Cashless society in a near future ? There are good arguments that support this idea, and even more ones that contradict it.
To make it very short : thesis, antithesis, synthesis : banks and governments want total control over money. Criminal powers oppose the idea. Banks need criminals, and there are many countries in which political and criminal elites are highly integrated.
Criminology is compulsory studying to have a complete overview of the global economy. It is the topic that has the most surprised me in my life, much more than paranormal for instance. Almost all of us have heard strange stories, but how many know that organized crime is one of the decisive powers in many areas of the world, if not the prevailing force ? There is really much to say about organized crime but I’ll not do it to stay focused on cashless society.
Let’s begin with some articles coping with cashless society :
_http://www.hangthebankers.com/bankers-secret-london-meeting-end-cash/
Economist Martin Armstrong claims there is a “secret meeting to end cash” set to take place in London before the end of the month [june 2015] involving representatives from the ECB and the Federal Reserve.
“In the mind of an economic tyrant, banning cash represents the holy grail,” writes Michael Krieger. “Forcing the plebs onto a system of digital fiat currency transactions offers total control via a seamless tracking of all transactions in the economy, and the ability to block payments if an uppity citizen dares get out of line.”
_http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-23/largest-bank-america-joins-war-cash
_https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/04/no_author/the-totalitarian-war-on-cash/
_http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-10/citi-economist-says-it-might-be-time-to-abolish-cash
Underlying principles :
- The biggest winners of abolishing cash would be Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club…
- Banning cash is the best way to avoid bank runs. Bankers will not have to give cash back to their clients.
- Having big amounts of cash home is like getting out of the banking system, which is the nightmare of banks. (to really get out of the system, one has to own precious matters, especially silver and gold).
- There will be total control by banks of all monetary flows if cash disappears.
So, implementing cashless society may sound like the appropriate solution for the System to survive a few more years. But is it that simple ? It seems that for the major banks, banning cash would be like shooting themselves in the foot.
An issue that is often overlooked is organized crime. Criminal powers (mafias, cartel, organized criminal groups…) live at the very heart of the system and are a part of it. A few facts :
- In many countries, political and criminal elites are highly integrated. Examples: Romania, Italy, Brazil… These elites, so these countries, would be the first to defend cash.
- 4 major economic activities of the world are criminal : natural drugs traffic (coca (plant), poppy, cannabis, khat, that represent more than 450 billion dollars per year), arms trafficking, exotic animals trafficking (160 billion dollars) and prostitution (around 200 billion dollars per year). All figures given here are estimations.
- Organized crime represents more than 10% of the yearly world GDP (around 65 000 billion dollars).
- Natural drugs (narcotic plants growing) are the 1st agricultural business of the world
- The system lies on banks. Banks NEED organized crime to live. A famous example is HSBC, that launders billions of dollars from Mexican drug cartels. It is one of the numerous narcobanks that has never been sued for it, and probably never will. When criminal chiefs talk to banks to say that they can bring millions of a currency in cash, they naturally receive a warm welcome.
- Shadow banking and dark pools represent a much higher (3-9 times) transactional volume than normal banking activities (I’ve not said “legal banking activities” because dark pools are not illegal).
- Cashless society would not impact top criminality (CDS, CDO, dark pools, Cosa Nostra US taking 1-2% on each big public works contracts in the US (thus creating a “criminal extra cost”), same for the Yakuzas in Japan…) and middle criminality (all kinds of racketeering) but make bottom/street criminality complicated. Top criminality needs bottom criminality to hide behind it, and vice versa (bottom criminality is allowed and controlled by top criminality).
- The system is criminogenic
When I mention organized crime, I’m not only speaking of the 9 mafias of the world (Cosa Nostra US, Cosa Nostra of Sicily, the Camorra (Campania), the Ndrangheta (Calabria), the Sacra Corona Unita (Puglia), Albanian mafia, Turkish Maffya, Chinese Triads, the Yakuzas). It also refers to south American drug trafficking cartels, Russian organized crime, Vietnamese organized crime… There are 8 criteria to determine whether a criminal entity is a mafia or not, but this would draw us away from the topic. I’ll get back to it if asked.
There exist countries that are almost or completely failed by crime. For example, all eastern Europe countries, almost all (if not all) south American countries, Maghreb/Mashrek countries, African countries… These countries would vehemently refuse to ban cash. To sum up the idea, “crime makes system” in just so many countries that asking these countries to ban cash would be like asking criminals to ban cash.
All of it to say that cash is necessary for organized crime and organized crime is a pillar of the system, economically speaking. Announcing the end of cash would be like announcing the end of the euro. Some people would have to be personally liable for it. Varoufakis will not have Greece to leave the euro because he knows who and what he faces. The best solution for him would be to be expelled by Germany or IMF. I wonder if bankers who support abolishing cash would not face a “criminal sacred union”
that would abolish them more or less quickly.