“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

The doomsayers have connected some dots and concluded that there is a global move by central bankers to eliminate cash to avoid bank runs. The runs they foresee will be caused by negative interest rates and the threat that depositors' money will be confiscated to bail out their banks. (That is not an unreasonable fear.)

Since the 2008 financial crisis the world's central bankers have found that lowering interest rates to almost zero has not worked to encourage spending, which they believed would raise their economies from deflation and spur lending and economic growth. Now, rather than finally concluding that they have been heading in the wrong direction, they want to double down and move interest rates below zero. What does that mean? Negative interest rates means that, rather than receive interest, depositors pay banks to hold their money.

The central bankers, including the Fed, have a approved a template pioneered in Cyprus in 2013 whereby their failing banks converted their deposits into their stock. See Europe Make Cyprus "Bail-In" Regime "Bail-In" Regime Continental Template

Also see JPMorgan On The Inevitability Of Europe-Wide Capital Controls. (Note that cash deposited is legally a loan to the bank. The cash is the bank's asset. Your account is what they owe you. If the bank goes bankrupt, you stand in line with all of the other creditors. Except for the FDIC, you would get cents on the dollar.) Thus, the conventional wisdom and approved method (in the U.S., by law: From Bailouts to Bail-Ins: Understanding the Dodd-Frank Act) to avoid government bailouts (which have become political dynamite) now is for the banks to use their customers' deposits to stay solvent. (The term for this process, coined by he Financial Times, is a "bail-in").

Think about it. Why would anyone keep their money in a bank when they are charged for doing so or the bank is headed for insolvency? How will people be able to save the fruits of their labors, to store its value and avoid its being taken from them? Well, they could call in their deposits, withdraw their cash and stop using banks . . . in other words, a run on the banks. How can government make people keep their money in the bank? Eliminate cash.

Regular folks are unaware of this undercurrent (overcurrent?) in the financial world. But discussion of it there is widespread. Negative interest rates policies have already been implemented by some central banks and both the Fed and the European Central Bank are talking about negative interesting rates and eliminating large denomination bills.

Paranoia? Read the headlines. You judge.