Cash money is so unfashionable today, the Banks hate the stuff so much they are calling to ban the promise the pay the bearer.
Last week the largest ISP in the UK (British Telecom) stopped working for 2 Hrs. Many businesses are still dealing with the consequences 5 days later. You would be surprised how many SME's rely on Credit Card/Payment cards connected to very basic home grade router some even using wireless with the most basic (i.e basically none) security encryption.
You will be surprised how many businesses would have factory reset those routers during that 2 hour down time.

The day when an EMP or a simple fat pipe network attack and no money will lead to utter chaos. How long now?

Good thing that there are still small business that do not require everything to be computerized and tracked, so they can remain open during a power outage and take cash.

Then again, I think people should have enough supplies to not need to buy things for a few days.

There's currently a suggestion to ban £50 notes, on the grounds that they are only used for large cash transactions to evade tax.

It´ll be very convient as a first step to ban cash entirely. That´ll make withdrawing your money more difficult when substantial negative interest rates are introduced.

That's the point of banning cash -- trap beople in banks and plastic/credit cards. No cash, no need for ATM's and limited options to take your cash/currency out of the bank. Have German banks turned to negative interest rates yet?

This topic could turn political very quickly.

For a more eloquent view -- You Are Watching It!

The interest rates from German banks are not negative yet. They are not far in positve though. And some people propose to limit the amount of cash that can be used for a single payment.
It is no mistake to make some preparations for it just in case. Maybe boullion coins and a knife may have a comeback (in times far back they would cut pieces off of coins instead of fiddling with small change).
Let´s do our best to avoid to let the topic turn political. It has some preparation oriented aspects to it.

It would seem foolish to give up what control they currently have. A lot of people like me would simply use other forms of valued items directly, thereby bypassing any etf system altogether. I can already buy eggs, produce, and fuel with junk silver any time I want.

Getting paid by my current employer in something other than etf would be a serious issue. I suspect I would have to go into business for myself under the radar if I wanted to avoid the conversion issues.

Bob, I got a bad feeling on this one. -- interesting article. Included are four questions which are links to articles discussing the question. Some of these questions have already been discussed here, although maybe not in this focus.

I also have a bad feeling on this one and I really don't think we can be too prepared for what is coming. We (at least I) have no idea how bad it will be; I didn't live during the Great Depression or in Argentina. How would a world-wide depression manifest? Many (most?) past depressions ended in a war.

I was thinking about one of the James Burke TV programs that examined the 1965 northeast blackout. Same thing, where a single error (incorrect breaker setting) brought down power to 80,000 square miles of real estate in two countries

By removing physical media (bank notes) altogether, every-freakin-thing is dependent on the data network. This is less then reassuring in view of the near weekly data breaches in the news.

EDIT: The power just went out here. Still have cell service

Hey Russ, I am about to cross the 4,000 post mark, and I notice you are about 50 posts past me.

The air is pretty thin up here, eh?

I think doing away with physical cash and going to some form of electronic credits would probably give governments a lot more power/control in general. The Government would do it and could force all businesses to do it too and, eventually, the vast majority of people would be doing it also. At a bear minimum under this type of system, the Government would know where you were at the time of a purchase and what you bought. Personally I think it would be a *lot* worse.

The Baltic Dry Index appears to have dropped another 25% in the last 2-3 weeks.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-19...trade-after-all

Current Index is below 300. i.e. less than 1/3 the international shipping trade than in 1985 when their were 2-2.5 Billion less people on the planet earth and China was still largely an agrarian society and my family/Parents didn't have a telephone.

It would seem cash money would only bring forward a few days the inevitable accelerated economic collapse assuming inventories where normal if there was a grid down event (Black Start event)

For the USA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYoXxVnTePA More dead folks but much less bad language..when compared to the UK

For the UK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRes1zks3DM

If there was another 2008 Bankster event this year we may well see substantial negative interest rates and Bail in's with perhaps the consequence of the banning of cash money to improve commercial bank liquidity as central Banksters find it increasing difficult to hold back the fiat currency Ponzie scheme from total collapse under the weight of the losses of the ever expanding Quadrillion Derivatives infinite rehypothecation bubble.

I might well just be away on the Canoe Trip during those eventful weeks in Loch Hourn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaesvyQsCMA

It would seem a North American Electrical Grid collapse event is a lot more susceptible to an EMP attack than I have suspected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_lZUdGrbIDc#t=2368

In fact the whole discussion is very disturbing considering the lack of any resilience of the electrical grid

These folks it would seem appear to know what they are talking about and ARE NOT your typical Telebox Doomsday Preppers some folks like to poke fun at.