Drumbeats for the cashless society

[pmbug]

... and about that cash grab in India...

...
As noted above, on November 8, Prime Minister Modi declared the 1,000 rupee note and 500 rupee note to be illegal. In case those sound like high-denomination bills, they’re not. At current exchange rates, the 1,000 rupee note is worth about $14, and the 500 rupee note is worth $7; roughly equal to the $10 and $5 bills you probably have in your purse or wallet.

Citizens were allowed to bring these notes in and exchange them for smaller denominations, or a new 2,000 rupee note worth about $28.00. The problem was that the lines were horrendous and the economy shut down as millions waited in line to make the exchange.

The government compounded its incompetence by not printing enough of the new bills. Some banks closed because they quickly ran out of the new bills. Even worse, the new bills were a different size and did not fit in ATMs, so every ATM in India had to be shut down and recalibrated to handle the new sized bills.

A cash shortage in a cash-based economy meant that economic activity ground to a halt. Farmers and fisherman could not buy fuel or provisions needed to bring their crops or catch to market. Food shortages popped up; riots broke out in some places.

Finally, in a “guilty until proven innocent” twist, tax inspectors were waiting at the bank branches to interrogate those exchanging large amounts of the old notes. This dissuaded many from making the exchange in the first place.

A black market grew up in which you could exchange 1,000 rupee notes for, say, 700 rupees in smaller bills that were still legal. Those offering the exchange had political protection or paid bribes to avoid the tax scrutiny that came with the larger bills. This exchange is the ultimate market distortion — “cash” trading at a discount to face value because of government interference.
...

More: https://dailyreckoning.com/elites-devastate-india/

 

[pmbug]

The Indian experiment continues:

India’s crackdown on cash caused chaos as 86% of the money in circulation vanished overnight. Banks could not cope with the increase in demand. Consumers did not turn to credit cards or debit cards as expected. Instead, consumers turned to mobile apps.

...

https://mishtalk.com/2017/04/30/an-end-to-credit-and-debit-cards-starting-in-india/

 

[pmbug]

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul. 12, 2017-- Today Visa (NYSE:V) announced it is launching a major effort to encourage businesses to go cashless. Aiming to create a culture where cash is no longer king, the program will give merchants increased ability to accept all forms of global digital payments. Visa will be encouraging and helping merchants go cashless by using innovation to their advantage in order to stay competitively connected to their customers.

To encourage businesses to go cashless, Visa is announcing The Visa Cashless Challenge, with a call to action for small business restaurants, cafés or food truck owners to describe what cashless means for them, their employees and customers. Visa will be awarding up to $500,000 to 50 eligible US-based small business food service owners who commit to joining the 100% cashless quest.

“At Visa, we believe you can be everywhere you want to be, and that it should be easy to pay and be paid in more ways than ever – whether it’s a phone, card, wearable or other device,” said Jack Forestell, head of global merchant solutions, Visa Inc. “With 70% of the world, or more than 5 billion people, connected via mobile device by 20201, we have an incredible opportunity to educate merchants and consumers alike on the effectiveness of going cashless.”

Benefits of Going Cashless

Visa has recognized the net benefits for merchants when they reduce dependency on cash transaction. Visa recently conducted a study that found that if businesses in 100 cities transitioned from cash to digital, their cities stand to experience net benefits of $312 billion per year. According to this study, in New York City alone, businesses could generate an additional $6.8 billion in revenue and save more than 186 million hours in labor, by making greater use of digital payments. This amounts to more than $5 billion annual costs savings for businesses in New York. The complete results with the benefits of going cashless for businesses will be included in the “Cashless Cities: Realizing the Benefits of Digital Payments” report that will be released by Visa later this year.
...

http://pressreleases.visa.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=215693&p=irol-newsarticlePR&ID=2285993

 

[singleshot]

... and just who reaps the rewards?

20201? Hell, that's over 18,000 years away!

 

[pmbug]

Ha! The "1" at the end was a subscript in the original text. "by 2020".

 

[pmbug]

So, it looks like India is enacting some Draconian tax laws that are going to kill a lot of businesses and thus eviscerate the tax base, which will in turn be the genesis of a crisis which the government will assuredly not let go to waste...

https://mishtalk.com/2017/08/01/letters-from-india-how-bad-can-the-crackdown-on-cash-get/

 

[11C1P]

Great! Now where are the call centers going to get moved to? It likely won't be the U.S. so what accent will I have to try and start understanding next?

 

[pmbug]

Australia’s Black Economy Taskforce has come up with a list of 35 “consumer-focused” proposals to crack down on cash. The taskforce blames consumers for holding cash and for not getting receipts.

Michael Andrew, the head of the taskforce, proposes nanochips in $50 and $100 notes so the government knows where the cash is. Cash will expire after a designated period of time.

Andrew believes “consumers are part of the problem”. He wants to punish people who pay in cash and don’t get a receipt.

A plan to strip consumers of their legal protections if they pay in cash and fail to get a receipt has been slammed as “completely unfair” by leading advocacy groups.
...
“We intend to examine the merits of consumer focused sanctions, including the loss of consumer protections, warranties and legal rights for people who make cash payments without obtaining a valid receipt,” Mr. Andrew wrote. “This is not simply of matter of imposing new penalties, but part of a wider cultural change agenda.”
...

Also consider Cash Crackdown Boss Proposes Nanochips Notes.

The man charged with cracking down on the “black economy” has revealed how he would like to keep track of your $100 and $50 notes.

Hi-tech nano-chips would be implanted in Australia’s “disappearing” cash under a plan floated by Michael Andrew, the head of the federal government’s Black Economy Taskforce.
...
“You could put a trace on some of these notes to see where they would go. You can use nano technology to put little chips in so you could then trace it.”
...

...
The war on cash is moving at breakneck speed.

https://mishtalk.com/2017/08/02/war...ng-100-bills-forcing-people-to-keep-receipts/

 

[rblong2us]

Should encourage more to explore crypto currencies .............

Sad how most accept the concept of tax without question and expecting someone else to 'do something' when their cosy little bubble is effected in some way.

Take back your power and take responsibility for your actions / inactions.
Dont need no damn government

grrrrrrrrrrr

 

[rblong2us]

Great! Now where are the call centers going to get moved to? It likely won't be the U.S. so what accent will I have to try and start understanding next?

artificial intelligence
language and accent selected from the drop down menu :doodoo:

 

[pmbug]

Nothing really new in this piece, but Rickards warns about the war on cash and recommends to his audience to keep a stash of liquidity in cash and precious metals:

https://dailyreckoning.com/elites-winning-war-cash/

 

[pmbug]

The NYT, a newspaper that supposedly is worthy of respect, calls for the gatekeepers of digital money to decide what people can and cannot buy. Does no one see the big picture?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/business/banks-gun-sales.html

 

[11C1P]

The NYT, a newspaper that supposedly is worthy of respect, calls for the gatekeepers of digital money to decide what people can and cannot buy. Does no one see the big picture?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/business/banks-gun-sales.html

Funny how certain companies are required to perform services (like catering a wedding that goes against your religious views) while others are immune to this. Ah, but then it does say in the Constitution the right of gays to have any caterer they desire & be free from offense for life but nothing about not infringing on the peoples right to keep & bear arms. :judge:

 

[pmbug]

It is hard to argue that you cannot trust the government when the government isn’t really all that bad. This is the problem facing the small but growing number of Swedes anxious about their country’s rush to embrace a cash-free society.
...
... In February, the head of Sweden’s central bank warned that Sweden could soon face a situation where all payments were controlled by private sector banks.

The Riksbank governor, Stefan Ingves, called for new legislation to secure public control over the payments system, arguing that being able to make and receive payments is a “collective good” like defence, the courts, or public statistics.

“Most citizens would feel uncomfortable to surrender these social functions to private companies,” he said.

“It should be obvious that Sweden’s preparedness would be weakened if, in a serious crisis or war, we had not decided in advance how households and companies would pay for fuel, supplies and other necessities.”

The central bank governor’s remarks are helping to bring other concerns about a cash-free society into the mainstream, says Björn Eriksson, 72, a former national police commissioner and the leader of a group called the Cash Rebellion, or Kontantupproret.
...
But an opinion poll this month revealed unease among Swedes, with almost seven out of 10 saying they wanted to keep the option to use cash, while just 25% wanted a completely cashless society. MPs from left and right expressed concerns at a recent parliamentary hearing. Parliament is conducting a cross-party review of central bank legislation that will also investigate the issues surrounding cash.

The Pirate Party – which made its name in Sweden for its opposition to state and private sector surveillance – welcomes a higher political profile for these issues.

Look at Ireland, Christian Engström says, where abortion is illegal. It is much easier for authorities to identify Irish women who have had an abortion if the state can track all digital financial transactions, he says. And while Sweden’s government might be relatively benign, a quick look at Europe suggests there is no guarantee how things might develop in the future.

“If you have control of the servers belonging to Visa or MasterCard, you have control of Sweden,” Engström says.

“In the meantime, we will have to keep giving our money to the banks, and hope they don’t go bankrupt – or bananas.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...sk-of-attack-swedes-turn-against-cashlessness

Bold emphasis is mine. Maybe there is hope that sanity will prevail.

 

[rblong2us]

In the big cities there are fewer and fewer places that can even take cash.
Its all done with card or mobile phone, even for street vendors.
The need for a cash till has gone !
This also reduces the potential for robbery by staff or random drug addicts.

The days of taking a pile of cash to go and look at a secondhand vehicle, agreeing a price and driving it away, have gone, as we can now do a BACS transfer via the internet at the point of sale.

If you try to actually buy anything with cash over £1000, no one wants the stuff.
The banks charge business customers who pay in large sums of cash, over and above their already outrageous charges for a business account.
And everyone knows that the Banks notify the Revenue, so even if its entirely legit, it gets your name in the frame and if you are a regular user of cash, the possibility that the Revenue might investigate you ....... and even if you think you are all above board, they will find something ......

So apart from really small transactions and buying illegal substances from strangers, cash has rather fallen by the wayside for most ..........

Its actually become a problem to hold and use cash in Blighty

 

[pmbug]

One day the pendulum will swing back in the other direction. The only real question is whether the change will be orderly or chaotic.

 

[rblong2us]

oh yeah and to make sure you dont hoard the stuff, they recall and change the banknotes ....

Im not sure cash will make a return even if the pendulum does swing because of its bulk and security risks.

A genuinely free and traceless crypto might step up to the plate though ?

 

[singleshot]

A cashless economy empowers the authoritarian police state.

 

[pmbug]

All over the western world banks are shutting down cash machines and branches. They are trying to push you into using their digital payments and digital banking infrastructure. ...
...
A cashless society brings dangers. People without bank accounts will find themselves further marginalised, disenfranchised from the cash infrastructure that previously supported them. There are also poorly understood psychological implications about cash encouraging self-control while paying by card or a mobile phone can encourage spending. And a cashless society has major surveillance implications.

Despite this, we see an alignment between government and financial institutions. The Treasury recently held a public consultation on cash and digital payments in the new economy. It presented itself as attempting to strike a balance, noting that cash was still important. But years of subtle lobbying by the financial industry have clearly paid off. The call for evidence repeatedly notes the negative elements of cash – associating it with crime and tax evasion – but barely mentions the negative implications of digital payments.

The UK government has chosen to champion the digital financial services industry. This is irresponsible and disingenuous. We need to stop accepting stories about the cashless society and hyper-digital banking being “natural progress”. We must recognise every cash machine that is shut down as another step in financial institutions’ campaign to nudge you into their digital enclosures.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ss-society-con-big-finance-banks-closing-atms

 

[pmbug]

So, over the weekend, a story broke that is a portend (warning) for things to come with the cashless society:

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018...d-donation-showdown-credits-breitbart-drudge/

Basically:

1. SPLC & Color of Change pressured MasterCard to cancel processing/account for David Horowitz's Freedom Center.

2. MasterCard told WorldPay it wouldn't process transactions for Freedom Center.

3. WorldPay canceled Freedom Center account (which also canceled ability to process VISA transactions).

It's a portend of things to come when the age of digital banking chokes out the last vestiges of the cash economy and monopoly control over transactions can be weaponized for political purposes.

 

[pmbug]

Here's a twist on the cashless society:

CBS News
Published on Aug 26, 2018
"According to the Federal Reserve, Americans still use cash more frequently than any other payment method, but could the rise of cryptocurrencies change that? Duke University finance professor Campbell Harvey argues that the United States should ditch paper currency for fully trackable national version of Bitcoin.

Who is professor Harvey (ie. why do his comments matter)?

Campbell R. Harvey is Professor of Finance at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts {d21: Home of MIT, where much of the deep state tech is developed under DARPA grants}. He served as President of the American Finance Association in 2016.

Professor Harvey obtained his doctorate at the University of Chicago in business finance. He has served on the faculties of the Stockholm School of Economics, the Helsinki School of Economics, and the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. He has also been a visiting scholar at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Svenska Handelshögskolan in Helsinki. He is a Fellow of the American Finance Association.
...
Over the past four years, Professor Harvey has taught “Innovation and Cryptoventures” at Duke University. The course focuses on blockchain technology covering both the mechanics of blockchains as well as practical applications of both public and private implementations.

https://www.fuqua.duke.edu/faculty/campbell-harvey

In the video from CBS News, Professor Harvey dismisses critics of his idea as irrational dinosaurs essentially. He completely dismisses very valid concerns over the tyranny of monopoly control over economic transactions. smh.

 

[singleshot]

I don't agree that Americans use cash more frequently, not in my experience, anyway.

 

[pmbug]

Not in mine either, but I don't frequent the "scrip clubs" or "make it rain" either.

 

[Chigg]

I am a cash guy. I pay all my daily expenses with cash.

 

[singleshot]

Not in mine either, but I don't frequent the "scrip clubs" or "make it rain" either.

Both of those references went by me without hesitation. Forgive me but I'm old, old school and don't get much of what is understood by you youngins.
I was talking about just going to the grocery store and standing in line behind 4 or 5 people who all pay with plastic and it usually takes longer than paying with cash.

 

[pmbug]

Both of those references went by me without hesitation. Forgive me but I'm old, old school and don't get much of what is understood by you youngins.

:rotflmbo:

"scrip club" = strip club

Spoiler

(and remember, there is no sex in the champagne room)

"making it rain" =

When you're in da club with a stack, and you throw the money up in the air at the strippers. The effect is that it seems to be raining money.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=make it rain

Spoiler

 

[pmbug]

More great news involving MasterCard portenting the future of the cashless society and the surveillance state:

For the past year, select Google advertisers have had access to a potent new tool to track whether the ads they ran online led to a sale at a physical store in the U.S. That insight came thanks in part to a stockpile of Mastercard transactions that Google paid for.

But most of the two billion Mastercard holders aren’t aware of this behind-the-scenes tracking. That’s because the companies never told the public about the arrangement.
...
"People don’t expect what they buy physically in a store to be linked to what they are buying online,” said Christine Bannan, counsel with the advocacy group Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). "There’s just far too much burden that companies place on consumers and not enough responsibility being taken by companies to inform users what they’re doing and what rights they have.”
...
Through this test program, Google can anonymously match these existing user profiles to purchases made in physical stores. The result is powerful: Google knows that people clicked on ads and can now tell advertisers that this activity led to actual store sales.
...
Initially, Google devised its own solution, a mobile payments service first called Google Wallet. Part of the original goal was to tie clicks on ads to purchases in physical stores, according to someone who worked on the product. But adoption never took off, so Google began looking for allies. A spokeswoman said its payments service was never used for ads measurement.

Since 2014, Google has flagged for advertisers when someone who clicked an ad visits a physical store, using the Location History feature in Google Maps. Still, the advertiser didn’t know if the shopper made a purchase. So Google added more. A tool, introduced the following year, let advertisers upload email addresses of customers they’ve collected into Google’s ad-buying system, which then encrypted them. Additionally, Google layered on inputs from third-party data brokers, such as Experian Plc and Acxiom Corp., which draw in demographic and financial information for marketers.

But those tactics didn’t always translate to more ad spending. Retail outlets weren’t able to connect the emails easily to their ads. And the information they received from data brokers about sales was imprecise or too late. Marketing executives didn’t adopt these location tools en masse, said Christina Malcolm, director at the digital ad agency iProspect. "It didn’t give them what they needed to go back to their bosses and tell them, 'We’re hitting our numbers,’" she said.

Then Google brought in card data. In May 2017, the company introduced "Store Sales Measurement." It had two components. The first lets companies with personal information on consumers, like encrypted email addresses, upload those into Google’s system and synchronize ad buys with offline sales. The second injects card data.

It works like this: a person searches for "red lipstick" on Google, clicks on an ad, surfs the web but doesn’t buy anything. Later, she walks into a store and buys red lipstick with her Mastercard. The advertiser who ran the ad is fed a report from Google, listing the sale along with other transactions in a column that reads "Offline Revenue" -- only if the web surfer is logged into a Google account online and made the purchase within 30 days of clicking the ad. The advertisers are given a bulk report with the percentage of shoppers who clicked or viewed an ad then made a relevant purchase.
...
But some privacy critics derided the tool as opaque. EPIC submitted a complaint about the sales measuring tack to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission last year. A report in August that Facebook Inc. was talking with banks about accessing information for consumer service products sparked similar criticism. For years, Facebook and Google have worked to link their massive troves of user behavior with consumer financial data.
...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...rd-cut-a-secret-ad-deal-to-track-retail-sales

The bolded section was news to me. I'm aware of brick and mortar retailers requesting email addresses at the checkout counter, but I always assumed it was so they could send you spam (err, sales announcements). Now I see that it potentially gives the NSA (err, Google) a more integrated surveillance tool (at least, for folks who browse the internet while logged in to a Google service).

 

[11C1P]

More great news involving MasterCard portenting the future of the cashless society and the surveillance state:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...rd-cut-a-secret-ad-deal-to-track-retail-sales

The bolded section was news to me. I'm aware of brick and mortar retailers requesting email addresses at the checkout counter, but I always assumed it was so they could send you spam (err, sales announcements). Now I see that it potentially gives the NSA (err, Google) a more integrated surveillance tool (at least, for folks who browse the internet while logged in to a Google service).

Back when radio shack was a thing, I refused to give them my address or phone #. It was always amusing how aghast some of them became at this. Later on apparently enough people were doing it they weren't so shocked, then they stopped asking altogether. I now have to wonder if they weren't selling info to the gubment & later on they got so much competition .gov didn't pay them as well or at all? Honestly the stores were far less crowded back when they were alive & well as compared to the years they started struggling. :shrug:

 

[singleshot]

Went to get a haircut and almost couldn't because they wanted my name, phone number and email addy.
When I started to leave they relented and gave in.

 

[pmbug]

Hi barongan, welcome to the forum.

...
Cash sure seems to be on the ropes. The dollar value of cash transactions sank 7% from 2010 to 2015, according to The Nilson Report, while credit and debit card payments rose nearly 50%. Meanwhile, ATMs, which had their 50th birthday last year, are disappearing around the block and around the world, signaling the decline of the “cash run.”
...
... The Federal Reserve said in 2016 that 35% of U.S. transactions were still made in cash. ...

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/america-moves-closer-to-being-a-cashless-society-2018-09-11

#MCGA

 

[pmbug]

The rise of cashless Britain: the poor suffer as banks and ATMs are closed

Last year, at the start of the summer, the last bank in Dorset seaside resort of Lyme Regis closed. The only way for its 3,600 residents and thousands of tourists to get hold of their money was to join the lengthy queue at the post office or via a single ATM which regularly ran out of bank notes. Those who needed an over-the-counter service had to make the six-mile commute to the nearest bank, in Axminster. Residents with no access to a car or online banking have been left stranded and even ice-cream sellers have been forced to invest in card-payment technology.

“It’s caused real hardship,” says a spokesperson for the local ironmongers, Arthur Fordham. “If you didn’t accept card payments, you faced going out of business because customers couldn’t get cash, but card payments are more expensive to process.” A year on, the shop has agreed to host an ATM to get cash flowing through the town again, and the queues to use it often stretch down the street.

Lyme Regis has become an involuntary forerunner of the cashless society. Nearly 3,000 bank branches have closed across the UK since 2015 and ATMs disappeared at a rate of 500 a month in the first half of this year, according to a survey by Which? – a sixfold increase since last November. More than 130 communities, many of them in poor areas, now have no ATM and the 2.7 million Britons who rely entirely on cash are being increasingly shut out of essential services.
...

More: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/oct/01/cashless-britain-banks-atms

 

[rblong2us]

I know this small seaside town well.
Wouldnt have thought of it as groundbreaking on any front, least of all becoming cashless.
I have commented before though that with mobile phones and the internet, it becomes viable to transact small amounts. Even at hippy places like festival sites this is quite normal and acceptable.
There has to be a viable phone signal though and ironically Lyme Regis did not have this when I last was there.

 

[pmbug]

Sweden’s competition and financial watchdogs both opposed a proposal made by lawmakers to force the country’s largest banks to handle cash as they try to limit a rapid development into a cashless society.
...

More: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...rovision-is-state-responsibility?srnd=premium

For the last couple of years, Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, has been mulling over the idea of issuing a digital currency, in order to adapt to the needs of the increasingly cashless society.

Last year, the Riksbank—the world’s oldest central bank—issued a report describing what the “e-krona” might look like, and on Friday it called for the design of the electronic currency to move forward, so it can be tested.
...

More: http://www.fortune.com/2018/10/26/sweden-riksbank-e-krona/

 

[ancona]

Cashless will never go down here. There are too many people who recognize it for what it really is about: Control. The government gets to see exactly what you buy, when, where and from who. They know how much you paid as well. Also, the card company or transaction provider peels off a vig. a nice bit of action if you can get in on it, which you cannot.

Cashless is bullshit plain and simple. The government whines about tax evasion, but the real tax evasion is the uber rich and corporations, not you and I. Our taxes are yoked out of our paychecks before we ever see them. Taxes are taken from us at every transaction point on every fucking purchase we make, so that entire argument is a canard. The middle and lower class pay nearly all of our taxes. A few bartenders and waiters shambling by on some tips isn't even on the radar as a rounding error in the budget compared with corporate shenanigans and the shit teh rich pull off.

 

[pmbug]

In recent months, a slew of political and financial institutions have raised concerns about the march toward a cashless economy. They include:

• The ECB warned that a phase-out of cash could pose a serious risk to the financial system. Depending too heavily on electronic payment systems could expose financial systems to catastrophic failures in the event of power outages or cyber attacks. The European Commission has also backed off is war on cash.
• The People’s Bank of China announced that all businesses in China that are not e-commerce must resume accepting cash or risk being investigated, and cautioned businesses against hyping the “cashless” idea when promoting non-cash payments.
• In Sweden, one of the most cashless societies, the central bank and parliament have spoken out in support of cash.
• Cities too have spoken out, including Washington D.C., whose City Council introduced a bill that sought to ban restaurants and retailers from not accepting cash or charging a different price to customers depending on the method of payment they use.

Now, it’s the Bank of Canada’s turn to sound the alarm. In a paper — “Is a Cashless Society Problematic?” — it outlines a number of risks that could arise if the country went fully cashless.
...

More: https://www.technocracy.news/backlash-against-war-on-cash-reaches-the-bank-of-canada/

 

[rblong2us]

I reckon it was negative interest rates that drove the cashless arguments
and as ancona notes, its the wealthy that would have piled into cash if they were going to get charged too much for the storage of random digits.

Suddenly some old lady who has never even had a cheque book becomes more a bit more important.....

 

[pmbug]

Bold emphasis mine:

As part of the 2018 Budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, or ‘Fiscal Phil’, as he has been dubbed after this Autumn Statement, it was announced that a commemorative 50p coin would be released following the UK’s Brexit from the European Union.

The 50p coin was first confirmed when the UK joined the European Economic Community in 1973 and when the UK held the presidency of the EU in 1998, as the BBC reported and while it is not known what the new Brexit coins will look like, I wonder if this a signal that we will need to use coins more so after the UK leaves.

Earlier this year, the Royal Mint cut the number of coins in circulation by half in attempt to move towards a cashless society despite encouraging the younger generations to invest in gold, silver and other precious metals.

As reported in the Express, Caroline Abrahams, Director at Age UK, said: “Along with the closures of banks across the country, news of the Royal Mint cutting back on the volume of coins they make is a further step towards a cashless society and all the problems and anxiety this would create for many older people who lack access to card payments and online and mobile banking.
...
In 2015, the EU capped interchange fees and more recently, banned traders from gaining from the cost of the surcharge if the customer opted to pay with a debit or credit card. Visa and MasterCard have profited off of these fees and therefore, small businesses are hit.

But could this change after the UK leaves the European Union? ...

More: https://www.forbes.com/sites/madhvimavadiya/2018/10/29/brexit-50p-coin-eu-cashless-society/amp/

 

[pmbug]

Two bits related to post #61 (replacing cash with cryptocurrency):

Ohio is now accepting bitcoin for payment of taxes. I believe this might be the first time any level of govco has officially recognized bitcoin as a currency for payment of debt:

Starting Monday, businesses in Ohio will be able to pay their taxes in bitcoin — making the state that’s high in the middle and round on both ends the first in the nation to accept cryptocurrency officially.

Companies who want to take part in the program simply need to go to OhioCrypto.com and register to pay whatever taxes their corporate hearts desire in crypto. It could be anything from cigarette sales taxes to employee withholding taxes, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, which first noted the initiative.
...

https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/25/ohio-becomes-the-first-state-to-accept-bitcoin-for-tax-payments/

And more to the point of post #61:

IMF: Governments and Banks Should Setup and Control Their Own Cryptocurrencies

Speaking at the Singapore Fintech Festival this week International Monetary Fund head, Christine Lagarde, said that governments and central banks should work towards setting up their own digital currencies.

She added that a central bank regulated system could become the starting point for rapid expansion into developing economies, reaching some of the world’s poorest without the risks of privately managed blockchains and cryptocurrencies.
...

More: https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/11/14/...setup-and-control-their-own-cryptocurrencies/

 

[11C1P]

.

Since one of the knocks on crypto's is that the drug cartels & organized crime use them to launder their money, or maybe not even launder, just provide a virtually untraceable bank account for them, it seems strange that a state would do this. Unless they are really hurting for cash & want a way for crooks to pay their taxes? Maybe they want to give them a way to pay something else that we could only speculate on, but it's the govt. after all & the bureaucracy is often more corrupt & vile than organized crime is.

.

 

[pmbug]

... a small but growing crop of retailers have stopped accepting the tried-and-true paper currency.

Some restaurants in large cities began shunning the greenback a couple of years ago, but an increasing number of nonfood chains are going cashless at some or all of their locations or never took bills at the brick-and mortar stores they've opened in recent years.

They include clothing retailers such as Bonobos, Indochino, Everlane and Reformation; Amazon bookstores; Casper Mattress; Drybar hair styling; The Bar Method fitness studios; and United and Delta airlines (both at ticket counters and for in-flight food and drinks).

“The momentum started in the restaurant space, but we’re certainly seeing spillover,” says Jack Forestell, chief product officer for Visa.

Visa last year awarded $10,000 to each of 50 businesses that produced videos explaining how going cashless would benefit them.

More retail coverage: Black Friday, the shopping Super Bowl, kicks off holiday season

The trend is partly rooted in the growth of credit- and debit-card transactions and the spread of digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. Cash isn’t dead, but it’s no longer king. Jerry Sheldon, vice president of IHL, a retail and hospitality consulting firm, foresees cashless restaurants and stores comprising 40 to 50 percent of all retailers within 10 to 15 years as greenback use continues to dwindle.

...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...ore-retailers-just-saying-no-cash/2063747002/