Fasten your seat belt, read it all:
..One of the big reasons why I had to move into the “Van Down by the River” was because I simply COULD NOT FUNCTION using cash. When I was foreclosed upon because I could not provide the bank with a tax return (because I have declared a tax strike), I began investigating possible rental scenarios in preparing to move. Kids, you CANNOT rent an apartment “above the table”, pay the utilities on said apartment, insure a vehicle and scores of other necessary expenses in the former U.S. using cash today. Between IRS liens and mortgage foreclosures, my credit score is destroyed, which also disqualifies above-board rental. If you think that cash controls and the move to outlaw the use of cash is crazy talk, just stop and think about all of the myriad ways that IT IS ALREADY IMPOSSIBLE to pay with cash. We’re already 75% of the way there...
via Barnhardt | Judica me, Deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta..
Breaking up is hard to do, especially when it is with a tracking service like a financial institution. Sometimes you can make a clean break and other times you have to remain “just friends”.
The US government actually has a name for people who have no bank accounts – they call these folks “the unbanked”. The FDIC defines the unbanked as “those without an account at a bank or other financial institution and are considered to be outside the mainstream for one reason or another.” Another term is “the underbanked” – “people or businesses that have poor access to mainstream financial services normally offered by retail banks. The underbanked can be characterized by a strong reliance on non-traditional forms of finance and micro-finance often associated with disadvantaged and the poor, such as check cashers, loan sharks and pawnbrokers.” Continue reading
GE Note: You think we very behind this here in the US? Think again.
Capital Controls Hit Spain: Government Laws Prohibit Cash Transactions Over €2,500; Minimum Fine of €10,000 for Failure to Report Foreign Accounts
If Spain is seeking further instability, a new law on financial transactions is sure to do just that. Via Google Translate, Spain passes a law limiting cash payments to 2,500 euros.
Key Provisions
- Minimum fine of €10,000 for taxpayers who do not report their foreign accounts.\
- Fine of €5,000 for each additional account
- Cash transactions greater than €2,500 prohibited
- Cash transaction restrictions apply to individuals and businesses
The US requires reporting of foreign accounts as well, supposedly for the same reason, preventing tax fraud.
In Spain however, consumers and businesses are already very nervous (and rightfully so), of a Spain exit from the euro with a return to the Spanish peseta accompanied by an immediate devaluation.
In that context, these controls are only going to make consumers and businesses even more nervous, if not outright suspicious about what is going on.
While nearly half of Americans don’t have enough money saved to cover emergencies, one-quarter don’t have any money saved, according to Bankrate.com’s Financial Security Index survey.The general rule of thumb is to have enough cash saved to cover at least six months of expenses.However, only 25 percent of Americans have saved that amount and 17 percent have three to five months’ expenses saved, while 28 percent have no emergency savings and 21 percent have less than three months’ expenses saved. Continue reading
… They think the path of a full-blown crisis would start in Greece, quickly move to the rest of Europe and then hit the U.S. Stocks and oil would plunge, the euro would sink against the U.S. dollar, and big banks would suffer losses on complex trades…
- ACT I. What would Greece’s exit look like? In the worst case, it starts off messy.
- ACT II. Here’s where things get scary.
- ACT III. A full-blown crisis would cross the Atlantic through the dense web of contracts, loans and other financial transactions that tie European banks to those in the U.S., experts say...via News from The Associated Press
Can you manage your money? A personal finance quiz.
Are you financially literate enough to manage your own money? Teenagers say less than half of their families have had a discussion about money management, according to a 2011 Junior Achievement/Allstate Foundation survey. Another poll by Yahoo Finance found that 37 percent of adults have no retirement savings, and 38 percent plan to live off Social Security after retirement. When it comes to making good decisions about money, are you a beginner, a financial whiz, or somewhere in-between? Take the quiz to find out.
via Can you manage your money? A personal finance quiz. – Loan rates – CSMonitor.com.
There is no doubt that the elite have always sought to carefully manufacture news and to control the beliefs of the masses through their interests in funding education and in owning media distribution channels for centuries. There is a wealth of history that chronicles the elite’s desires to control and sway public opinion by manufacturing news versusthe honorable journalism pursuit of reporting news in a fair and accurate manner. For example, in 1917, Congressman Oscar Callaway stated, as documented in the Congressional Record: Continue reading
The one thing about cash is that it is anonymous. And that’s the one thing that intrusive governments don’t like about it.
via Cash for Freedom by Charles Goyette via Lew Rockwell.
… This is not a law. It’s simply a new policy that a federal agency decided to impose, in its sole discretion. And it happens every single day across the hundreds of federal agencies in Washington– a sort of ‘self-legislation’ which creates thousands of pages of new regulations that each and every American is obliged to obey. Not exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind…
In the case of FinCEN, the agency has conjured a rule creating (by their estimate) 31,000 new unpaid government spies. You might be one of them. And in the coming months, you can expect more rulings that will apply to other professions– real estate agents, pawn brokers, and just about anyone who deals in cash.
Have you reached your breaking point yet?
via Introducing The Government’s Newest Unpaid Spy: YOU | ZeroHedge.
via Activist Post
Yet, while one may feel hesitant to criticize any technology that presents a more convenient mode of travel, or otherwise makes life easier for the average person, the fact is that this new cell phone app is much more than a natural progression meant to benefit humanity. Indeed, it is just another blatant move toward a centralized cashless society.
Of course, years ago, a statement like this would have frightened people. At the very least, it would have made them think twice about the way they shopped or the way they paid for merchandise. In 2011, however, after generations of Americans have been raised to view privacy as outdated and prudish, the idea of a cashless society apparently doesn’t seem so scary. In fact, to many, it actually sounds like a good idea.It is an unfortunate fact that, to the vast majority, the downside of going cashless will likely never occur to them until it is too late. A product of constant exposure to television and a systematic dumbing-down of each generation’s education has produced a population who will no doubt be drawn to the new smartphones cashless system as the proverbial moth is drawn to the flame – and with similar results.
Obviously, in a society whose citizens are able to carry and make transactions with cash, there is still some semblance of anonymity available to them. There is still the opportunity to purchase staples such as food and water via third parties if necessary even if a system of exclusivity were to be introduced and certain people were prohibited from making purchases directly.
In a cashless system, however, an enormous amount of trust is placed in the hands of the government agencies, banks, and corporations that would then control the money for the “convenience” of the unwitting soul who has sacrificed his own personal responsibility and control for the luxury of his convenience. If even one of these institutions decide, for whatever reason, that the account of the user should be frozen, disconnected, or discontinued, the ability to purchase the basic necessities will disappear. That is, it will disappear if there is no longer the option of cash…
The Grey Enigma 