The Australian government wants to ban cash transactions above a 10,000 AUD threshold.
(To be applied to a transaction with a business. If two individuals want to exchange, for example, a car for cash payment, then that's OK)
The government cite efforts to control the 'black economy' (ie cash payments to avoid tracing transactions and thus tax payments) but at least one analyst says its more than that, its an effort promoted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to give authorities greater control over consumer behaviour during recessions.
The argument goes that if banks lower interest rates into negative, ie. you'd have to pay a bank to hold on to your money, then people would hoard cash or alternatives (such as gold) instead. So … remove cash from the economy!
The IMF promote this on their website under a post titled: "Cashing In: How to Make Negative Interest Rates Work" (here's the link).
Here's much more at the piece in the Australian media (link). Maybe my tin hat quip in the headline is unneeded. Oh, and cash withdrawals above 10K are already the subject of scrutiny from authorities here.
And, I'll BRB, I'm just off to the ATM! ;-)
