Well, that didn’t take long.
In February, we reported that a former Obama economic adviser/ex-Treasury Secretary had floated the idea of eliminating the $100 bill and the 500-euro note in the escalating war on cash.
On Wednesday, the European Central bank announced it will stop producing and issuing 500-euro notes around the end of 2018. Once the bank stops issuing the notes, those remaining in circulation will remain legal tender - at least for the time being.
In a press release, the EBC said it made the decision to eliminate the 500-euro note due to “concerns that this banknote could facilitate illicit activities.”
JP Morgan Chase Bank just fired another salvo in the “war on cash.”
The bank recently capped ATM withdrawals for non-Chase customers at $1,000 per day. The move came after the bank began installing new ATMs that dispense $100 bills. Some people were reportedly pulling tens of thousands of dollars out at one time, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. A spokeswoman said the bank “felt it was prudent to set withdrawal limits on all of our ATMs.”
Chase claimed the move was primarily to fight fraud. This is always the justification used when banks and government agencies slap limits on access to cash. But according to the WSJ report, there haven’t been signs of criminal activity in the recent big-dollar cash withdrawals from Chase ATMs:
The bank said there doesn’t appear to be fraud involved. But partly due to heightened regulatory scrutiny, banks are paying more attention to large cash transfers that could be a sign of money laundering or other types of shady activity. Typically, the card-issuing bank sets withdrawal limits, not the bank owning the ATM.”
This article was submitted by Addison Quale, SchiffGold Precious Metals Specialist. Any views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.
Many people have been talking recently about the “war on cash." With policymakers seriously talking about eliminating cash, it can be worrisome. But there is a way to avoid the consequences of the "war on cash. You just need to pick the right strategy.
With the endless lowering of interest rates and the possibility that they could turn negative, there is more incentive than ever for people to pull their dollar savings from banks and just hold on to the paper cash at home. After all, why risk your dollars in a bank that yields zero return or even charges you to hold your money? As a result, people are buying up safes, pulling their dollars out of the bank, and storing them at home.
They are kind of missing the point though. As this article points out, if interest rates are making you want to hold your money outside the banking system, why not just get REAL money and hold it outside of the banking system? Why not just buy physical gold and silver coins and bars? If you are going to buy a safe, THAT’S what you should be storing in it.
This article was written by Justin Spittler and originally published by Casey Research. Any views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.
Have you heard of “negative interest rates?”
It’s become a phenomenon with economists and the media. There’s a good chance you’ve read an article about it. But I’m writing to tell you something about negative interest rates you haven’t heard. You certainly won’t hear about it in the mainstream press.
What’s coming at you is a historic event. It’s something our grandchildren will hear stories about...much like the Great Depression or the Cold War.
What’s coming could send the price of gold much higher in the coming years. If you know what’s coming, it could mean the difference between having lots of free cash in retirement or barely getting by. To understand the gravity of this moment, let’s cover one of the most bizarre ideas in the world...
This article was submitted by Joel Bauman, SchiffGold Precious Metals Specialist. Any views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.
In the last few decades, we have seen an international trend towards a “cashless world.” Physical currency is becoming relatively scarce and the world’s money supply is made up of almost entirely electronic funds. Governments and banks are waging a war on cash and you don't want to become a victim.
According to the Federal Reserve, in July of 2013, the total amount of physical currency in the world equaled $1.2 trillion, most of it held outside the United States. This accounted for a mere 7.7% of the total $15.5 trillion money supply. (Cash, checking/savings accounts, money market accounts, stocks and bonds) The percentage of physical cash in relation to electronic funds has been steadily decreasing over the last 50 years.
Interestingly, even with the diminishing purchasing power of the US dollar, the face value of Federal Reserve notes has also been decreasing. Today the highest denomination produced by the Federal Reserve is the one hundred dollar note. US currency used to include denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000, and even $10,000. In 1969, the Federal Reserve began taking these higher denominations out of circulation. Recently, a former US Treasury Secretary floated the idea of doing away with the $100 bill as well.
The war on cash heated up this week when a former Obama economic adviser/ex-Treasury secretary floated the idea of eliminating the $100 bill.
Lawrence Summers called for death to the Benjamins in a post on his Washington Post blog titled It’s Time to Kill the $100 Bill. The post announced the release of a paper by Harvard's Mossavar Rahmani Center for Business and Government senior Fellow Peter Sands arguing that governments should stop issuing high-denomination currency such as 500 euro notes and $100 bills. The paper even proposed withdrawing such currency them from circulation.
Cash warriors always publicly center their arguments on the need to limit cash as a way to fight drug crime, terrorism, and tax fraud. This was exactly how Summers framed the argument in his blog post:
A recent New York Times feature went to great lengths to promote the idea of a cashless society, focusing on the war on cash in Sweden.
The Nordic country sits on the cutting edge of the movement away from cash. As the Times put it, cash is so “last century”:
Few places are tilting toward a cashless future as quickly as Sweden, which has become hooked on the convenience of paying by app and plastic. This tech-forward country, home to the music streaming service Spotify and the maker of the Candy Crush mobile games, has been lured by the innovations that make digital payments easier. It is also a practical matter, as many of the country’s banks no longer accept or dispense cash.”
Swedes are reportedly hiding money in microwave ovens in a desperate attempt shield it from the negative effects their central bank's "war on cash."
As Business Insider puts it, the Nordic country is “shaping up to be the first country to plunge its citizens into a fascinating — and terrifying — economic experiment: negative interest rates in a cashless society.”
The Swedish central bank, the Sveriges Riksbank, on Wednesday held its benchmark interest rate at -0.35%, the level it has been at since July. Though retail banks have yet to pass that negative rate on to Swedish consumers, they face increased pressure to do so as long as the rates remain where they are. That's a problem, because Sweden is the closest country on the planet to becoming an all-electronic cashless society."
Earlier this year, we wrote about the latest developments in the international "war on cash." Some central bankers have gone so far as to suggest that cash be eliminated entirely. In his latest podcast, Tom Woods and Charles Hugh Smith talk about why central authorities want to abolish cash and the role cash plays in a free society.
Near the end, Smith recommends investing in local businesses or real estate as a better way of protecting your savings than keeping large sums of money in the banking system. We're pretty sure he would agree that buying physical gold and silver is also a good way to save your wealth and maintain its purchasing power over the long term.
Gordon T. Long explained to USAWatchdog why he sees hyperinflation coming to America in the future and how investors should prepare for an escalated war on cash. While Long agrees with analysts like Peter Schiff and Marc Faber that the world is facing a debt crisis and major currency upheavals, he believes the world is still in the early stages of this massive transformation. Long said, “Even though it’s the biggest problem, [the dollar] will be the last to fail.”
However, when it does fail, he predicts the dollar could be officially devalued by 80% or more. For that reason, Long is extremely bullish on the precious metals in the long-term. Long is a well-known and respected economic analyst who worked for decades as a senior executive with IBM and Motorola.
This article was submitted by Addison Quale, SchiffGold Precious Metals Specialist. Any views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.
Many people have been talking recently about the “war on cash." With policymakers seriously talking about eliminating cash, it can be worrisome. But there is a way to avoid the consequences of the "war on cash. You just need to pick the right strategy.
With the endless lowering of interest rates and the possibility that they could turn negative, there is more incentive than ever for people to pull their dollar savings from banks and just hold on to the paper cash at home. After all, why risk your dollars in a bank that yields zero return or even charges you to hold your money? As a result, people are buying up safes, pulling their dollars out of the bank, and storing them at home.
This article was written by Justin Spittler and originally published by Casey Research. Any views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.
Have you heard of “negative interest rates?”
It’s become a phenomenon with economists and the media. There’s a good chance you’ve read an article about it. But I’m writing to tell you something about negative interest rates you haven’t heard. You certainly won’t hear about it in the mainstream press.
This article was submitted by Joel Bauman, SchiffGold Precious Metals Specialist. Any views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.
In the last few decades, we have seen an international trend towards a “cashless world.” Physical currency is becoming relatively scarce and the world’s money supply is made up of almost entirely electronic funds. Governments and banks are waging a war on cash and you don't want to become a victim.
According to the Federal Reserve, in July of 2013, the total amount of physical currency in the world equaled $1.2 trillion, most of it held outside the United States. This accounted for a mere 7.7% of the total $15.5 trillion money supply. (Cash, checking/savings accounts, money market accounts, stocks and bonds) The percentage of physical cash in relation to electronic funds has been steadily decreasing over the last 50 years.
Interestingly, even with the diminishing purchasing power of the US dollar, the face value of Federal Reserve notes has also been decreasing. Today the highest denomination produced by the Federal Reserve is the one hundred dollar note. US currency used to include denominations of $500, $1,000, $5,000, and even $10,000. In 1969, the Federal Reserve began taking these higher denominations out of circulation. Recently, a former US Treasury Secretary floated the idea of doing away with the $100 bill as well.
