’t pay what they’ve promised, and intellectually.

Nick: I completely agree. Joe, thank you for your time.

Joe: My pleasure.

*  *  *

Editor’s Note: International diversification is the best way to protect yourself from the destructive actions of a desperate government.

Wealthy families have been doing it for centuries. Today, with modern communications, international diversification is within everyone’s reach.

You don’t even have to leave your living room to do it.

Our free video crash course is a great way to get up to speed on the best strategies.

 

- advertisements -

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:21 | 6049048 Ignatius
Ignatius's picture

"Physical violence is for the amatuer in dominance; structural violence is the tool of the professional."        --  Johan Galtung

This is about control, nothing else.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:21 | 6049052 j reuter
j reuter's picture

Check this legitimate ways to mak? money from home, working on your own time and being your own boss... Join the many successful people who have already used the system. Only reliable internet connection needed, no prior experience neccessary, that's why where are here. Start here... www.globe-report.com

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:26 | 6049065 TeamDepends
TeamDepends's picture

Mark of the Beast. Never!

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:33 | 6049087 Captain Debtcrash
Captain Debtcrash's picture

I have been in the camp of an E-dollar transition to a cashless economy, mainly so they could implement significant negative rates:

http://debtcrash.report/entry/recent-trends-toward-the-e-dollar

They may be bold enough to cut out cash cold turkey.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:41 | 6049106 Squid-puppets a...
Squid-puppets a-go-go's picture

...and then what do they suppose will happen to the velocity of money?

you know, they consider 'liquidity' sacrosanct on wall street, but sprinkle grit into the oil of main st machinery

fucking idiots

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:07 | 6049115 Supernova Born
Supernova Born's picture

Planned obsolescence.

A $100 bill is worth pennies over $14 bucks in 1967 buying power (and that's per their tortured and mutilated CPI).

They'll never print a denomination over $100.

Don't get caught up with nostalgia over the doomed paper company scrip.

Electronic scrip/money they'll control, PMs and barter items. That's it.

Plan accordingly.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:15 | 6049184 OceanX
OceanX's picture

There is a large illegal drug trade that depends on cash, how will that be maintained?

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:46 | 6049257 in4mayshun
in4mayshun's picture

HSBC has an account for that.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 07:05 | 6049857 espirit
espirit's picture

Rather than hold Swissy TP as the best horse in the glue factory,

a Chinese Panda is a moar assured store of value.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 06:27 | 6049815 Martian Moon
Martian Moon's picture

Tide - the laundry detergent

I kid you not

http://nymag.com/news/features/tide-detergent-drugs-2013-1/

 

 

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 10:04 | 6050386 ThanksChump
ThanksChump's picture

(Jeff Goldblum voice) "Markets...ummm...find a way."

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:46 | 6049113 MonetaryApostate
MonetaryApostate's picture

I guess some people don't see all the problem with Digital Currencies / Cashless Societies...

(Which are difficult to outline them at this point)

1) Government Tracking Live Time

2) Goodbye Banking Jobs (Thousands upon thousands!)

3) Goodbye Street Trade (Like forever)

4) Taxation To The Max

5) Corporate Financial Terrorism

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:48 | 6049266 in4mayshun
in4mayshun's picture

Good bye street trade? Not a chance! This would force people to get creative and society would quickly figure out why gold and silver have been money for 5,000 years.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 07:17 | 6049878 doctor10
doctor10's picture

Negative interest rates is what they're willing to pay for the control of a "cashless economy" -

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:48 | 6049097 Vullsain
Vullsain's picture

Thats it, Thats the ticket, fight them with separation of Church and State constitutional issues, a coalition of Southern Baptists, sound money advocates,libertarians, preppers,drug dealers, gun runners and whoever else. This is leading to a one world government, with a chip in your forehead required for any transaction, a totalitarian world order ruled by the antichrist. It says so in Revelation!!!!

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 03:52 | 6049715 agent default
agent default's picture

Most people today are not really affected by by this war on cash since they view plastic money as a convenience and don't bother to look at the greater picture.  They usually think that you are a conspiracy theorist the moment you mention the risks of an all electronic transaction system.  But the moment you lock them in and charge them -5% interest, 1861 will look like a civilized debate.  There will be a incredibly violent revolution.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 11:22 | 6050675 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

That already exists, its called inflation. The goal of a non cash society is control, gathering information and preventing tax evasion. It would never succeed 100% as people could always resort to barter, and gold is a form of barter.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 11:29 | 6050715 agent default
agent default's picture

Politics is very much about the packaging.  Inflation is stealing, but at the same time is stealthy and you can to a certain degree protect yourself against it as long as you don't store value in cash for the long term.   This is blatant in your face expropriation.  It is a clear and downright invasion of your privacy, it feels wrong even to people who don't care much about economics.  Add a negative interest rate, as in direct taxation, and you have the perfect mixture for violent resentment. 

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 09:42 | 6050298 roddy6667
roddy6667's picture

When you start talking about Antichrist and the Bobble, we know you are off your meds.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:55 | 6049288 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

Great quote, and a very important author and thinker.

For those so inclined:

The premier work by Galtung, "Violence, Peace, and Peace Research":
http://academic.regis.edu/bplumley/Galtung1969JPRViolencePeacePeaceResea...

A summary and defense of on the 40 year anniversary of its publication:
http://academic.regis.edu/bplumley/Galtung1969JPRViolencePeacePeaceResea...

Happy reading and thinking.

Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 05:41 | 6049765 SubjectivObject
SubjectivObject's picture

Second link appears to be incorrect.

Thank you for your generosities.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 03:55 | 6049719 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Structural violence is physical violence hidden behind a a few intermediate steps. No one is putting a gun to my head right now but if i were to step out of line, too much, a predictable and easy to imagine sequence of events would happen ending up with some cop's gun aimed at my face.

If i were a dog, goldfish or any other animal or low IQ human living in the present with no concept of the future and only some memory of the past i would be unable to visualize the cop's gun were it not to be actually aimed at me, right now. But it does not matter, the gun is still there, it has just been hidden in the future.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 09:42 | 6050300 FrankDrakman
FrankDrakman's picture

"Who is Johan Galtung?"

(just to get a laugh out of LetThemEatRand..)

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:20 | 6049049 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Well there you have it. The world of 7 billion now knows explicitly who the enemy is. Arrest them.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:32 | 6049082 kowalli
kowalli's picture

you have only civil arrest...

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:23 | 6049055 Jonesy
Jonesy's picture

Bad for Goyim, good for many Jews, and great for Israel.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:29 | 6049069 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

This is bigger than some Jews Jonesy.  This is a banking class whose god is POWER.  They wanted to bankrupt the i1st world peasants by using propaganda to convince them tp buy cheap crap and work 40+ hours a week to keep up with the Jonesies.  They then turned the 1st world's peasants army on the 3rd world and stole their land and water to feed the 1st world piggies.  

This is bigger than Jesus, this is bigger than Jerusalem.  This is Jews, WASPs, Cathlics, Mormans, Muslims, the lot of 'em.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:37 | 6049092 Jonesy
Jonesy's picture

Those evil Mormons, sonsabitches turn up running the scam everywhere I look!  At least they don't conspire against everybody else not like them, and refer to others as cattle or livestock like the racist Jews do.  Judaism is a sick cult, check it out then spread the word.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:42 | 6049107 crisrose
crisrose's picture

Cattle?  Livestock?

How else to refer to fat, disgusting, indebted, shabbily dressed Walmart shoppers?

 

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:48 | 6049120 Jonesy
Jonesy's picture

Exactly.  Don't forget the Talmud came long before Walmart, today is a Jew's wet dream.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 11:16 | 6050653 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

One would think zerohedgers are not racist by hearing their condemnation of jews's racism!

Consider the following: Every trick up the jews sleeve is available to the wasps. The bribing of politicians, the production of propaganda, the finance. But you fuckers are armed to the teeth and when a jew comes over to rape you you just drop your M16 and bend over. Unbelievable. Sheldon adelson gives 80 million to the dems, everyone cries it is unfair, as if 300 million non jewish americans could not possibly outmoney him. Unbelievable how passive you are.

Dont know what is it with jews but they are famous not so much for their intelligence, but for their energy. They take risks, they make big plans and follow them and often lose big time. You goyim have but one plan: Get married, get a job, raise a family, bitch about how hard it is, surrender your weapons when the commissar comes over. Doesnt matter how many times your read Gulag Archipelago, you just dont get it.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:23 | 6049056 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

King dollar!!!

lolz

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:25 | 6049062 Gone Full Retard
Gone Full Retard's picture

Are digital currencies part of the war on cash?

Is it true that Satoshi Nakamoto is an alias of Benjamin Weinberg from Tel Aviv hired by the IMF to develop Bitcoin?

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:11 | 6049165 22winmag
22winmag's picture

I prefer the term NSACOIN.

 

I hear the early ones with the "NSA" mintmark are really set to take off.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 03:54 | 6049718 agent default
agent default's picture

Where have all the bitoin faboys gone?  Every time there is a story about the real intentions behind digital currencies, they just disappear.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 05:00 | 6049749 commander gruze?
commander gruze?'s picture

The real intentions behind digital currencies depend who you ask. For governments and the establishment it's always been about utter control. For bitcoin faboys (sic) it's what's stated in Bitcoin whitepaper abstract:

A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a
financial institution.

Thus, if you ask bitcoin crowd to voice their opinion here it is: the above articlue is almost 180 degree opposite to what bitcoin is and digital currency system like the outlined one is completely unacceptable to bitcoin community.

If you are to remember one sentence from my diatribe let it be this one: Bitcoin is much more like cash than anything else, including gold and silver.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 06:31 | 6049819 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

Three letters, NSA

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 12:15 | 6050922 commander gruze?
commander gruze?'s picture

Sorry mate, NSA is not good enough to crack Bitcoin. Not kidding. Just educate yourself a little bit on Bitcoin and you'll be stunned what an important invetion it is. Here's a good teaser video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWTQgmCuiCw&t=10

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 08:38 | 6049851 agent default
agent default's picture

Have one of those Bitcoin idiots explain it to you in their own words.  Don't let them point you Shitoshi's paper, their words.  You will realize that they don't know fuck all on the subject.  It just blah, blah it is high tech, it is this encrypted thing,but they understand nothing about encryption, it is that anonymous thing (they don't claim that anymore since it has been demonstrated that it is not), there is a limited number of them but missing out on the fact that there is an unlimited number of similar digital coins that can be produced, they have zero and I mean zero understanding of the real issues involved.  It is just being a trendy idiot who is spending too much time on slashdot and is trying to impress.  Either that or an NSA stooge.  Either way you are dealing with class A shitheads they should at best be ignored and shunned.

Hey bitcoin assholes, there is another war raging against the IT industry right now (flash back to the Clinton's key escrow attempts), it has profound implications, it is very quiet and kept behind the scenes.  Do you know what it is?  If you say DRM, it is related, but no ciggar.  It is far worse, far more reaching and the ultimate in lockdowns.   Have fun peddling your bitco(i)n ignoramuses.  

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 10:50 | 6050545 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Fonestar.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 11:31 | 6050731 agent default
agent default's picture

Good point. Where the hell is fonestar anyway? 

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:25 | 6049063 endfedup
endfedup's picture

ZH is feeling a little KWN-silverdoctors ish in the headlines lately?

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:26 | 6049068 falconflight
falconflight's picture

So, how many here have made a conscious effort to use more cash, checks, and less electronic payments?  We have never used the atm so much as the past couple of years.  

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:53 | 6049133 seek
seek's picture

I never really stopped using cash. My card is only used for online purchases and gas, checks for big-ticket items. Nearly 100% of my local day to day spending is cash. I also don't use an ATM card, when I pull my money out it's usually in amounts that are 5-10X the daily limit of an ATM -- even the ATMs are rigged to get you to not use cash!

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 00:18 | 6049469 Mr.Miffed
Mr.Miffed's picture

Miffed and I have switched to much more cash usage and storage. It's a deliberate change. The ease of the electronic has great allure especially for a software guy. It really is practicing resistance. Bundy ranch for me was an eye opener that we are really not powerless but we do have to stand up at each juncture.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 00:45 | 6049515 falconflight
falconflight's picture

I'm with you.  Most Merikans can't even literally lift a finger to 'resist.'  It's just too inconvenient.  

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 07:52 | 6049936 TrumpXVI
TrumpXVI's picture

I use cash for everything that I can.

 

I think the scary thing is that the thing that will help TPTB win the war against cash is that fewer and fewer people have any cash.  If people can be forced into debt, and this effort seems to be succeeding, then electronic transactions are baked right into the cake.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:29 | 6049073 A Lunatic
A Lunatic's picture

Diversify internationally in order to maximize your exposure to governments trying to make war on your cash. WTF.....

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:57 | 6049141 22winmag
22winmag's picture

Exactly. Simon is going to be shit out of luck when Chile and New Zealand crack down on whatever they use for cash there.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:31 | 6049078 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

I give cash another 4-5 years, tops.

Crying shame, but they want complete and total capture and control of every aspect of our lives.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:36 | 6049094 Clowns on Acid
Clowns on Acid's picture

What does the author keep saying Federal gov't ..? Its the Banks ... sorry repeating myself.

Break up the Banks.. now. Throw Bill and Hillary Clinton in jail. Fine Robret Rubin and sandy Weill $100MM each, and Larry Summers 50MM ... only because thats all he has. This would be structurally effective.

 

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:37 | 6049095 kowalli
kowalli's picture

federal reserve include top20 central banksters of the world.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:51 | 6049131 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Banks....or federal gov't...what's the difference?  One entity absolutely would NOT exist without the other.  

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 23:23 | 6049372 SofaPapa
SofaPapa's picture

Bingo.

Money center banks are institutions to maintain the power structure.  They are not businesses.  An important message to spread.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 11:36 | 6050755 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Who are you talking with?

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:49 | 6049127 SillySalesmanQu...
SillySalesmanQuestion's picture

I just finished getting rid of all our debt, no more credit cards and they want me to keep all of my money in the bank...? FUCK THE BANKSTERS! I want my gold, silver and for now, my crispy Benjamin's. I would be very happy if we did all transactions in cold, hard cash. Fuck the gubbermint and their intrusions into my life... And I mean fuckem!

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:50 | 6049128 acetinker
acetinker's picture

Cashless, eh?  How do you square that with America's illegal population who operate almost exclusively on cash?

Just today, I was standing in line behind a hispanic woman with about a dozen items on the counter.  She pulled out her peach card (ebt in Georgia).

The clerk said, "I'll have to re-ring this, these items (kid's snacks) must be paid in cash."

So he did, and she pulled a $100 bil from her purse to pay for less than $3 worth of merchandise.

You think all those illegals, who incidentally, this current society cannot function without, will hang around if their cash economy is shut down?

I don't.

Taxes?  We don't need no steenking taxes!

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 21:58 | 6049147 seek
seek's picture

We've already seen Walmart get into low-end banking. I guarantee someone will have a federally-sanctioned banking product for illegals. They'll probably just come up with a new variation of a checking account with automatic 10% withholding if there's not a valid taxpayer ID, with an account limit of 1,000 or something. Enough for someone to function, and a mean to tax them, but not enough for them to have savings.

Of course, they'll really have to go to work on PMs if cash is banned, it's too easy an alternate. I can't imagine how they're going to handle people using pre-'64 silver coinage, though, it's in too many protected categories.

Regardless of what they do, the moves on cash, combined with the utter implosion of the economy that's taking place, means local barter is going to see a resurgence.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:26 | 6049211 22winmag
22winmag's picture

You can still (for now) go to you local mall and drop six figures in cash (with a little time and help) on nameless prepaid debit cards, especially AMEX.

 

Granted it's only in $500 increments but hungry merchants are happy to take ten of them over the phone to make a sale.

 

I will see you bitchez in the proverbial trenchez.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 06:35 | 6049823 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

YOu are correct about PMs.  This will accelerate the war against PMs.  We might just see that 700$/oz gold, yet.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:03 | 6049162 22winmag
22winmag's picture

Seashells, rum, and cocoa beans are viable fill-ins for the filthy FRN.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:54 | 6049283 Real Estate Geek
Real Estate Geek's picture

They'll just make them all legal, with the stroke of a pen.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 23:12 | 6049343 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

Who is really "illegal?"Those ignoring the "Law of the Land," the Constitution, and ignoring their oaths to same while producing treason and tyranny against the American country and people? Or those that tyranny permits in so as to be used as slave labor and as a division lightening rod against us?

And since the funds behind EBT are stolen from us, the American people, we should all sign up and see if we can't just get a little of what is ours back for ourselves.

Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.

 

"The DC US is not wrong. They are illegal. They are criminals. They are tyrants."

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 03:45 | 6049713 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Your supposed love of the constitution and other cherry picked laws makes a mockery of your supposed love of freedom.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 07:09 | 6049863 Grimaldus
Grimaldus's picture

Ahh the progressive tyranny is strong with this one. Quite transparently.

Grimaldus

 

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 11:03 | 6050489 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

How so dumbass? Care to elaborate your ad hominem?

You see, every single one of you fuckers hung up on the constitution or any other cherry picked man made laws, such as the Koran or the hammurabi code misses the central point that every single law restricts freedom in one way or the other and they are all but provisional agreements in practice because all it takes to change a law is the will to do so. You dont get to call yourself a freedom lover while pledging allegiance to a specific set of laws you like.

And what is so sacred about the constitution or any of their amendments? They are ok just because they are old and thus traditional? The same congress that wrote the original constitution and amendments can change them. Congress, at least in principle, represents the american people and is faculted to legislate in their name.

But you get to diss against some of its laws, which you dont like, while holding others as sacred, because you like them and we have to obey them because they were written by white haired dudes 200 years ago (like the koran or the hammurabi code). Come out in the open and say like it is: Good laws are whatever you like, forever, and kill whoever disagrees.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:22 | 6049192 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

I can say that despite the sad predicament the American people find themselves in, they, unlike any other society in history, still hold many cards by which they can easily bring down the tyrants.

The tyranny that has taken root over the American country and people, is fully and totally dependent on us, their victims, for sustenance. If we no longer acquiesce to their demands for payments on what they say are our debts to them, but in reality is really wealth stolen from us, the so-called debtors, they would dry up and blow away.

Our real wealth lies in ourselves, each other, and our American heritage of freedom and Liberty. All that we need to first do is say "no!" Do not write that check to the banksters, but invest it instead in ourselves and the American country.

We can produce for them on their US plantation, or live and thrive in our country, the American country, as the free people we were meant to forever be.

Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.

 

The most powerful weapon the American people have is Rejection.

The system of fraud and theft that has been built up upon the backs of the American people is dependent upon our backs. Withdraw our backs, and the whole scheme collapses. This is our greatest weapon.

Stop Paying--Put it into food, and precious metals, etc. They stole whatever "debt money" they loaned you in the first place (fractional reserve banking) and soon you won't be able to pay them anyways, so Stop Paying.
Stop Playing--Stop being a tool for them to use, mock, and call "stupid." Stop Playing.

Stop Obeying--If they are in violation of the Constitution then they are not legitimate anyways, so Stop Obeying their unlawful dictates.

The Four Rs
Rejection: Stop Paying, Stop Obeying, Stop Playing
Revolution: It is inevitable, so prepare, as they are.
Restoration: Restore the American people, country and Constitutional republic.
Retribution: The guilty must answer for their crimes against the American people and the Constitution.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:38 | 6049236 CompassionateCo...
CompassionateConservative's picture

You're sick.   You've heard one too many rants by that child murderer supporting kook, Wayne LaPierre, evidently.   Morons like you are the reason we have a Department of Homeland security.  You need to be sent to prison and hopefully raped by a big black man everyday.  I can't wait to hear about all of you Nazi NRA child murdering gun crazies having to swallow semen and take it up the ass in prison when you don't turn in your guns.   Fuck the NRA and fuck your stupid and toothless constitution and fuck the troops who obsess over their stupid oath.   We don't need you stupid white Nazis anymore. 

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 23:04 | 6049322 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

I will die in one of Zion's basements somewhere, or on a blood filled muddy American battlefield. History says that that is inevitable.

I only hope that you live longer and benefit by the American country that I and many others will have fought and died to Restore for you and our children.

Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 01:09 | 6049556 Earl Slaughter-...
Earl Slaughter-- Truck Driver.'s picture

I bucked and "opted-out" nearly 10-years ago, moving deeper into the "grey-market" which will soon become black. I only stay in USA for family reasons, but I know that one day the hammer will fall. I still resist, and I try to live my life as an ethical, moral and honest man-- who are we if we don't?

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 23:10 | 6049338 Pareto
Pareto's picture

And you're fucking uninformed, and you're exactly the kind of person the government is looking for, but, will be the first to learn what the 2nd amendment really means before you draw your last breath.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 00:42 | 6049513 falconflight
falconflight's picture

The 2nd Amendment's expressed purpose is to kill gov't employees.  Not my words, the words of the framers of the Constitution.  

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 02:00 | 6049612 Clowns on Acid
Clowns on Acid's picture

15 week old troll. he is a moron and a laugh. Trying way too hard.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:51 | 6049271 22winmag
22winmag's picture

Lies don't fit inside a healthy human mind. Even if you don't know exactly what's wrong, you just know something when it's wrong. As much filth is out there, there is also the means to flush such filth from ones mind and body.

 

On the subject of withdrawing, it's hard to withdraw from a system that puts a sports car in your garage and a 5,000sq foot home over your head. Just look at most anyone who works in the MIC, Big Pharma, or the law enforcement and legal field. It's nice to have that stuff but is it worth your soul? There are whole industries devoted to straight treason, not just a few hundred or thousand people.

 

Listen up, this Wizard of Oz man behind the curtain, fiat slavery, world government bullshit belongs in a fucking big glass museum for future generations to marvel at. Then and only then may mankind move on.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:58 | 6049302 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

You must decide what is best for you.

Maybe you are not first. Maybe you are not second. Maybe you never. But you must consider what you must do for yourself, and then do that, what ever it is.

Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:28 | 6049214 scatha
scatha's picture

Those left out there who still believe in mighty dollar now should not have any doubt. It is the US ruling elite that fully controls dollar and world elites that fully control other fiat currencies. I mean they fully control currency and ALL financial products that are being propagandized as carriers of wealth or value, which they are not.

Very few realize or are ready to admit that every stock, bond or derivative including gold options priced in any fiat money units is fiat itself as well. It means it have a value because government-fused banking elites say so. The world monopolistic central banking systems which is nothing but a single Unified Global Bank directly control valuation of EVERYTHING all over the world, from land, commodity and labor to capital and investment instruments.

No one can run or hide, no cash under mattress, no gold, no property let us get away from this totalitarian system of money. The only way to free ourselves from slavery is to flatly reject “their” money. Reject mentally and physically money as something necessary or even useful in our lives.

We need to reject money since it is foundation of propaganda that justifies existence and indispensability of bankers and ruling elites themselves. The function of complete control of money constitutes core of their power and they will never relinquish it.

We need to trully understand what money really is, how it came about, what purpose it serves and how it came to be “seemingly” indispensable in our lives.

Interesting and unique take on myth of money addressing above questions can be found at:

https://contrarianopinion.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/plutus-and-the-myth-o...

We cannot buy our freedom with “their” money for simple reason. Money is worthless. Only our hard work has any value whatsoever.

 

https://contrarianopinion.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/slaves-of-wage/

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:44 | 6049252 CompassionateCo...
CompassionateConservative's picture

Yeah, but how are you going to reject the sexual advances of your super violent 250 pound homosexual cell mate?   That's where you kooks are going to end up if you don't follow the rules.   You might want to develop a taste for semen because you're going to be drinking it by the gallon. 

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 00:35 | 6049498 Kprime
Kprime's picture

having trouble finding release for your gay wet dreams?

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 00:40 | 6049509 falconflight
falconflight's picture

"...if you don't follow the rules."  Yavo meine Commandante!  

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 07:16 | 6049876 Grimaldus
Grimaldus's picture

Threats of violence from a progressive---how typical.

Grimaldus

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:33 | 6049221 22winmag
22winmag's picture

Did I tell you about the little ethnic Chinese lady hawking pirated DVDs in public in a nearby city? You want DVD five dollar! Three DVD ten dollar.

 

She looks just one step above a can collector pushing a shopping cart of bottles to the redemption center.

 

She drives a spanking new Escalade.

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 22:37 | 6049233 rejected
rejected's picture

Wonder how long we're going to let them tell us how to eat, sleep, have sex, and now what we can use for trade.

Are we really going to let them just roll over us when we out number them 100 to 1? Are we going to let them control every minute and every expense in our entire lives?

I found this kind of funny: "...and cryptocurrencies—offer a powerful ray of hope, reasons to be optimistic about the future"

Just who does everybody think is behind this? Even JP Morgan is jumping in BC. BC isn't a currency any more than a debit card. It's exactly what they want. Anyone that thinks it secure and private is insane. Nothing digital is private and for sure not secure.

This is nuts!

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 23:39 | 6049400 bigrooster
bigrooster's picture

You can ban "cash" you IRS fucks.  We don't need those joobucks to do transactions.  Remember to not tell anyone who you work for you douchebags.  

Thu, 04/30/2015 - 23:44 | 6049409 honestann
honestann's picture

A war on fiat cash is great news for those who would like to see gold and silver become common "currnecy" in barter (exchanges of goods and goodies between individuals).

If humans weren't so sheep-like, they'd all just switch to gold and silver coins for trade... but sadly most humans will indeed remain sheeple.

However, a few of us aren't, and we shall remain happy to trade real, physical goods and goodies for other real, physical goods and goodies... including gold and silver coins.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 00:21 | 6049478 Hongcha
Hongcha's picture

Digital also allows them to sub-penny transactions.  So you earn a dollar but after it shakes out it's more like 99.9999 cents. tens of Billions of transactions per day.  This is just one of the many wonderful things they can do with purely electronic scrip.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 03:41 | 6049711 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Ridiculous, how do you "shake out" a penny? for 0.0001%? The state charges me 17% tax on every purchase and you make a fuss about some theoretical 0.0001% nebulous shake up.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 00:41 | 6049510 VWAndy
VWAndy's picture

Ann nailed it. Whatever we a willing to take in trade is coin. In jail they used smokes. In the hood liquid tide.

 Moonshine would work great all around. Homemade biodiesel would be fine too.

 Who ever thinks this shit up must be high on coke or permanantly spun. Ivory tower cokeheads.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 00:58 | 6049537 Aussiekiwi
Aussiekiwi's picture

Drugs and hookers is a cash business isn't that included as part of GDP now? will result in a downward GDP revision, is that what they mean by unintended consequences? 

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 01:02 | 6049545 Global Observer
Global Observer's picture

Does no one see the irony in opposing the monopoly power of the state and state sponsored institutions in issuing a particular currency and also opposing the manner in which they issue it, electronic or paper?

Is any person or business being forced to transact exclusively in the state sponsored currency? Are there any laws prohibiting individuals or businesses from accepting as payment, instruments other than those recognised by the governments/big banks? Why has the all powerful market failed to come up with alternatives to state sponsored currency?

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 03:39 | 6049709 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Its not illegal to pay in anything you want as long as it is agreed by both parties. However it is illegal to refuse cash as payment. In the US it is framed as it being illegal not to accept cash to pay debts, which may not be the same as using it to pay upfront, so any merchant may refuse to take your cash for payment, including the electric company, but you could totally pay your debts to them in cash and they cant refuse.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 01:53 | 6049605 teslaberry
teslaberry's picture

digital cash isn't so bad because it will force a whoel fuckload of people into silver coins as money.

silver coins would come back in a big NON-nuemismatic way. and the government would have to clamp down on it. and you know what. it woudl be a really funny constitutional supreme court case with the court re-reinterpreting the constituitions use of the word 'coinage'.

ahahah. those framers never thought about digital coinage!!!!

but seriously. digital is just a tool. and while it is a tool that lends itself to centralized control, it is also a tool which COULD be used to make things much easier for human beings if the right trustworthy individuals were in charge and using it in this fashion.

at the end of the day, digital is better for information, and what is money if not but INFORMATION.

in the long run of history, as long as technological progress continues, it is truly inevitable that digital cash eventually takes over from physical notes. ---just as sure as the ATM took over many many tens of thousands of teller jobs and will continue to do so.

phsyical cash will put a lot of thugs and simple thieves out of business, while the expansion of digital cash will allow for a totally new explosion in theft by sophisticated thieves who ...will be in a position to steal a WHOLE LOT MORE MONEY than even the best of john dillingers.
the future is more digital nto less, so take your libertarian head out of your libertarian ass and have the wisdom to accept that which you cannot change, and the courage to change that which you can.

stopping the digital revolution is like trying to stop a freightrain with your limp penis. just like that. so what i'm saying is, you better get hard first!

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 01:54 | 6049606 Uber Vandal
Uber Vandal's picture

Even if the elimination of cash was not about control (doubtful in the least), there is another aspect of this that many are overlooking.

Fees.

Think of all of the fees that banks can dream up so one can access one's own money when there is NO alternative (in most people's minds).

For those in business, there are charges to have credit card machines, charges per swipe of the credit card, charges for this, charges for that, and that is just for the merchant, and then hope to Christ that there isn't a charge back.

 

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 03:21 | 6049692 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Cash will never be completely banned under the current regime. The drug and bribe trades depend on it. So there you go, very powerful people will never let it happen.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 03:34 | 6049705 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Hmm... without cash there would be less incentives to mug anyone. It would be impossible for your digital money to be somehow stolen without it going to someone´s else account, so any theft by non-state agents would be very difficult. Impossible to buy or sell drugs without leaving a electronic trail... without drugs nor robbery the prison, legal and security industries would collapse.

Theres just no way it will happen and if it does, then theres always barter or gold, which is just another form of barter. So relax, cash wont be banned and if it is demand for gold will skyrocket and if it does not then lots of parasitic industries shrivel up. The afforementioned cash limit bans are absolutely ridiculous anyway, how could anyone stop anyone giving anyone else a brown bag with cash over the limit? The state cant even prevent merchants from letting me pay with cash without a receipt to save the tax!

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 07:35 | 6049905 Grimaldus
Grimaldus's picture

Ever hear of a fellow named Jon Corzine? Impossible for digital money to be stolen? THe FED is stealing digital money hand over fist.

I'll have some of what you are drinking.

Grimaldus

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 10:48 | 6050465 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

He is a state agent, dumbass. Learn to read.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 05:41 | 6049764 theprofromdover
theprofromdover's picture

Krugman Nobel Prize?

He got the IgNobel one.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 06:12 | 6049800 Midnight Hour
Midnight Hour's picture

What everone forgets is that once you put your Money into a Bank it's not yours anymore and they can gambel with it anyway they like and if the go broke you are second last in line to get it back. The way things are going negative interest is on the way.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 07:35 | 6049827 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

The game against Gold and silver will have to be upped to the next level.

TPTB will not go quietly into the night.

 

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 06:44 | 6049832 fiftybagger
fiftybagger's picture

Bitcoin!

 

"At any rate, the spook spoke the truth: cryptology represents the future of privacy, and more. By implication cryptology also represents the future of money, and the future of banking and finance. (By "money" I mean the medium of exchange, the institutional mechanisms for making transactions, whether by cash, check, debit card or other electronic transfer.) Given the choice between intersecting with a monetary system that leaves a detailed electronic trail of all one's financial activities, and a parallel system that ensures anonymity and privacy, people will opt for the latter. Moreover, they will demand the latter, because the current monetary system is being turned into the principal instrument of surveillance and control by tyrannical elements in Western governments." - J. Orlin Grabbe

The Bitcoin Channel

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 07:15 | 6049873 agent default
agent default's picture

"parallel system that ensures anonymity and privacy"  Bitcoin guarantees neither of the two. Bring that J. Orlin Grabbe here were I, and I am sure several other people with appropriate technical backgrounds will ask him a few very pointed questions on the technical aspect of the crap he is spewing.   I bet the answer you will get is "I am not a computer person, but other have stated that blah, blah, blah....".  Another shill/bullshit artist.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 07:57 | 6049958 messystateofaffairs
messystateofaffairs's picture

I wonder if you have advanced knowledge of crytography and IT Mr. Agent, I certainly do not. What I do have is use for the services btc provides and will continue to use its services until hard evidence emerges that its utility has been compromised. Until then all said is more or less useless blather.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 08:19 | 6049999 agent default
agent default's picture

If you use it as a convenience and as a utility Ok, fine.  I am still very much against that because you are still contributing to a very bad direction.  But if you think you are invisible and safe with it, and you are doing something that is too risky to go and do face to face with cash,  you are not safe.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 07:41 | 6049915 messystateofaffairs
messystateofaffairs's picture

Those who beleive in cryptocurreny utility will use it and those who don't won't. I think its the best potential right now, as spending money that is, and its active retail velocity says I am not alone. Personally I would not hold large amounts for value increase speculation, TPTB can easily buy large amounts slowly and dump quickly to supress value and discourage new adoption. That still does not stymie it as trading money. They will eventually attempt to ban cryptocurrencies along with PM's and even barter, cash war is just the beginning. This emerging paradigm is going to considerably alter the structure of supply chains and the lifestyle habits of people who use them to live, practically everyone depends on some kind of supply chain to live, and the slave/serf chain is not the only option.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 07:57 | 6049959 headhunt
headhunt's picture

Bitcoin is retarded and all governments dream.

The IRS masturbates to that image everyday.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 07:32 | 6049901 Grimaldus
Grimaldus's picture

"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."

 

Progressive tyranny marches on.

Hard to imagine the stupidity of the progressive drones but there it is.

The progressive stupid, it burns.

Grimaldus

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 08:12 | 6049990 PhoQ
PhoQ's picture

Cash will be with us for however long the CIA keeps selling us drugs on the streets.

You can buy a lot of liquid Tide with cash. But there's only so much black market demand for any single cash equivalent commodity. Unless people start washing clothes a whole lot more often, Tide is only of limited 'resale value' among those who 'launder' money inside the wholesale-retail markets.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 11:25 | 6050697 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Tide is but one way of saving. I myself dont save much, but invest in skills and valuable R&D. It takes money to gain skills and non trivial knowledge.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 09:13 | 6050190 Billy Bob101
Billy Bob101's picture

In 1971 I went with my father to close escrow on an apartment building he was buying.  He gave the seller $50,000 in cash for the down payment.  At the time, that was customary.  Just shows how much things have changed.

Fri, 05/01/2015 - 09:26 | 6050214 MEFOBILLS
MEFOBILLS's picture

"The forces for centralization have been prevailing for decades."

 

I have been pointing out here on ZH, many many times, that the forces of centralization find their root in private credit banking.

Banks must link up to settle imbalance.  It is baked into the cake.  Their credit is unstable, and to make it stable they try to usurp government.  To make their credit have value, it needs to be accepted for taxes and to settle debts.

Debts are a form of control, and to hold debt instruments is to be a creditor.  Creditors are almost always over debtors, so it is a master/slave relation.

The master in turn, usurps and controls the political process.

The narrative we always hear is about government's boot on our face.  The money power is the most relevant part of the dynamic that causes this boot.  Credit as money DOES centralize, and USURY on this money DOES pyramid to Oligarchy.  Government in this case, becomes usurped by privateers, and is not representative.

Ironically, Sovereign money is new currency theory.  It is currency.   I'll say it again, it is currency - its function is to be spent into existence and from them on, it takes on a life of its own.  Government has no control, other than initial spending which can be channeled properly to create wealth.  Recalling this money type can only be done with taxes, and taxes implies some sort of negotiation with the public, hence a balance of power.

 

A money supply that is 97% private credit will put a boot on man's face permanently.  This credit must come into being with usury attached, and said usury front loads and pays finance first.  Private credit is constantly in drain, thus we have no permanent transaction medium.  This amount of losses are vast, probably 40% as this mechanism is buried in prices. 

 

It is a simple law change.  Hypnotized sheeple people cannot wrap their mind around the concept that money can be morphed into wealth instead of credit.

www.sovereignmoney.eu

 

 

 

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!