I knew a businessman that dealt in refurbishing heavy equipment and selling it to South American companies. He was always under inquisition by the IRS because so much of his business was in cash. He and his lawyer always responded, “If you don’t want me to use cash, then quit f@cking printing it.”
This is the dream bankers and totalitarians have been salivating over; complete divorce of money from reality with complete control over money.
When this occurs, the only alternatives to slavery are barter and private money.
M4L
M4L
When the Euro was created, they INTENTIONALLY put the 500 euro note into print to compete with the US $100 bill. All the criminals in Europe, Eastern Europe and Russia did all their business in US dollars, and used the bills as a savings vehicle insulated from their own countries’ bad money.
They want to wipe out whatever is left of privacy.
These type of moves could boost crypto currencies like bitcoin.
If you notice....(I live in Germany and can attest to this)...after the idea was suggested in public...Merkel’s party didn’t say a word and I think they were a bit shocked at the suggestion.
To get to point of acceptance....which I agree...banks would all be happy to see this occur, but a fair number of Germans will question the idea and take it into court. I’m not that sure that the German Supreme Court would allow it to stand. The idea of the amount would be what they’d go after and ask how this 5,000 number got invented and the government would grin and admit they pulled it out of thin air. Judges won’t be that logic.
The other loose part of this is that there is no German law that says you must have a bank account. Forcing one into such a requirement would also draw German court action.
I will admit....a number of Germans now do things on the ‘black’ and don’t report actual costs. There’s reported to be 300,000 asylum seekers in Germany who are working under the table without a visa...not paying income taxes...or pension tax.
I’ll also admit that a fair number of Germans often conclude used car purchases now....in cash....in the 5,000 to 10,000 Euro range. Some of the sellers are pretending to be just a one-time owner/seller....when they go through twenty-odd cars a year in cash sales, which never get reported to the German tax folks.
So far it’s only a proposal by the lunatic fringe of the left. Doubt it gathers enough traction to go anywhere.
What’s interesting, though, is the rationalization for the proposal: Fight crime and terrorism. So they first import the criminals and terrorists, and then want to come down on the whole country with that crap. Typical leftist m.o.