You knew it was bound to happen. Mainstream media organizations are using the novel coronavirus epidemic to open a new front on the War on Cash by trying to instill a fear of cash into the American public. As Nick Hankoff trenchantly writes:
Cash has been the target of the banking and financial elites for years. Now, the coronavirus pandemic is being used to frighten the masses into accepting a cashless society. That would mean the death of what’s left of our free society.
CBS News, CNN, and other mainstream outlets are fearmongering again. Alarmism is nothing new in the media world, but this time, it’s not about triggering panic buying or even pushing a political agenda.
The war on cash is about imposing a new meta-narrative. As economist Joseph Salerno explains, the cashless society forces all payments to be made through the financial system. It doesn’t end with monopoly control over transactions, though.
Being bound to computers for transactions kicks the door wide open to hardcore surveillance of personal activity and location data. Being eternally on the grid means relentless taxation and negative interest rates, which the Federal Reserve is already gearing up for.
None of this bothers the well-heeled boosters of a cashless society or their lackeys in the media. They want Americans reading about the threat of coronavirus cooties on their cash, which is absurd.
Germs, of course, can loiter all over credit and debit cards, smartphones, ATMs, and every other cash alternative device. Too bad implanted microchip technology isn’t further along, the banksters must be thinking.
In another CNN article, readers are practically shamed for withdrawing cash to save during a crisis. Every sentence, every word, every letter of the article is nuts.
A CBS News article wistfully describes how "bank note avoidance" was one of the measures taken to stem the novel coronavirus outbreak in South Korea, whose central bank removed all banknotes from circulation for two weeks and even burned some of them. The article even touts the practice of Iranian banks, which announced they will no longer accept cash from customers. The article also reports that "even" the laggard Federal reserve has gotten into the act, with a Fed spokesman announcing that dollar bills that circulated in Europe and Asia are being quarantined for 7 to 10 days as "a precautionary measure."
A CNN Business did its part to whip up the public's fear of cash in an article relating the findings of a medical study of cash that did not spare the reader the revolting details--or a crushingly trite warning from WHO :According to a 2017 study conducted in New York City, researchers found microorganisms living on the surface of cash, ranging from mouth and vaginal bacteria to flu-like viruses. The World Health Organization recommends washing your hands after handling money, especially before eating food.
