Economy

marmar

(77,081 posts) Wed Feb 10, 2016, 10:24 AM Feb 2016

It’s Official: Cash is Now Public Enemy Number One

It’s Official: Cash is Now Public Enemy Number One
by Don Quijones • February 9, 2016

[font size +"3"][font color="blue"]First Major Offensive in War on Cash[/font][/font]

By Don Quijones, Spain & Mexico, editor at WOLF STREET.

Terrorists are no longer public enemy number one. Nor are drug lords, people traffickers, arms dealers, cyber terrorists, or any other unsavory do-badder. Today, the biggest threat to global peace and security is physical cash, a means of exchange that has flourished for over 4,000 years but which now stands accused of being the world’s biggest enabler of criminality.

[font size +"3"][font color="blue"]A Criminal’s Accomplice[/font][/font]

The latest person to publicly highlight the deadly threat posed by cash is Peter Sands, the former CEO of the British bank Standard Chartered, who just published a report for Harvard Kennedy School of Government imploring central banks around the world to stop issuing high-denomination notes and bills. They include the €500 note, the $100 bill, the CHF1,000 note and the £50 note.

“Such notes are the preferred payment mechanism of those pursuing illicit activities, given the anonymity and lack of transaction record they offer, and the relative ease with which they can be transported and moved,” the report warns. In other words, only criminals use cash. High-denomination notes, the report adds, “play little role in the functioning of the legitimate economy, yet a crucial role in the underground economy.”

Sands is no doubt a leading authority on the role of cash in the criminal economy, having led a company that schemed with the government of Iran to avoid U.S. sanctions and “hide from regulators roughly 60,000 secret transactions, involving at least $250bn, and reaping SCB hundreds of millions of dollars in fees.”

That’s according to the New York State department, which in 2012 fined Standard Chartered close to a billion dollars for leaving the US financial system “vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes, and deprived law enforcement investigators of crucial information used to track all manner of criminal activity.” Two years later the bank’s anti-money-laundering systems were found wanting, and in 2015 it was once again accused of breaking Iran sanctions. ..................(more)

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/02/09/cash-public-enemy-number-one/

10 replies

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Highlight:

It’s Official: Cash is Now Public Enemy Number One (Original Post) marmar Feb 2016 OP

There is an increasing push to create virtual $$$ system dixiegrrrrl Feb 2016 #1

The bankers also want to tack on a fee for every transaction... Human101948 Feb 2016 #3

and once they succeed Mojorabbit Feb 2016 #6

They will pry my stash of quarters from my cold dead hands. eom planetc Feb 2016 #2

...Me thinks, because, people could not possibly use diamonds, gold, bearer bonds, etc. Festivito Feb 2016 #4

Once cash is banned, it will be a simple transition from "no fly list" to "no buy list" dixiegrrrrl Feb 2016 #7

It's getting down to the street level. Fuddnik Feb 2016 #5

Credit union my friend. Hotler Feb 2016 #8

Yeah, but where else am I going to get one at prime rate? Fuddnik Feb 2016 #9

There have been a number of attempts Punx Feb 2016 #10

dixiegrrrrl

(60,010 posts)

1. There is an increasing push to create virtual $$$ system

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Wed Feb 10, 2016, 11:33 AM

Feb 2016

where everyone's spending can be tracked, traced, and eventually controlled.

I find it very chilling.

Human101948

(3,457 posts)

3. The bankers also want to tack on a fee for every transaction...

Reply to dixiegrrrrl (Reply #1)

Wed Feb 10, 2016, 11:51 AM

Feb 2016

which is a major impetus for instituting such a system.

Mojorabbit

(16,020 posts)

6. and once they succeed

Reply to dixiegrrrrl (Reply #1)

Wed Feb 10, 2016, 01:14 PM

Feb 2016

imagine the fines to use that money they will charge!

planetc

(7,814 posts)

2. They will pry my stash of quarters from my cold dead hands. eom

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Wed Feb 10, 2016, 11:42 AM

Feb 2016

Festivito

(13,452 posts)

4. ...Me thinks, because, people could not possibly use diamonds, gold, bearer bonds, etc.

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Wed Feb 10, 2016, 12:27 PM

Feb 2016

Only poor people would use money, and we have to keep our thumb on them lest they rise to the level where they could be using other methods of payment that we could not watch.

We're getting closer to tracing all their cash by recording serial numbers on each ATM transaction -- both in and out. So, we'll know if they are even getting close to making real money before we let them do that.

Careful! There is some sarcasm around here.

dixiegrrrrl

(60,010 posts)

7. Once cash is banned, it will be a simple transition from "no fly list" to "no buy list"

Reply to Festivito (Reply #4)

Wed Feb 10, 2016, 03:06 PM

Feb 2016

Perfect example of how it works was shown in Minority Report.

cash makes us too invisible to the controllers.

Fuddnik

(8,846 posts)

5. It's getting down to the street level.

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Wed Feb 10, 2016, 12:42 PM

Feb 2016

This week I went into a Chase branch to make a credit card payment. I normally pay the bill with my online banking through my credit union. I had the cash laying around, so I took a trip to the bank. I had to show ID to make a cash payment on a bill. And they gave me a list of new restrictions. You can only pay YOUR bills in cash. Not someone elses. Or nobody can pay yours.

I think the real reason they want this is to track unreported income from service sector employees (waiters, cab drivers...etc.).

I'd tell them to stick the card somewhere, but, it's a prime rate card, and I've had it for 20 years.

Hotler

(11,425 posts)

8. Credit union my friend.

Reply to Fuddnik (Reply #5)

Wed Feb 10, 2016, 04:01 PM

Feb 2016

get a card through a local credit union. Not a cure all but better.

Fuddnik

(8,846 posts)

9. Yeah, but where else am I going to get one at prime rate?

Reply to Hotler (Reply #8)

Wed Feb 10, 2016, 09:01 PM

Feb 2016

Not prime+. Prime.

I think the current rate is 3.25%. It's been as low as 2.25, and as high as 8.25 back in the 90's. I do have a card at the CU, but don't carry a balance on it.

Punx

(446 posts)

10. There have been a number of attempts

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Thu Feb 11, 2016, 12:29 AM

Feb 2016

To convince people to stop using cash in recent years. For all the reasons listed above. The authoritarians running things hate that they can't control it and the people using it. And of course, get to be a thorn in the Government's side and with a few keystrokes they can freeze everything you have that's stored as electronic 0's and 1's.

One other thing. All medical and recreational marijuana business is done in cash now. That would be another thing stopped in it's tracks if cash was outlawed. And of course if you were actually allowed to use electronic payment they would know and a discrete call to an employer could have you in HR being asked to piss in a cup without cause. Don't think the people in charge in charge wouldn't f' with you if you're saying or doing things they don't like. Imagine Chris Christie with this power. Think he wouldn't use it!

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