Why Is Germany Eliminating Paper Money?

 

 

Getting rid of paper money may help fight terrorism and even help prop up the banks—but is there a more sinister reason for these new financial controls?

Germany is considering abolishing the €500 note and introducing a €5,000 (us$5,600) limit on cash transactions. It is part of a plan proposed by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s partners in the Social Democratic Party to cut off terrorist financing in Europe. Banning the bills will supposedly help make people safer. In reality, it will do the exact opposite.

German Deputy Finance Minister Michael Meister told Deutsche Welle on February 3 that Germany would push these reforms at the European level. “Since money laundering and terrorism financing are cross-border threats,” it makes sense to adopt a European Union-wide “solution,” he said. But “if a European solution isn’t possible, Germany will move ahead on its own” (emphasis added throughout).

Germany Unveils “Cash Controls” Push: Ban Transactions Over €5,000, €500 Euro Note

We’ve documented the cash ban calls on a number of occasions including, most recently, those that emanated from DNB, Norway’s largest bank where executive Trond Bentestuen said that although “there is approximately 50 billion kroner in circulation, the Norges Bank can only account for 40 percent of its use.”

That, Bentestuen figures, “means that 60 percent of money usage is outside of any control.” “We believe,” he continues, “that is due to under-the-table money and laundering.”

DNB goes on to say that after identifying “many dangers and disadvantages” associated with cash, the bank has “concluded that it should be phased out.”