For a “deep dive” into the global War on Cash endgame, we turn to longtime PBRG friend (and former CIA adviser) Jim Rickards…
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From Jim Rickards, editor, Strategic Intelligence: It should be clear that the War on Cash has two main thrusts. The first is to make it difficult to obtain cash in the first place. At home, U.S. banks will report anyone taking more than $3,000 in cash as engaging in a “suspicious activity” using Treasury Form SAR (suspicious activity report).
The second thrust is to eliminate large-denomination banknotes. A 1,000-rupee note may sound like a lot, but it’s only equivalent to about $15. The U.S. got rid of its $500 note in 1969, and the $100 note has lost 85% of its purchasing power since then. With a little more inflation, the $100 bill will be reduced to chump change.
Of course, the European Central Bank announced that it was discontinuing the production of new 500-euro notes (worth about $575 at current exchange rates). Existing 500-euro notes will still be legal tender, but new ones will not be produced.
This means that over time, the notes will be in short supply and individuals in need of large denominations may actually bid up the price above face value, paying, say, 502 euros in smaller bills for a 500-euro note. The 2-euro premium in this example is like a negative interest rate on cash.
Ken Rogoff is a leading voice of the elites in the War on Cash. He recently wrote an article detailing the ways elites can steal your money. The first is negative interest rates. The second is the elimination of cash (governments can do this by declaring the $100 bill worthless, just as India did with the 500- and 1,000-rupee notes).
The third way is to set higher inflation targets. Rogoff wants to raise the Fed’s inflation target from 2% to 4% per year. At a 4% rate, the value of a dollar is cut 75% between the time you’re 30 years old until a normal retirement age of 65. The money you save in your younger years is nearly worthless by the time you need it.
Why should you care what Ken Rogoff thinks? Because Rogoff is not just another big brain. He’s a professor of economics at Harvard University and the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. More importantly, his name is frequently mentioned as a possible nominee for a seat on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. If Rogoff were on the Fed board, he’d be in a position to turn his confiscatory ideas into policy.
But even if Rogoff remains at Harvard, his views are highly influential on economic policy in general. Rogoff is not alone in his views.
One solution to negative interest rates is to buy physical gold. But if the government has a War on Cash, can the War on Gold be far behind? Probably not.
Governments always use money laundering, drug dealing, and terrorism as an excuse to keep tabs on honest citizens and deprive them of the ability to use money alternatives such as physical cash and gold. When you start to see news articles about criminals using gold instead of cash, that’s a stalking horse for government regulation of gold.
Guess what? An article on the topic of criminals using gold just appeared this spring in Bloomberg. This is one more reason to get your physical gold now while you still can.
If you do not already have a 10% allocation of investable assets to gold, it’s time to make that allocation. Gold is almost the only way to avoid the plans for confiscation that Rogoff and the other elites have in mind.
Reeves’ Note: As an ex-adviser to the CIA, Jim Rickards is privy to all sorts of information the average American never hears about…
Recently, he’s learned of a “trigger event”—just 23 days away—that will trash the U.S. dollar—just like the Fed wants. But it gets even worse than that…
It could completely gut the U.S. stock market… wipe out U.S. jobs… and vaporize your retirement savings. Click here to find out what it is and how to protect yourself.
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