Is now the right time to buy gold??

to me optimism in metals means the prices go down. jacked up prices means a screwed up economy

 

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Yesterday came the first reports on Greece's new "War on Cash" -- from ZeroHedge.com

Coming soon to a democracy near you >>>

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The spread of global cash bans continues with Greece unveiling their so-called 'soft' approach by which taxpayers will only be granted tax-allowances or deductions when payments are made via credit or debit cards. As KeepTalkingGreeece reports, the new guidelines refer to employees, pensioners, farmers, and also the unemployed.

Accepted expenditure will be:

• purchases for food and supermarket products, electronic and electric devices, household equipment, footwear, clothing, fuel, furniture, cigarettes, drinks
• Restaurants, cafeterias,bars and hotels
• Services like by hairdressers and beauty parlors, gyms and dance schools, car repair, plumbers, electricians, painters, carpenters, lawyers and accountants.
• For doctors and pharmacy the same practice will be valid as in last year. The tax office will accept the expenditure only if payments are made per credit card or bank transfer.
• Expenditure for utility bills, landlines and mobile phones, heating, rent, loan repayments that in fact swallow the largest amount of monthly expenditure for private households will not be accepted. Also not accepted is expenditure for toll and transport tickets.

In its “wisdom” the Greek Finance Ministry has determined the amount the taxpayers will have to pay with electronic money in order to be able to get the tax allowance:

• 10% for annual income up to €10,000
• 15% for annual income €10,001-€30,000
• 20% for annual income over €30,001

The famous Greek wisdom in times of austerity, bailout agreements and economic crisis remains the same also in 2017 and as neoliberal as possible since 2010: crack the low and medium incomes, let the rich fly free

Find the Surrealism

• income €7,000: expenditure per plastic money must be €700
• income €10,000: expenditure per plastic money must be €1,000
• income €30,000: expenditure per plastic money must be €4,500
• income €60,000 expenditure per plastic money must be €12,000

Should a taxpayer not be able to spend the necessary percentage of the annual income according to the guidelines, the punishment will be a penalty of 22% imposed on the missing difference.

I heard on television that couples will have to spend separately – but better check with your accountant. The average taxpayer in Greece needs an accountant anyway, someone who will follow the revenue-expedience balance month by month for the sake of the tax office.

In the bizarre Greek world we live in, households will be obliged to spend money even if they do not want to. As the large part of monthly need coverage (utilities etc) is not accepted by the tax office, households who do not manage to reach the necessary percentage through supermarket percentages will have to go and spend like crazy in retail, dance schools and gyms and other goods and service providers.

Exempted from the compulsory usage of credit/debit cards are seniors over 70 years old, residents of remote areas and people with disability over 80%. I suppose they will have to continue the collection of paper receipts.

KTG understands that with these new system, taxpayers will not need to collect the stupid receipts from cash register, where the amount had faded away when they were supposed to be brought to the tax office in a huge plastic bag.

The cap for cash transactions falls from 1,500 until 31.12.2016 down to 500 euro. In simple words: any purchase of goods and services over 500 euro will need to be done via plastic money.

 

Interesting method to stimulate the economy by forcefully boosting local spending to get money flowing in the economy.

 

A rather inelegant method of promoting a circular flow of investment. Seemingly also an effective way of employing more civil servants to enforce it. I guess just because it has been spoken about, does not mean it will become a reality.

 

"I guess just because it has been spoken about, does not mean it will become a reality."


It IS a reality, as of 4 days ago. It is called a "soft" approach because it has not (yet) taken coins or currency out of circulation, only indirectly subjected their indiscriminate use to a clever 22% penalty. And notice it happened overnight...

I predict Spain, Turkey, or Lebanon will host the next "battle" in the war on cash.

 

Well maybe Spain and possibly Portugal as they remain in the Euro zone and therefore subject to (EU) monetary rules, as is Greece. Taking Euro cash to bail out a national debt has caveats and the central bankers like to think that they will actually get a return on their loans that have a value.

Turkey and Lebanon are perfectly able to print more money under the guise of quantitive easing, as is (and do) UK and the USA.

 

"Printing more money" and the "War on Cash" are two completely-different subjects, and there's minimal connection between them. The first sustains the country's bond market, essentially preventing default of more borrowing; the second attempts to scrutinize and control the individual, for political or "moral" purposes, under the guise of preventing money laundering, black market transactions, and/or moving cash in or out of the country, etc.

For instance, China's main efforts of the past twelve months has been the imposition of severe capital controls, but its residents have been encouraged to buy more gold, even to the extent of opening government-licensed and -controlled "gold shops." That phase of micro-management seems to be coming to an end.

Also, the rising price of oil has hurt China's central financial planning significantly. China's biggest fear is rising (global) interest rates, and that's where the U.S. Treasury can put the squeeze on them.

The "war on cash" targets individuals collectively, not the country's macro-economics.

 

zerohedge is a daily dose of doom and gloom dumbassery.

 

Not the exact wording I would've used, but yeah, that's my impression too. Judging from the headlines Coinflation has been pressing on me from that source over the last five years or so, the Dow at this point should be hovering around 300 or so and we should all be buying our bread with single silver dimes.

 

So let me get this straight - with simple bullet points.

- Citizens will be required to use credit cards to pay for things - proportionate to their income or face penalties

- Citizens cannot use cash to pay for things - or at least there is a 500 euro cap on cash spending

- Anyone that doesn't spend enough on credit cards will be penalized?

So...

What happens when you pay via credit and then go immediately pay off the credit card with cash?

Or did I miss something? Hard time following with all the BOLD, LINKS and COLOR CHANGES in this story - which seems to be a lot of propaganda with truth sprinkled in.

FWIW, it's always the right time to buy gold - depending on what price you can get it for.