Posted on 03/29/2015 6:44:19 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The move to a cashless society won’t happen overnight. Instead, it is being implemented very slowly and systematically in a series of incremental steps. All over the planet, governments are starting to place restrictions on the use of cash for security reasons. As citizens, we are being told that this is being done to thwart criminals, terrorists, drug runners, money launderers and tax evaders. Other forms of payment are much easier for governments to track, and so they very much prefer them. But we are rapidly getting to the point where the use of cash is considered to be a “suspicious activity” all by itself. These days, if you pay a hotel bill with cash or if you pay for several hundred dollars worth of goods at a store with cash you are probably going to get looked at funny. You see, the truth is that we have already been trained to regard the use of large amounts of cash to be unusual. The next step will be to formally ban large cash transactions like France and other countries in Europe are already doing.
Starting in September, cash transactions of more than 1,000 euros will be banned in France. The following comes from a recent Zero Hedge article which detailed what these new restrictions will do…
Prohibiting French residents from making cash payments of more than 1,000 euros, down from the current limit of 3,000 euros.
Given the parlous state of the stagnating French economy the limit for foreign tourists on currency payments will remain higher, at 10,000 euros down from the current limit of 15,000 euros.
The threshold below which a French resident is free to convert euros into other currencies without having to show an identity card will be slashed from the current level of 8,000 euros to 1,000 euros.
In addition any cash deposit or withdrawal of more than 10,000 euros during a single month will be reported to the French anti-fraud and money laundering agency Tracfin.
French authorities will also have to be notified of any freight transfers within the EU exceeding 10,000 euros, including checks, pre-paid cards, or gold.
Of course Spain has already banned cash transactions of more than 2,500 euros and Italy has already banned cash transactions of more than 1,000 euros.
We don’t have these kinds of outright bans in the United States just yet, but what we do have are some very strict reporting requirements.
For example, if you regularly deposit large amounts of cash, there is a very good chance that you have been the subject of a “suspicious activity report”. In 2013, approximately 1.6 million suspicious activity reports were submitted to the federal government.
The following guidelines for when a suspicious activity report should be filed come from a government website…
*****
Banks, bank holding companies, and their subsidiaries are required by federal regulations53 to file a SAR with respect to:
*****
Most people don’t realize this, but there are minimum quotas for suspicious activity reports that banks must meet. If they do not submit enough suspicious activity reports, they can be fined (or worse).
And now the Obama administration is saying that just filling out suspicious activity reports may not be good enough.
According to the Wall Street Journal, banks are actually being encouraged to directly contact law enforcement if they see something that does not look right…
The U.S. Justice Department’s criminal head said banks may need to go beyond filing suspicious activity reports when they encounter a risky customer.
“The vast majority of financial institutions file suspicious activity reports when they suspect that an account is connected to nefarious activity,” said assistant attorney general Leslie Caldwell in a Monday speech, according to prepared remarks. “But, in appropriate cases, we encourage those institutions to consider whether to take more action: specifically, to alert law enforcement authorities about the problem.”
The remarks indicate that banks may be expected to do more than just file SARs, a responsibility that itself can be expensive and time-consuming.
That should send a chill up your spine.
In a recent piece, Simon Black imagined a future scenario in which some unsuspecting American citizen goes to the bank to withdraw a large amount of cash…
Imagine going to the bank to withdraw some cash.
Having some cash on hand is always a prudent strategy, and especially today when more and more bank deposits are creeping into negative territory, meaning that you have to pay the banks for the privilege that they gamble with your money.
You tell the teller that you’d like to withdraw $5,000 from your account. She hesitates nervously and wants to know why.
You try to politely let her know that that’s none of the bank’s business as it’s your money.
The teller disappears for a few minutes, leaving you waiting.
When she returns she tells you that you can collect your money in a few days as they don’t have it on hand at the moment.
Slightly irritated because of the inconvenience, you head home.
But as you pull into your driveway later there’s an unexpected surprise waiting for you: two police officers would like to have a word with you about your intended withdrawal earlier…
Perhaps you don’t think that anything like that could ever happen to you.
Well, consider what the feds are doing to one widow in Iowa…
A widow’s bank account was seized by the IRS and she now faces criminal charges for depositing her legal inheritance money in lumps instead of all together.
Janet Malone, 68, had $18,775 seized from her — money that was legally earned and was legally bestowed to her by her late husband, Ronald Malone. The problem, according to the government, was the fact that she deposited it in several lumps instead of all at once.
According to the Associated Press, Mrs. Malone deposited the cash in increments between $5,800 and $9,000. The widow’s private financial affairs evidently set off red flags under the watchful gaze of the federal government.
Remember, she was not guilty of committing any crime other than depositing cash in lumps instead of all at once.
If this is how ruthless the feds will be with an elderly widow, how would they treat you under similar circumstances?
So why are they doing this?
The truth is that they want to discourage the public from using cash. Our government, just like governments all over the planet, is not being shy about the fact that it does not like cash. If they can make people afraid to use cash, that suits their purposes very well.
And with each passing year the restrictions on the use of cash globally will just get tighter and tighter and the role that cash plays in our lives will just become smaller and smaller.
In the end, a transition to an almost entirely cashless society will seem almost natural. Cash is being killed off one slow step at a time, and at this point hardly anyone is objecting.
I have zero problem with cashless society as long as they keep it as a card or even using the phone like Apple Pay which is really a cool way to purchase things and I will enjoy it even more when it expands. However, I am VERY leary about the mark that they may eventually put on our body that we will have to take in order to make any purchases. I am not sure if that is what the Bible was talking about but if that ever becomes reality, I am going to have to think long and hard about getting it. The good news is that I am 45 so I don’t think it would even become reality until I am 65 and typically there is a time before it goes 100 percent so maybe I will be dead before it is mandatory....lol.
The Feds DID deny knowing anything about them, or they DIDN'T deny knowing about them?
Don’t keep much money in the bank. Its not like you get any interest on it. buy gold and junk silver.
Sooner or later the banks and/or govt is coming to give you the big haircut anyway. Just like Cyprus. Its going to come here too.
I wasn’t there when they asked but we did not get an answer and the people there could not tell if the local guys knew anything are not. I know that the feds have ways of testing money that is not available to the banks. This was ten years ago.
You really don't understand "structuring", do you?
And it's "border". Boarder is a tenant.
As ThomasThomas posted in a reply to me, the Fedthugs were able to track currency in a manner not available to the banks TEN YEARS AGO.
Trust me - they've been busy since.
... AWESOME.
You, and Freepers like you, are one of my favorite things about FR.
Thank you for your continued wisdom and inspiration, not just that comment but over time!
I guess they are just going to have to arrest me. I am a cash and carry type of guy.
I notice that "vote fraud" is an interest of yours.
Contemplate, if you will, the conundrum of Scott Walker's June 2012 recall election victory against the Obama 2012 campaign's raking-in of Wisconsin's electoral votes a mere 4 months later, and tell me there's no stinking, rotted corpses of vote fraud there.
“duh”
This is going to create a wealth gap and income disparity as they stifle up and coming gangsta’s in favor for the older more influential 2nd generation International Organized Crime syndicate people. OIC is their TLA.
Of course, for anyone outside reading this, I must make clear:
Voting at a national level should NOT be a very important thing if orthodox American government is working right!
Most things are fixed by the constitution, right, and we have our 9th and 10th amendments, right?
And we certainly have unalienable rights that cannot be negated by votes, right?
So why does it matter when cheaters prevail?
Because not only do they win illegitimately, but they then act illegally!
Only when voting promotes unconstitutional, unlawful acts does voting become much of an issue. No one even tries to buy votes when government is properly limited!
But we all just try to fight the bad guys by voting against them, as though the thing we oppose had any legitimacy in the first place.
But in a war, we have to grab any advantage we can get on the field we are stuck with. That’s why it’s called a war. So we try to get rid of voter fraud as just one aspect of battling to retain the limited government that is still the law of our land despite so many ignoring it.
Avoid war. Pray and work to limit government peacefully while we still can.
Did anyone ever read Margret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale?” I read it about 25 years ago, but remember that one of the things they did was get rid of all cash and put everything on a debit card. (This was written before there were even debit cards yet.) that was so the government could seize all of the women’s assets. Of course, the government in this Liberal author’s wet dream was a conservative Christian dictatorship that used women for breeding. Sort of like the Muslims do in real life.
Lobbied heavily by the credit card companies that get 2% on ever transaction.
Some people have speculated that the real worldwide SHTF scenario is a banking/government money crisis. Consider the following:
1. I believe I remember reading an article that stated that banks can claim that all funds deposited with the bank are actually the banks property now and that depositors are now considered to be ‘investors’ and as such are last to claim any money from the bank if it fails.
2. European banks have proven that money on their books belongs to the banks and not the depositors. Remember Cypress? The depositors took a real ‘haircut’ if they had deposits over a certain valuation. If I recall correctly that was instituted by their government as they needed the money. That banking logic is going worldwide now.
3. Also consider that Cash is a form of ‘private property’. Where some people don’t understand the concept of ‘private property’ when it comes to real-estate or cars or anything else that’s tangible because they don’t have any vested interest in those things. They DO understand cash though either bills and coins or as EBT cards. Take away their cash or cards and they’ll get the concept of ‘private property’ really quick after that.
Consider that if there is a ‘cashless’ society imposed on all of us and one morning you woke up and all your ‘money’ was now half of what it was before you went to bed but the prices in the stores remained the same. How would you ‘feel’? Well I believe that a great many people would feel rage and start looting and burning.
If enough of that occurs then the society collapses and the Government has two real choices. Declare martial law and attempt to take control of the situation. Or... let it just burn itself out and wait until the population is decreased to more ‘manageable’ levels.
Assuming of course that the ‘government’ can keep control of it’s own forces as those members see their families both close and extended being destroyed by the situation.
In the long-run though, cash or as some say ‘fiat money’ is just a more portable way of doing barter. When the full trust of the Government and Central Bank is crashing and burning there will still be barter to fall back on.
My position is that if the government, IRS or anybody, doesn’t want you to use cash, then quit printing the damn stuff.
Another reason for a cashless society is to condition it’s people to accept virtual credits. And to make a long story short, will allow a government to use as many credits as it wishes to support it’s economy without consequence. Utopia.
Mark of the Beast coming very soon!
Call on Jesus today—it’s your only Hope!
A crappy law, designed to exert more government control over the People, is a crappy law all the same, no matter how “legal” it is. Next, they might start ticketing cars with over 300 horsepower because they are going slower than they can and might be hiding something - sounds like it doesn’t equate, but at the core principle of the matter, it equates perfectly.
You notice that everywhere, the cashiers are marking up $20 dollar bills with their little testing markers?
I have thought often that this is strange/funny as any 20.00 bill has metal strip- which as far as I know cannot be forged.
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