From the archives: MDB’s prophetic article from April 2016 is as relevant as ever. In essence, cash is the sole preserve of criminals and has no place in a modern economy. Another reason why cash needs to be banned with immediate effect is that, according to accredited scientists, COVID-19 is able to survive on a dollar bill for up to 7 WEEKS! By choosing to pay for your soy latte with bank notes instead of credit card, you are literally shooting the checkout person DEAD. WTF would you even do this?
Another urgent argument for dispensing with cash is that, in order to adjust certain natural imbalances in the system, our accredited banks need to charge negative interest rates for a while. Criminals who hoard cash act as a bulwark against recovery and are unAmerican. For the sake of our democracy, negative interest rates are essential and so we need to ban cash. This is only a temporary measure until our credit-based fiat monetary system naturally self-adjusts.
Here, without further ado, is MDB’s original treatise on the matter. Pbier.
A pressing issue for both banks and policy makers is what to do about the outdated concept of cash payments. It has long been known that cash is the payment method of choice for criminals and terrorists. To this day, cash is used to launder billions of dollars worth of proceeds from criminal activities every year, and there is very little our authorities can do to stop it. Cash transactions also give central banks and governments less oversight over how and where our money is being spent, denying them valuable economic data that could be used to better manage our economy. Yet for some reason we still allow this antiquated form of payment, even though the alternatives are far more convenient and less costly.
In the 21st century, electronic payments are ubiquitous and widely available, even in the most remote parts of the world. Banks have embraced the internet and allowed their customers to make online payments, and internet access is fast becoming free and universally available. Credit and debit cards now allow customers to seamlessly spend money in multiple currencies while the complex foreign exchange operations are handled in the background. Visa and Mastercard also offer recourse for consumers who have been cheated by retailers, by allowing them to raise chargebacks and get their money back. And as if that’s not enough, mobile payments are now turning our phones into bank cards, making electronic payments more convenient than ever before. Why anyone would want to use cash in this day and age, other than for criminal purposes, is truly puzzling.
There are two fundamental problems with cash. The first is that cash transactions cannot be monitored by governments and banks. This makes it ideal for criminals such as drug cartels and human traffickers who use it to hide their activities from law enforcement. Electronic transactions on the other hand are captured in government databases where they can be flagged as suspicious and used as evidence in prosecutions. The non-traceability of cash also makes it ideal for tax evaders, who choose to simply not declare their cash income.
The second major problem with cash is that it threatens the stability of our financial system. Banks operate in a fractional reserve system that allows them to lend a large percentage of deposits to consumers, businesses and governments. This provides our economy with the capital necessary to grow, and allows consumers to get mortgages and credit cards. When depositors withdraw cash however, this money is removed from the banking system and cannot be lent out. Banks only have so much of their depositors’ money in reserve, so if too many people demand cash, banks will face a serious problem. This is why banks often limit cash withdrawals.
We have to come to terms with the fact that cash is unnecessary for law abiding citizens in this day and age. In a cashless society, many forms of crime and tax evasion will be simply impossible, as every transaction in the world will be monitored by governments and taxed accordingly. Our financial system also faces challenges after the restructuring following the crash of 2007-08, and cash withdrawals are not making things any easier. We need to protect our financial institutions in order to avoid a repeat of the last financial crisis, and outlawing cash would help immensely in this regard. It’s time for us to abandon the prehistoric relic of cash, and bring payments into the 21st century. Fighting it is futile, so let’s embrace a cashless society and focus on evolving our economy for the future of payments for the benefit of all.
What a load of bollocks! You have been blinded by more deception from the biggest criminals in history. The truth is with negative interest rates on the horizon, removing cash from the system is the only way the banksters can prevent depositors withdrawing their money. since when have banks cared where the money comes from? Wake up before it’s too late.
Depositors don’t need to withdraw their money – they can spend it electronically. Did you read the article? Whats more, you actually point out another good reason why a cashless society is essential. If we find that we need to stimulate aggregate demand with negative interest rates, outlawing cash may be the only way to keep people from bailing our of the banking system. Why should some people pay the cost of economic growth, while others pay nothing and enjoy the benefits?
I noticed also that Harriet Tubman is going on the $20. It’s ABOUT TIME.
Down with the racist patriarchy and up with people of color.
Think about this- the early white colonizers STOLE Manhattan from the natives for a mere $5. $5!
Think about everything that’s in Manhattan, the GW Bridge, the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, the new WTC, the Subway System. ALL OF IT…taken right out from under the feet of the poor native americans for $5. This underscores how EVIL white people are.
The white countries of the world have nothing but STOLEN wealth. They took all of it and built this country on the backs of slaves. There are thousands and thousands of tons of stolen gold from all over the Americas…all looted from the native American refined gold vaults and transported back to Europe to then purchase roads, bridges, tunnels, trains, 4G wireless, etc., from the sellers of such things. But yet the gold is STILL THERE in Europe…so it’s like they stole it back AGAIN!
I’m not sure how the Incas transported those thousands of tons of mined gold, nor where their large pit mines were, or even their refineries and vaults, but I am sure that white people are somehow to blame for my unsureness about these facts! Because slavery.
Blacks built this country, the Golden Gate bridge, the Empire State Building, the interstate highway system, ALL OF IT, via slavery. Some would tell you that they were doing plantation manual labor in one relatively small portion of this country for a limited time but that’s RACIST LIES. They were clearly building the transcontinental railroad, silicon valley, the oil industry, the steel industry, the light bulb, airplane, ALL OF IT, under slavery. That’s why they are the rightful owners, along with native americans, of ALL WEALTH here in the USA. The wealth that was generated for whites during slavery has been “passed down” generationally and has grown and grown and grown somehow. Whites have used that stolen wealth to buy parking garages and power plants and whatnot from parking garage sellers, who then transport the garage to wherever whites want! That’s the only plausible explanation once you realize everything was stolen. We need to find where these warehouses full of power plants are that whites keep buying with their stolen wealth, and bomb those people into freedom!
Everything you say is true Trav. Whites never would have achieved anything in this country if it weren’t for Slavery, and whatever they did achieve was built on stolen land. Reparations can never be fully repaid, as the crimes committed by our ancestors were too egregious. It is even more appropriate that they are removing Andrew Jackson’s face from the $20 bill, who passed the Indian Removal Act, an unforgivable crime against the peaceful spiritual Native American people. Native Americans and Africans did not know war before the white man came. These were both peaceful peoples who lived at one with nature, and cherished mother earth. But when white industrialists destroyed their countries and pillaged their resources, they were left devastated and enraged at what Europeans had done to them. This rage lasts to this day, and it is still perfectly justified. The white man’s debt can never be fully repaid, but at the very least every white person should check their privilege and do everything they can to compensate the victims of their imperialism.
MDB, that almost makes me shed tears.
Thank you, thank you!
Yes, the tunnels and bridges were there for the white man to steal from the dumb Indians for less than $6. Also all the still mills and all the wealth in the USA. Sarc off. The “people of color” were living in huts when the white men came over.
It was the brain power and the entrepreneurial spirit of the white man that made this country great. You are a joke, a really bad one.
If it’s my $$ and I chose to deposit it with a bank or any other place that wishes to do business with me, then I assert to withdraw MY $$ at any time I chose. I do not answer to anyone when and if I will take MY $$ out. THAT IS THE POINT. NOBODY in their right mind will relinquish the freedom they have to control their assets. To do otherwise is purely idiotic.
Japan are about to print 180 million of high denomination notes, doesn’t sound like a cashless society to me and considering 2.5 billion people around the world don’t have bank accounts. Cash is here to stay for generations to come.
Too easy for criminals to steal money digitally and now banks aren’t replacing stolen money from accounts cash transactions will only grow.
Cash is and will always be king.
Cashking, thats a selfish attitude to take, if you take your cash out of your account, then how can it be lent out to others?. Jesus would leave his cash in his account so that society could benefit.
Banking is the one industry in post industrial western countries that must be protected.
People who willfully hamstring the economy by hoarding cash should be punished with confiscation (they are probably crooks anyway, why else hide it from the taxman?), at least Modi in India got that one right.
You are a kool-aid drinking dunce.
A society without cash? Might as well throw your freedom away and be a slave.
We do not need a cashless society.
We just need to pass regulations to require participants to file paperwork for any cash transaction over $50. This will shine a light upon criminals and eventually stop them from profiting off their criminal acts.
The essential beauty of NIRP is that when everyone’s wealth is binary code and cash is outlawed, a “bail-in” is easily facilitated.
There is no escaping it! If your savings (binary code only) have to be held in some institution, and that institution has financial difficulties, then welcome to the hair-cut!
The beautiful part is that it affects everyone (or almost everyone) so we are all still on the same old level playing field.
Cash is just so last century.
Indeed, cash is losing value hand over fist as opposed to inflation in things we NEED, as opposed to the deflation in things we DON’T NEED.
We need to destroy the cash economy, because as you say it’s only the drug dealers and terrorists involved.
Let me put it up here first: “FUCK CASH!”
What a joke this article is, it made me angry just reading it. Clearly written by someone who is either brain dead, a bankster or a govt shill. No point in rebutting this rubbish at all.
What a stupid article,why would anyone want their every money transactions spied upon by big brother,we have too much intrusion in our loves as it is,and besides,i am on the pension and i need cash jobs on top to survive,and the person who wrote this rubbish is obviously an elitist who has never struggled to pay a bill.”””””””
Brickbob, if you have cash jobs, you are probably breaking the law. You probably need a city license or occupation tax, you need to be cleared by zoning for whatever you are doing, you need to pay sales- or gross-receipts tax to the state. You may need a license (e.g. for construction). And I sure hope you have been filing Schedule C’s and SE’s on your federal income tax returns each year for those cash earnings! One of the reasons we need to eliminate cash and go digital is to catch scofflaws like you. The next step is jail and civil forfeiture of your possessions.
Another thing that is disturbing about your comment is that you suggest that you have to break the law to survive. That is called the “criminal mentality.”
@blm: Yes, as usual the article is good, but the comment section was disappointing today, as if several of those zerohedge nutcases suddenly discovered this progressive blog by some coincidence, it triggeredme.. Fortunately MDB will educate them soon.
Those are old comments JFB – those were the days when I used to promote my articles on ZH, only to be abused for hours on end by their readership. Needless to say I’ve had enough – and now prefer to keep the Accredited Times a safe space for progressives.
Hey snowflake, you better get your safe space ready for then TRUMP owns sleepy Joe Biden in November! MAGA
Drug dealers, hookers and flea market vendors are totally against cashless.
The like cash! A Lot!
This article make me weep for Quaran-Teens again. Big words here only make sense to Boomers. My Mom educate in Boston say “spit it out in words of one syllable”, if she not understand. In a cashless society, I say “swipe it”.
These bad boys are totally into “swiping it”
So The Obumbler bumbled yet again when he gave Iran $1.5 billion in pallets of cash, instead of giving it in an electronic format?
$1.5 billion can buy a mountains of fried chicken, chitlins, french fries and collard greens and a lake of soda on the side.
your covid19 thrives on electronic dollars. to prosper, we must cut off its sustenance.
I hear Bill Gates pays cold hard cash for putting covid19 on death certificates.
i support anything to separate gates and the government from their money.
Just think where you’d be today without those wads of ones spent at titty bars in twenty different states?
How about you swipe your MTA card to get on the TRUMP train! Socialism sucks! Get off the demonrat plantation! KAG
You are a man of class @hungrypirana, do you just wave your dollar bills or throw them down for the girls to pick them up?
I spended my nomey in church
Bill felt his balls one day, and realized that they were curved. He reported it to WHO, they flattened the curve with a heavy duty roller. His voice has become squeakier, you can hear it when he discusses 7 billion doses of vaccine for the world.
Don’t press the curves in titty bars yourself, to flatten them. Report to the WHO, they have professional curve flatteners.
MDB has stayed ahead of the curve by having them flattened. If only BLM felt his curves and reported to WHO for flattening …
This fake news needs to pay his taylor in cash.
…unless his wife is his taylor
Sicko. Will a cashless society help him?
Ain’t nothin’ gonna help Nadless! He’s got an acute case of TDS: TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME! MAGA
right on.
You know who also tried to ban cash!?!? HITLER! The REGRESSIVE DEM-O-CRAPS are the real fascists!
societies without cash look like this
societies with abundant cash look like this
I like the second video – locked up people with fake smiles.