The War on Cash Intensifies
Last month, the 2001 Nobel Prize-winning economist from Columbia University, Joseph Stiglitz, was quoted as saying: “I believe very strongly that countries like the United States could and should move to a digital currency.”
He argues that the move would give governments the ability to trace corruption, putting an end to illicit activities.
This falls in line with the thinking of Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff. He has argued for two decades that a society awash with cash contributes to the growth of the underground economy. Rogoff believes large-denomination bank notes should be phased out.
He also argues that cash facilitates crime because it is anonymous. And big bills are especially problematic because they are so easy to carry and conceal.
But that’s not all …
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already removed 86% of his country’s currency from circulation in an attempt to curb tax evasion, tackle corruption and shut down the underground economy.
Here’s the bad news: It’s not going to work.
Sure, the bad guys would be inconvenienced for a while. But they would adapt, pushing their illegal activities deeper underground, out of sight, and further away from the watchful eye of the authorities.
Europe will most likely be next. The European Commission has already introduced a proposal enforcing restrictions on payments in cash.
And they’re pushing out all sorts of propaganda to do it, trying to get people to associate illegal activities with high denominations of cash.
But as I’ve said many times before the real reason behind this move to a cashless society is simple: Governments are going broke and these shenanigans are merely a hunt for more taxes.
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