22/101/16: Cashless Society: Efficiency 1 : Privacy 0

My comments on the dangers associated with the idea of the 'cashless society' where traditional money is replaced by fully captured (by data flows) and de-privatized electronic accounts: http://www.gold-eagle.com/article/cashless-society-%E2%80%93-risks-posed-war-cash.

25/6/15: Monetising Greece

Recently, I mused about cash balances in Greece being monetised by the ECB.

Here is some evidence. First Greek holdings of cash:

Next: Eurosystem ELA:

21/5/2014: Irish Credit Supply to Cash Ratios are Heading South, Still

Irish Central Bank and Government departments have been pushing hard to convert Irish economy into cashless, electronic accounting data storehouse, where everything gets counted and taxed (at least in theory).

Meanwhile, in Ireland's real economy, cash remains the king as the only metric of money supply still expanding in the deleveraging hell gripping the financial system:

To remind you: in Q4 2013, Irish private households' deposits fell to their lowest point since March 2009 (note, this makes them the lowest since around Q3 2005 as current figures reflect addition of the Credit Unions deposits to the dataset (they were not counted in until January 2009).

That's right... let's do away with cash so Irish banks deposits get another superficial (accounting) boost and few million worth of tax euros flows into the state coffers. Happy times all around... we know Irish households are getting richer and richer by day...

15/1/2013: Risk Taking Up, Cash Down

In contrast to CFA members cautious optimism (see here), markets bullishness is hitting historical highs:

via @Pawelmorski

And understandably, cash is not the King (see second chart here).