{"id":31322,"date":"2018-02-21T07:46:01","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T12:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=31322"},"modified":"2018-02-21T07:46:01","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T12:46:01","slug":"swedish-authorities-fear-negative-spiral-as-society-goes-cashless-too-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=31322","title":{"rendered":"Swedish Authorities Fear &#8220;Negative Spiral&#8221; As Society Goes Cashless &#8216;Too Fast&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"block-zerohedge-page-title\" class=\"block block-core block-page-title-block\">\n<h3 class=\"page-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2018-02-20\/swedish-authorities-fear-negative-spiral-society-goes-cashless-too-fast\"><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">Swedish Authorities Fear &#8220;Negative Spiral&#8221; As Society Goes Cashless &#8216;Too Fast&#8217;<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"block-zerohedge-content\" class=\"block block-system block-system-main-block\">\n<article class=\"node node--type-article node--view-mode-full\" role=\"article\">\n<footer class=\"node__meta\"><\/footer>\n<div class=\"node__content\">\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p><u><strong>In 1660,<\/strong><\/u> Sweden\u2019s Riksbank was the <strong><em>first central bank in the world to issue paper currency.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><u><strong>In 2016<\/strong><\/u>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2016-11-17\/sweden-begins-planning-transition-cash-digital-currency\">Sweden began to accelerate its transition from cash to digital currency.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>At the time, Deputy Riksbank Governor Cecilia Skingsley warned:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><em>\u201cWe need to do the homework because it\u2019s not an option for the public sector to stay on the sidelines and see the private sector cut off access to central bank money for individuals.&#8221;<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A year later,<u><strong> in 2017, <\/strong><\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2017-09-25\/cash-use-plummets-swedish-government-begins-testing-cryptocurrencies\">cash in circulation was plummeting and establishment economists celebrated the battle in the war on cash. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Riksbank was actively looking toward cryptocurrencies as potential government-backed money.<\/p>\n<p><u><strong>But now, in 2018, Swedish officials are worried<\/strong><\/u> that too much (or too little in this case) is a bad thing warning:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>&#8220;If this development with cash disappearing happens too fast, it can be difficult to maintain the infrastructure\u201d for handling cash.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2018-02-18\/-no-cash-signs-everywhere-has-sweden-worried-it-s-gone-too-far\"><em>As Bloomberg reports,<\/em><\/a><strong> Sweden is widely regarded as the most cashless society on the planet<\/strong>. Most of the country\u2019s bank branches have stopped handling cash; many shops, museums and restaurants now only accept plastic or mobile payments.<\/p>\n<p><strong>But there\u2019s a downside, since many people, in particular the elderly, don\u2019t have access to the digital society.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/sites\/default\/files\/inline-images\/2018-02-20_7-22-04.jpg?itok=-Hsg10Ky\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cNo cash accepted\u201d<\/em><\/strong> signs are becoming an increasingly common sight in shops and eateries across Sweden as payments go digital and mobile.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, the amount of cash in circulation in Sweden dropped to the lowest level since 1990 and is more than 40 percent below its 2007 peak. <strong>The declines in 2016 and 2017 were the biggest on record.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/sites\/default\/files\/inline-images\/2018-02-20_7-20-32.jpg?itok=o0hMl_1p\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But the pace at which cash is vanishing has authorities worried.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>\u201cOne may get into a negative spiral which can threaten the cash infrastructure,\u201d <\/strong>Mats Dillen, the head of the parliamentary review, said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s those types of issues we are looking more closely at.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Swedish Authorities Fear &#8220;Negative Spiral&#8221; As Society Goes Cashless &#8216;Too Fast&#8217; In 1660, Sweden\u2019s Riksbank was the first central bank in the world to issue paper currency. In 2016, Sweden began to accelerate its transition from cash to digital currency. At the time, Deputy Riksbank Governor Cecilia Skingsley warned: \u201cWe need to do the homework [&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":[2,6],"tags":[1035,1034,18768,3471,771],"class_list":["post-31322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-liberty","tag-cash","tag-cashless-society","tag-cecilia-skingsley","tag-riksbank","tag-sweden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31322","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=31322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31323,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31322\/revisions\/31323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}