What if I told you that the government, and basically all the governments of the world, were working on ways of making cash transactions illegal? What would you say? Well, you’d call me a crazy, a fringer, no basis in fact, etc. Don’t forget about a piece I wrote a while back called “Metal Detecting your cash” you think the use of radar guns and metal detectors to see cash amounts over a certain threshold were just a side effect of the process of printing the bills…
Enough of that, let’s talk cash restriction. We have been moving to a cashless society for the last forty years. The rise of the credit card, the debit card, online bill paying, etc., it has gotten to the point where you can just wave your card at a reader and make your purchase. But what about all those people who still insist on using cash.
Governments are now starting to place restrictions on the use of cash. They tell us this is being done to thwart criminals, terrorists, drug runners, money launderers, and tax evaders. This is BS for the simple reason that the Bit coin is the single best way to launder money and it is entirely digital, add to that the Silk Road on the internet, a one stop shop for your illegal needs on the deep net, and one will realize that the criminals are also getting tech savvy. Hackers steal millions and millions every year, and little of that is in physical cash. The fact of the matter is that we are being slowly trained, like Pavlov’s dogs, to regard the use and trade of large amounts of cash for goods as unusual. Don’t think so? Try making a purchase over $1000 and see what kind of stares you get back, try to pull a large amount of cash out of the bank, maybe you can have it in three days or so, attempt to purchase a used car with a stack of hundred-dollar bills nearly a half an inch high (that’s about $10,000 each bill being .0043 inches thick) and people WILL look at you like you’ve just offered them an ounce of black tar heroin…oh, and they might not even take it. I’ve been to several places, businesses, etc. that tell me they aren’t even prepared to accept cash anymore.
Now that they have you suspicious all they have to do is formally declare large cash transactions illegal or ban them outright, you’ll be relieved, no more drug dealers offering you their dirty money. France has done so, the largest cash transaction you can make is 1000 euros, the same with Italy, Spain limits it to 2500, etc. Denmark is considering a law that would allow all places to refuse cash and demand electronic payment, a key moment in the advent of a cashless society.
Once all money only exists in bank accounts they can be monitored and controlled by the government, they can encourage us to spend more when the economy slows, or spend less when it expands too much. A white paper on the subject spells out how they would do that…”to boost spending the bank imposes a negative interest rate on the money residing in private accounts, in effect, a tax on saving, faced with seeing money slowly confiscated people are more likely to spend it on goods and services.” When the economy gets too hot, the bank simply imposes an extra tax on transactions, thus causing the consumer to spend less…it might sound impossible but Denmark and Switzerland already charge negative interest rates.
But we don’t have that yet in the U.S.—we just have “suspicious activity reports”
(https://www.ffiec.gov/bsa_aml_infobase/pages_manual/OLM_015.htm) From the Bank Secrecy Act Anti-Money Laundering Examination Manual
* Banks, bank holding companies, and their subsidiaries are required by federal regulations to file a SAR with respect to: Transactions conducted or attempted by, at, or through the bank (or an affiliate) and aggregating $5,000 or more, if the bank or affiliate knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect that the transaction:
o May involve potential money laundering or other illegal activity (e.g., terrorism financing)
o Is designed to evade the BSA or its implementing regulations
o Has no business or apparent lawful purpose or is not the type of transaction that the particular customer would normally be expected to engage in, and the bank knows of no reasonable explanation for the transaction after examining the available facts, including the background and possible purpose of the transaction.
* Currency activity reports. Most vendors offer reports that identify all currency activity or currency activity greater than $10,000. These reports assist bankers with filing CTRs and identifying suspicious currency activity. Most bank information service providers offer currency activity reports that can filter transactions using various parameters, for example:
* Currency activity including multiple transactions greater than $10,000.
* Currency activity (single and multiple transactions) below the $10,000 reporting requirement (e.g., between $7,000 and $10,000).
* Currency transactions involving multiple lower dollar transactions (e.g., $3,000) that over a period of time (e.g., 15 days) aggregate to a substantial sum of money (e.g., $30,000).
* Currency transactions aggregated by customer name, tax identification number, or customer information file number.
Funds transfer records. The BSA requires banks to maintain records of funds transfer in amounts of $3,000 and above. Periodic review of this information can assist banks in identifying patterns of unusual activity.
Add to that banks are being encouraged to contact law enforcement directly if they see something that looks suspicious: “But, in appropriate cases, we encourage those institutions to consider whether to take more action: specifically, to alert law enforcement authorities about the problem.” – Asst. Attorney General Leslie Caldwell
(http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2015/03/16/top-u-s-prosecutor-banks-need-to-do-more-than-file-sars/)
Then, on top of that some banks, Chase in particular, have advised clients they may no longer store cash in their safety deposit boxes: “Contents of box: You agree not to story any cash or coins other that those found to have a collectible value.” This of course is in order to facilitate the re-deposit of that cash into the banking system, because after all who wants to keep $5K, $10K, or more under their mattress…not many people who I know.
And the IRS acts on these “suspicious activities” remember civil forfeiture…yup, still happening. Just google it…you’ll get crap like this
IRS Seizes $100,000+ from small business owner (http://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2015/05/05/irs-seizes-over-100000-from-innocent-small-business-owner-despite-promise-to-end-raids/)
IRS Seizes Woman’s Savings because she deposits less than $10K at a time
(http://theweek.com/speedreads/443383/irs-seizes-womans-entire-savings-because-deposits-less-than-10000-time)
And there are many, many more. This is just a warning…the chances they come for you are slim, until they want your money. Control, absolute control, control over what you buy, where you store your money, and whom you interact with in business, once they have that, you become a slave to the state.