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The War On Cash: Why Now?
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via The Mises Institute,
You’ve probably read that there is a “war on cash” being waged on various fronts around the world. What exactly does a “war on cash” mean?
It means governments are limiting the use of cash and a variety of official-mouthpiece economists are calling for the outright abolition of cash. Authorities are both restricting the amount of cash that can be withdrawn from banks, and limiting what can be purchased with cash.
These limits are broadly called “capital controls.”
Why Now?
Before we get to that, let’s distinguish between physical cash — currency and coins in your possession — and digital cash in the bank. The difference is self-evident: cash in hand cannot be confiscated by a “bail-in” (i.e., officially sanctioned theft) in which the government or bank expropriates a percentage of cash deposited in the bank. Cash in hand cannot be chipped away by negative interest rates or fees.
Cash in the bank cannot be withdrawn in a financial emergency that shutters the banks (i.e., a bank holiday).
When pundits suggest cash is “obsolete,” they mean physical paper money and coins, not cash in a bank. Cash in the bank is perfectly fine with the government and its well-paid yes-men (paging Mr. Rogoff and Mr. Buiter) because this cash can be expropriated by either “bail-ins” or by negative interest rates.
Inflation and Negative Interest Rates
Mr. Buiter, for example, recently opined that the spot of bother in 2008–09 (the Global Financial Meltdown) could have been avoided if banks had only charged a 6 percent negative interest rate on cash: in effect, taking 6 percent of the depositor’s cash to force everyone to spend what cash they might have.
Both cash in hand and cash in the bank are subject to one favored method of expropriation, inflation. Inflation — the single most cherished goal of every central bank — steals purchasing power from physical cash and digital cash alike. Inflation punishes holders of cash and benefits those with debt, as debt becomes cheaper to service.
The beneficial effect of inflation on debt has been in play for decades, so it can’t be the cause of governments’ recent interest in eliminating physical cash.
So now we return to the question: Why are governments suddenly declaring war on physical cash, the oldest officially issued form of money?
Why They Hate Cash in Hand
The first reason: physical cash has the potential to evade both taxes as well as officially sanctioned theft via bail-ins and negative interest rates. In short, physical cash is extremely difficult for governments to steal.
Some of you may find the word theft harsh or even offensive. But we must differentiate between taxes — which are levied to pay for the state’s programs that in principle benefit all citizens — and bail-ins, i.e., the taking of depositors’ cash to bail out banks that became insolvent through the actions of the banks’ management, not the actions of depositors.
Bail-ins are theft, pure and simple. Since the government enforces the taking, it is officially sanctioned theft, but theft nonetheless.
Negative interest rates are another form of officially sanctioned theft. In a world without the financial repression of zero-interest rates (ZIRP — central banks’ most beloved policy), lenders would charge borrowers enough interest to pay depositors for the use of their cash and earn the lender a profit.
If borrowers are paying interest, negative interest rates are theft, pure and simple.
Why are governments suddenly so keen to ban physical cash? The answer appears to be that the banks and government authorities are anticipating bail-ins, steeply negative interest rates and hefty fees on cash, and they want to close any opening regular depositors might have to escape these forms of officially sanctioned theft. The escape mechanism from bail-ins and fees on cash deposits is physical cash, and hence the sudden flurry of calls to eliminate cash as a relic of a bygone age — that is, an age when commoners had some way to safeguard their money from bail-ins and bankers’ control.
Forcing Those With Cash To Spend or Gamble Their Cash
Negative interest rates (and fees on cash, which are equivalently punitive to savers) raise another question: why are governments suddenly obsessed with forcing owners of cash to either spend it or gamble it in the financial-market casinos?
The conventional answer voiced by Mr. Buiter is that recession and credit contraction result from households and enterprises hoarding cash instead of spending it. The solution to recession is thus to force all those stingy cash hoarders to spend their money.
There are three enormous flaws in this thinking.
One is that households and businesses have cash to hoard. The reality is the bottom 90 percent of households have less income now than they did fifteen years ago, which means their spending has declined not from hoarding but from declining income.
While corporate America has basked in the glory of sharply rising profits, small business has not prospered in the same fashion. Indeed, by some measures, small business has been in a six-year recession.
The bottom 90 percent has less income and faces higher living expenses, so only the top slice of households has any substantial cash. This top slice may see few safe opportunities to invest their savings, so they choose to keep their savings in cash rather than gamble it in a rigged casino (i.e., the stock market).
The second flaw is that hoarding cash is the only rational, prudent response in an era of financial repression and economic insecurity. What central banks are demanding — that we spend every penny of our earnings rather than save some for investments we control or emergencies — is counter to our best interests.
A War on Cash Is a War on Capital
This leads to the third flaw: capital — which begins its life as savings — is the foundation of capitalism. If you attack savings as a scourge, you are attacking capitalism and upward mobility, for only those who save capital can invest it to build wealth. By attacking cash, the central banks and governments are attacking capital and upward mobility.
Those who already own the majority of productive assets are able to borrow essentially unlimited sums at near-zero interest rates, which they can use to buy more productive assets. Everyone else — the bottom 99.5 percent — is reduced to consumer-serfdom: you are not supposed to accumulate productive capital, you are supposed to spend every penny you earn on interest payments, goods, and services.
This inversion of capitalism dooms an economy to all the ills we are experiencing in abundance: rising income inequality, reduced opportunities for entrepreneurship, rising debt burdens, and a short-term perspective that voids the longer-term planning required to build sustainable productivity and wealth.
Physical Cash: Only $1.36 Trillion
According to the Federal Reserve, total outstanding physical cash amounts to $1.36 trillion.
Given that a substantial amount of this cash is held overseas, physical cash is a tiny part of the domestic economy and the nation’s total assets. For context: the US economy is $17.5 trillion, total financial assets of households and nonprofit organizations total $68 trillion, base money is around $4 trillion, and total money (currency in circulation and demand deposits) is over $10 trillion (source).
Given the relatively modest quantity of physical cash, claims that eliminating it will boost the economy ring hollow.
Following the principle of cui bono — to whose benefit? — let’s ask: What are the benefits of eliminating physical cash to banks and the government?
Benefits To Banks and the Government of Eliminating Physical Cash
The benefits to banks and governments by eliminating cash are self-evident:
- Every financial transaction can be taxed.
- Every financial transaction can be charged a fee.
- Bank runs are eliminated.
In fractional reserve systems such as ours, banks are only required to hold a fraction of their assets in cash. Thus a bank might only have 1 percent of its assets in cash. If customers fear the bank might be insolvent, they crowd the bank and demand their deposits in physical cash. The bank quickly runs out of physical cash and closes its doors, further fueling a panic.
The federal government began insuring deposits after the Great Depression triggered the collapse of hundreds of banks, and that guarantee limited bank runs, as depositors no longer needed to fear a bank closing would mean their money on deposit was lost.
But since people could conceivably sense a disturbance in the Financial Force and decide to turn digital cash into physical cash as a precaution, eliminating physical cash also eliminates the possibility of bank runs, as there will be no form of cash that isn’t controlled by banks.
So, when the dust has settled who ultimately benefits by this war on cash, government and the central banks, pure and simple.
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Because the government needs it to make the growing minimum payment on the credit card.
How idiotic are you people?
-- CA$H is easy to hide (at least $100s).
-- CA$H is anonymous.
-- CA$H is recognized by everyone...
-- CA$H is freedom.
That is why the TPTB hate it.
Bitcoin?
Cash in hand may be rendered valueless by the .gov issuing new bills with Bill's & Hillary's faces on them. Good luck using your Washingtons then.
The failure of the Institute and all the others who claimed to oppose the fraud is why there is a war on cash at all, let alone when.
For generations those who could have offered the greatest opposition to corruption, knowingly or not, accepted the fraud's false premise that "cash" is a medium of exchange and nothing else.
Therefore, most everyone today, their parents and grandparents, children and grandchildren, believe that counterfeit is "cash," organized crime is banking, and that theft is investment.
http://genius.com/Oc-sure-money-is-the-representation-of-productive-work...
I was daydreaming while driving today. I saw an armored bank vehicle today. I started to think what they were protecting. They were protecting something extremely valuable. Pallets and pallets full of 'money'. But what makes it so much more different than just pallets of reams of paper that you see at staples or even at a recycling plant. It really is not at all. It's just that for the moment in time, people BELIEVE that it has value.
Historically speaking, that confidence in currencies is fargile. I recommend a few months in cash (for liquidity purposes) but anymore than that and you are asking to be left with very narrow (and germ infested) toilet paper. Of course, as my username suggests, I recommend precious metals because they are a store of value. You do not have to worry about them losing their value. they will always be worth something. Even with all the proven manipulation going on in the precious metals in recent years, they are still very valuable.
The Keynesians have clearly reached their end game with the zero lower bound and to continue their fraud they need negative rates only possible if cash is banned. It will only result in super bubble that will crash from a higher level, but they will try anyway.
Society has forgotten the lesson learned by the generation that were adults during the great depression, banks cannot be trusted with your wealth. They understood the freedom that cash provided and used it. Their children and grand and great grandchildren don’t want to learn from history and will suffer the consequences.
Who loses with a default scenario? Gvt's and banks.
Those are not banks. They are Gvt's tentacles.
Don't forget though that their belief is real and based on a fact. The value of that paper is that it represents their productive work and it is used to exchange this productive work for the same value that another believes in. That they too have performed productive work and earned the ability to demand the value of another.
This is to say, that medium represents an exchange of full value for full value.
The deceit happens when someone who does not obtain the medium by performing productive work to meet the voluntary demand of another introduces the medium into an exchange as if they did.
This is money versus countereit.
The deceit happens when someone who does not obtain the medium by performing productive work to meet the voluntary demand of another introduces the medium into an exchange as if they did.
But this begs the question when you trace the genealogy: How did the media get created in the first place?
When I perform productive work and obtain media, and the person I obtain the media from obtained it from someone who did productive work and so on, how did the very first person performing productive work get media? No media would have existed in the beginning.
And what happens to the media in time? Is it ever destroyed?
Understood.
"In the first place," it probably went something like this:
"As long as those who exchange values with one another have been voluntarily agreeing upon what thing is the unit of measure then their best decision has always been to choose precious metals. Gold, silver, and copper are the unit of measure that people voluntarily decide to represent that they have performed productive work. For just as the miners must perform productive work to bring this value to others, just as the smiths must perform productive work to give form to the value, just as the bankers must perform productive work to safeguard and invest the value to increase value, so too must others perform their own productive work to exchange their values to obtain the metals. This money once obtained by exchanging their productive work for it then is a value itself as it retains its ability to be exchanged again for the productive work of someone else. Each person then is the undertaker of their own personal reserve of money." http://genius.com/7368182
Since we are far removed from the beginning, a simple litmus test would be to stop introducing any new currency at all into existnence. How then would anyone obtain their share of the existing currency?
(Yes, as much as I slam the Institute for its fundamantal errors, I do agree with Mises identification of commodity money so much so that the adjective "commodity" is not necessary.)
"As long as those who exchange values with one another have been voluntarily agreeing upon what thing is the unit of measure then their best decision has always been to choose precious metals.
Says who? To me it's obvious you're better off recognizing what money really is: "a promise to complete a trade." It allows simple barter to take place over time and space. Why choose something like precious metals whose only attribute is a waste of time and effort to obtain?
From your link:
Money is productive work first. Then this action is represented by a thing, the object agreed upon as the symbol to represent the action.
Says who? A better money is one that can be used to exchange productive work before it exists. Say two people want to make shovels. One agrees to do the metal part ... the other to do the wood part. With your definition of money, both have to dig for precious metal before they can start the collaboration and trade. Why?
a simple litmus test would be to stop introducing any new currency at all into existnence. How then would anyone obtain their share of the existing currency?
Your test is an embarrassment to litmus. Suppose you stop introducing a precious metal into existence. How then would anyone obtain their share of the existing precious metal (e.g. gold)? But your litmus test does illustrate the huge flaw in your proposal for money. In your litmus test you reveal that your money must be able to change value with respect to all things it exchanges for. A better money "never" changes its value in relation to all things it exchanges for.
It's NOT our measly amount of Worthless cash they want, it's our perception of freedom and escape from their system that is most important to them.
Could this also be a way of limiting (or stopping) hyper inflation?
The government already regulates utility companies.
I think utility companies are the new central banks.
On the bright side, the elites have no intention to --share-- the resources with billions of -unknowns- till we run out. They don't. Lose sight of the assignments, and YOUR assignment, is to be a prepper.
Corporations will not be happy until they control all utilities. All resources, AIR. OCEANS, DNA of every life form on the planet.
Smart grid is all about that. Spy on households, integrate power over borders, establish monopolies on price (see Enron), control it all.
Then it comes to water. And then they come for AIR.
But this nonsense about patenting all of life (human, plant and animal)??? Time to turn off the propoganda TV and think.
I've been waiting for a good opportunity to cite an Arnie quote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8lT-Sn-HqE
We'll all be in 'Sector G' soon...
summerof71
I go there every day! Nice site, highly recommended.
Hey about half the country already lives in a cashless society. They like don't have any money period, man.
They love cash.
They want to tax every unrecorded penny of it.
Fucking hilarious. TPTB are idiotic clowns. People will use silver, gold, platinum and other precious gems as currency. We can barter for goods and services. We can become our own central banks. We can grow our own food, go hunting and fishing. More women will turn tricks in exchange for goods and services. How the fuck are they going to tax us? Socialism doesn't work.
Better fill out that 1099-B or else they are free to confiscate everything as "tax evasion."
You are right though, the worse the taxes get, the more people actively avoid them, or try to get on the right side of the wealth transfer (iow go on welfare while earning cash under the table). Keep in mind that for every deca billionaire who made it on paper games instead of real products, there are a million fat middle-aged bureaucrats pulling in $100k+ and ripping off as much in one year as any given TPTB took a lifetime to steal. I saw the type all the time when I was a grad student and part-timer in a middle school; they really believe the spin and will gladly steal off your plate for "social justice," also called their pension plan and 6% salary increases.
Be patriotic, leave your money in a US bank; Uncle Sugar needs a little help servicing his debt.
OT : visited the mint today and picked up our very first 1 Oz silver Libertads. They are beautiful coins. The mint had NO 1 Oz Gold coins only .5 Oz and lower. Has anyone seen good/sound advice on which are the 'best' coins to purchase for use when paper money may lose its lustre ? I also believe that the Treasury Dept (which has a keen interest in our foreign bank holdings) has no interest in our coins. Am I right ?
To divedivedive: Understanding gold IS taking the red pill. Do your own homework!!! There's lot of resources available but you, in the end, must understand so that you are not taken advantage of. Of course, it's a lot of work, but once you understand, you'll understand forever. But once you understand, you may wish you had just taken the blue pill. Not everyone can handle the truth. Only you can decide.
Buy uncirculated if you can and recognized coins of purity. I am thinking that any capital gains etc. do not at the moment apply to "coins" as opposed to bars. Coins and bars I buy come from reputable dealers and banks. Normally come sealed in original Royal Canadian Mint packing. Plus I keep the sales slips.
US mint stuff.
Canadian Mint stuff.
Kruggerands are less pure.
Aussie Mint.....but I assume you are in US.
Any reputable minted coin, US, Canada, South Africa,
Mexico - do you see that as an issue ? And today we visited the retail store for the mint.
I guess my real question was - is there any real merit in buying only coins 1 Oz and greater (if you can keep kind of close to spot) over smaller denominations ?
Not a clue what you're asking about Mexico... In answer to your question, No!
Canadian "Maple Leafs" usually have the lowest premiums with .9999 purity. "US mint stuff" varies in purity, Gold Eagles are .917 pure, the same as Kruggerands while the Gold Buffalo is .9999 purity.
Globally, the higher purity is preferred. Therefore, despite the close proximity between Eagles and Buffalos in premiums, I always go with the Buffalo over the Eagle when it comes to US Mint stuff.
prescient post.
.
@.."This leads to the third flaw: capital — which begins its life as savings — is the foundation of capitalism." c.h.s.
.
not true, the foundation is love, murder and theft;
all the pretty "...isms" are dead or dying. to be found,
one must first be completely lost. no?
oh man.
what
capitalism is not based on savings. that
may have been what was said or sold to people,
but it is not the case. it was based on credit
and expansion, growth, just as the credit system
and money system is currently based. not to mention
the property confiscation, fraudulent contracts and
murder employed to accomplish the goals and aspirations
of the "great" capitalists throughout history. are there
beneficial developments from it all, sure. is there a
history and legacy of genocide, murder and mayhem?
look around brother.
that is, in a nut shell, what.
@.."So, when the dust has settled who ultimately benefits by this war on cash, government and the central banks, pure and simple." c.h.s.
.
comment: it is not nearly pure or simple, it appears entirely
impure and complex to my simple mind. the owners and corporations, murderers
and oligarchs might have an interest and hand in it too? the faces of
the governments and the faces, talking heads, of the central banks
are mere hired help, did we all lose the plot in the first chapter?
well, of course!
have a nice day.
there is no "cash", there are only federal reserve
debt notes.
.
"cash (n.) Look up cash at Dictionary.com
1590s, "money box;" also "money in hand, coin," from Middle French caisse "money box" (16c.), from Provençal caissa or Italian cassa, from Latin capsa "box" (see case (n.2)); originally the money box, but the secondary sense of the money in it became sole meaning 18c. Cash crop is attested from 1831; cash flow from 1954; the mechanical cash register from 1878.
Like many financial terms in English (bankrupt, etc.), ultimately from Italian. Not related to (but influencing the form of) the colonial British cash "Indian monetary system, Chinese coin, etc.," which is from Tamil kasu, Sanskrit karsha, Sinhalese kasi.
cash (v.) Look up cash at Dictionary.com
"to convert to cash" (as a check, etc.), 1811, from cash (n.). Encash (1865) also was sometimes used. Related: Cashed; cashing."
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cash
.
the corporate banks run the show since 1913. all the wars
and murder belong on them first. they run and own the federal reserve
and the governments. love it or leave it, they even have a flag
or two or three. you think they might be behind the "war on cash"?
hmmm?
War on cash? How about a war on central banking instead? Andrew Jackson had those bastards figure out exactly.
You want war on central banking? Go buy some gold, silver and bitcoin and start transacting.
So the banks eliminated hard money (gold and silver) because it wasn't elastic enough (supposedly). Now they want to eliminate cash, the cost of which to print is fractions of what it costs to produce a gold or silver coin.
What is their next limit to insatiable greed? Server costs to keep their fraudulent accounting?
.
They want you to spend spend spend!
Fine. Wire the digital cash in the bank to Provident Metals with a note that says "gimme $10K in maples, bitchezz."
Directive complied with, sir! Stackers must keep the pressure on, if we're ever to break outta here.
Provident is an excellent supplier, especially fast when paying w/ BTC.
I read this and add it to all else I have read on this subject. It should be clear to the meanest intelligence that Banks are a total criminal enterprise! There should be shunned as far as possible by all. At the least, we should let them hold none of our money as deposits. Be it hard cash, gold, silver, property etc. Any way to hold a store of value out side the grip of the gangsters in suits. These evil fucks have become rich beyond their wildest dreams, just by fucking the public. I for one, use banking as little as possible, and have gotten my assets out of bank deposits to the limit humanly possible. These fucks are criminals, sanctioned by government to steal everything possible. Only when small utility banks, with local governance, and bank boards of local people, only when that happens, would I bank again in a normal sense. A new class of bank, whose only reason to exist is to foster commerce and savings, without any wall street connections, a Public Utility Bank. Makes secured loans, lends for samll business and homes, to people with good credit and business plans. Pays interest on deposits, using that money to foster the local economy. Todays mega banks are organized crime in league with corrupt politicians to ripoff all of society.
We shall have world government, whether or not we like it. The question is only whether world government will be achieved by consent or by conquest.
Today we are faced with a divided world—its two halves glowering at each other across the iron curtain. The world's two superpowers—Russia and the United States—are entangled in the vicious circle of an arms race, which more and more preempts energies and resources sorely needed to lay the foundations of enduring peace. We are now on the road to eventual war—a war in which the conqueror will emerge well nigh indistinguishable from the vanquished.
The United States does not want this war, and most authorities agree that Russia does not want it. Indeed, why should Russia prefer the unpredictable hazards of war to a continuation of here present profitable fishing in the troubled waters of an uneasy armistice? Yet both the United States and Russia are drifting—and, with them, the entire world—toward the abyss of atomic conflict.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/James_Warburg_before_the_Subcommittee_on_...
"The United States does not want this war"... ROFL!
"The United States does not want this war"
I would disagree with this statement quite strongly. Perhaps you could provide some evidence to justify your statement?
Whatever it takes to force savers and the prudent to buy into the banksters levitated equity markets, housing, etc. We will force you into the "ownership society". If a crash does occur then the admonishment to the proletariat of "you should have saved more" and "now must live with a lower standard of living" meme will permeate through the political/economic/media apparatus. And the sheep will follow...
Gross world product
"In 2013, according to the CIA's World Factbook, the GWP totalled approximately US$87.25 trillion in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), and around US$74.31 trillion in nominal terms."
The World Derivatives Market was Estimated to be As Big As $1.2 Quadrillion (in 2013)
...figure it out.
I don't know about other countries but the United States government would have this thing so totally fucked up it would take centuries to have everyone in their "system". Can you imagine each and everyone of us with a 'card' or worse (tattoo or chip)? There's 320 million people in the United States alone - men, women, children. This isn't happening ANY time soon.
Cash will always be around in my lifetime.
I've stopped tyring to tell people to get out of the system. If they haven't figured it out by now I cannot help them.
Minor correction: all the banks benefit, not just central banks. All credit card issuers benefit. With no cash transactions, there is no economic transaction whereby they don't collect their 2% (minimum). That's an awful lot of pennies earned.
Despite the strength of goldbugs hereabouts, I support investment in old silver coins. An silver dollar is an ounce of sterling, quantified and stamped by the U.S. government back in the day. It's the easiest way to prepare for the day when the paper/electronic currency collapses with an easily recognizable unit of value appropriate to daily transactions, widely distributed and for now, easily available. If just one person in ten has a decent stash of silver coins, the Goldman-Sachs Dollar could do a Greece tomorrow, and everyday transactions for real goods and services could continue on the local level without the assistance of the government or the Fed.
How is dot.gov going to get the Afgan herion to the streets without cash? Maybe every pusher will be given a free obama phone and an interact machine?
The Mark of the Beast is coming.... for it to be implemented cash has to be done away with.....
Read your Bible and you'll understand....
EDIT: to me it seems to make perfect sense. The prophecy of the Mark in Revelation talks in the tense of it being rolled out and implemented, not something that has been around for a long time. It would appear to be a world wide implementation.
The world has never be so connected as now, where an ecomic collapse could take down every nation and economy. And the technology has never existed till now for it to be implemented.
So we all sit around here talking about the coming world wide collapse. What is the response? World leaders come together to form a world government with a world digital currency and that digital currency stored in an RFID chipe in your hand. Pretty much spot on to the Book of Revelation. It's coming to fulfillment before our eyes....
So, you work and produce, and then deposit part of your production in one of their ponzi edifices. They then go ahead and steal your deposit, and then counterfeit up more theft from your neighbors and country with fiat-debt.
Then, utilizing their violence-puppets, they demand you only use their ponzi edifices to conduct your business, and to only use their grift in digital form.
In the end, they will come and say, "We no longer have your deposits, but don't fret, as we have given you a share in our ponzi edifices and schemes, and that thug over there says you will acquiesce to our grand deal."
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
What does one say about a banksters hanging from a tree? Poor tree.
All this is incredibly stupid.
If people can't take their money out of the bank in the form of cash, they will escape the system by buying things. It's the same thing, just less convienient. Notice that in our fractional reserve system if everyone pays off their debt, defaults on it the banks will have NO money in them! Rebellion of the people to monetary tyranny exposes these idiots to a defaltionary collapse.
At the same time private scripts will pop up overnight, like they did in the depression. And gold and silver will become the refuge of anyone trying to preserve wealth. They may try to make metal owneship illegal, but it will be like prohibition, everybody will drink anyway. Besides, in this world we are imagining, you can own gold in Caymans, Hong Kong or Signapore, which will NEVER agree to enforce US laws. The US might try to tax overseas ownership, but they'll have to prove you have it first, again in that world, asia will never cooperate with the US.
And there is bitcoin, which becomes a real threat to the system in this scenario. Look for the government to replace or sieze the whole bitcoin infrastructure, and force all digital currency on to their servers. Then their bitcoin will effectively replace paper cash.
Finally, the Caymans will be a sanctuary because TPTB will NOT want to be subject to their own laws. They will have to escape too, and they will leave themselves an escape route: Caymans (or somewhere similar).
"Besides, in this world we are imagining, you can own gold in Caymans, Hong Kong or Signapore, which will NEVER agree to enforce US laws. The US might try to tax overseas ownership, but they'll have to prove you have it first, again in that world, asia will never cooperate with the US."
You are a fuking idiot
"...they want to close any opening regular depositors might have to escape these forms of officially sanctioned theft"
Yes Sir. That's exactly what it's all about.
There are few better examples which show that our governments have been taken over by criminals.
Because they can vanish your balance when you attempt to buy physical gold or silver.
"Besides, in this world we are imagining, you can own gold in Caymans, Hong Kong or Signapore, which will NEVER agree to enforce US laws. The US might try to tax overseas ownership, but they'll have to prove you have it first, again in that world, asia will never cooperate with the US."
You are a fuking idiot
This was meant for kingTut
Why now? The government wants it all. Tax you to death.
Sorry, author...
TAXATION == THEFT.
If you want to distinguish bail-ins from taxes, that's fine. Just say "bail-ins" and "taxes" (or whatever you mean).
But both bail-ins and taxes are forms of theft. Don't pretend they aren't.
PS: I agree about the reasons the predators-that-be want to eliminate physical cash.
'War on cash...Why now?'
STRIKE WHILE THE OPPORTUNITY PRESENTS ITSELF.
Motive and means are ONE thing, but OPPORTUNITY; well, it only comes in the perfect timing of the malice and Hegelian-created conditions that seem to exist RIGHT NOW.
The issuance of the first DEBIT cards was an ALPHA TEST to see if such a thing would be accepted by the masses. The hegelian dynamic of an overreaching and invasive central banking system-government taxation scheme brought about the BETA TEST called 'BITCOIN'; a COMPLETELY UNBACKED and HYPOTHETICAL DIGITAL CURRENCY which seems to have carved out a small section of fence-sitters who otherwise might have continued resistance (thus thinning the opposition somewhat, as well as creating a sub-class that would ardently encourage others to accept the 'new digital awakening' religiosity).
Gold is for kings, Silver is for people. Fiat currency is for fools. Digital global currency debt instruments are for kings and people to exploit; to control the masses (while at the same time making FOOLS feel 'intelligent' because they are using 'technology' created to control every aspect of thier great unwashed existence by those who have the Gold).
Here in the CONUS, we have gold-plated Tungsten bars for sale (or for use in settling daily global banking accounts), as well as strips of cotton paper with funny pictures printed on them; backed by OPEC oil sales. SO MANY strips of debit instrument currency, In fact, that it would not be possible to print off 18,500,000,000,000 of them with a BANK of copiers running 24/7/365. Add to this the 'EUROZONE' debit instruments, and all the OTHER nations of the world, and then it becomes almost INEVITABLE that the ONLY WAY to keep the Ponzi going is to ELECTRONICALLY DIGITIZE ALL MONEY (EVERYWHERE, ALL AT ONCE).
'And I looked, and I beheld a GREAT BEAST, rising from the sea,...'. Something about a pair of scales, and a measure of wheat for a Denarius (a day's wages, when it was used as money)...
Equalization and inclusion always lead to the LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR, by the way. Users of Mexican-imported Cilantro in 25 states in CONUS had to stop using it, after a shitload of people got sick eating the food in the restaurants (as announced today). Seems that a particular Mexican state where this comes from figured out that the fields where it is grown were littered with human feces and soiled toilet paper...
It will probably be a lot easier to achieve once the world population is below 500,000,000.
Charles omitted one cogent factor in his evaluation of the flawed thinking behind the war on cash.
Restricting cash does nothing to prevent one from storing and trading wealth outside the currency entirely. Indeed, this is the common resort in manipulated economies, as represented by the practice of Mat in the old Soviet Union...or reportedly in Greece right now.
In fact, to authorities this would look like compliance...obediently spending everything on command. But If people, when complete, refuse to change back to the govt currency that so badly burned them...then that currency is dead.
I know I already wrote about this in another article, but the war on cash is alive and well at the prescription counter. If you pay cash and they can't find any tracking information about you, you are automatically "scored" as a one star on a scale of one to five and called an "Outlier". I'm not making this up as I had a long conversation with a pharmacist who cued me in.
You see the pharmacists are graded on their performance and on how many Outliers (this is what the software calls you too) they can get beyond one star. The pharmacist does their job, follows up and guess what, the Outliers as the data calls the people are paying cash!! Yes they want to control when and where you take your drugs and want to dive in even further.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/07/patients-who-pay-cash-when-filling.html
Now if you have not heard about medication prediction adherence scoring, here's another link and images right off the Express Scripts infographic and they are proud of how they are "scoring" us. The 300 metrics used have nothing to do with taking your medications either and NOBODY IS QUESTIONING THESE PROPRIETARY FORMULAS! The data is flawed! You will have a profile that's nothing like yourself. Anyone who has filled a prescription has one of these scores and FICO has medication adhering scoring too.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/06/medication-adherence-predictions-enter.html
Keep in mind that banks, insurers, drug companies and more buy these scores and it goes into computer various types of risk assessments about you, nice stuff right when it's so flawed and using non scientific algorithms to judge you?
I never take pharmaceutical drugs (15+ years).
I always pay cash (8+ years).
I am glad that I am their nightmare.
I sleep very well.
I think we all agree that we'd sleep a little better if we had even one "representative" speaking out against this. Another case where the silence is deafening.
I think we all agree that we'd sleep a little better if we had even one "representative" speaking out against this. Another case where the silence is deafening.
There are a few, but you simply haven't been listening and likely haven't supported them.
If cash
is only crass
then gold
is king 10 fold.
Here is why gold prices are artifically low:
http://michaelekelley.com/2015/07/20/dear-fed-plz-raise-gold-price/
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-09/are-big-banks-using-derivatives-suppress-bullion-prices/
Here are some more signs of a coming recession.
http://michaelekelley.com/2015/05/29/mergers-and-acquisitions-set-record...
http://michaelekelley.com/2015/02/20/fed-warns-of-two-bubbles/
http://michaelekelley.com/2015/02/24/would-you-pay-39-more-than-asked/
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-27/when-will-we-ever-learn/
Here is how to prepare.
http://michaelekelley.com/2014/10/16/8-things-to-do-when-recession-happens/
Here is how to get your mind off this stuff.
http://michaelekelley.com/category/humor/
Good luck!
The True "Reason" behind the so-called War on Cash is Nothing Less than Full and Total Control over the Population! "Money", becomes digital credits. Dissidents will have their "Credits" eliminated.
Barter will be our Black Market.
Few things are as American as "I'm paying cash", Mom, Baseball, Apple Pie, and 30-round pitchforks made and assembled in your neighbords basment.
Why kill cash?
Because of the bartender/waitress recovery. At this pace the country will soon be clearly divided into the servers and the served. And you can't tax cash tips, but credit card tips have a paper trail. Same goes for weed sales and prostitution. Hence legalization is right around the corner.