{"id":3573,"date":"2016-12-11T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2016-12-11T17:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=3573"},"modified":"2021-07-30T09:35:48","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T16:35:48","slug":"the-war-on-cash-being-justified-as-necessary-against-organized-crime-is-the-worst-excuse-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/the-war-on-cash-being-justified-as-necessary-against-organized-crime-is-the-worst-excuse-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"The war on cash being justified as “necessary against organized crime” is the worst excuse ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a \u201cwar on cash\u201d going on from the central banks, trying to reduce the usage (and personal storage) of cash. This is something that makes sense as a power move against the common people in a time of forced negative interest rates, but it is a shocking reduction of liberty and privacy (of finance), not to mention that the official justifications don\u2019t hold a shred of water. What\u2019s really behind this trend?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Would you like your government to have more insight into your personal finances than you have yourself? That\u2019s where we\u2019re heading with the ongoing \u201cwar on cash\u201d \u2013 into a world where every transaction is not just loggable by the government (or a government-coerced agent), but where you can also be held responsible for anything and everything you buy and sell.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s both a carrot and a stick in this scheme of making everything traceable and trackable. The stick consists of outright bans on cash transactions \u2013 several European countries have banned cash transactions exceeding 1,000 euros. Uruguay has banned cash transactions over $5,000. Even Switzerland<\/em> has proposed banning cash transactions over 100,000 Swiss francs (admittedly a high number, but once a government declares a right to ban cash transactions, the number is a matter of degree and not principle).<\/p>\n

The carrots and incentives for not using cash, meanwhile, mostly take the form of making it easier to pay using cards. The latest example of Amazon Go<\/a>, a brick-and-mortar store where there\u2019s no checkout at all<\/em> but you just grab what you want and leave, is one example of such a carrot. It is undeniably more convenient than standing in an annoying checkout line. Combine this with various fees for withdrawing cash from your own account in the bank, and the incentives become clearer.<\/p>\n

But why pursue this direction? There are many conceivable reasons for wanting to eliminate cash from circulation altogether. ZeroHedge has homed in<\/a> on the elimination of cash being an absolute necessity to maintain a zero-interest (or even negative-interest) policy, which in turn remains necessary to prevent a financial bloodbath. Others have talked about the costs inherent in transporting cash in armored cars, or the risk of robbery being eliminated.<\/p>\n

From a national policymaking perspective, though, the general excuse seems to be to \u201cmake it difficult for organized crime\u201d. This was the excuse behind the elimination of the 500-euro note,<\/a> for example.<\/p>\n

But from a national perspective, this excuse makes absolutely no sense at all. At the national level, the game is to dominate other countries. Petty organized crime is not really relevant at that level, unless it is useful<\/em> in the context of dominating other countries. And that\u2019s where we find that this excuse \u2013 this \u201cwe need to be tough on organized crime\u201d \u2013 is a complete Maskirovka, a complete fa\u00e7ade, an utter lie. It doesn\u2019t make sense at all.<\/p>\n

The notion of a currency being used as a default currency in global organized crime is a concept that has geopolitical strategists positively salivating.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Organized crime \u2013 which in many cases is just free and consensual non-aggressive trade which is still governmentally banned<\/em> \u2013 is a significant part of the global economy, an estimated ten per cent. A very<\/em> significant part, one that uses large amounts of currency in cash format. If you\u2019re responsible for dominating other countries, one of the best and safest ways to do this is to pull strings that increase the value of your currency. We know from supply-and-demand lessons that this can take the form of causing the demand for the currency to increase.<\/p>\n

If your currency is the default trade currency for organized crime, this brings an enormous<\/em> benefit to your economy as a whole \u2013 it has been estimated that it means as much as 25% higher standard of living, for everybody. Given this number, there are two immediate and obvious observations:<\/p>\n

1) A crackdown on cash transactions with the excuse of \u201ccombating organized crime\u201d is utter bollocks of the highest order. When you\u2019re working on the national policy level, you\u2019re doing your utmost<\/em> to have organized crime use your currency and nobody else\u2019s. It\u2019s the equivalent of printing lots of free money \u2013 roughly the equivalent of 10% of the world\u2019s GDP.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2) More concerningly, given the enormous benefit of having organized crime use your own currency, what concern is more pressing<\/em> than this \u2013 10% global GDP essentially for free \u2013 that is the actual<\/em> cause for these actions to fight cash?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Liberty and privacy, including financial privacy, remain your own responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a \u201cwar on cash\u201d going on from the central banks, trying to reduce the usage (and personal storage) of cash. This is something that makes sense as a power move against the common people in a time of forced negative interest rates, but it is a shocking reduction of liberty and privacy (of … Continue reading “The war on cash being justified as “necessary against organized crime” is the worst excuse ever”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":true,"_modified_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","category-governments"],"yoast_head":"\nThe war on cash being justified for "stopping crime" is a really poor excuse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Policymakers justify an ongoing crackdown on cash use as necessary against organized crime. 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