It's About Liberty: A Conservative Forum
Topics => Economy => Topic started by: Libertas on April 17, 2015, 07:24:26 AM
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This idea by Citigroups chief witch doctor is totally insane!
“Buiter is aware that his idea may be somewhat controversial, so he goes to the effort of listing the disadvantages of abolishing cash.
1.Abolishing currency will constitute a noticeable change in many people’s lives and change often tends to be resisted.
2.Currency use remains high among the poor and some older people. (Buiter suggests that keeping low-denomination cash in circulation — nothing larger than $5 — might solve this.)
3.Central banks and governments would lose seigniorage revenue.
4.Abolishing currency would inevitably be associated with a loss of privacy and create risks of excessive intrusion by the government.
5.Switching exclusively to electronic payments may create new security and operational risks.
Buiter dismisses each of these concerns in turn, finishing with: In summary, we therefore conclude that the arguments against abolishing currency seem rather weak.
Whatever the strength of the arguments, the chances of an administration taking the decision to abolish cash seem vanishingly small.
As Pater Tenebrarum of Acting-Man blog notes in this posting at ZeroHedge:
We are surprised by the optimism expressed by Bloomberg that “the chances of an administration taking the decision to abolish cash seem vanishingly small”. We believe that governments all over the so-called “free world” are working feverishly to make a ban of cash currency a reality.
Naturally, we couldn’t care less about the “seignorage” revenue of the State. In our opinion central banks shouldn’t even exist, and “seignorage” is nothing but a euphemism for outright theft. It’s a nice touch that Buiter also doesn’t want to “throw seniors under the bus” and gives a brief thought to the poor as well. Why would any of them ever need anything more than a $5 note?
That someone like Buiter doesn’t find it difficult to dismiss the concern that “abolishing currency would inevitably be associated with a loss of privacy and create risks of excessive intrusion by the government” is no surprise, but it is indeed a legitimate concern. Under the cover of the “war on drugs” and lately the even bigger government-sponsored racket known as the “war on terror”, financial privacy has been all but eradicated already.
If cash were to be banned, people could no longer opt out from this system. Bank runs would no longer be possible at all. While a bank run these days only gives one government scrip that is itself an irredeemable liability of a central bank, it is at least slightly more “real” than the accounting entry known as deposit money. Most importantly, cash can insure one against a bank going under, or the breakdown of the entire banking system, which is always a potential danger. Banks would obviously love a cash ban – quite possibly they are the only ones who would love it even more than governments.
Conclusion
We keep being bombarded by moves to restrict the use of cash and demands to ban it altogether. These demands seem to mainly revolve around two arguments: one is that “only criminals need cash”, which is on a par with the absurd assertion that we should all be fine with Stasi-like ubiquitous government surveillance “if we have nothing to hide”. The other one is that a cash ban would make life easier for the central planners who are actively undermining the economy with their policy of debasement. We would argue that central banking and fiat money have done more than enough harm already and that the eradication of financial privacy has gone way too far. Money and banking should be freed from the clutches of government-directed monopolization and cartelization and should be returned to the free market.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-16/another-shill-statism-central-planning-demands-cash-ban (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-16/another-shill-statism-central-planning-demands-cash-ban)
This batsh*t idea would make digital binary code the global currency, we'd all be forced to get implants and conduct transactions by scans, and the State would determine all - prices, revenues, wages...they would be able to track and control everything and everyone, basically be worse than any monarch, despot or dictator whose ever lived. And if they control all that, controlling all information is a certainty. And if the confiscate/ban currency, it is no wonder what else they will go after! This idea ever takes hold, I hope we're shootin' already!
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It took me .1 seconds to recognize a fatal error in the "logic" of any plan to ban currency in favor if EBT cards (and yes - they would be EBT cards because any government that can redistribute wealth according to its wishes can take it away just as easily). If you have a pocketful of money you know you have a pocketful of money. If you don't, you don't.
I realize that this isn't the stuff of rocket science but bear with me for a moment.
When Joe Schmoe walks into a Quickee Mart to buy his 40-ouncer he has a rough idea of what he has in his pocket and even with an Øbongo IQ (you know - where his IQ matches hs shoe size) his reptilian brain can calculate whether or not he has sufficient funds to make the purchase. This calculation occurs multiples of millions of times a day.
Now imagine this vast army of the unwashed, armed with only a thin piece of plastic. Do any of you honestly think that any of them are going to monitor the status of their account? With such an abstraction representing their "wealth" (so to speak) do you think that any appreciable number of them will have any idea what the balance is, what their range is, or how long until some gubmint agency slops more into the pot? I submit that the answer is damned few.
So imagine Joe going to get his fix only to be turned away at the checkout counter for insufficient funds. Imagine Joes reaction. Imagine multiplying that reaction times the aforesaid multiple of millions.
Do I paint a sufficiently grim picture for ya?
Think it won't happen?
Got plans?
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And that's just for a legal transaction...what is Joe going to have in real value to get his weed, crack or blow?
"No weed for you, loser!"
::hysterical::
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1st they owned people (slavery), then they owned the land on which you worked (indentured servants, serfs), then they owned & controlled the money (the Fed) - now it'll simply be electronic credits (it actually already is with fractional reserve banking - money is created via computer characters).
[Edit] Add to this the statistics on consumer debt (self chosen slavery) & we're cooked: having to work real-time hours for electronically created monetary units (keeps us further distracted while they think up more avenues of control)
It's the Financial Matrix. Just like this clip: whenever Morpheus says "the Matrix", simply insert "the Financial Matrix".
The Matrix Meeting Morpheus Scene HD (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDadfh0ZdBM#ws)
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Of course a CITI group guy would want it...Great for their business.
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Ain't gonna happen. Oh, they can ban use of their fiat money, but some other medium of exchange will arise in the black market to take its place.
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Ain't gonna happen. Oh, they can ban use of their fiat money, but some other medium of exchange will arise in the black market to take its place.
Exactly.
Barter economy if nothing else but yeah, the free market is going to be the free market regardless of what the masterminds come up with.
Black markets have always existed and will always exist. To deny the existence of black markets and to deny their inevitability is to deny the human part of human nature.
Good luck with that is what I say.
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Well...might be getting closer...
When Central Banks float ideas around about banning currency, that is one thing...when they get into the cryptocurrency game and actively recruit people with Blockchain experience so they can create their own version of Blockchain...and people are being conditioned into accepting ApplePay, SamsungPay, ChasePay, etc...
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/03/the_bankers_strike_back.html (http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/03/the_bankers_strike_back.html)
As 'Soup mentioned...this isn't rocket science...
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http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-30/angry-mobs-lock-indian-bankers-cash-chaos-escalates-we-are-fearing-worst (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-30/angry-mobs-lock-indian-bankers-cash-chaos-escalates-we-are-fearing-worst)
It's all about control, period...watch how this goes...if the PTB's see this work for 1.4B people...they'll start trying it everywhere!
But we may see something different in nations that don't ban/confiscate or otherwise frustrate ownership of guns. ;)
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Ain't gonna happen. Oh, they can ban use of their fiat money, but some other medium of exchange will arise in the black market to take its place.
Exactly.
Barter economy if nothing else but yeah, the free market is going to be the free market regardless of what the masterminds come up with.
Black markets have always existed and will always exist. To deny the existence of black markets and to deny their inevitability is to deny the human part of human nature.
Good luck with that is what I say.
Hey Trap, long time no see. How you been.
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Sorry Ben...that was a year and a half ago...
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Doh!!
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Doh!!
Don't feel bad. I got bit, too, until I happened to look at the date.
When I buy/sell certain items, I much prefer cash.