Over the period that I have been writing on here we have seen an associated trend between plans for lower interest-rates and central banks having more control over your money. Actually I do sometimes wonder if they think that it is their money. This has been most prevalent in the Euro area where the European Central Bank is particularly dictatorial. Let me take you back to May the 5th 2016.
The use of high-denomination notes, in particular the €500 note, is a problem reported by law enforcement authorities,” according to a draft of the plans seen by the Financial Times. “These notes are in high demand among criminal elements . . . due to their high value and low volume.”……The €500 note, beloved by gangsters and Greek savers, is now being investigated for ties to terrorism.
You may note the way that Greek savers who merely wanted their own money were being associated with criminals. That was because they were damaging “The Precious! The Precious!” and thus were criminals to the ECB. As to the claims of crime thus was contradicted by the German Bundesbank.
There is scant concrete information on the extent to which cash is being used to facilitate illicit activity……… the volume of notes devoted to such transactions is unknown and would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to estimate.
As opposed to crime via the banking system which has occurred again and again. Also there was the claim that people do not want or need cash which was supposed to be in decline which is something I thought of when reading the latest speech by Dr.Isabel Schnabel earlier this month.
In 2006 currency in circulation was in the order of €630 billion. Today, it is around €1.6 trillion, as the demand for banknotes has grown steadily over time.
Regular readers may recall how Kenneth Rogoff was deployed to assure everyone that cash was in modern language “like over” and how he was presented as highly intelligent. That is how the deep state plays its games as he has been dropped.
Central Bank Digital Coins
This is the next stage in the control agenda and the official line is that you want them! Even those people who have never heard of them. The real reason why the ECB is so keen is because it was afraid of what might happen to the banks if it took interest-rates lower than -0.5% so stopped there. Sorry if you thought they were concerned about you. But it is always “The Precious! The Precious!” There was a long list of European banking problems back then.
But a CBDC would allow them to bypass the banks and take interest-rates even more negative next time.
Yesterday ECB Executive Board Member Piero Cipollone, spoke to the EU Parliament and this bit was rather revealing as he gave it instructions rather than the other way around.
At the Euro Summit in October, euro area leaders reiterated the strategic importance of the digital euro. They stressed the importance of swiftly completing legislative work and accelerating other preparatory steps.
He also did an interview with EU Finance.
Will the digital euro replace cash? Absolutely NOT!
In this special joint episode of the EU Finance Podcast with the @ecb
we chat with ECB Executive Board Member Piero Cipollone about the digital euro.
Never believe anything until it is officially denied. In fact to work it has to. Let us examine this via his words to the EU Parliament.
Cash has multiple benefits: it is our sovereign money, issued by an EU institution, the European Central Bank. It is accepted throughout the euro area. It is easy to use, free of charge and inclusive, and it protects privacy. Research shows that consumers value these features.
He claims that his Digital Euro would do this.
But we cannot use cash – and enjoy its benefits – for digital payments. Online payments are a case in point. They now account for more than a third of our day-to-day purchases.
He is hoping you have never heard of Apple Pay or Google Pay which offers all of these things.I am sure that like me you have friends who use these like a cash payment. Now if we look at the claim below I have an elderly aunt of which this is true as she is suspicious of online transactions.But I rather suspect she would be even more suspicious about Pierro and his plans.
For consumers, the absence of cash for online transactions – and digital transactions more broadly – reduces their options and thus their freedom in deciding how to pay.
Actually part of this is yet another failure of the European system and of course one regulated by Pierro and his colleagues at the ECB.
25 years on from the launch of the euro, we still do not have a European payment solution that enables people to pay digitally throughout the euro area for all day-to-day payments.
They have been so busy keeping all the zombie banks alive and have been left in the starting blocks as US firms have innovated. He is hoping that you will not spot that he is responsible for the failures he is describing.
15 out of 20 euro area countries do not currently have a domestic solution that is used significantly for digital payments in shops, and over half do not have a widely accepted domestic solution for e-commerce payments
If you think of all the failures here who would trust this?
The digital euro will be a European digital payment solution built on European infrastructure – all the providers we have selected are EU nationals controlled by EU nationals.
He just cannot stop listing failures. Many of you will no doubt recall how the ECB keeps telling us what a success the Euro is.
And it will ensure that the euro remains the single unit of account, protecting our monetary sovereignty even with the expansion of stablecoins – which are currently mostly denominated in foreign currencies – and unbacked crypto-assets.
Why is there not a rush for Euro stablecoins?
Privacy
The claim is that your details and transactions will be private.
The digital euro will also protect Europeans’ privacy and freedom – concerns that it could be used as a surveillance tool are unfounded.
Of course it can and no doubt will. I am reminded of the words of former ECB President Mario Draghi that it was/is a “rules based organisation”. Indeed it is until they change them at which point it is one again, just different rules.
This very day they are up to this sort of thing.
The Eurozone’s chief banking supervisor has called for greater powers to over-rule national restrictions that stop lenders moving capital around the single currency bloc and deter them from merging with cross-border rivals.
Claudia Buch, chair of the European Central Bank’s supervisory arm, told the Financial Times that “looking more favourably” at waivers to overcome domestic hurdles “could be a useful step for policymakers”. ( Financial Times)
Comment
I have long argued that the plan here is to enable interest-rates as low as -3% next time around. There was a paper from the IMF on this in case you are wondering why -3% in particular? In such a world they cannot permit cash so many of the words above by Pierro Cippoline are untrue or if you prefer a lie. The value of cash is that it offers a 0% interest-rate in such a scenario, which is why they cannot permit it. Oh and in case you are wondering about political support imagine bond yields heading for -3% and what that would do for their fiscal plans.
It is a world of control too and from the perspective of the UK with all the data leaks we have seen from official bodies that looks awful. Remember that is before they decide they have the right to investigate all payments. No doubt financial crime will be used as an excuse as they ignore the reality that it is the banks ( The Precious! The Precious!”) who are the main financial criminals.
Then there is the ability to pursue a classic Euro area failure. I am no particular fan of the likes of Apple and Google but they have innovated and provided products which people want. If you like they have voted with their wallets and purses. The ECB wants to punish them for this.
And Europe’s dependencies on non-European providers will be reduced, strengthening our resilience, autonomy and economic security.
Punish innovation and reward failure it is the European way…..