The sale of silver eagles spiked this year and last. It's the tip of the iceberg. As people lose trust in the banking system, and there's next to zero interest payment on savings, more people are keeping ever larger sums of cash and things like silver bullion hidden away from the feds.
This reporting of taking out $5000? The next step (this is pure speculating) will be restricting how much money people can take out of the bank. The goal is a cashless society in which all purchases and income are monitored.
Pure speculation. But it does seem to be the way things are going.
Maybe for the little people.
But without cash, what are the politicians going to hide in their freezers in brown bags?