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NOVEMBER 23, 2022 BY SCHIFFGOLD 0 1

We recently reported that the Federal Reserve plans to launch a 12-week pilot program in partnership with several large commercial banks to test the feasibility of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The US isn’t alone in experimenting with digital currency. India is working on developing a digital rupee and recently announced the second phase of testing.

After successfully running a pilot program to test its digital currency at the wholesale level, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced it will test the digital rupee in a retail setting.

According to the RBI, the central bank digital currency “is a legal tender issued by a central bank in a digital form. It is the same as a fiat currency and is exchangeable one-to-one with the fiat currency. Only its form is different.”

Digital currencies are similar to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. They exist as virtual banknotes or coins held in a digital wallet on your computer or smartphone. The difference between a government digital currency and bitcoin is the value of the digital currency is backed and controlled by the state, just like traditional fiat currency.

As the RBI put it, “Unlike cryptocurrencies, a CBDC isn’t a commodity or claims on commodities or digital assets. Cryptocurrencies have no issuer. They are not money (certainly not currency) as the word has come to be understood historically.”

According to a report in the Economic Times of India, the National Payments Corporation of India will host the platform for the digital rupee payment system during the testing phase. The Reserve Bank of India wants each commercial bank in the pilot to test retail use of the digital rupee with 10,000 to 50,000 users.

…click on the above link to read the rest…

One Ring to Rule Us All: A Global Digital Fiat Currency

October 10, 2021

One Ring to Rule Us All: A Global Digital Fiat Currency

We’ve written extensively about the “war on cash.” In a nutshell, governments would love to do away with cash in order to better track and control their citizens. There have been numerous moves closer to a cashless society in recent years, from capping ATM withdrawals to doing away with large-denomination bills. Last year, China launched a digital yuan pilot program and the US has floated moving toward a digital dollar.

We got a first-hand look at what happens when governments restrict access to cash when India plunged into a cash crisis after the country’s government enacted a policy of demonetization in November 2016.

It’s bad enough that various countries are exploring ways to move toward cashlessness, but there’s an even worse scenario — a global digital currency.

Economist Thorsten Polleit compares it to the “master ring” in J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic Lord of the Rings.

The following article was originally published by the Mises Wire. The opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.

1.

Human history can be viewed from many angles. One of them is to see it as a struggle for power and domination, as a struggle for freedom and against oppression, as a struggle of good against evil.

That is how Karl Marx (1818–83) saw it, and Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973) judged similarly. Mises wrote:

The history of the West, from the age of the Greek Polis down to the present-day resistance to socialism, is essentially the history of the fight for liberty against the encroachments of the officeholders. (1}

But unlike Marx, Mises recognized that human history does not follow predetermined laws of societal development but ultimately depends on ideas that drive human action.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Dangers Of Programmable Money Explained

May 5, 2021

Dangers Of Programmable Money Explained

Dominic Frisby with Money, Markets & Other Matters talks about the war on cash and central bank digital currency, known as CBDC. He questions if CBDCs are “the final step into the brave new world – Orwellian great reset dystopia – we seem to be heading towards” or are they “the onramp to the Bitcoin motorway.” He said the answer is “both.”

Frisby points out the biggest issue with CBDCs is that digital money is “programmable,” which means the issuer, such as the Federal Reserve or the Bank of England, can build specific rules into it. He said cash grants users freedom and power.

Programmable money, such as CBDCs, means the user has even less control over their money. Frisby said almost any kind of rule could be coded into CBDCs. He provides an example of China mulling over the idea of expiry dates for its digital money. This means those holding the programmable money have to spend the money by a specific time or it disappears from their account.

For those who aren’t familiar with Chuck Palahniuk’s 2018 “Adjustment Day” book, a similar concept of expiring money was detailed. Palahniuk is also the writer behind “Flight Club.”

Back to Frisby, who said issuers could manipulate money velocity by changing expiry dates. He said the money could be programmed to work only in certain areas or jurisdictions. He then warned:

“Every transaction ever made will be visible to the all-seeing government.”

Governments will know your whereabouts and habits at all times simply by tracking your use of funds through the CBDC payment system. This can already be done, to some extent, by tracking credit card transactions, but the CBDC system will make state surveillance more pervasive.

CBDCs also allow the government to have direct access to a person’s wallet to remove taxes and other fines.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The End of Paper Money – the Digital Revolution

March 5, 2021

The End of Paper Money – the Digital Revolution

The assumption in governments has always been that WE ARE THE PROBLEM – not them! They have really believed that if they could tax the underground economy they would have balanced budgets. We all know that in reality, no matter how much money they collect, they will always spend more. This idea that digital currency will wipe out crime is rather absurd. I was talking to a young person who buys their weed, like so many these days. They make a phone call, it is dropped off in their mailbox, and they pay by some cash transfer application. So they never even see the person anymore. So the move toward digital transactions has not eliminated the underground economy, it has actually improved it making it more efficient.

Meanwhile, the criminals have to learn now how to code in order to hack into systems. It seems that this trend is forcing criminals to become much more professional in their endeavors.

Shortage of $50 Canadian Bills?

July 24, 2020

Shortage of $50 Canadian Bills?

A reader sent in this photo that was posted at the head office branch of Bank of Montreal in Vancouver, which is one of the largest banks in Canada. This is a trend that is beginning to appear around the world. However, central banks are using the virus as an excuse to cut off the supply of paper money to go all digital. This is not necessarily in accordance with the political direction of the immediate political agenda. It appears to be unfolding autonomously just to get people accustomed to the idea that physical money is on its way out.

There is a rise in hoarding cash globally. Canadian dollars are being hoarded domestically and to some extent in Asia alongside the US dollar. Europeans and Canadians are used to paper money and coins being canceled routinely so the average person understands that they cannot hoard euros.

In the case of Canada, the paper currency of the colonial governments, prior to each entering confederation, are no longer valid as was the case with the colonial paper money issued by the various states before joining the United States. However, the Dominion of Canada currency of Her Majesty’s Government issued 1870 and 1935, is also not valid. Additionally, Canadian chartered banks, from pre-Confederation to 1944, which also issued currency, is also not valid. Canada, like Europe, old banknotes are canceled and can be redeemed at the Bank of Canada.

“Panic-Driven Hoarding Of Bank Notes”: People Aren’t Abandoning Cash During The Pandemic, They’re Socking It Away

July 4, 2020

“Panic-Driven Hoarding Of Bank Notes”: People Aren’t Abandoning Cash During The Pandemic, They’re Socking It Away

Habits change in the midst of a global recession, not to mention a global pandemic. We have already looked at how the pandemic has caused seismic shifts in many industries, but it is also causing a shift in how people think about, handle and (in this case) hoard cash.

While we have been told non-stop that the pandemic is going to prompt the demise of paper currency and the words “digital dollar” continue to make appearances in government white papers and studies, the Bank of England found that there was actually a marked increase in bills in circulation in places like the U.S., Canada, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Australia and Russia.

And while we continue to hear arguments about a cashless society being more efficient and less virus-friendly, it would still pose a major challenge to implement and would – in the case of this study – directly contradict how people are handing their cash during the global pandemic, according to Bloomberg.

Charles Goodhart and co-author Jonathan Ashworth wrote in their study: “While the economic shutdowns and increased use of online retailing are currently diminishing cash’s traditional function as a medium of exchange, it seems that this is being more than offset by panic driven hoarding of banknotes.”

“Cash in circulation has actually been growing strongly,” they continued. And while it may just be a small portion of a percentage of the cash that Central Banks have printed, the velocity of money can’t be ignore for inflationary purposes.

The research stands at odds with President Donald Trump’s former economic adviser Gary Cohn, who recently advocated for the disappearance of cash. Up until now, cash use has been on the decline due to credit cards and electronic transferring of money.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

BIS General Manager Outlines Vision for Central Bank Digital Currencies

April 5, 2019

BIS General Manager Outlines Vision for Central Bank Digital Currencies

The behaviour of central bankers is rarely (if ever) given sustained coverage in the national press. Outside of prominent economic channels, developments from within institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the Bank for International Settlements are seldom remarked upon. Instead, attention is restricted to the latest round of political theatrics which serve to disguise the actions and intentions of globalist planners.

As the furore of Brexit gained in intensity last month, BIS General Manager Agustin Carstens gave a speech at the Central Bank of Ireland 2019 Whitaker Lecture. Under the heading, ‘The future of money and payments‘, Carstens mapped out what has been a long standing vision of globalists – namely, to acquire full spectrum control of the international financial system through the gradual abolition of what Bank of England governor Mark Carney has called ‘tangible assets‘ i.e. physical money.

The ‘future of money‘ narrative is one that both the BIS and the IMF have been actively promoting since the advent of Brexit and Donald Trump’s presidency. Here are some links to speeches made by both Christine Lagarde and Agustin Carstens:

Central Banking and Fintech—A Brave New World?
Winds of Change: The Case for New Digital Currency
Money and payment systems in the digital age
Money in the digital age: what role for central banks?

Central to the vision for a fully digitised global economy is the intent to reform national payment systems. The UK uses the Real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system, which the majority of payments in Britain are facilitated through. The Bank of England’s Victoria Cleland has emphasised on numerous occasions that the ‘fundamental renewal‘ of the system is being carried out through choice rather than necessity. This would indicate that RTGS works fine in its current manifestation, but the BOE (along with the European Central Bank) have been tasked with assuming more control over their respective payment systems.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

GOING CASHLESS?? Someone Better Tell The Federal Reserve As Currency In Circulation Reaches New High

August 24, 2018

GOING CASHLESS?? Someone Better Tell The Federal Reserve As Currency In Circulation Reaches New High

With all the talk about Central banks going “Cashless,” someone needs to tell the Federal Reserve. Why? Because the Federal Reserve just placed another large order for newly printed 2018 Dollars. Interestingly, the U.S. Treasury will print the largest number of $100 bills since it came out with the updated anti-counterfeit $100 bill in 2013.

Not only is the Federal Reserve ordering more bills to replace worn-out bills that will be taken out of circulation, but it will also add a percentage for the increased public demand. And let me tell you, this demand continues to rise significantly. For example, total U.S. currency in circulation is now $1.57 trillion, up nearly double from the $792 billion in 2007:

Not only has total U.S. currency in circulation nearly doubled since the last Market Crash (2008), the Federal Reserve plans to add a lot more “Paper Notes” this year based on even higher demand. From the Federal Reserve website on How does the Federal Reserve Board determine how much currency to order each year?:

We use the majority of new notes printed each year to replace unfit notes that Reserve Banks have removed from circulation. For example, we estimate that in 2015, 85 percent of the new notes printed will replace destroyed currency, while the remaining 15 percent will meet increased public demand.

So, the Fed states that they replace 85% of old Notes with new ones and add 15% for increased public demand. However, in their current 2018 Federal Reserve Print Note order, they published the following:

The nearly 7.4 billion notes included in the FY 2018 order reflect the Board’s estimate of net demand for currency from domestic and international customers. The print order is determined by denomination and is based on destruction rates and historical payments to and receipts from circulation.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Even the World’s Most Cashless Nation Doesn’t Want to Go Fully Cashless

March 28, 2018

Even the World’s Most Cashless Nation Doesn’t Want to Go Fully Cashless

It’s too risky and systematically excludes the most vulnerable people.

There are small but growing signs that Europe’s “War on Cash” is not going exactly according to plan. First, a number of central bankers began voicing concerns about its potential ramifications. Now, even in Sweden, the first European country to enlist its own citizens as largely willing guinea pigs in an economic experiment — negative interest rates in a cashless society — public support is beginning to waver.

Initially, the plan was so successful that by 2017 the amount of cash in circulation had dropped to the lowest level since 1990 and was more than 40% below its 2007 peak, earning Sweden a reputation as the world’s “most cashless nation.” The declines in 2016 and 2017 were the biggest on record. An annual survey by Insight Intelligence found that in 2017, only 25% of Swedes paid in cash at least once a week, down from 63% just four years before; and 36% never used cash at all, or just pay with it once or twice a year.

But that doesn’t mean everyone is on board. In a recent survey, an overwhelming 68% of the respondents stated that they would not like to live in a fully cashless society. The survey, commissioned by Bankomat AB, an ATM chain company representing an alliance of Swedish banks that admittedly has a vested interest in preserving cash’s role as a means of payment, polled over 2,000 people aged 18-65.

Opinions differed markedly between age groups but in no single demographic was there a majority in favor of abolishing physical currency. Among the 18-29 year old respondents 56% declared that they still want to keep cash while 38% said they would welcome a cashless society. Among the survey’s oldest demographic, the 65-year-olds, 85% wanted to keep cash.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Cash Is No Longer King: The Phasing Out of Physical Money Has Begun

December 10, 2016

Cash Is No Longer King: The Phasing Out of Physical Money Has Begun

As physical currency around the world is increasingly phased out, the era where “cash is king” seems to be coming to an end. Countries like India and South Korea have chosen to limit access to physical money by law, and others are beginning to test digital blockchains for their central banks.

The war on cash isn’t going to be waged overnight, and showdowns will continue in any country where citizens turn to alternatives like precious metals or decentralized cryptocurrencies. Although this transition may feel like a natural progression into the digital age, the real motivation to go cashless is downright sinister.

The unprecedented collusion between governments and central banks that occurred in 2008 led to bailouts, zero percent interest rates and quantitative easing on a scale never before seen in history. Those decisions, which were made under duress and in closed-door meetings, set the stage for this inevitable demise of paper money.

Sacrificing the stability of national currencies has been used as a way prop up failing private institutions around the globe. By kicking the can down the road yet another time, bureaucrats and bankers sealed the fate of the financial system as we know it.

A currency war has been declared, ensuring that the U.S. dollar, Euro, Yen and many other state currencies are linked in a suicide pact. Printing money and endlessly expanding debt are policies that will erode the underlying value of every dollar in people’s wallets, as well as digital funds in their bank accounts. This new war operates in the shadows of the public’s ignorance, slowly undermining social and economic stability through inflation and other consequences of central control. As the Federal Reserve leads the rest of the world’s central banks down the rabbit hole, the vortex it’s creating will affect everyone in the globalized economy.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Sweden Begins 5 Year Countdown Until It Eliminates Cash

March 6, 2016

Sweden Begins 5 Year Countdown Until It Eliminates Cash

How much louder can the “ban cash” calls get?

Recall it was just last year when we catalogued the growing cacophony of crazies for whom banning physical currency is the only way to ensure that depositors can’t simply reassert their economic autonomy under a low or zero rate regime..

Put simply, if interest rates get too low, depositors will simply take their money out the bank and put it in the mattress or the safe where, to quote WSJ from last week, “interest rates are always low no matter what central bankers do.

Most recently, Larry Summers called for the abolition of the $100 bill in the US and in Europe the €500 note is to go the way of the dinosaurs.

Perhaps the most telling sign that citizens are starting to panic is that in Japan, they’re selling out of safes. Literally.

“It shows a vague sense of unease,” one Japanese lawmaker who brought up the soaring safe sales in parliament on Monday remarked.

Now, the excuse given for banning big bills is that it combats crime. And maybe it does. But in the end the rationale is simple: if there are no more physical banknotes, people have no economic autonomy. Let’s say consumer spending is stagnating. No problem, take rates to -20%. We bet they’ll start spending then – either that or see their deposits haircut by 20%.

In short, no cash means no effective lower bound and with no lower bound, the economy can be completely centrally planned – for all intents and purposes.

Consumers not spending? No problem. Just tax their excess account balance. Economy overheating? Again, no problem. Raise the interest paid on account holdings to encourage people to stop spending.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Greek Attempt To Force Use Of Electronic Money Instead Of Physical Cash Fails

February 21, 2016

Greek Attempt To Force Use Of Electronic Money Instead Of Physical Cash Fails

While the “developed world” is only now starting its aggressive push to slowly at first, then very fast ban the use of physical cash as the key gating factor to the global adoption of NIRP (by first eliminating high-denomination bills because they “aid terrorism and spread criminality”) one country has long been doing everything in its power to ween its population away from tax-evasive cash as a medium of payment, and into digital transactions: Greece.

The problem, however, is that it has failed.

According to Kathimerini, “Greek businesses are not ready for the expansion of plastic money through the compulsory use of credit and debit cards for everyday transactions.”

Unlike in the rest of the world where “the stick” approach will likely to be used, in Greece the government has been more gentle by adopting a “carrot” strategy (for now) when it comes to migrating from cash to digital. The government has told taxpayers that they will have to spend up to a certain amount of their incomes via bank and card transactions in order to qualify for an annual tax-free exemption.

This appears to not be a sufficient incentive however, as a large proportion of stores still don’t have the card terminals, or PoS (Points of Sale), required for card payments, while plastic is accepted by very few doctors, plumbers, electricians, lawyers and others who tend to account for the lion’s share of tax evasion recorded in the country.

Almost as if the local population realizes that what the government is trying to do is to limit at first, then ultimately ban all cash transactions in the twice recently defaulted nation as well. It also realizes that an annual tax-free exemption means still paying taxes; taxes which could be avoided if one only transacted with cash.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

As Banks Seek Monopoly Over Economy, “Cash Is Being Gradually Taken Away”

February 19, 2016

As Banks Seek Monopoly Over Economy, “Cash Is Being Gradually Taken Away”

emergency-cash

There is a war on for the extermination of cash.

It is the ultimate monopoly game, but there are those who are willing to put up a fight to keep cash in the game.

The powers that be on Wall Street and in the central banks are aiming to eliminate paper money in large part to continue “sustaining and even intensifying the central banks’ nightmarish experiment with negative interest rates” – a doubly dangerouseffort for economic

And banks stand to have all the control as digital transactions flow through their institutions, closely monitored and accumulating fees, penalties and charges that enrich the banks and hold customers hostage.

As Europe moves to take the 500 Euro note out of circulation, former Treasury Secretary and enabler of past crises, has called for an end to the Benjamins – the celebrated $100 note of outlaws, gangsters and all those who would oppose the new world economic order.

As Wolf Street notes:

Those motives include sustaining and even intensifying the central banks’ nightmarish experiment with negative interest rates, increasing public dependence on big banks, destroying the last vestiges of personal financial freedom and anonymity, expanding government surveillance of and control over the economy, and in the case of credit card companies and fintech firms, doing away with their biggest competitor, physical currency.

The powers that want to kill off cash already have vital technological and generational trends firmly on their side, as a result of which cash’s days as a commonly used payment method may well be numbered anyway. They also have the added bonus of widespread public ignorance, apathy, and disinterest.

[…]

“It would be fatal if citizens got the impression that cash is gradually taken away from them”: Bundesbank President Weidman.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

As War on Cash Escalates, Cash Lovers Fight Back

February 18, 2016

As War on Cash Escalates, Cash Lovers Fight Back

“It would be fatal if citizens got the impression that cash is gradually taken away from them”: Bundesbank President Weidman.

Over the last couple of days, bureaucrats at the European Commission and European Central Bank have expressed a keen interest in withdrawing the €500-note from circulation – barely a week after former Standard Chartered CEO Peter Sands published a report calling for the exact same measure. Allegedly the currency of choice for organized crime outfits around the world, the so-called “Bin Laden bill,” accounts for close to a third of the total amount of cash in existence in the Eurozone.

Then on Tuesday, Larry Summers, in an effort to keep his name in the media by hook or crook, called for the death of the $100 bill, though he lamented that removing existing notes was probably “a step too far”:

But a moratorium on printing new high denomination notes would make the world a better place. In terms of unilateral steps, the most important actor by far is the European Union. The €500 is almost six times as valuable as the $100. Some actors in Europe, notably the European Commission, have shown sympathy for the idea and European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi has shown interest as well.

We have warned for over two years (here, here, here and here) that a loose, albeit powerful, coalition of governments, central banks, big banks, credit card companies, fintech firms, NGOs, and large corporations seeks to pull the plug on cash, for their own disparate motives.

Those motives include sustaining and even intensifying the central banks’ nightmarish experiment with negative interest rates, increasing public dependence on big banks, destroying the last vestiges of personal financial freedom and anonymity, expanding government surveillance of and control over the economy, and in the case of credit card companies and fintech firms, doing away with their biggest competitor, physical currency.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Latest Version of Monopoly is Called “Ultimate Banking” and is Completely Cashless

February 16, 2016

Latest Version of Monopoly is Called “Ultimate Banking” and is Completely Cashless

The war on cash has been in the works for a very, very long time, but the propaganda campaign to convince an always gullible public to accept the scheme seems to have been hatched in earnest late last spring. For example, here are a few excerpts from the post, Martin Armstrong Reports on a Secret Meeting in London to Ban Cash:

Martin Armstrong noted at the time:

I find it extremely perplexing that I have been the only one to report that there is a secret meeting in London where Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University and Willem Butler the chief economist at Citigroup will address the central banks and advocate the elimination of all cash to bring to fruition the day when you cannot buy or sell anything without government approval. When I Googled the issue to see who has picked it up yet, to my surprise Armstrong Economics comes up first. Others are quoting me, and I even find it spreading as the Central Bank of Nigeria, but I have yet to find reports on the meeting taking place in London when my sources are direct.

Other newspapers who have covered my European tour have stated that the “crash” of which I speak is the typical stock market rather than in government. What is concerning me is the silence on this meeting where there are more and more reports about a cashless society would be better.

If we look at the the turning points on the ECM, yes they have been to the day when there has been a concentration of capital in a particular market. However, it has also picked the turning points in political decisions such as the formation of the G5 with 1985.65, the very day Greece asked for help from the IMF in 2010, to the day of 911.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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