Softening Up The Rubes – The War On Cash Continues

More Anti-Cash Propaganda by Bloomberg

Former NYC mayor Bloomberg is probably one of the worst nannycrats who ever strode upon the US political scene. No-one has done more to take the fun out of New York than this man (we have chronicled the efforts of people of his ilk in “America’s Killjoys”). It always amazes us to no end when successful businessmen – once they have made enough money to last them a thousand lifetimes – suddenly discover their penchant for socialism and State control of every nook and cranny of people’s lives.

Ex-NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg, owner of the famous financial data service and professional nannycrat.

Photo via politistick.com

If not for the huge amount of capital our forebears wisely accumulated while the market economy was still relatively unhampered, Bloomberg wouldn’t have been able to amass his fortune – and yet, we strongly suspect that he has never really been a big fan of free market capitalism. His willingness to join the political class is by itself a major “crony indicator”. There is after all a big difference between wishing to serve consumers and wishing to rule over them.

The financial services offered by his company are nevertheless quite valuable – an unrivaled wealth of data is available via Bloomberg terminals and the financial commentary on the Bloomberg web site is often of quite informative as well – as long as it is confined to the neutral reporting of facts that is. It is quite different with the magazine’s editorial line, which is steeped in the statism of the service’s founder.

For instance, central banking and central planning of the economy in general remain routinely unquestioned; Keynesian shibboleths are woven into the narratives as if they represented incontestable truth. It is therefore not a big surprise that the magazine is also editorializing in favor of banning cash. Here is the latest example, with Bloomberg’s editors urging to “Bring on the Cashless Future”.

 The Purpose of Trial Balloons in the Media

Launching these frequent trial balloons in the media primarily serves two functions: for one thing, the rubes are to be softened up with a steady stream of propaganda.

Once upon a time, real money was replaced by irredeemable paper money under the cover of “emergency” – overnight, what used to be a warehouse certificate entitling its owners to redeem a specific quantity of gold was simply declared to be money henceforth.

This was expropriation on a truly breathtaking scale. However, it didn’t just happen out of the blue. Years of intense anti-gold and pro-inflation propaganda preceded the actual deed. By the time the theft was finally committed, people had too many other pressing concerns to worry about it – and the snake oil sellers had it easy, as they promised a “painless solution” to the economic woes of the day.

Never let a serious crisis go to waste – the mantra of statists since time immemorial.

This propaganda exercise is repeated today with respect to paper money, which has become the new “standard money” after the gold theft. The public is supposed to get used to the idea that a world without cash would be just great. In article after article it has been tirelessly hammered home over the past few years how utterly “bad” cash currently allegedly is (there are even studies that purport to show how germ-infested and hence dirty and unhealthy paper money is. One wonders who actually pays for such studies – probably they are tax-funded).

The reasons for this push to abolish cash should be obvious: forcing everybody to use digital money will enabletotal state control over the financial lives of citizens. In the glorious cashless future envisaged by Bloomberg, the expropriation of savings will become a matter of a few keystrokes by faceless bureaucrats. Want to implement the IMF’s proposed 10% wealth tax to “fix” the government’s debt problems overnight? Easy, just press “Ctrl+T” (T stands for theft).

Naturally, the fractionally reserved private banking cartel is largely in favor of abolishing cash as well (the vast majority of extant deposit money consists of uncovered fiduciary media, which means that most banks are de facto insolvent). If here is no cash, no-one will be able to escape the banking system anymore. This fact alone should alarm even the most jaded couch potatoes.

If your bank is about to keel over, as indeed happened on several occasions in 2008 (think Northern Rock or Indy Mac), well, tough titties pilgrims! No bank runs will be possible anymore. Depositors will simply have to join the lines of unsecured creditors. As long as a system-wide bank collapse doesn’t render the FDIC or comparable deposit insurance schemes insolvent as well, one will of course get one’s money back – eventually(“eventually” and “on demand” are obviously two very different concepts).