{"id":22582,"date":"2017-01-29T15:08:58","date_gmt":"2017-01-29T20:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=22582"},"modified":"2017-01-29T15:08:58","modified_gmt":"2017-01-29T20:08:58","slug":"things-just-got-serious-in-europes-war-on-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=22582","title":{"rendered":"Things Just Got Serious in Europe\u2019s War on Cash"},"content":{"rendered":"<header>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wolfstreet.com\/2017\/01\/28\/europe-limits-on-cash-transactions-war-on-cash\/\">Things Just Got Serious in Europe\u2019s War on Cash<\/a><\/h3>\n<p class=\"entry-meta\"><strong>To protect citizens from threats as defined by apparatchiks in Brussels.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>The central authorities in Europe just launched their most important offensive to date in their multiyear War on Cash. The new move comes directly from the European Union\u2019s executive branch, the European Commission, which just\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/smart-regulation\/roadmaps\/docs\/plan_2016_028_cash_restrictions_en.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">announced<\/a>\u00a0its intention to \u201cexplore the relevance of potential upper limits to cash payments,\u201d with a view to implementing cross-regional measures in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Maximum limits on cash transactions already exist in most European countries, and the general trend is downward. Last year,\u00a0Spain joined France in placing a<a href=\"http:\/\/wolfstreet.com\/2017\/01\/04\/power-profit-fuel-war-on-cash-in-europe\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0\u20ac1,000 maximum<\/a>\u00a0on cash payments. Greece went one better, dropping its cap for cash transactions from \u20ac1,500 to \u20ac500. In simple terms, any\u00a0<em>legal<\/em>purchase of a good or service over \u20ac500 will need to be done with plastic or mobile money.<\/p>\n<p>In some countries, the maximum cash limit is significantly higher. For example, in Europe\u2019s biggest economy, Germany, recent attempts by the government to set a threshold of\u00a0<em>\u20ac5,000<\/em>\u00a0triggered a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/wolfstreet.com\/2016\/02\/18\/war-on-cash-escalates-cash-lovers-fight-back-germany-japan\/\" target=\"_blank\">fierce public backlash<\/a>. The German tabloid\u00a0<em>Bild<\/em>\u00a0published a scathing open letter titled \u201cHands Off Our Cash,\u201d while a broad spectrum of political parties condemned the proposed measures as an attack on data protection and privacy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCash allows us to remain anonymous during day-to-day transactions. In a constitutional democracy, that is a freedom that has to be defended,\u201d tweeted the Green MP Konstantin von Notz. Even Bunderbank President Jens Weidmann criticized the government\u2019s proposals, telling\u00a0<em>Bild<\/em>\u00a0(emphasis added): \u201cIt would be fatal if citizens\u00a0<em>got the impression<\/em>\u00a0that cash is being gradually taken away from them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Germany\u2019s neighbor to the south, Austria, has similar reservations about the EU\u2019s plans to suppress cash. The Deputy Economy Minister Harald Mahrer\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2016-02-12\/austrians-need-constitutional-right-to-pay-in-cash-mahrer-says\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>\u00a0that Austrians should have the constitutional right to protect their privacy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Things Just Got Serious in Europe\u2019s War on Cash To protect citizens from threats as defined by apparatchiks in Brussels. The central authorities in Europe just launched their most important offensive to date in their multiyear War on Cash. The new move comes directly from the European Union\u2019s executive branch, the European Commission, which just\u00a0announced\u00a0its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[95,1035,1034,5660,279,281,284,4927],"class_list":["post-22582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-brussels","tag-cash","tag-cashless-society","tag-don-quijones","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-war-on-cash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22583,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22582\/revisions\/22583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}