Kenneth Rogoff’s War on Cash

Sovereign Man’s Simon Black warns of the suggestions for a cashless Society: (bold mine)

Rogoff begins asking the question: “Has the time come to consider phasing out anonymous paper currency, starting with large-denomination notes?”

He goes on to explain that getting rid of paper currency would provide two critical benefits:

1) It would reduce crime and tax evasion;

2) It would allow central banks to drop interest rates BELOW ZERO.

I was stunned. Though given the status quo thinking we have to put up with today, I really shouldn’t have been.

In fairness, Mr. Rogoff is an academic. It’s his job to dispassionately analyze data and render conclusions, whatever they may be. What’s scary is that some dim-witted politician will likely jump all over this.

People have been deluded into believing that only criminals and tax cheats hold cash in large denominations. And the conclusion is that if we ban cash, criminals will simply quit their craft because they’ll no longer have an officially-sanctioned medium of exchange.

This is total baloney, obviously. Banning cash doesn’t eliminate crime. It just creates a new cottage industry for cash alternatives.

Drug deals can just as easily go down swapping share certificate of Apple. Or title to a new car. Any number of things.

Perhaps the more important point, however, is the notion that eliminating cash frees up central bankers to force interest rates into negative territory.

The contention is that the official data tells us that inflation is tame. Consequently, central banks should be free to expand the money supply and ratchet down interest rates even more. 

There’s just one problem: interest rates are basically at zero already.

Technically a central banker could drop interest rates to below zero.

But if they did that, who in his/her right mind would hold their savings at a bank where they would have to PAY THE BANK to make wild bets with their money? 

People would just go to physical cash instead.

Solution? Eliminate cash! Then people would be forced to suffer NEGATIVE interest rates… and thus have a HUGE INCENTIVE to spend as much as they can as quickly as they can. Forget about putting something aside for a rainy day.

But hey, at least the stock market would probably rise.

Now, I highly doubt that physical cash is going to be sucked out of the system… tomorrow. But the War on Cash is very real indeed.

As I travel around the world, I’ve seen with my own eyes– CASH has become the #1 hot button item for customs agents everywhere. They even have highly trained cash sniffing dogs now.

It’s becoming more and more obvious that people should divorce themselves from this system and consider holding at least a portion of their savings in something other than fiat currency.

And of all the options out there, it’s hard to beat the convenience and tradition of precious metals.

Indeed governments have increasingly been waging war on cash. 

The latest: Israel’s government has recently declared limits on cash transactions.

From Reuters: Cash transactions between businesses will be limited to 5,000 shekels ($1,400) under an Israeli government plan to fight money laundering and tax evasion.

I have previously shown that various governments have waged war on cash like Mexico, Italy, Russia, Nigeria and Ghana or even in the US.

In the Philippines I had my share of nightmare with the domestic authorities at the domestic airport whom harassed me for bringing slightly excess cash (based on the mandated limits) for an outbound trip predicated on a regulation that I wasn’t even aware of then. As a side note, the slightly excess cash was meant as gift for my Mom who resides overseas!!

Money laundering or tax evasion has served as the stereotyped alibi or scapegoat for the war on cash. But such is a sign of desperation. Remember cash as currency or medium of exchange, are issued to the citizenry by the respective governments who wield the monopoly seignorage. So by waging war on cash, governments have not only assailed on their basic function, they reveal signs of dissatisfaction with current revenues from such seignorage privilege.

War on cash serves as an extension of financial repression policies. 

The fundamental reason is that governments intend to capture even more of the public’s resources (directly and indirectly) to fund the interest of political agents and their private sector allies. It's is a sign of unmitigated greed imposed on society by force.

The real targets are really not money laundering or tax evasion but the cash holding society, particularly the informal economy. Again this is a sign of desperation.

Statist always conjure up reasons for state control over everything.They always point to so-called benefits without looking at the costs. But costs are not benefits. 

For instance, the importance of cash came into the limelight when the western banking system nearly collapsed in 2008. In Europe, many took shelter by hoarding € 500 cash. So the assumption to migrate to a cashless society extrapolates that the banking sector and the governments are risk free.

But this is something untrue. In fact both the government and banks are the major sources of risks. Just look at the massive build up of debt levels of major economies. What happens when all these unravels? 

Yet the war on cash is also based on the mirage that growth in debt and transfer of resources will have little or even NO limits or repercussions. This is utterly wrong. The war on cash only allows the establishment to buy time before their unsustainable system implodes.

The Importance of Cash: The case of the €500 Note

Contra many governments whom has been at war with cash, e.g. Italy, Mexico, Russia, Nigeria and Ghana and US (add to this my personal experience at the domestic airport) here’s why cash plays a vital role in society.

An incisive anecdote from the Wall Street Real Times Economic Blog:

After the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, public’s faith in banks wavered in many countries, sending people to exchange their savings for cash. Demand for the euro banknotes surged in and outside the euro area. “We could have not handled it without the €500 note,” Mr. Heinonen said.

Cash may function as one of the potential safehavens against bank failures.

Expect the War on Bitcoin to Spread to Gold and Silver

All governments hate competition, especially when it comes to money. Thus they will work to subvert any threat on their monopoly hold on money.

Sovereign Man’s Simon Black writes:

It was just last week in the Land of the Free that a Federal judge declared Bitcoin to be a currency.

And almost immediately after, the SEC announced ‘investigations’ into the digital currency.

(You remember the SEC, the guys who are tasked with protecting the public from dodgy investments… yet they routinely give their blessing to the likes of Madoff, Enron, toxic mortgage bonds, etc.)

This seems to have started a chain reaction.

Yesterday the German government took formal steps to recognize Bitcoin as form of ‘private money’, and subsequently rolled out steps to tax it.

TRUTH: These moves have nothing to do with consumer protection. Or raising tax revenue, for that matter.

What they’re really trying to do is send a clear message– if you use Bitcoin, there will be consequences.

This isn’t even really about Bitcoin. The big picture issue is that governments are scared to death of currency alternatives catching fire.

With so much debt and monetary stress in the global economy, it’s becoming increasingly clear by the day that the current fiat experiment is in serious trouble.

The only reason it still works is because (a) people continue to have confidence in the system, and (b) there really is no mainstream alternative to holding paper currency.

This last fact is paramount. If a viable currency alternative were introduced that became mainstream and popular, governments would no longer be able to perpetrate the fraudulent monetary system. The game would be up.

Consequently, they have a huge incentive to stomp out any currency alternative at the first sign of going mainstream.

Bitcoin is one such currency alternative that has started to creep into the mainstream press. As such, Western governments are now working diligently to eliminate its appeal as quickly as possible.

I expect they’ll use similar tactics down the road with precious metals.

Though the market for gold is so much larger, it is still widely viewed by the majority of investors as a ‘commodity’, not money… and certainly not a currency alternative.

People typically speculate in gold hoping to sell at a higher nominal price, thus generating a return in paper currency terms.

But this is starting to change.

Right now we’re in an accumulation and education phase. As more people begin losing confidence in the system, the benefits of holding physical gold instead of paper are becoming more clear to the public.

Meanwhile, people are starting to accumulate their first, small positions in gold and silver.

Eventually, though, as the unwinding of this central banking fiat system accelerates, we’ll hit another phase in which precious metals become a medium of exchange.

I’ve seen this already in a number of countries around the world, particularly in Asia. People trade gold for land, silver for food, etc.

But the concept will become more mainstream in the West, and we’ll see a number of signs.

For example, all the “we BUY gold” stores will start advertising “we SELL gold”. Gold and silver will be written into summer blockbuster films. Certain consumer goods will be quoted in grams or miligrams of gold.

It’s at this point that the concept of precious metals as a currency alternative will enter the cultural psyche.

And you can be sure that governments will use these exact same tactics to eliminate this threat… because there’s really no limit to how far they’ll go to protect their fraud and keep the party going just a little bit longer.

They’ll ‘investigate’ gold, if such a thing is even possible. Uncle Sam will sick the SEC and IRS on gold, claiming tax evasion, terrorist financing, and investment fraud.

And they’ll make a big fuss about gold-related taxes, going so far as to declare massive windfall profits taxes, or even imposing a ‘precious metals wealth tax’ that penalizes anyone holding gold.

This is one of the strongest reasons to hold gold overseas, locked away in a stable jurisdiction out of their control. And when set up properly, such holdings are completely private and non-reportable.

Well the war on gold has been an ongoing thing. India’s broadening assault on gold signifies as a premier example.

The War on Bitcoin has also become global. An Australian bank recently closed a bitcoin payment processor, and Thailand’s central bank has imposed a preliminary blanket ban on bitcoin “because of a lack of existing laws that dealt with the relatively new realm of anonymous, cryptographically protected digital currencies”.

The good news is that in some emerging markets like Kenya, bitcoin have served the interests of the informal and unbanked sector, where in combination with mobile banking (M Pesa), one third of Kenyans now have bitcoin wallets or have access to bitcoins.

Yet if the bond market carnage continues that could usher in another global crisis then expect the war on alternative currencies as gold, bitcoins and even cash to intensify.

War on Cash: Paying Cash Leads To Police Raid

Paying in cash can lead to a police raid. Austrian Economist Joseph Salerno at the Mises Blog narrates:

It all started one Saturday morning when Jarl Syvertsen, a 59-year-old disabled Norwegian man, purchased a PC, TVs, and washing machines for 80,000 kroner (roughly US$13,000) which he paid in cash. The store immediately alerted the police about the large cash payment. On Sunday a male and a female police officer appeared on Mr Syvertsen’s doorstep. Upon seeing them, Mr. Syvertsen at first feared that something may have happened to his mother, who is 86 years old and resides in a nursing home. But the police were there with a warrant to search his home, charging that the cash he had spent was money that “came from a criminal offense.” In fact, the money was actually part of an approximately one-million dollar advance on an inheritance he had received. Mr. Syvertsen attempted several times to explain to the officers where the money had come from and to show them a letter confirming that fact, but they would have none of it and proceeded to invade his home and his privacy. Eventually the police realized their error and left his home.

Although the police now admit that they investigated Mr. Syvertsen prior to the warrant being issued and found that he had never been implicated in any criminal activity, they insist that “there were reasonable grounds to suspect” criminal activity given the “sum of the information available,” that is,  the large cash payment. As Mr. Syvertsen points out, however, had the police waited until Monday, the matter could have been resolved “in a single phone call to the bank.” But the police are unrepentant and have the unmitigated gall to lecture law abiding citizens against carrying large sums of cash on their persons for their own safety–against private thugs, not police thugs of course. According to acting station commander Jarle Kolstad:

It is far safer to pay such large amounts [with] cards than to go with 80,000 [kroner] in cash on the body. Not because you risk getting the police at the door [really?], but because it is safer to use the cards. . . .

Mr Syvertsen’s reply to such self-serving nonsense?

It’s not stamped on my forehead that I have 80,000 [kroner] on the inside pocket, so I judge [it] as quite safe. Besides, I have previously experienced not [being able to] pay because payment terminals are down. Therefore, I chose to pay with cash, and there is no prohibition [against it] in Norwegian law. . . .

In the aftermath of this egregious home invasion, Mr. Syvertsen is suing the police for compensation. In the meantime, his experience with such lawless and arbitrary police conduct makes him feel unsafe in his own home and leaves him wondering “How low the threshold is supposed to be for police to intrude into private homes”? Well Mr. Syvertsen,as in the case of any government war against its own people (e.g., the War on Drugs, the War on Terror etc.) the threshold is very low indeed.

The political class via governments are trying to push all transactions into the banking system for them to control, regulate and easily seize them when expedient. That’s how seemingly desperate governments are today

War on Cash: Nigeria and Ghana Experiment with Cashless System

Governments and banksters have been trying their darn best to put the savings of their constituencies on their palms.

African nations of Nigeria and Ghana will be experimenting with cashless transactions.

The Nigerian program from theNextweb.com

Last week at the World Economic Forum on Africa held in Cape Town, South Africa the Nigerian National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and MasterCard announced their collaboration with plans to roll-out an initial 13 million MasterCard-branded National Identity Smart Cards with electronic payment capability.

The 13 million cards will form part of a pilot program which will see the West African country’s citizens who are 16 years and older and those who have been residents in Nigeria for more than two years being issued with the new National Identity Smart Cards.

This announcement by Nigeria sees it following in South Africa’s footsteps as the country’s Department of Home Affairs has announced that it intends starting to issue smart ID cards to citizens starting in July, 2013 at a rate of  3 million smart ID cards a year.

It is hoped in both cases that the smart ID cards will help curb the prevalent fabrication of false identity documents in both Nigeria and South Africa as they will be embedded with microchips and with the South African smart ID cards being reported to incorporate biometric features that will also prevent identity theft as a result of the fraudulent use of a stolen or lost smart ID card.

There is also a notable difference between the South African and Nigerian smart ID cards with the West African country’s smart ID cards coming with immediate payment capability’s courtesy of MasterCard’s prepaid payment technology. The cards are also reported to come loaded with 12 other applications.

The cashless project in Ghana from the spyghana.com

Ghana, as a developing country in West Africa has taken the initiative to introduce a system where businesses can be done without using physical cash. Bank of Ghana, the regulator of the banking industry through Ghana Interbank, Payment and Settlement Systems (GhiPPS) introduced e-zwich card, where Ghanaians will feel comfortable in using the card to transact businesses rather than physical cash.

Even though there has been several effort to educate the masses about the product, the education on this e-zwich have not go well with many Ghanaians. A lot of the citizens as of today do not even know there is something called e-zwich card. With a population more than half of it been illiterate, there must be a thorough education where all Ghanaians will understand and use the platform.

In Ghana, some of the common cards we can identify are such as Sika Card by SSB, Visa Horizon by Standard Chartered Bank (Stored Value cards), deployment of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) and ATM cards by banks eCard (CAL Bank, Ecobank) and among others.

Harmless they all seem. But centralization means that people's lives will increasingly be subject to government control. Identity cards can be easily altered, changed or subjected to manipulations upon government's whim. These will be like sci-fi movies where people's identities can be wiped out or expunged through programming: You are alive, but you don't exist says the system

 

This also shows why governments will attack gold, bitcoins and cash, and in their stead promote centralized systems based on national IDs complimented by facilities of digital cash payments systems and other 'flavoring' or "add on" called applications.  Such systems will make confiscations and totalitarianism a cinch.

Cash Hoarding No Security Against Confiscation, UK’s Panic Buying of Physical Gold

A gold bear analyst recently commented that the confiscation of bank deposits particularly in Cyprus represents a bearish factor for gold. The reasoning goes that deposit confiscation will motivate people to pull money out of the banking system and hold onto cash by storing them in pillow mattresses rather than own gold, because gold is subject to seizures.

Well lucky for the bloke that gold prices fell in his direction.

But such logic doesn’t stand on firm grounds. While gold is also subject to confiscations, hoarding cash does not secure one’s savings or purchasing power from government's predation.

Governments around the world has embarked on the trend to ban cash or to limit cash transactions. Such has been the case of Russia, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Louisiana in the US,  Greece and elsewhere. Scotland proposes to restrict use of cash on scrap metal sales, while Sweden’s anti-cash programs promoted by banksters have been stonewalled by the public.  

A few years back, I had a personal nightmare with Philippine airport authorities, who initially threatened confiscation of my excess cash holdings due to arbitrary Anti Money regulations that I have not been aware of.

And this is partly why people have sought alternative currencies such as the use of Tide detergent (in the US) or of Bitcoins.

As a side note, bitcoins after the recent crash, which ironically had been coincidental with gold’s flash crash, has began to show signs of recovery also along with gold prices.

In addition, governments confiscation of people’s savings are being done directly (deposits) and indirectly (inflation), so cash holdings provide no better safehaven alternative to gold. Both are subject to legal forfeitures but at least gold can preserve the purchasing power from growing aggressiveness by central banks to resort to the paper money solution. Central bankers have now been revered by media as superheroes. Move aside Iron Man and the Avengers, here comes Bernanke, Draghi, Kuroda, Carney, Tetangco and their ilk to save the world.

Yet events in UK has also been proving the opposite of such theory as the UK's physical gold market reveals of the same panic buying spree as elsewhere.

From Bloomberg: (bold mine)

Britain’s Royal Mint, established in the 13th century, sold more than three times more gold coins this month than a year earlier as prices declined.

Sales are more than 150 percent higher than last month, according to Shane Bissett, director of bullion and commemorative coin at the Royal Mint. Gold is down 11 percent this month, heading for the biggest drop since September 2011.

Gold markets operates in a distinct market relative to other commodity markets. Demand is hardly driven by consumption but by demand due to gold’s quasi money properties (store of value) or as seen by mainstream as “investment” and or from speculative functions or particularly reservation price model or from reservation demand.

Hence when media reports that physical gold inventories have been strained, then this means that much of the current cumulative physical gold holders, which consist of all gold that had ever been mined since history (171,300 tonnes), simply have resisted selling, since they don’t see current price levels as adequate.

Alternatively this means that when the physical markets have seen tight inventory pressures, which means that the current mining output can’t service (close to 2,500 tonnes annual), aside from where most current gold owners have resisted the temptations to sell, then much of the selling may have come from elsewhere.  They may come from stealth central bank selling via bullion banks or from Wall Street’s paper gold. Central banks own 19% of all above ground gold

In short actions in the physical "non-political individual" markets have been exposing on the attempts to manipulate the gold markets via bear raids using "Wall Street-government" paper gold.

The physical markets also reveals that gold hasn’t lost its luster as insurance and as safehaven alternative in the quest for the preservation of the purchasing power by the non-political public.

War on Cash and Informal Economy: Russia to ban Transactions over $10,000

Since the financial crisis of 2008, governments around the world have taken financial repression to a higher level. 

Russia’s government plans to restrict cash transactions supposedly to increase bank reserves, as well as, to curtail her informal economy which allegedly has grown to at 50%-65% of national output.

From Russia Beyond the Headlines (hat tip Zero Hedge) [bold mine]

Russia may ban cash payments for purchases of more than 300,000 rubles (around $10,000) starting in 2015. The move is expected to boost banks’ cash reserves and put a damper on Russia’s shadow economy. However, the middle class will most likely end up having to pay the price for the scheme.

Moscow is looking to kill two birds with one stone: Firstly, it wants to bring some of the population’s “grey” income out of the shadow; secondly, it wants to increase the volume of cash reserves in the banks. The government’s bill will introduce the new rule to the State Duma. The document was prepared by the Ministry of Finance and approved by the government.

The proposed transition, from the same article.

The restrictions on cash transactions will develop in two phases. In 2014, a ban on cash payments for purchases worth more than 600,000 rubles (about $19,500) will be introduced; the limit will then be halved to 300,000 rubles in 2015. Furthermore, the document introduces mandatory, cash-free, salary payments.

Smaller companies with fewer than 35 employees will be the only exception, and trade companies will be able to pay salaries in cash if they employ no more than 20 people on staff.

Informal economies are basically products of an anti-business regimes based on over-regulations and various forms of social and economic controls, bureaucratic morass, high taxes, rampant inflationism and high welfare economies or simply said a highly politicized economic environment. 

Informal economies are what I would call guerrilla capitalism. 

Yet the desire to simply restrict cash transactions will likely fail, and the produce outcomes opposite of the intentions. 

Such restrictions will likely provide a huge disincentive for Russian firms to expand beyond 35 employees (20 for trading firms) that would limit attaining competitiveness. 

Russian firms are also likely take advantage of such legal loopholes to maintain numerous small companies than to consolidate them. 

In short, more restrictions promote the incentives to remain in the informal or shadow economy.

More from the report:

Even now, cash withdrawals on payday account for around 85 percent of all ATM transactions. Moreover, in 2005–2011, cash flows more than quadrupled. According to Bank of Russia estimates, more than 90 percent of all commodity purchases in Russia are paid for in cash.

The government is now trying to bring the shadow economy into the light and increase money flows into the treasury, according to Investcafe analyst Yekaterina Kondrashova. In her words, as soon as the new rules come into effect, those using unofficial wage payment schemes will encounter certain difficulties, although there could be some ways to circumvent the law.

Governments are against informal economy simply because they defy political control and in so doing the private sectors retain their resources or savings, which the government desires to tap or to confiscate via taxation or various fees, so governments naturally come up with the usual excuses to justify their actions, such as money laundering…

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Anticorruption Committee estimate the market for money laundering and cash conversions at somewhere between 3.5 and 7 trillion rubles ($113–230 billion) — about 60 percent of the Russian federal budget.

Rosstat reports that the volume of the shadow economy (“grey” money from tax evasion, compensations paid as “cash in envelopes” and violations of currency and foreign trade regulations) is at least 15 percent of the GDP, according to Ricom-Trust senior analyst Vladislav Zhukovsky.

Given the substantial criminal activity and illegal entrepreneurship, the grey and black economies account for 50–65 percent of GDP. Even former Central Bank Chief Sergey Ignatyev had to admit that about $50 billion was taken out of Russia illegally in 2012 alone.

Russia’s informal economy has been expanding during the post-USSR era, the informal economy grew from an estimated 23% in 1993 to 46.6% in 2006, and now 50-65% based on the above report.

Yuriy Timofeyev of the Frankfurt School in a a paper “The Effects of the Informal Sector on Income of the Poor in Russia” notes that Russia’s informal economy “played a significant role in stimulating the country’s  economic activities and in educating the new businessmen in many skills”. 

And that “In some sense, the shadow economy has been a place where many economic entities have gained initial experience and entrepreneurial skills and have accumulated the initial capital needed for a transfer into the official sector. The shadow economy, to some extent, has played a positive role, stimulated overall economic activities, and has generated employment and additional income, which is especially important for the poor part of the population”. 

In other words, restricting cash flows will prevent productive "informal" enterprises from flourishing and from transferring to the official sector. Such policies would only defeat its purpose.

So the Russian government will squeeze wealth from productive sector and transfer them to the politically privileged banking system via building up of cash reserves. Of course, the Russia's banking system serves as main intermediaries to the funding needs of the government (foreign ownership of Russian bonds are low), aside from direct financing.

I would also like to add that the informal economy is not necessarily "free". They principally include informal arrangements with many authorities via bribery or other forms of business easing concessions or popularly known as "corruption". 

If measured from Transparency International, Russia ranks as one of the most 'corrupt" countries in the world (133 out of 176 in 2006). Bribes accounted for 20% of GDP as of 2005. 

So "corruption" is tightly linked with the informal economy.  In short, "corruption" represents as another offshoot to economic repression, aside from the informal economy.

Yet more politicization and cronyinsm from the same article:

There is another side to the move toward plastic, however. Cash-free payments will result in higher prices for some goods and services. The middle class will suffer the most, because the “risk group” includes property and automobile transactions. The luxury segment will also be affected, including customized tours.

The problem is that Russian banks charge commissions ranging from 2–4 percent of the total amount of cash-free transfers. Sberbank charges up to 2 percent, says Irina Tyurina, spokesperson for the Russian Union of Travel Agencies.

Well so much for the bullishness in emerging market economies who punishes productive activities.

Mexico’s Government Declares War on Cash

The war on cash transactions has been gaining traction among governments. Crisis stricken European countries as Italy, Spain and Greece have earlier initiated the curtailment in the use of cash. 

The Mexican government has joined this bandwagon by announcing a ban on “large” cash transactions supposedly to stem money laundering, most likely emanating from the drug war.

From the Washington Post 

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has signed into law a ban on large cash transactions as part of an effort to fight money laundering that experts estimate may amount to around $10 billion per year in Mexico.

The bill forbids buyers and sellers from giving or accepting cash payments of more than a half million pesos ($38,750) for real-estate purchases. It also forbids cash purchases of more than 200,000 pesos ($15,500) for automobiles or items like jewelry and lottery tickets.

It is kindda odd for governments to pin the blame on the public in the knowledge that for the top 10 lists of most corrupt government officials, many of them have been known to launder pelf acquired during their morally tainted regimes. 

In the financial world they are known as Politically Exposed Person (PEP), which according to Wikipedia.org, “describes a person who has been entrusted with a prominent public function, or an individual who is closely related to such a person” 

The Wikipedia.org also notes of the relationship between corruption and money laundering… (bold mine)

By virtue of their position and the influence that they may hold, a PEP generally presents a higher risk for potential involvement in bribery and corruption. Most financial institutions view such clients as potential compliance risks and perform enhanced monitoring of accounts that fall within this category….

PEP-specific compliance legislation underlines the link between corrupt politicians, money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Since September 11, 2001, more than 100 countries have changed their laws related to financial services regulation, with the fight against political corruption playing a fundamental role. Despite attempts at regulation, certain political leaders like Muammar Gaddafi and Hosni Mubarak have made news for having frozen assets located in US banks that did not follow these processes for these individuals.

So by virtue of the connection of corruption and laundering then Mexico cash ban should also implicate politicians. But this isn’t likely the real score.

In the understanding the politicians typically use noble sounding justifications to camouflage the genuine design to impose social controls, cash bans have mostly been about governments wanting to take control of the public’s savings in order to finance their profligacy.

Except for the quirk this 2012 in terms of government budget as % of GDP—perhaps due to initial reporting, but as of September Mexico’s debt will equal to 42.9% of GDP—generally speaking, Mexico’s fiscal position (mostly supported by oil revenues) has been in marked deterioration. (chart from tradingeconomics.com) 

With oil production falling from declining reserves, and where oil revenues account for 40% of Mexico's national budget…

…we now get a better picture or understanding of the seeming desperation exhibited by the Mexican government which impels them to corral public’s savings through currency restrictions.

Of course ban on cash would do little to control supposed “money laundering” which in reality represents an offshoot to corrupt arbitrary laws.

In the US, the war on drugs, for instance, has prompted drug trades to migrate to other marketable commodities as the Tide liquid detergents as means of payment. Instead of dealing with failure of the war on drugs, governments typically resort to attacking symptoms. This has been no less than political showmanship or the pretense of doing something. 

Economic and financial restrictions or blockade against Iran by the US has prompted Iran to use gold as money. So essentially, the US government has taken steps to underwrite the decline of the US dollar standard by incentivizing emerging markets to trade using other mediums as gold. 

As I previously wrote, 

As governments stifle people’s social and commercial activities through tyrannical laws, expect the use of more cash, local currencies or commodities (such as Tide) as alternative medium of exchanges, as the informal or shadow economies grow. 

Most importantly, real assets will become more valuable and may become an integral part of money, as sustained policies of inflationism, as Voltaire once said, will bring fiat money back to its intrinsic value—zero. 

The Mexican government’s war on cash will do little to help what truly has been the problem of political greed.

Use Cash for Freedom

I had a gruesome first hand experience on how governments disdains the use of cash.

Sadly this has not been an isolated experience, but a deepening troublesome political trend around the world, particularly in developed economies.

Governments would like to confiscate more of the public’s resources to finance their lavish ways. So the compulsion to transact through their institutional accomplices, the politically endowed banking system.

Through stricter unilateral regulations or immoral laws, governments through the banking system place the public’s hard earned savings under intense scrutiny, and criminalize the actions of the innocent, whom have been uninformed by the rapid pace of changes in manifold regulations covering a wide swath of social activities through the banking system.

Private transactions which does not conform with the goals and the interests of the political authorities risks confiscation. Worst is the trauma of being labeled a criminal. Increasingly desperate governments have wantonly been in violation of the property rights of their citizenry.

A vote against government is to use cash transactions, that’s because cash, according to Charles Goyette at the LewRockwell.com, represents freedom

Mr. Goyette writes, (bold emphasis mine)

Governments hate that cash gives you anonymity. And they are often very anxious to track it and to control your use of it. They often attempt to criminalize the use of cash or at least criminalize having too much of it around.

Right now, 7% of the U.S. economy is cash-based. Across the Eurozone, it's a little bit higher, 9%, but in Sweden cash transactions are falling by the wayside. You can't use cash for buses there. A growing number of businesses are going entirely cashless. In fact, only 3% of all purchases in Sweden are transacted in cash. And some people think that 3% is too much.

Now, there are things you give up when you go cashless, and privacy is only one of them. Because you also give up a piece of every transaction to the facilitating financial institution, a state-approved financial institution that is going to take a cut one way or another of every purchase that it processes. And that cut will be paid by you.

In the United States, the government has implemented increasingly punitive and burdensome measures for those who use cash. Banks, for example, are required to file reports on the use of cash in certain circumstances, including suspicious persons reports for some cash activities. In fact, if you seem to be trying to transact in cash below the reporting threshold, that alone can trigger a suspicious persons report on you. Like a lot of the states' heavy-handed measures, this was all targeted at getting those drug dealers.

As earlier pointed out, governments has used all sorts of "noble" excuses like money laundering, tax evasion, the war on drugs and etc… to justify their confiscatory actions which in reality represents no more than financial repression.

And as governments tighten the noose on the public, people will intuitively look for ingenious alternatives to outflank such oppressive policies.

In the US, the liquid detergent Tide appears to have emerged even as an alternative to cash.

Writes Professor Joseph Salerno at the Mises Institute.

As has been widely reported recently, an unlikely crime wave has rapidly spread throughout the United States and has taken local law-enforcement officials by surprise. The theft of Tide liquid laundry detergent is pandemic throughout cities in the United States. One individual alone stole $25,000 worth of Tide detergent during a 15-month crime spree, and large retailers are taking special security measures to protect their inventories of Tide. For example, CVS is locking down Tide alongside commonly stolen items like flu medications. Liquid Tide retails for $10–$20 per bottle and sells on the black market for $5–$10. Individual bottles of Tide bear no serial numbers, making them impossible to track. So some enterprising thieves operate as arbitrageurs buying at the black-market price and reselling to the stores, presumably at the wholesale price. Even more puzzling is the fact that no other brand of detergent has been targeted.

What gives here? This is just another confirmation of Menger's insight that the market responds to the absence of sound money by monetizing highly salable commodities. It is clear that Tide has emerged as a subsidiary local currency for black-market, especially drug, transactions — but for legal transactions in low-income areas as well. Indeed police report that Tide is being exchanged for heroin and methamphetamine and that drug dealers possess inventories of the commodity that they are also willing to sell.

As governments stifle people’s social and commercial activities through tyrannical laws, expect the use of more cash, local currencies or commodities (such as Tide) as alternative medium of exchanges, as the informal or shadow economies grow.

Most importantly, real assets will become more valuable and may become an integral part of money, as sustained policies of inflationism, as Voltaire once said, will bring fiat money back to its intrinsic value—zero.

Money which emerges from the markets will be emblematic of freedom.

Italian Government Restricts the Use of Cash

My wretched airport experience last year has a link to what’s going on in Italy.

Basically global governments have used money laundering as an excuse or as a front to compel the public to migrate their transactions into the politically privileged banking system so that these transactions can be monitored and subsequently bankrolled to finance the governments. I think this represents part of the financial repression.

From Bloomberg (hat tip Bob Wenzel) [bold emphasis mine]

Prime Minister Mario Monti, in office just over a month, wants landlords, plumbers, electricians and small businesses to stop conducting large transactions in cash, which critics say helps them evade taxes. The government on Dec. 4 reduced the maximum allowed cash payment to 1,000 euros from 2,500 euros.

“If they force us to use credit cards, prices will go up,” said d’Andrea, noting that many retailers offer discounts to customers who pay in cash and don’t demand a receipt, in effect splitting with them the savings from evading the country’s 21 percent sales tax. She may curtail future purchases if she’s unable to use cash, d’Andrea said.

Italy loses more than 120 billion euros in unpaid taxes every year, according to the Equitalia tax collection agency. The country spends another 10 billion euros annually on security and labor for processing cash transactions, according to banking association ABI.

Debt Crisis

Monti is focusing on curtailing evasion as one way to reduce Italy’s 1.9 trillion-euro debt, which is bigger than Spain, Greece, Ireland and Portugal’s combined. Investor concern that Italy remains at risk of being overwhelmed by the region’s debt crisis pushed the country’s borrowing costs to euro-era records last month.

In Europe, Italy has a large shadow or informal economy (chart from the Economist) which implies that transactions are not being taxed and are usually done on cash basis and outside the banking system, thus the so-called “evasion”.

Yet in reality informal or shadow economies are symptomatic of the markets circumventing burdensome and stifling regulations, tax payments and social welfare contributions as previously discussed.

So essentially debt strapped governments like Italy has launched a war against their informal economy.

Such dynamic can be seen from the succeeding portion of the same article (bold emphasis mine)

The reform pits the government against some Italians who prefer to pay for everything from wedding receptions to home renovations with cash, allowing merchants to underreport or not declare the revenue, and gaining a discount in exchange. Many small companies pay salaries in cash, allowing employees to report less income, the Finance Ministry said last year.

“Businesses make us accomplices, because nobody wants to pay extra on a large transaction,” said Adele Costantini, a professor of medicine in the southern region of Abruzzo, who had to argue to get a receipt from a house painter. “I want them to pay the tax, not unload it on me.”

Italians are the euro region’s least-indebted consumers and among its biggest savers, according to data from the European Union’s statistics office, Eurostat. Their frugality may be at least partly linked to a distrust of paying with anything other than cash. Italian credit-card holders use their cards on average only 26 times per year, or five times less than in the U.K., according to the Bank of Italy.

‘Culture of Cash’

“The culture of cash is strongly ingrained in Italians, even those that don’t evade,” Deputy Finance Minister Vittorio Grilli said at a Dec. 5 press conference in Rome. The government initially wanted to set a 300-euro or 500-euro cash limit but decided against it, Grilli said, reasoning that citizens needed time to adapt to new rules.

These are manifestations of the welfare state-central banking-banking cartel facing continuing tremendous pressures to preserve the current unsustainable system.

Yet impositions like the above which goes against culture will naturally meet stiff resistance. And unintended consequences will likely be the ensuing order—perhaps the informal economy might resort to trading based on foreign cash currencies or local community currencies could emerge (like in some parts of the US) or even trading could be done in metallic coins or that such laws will simply be ignored or not complied with or that corruption will only swell. There are many variations that could arise in response to such repressive law.