Free Republic

The war on cash has just gone to an entirely new level. When I heard that the European Union was planning to completely ban all cash transactions above 10,000 euros, I had a hard time believing it. There are so many wild rumors flying around on the Internet these days, and so I wasn’t going to write about this unless I could confirm it. Unfortunately, this particular rumor is quite real. Under the pretext of fighting “money laundering and terrorist financing”, the European Union will be entirely outlawing all cash payments greater than 10,000 euros. The following comes from the...

I have warned that Europe is the epic center for the decline and fall of Western Culture and economic strength. While the US has not yet joined Europe, the Democrats are licking their lips and trying desperately to figure out how to kill cash forcing everything to be digital in search of cash. In Europe, 18 EU countries are now restricting the use of cash and they are desperately trying to terminate cash all for control and taxes. Now it is just presumed that paying in cash means you are engaged in money laundering for that definition has been expanded...

The war on cash’s endgame is here: money replaced by vouchers subject to complete state control. For those who have never heard of them, “Central Bank Digital Currencies” (CBDCs) are exactly what they sound like, digitized versions of the pound/dollar/euro etc. issued by central banks. Like bitcoin (and other crypto), the CBDC would be entirely digital, thus furthering the ongoing war on cash. However, unlike crypto, it would not have any encryption preserving anonymity. In fact, it would be totally the reverse, potentially ending the very idea of financial privacy. The countries where the idea progressed the furthest are China...

When he heads to airports now, Samuel Haile thinks of that day at Buffalo's airport a few years ago. The government took $12,000 from his carry-on and wouldn't give it back. Haile was not charged with a crime ... Dozens of passengers have suffered such a loss in recent years in Buffalo. With an X-ray machine, a screener spots a dense mass in a piece of luggage. If it's an unusually large sum of cash, the government takes it on the suspicion that it's drug money. At Buffalo and every other airport in the country, the TSA screens bags and...

Bank of America Opens a New Window. CEO Brian Moynihan spoke this week about embracing digital payment transactions while moving toward a cashless society. Moynihan made the comments Wednesday during Fortune’s Opens a New Window. Brainstorm Finance conference in New York. The CEO spoke about Zelle, Google Pay and Apple Pay and its increasing popularity. He said Bank of America “will continue to move” toward digital banking transactions. “We want a cashless society,” Moynihan told Fortune’s Shawn Tully. “We have more to gain than anybody from a pure operating costs (perspective).”

A start-up uses visual tracking and behavioral data to operate a new San Francisco market, which lets shoppers walk out unimpeded. And sometimes mischarged. One recent afternoon, the city’s newest grocery market was trying to figure out whether I would buy, steal or leave behind a bag of white Cheddar popcorn — and so was I. On its side: 27 cameras along the ceiling and a wealth of behavioral data. On my side: crippling indecision. Last week, San Francisco got its first completely automated cashierless store, Standard Market. Shoppers who have downloaded the store’s app can go into the 1,900-square-foot...

As Sweden moves ever closer to a cashless economy, tourists are starting to complain, according to state promotion agency Visit Sweden.Ewa Lagerqvist, the agency’s chief executive, told Sweden’s TT newswire that Germans, who frequently use cash at home, expect to be able to do so in Sweden as well. “The Germans want to avoid the charges which banks take out on card payments, but they also cite deep-rooted privacy concerns when they consider why they want to be able to use cash,” she said. “For the Brits, it’s more purely the bank charges which annoy them.” Tourists also complain that...

I. INTRODUCTION 1. De-cashing is defined as the gradual phasing out of currency from circulation and its replacement with convertible deposits. This initiative does not in any way target the abolition of money as an institution, but is, rather, a sweeping reduction of the role of currency, its cash component, in favor of transferrable deposits, its non-cash component. The monetary authorities in many countries have already taken steps towards de-cashing. These steps include abolishing large denomination bills, imposing ceilings on cash transactions, introducing declaration requirements on the carriage of cash in and out of the country, reporting requirements for cash...

The spread of global cash bans continues with Greece unveiling their so-called 'soft' approach by which taxpayers will only be granted tax-allowances or deductions when payments are made via credit or debit cards. As KeepTalkingGreeece reports, the new guidelines refer to employees, pensioners, farmers, and also the unemployed. Accepted expenditure will be: purchases for food and supermarket products, electronic and electric devices, household equipment, footwear, clothing, fuel, furniture, cigarettes, drinks Restaurants, cafeterias,bars and hotels Services like by hairdressers and beauty parlors, gyms and dance schools, car repair, plumbers, electricians, painters, carpenters, lawyers and accountants. For doctors and pharmacy the same...

In early November, without warning, the Indian government declared the two largest denomination bills invalid, abolishing over 80 percent of circulating cash by value. Amidst all the commotion and outrage this caused, nobody seems to have taken note of the decisive role that Washington played in this. That is surprising, as Washington's role has been disguised only very superficially. weiterlesen US-President Barack Obama has declared the strategic partnership with India a priority of his foreign policy. China needs to be reined in. In the context of this partnership, the US government’s development agency USAID has negotiated cooperation agreements with the...

The European Commission proposed tightening controls on cash and precious metals transfers from outside the EU on Wednesday, in a bid to shut down one route for funding of militant attacks on the continent. The move follows Monday's attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, where 12 people were killed as a truck ploughed into a crowd. It is part of an EU "action plan against terrorist financing" unveiled after the bombings and shootings in Paris in November 2015. Under the new proposals, customs officials in European Union states can step up checks on cash and prepaid payment cards sent...

Tyler DurdenNovember 19, 2016 India's 'de-monetization' scheme has caused chaos across the nation, and while SocGen says the government's plan may have some short-term success in curbing so-called 'black-money', investors should "brace for economic disruption" as Bloomberg reports the Indian government is considering a cap on cash holdings for individuals. As SocGen concludes, "people will now be more inclined to park their black income in gold rather than in currency." The daily images of utter chaos in India that has brought the conutry's economy to a standstill since they unleashed their war on cash... Are perhaps about to get worse,...

In July 2016, Australian payments firm Tyro published an enormously self-serving blog post touting the benefits of a cashless society and saying, “it’s only a matter of time.” Most notably, two days ago, Citibank (yes, THAT Citibank) announced that it was going cashless at some of its Australian branches.The media and political establishments have chimed in as well.In February of this year, the Sydney Morning Herald released a series of articles, some of which were written by officials from Australia’s Department of the Treasury, suggesting that eliminating cash will “save billions”, and that “moving to a cashless society is the...

Amid scenes of panic across India, following PM Modi's shock decision to withdraw high-value bills in the middle of the sowing and wedding season, Reuters reports the move, aimed at cracking down on the shadow economy, has brought India's cash economy to a virtual standstill. With over 90% of all transactions done in cash, money flows in and out of the black-and-white system... until now, as Devangshu Datta exclaims, "The system works because everybody believes that those pieces of paper will be accepted by everybody else... This move has shaken that trust." Farmers have been left stranded as traders have...

Jeff Berwick November 17, 2016 We are living in a world where paper fiat money is becoming a novelty. In Australia, Citibank has just become the first to declare that it no longer will accept notes or coins. Only digital transactions. This follows on the heels of India banning large cash denominations. The cash-oriented changes of these two countries are especially troubling in light of the eventual plans to phase out large denomination euro notes and the US 100 dollar bill by 2018. Just as the Economist predicted nearly 30 years ago, the world is going cashless. A few days...

Chaos in the Wake of the Ban Here is a link to Part 1, about what happened in the first two days after India’s government made Rs 500 (~$7.50) and Rs 1,000 (~$15) banknotes illegal. They can now only be converted to Rs 100 (~$1.50) or lower denomination notes, at bank branches or post offices. Banks were closed the first day after the decision. What follows is the crux of what has happened over the subsequent four days.

Government campaigns of intimidation — like the wars on drugs, terror, and poverty — have been used to extort the public for decades. Despite the previous failures of institutional “wars,” a new war on cash is being waged that threatens freedom in a more subversive way than ever before. Banks and governments around the world are cracking down on the use of paper money, and in turn, eliminating any anonymity left in the current system. Through strict rules on cash transactions and civil asset forfeiture laws, for example, the system has already instituted penalties for using cash. But as payments...