Large Cash Transactions Banned In Mexico … Outgoing Mexican President Felipe Calderon has signed into law a ban on large cash transactions. The ban will take effect in about 90 days and it is part of a broader effort to control monetary flows within the country. Under the law, a Specialized Unit in Financial Analysis operating within the Attorney General's Office will be created to investigate financial operations "that are related to resources of unknown origin." For real estate transactions, cash payments of more than a half million pesos ($38,750) will be forbidden and, for automobiles or items like jewelry, art, and lottery tickets, cash payments of more than 200,000 pesos ($15,500) will be forbidden. The law carries a minimum penalty of five years in prison. – Forbes

Dominant Social Theme: Terrorism must be combated by controlling people's money.

Free-Market Analysis: What we consider to be the "phony" war on terror is the gift that keeps on giving to those who run our governments.

The phony war on drugs only adds to the rationales for telling people what they can and cannot do with their resources.

What is going on is a pattern, not a series of defensive moves taken out of desperation. The power elite intends to lock down the world, it seems, in order to track every monetary transaction of any significance.

We wrote about this trend previously in "Spain Bans Cash." Here's an excerpt:

… As we have long predicted, the phony "sovereign debt" crisis in Europe is being used to justify all sorts of authoritarian measures.

It is government pols that gladly borrowed what European banks threw at them. And somehow the upshot earlier this week is that Spanish citizens now lose the right to conduct many transactions in cash.

Spectacularly, the reports such as this one, excerpted above, don't even both to hide the real point. The Spanish government wants to ensure that it can "track transactions and make sure that people and businesses are paying taxes."

Of course, anyone who has visited Spain of late knows that the tax burden in Spain is onerous indeed, and is one reason that the truculent tribes that have co-existed uneasily with Madrid are again beginning to beat the drums of secession.

The taxes that the central government levies on small businesses especially are verging on punitive. But there are no apologies. The official position is one of unflinching demands.

And now Mexico is going the way of Spain. Always there is a justification. But the reality of the project is much broader and has to do with a power elite wish, apparently, to create a world government that is fully in charge of what people can and cannot transact. Here's some more from the Forbes article excerpted above:

In 2010, Mexico instituted strict limits on foreign exchange cash transactions to $1,500 per person per month, which caused several cash dollar exchanges to withdraw from the business and had the effect of penalizing tourists.

Of course, US dollars are a huge portion of the actual paper cash that this effort is aimed at, but the Mexican peso is the 12th most traded currency in the world and by far the most traded currency in Latin America.

Reuters reported that, "Sales of drugs from marijuana to cocaine and methamphetamine in the United States are worth about $60 billion annually, according to the United Nations. About half of that amount is estimated to find its way back to cartels in Mexico."

The Woodrow Wilson International Center For Scholars' Mexico Institute published a comprehensive study in May 2012 entitled "It's All about the Money." The report recommended tight integration and coordination with the United States in the areas of legal framework, financial institution regulation, intelligence on cross-border currency flows, and non-conviction based asset forfeiture.

Two years in the making, the new law also requires notaries, real estate brokers, and other dealers to report the forms of payment for transactions above the respective limits. Financial institutions will also be required to report monthly credit card balances in excess of 50,000 pesos ($3,875).

The article mentions that Italy has also banned cash transactions above a certain amount. Certainly this is a growing trend.

The Forbes article mentions the prevalence of the Mexican drug trade but it is well known at this point in alternative news circles that US Intel is behind much Western drug trade in order to fund various black and gray ops. Presumably, MI6 and the Mossad are also involved.

The British Crown made a fortune in the 1800s selling opium to the Chinese. Government drug trafficking is an ancient business. In order for something to be maximally profitable, it has to be in short supply. Making something illegal is one way to damp supplies and raise profits.

After Thoughts

We figure at some point gold and silver will also come under attack, as that's the way the world is trending. But in the meantime, these national bans continually pressure more and more freedoms, including the freedom of shielding one's wealth from prying eyes. And that's just the point …