Europe Enters New Year With Nearly $2 Trillion In Sub-Zero Interest Debt

Tyler Durden Blog | Europe Enters New Year With Nearly $2 Trillion In Sub-Zero Interest Debt | Talkmarkets



Subzero sovereign debt could lead to even more usage of the negative interes rate. This is a major concern as it will increase calls for a cashless society, to prevent the depositor from pulling money from the bank once retail customers are forced to accept negative interest rates or withdrawel. That is when you will hear more screams from economists about the need for a cashless society.

Why we may be headed to a completely cashless society

Why we may be headed to a completely cashless society | Public Radio International

 “Andy Holder — he’s the chap that’s the chief economist at The Bank of
England — did a speech and suggested the idea of having negative
interest rates in the UK,” “He said if we did introduce
this, the problem would be that everyone in Britain would go to the cash
point — and we don’t have to pay ATM fees in this country  — withdrawal
all of their cash and keep it under the mattresses to be avoid being
charged the negative interest rates.”

Gary here: Beware of writers like Claer Barrett, who is the author of the above quote. She is editor of the Financial Times Money. She is one of many who are working toward a cashless society. Use more cash when you can to stop this sort of thing from taking over the world. 



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The effect of negative interest rates in Switzerland and Sweden, and the war on cash

The effect of negative interest rates in Switzerland and Sweden, and 'the war on cash' - Business Insider



If you use too much cash in Sweden the retail businesses call the police, thinking you are a terrorist or a criminal. This article predicts how Sweden's banks will act and how Swiss banks will act to negative interest rates on their storage of cash. Swedes hate cash and the Swiss love cash, so this experiment will likely reveal what attitudes really are. 

I agree with everything in the article except that you don't have to be a conservative to fear the war on cash, the efforts by many to seek the elimination of cash. This is an issue everyone should be concerned about.

The author says the US dollar and Yellen raising interest rates will fix all this. One hopes he is correct but I have my doubts. 

The Privacy Dangers of a Cashless Society Were Clear Over 40 Years Ago

The Privacy Dangers of a Cashless Society Were Clear Over 40 Years Ago



Paul Armor of the Rand Corporation said this about a cashless society back in 1968:

Literally, it means a society without cash or checks. In this extreme,
all financial transactions, even the purchase of a newspaper, the
tipping of a doorman or passing through a highway toll station, would
take place via some mechanism not involving a check or cash.

He was concerned about computers destroying privacy:

The first is that computer technology is introducing order-of-magnitude
reductions in the cost of collecting, transmitting, and processing
information. Second, centralization of data is usually a concomitant of
computer use. The payoff to successful snooping is much greater when all
the facts are stored in one place. Though most of the data to complete a
dossier on every citizen already exists in the hands of the government
today, it is normally so dispersed that the cost of collecting it and
assembling it would be very high. The third factor is that computer
systems with remote terminals can permit, unless proper safeguards are
provided, remote browsing through the data with a great deal of
anonymity.

Armor hoped the USA would develop within the Department of Defense a program or subgroup to prevent attacks on privacy. Since the Department of Defense is now up to its eyeballs in the invasion of privacy, this goal of protecting privacy seems unattainable. 


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Will the Russians Save Us from the Cashless Society?

 This article was first published by me at Talkmarkets: http://www.talkmarkets.com/content/news/will-the-russians-save-us-from-the-cashless-society?post=77136

Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction. It has been reported that the Russians have been observing the cable lines in key areas of the world's oceans. The potential damage that Russia could cause to the United States is not to be taken lightly. Certainly we would all suffer possible financial loss from the destruction, even if temporary, to the digital financial system upon which millions of financial transactions are made.

Since only 200 oceanic lines carry 99 percent of all data and internet traffic, the disruption to those lines could be catastrophic. Trillions of dollars in transactions could be undone.

However, there is a silver lining to this dark cloud. This Russian threat could slow down or even derail the coming Cashless Society! Can you imagine not having any cash when the internet and data systems of the world are brought down? Stealing or starvation would likely be your only choices. Some rural folks could barter, I suppose, but city people? They would be at a distinct disadvantage.

Politicians will be leaned on by bankers and economists who see no other answer to the declining interest rate scenario than to break through the zero lower bound allowing negative interest rates to be charged on customers' bank accounts. Monetary stimulation only works when  interest rates stimulate the economy. Otherwise, the central banks are forced to resume QE, which drives up assets and further diminishes the middle classes.

And monetary stimulation will only work in a negative interest rate environment with the implementation of a cashless society. But that society has perils to us all. Even wealthy people traveling could be in a bind without cash.

We can see how strong the desire is for a cashless society by the desperate cries of those economists and bankers who see no other way out. These will become the most desperate people in the next downturn. Americans need to understand this in order to understand that risk off is death to the bankers. Their very lives revolve around risk on and speculation. They are the only people making real money, and if they find themselves at the mercy of permanent risk off, then they will forcefully push for a cashless society.

And that is where the Russians come in. They are just crazy enough to cut these lines under the right circumstances just as the bankers are crazy enough to seek a cashless society in order to create transparency, which is another word for spying. The bankers figure that their digital framework is all that counts, that the world will operate in fine fashion as long as data can be transported freely along the internet byways.

This pressure applied by both in opposite directions is like the San Andreas Fault. At some point, something has to give.We have seen Bitcoin go through the roof lately. Perhaps there is speculation there of a cashless society.

Jem Bendell has an interesting take on the Cashless Society. You think we live in a "Nanny State" now? Well, we nanny the banks and poor people. I think the later is much more moral than the former.

But I digress. Jem Bendell says that if a person has a heating bill to pay, and is booted off the payment grid for bad credit or whatever, it will become necessary for the state to get that heating bill paid. That is the moral thing to do since cash is no longer an option for the booted ones. 

Can you imagine thousands of people freezing in winter because they don't have a valid positive balance in their bank account with which to make this sort of payment?

Also, Bendell says that a people who is forced to give up rights to privacy and to not be spied on, will be a people who will no longer have a real democracy at work. I don't like to use the F word lightly, but this sounds like pure fascism to me.

I don't like to find myself rooting for the Russians, but they may be the only counter to the totalitarian banking movement we may find ourselves subject to in the near future.

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Why Germans pay cash for almost everything - Quartz

Why Germans pay cash for almost everything - Quartz



Germans loathe debt, and paying cash allows them to stay out of debt. It is something millennials in the USA do as well. These are ways economies can fight the move to a cashless society.



The question is, will younger generations be more tech savvy? And will that necessarily mean they will gravitate to cards and payment systems instead of cash?



We certainly hope that is not the case. 



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What Could Go Wrong to Leave You Vulnerable in the Cashless Society?

There is only one economic, necessary and evil reason to establish a cashless society. And that is to break the zero lower bound. Cash prevents negative interest rates from being imposed if necessary, because cash can be taken out of the bank. The banks must have the cash stay in the banks for negative rates to work. 

So, cash prevents negative interest rates, and results in the zero lower bound. Eliminate cash and you eliminate the zero lower bound.

In the next recession, if we can't raise rates past 1 percent during "boom" times now, then negative rates will be appied in recessionary times. The push for a cashless society will be on, and you can guarantee it. Fight it now, use cash, and also speak out about the evils of cashlessness.

Here are some things that could go wrong in a cashless society:


1. The internet is not secure and cannot be made secure. Retailers require access. Cyber war will increase and we will be more vulnerable as a nation if cashlessness is imposed. A cyber attack would leave the entire populace, rich and poor and middle, without the means to pay for needed goods and services.

2. If governments are not benign, they can use the cashless society and recording of all transactions to spy more than ever. This will be a huge temptation for governments.

3. Poor people or people who have troubles with their banks will be pushed off the digital grid and will not be able to make payments for food for their families, or rent, or utilities, but will have to pay the bank first, with no money left over for necessities.

4. Travelers could be very vulnerable to their bank cards working properly in situations that would be both embarrassing and potentially devastating.

5. The simple anxiety of knowing your transaction must go through would be tenfold if you had no cash as a backup. Anxiety in society would simply go through the roof.


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Summers And Roubini Talk Negative Interest Rates, Sound Logic But Uncharted Waters

Gary Anderson Blog | Summers And Roubini Talk Negative Interest Rates, Sound Logic But Uncharted Waters | Talkmarkets



Negative interest rates are behind the push for a cashless society. This is serious folks. Cash stands between positive and negative rates, creating the zero lower bound. However, if they ban cash, the zero lower bound will no longer exist. This is the whole issue in a nutshell. 


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Why paying with cash hurts (and why it should)

Why paying with cash hurts (and why it should)



Paying by cash should hurt, and causes more careful spending. From the site:





These days, my monthly budget is on the boring side. Aside from our
regular spending, I’ve got a mortgage payment to fork over, groceries to
buy, and utility bills to pay. Throw in some payments to my kids’ 529
plans and my SEP-IRA and I’m basically done for the month. After all of
the bills are paid, the key for us is making sure that the rest gets
transferred into savings so that it doesn’t accidentally get spent.


But it wasn’t always this way, and I was reminded of that fact the
other day when I was flipping through one of my old notebooks. That’s
when I found our monthly zero-sum budget
for August of 2010, and that’s when our old lifestyle smacked me right
in the face. Want to know how many bills I paid in that month? Twenty-four.


Car payments, credit card bills, and personal loans, oh my.
It’s no wonder we weren’t saving anything. Fortunately, it was easy to
look at that old monthly budget and pinpoint the exact cause of our
unfortunate situation. The problem: We financed everything and never, ever paid cash....



...

In the meantime, we got serious about getting out of debt.
Fortunately, it didn’t take long to knock out everything but the two
biggest sums we owed — the loan for my minivan and my husband’s student
loans. I still remember the day we paid both of them off once and for
all. The total was well over $10,000 and it literally pained me to hit the keys that would initiate the automatic bank transfer. I mean, it hurt. That money was mine and was earned with my own blood, sweat, and tears. And if you subscribe to the theories espoused in books like Your Money or Your Life, that money was literally my life force, and it was getting sucked away by a stupid van that I overpaid for in the first place.


I still have that van. Want to know why? Because it’s paid off, as is everything else I own. And now I’m literally gonna drive that van until the wheels fall off, or until the engine finally gives up or explodes out of sheer exhaustion at maybe 500,000 miles. (A girl can dream, right?)


I learned something from our adventures in debt and from that final $10,000 payment — most notably that I never, ever want to go down that road again. Parting with that much money at once was painful. It burned. It made me uncomfortable. And now, years later, I’m convinced that that’s exactly how it should feel...



-------------------------------------



Gary here: The article continues with some very good points. But again, without cash, it will be easier to fall into the trap of making payments. And the powers that be want to rid the world of cash. That will destroy many families in their attempts to survive frugally. It will then become a vice to be frugal. Is that what we want from the bankers who control us, to be told that paying off stuff, not taking a payment plan, or paying with cash is a vice? If you don't want this like my page and join the movement:



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More Cash-Friendly Medical Practices |



From the site:

More Cash-Friendly Medical Practices

Posted on October 29, 2015 by sean@impactpolicymanagement.com

I continue to get people asking me “where can I find a doctor
or other medical provider that treats self-pay patients fairly,” by
which they mean will offer them an honest, straightforward price to
patients. Fortunately I also continue to get e-mails and calls from
doctors and other providers telling me about their practice, or self-pay
patients letting me know about those that they have found. Here’s a
couple of recent ones:

Alliance Internal Medicine & Aesthetics

Located
in Fernandina Beach, Florida (which looks to be about 30+ miles north
of Jacksonville), the husband and wife team of Drs. Sam and Heather
Featherstone offer a primary care practice that also provides cosmetic
treatments. Both are trained internists, and it looks like they just
opened, at least judging by the special they are currently running
offering 25 percent off of all medical treatments for the month of September (one of the great things about cash-friendly practices is they tend to offer deals and specials that can be real bargains).

The prices look excellent too.
A basic visit dealing with two chronic conditions or one new condition
is $45, which probably equates to either a Level 2 or Level 3 visit (10
minutes and 15 minutes, respectively) which Healthcare Bluebooks show as
an $82 and $137 fee, respectively for that area...

---------------------------------

Gary here. There are more cash only sites throughout the USA. You can look for them on the net. But cash only sites work only where cash will remain a viable measure of wealth. Once cash is banned you will have debit only doctors. That may destroy the entire system of cash only. They operate on thin margins and bring you the best prices, because they are cash only. Let's keep it that way:


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The Envelope System Explained! - daveramsey.com

The Envelope System Explained! - daveramsey.com



Cash is essential for using this system to control your spending. It is essential for many people to live practically. Don't cheat on your envelopes!



But in order for this system to remain in place, we can't have the death of cash. We have to support paying with cash, and do more of same.



So, please, like the Facebook page here and share these articles on this blog in order to force bankers to back down from their pledge to change us to a cashless society.

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Why The Powers That Be Are Pushing A Cashless Society Washington's Blog

Why The Powers That Be Are Pushing A Cashless Society Washington's Blog



Martin Armstrong and Washington's blog warn that the push for the death of cash is a real threat to the freedom of all those who live in America as well as those who live around the world. The only thing I disagree about Martin's view is that this is not socialism in the traditional sense of government helping the poor or social security, etc.



No, this is a socialism that advances Crony Capitalism, which of course, is a capitalism for those who are at the very top reaches, including big bankers, financiers, big business. This is not capitalism as we grew up wanting. This is more an oligarchy of capitalism than real capitalism.



The financial sector has grown faster than the real economy it is supposed to support. It now is the head of the snake. The danger of the death of cash is that the banks will have complete power, and they are an international cabal. Even Will Rogers saw that in the Great Depression. This international cabal of globalists seek domination over the world and the death of cash will greatly enhance that evil domination.



In my view, our government is not to large, but rather is too weak to stop this international cabal. How many bankers did Eric Holder prosecute for the housing bubble and crash? None.



The Federal Reserve is a private bank. Pleasae understand this. Lewis Versus the USA 1982 is proof positive it is a private bank. Don't be fooled, it uses the word "Federal" to fool you.



Please, Americans, wake up to the most serious issue of the day, even though most don't even know about it yet. 



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The Financial Times Demands End Of Cash, Calls It A "Barbarous Relic"

The Financial Times Demands End Of Cash, Calls It A "Barbarous Relic" | Zero Hedge



The Financial Times was founded in 1888, in the center of finance for the world, London, England. It has been owned since 1957 by the financial conglomerate, Pearson, who also owns 50 percent of The Economist, another powerful financial media center.



So, when The Financial Times comes out and says cash is a barbarous relic, the world must take it seriously and look at the source as speaking for the financial moguls of the world.



The destruction of economic privacy is a huge issue for freedom in the world. But that destruction could cause people to fall off the digital grid and payments could be blocked by power outages, by desire to control a citizen, by war, and leave people with no other way to buy food, gasoline, or other necessary needs.



The planners want to destroy cash by first making it seem unneeded. Once it is unneeded, they can say cash is no longer cost effective. This process is happening in Denmark right now.



Wake up Americans and world. Use cash for your very freedom and maybe for your very lives!

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Top 6 Reasons Why Using Cash-Only Rocks

Top 6 Reasons Why Using Cash-Only Rocks



This is a nice article showing how cash rocks. Debit cards are also an alternative to credit cards, but if you can use cash it forces the system to keep cash in circulation. Failure to circulate cash could mean the ultimate destruction and abolition of cash due to cost, or some other banker excuse.

The blog for this article advocates living large on a small budget. That is great advice!




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Banks Close In Rural Areas As World Cashlessness Advances | Talkmarkets

Gary Anderson Blog | Banks Close In Rural Areas As World Cashlessness Advances | Talkmarkets



Cash is not being used very much in some nations, especially Denmark and Sweden. Eventually, the goal of  those who back cashlessness, or the cashless society, is to abolish cash. People must start using cash for more of their transactions. It cannot be used all the time. Some businesses do not accept cash. But we must fight the globalist ideal of a cashless society or it will cause serious issues for the citizens of each nation that lives under a cashless regime. 



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