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/biz/ - Business & Finance

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8065462 No.8065462 [Reply] [Original]

The case against cash isn’t newand while coins and paper notes are still integral in the U.S., they account for a minority of all transactions and just 14% by value. At the same time, the idea of a completely cashless economy is growing in popularity as research confirms the drawbacks of paper currency and technology provides a safer way forward. The argument is simple: Cash is an untraceable means of exchange that enables (and encourages) a vast criminal economy.

“For individuals and organizations conducting illicit activities, cash is undoubtedly the preferred payment mechanism,” notes Peter Sands, Harvard president emeritus and a senior fellow at the university’s Kennedy School of Government, in a recent paper. “No other payment mechanism simultaneously provides anonymity for payor and payee, leaves no trace of transactions, and is so widely accepted.”

Without paper money, the criminal class would have to use banks, greatly increasing their chance of detection, or use a vastly more troublesome means of exchange. The increased oversight raises privacy concerns for law-abiding citizens, but experts point to a big societal payoff.

Without cash, “what are you going to trade for drugs? Start trading 747s? Sure, you can transmit funds electronically, but that’s much riskier because it’s much more traceable.”

Calling for the elimination of cash is no longer the truly radical position it once was, and the need to eliminate of the most dangerous types of bills is becoming conventional wisdom. Sands’s paper argues that abolishing high denomination bills, such as the $100 bill and €500 note, would impose a sizable cost on criminals trafficking large amounts of money by making transportation much more difficult. Crooks can easily tote $1 million in $100 bills in a single briefcase, for instance; the cash weighs just 22 lbs. But in $20 bills, that same $1 million would weigh 110 lbs. and fill four briefcasestoo much for one courier to handle.

>> No.8065502

Getting rid of cash isn’t just about disrupting major organized crime. It’s also about limiting day-to-day street violence. Professor Wright and his colleagues studied crime statistics in Missouri during its mid-1990s transition from distributing federal welfare benefits via a cashable check to a preloaded debit card. After comparing areas that transitioned to debit cards with those that still provided cash benefits, they found moving away from cash was associated with a roughly 10% drop in the total crime rate.

Wright says criminals generally commit burglaries, larcenies, and theft-related assaults in order to get their hands on money they can use in the illegal economy. “You can’t buy drugs with a debit card,” the professor explains. In other words, crime declined because there was less of what thieves wanted to steal.

Kenneth Rogoff also supports eliminating cash to help improve economic policy. Central banks typically fight recessions by lowering interest rates, which stimulates the economy by making saving less lucrative and encouraging consumers and businesses to spend. However, if interest rates dip below zero, meaning banks effectively charge savers, customers can simply withdraw their cash and sidestep the policy entirely. This effect is known as the “zero lower bound,” and is considered a serious limit to the effectiveness of monetary policy. “There are certainly many ways to skirt the zero lower bound, but the most elegant would be getting rid of most cash,” Rogoff says.

If cash is so bad, why do we keep it around? Some see the anonymity it provides as a check on government power and the financial industry. The Atlantic‘s Conor Friedersdoft writes that “An end to cash would mean that every financial transaction is exposed to a third party,” making everyone’s spending history searchable by authorities and available to banks and other industries that might not have our best interests in mind.

>> No.8065586

>>8065462
>>8065502
tldr for you folks out there. BCASH is indeed trash.

>> No.8065630
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8065630

>Tfw the banking kikes won't stop pushing until every one of them is lined up against a wall and shot

>> No.8065644
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8065644

>>8065462
GIMME MILKY

>> No.8065808

>>8065462
>muh only cash provides anonymity
what is monero
>muh negative interest rates on your savings
you clearly don't understand crypto

>> No.8065822

>>8065808

If they ban cash, they'll probably get around to banning crypto

>> No.8065879

>>8065462
sauce? need fap material

>> No.8065937

>>8065822
>banning crypto
How the fuck you even managed to figure out how to turn your computer on and type that post is beyond me

>> No.8065962

>>8065879
tessa fowler

>> No.8065985
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8065985

>>8065937

Do you want me to say "make it illegal"? Will that cool your autism you fucking chimp

>> No.8066063

>>8065985
>what is file sharing
Also even the burger government has said that they're taking a 'do no harm' approach to crypto

>> No.8066199
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8066199

>>8065502
Dude, are you in-ironically defending eliminating cash so that the government can have even more influence in interest rates and can even decide to PUNISH savers by making interest rates negative? The way you talk as if that is a positive thing is mind blowing.

Why are you so retarded like that? Do you have dementia or something? Did your mom hit her stomach on the wall repetitive times while she was pregnant? Was she using crack or something?

I can't believe such a retarded normie is using /biz/