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> They claim that the EU wants to ban all cash payments. But this is a none-issue, as the proposed EU law sets a limit to 50.000 € and is meant to be a step against organised crime.
How does that make it a non-issue?
Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
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Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#12For context here: This guy is a right-wing nutjob who spews Russian propaganda. Ensuring cash is mandated in the constitution ensures that there is always a good money laundering and bribing method available, especially for the Russian mob and spy agencies, which Vienna is crawling with for years: https://www.businessinsider.com/vienna-crawling-russian-spie...
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#13[flagged]
Yeah and online censorship in the EU is only about going after child pornography.
Do you believe in a lot of fairy tales too?
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#14What makes cash special is that compared to other assets, it puts a bit more power into the hands of the individual and a bit less power in the hands of the government. To count or seize the individuals cash, the government has to make some fuzz. Aka send men with guns. There seems to be some divide in our world between people who consider individual power a good thing and people who consider it unnecessary. Here in…
> Here in Europe, I have the feeling the vast majority of people consider it unnecessary. The vibe I get is "The system works, so why not let the government handle and control everything.".
> I wouldn't be surprised if that is a golbal phenomena and holds steady throughout time.
Come to the east of EU/Europe and you'll see a completely opposite vibe. No wonder, people in their 40s still remember communism. And the older people sometimes think communism was still better - however bad it was - than whatever we have now.
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#15For context here: This guy is a right-wing nutjob who spews Russian propaganda. Ensuring cash is mandated in the constitution ensures that there is always a good money laundering and bribing method available, especially for the Russian mob and spy agencies, which Vienna is crawling with for years: https://www.businessinsider.com/vienna-crawling-russian-spie...
The fact that bad people commit crimes with cash doesn't mean that there isn't a public interest in keeping cash widely available as a means of transaction. I don't suppose many HN readers would be in favor of banning encryption just because the internet is crawling with criminals and child pornographers using encrypted communication.
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#16[flagged]
> it is a little surprising to see such political news on HN In my experience, currencies have been of consistent interest in HN. At least, if you consider cryptocurrencies as such ;-) > But this is a none-issue > is meant to be a step against organised crime Perhaps recent developments around the world would change your mind? The Canadian trucker protests of 2022 saw political protestors get bank accounts frozen, an…
>In my experience, currencies have been of consistent interest in HN. At least, if you consider cryptocurrencies as such ;-)
Not to mention stories like this are due to the changing impacts of fintech and schemes being used in tech to replace cash payments
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#17Seems a little short-sighted. Constitutions are meant to last for centuries, right? What's the payment landscape going to look like in 2400? Even now, the enforcement detail is too much to put into a Constitution. There would need to be statute dictating exactly what vendors of what size selling what goods in what way have to actually accept cash. There's no sane way to require this of remote transactions. Nobody is…
> Constitutions are meant to last for centuries, right?
Apparently, according to a study[0], the average life expectancy of a constitution (I presume it means a written, codified one) since 1789 is around 19 years. So while I'm sure the writers of constitutions envision them to last for centuries, in appears that they don't in practice.
The world's oldest written, codified constitution still in operation is the one in the US.
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#18[flagged]
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Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#19[flagged]
I think there's a general consensus that finance is squarely on topic for HN.
Not to mention we end up talking about politics all the time too because hackers are people (for now! :P).
Re: Austrian leader proposes enshrining the use of cash in country's constitution
#20[flagged]
> it is a little surprising to see such political news on HN In my experience, currencies have been of consistent interest in HN. At least, if you consider cryptocurrencies as such ;-) > But this is a none-issue > is meant to be a step against organised crime Perhaps recent developments around the world would change your mind? The Canadian trucker protests of 2022 saw political protestors get bank accounts frozen, an…
>> recently a famous politician in the UK got de-banked partly out of his political views
As a person in the UK, who is fairly in touch with the media industry. This is such a non-story. I just want to do my bit to fight disinformation with the real information here :
That FORMER (not current) politician is a TV personality, who works for a TV channel called GB News [1]
GB News is directly managed by Paul Marshall, in a personal capacity (who also operates a hedge fund). [2]
That hedge fund took out short positions against the bank (which means they made bets that the banks share price would fall). In fact they had the largest bet ever against the bank, since records began of short positions. [3]
Coutts is a private bank that is exclusively for high net worth individuals [4]
The TV personality withdraw money from his Coutts account and fell below the minimum balance requirements needed for an account with this private bank (which is £1million or $1.3million in dollars) [5]
The TV channel then made a big splash by announcing that this man's account got closed due to his political positons, rather than the reality of his financial withdrawals. Which cause the banks share price to drop due to the negative media attention. This made a large profit for the hedge fund that had bet against the bank and was managed by the person who owns the TV channel that ran this story [6]
[1] https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-business-government-...
[2] https://www.gbnews.com/about-us/our-investors
[3] https://www.investmentweek.co.uk/news/4111886/hedge-fund-mar...
[4] https://www.coutts.com/private-banking.html
[5] https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/revealed-the-real...
[6] https://www.thenational.scot/news/23683277.nigel-farage-row-...