Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Banks, gangsters and the strange resurgence of cash

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 254 posts

Re: Banks, gangsters and the strange resurgence of cash

#31

Post by chiph »

anonporridge wrote: post #9
rsj_hn wrote: post #6

There is a lot of rumor and speculation about very benign things. 1. Precautionary savings. In a low interest rate environment, there is not the same penalty for holding cash as getting interest in a savings account. A lot of people find it prudent to have a buffer of cash, say enough to cover 1 month of expenses. So cash withdrawn from an ATM but put into a piggybank or under the mattress will appear here as "missin…

The precautionary savings of physical cash may even be on the rise as people realize how easily their economic lives could be switched off in an instant in the increasingly digital world, whether by being intentionally targeted or accidentally disabled with a lot of bureaucracy slowing down the correction. Having enough cash under your mattress that authority figures can't easily take from you is a psychological comf…

Hurricane season started in the southeastern US on June 1st. It's not uncommon for folks to have a few hundred in cash for when the power goes out and the credit card terminals aren't working.

Re: Banks, gangsters and the strange resurgence of cash

#33

Post by smokelegend »

petilon wrote: post #11
h2odragon wrote: post #2

They are circulating in places beyond the borders, I assume. We let North Korea print their own$100 bills for years as a form of off the books aid, but once that stopped the underworld needed someone to provide the currency. Remember the pallets of cash being sent to Iraq?

> We let North Korea print their own $100 bills for years as a form of off the books aid That's very hard to believe. Citation needed!

See previous "Super Bill" Wikipedia link comment.

It happened/may still be happening for all we know.

Re: Banks, gangsters and the strange resurgence of cash

#34

Post by chiefalchemist »

rsj_hn wrote: post #6

There is a lot of rumor and speculation about very benign things. 1. Precautionary savings. In a low interest rate environment, there is not the same penalty for holding cash as getting interest in a savings account. A lot of people find it prudent to have a buffer of cash, say enough to cover 1 month of expenses. So cash withdrawn from an ATM but put into a piggybank or under the mattress will appear here as "missin…

50,000 million? Yes, that's broader economy chump change. But, toss it in a suit case, move it off shore, and the magnitude increases (especially if it's a corruption tool). I think the question is: how does the current % size up historically? (I wasn't able to read the whole article.)

Re: Banks, gangsters and the strange resurgence of cash

#35

Post by dylan604 »

posnet wrote: post #19
lazide wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don’t get paid interest at a bank, and no brokerage is going to take you on (or you don’t trust them), then what else are your options?

I mean isn't that the reason preppers love gold/silver bullion?

i've never understood how this would work in these doomsday scenarios. are people going to walk around with scales to weigh the gold for every transaction as well as test the purity of the gold? are they going to mint their own coins? I just don't see how it's supposed to work

Re: Banks, gangsters and the strange resurgence of cash

#36

Post by chii »

petilon wrote: post #11
h2odragon wrote: post #2

They are circulating in places beyond the borders, I assume. We let North Korea print their own$100 bills for years as a form of off the books aid, but once that stopped the underworld needed someone to provide the currency. Remember the pallets of cash being sent to Iraq?

> We let North Korea print their own $100 bills for years as a form of off the books aid That's very hard to believe. Citation needed!

which part? The 'we let' them part? or the fact that NK is able to print?

Re: Banks, gangsters and the strange resurgence of cash

#37

Post by dylan604 »

bombcar wrote: post #7
rsj_hn wrote: post #6

There is a lot of rumor and speculation about very benign things. 1. Precautionary savings. In a low interest rate environment, there is not the same penalty for holding cash as getting interest in a savings account. A lot of people find it prudent to have a buffer of cash, say enough to cover 1 month of expenses. So cash withdrawn from an ATM but put into a piggybank or under the mattress will appear here as "missin…

It’s $166 per person in the USA. The horror.

I could spend that $166 better than how it is being used now, so can I have mine back?

Re: Banks, gangsters and the strange resurgence of cash

#38

Post by cptaj »

rsj_hn wrote: post #6

There is a lot of rumor and speculation about very benign things. 1. Precautionary savings. In a low interest rate environment, there is not the same penalty for holding cash as getting interest in a savings account. A lot of people find it prudent to have a buffer of cash, say enough to cover 1 month of expenses. So cash withdrawn from an ATM but put into a piggybank or under the mattress will appear here as "missin…

I live in Venezuela and we've had forex controls for 2 decades now.

Our currency has also depreciated massively over the years to the point of being useless.

We've unofficially dollarized a lot of cash operations so I bet a bunch of it is here.

Cuba and Argentina have similar forex controls.

This is probably the case all over the world.

Re: Banks, gangsters and the strange resurgence of cash

#39

Post by da_big_ghey »

anonporridge wrote: post #26
tobyjsullivan wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pseudo-relevant anecdote: I wanted to buy a used car a few months ago off someone on Facebook. We were meeting up same day so the easiest method seemed to be cash. I went to the bank to withdraw $7000 and was informed, much to my surprise, that it is impossible to withdraw more than $3000 without 48 hours notice. Suffice it to say, I've been seriously considering the tradeoffs of hoarding cash under my mattress.

You're not that many steps away from being a gold bug or a bitcoin hodler.

I dont think either of those is any great option but government has really damaged our banking system. Having no ability to withdraw own money or having the IRS snoop if you have more than $x in an account is so really wrong and makes me want to look elsewhere, just there dont seem to be many good alternatives.
Post reply on HN