ZeroHedge.com<\/p>\n
Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Most of the world is in an uproar right now over the travel ban that Donald Trump hastily imposed <\/strong>late last week on citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries.<\/p>\n But there was another ban that was quietly proposed last week, and this one has far wider implications<\/strong>: a ban on cash.<\/p>\n The European Union\u2019s primary executive authority, known as the European Commission, issued a \u201cRoad Map\u201d<\/a> last week to initiate continent-wide legislation against cash.<\/p>\n There are already a number of anti-cash legislative measures that have been passed in individual European member states.<\/em><\/p>\n In France<\/strong>, for example, it\u2019s illegal to make purchases of more than 1,000 euros in cash.<\/em><\/p>\n And any cash deposit or withdrawal to\/from a French bank account exceeding 10,000 euros within a single month must be reported to the authorities.<\/em><\/p>\n Italy <\/strong>banned cash payments above 1,000 euros back in 2011; Spain has banned cash payments in excess of 2,500 euros.<\/em><\/p>\n And the European Central Bank<\/strong> announced last year that it would stop production of 500-euro notes, which will eventually phase them out altogether.<\/em><\/p>\n But apparently these disparate rules don\u2019t go far enough.<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n According to the Commission, the presence of cash controls in some EU countries, coupled with the lack of cash controls in other EU countries, creates loopholes for criminals and terrorists.<\/p>\n So that\u2019s why the European Commission is now working to standardize a ban on cash, or at least implement severe restrictions and reporting, across the entire EU.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Commission\u2019s roadmap indicates that forthcoming legislation, likely to be enacted next year.<\/p>\n This is happening. And it may serve as the perfect case study for the rest of the world.<\/p>\n A growing bandwagon of academics and policy makers in other countries, including the United States, UK, Australia, etc. has been calling for prohibitions against cash.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s always the same song: cash is a tool for criminals and terrorists.<\/p>\n Harvard economist Ken Rogoff is a leading voice in the War on Cash; his new book The Curse of Cash<\/em> claims that physical currency makes the world less safe.<\/p>\n Rogoff further states \u201call that cash\u201d is being used for \u201ctax evasion, corruption, terrorism, the drug trade, human trafficking. . .\u201d<\/p>\n Wow. Sounds pretty grim.<\/p>\n Apparently pulling out a $5 bill to tip your valet makes you a member of ISIS now.<\/strong><\/p>\n Of course, this is total nonsense.<\/strong><\/p>\n A recent Gallup poll from last year shows that a healthy 24% of Americans still use cash to make all or most of their purchases, compared to the other options like debit cards, credit cards, checks, bank transfers, PayPal, etc.<\/p>\n And the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco released a ton of data<\/a> late last year showing that:<\/p>\n This doesn\u2019t sound life nefarious criminal activity to me.<\/strong><\/p>\n It seems that perfectly normal, law-abiding citizens still use cash on a regular basis.<\/p>\n But that doesn\u2019t seem to matter.<\/p>\n A bunch of university professors who have probably never been within 1,000 miles of ISIS think that a ban on cash would make us all safer from terrorists.<\/p>\n You probably recall the horrible Christmas attack in Berlin last month in which a Tunisian man drove a truck through a crowded pedestrian mall, killing 12 people.<\/p>\n Well, the attacker was found with 1,000 euros in cash.<\/strong><\/p>\n The logic, therefore, is to ban cash.<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m sure he was also found wearing pants. Perhaps we should ban those too.<\/p>\n This idea that criminals and terrorists only deal in bricks of cash is a pathetic fantasy regurgitated by the serially uninformed.<\/p>\n I learned this first hand, years ago, when I was an intelligence officer in the Middle East: criminals and terrorists don\u2019t need to rely on cash.<\/p>\n The 9\/11 attackers spent months living in the United States, and they routinely used bank accounts, credit cards, and traveler\u2019s checks to finance themselves.<\/p>\n And both criminal organizations and terrorist networks have access to a multitude of funding options from legitimate businesses and charities, along with access to a highly developed internal system of credit.<\/p>\n A cash ban wouldn\u2019t have prevented 9\/11, nor would it have prevented the Berlin Christmas attack.<\/strong><\/p>\n What cash controls do affect, however, are the financial options of law-abiding people.<\/p>\n These policymakers and academics acknowledge that banning cash would reduce consumers\u2019 financial privacy. And that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n But they\u2019re totally missing the point. Cash isn\u2019t about privacy.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s one of the only remaining options in a financial system that has gone totally crazy.<\/strong><\/p>\n Especially in Europe, where interest rates are negative and many banks are on the verge of collapse, cash is a protective shelter in a storm of chaos.<\/p>\n Think about it: every time you make a deposit at your bank, that savings no longer belongs to you. It\u2019s now the bank\u2019s money. It\u2019s their asset, not yours.<\/strong><\/p>\n You become an unsecured creditor of the bank with nothing more than a claim on their balance sheet, beholden to all the stupidity and shenanigans that they have a history of perpetrating.<\/p>\n Banks never miss an opportunity to prove to the rest of the world that they do not deserve the trust that we place in them.<\/p>\n And for now, anyone who wishes to divorce themselves from these consequences can simply withdraw a portion of their savings and hold cash.<\/p>\n Cash means there is no middleman standing between you and your savings.<\/strong><\/p>\n Banning it, for any reason, destroys this option and subjects every consumer to the whims of a financial system that is stacked against us.<\/p>\n Do you<\/span> have a Plan B?<\/strong><\/em><\/u><\/a><\/p>\n\n