War on Cash Intensifies: Citibank to Stop Accepting Cash at Some BranchesBy Simon Black Yesterday, banking giant UBS proposed that eliminating Australias $100 and $50 bills would be good for the economy and good for the banks. (How convenient that a bank would propose something thats good for banks!) This isnt the first time that the financial establishment has pushed for a cashless society in Australia (or anywhere else). In September 2015, Australian bank Westpac published its Cash Free Report, suggesting that the country would become cashless by 2022. In July 2016, Australian payments firm Tyro published an enormously self-serving blog post touting the benefits of a cashless society and saying, its only a matter of time. Most notably, two days ago, Citibank (yes, THAT Citibank) announced that it was going cashless at some of its Australian branches. The media and political establishments have chimed in as well. In February of this year, the Sydney Morning Herald released a series of articles, some of which were written by officials from Australias Department of the Treasury, suggesting that eliminating cash will save billions, and that moving to a cashless society is the next step for the Australian dollar. This is how it works. The government, media, banks, and even academia have formed a single, unified chorus to push this idea out to consumers that cashless is good for everyone. And its happening across the planet, from Australia to India to Europe to North America. Theyre partially right. Going cashless probably will save a lot of money; paper currency is costly to transport in large quantities due to the need for security. Its also accurate to suggest that going cashless will be good for the banks. As UBS pointed out yesterday, de-monetizing Australias $50 and $100 bills would force anyone holding those notes to deposit them back in the banking system. Bank deposits would rise as a result, and consequently, so would bank profits. Governments would benefit from a cashless society because all savings would be in the banking system, and they have full regulatory control over the banks. This means that your politicians would have more control over your savings and fewer obstacles to impose capital controls or engage in Civil Asset Forfeiture. Even policy wonk academics would have a rare opportunity to take their lousy theories and PhD dissertations for a test drive. Everyone benefits from a cashless society except for you. For individuals, cash still has plenty of important advantages. Cash is one of the few remaining options for financial privacy that doesnt create a permanent record of every purchase or transaction you make. Its also an easy way to reduce your exposure to risks in the broader financial system. Think about it the banking system is full of institutions that never miss an opportunity to demonstrate they cannot be trusted with our money. Hardly a month goes by without some major banking scandal; theyre caught colluding on exchange rates, manipulating interest rates, fraudulently establishing fake accounts without customer consent (and then charging us fees on top of that). Its disgraceful. In addition, bank safety is far from certain. In many banking systems across the world (especially in Europe right now), banks have precariously low levels of capital and are already suffering the effects of negative interest rates. Even in the United States, banks routinely employ very clever accounting tricks to conceal their true financial condition. Theres also the fact that, the moment you make a deposit at a bank, its no longer your money. It becomes the banks money. And they can do with it as they please, whether its freezing you out of your account or making idiotic investments with minimal reserve requirements. You have no say in the matter. As a bank depositor, youre nothing more than an unsecured creditor of a financial institution which may or may not allow you to withdraw your own savings. If you dont believe me, take a trip down to your bank and ask to withdraw $25,000. See how quickly they treat you like a criminal terrorist. Bottom line, conventional banking is not risk-free. And holding cash is one way to reduce that risk. Cash essentially eliminates the middleman between you and your savings at least, the portion of your savings that can be easily exchanged for goods and services in the economy. Cash is a pitiful store of value over the long-term. Precious metals and other real assets are much better alternatives. But we still cant walk into Starbucks and pay for a cup of coffee with a quarter-ounce silver coin. So until that day comes, cash remains an asset that youll want to hold. Just make sure you dont go overboard. The War on Cash is very real. So if you have more than a couple of months worth of living expenses, youre taking on unnecessary risk. Also, keep the denominations low. As the case with India shows (see the photo), governments have no compunction about violating the public trust with immediate effect and without warning. So if youre in the US, dont keep a mountain of $100 bills in your safe. Keep 10s, 20s, and 50s. If youre in Europe, definitely avoid the 500 and 200 euro notes, opt for 20s and 50s. This article was originally published at Sovereign Man. This is, to use the technical word, bullshit. Less than a week after Indias surprise move to scrap its highest denomination cash notes, another front in the War on Cash has intensified down under in Australia. It is not scrapping them but replacing them with a new more secure design. The current Prime Minister ran on ending corruption, dark money, funding of terrorism, etc.and this is part of fulfilling that promise, as the old notes are called in to bring dark money (since the old notes can no longer be used) into the banking, and thus taxing system. So far, its seems well-designed and is working, despite hysterical outcries (mostly from criminals) such as this article. Indias Great Bank Note Switch Appears To Be Working $30 Billion In Rs Deposited In Banks Indias PM, Narendra Modi, surprised and even shocked many when he announced that Rs 500 and 1,000 notes would no longer be legal currency. This is some 86% of the entire cash money supply of the country. There would be a pause and obviously no little chaos as replacement notes of different design were made available. The aim was and is to clamp down on Indias severe problem with black money. New replacement notes will be issued when the dust settles. This article starts with a lie and lost me there: bullshit fake journalism. You are probably right that this is nothing but scare techniques for now, but someday world governments will make sure they can keep track of every dollar you have. The reason I believe they will is because the Bible tells us that one day we wont be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast. What better way to keep track of everyone except through their money? So the Bible told us everything else thats ever happened too, right? The Bible tells us what happened with the Hebrews for us to take heed that we dont repeat the same mistakes. Also what is going to happen in the future concerning Gods coming kingdom and who will have eternal life in that kingdom. If you dont want to believe the Bible that is your option. Not mentioned was the requirement that anyone turning in old cash would have to show ID at the time. Australians are by any measure idiots that ignored gun bans and all forms of government Australians can own guns, just not combat weapons after one was used to kill 35 people in a mass shooting. They banned such weapons, and since confiscation was illegal, had a gun buy back program that got over 700,000 weapons off the streets. Since then (1996), gun murder is down 60%, overall murder rates down 50%. In 2005, with 20 million, Australia had 3 million private guns. The murder rate the past decades been under 1/100K. With an even larger population (it was 18 million when the law was changed and 23 million today) the number of gun murders dropped from 516 in 1996 to 230 in 2013. Only 14% of murders, which are at an all time low, were by gun. Overall murder rate is down 50%. Heritage.org, a right wing pro-gun think tank ranks Australia an A+ for freedom, ranking 5th in the world. they have been grooming us for this since 1987. this is so sad. you will have to deposit your cash by a certain date or it is worthless. there will be no such thing as off the books. no more mob. no more dope dealing. no more fun crap games. no tip for pizza. life is done as we know it in America. write a check at church. watch for a revolt. No cash, only internet numbers, which will not cost as much as a minter. 