The Dethroning of Cash: Discouraged, Penalized, Even Banned?

blog-money-1024x675By Stefan Gleason

Stock market gyrations and deteriorating global economic conditions in the early goings of 2016 sent investors fleeing for safety. Or at least what is commonly thought to be safety.

Many in the financial media are now trotting out the bromide that “cash is king.” A sampling of recent headlines illustrates how pervasive the thinking is:

But how can cash be king when central banks around the world are working diligently and creatively to PUNISH holders of cash?

The latest country to take the plunge into negative interest rates is Japan. On January 29, the Bank of Japan pushed its deposit rate into negative territory.


And our own Federal Reserve just asked U.S. banks this week make sure they, too, are ready for negative interest rates.

Central bankers have proven that 0% is no floor when it comes to interest rates. But negative interest rates create some peculiar problems. In theory, assessing interest on deposits rather than paying it out encourages funds to flow back into the economy. Negative rates make banks more apt to lend and consumers more likely to spend.

People Herded into Electronic Accounts So Negative Interest Rates Can Be Imposed

Unfortunately for the banks, though, negative rates encourage withdrawals of cash for hoarding. After all, dollar bills that pay 0% interest have a higher yield than savings accounts that charge interest!

The government surely doesn’t want to encourage a flight to physical cash. It drains the banks of their liquidity. And when cash transactions take place outside the banking system, authorities can’t track them, and that makes tax collectors jealous.

Of course, government officials have a solution in the works: Ban coins and paper currency notes altogether. That’s the end-game of their war on cash.

Central Planners Smear Cash as “Dirty and Dangerous”

In the cashless society of tomorrow, bank depositors won’t be able to escape negative interest rates because they won’t be able to withdraw any actual cash to stuff under the mattress. Cash won’t be king anymore. It will be dethroned digitally. And when that happens, financial privacy will largely be a thing of the past.

This isn’t wild conspiracy theorizing on my part. The abolition of cash is being planned by bureaucrats and openly cheered on by elites in finance and their mouthpieces in the establishment media.

The editorial board of BloombergView put out an opinion piece on January 31, 2016 titled, “Bring On the Cashless Future.”

In it, they bash cash as “dirty and dangerous.” They envisage a glorious future in which governments can electronically thwart “tax evasion” and central banks can “impose significantly negative interest rates” knowing that bank depositors won’t be able to escape them – at least not by withdrawing cash.

Alternatives to Cash Will Be King

In the cashless society of the future, the most viable alternatives to cash will be king.

Bitcoin and other underground digital currencies will play a role for some people in some types of commerce. But even prominent Bitcoin proponents admit that the government could disable the crypto-currency. Moreover, since Bitcoin has no legal tender or intrinsic value, the price of Bitcoin could conceivably go to any number, including zero.

On the other hand, tangible alternative currencies such as gold and silver bullion coins will never go to zero.

Gold is known as the Midas metal because it is the money of kings. It is also the king of money. Why? Because gold has the longest running history of being used as money and still to this day serves an important role in the monetary system. Perhaps crypto-currencies that are backed by gold will emerge to solve some of the shortcomings and vulnerabilities of Bitcoin.

In the meantime, the digital currency revolution risks being co-opted by governments that like the idea of herding the masses into all-electronic transactions. China is now looking into establishing a digital currency for everyday commerce.

As much as governments would like to create a “cloud” economy, the reality is that if even if they succeed in abolishing cash, they can’t eliminate barter and trade conducted through alternative tangible instruments. Gold and silver will always have a market value in terms of dollars or digital dollars or crypto-currency units. So it’s a simple matter to determine how much metal to offer or accept for any given transaction. The upshot: Government agencies cannot track the movements of pure precious metals bullion coins, rounds, and bars.

Investors who have rotated out of the stock market and into cash recently would be wise to consider rotating from cash to precious metals. Gold and silver prices have risen modestly amidst the downdraft in equities. The metals have the potential to show more significant gains in the months ahead. And with negative interest rates approaching, they will have a higher yield as well.

By contrast, cash offers no real upside. It offers only the opportunity to avoid losses in other assets (by being out of them). But as the war on cash intensifies – whether through a devaluation of the dollar, negative interest rates, or an outright end to coin and paper bill circulation – holding cash in any form figures to become a lot riskier.

Stefan Gleason is President of Money Metals Exchange, the national precious metals company named 2015 “Dealer of the Year” in the United States by an independent global ratings group. A graduate of the University of Florida, Gleason is a seasoned business leader, investor, political strategist, and grassroots activist. Gleason has frequently appeared on national television networks such as CNN, FoxNews, and CNBC, and his writings have appeared in hundreds of publications such as the Wall Street Journal, TheStreet.com, Seeking Alpha, Detroit News, Washington Times, and National Review.


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7 Comments on "The Dethroning of Cash: Discouraged, Penalized, Even Banned?"

  1. Find: The Luciferian Doctrine pdf
    87

  2. yEshUA ImmAnUEl * ben-'Adam | February 6, 2016 at 4:27 am |

    “The foundation of the Egyptian Mysteries was based on the knowledge of those who instituted the Mysteries. They taught that the Soul had originally existed in a pure, sinless state, that it then fell from its original purity and innocence, and gravitated from the form of a spiritual essence into a material body. Realizing its reduced status, its chief concern, the aim and scope of all earthly creatures (man), was to pass through successive states of experiences — sufferings and joys — purifications and exaltations — back to the original fellowship with Deity.”
    _____________________________

    Matthew 13:
    6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
    7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
    8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
    9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
    10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
    11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

  3. As we are on the cusp of the collapse of the greatest credit bubble of all time and the elites desperately want to impoverish everyone but themselves that have to do whatever it takes to destroy cash (except for themselves of course). You can’t have anyone else riding out the storm now can you?

  4. Gold and silver are certainly less stressful – destress buy gold and silver.

  5. If all the existing gold in the world was divided evenly among the entire globe’s population every human being would have a gold coin about the size of a U.S. dime.

    • You don’t know that any more than you know what CNN is telling you is the truth. In the first place you’re making the assumption that the reported numbers of humans on this planet is accurate and that in itself is dubious. All I’m saying is question what you’ve been lead to believe.

  6. The only possible reason for the elimination of currency is to create a situation where money is digital and then to pull the rug out from underneath which will result in the deaths of billions. There can be no other reason and it is proof positive that the people at the top are all thoughtless at the very least, and possibly worse. Self preservation alone should motivate people to refuse all currencies other than silver, gold, copper, and the emerging cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

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