There has been a lot of speculation and noise about the end of cash lately. This is one of those staple conspiracies that has been around since at least the 70s, as far as I can remember. However, now there seems to be a new push for it, as events seem to be heading is a rather alarming direction.
The old cashless conspiracy said that central banks want to rid the world of cash in order to track and trace every single transaction and ensure that every diddle of tribute is paid. It would, they say, also eliminate criminal transactions, though no one ever talks about the subsequent rise of alternative currencies and/or barter that would then step in.
In any event, the EU and US are making rather serious rumblings about the end of cash, and nations like Denmark are moving rather swiftly in that direction. Is this to end all privacy? Or is there fear and loathing on the part of the "elites" that is bringing this issue to the forefront?
If you answered "fear and loathing," you not only made Hunter S Thompson happy, you hit the nail on the head. The "elites" are freaking out, and ending cash is one of the last weapons they have to avert full and complete (and uncontrollable) economic meltdown.
One of great weaknesses of the "elite" is that they think they can control everything; all natural processes are fully within their control, as they have become so disconnected as to think of themselves as gods. In their conceit, they set off down a course years ago to control the economies of the world to the point where everyone would be lulled to sleep because investments always made money, prices were always stable and everyone had their share of gee-gaws. Yes, if every belly was full and no hand idle, they could siphon off our labor and build their dream homes in the stars.
One thing about pride...it always goeth before the fall.
One thing about Nature...She resists being controlled.
Things have gotten out of hand. The "elite" have discovered that organic systems have all sorts of fail-safe buttons installed that keep them balanced to their own rules. They cannot and will not be dictated to by anyone, no matter how much technology and money you throw at Her.
To the point: the global economy has begun to spiral far out of the "elite" control systems. Economic systems are natural organizations and they will find their own balance. For decades, indeed most of the last century, a dedicated group of megalomaniacs thought they could control the world. As with all natural systems, they can be held in check for a while, but the errors begin to build up until they are no longer controllable. Furthermore, when the errors inevitably correct themselves, the result is far worse than if the system had been allowed to adjust itself all along. At this point, the reset has been artificially delayed since at least the 70s. The inflation that swept Reagan into office was supposed to run it's course, but artificial fixes were put in place. Those fixes have been compounded for 50 years now, and the bill is coming due.
Over the past couple of decades, every trick in the economic handbook has been tried. They confiscated trillions of dollars in taxpayer money. They raised and lowered rates. They adjusted policy and shifted blame, but the compounding errors in the system have built to the breaking point. The only game the "elite" have left, besides outright confiscation of all private property (unpopular), is something called 'negative interest rates.'
Now, I don't know about you, but 'negative interest rates' sounds absurd. I had to look it up to be sure it was a real thing. Sure enough, this is one of those economic back-stops that is held in limbo as a theoretical means to halt deflationary spirals. They idea is that with negative rates, banks charge customers to save money, rather than pay interest. This encourages spending, and of course banks are encouraged to be less restrictive with lending. Just two insy-winsy little problems with this idea: customers pull their cash and stuff it in the mattress, and loose lending is what got us here in the first place.
Most importantly, when customers start seeing their savings being depleted, instead of running out and spending, most folks will withdraw the cash and horde it. This compounds (again) the problem negative rates are supposed to fix. Folks pull their money but don't spend it, and banks quickly nose-dive into insolvency. The only way around this is to make sure folks don't have cash to pull out. If all your money is electronic blips, then it is rather hard to store them under the mattress. The end of cash ideally means that all money is visible to the "elite" and they can enforce their policies on us ruminant animals to force us to spend or save, whatever they need to save the world today.
The one thing none of the articles discuss concerning "negative interest rates" is that when folks lose faith in the system (e.g. - don't have cash to do as they please), then they create alternative "organic' systems to fix the problem. We see this in the so-called 'black markets.' Anytime something is made illegal, there is an immediate birth of an underground economy to supply not only the illegal items, but all the ancillary services that go into supplying it.
What it boils down to is this: economies have 'seasons' where things grow and die on a regular cycle. When those cycles are interrupted, alternative channels open up, just like water running downhill. And like the water, when it is dammed up, it will build pressure behind it until the blockage breaks and a massive wall of water continues it's trek to the lowest level. The global economy has been dammed by central bank and "elite" meddling, and the resulting decades-long pressure has built to a devastating release. Nothing can be done to hold back the result.
The current move to ban cash can thus be seen as a desperate attempt on the part of the "elites" to defy Nature. Their control over society has been predicated on their delusional belief that they are gods and their technologies have given them the power to control that which cannot be controlled.
Those with 'eyes to see and ears to hear' should already be moving out of the way of the inevitable rush of Nature re-balancing itself, whatever that means to the individual. Genies cannot be put back in the bottle, so what civilization has thus far achieved will survive in some form, but the overlords of society are about to be swept away by their own egos. Unfortunately, everyone gets wet when the dam breaks, but those in the path of the resulting wave are sure to be killed by it.
On the dark side, rough times are coming. On the bright side, the age-old "elites" are about to be destroyed by their own hands. How we fill the resulting power vacuum will determine the centuries to come.