February 19, 2016

Switzerland Fires Back In The Global War On Cash

An excerpt from, "Switzerland compares the banning of cash to the removal of gun rights" by Kenneth Schortgen Jr, Examiner, February 19, 2016:
Switzerland is one of three primary nations at this point in time who have implemented negative interest rates (NIRP) in their financial system. But as the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Federal Reserve themselves start to propose the need to ban and eliminate physical cash before they set their own NIRP policies, politicians in Switzerland are rejecting this argument and in fact are comparing the ending of cash to the equivalent of removing gun rights and individual freedoms.

On Feb. 18, two Swiss politicians spoke out against the growing capital controls being implemented throughout the Eurozone as a war not on terror or drugs, but on civil liberties and individual freedoms. In fact, Philip Brunner and Manuel Brandberg, members of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, not only gave their support for keeping Switzerland's high value currency bills (1000 Francs), but are even suggesting the creation of a 5000 Franc denomination as a way for people who seek capital flight out of countries who might ban physical cash to move into Swiss banks as a safe haven.

 The elimination of cash in commerce and individual holding is a form of capital controls that intrinsically removes rights from the people, and allows the state to coerce financial behaviors onto their citizens. A completely electronic banking system would force everyone who buys goods and services to register a bank account in which the government or central bank can then tax savings, limit withdrawals, and in some extreme cases, freeze accounts of individuals they feel are acting against national security, or against any whimsical state agenda.