Europe’s Latest Steps to Eliminate Cash Post-Davos

Within days of Davos, here is the European Commission statement on moving forward to eliminate cash. This is an “Inception Impact Statement” to provide notice to those involved and to ask for comments back. Everything is couched in terms of terrorism, but in fact it is to hunt taxes and eliminate our freedom to privacy regarding our own wealth.

The Roman Emperor Maximinus I (235-238AD) declared that all wealth belonged to the state. He paid informants to rat out anyone who looked like they were hiding wealth. The bottom-line, this pushed the Roman Empire over the edge. Investment began to vanish and the velocity of money collapsed as people then hoarded their cash for fear of confiscation. This is why we find hoards of even debased money. This hoard was found in Somerset, Britain with coins covering the crisis period of the 3rd century AD with coins from 21 emperors and three emperors’ wives. This included Roman coins and when the Roman Empire split with the usurper Carausius who ruled Britain and parts of northern Gaul independent of the empire from 286-293 AD. Coins of Carausius are rarely found in hoards.

Here is the “Inception Impact Statement” showing days after Davos they are indeed taking steps to (1) restrict cash, and (2) move to eliminate cash entirely, but they cannot do that until there is an instant transfer system in place among banks. In other words, banks can no longer play with the “float” and will have to instantly pay for transactions. Without that system in place, cash cannot be completely eradicated. That is on schedule for September 2017. Here is what the statement says:

“Action Plan to further step up the fight against the financing of terrorism (COM (2016) 50). The Action Plan builds on existing EU rules to adapt to new threats and aims at updating EU policies in line with international standards. In the context of the Commission’s action to extent the scope of the Regulation on the controls of cash entering or leaving the Community , reference is made to the appropriateness to explore the relevance of potential upper limits to cash payments. The Action Plan states that “Payments in cash are widely used in the financing of terrorist activities… In this context, the relevance of potential upper limits to cash payments could also be explored. Several Member States have in place prohibitions for cash payments above a specific threshold.”