America is now in a situation like Japan has been in for the past ten years where we are creating more and more debt. The response to the authorities of the U.S. banking crisis of 2008-2009 was simply to add more debt to a situation that was already caused by too much debt. And so the problem that the U.S. had in 2008 was not resolved at all. Odds are it was made worse and just postponed just like Japan is currently experiencing. What the U.S. is going to see at some point is a re-enactment of the crisis of 2008-2009, but worse… because there is more unsustainable debt than ever before.
In a banking crisis, which is what we had in 2008 and what we expect sooner than later to happen again, the banks ‘seize up’ because they’re going broke. And people realize it and run to the ATM and get that cash out before the ATM runs out of money. And the ATM will run out of money because there is not enough cash in all of the United States to cover the obligations and the needs that people will have because the America, like so many other countries, is shifting from cash to credit.
The whole story of the last 50 years has been the expansion of credit and credit is what people use. When the credit stops, the whole economy comes to a stop. To say
“I’m not worried about anything. I’ve got cash in the bank.” Having money in the bank is not the same as having cash.
It just means you have trustless money because the bank owes you money. You have a credit against a bankrupt institution. You are going to be in big trouble because the U.S. government insures the bank against bankruptcy but at this stage of the game the U.S. government will likely not be able to back up and cover its own huge debt because it too will be virtually bankrupt too, all of which will go a long way in creating the world’s first cashless society unless the public revolts…but it may already be too late for a revolution.
Whether your cash is in the stock market or sitting in your bank account, you are at risk. World government central bankers or central planners as they are called, or as the mainstream media calls them, the policymakers, are waging a War on Cash as many governments around the world are banning cash transactions over a certain amount making them illegal.
The War on Cash is a favorite pet project of the world’s economic central planners. They want to eliminate hand-to-hand currency so that governments can document, control, and tax everything. This is why they are lowering the threshold for mandatory reporting of cash transactions and, in some instances, simply making it illegal to pay in cash.
In the U.S., central planners ratchet up the War on Cash every time the government declares a made-up war on something else… a war on crime, a war on drugs, a war on poverty, a war on terror…in the end for every trumped up war the citizenry ends up with more and more government intrusion into your financial affairs.
Thanks to these made-up wars, the U.S. government is imposing an increasing number of regulations on cash transactions. Try withdrawing more than $10,000 in cash from your bank. They may treat you like a criminal or terrorist.
The U.S. Federal Reserve Bank is at the center of the War on Cash. Its weapons are inflation and control over the currency denominations. Take the $100 note, for example. It is the largest bill in circulation today. This was not always the case. At one point, the U.S. had $500, $1,000, $5,000, and even $10,000 notes. But the government eliminated these large notes in 1969 under the pretext of fighting the War on Drugs.
Since then, the $100 note has been the largest. But it has far less purchasing power than it did in 1969. Decades of rampant money printing have debased the dollar. Today, a $100 note buys less than a $20 note did in 1969. Even though the U.S. Federal Reserve has devalued the dollar more than 80% since 1969 it still refuses to issue notes larger than $100. This makes it inconvenient to use cash for large transactions, which forces people to use electronic-payment methods. This, of course, is what the U.S. government wants.
The cashless society is the IRS’ dream: total knowledge of, and control over, the finances of every single American. When the media uses the word “policymakers,” they are often referring to U.S. Federal Reserve bank officials better known as central planners. Policymakers is a curious word choice because most people who want to live in a free society agree that central planning is not a good idea. So the socialist-leaning news media uses the word policymakers to put a more neutral spin on things.
In 1661 Sweden became the first country in Europe to issue paper money. Now it’s probably going to be the first in the world to eliminate it. Sweden has already phased out most cash transactions. According to Credit Suisse, 80% of all purchases in Sweden are electronic and do not involve cash. And that figure is rising. If the trend continues – and there is nothing to suggest it won’t – Sweden could soon be the world’s first cashless society.
SUPPLEMENTAL SOURCE: PORTER STANSBERRY MARKET RESEARCH AUGUST 16, 2015 and DECEMBER 15, 2015