By Jeff Berwick.
Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi – beloved of Western elites for a variety of reasons – has just announced that all 500 Indian rupee Notes ($7.50) and 1,000 Indian rupee ($15) notes will no longer be considered legal tender. The 500 and 1,000 rupee, by the way, are the two largest denominations in India. Equivalent to the US banning the $100 and $50.
More: ATM withdrawals will be limited to 2,000 Indian Rupees ($30) for some.
The Reserve Bank of India and the post office also apparently decided that because of this “major task ahead” of them, that all commercial banks were shut down for the public on November 9th for a “bank holiday”.
We’ve covered the cash-confiscation trend in the past. It’s just one more brick in the wall of rising fascist barriers against free utilization of currency. In Europe, the 500 euro note is to be discontinued by the end of 2018, for instance.
That not-so-coincidentally is the year that The Economist magazine hinted would be the first year of a “world currency.” If so it will just be the culmination of what I’ve spent years predicting – a continued hyper-internationalism created by war, economic ruin and increasingly Draconian laws and regulations.
There are plenty of powerful bureaucrats working to implement such globalist fascism. It’s not surprising that we find Modi at the front of the pack. Modi served as chief minister of Gujarat in the 2000s where his main achievements were apparently allowing the killings of more than 1,000 Muslims during political riots and adapting technocratic “smart city” approaches.
Modi was enamored of corporate sponsorship for municipal and industrial projects in Gujarat. It allowed him to cultivate relationships with major Western multinationals and these pan-global entities supported his rise to the prime ministership.
It’s not at all surprising that Modi would provide support for a major technocratic project like cash confiscation given these relationships. Certainly as interest rates around the world head into negative territory, cash confiscation becomes an increasing priority.
Back in February, Mario Draghi and the ECB began talking about eradicating the 500 euro note. But it’s now reported Draghi wants to rid himself of the 200 euro note, and even the 100. Meanwhile, in the US, you have Harvard “scholar” Peter Sands who suggests it’s high time to get rid of the $100 dollar bill.
All of this is being advocated for under the guise of deterring “tax evasion, financial crime, terrorism and corruption.” Of course, some reverse the rhetoric, suggesting the real terrorists and financial criminals are central bankers who have been funding both sides of wars for centuries and endlessly debasing currency as well. And, of course, taxation is theft… so “evading taxes” is akin to “evading robbery” by running away.
That wouldn’t be Modi’s point of view, however. He’s eager to abet Western central bank ruination and a worldwide tax dragnet by making India party to it.
From the PM in his words:
- “Fake money and terrorism are ruining the nation’s fabric,”
- “An honest man cannot buy a house, cannot get [a] proper education due to black money.”
- “Cash economy aides black money, corruption and makes life difficult for the poor.”
- “Government is imposing a limit on high denomination notes. In the history of nations, such a moment comes when you realize that you must be part of this historical moment. This, is one such day.”
- “Every common man who is tired of corruption and black money is welcome to contribute to this catharsis. It is very important to cleanse the nation of the corruption.”
- “Come, let’s all celebrate the festival of honesty”
Festival of honesty? Paper fiat is “fake” enough, because it can be printed at will. But digital fiat is “faker” in that it doesn’t even require printing. It’s literally created at will when someone punches numbers into a computer.
So, Indians now have until the end of December to deposit these higher denomination bills into the bank before they are rendered useless. You can’t just make a deposit, though. You’ll need to show a government ID before you can make one. And, if you have any sizable amount you’ll doubtless be immediately investigated for theft … sorry, tax evasion.
If the 1,000 and 500 rupee is “declared illegal,” that just leaves the 100 rupee note, which is currently worth $1.40. In other words, if you want to use cash in India, get out your backpack.
This is another in the long line of attacks in the war on cash. They’ve talked the Nordic countries into just using debit/credit cards instead of cash. In Greece, they just closed the banks for months and put in place capital controls. In Cyprus they closed the banks one weekend and by the time they reopened, large depositors only had half of what they’ve had before.
As the war rages on, you won’t want to have any substantial portion of your savings or assets in fiat currencies. Especially if they become digitized fiat currencies which are even more susceptible to bank bail-ins like what we saw in Cyprus.
