Power. Unlimited power!
Such was the battle cry of Darth Sidious in one of those Star Wars movies, one of the new ones that didn’t stink too bad. It’s the real cry of Darth Citious, a.k.a. Citibank. Theirs is a quest for unlimited power through total control of the economy, your finances included.
Cash money is one of the very last safety measures for privacy in a world gone mad. Citi wants to eliminate cash.
Less than a week after India’s surprise move to scrap its highest denomination cash notes, another front in the War on Cash has intensified down under in Australia.
Yesterday, banking giant UBS proposed that eliminating Australia’s $100 and $50 bills would be “good for the economy and good for the banks.”
(How convenient that a bank would propose something that’s good for banks!)
This isn’t the first time that the financial establishment has pushed for a cashless society in Australia (or anywhere else).
In September 2015, Australian bank Westpac published its “Cash Free Report”, suggesting that the country would become cashless by 2022.
In July 2016, Australian payments firm Tyro published an enormously self-serving blog post touting the benefits of a cashless society and saying, “it’s only a matter of time.”
Most notably, two days ago, Citibank (yes, THAT Citibank) announced that it was going cashless at some of its Australian branches.
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Bank deposits would rise as a result, and consequently, so would bank profits.
Governments would benefit from a cashless society because all savings would be in the banking system, and they have full regulatory control over the banks.
This means that your politicians would have more control over your savings and fewer obstacles to impose capital controls or engage in Civil Asset Forfeiture.
Even policy wonk academics would have a rare opportunity to take their lousy theories and PhD dissertations for a test drive.
Everyone benefits from a cashless society… except for you.
For individuals, cash still has plenty of important advantages.
Cash is one of the few remaining options for financial privacy that doesn’t create a permanent record of every purchase or transaction you make.
It’s also an easy way to reduce your exposure to risks in the broader financial system.
Think about it– the banking system is full of institutions that never miss an opportunity to demonstrate they cannot be trusted with our money.
Hardly a month goes by without some major banking scandal; they’re caught colluding on exchange rates, manipulating interest rates, fraudulently establishing fake accounts without customer consent (and then charging us fees on top of that).
It’s disgraceful.
That it is. Good for the banks, good for the government, bad for you. Decrease your security and privacy so banks can make higher profits and government can do what they do worst.
Quickmeme / Lucas / Fox.
Bankster pirates and government highwaymen in the U.S. and in Europe are itching to get rid of cash. I’m sure Citi’s Australian experiment is a trial run for global implementation.
What to do about it? For now, if your bank goes cashless, close your accounts there. Tell them why in no uncertain terms. If you hit them where it hurts, they’ll stop. That or other, more honest banks will fill the void. And vote out any political rat who backs cashless totalitarianism or who supports the banking cartel. For every rodent, a trap.
This issue doesn’t get the coverage it should. Digital money in a bank’s computer is just that. Whatever it is, it is theirs. They’ll have total control over everything you “own” and they’ll be more than willing to share it with the state. The state will be more than willing to take it. This is to be the biggest reverse bank robbery in history. Treat it as such.
