It doesn't cost any more to store bits or paper in Europe now than it did when interest rates were positive. The "storage costs" metaphor as a justification for negative interest rates is a whopping falsehood.
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I'm skeptical that it's laws which stand in the way to holding physical alternatives, as opposed to the fact that there's a limit to how much cash you'd be willing to hold in your home due to security and convenience,
People's attitudes & security measures about paper money vary widely & can change dramatically depending on trust in banks. They will also have stronger incentives to switch to cryptocurrency, which with multisig is far more secure to hold than paper money.
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Sure, I get that, but what I'm saying is that it's not the law that's the major impediment. It's cost of security. Knowledge, training convenience and so forth.
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People have been using coins & paper money for thousands of years, despite the robbers, highwaymen, and pirates. Effective weapons and big lawns help, one of the reasons deep or long NIRP would require much more draconian laws in the U.S. than they do at least so far in Europe.
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Sure, and people still use that stuff, but I also think you can think of robbers, highwaymen and pirates as a form of negative rates. And if people started holding more cash, there would be more robbers, highwaymen and pirates, meaning deeper implied negative rates on cash.
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So negative interest rates are a form of theft. Thank you for that admission.
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I'm not, personally, a fan of NIRP. I don't think it accomplishes what it sets out to do. But I don't think it's theft. And I don't think it's laws against holding physical currency (or metals or whatever) that explains why people don't opt to do that.
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You just likened negative interest to several enumerated forms of theft. P.S. hundreds of millions of people opt for paper for various transactions. As NIRP spreads & deepens, as bank fees etc. climb, the number of people using paper and number of txs they use it for will grow.
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No, I said that paying a bank for storage is a way to avoid theft. And see my other message. If you pay a security guard to protect your stuff from theft also a form of theft?
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You said a great deal more than that, which readers can see for themselves.
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