me 1 ?

DOH!

Capital Controls come to Italy

• The passing of an extraordinary edict making cash transactions of more than Euro 1,000 illegal (not subject to reporting – just plain illegal). Following Prodi’s own desire, the existing regime has indicated that this level will be progressively reduced to a limit as low as Euro 300. Hence cash is maybe for the first time in history no longer legal tender (over Euro 1,000, for now);
• A requirement that credit card companies report all transactions carried out by Italians, in Italy and abroad to the fiscal authorities;
• Delays and refusals by banks in allowing customers to withdraw cash balances of as little as Euro 10,000;
• Finance Police has placed cameras at the physical borders with Switzerland (see below) to register all license plates. In addition, currency-sniffing dogs have been deployed at the border ( http://www.cdt.ch/ticino-e-regioni/cronaca/56250/fiscovelox-riapparsi-no... ). <Article>

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This is NO longer a discussion about what may come..... I can't imagine Italians thought that this would ever happen to them. If they hadn't prepared or expected this.... it's too late now!

@ BePrepared - Great and scary find. (A vision of the future!!?) Looks like the link is an Italian site - wish I could read Italian.

Looking forward to listening to the Podcast, Turd. Thank-you. Scheduled for tomorrow AM.

I've been somewhat absent (although lurking) from Turdville for the past few weeks (holidays and the need to take a break from all the "dark noise" surrounding the financial world). 

For a bit of amusement - here's another Turdville focused cartoon I put together. Enjoy.

WOW! BP, just wow.

Where are we at on the Central Swiss bankers wife swapping francs for dollars the day before the devaluation?

• http://www.idontwatchsoapoperasblogspottumblertweetdeck.com

Turd thank you for the Pod Cast

Falling prices is the normal state of an economy. Gold supply grows at only about 1.5% / year. So in a normal economy, prices fall as technological gains improve productivity, allowing the amount of goods to increase faster than the money supply. To simplify, with a little more gold chasing an even greater amount of goods, prices fall.

TheSilverJournal.com

COMO - "The fiscovelox of Ponte Chiasso border crossing points and Brogeda reappeared, this confirms that the relationship between Italy and Switzerland, also under the government of Mario Monti, remain problematic." It indicates that in a statement on the League of Ticino, which returns to point the finger at Berne, which would prove not to know "to relate properly with Italian counterparts." The blockade of the border rebates, therefore, must be maintained in 2012.

On the Italian front, the Finance Police confirms that "In our area, we use all the means allowed by Italian law, in compliance with the regulations and without any danger for the breach of privacy." Mark Pelliccia, Colonel in charge of the Provincial Command of GdF Como, notes that all systems of assessment designed to identify possible tax violations, are routinely used, including fiscovelox. In this regard, since it was introduced, never reached guidance or directives to block or restrict their use.

"It was not set up any garrison fixed - adds - not least in areas such as to indicate that attention can be pointed to a particular territory or foreign country, and there were demands for tighter controls in recent weeks." No risk - therefore - a violation of the privacy of a private citizen, or some form of espionage, the Italian side. What matters to the Guardia di Finanza, he insists, is the Italian taxpayer. To prevent the flight of capital abroad, the yellow flames using a range of means known and very flexible: it starts with the control face to face by the financier, also authorized to make investigations into the vehicle. To this we may add inspection antivaluta with the dog, or a control of a patrol retrovalico. Finally, precisely, the monitoring carried out with fiscovelox vans equipped with a mobile system and computerization of data collection, aimed at further development of controls, starting with car number plates. A system, in fact, that it was not, however, never been deleted.

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​They point blank admit that it is to prevent the flight of capital out of the country of Italy.  I am sure if you look closely... those vans look eerily similar to vans that a certain Janet "The Report on Your Neighbor" Napolitano has ordered up for her new world order guard, the TSA.  

​I hate to be so pessimistic, but we should all be looking for a van coming to a neighborhood near you.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45899109

I expect to see a lot more of these type articles.  It is in everyone's best interest, for as many people as possible, to think about the future.

are already being implemented quietly in the USA

The $600 transaction reporting requirement for businesses that was scrapped was just one.

Paypal & Amazon now have to report anyone with certain levels of sales.

How many recall the OSHA? requirement that ammunition be reclassified as an explosive from 2? years ago? That fell  very quickly but was telling as to intent. Intent to make ammo very expensive & hard to get in its multiple onerous new rules.

Backdoor attempts at capitol controls & other controls by unelected functionaries are ongoing, multitudinous & nefarious in intent.

At this point in time those running this freak show are still afraid of us. Woe unto us all if they lose their fear.   

Zerohedge is the site that came out with the article and I posted just the relevant portion and linked back to them for the full article. I wasn't satisfied with just getting that information because it's an important topic to all of us as it indicates how things may unfold here in the U.S.  I was able to confirm their article through, of all sites, bloomberg.

• Deputy Finance Minister, Vittorio Grilli, instituted this new rule on Dec. 4th (about a month ago) restricting the cash limit to 1,000€.
• Based upon a press conference on Dec. 5th, he lays out that the Italian government will be moving to set this limit, in progressive steps, to 500-euro and 300-euro respectively saying citizens need "time to adapt to new rules."
• The government is clear that they want their citizens using credit cards so they can track and tax each transaction.
• The Italian Finance Ministry installed Vans at the border that will assist them in detecting any mass physical exodus of money out of the country into Switzerland.

Some Analysis

The Italian Government is forcing its people, in effect, to register all the generational wealth that each family has within the banking system so that it can be tracked and taxed. The Banking Cartel doesn't want anything outside of their computer system. Let's not forget.... it's never good to waste a crisis. Most Italian's have never had a credit card and, now, the government wants them to do all of their business electronically on just such a card. It's a great way to digitize every citizen in Italy and move them to a purely electronic monetary system. The Subterfuge and Overt Manuevers of Italian Government seem to suit their objectives very well without serving the people's best interest. The only way the Banking Cartel can drain Italy dry is if they can get a fee for every swipe of a card, sound familiar, and then get a second piece of that same transaction through tax.

The installed Technocrat Italian PM will do everything possible to pull every red Euro cent from his people and the only way he can do that is to line them up and force feed them into the Banking Cartel's Electronic Business Model.  I can only hope the Italians are smart enough to continue to use whatever flexibility they have remaining in the system to move their funds to PMs or into a pure cash position out of the country.  If I was an Italian, why would I want to lose my life savings to pay some banker a debt that was created out of thin air and wants an interest payment that is obscene at best.

PM Monti point blank says “What we need is a revolution in Italians’ thinking and that takes time,” Monti told reporters on Dec. 5. “This is meant to be a first step.”  Push the People into insolvent banks so that they can be forced to pay fees on their own money and then pay taxes, which won't benefit their country, but merely pay interest on a debt that should have already had a serious hair-cut to allow Italy to recover economically.  The Italian government needs to value to their people above the banks and above their Euro Master.... and come up with another way for the people to pay their fair share into supporting governmental services... without forcing their people into banks through Capital Controls.

I hope this additional information is helpful.... 

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‘Culture of Cash’

“The culture of cash is strongly ingrained in Italians, even those that don’t evade,” Deputy Finance Minister Vittorio Grilli said at a Dec. 5 press conference in Rome. The government initially wanted to set a 300-euro or 500-euro cash limit but decided against it, Grilli said, reasoning that citizens needed time to adapt to new rules.

Italian banks, which charge businesses up to 2 percent for credit-card transactions, could end up being the main beneficiaries of the new rules, according to Rome-based consumer group Adusbef. “Unless banks cut fees on credit cards and current accounts, they’ll just make more money from the new law,” said Mauro Novelli, the general secretary of the organization, which represents banking and insurance customers.

Consumer advocates say the new law also discriminates against older Italians, many of whom don’t use credit cards. As many as 7.5 million Italians have never had a bank account, according to Adusbef. “The law cannot force old people to use plastic or open bank accounts,” Novelli said.

Bank Fees

The government is negotiating with the banks to get them to cut fees on credit cards and lower costs for bank accounts to encourage the move away from cash, Grilli said Dec. 5.

Banks are willing to consider zero-cost current accounts for low-income retirees and discuss credit-card costs “in light of the government’s new measures,” Giuseppe Mussari, head of Rome-based ABI, said Dec. 11. However, lenders won’t “give away” services that carry a cost for them, he said.

Italy’s tradition of saving won’t be at risk from the new measures, said Nicola Borri, an economics professor at Rome’s LUISS University. “Italians mainly use debit or credit cards with stringent limits,” he said. “Financial instruments that allow you to pile up debt are very limited in this country.”

Politicians have seized on the cash issue as a way to build support among a public reluctant to change. “There’s a real danger of crossing over into a fiscal police state,” former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said at a political convention on Nov. 27 in Verona, about two weeks after the debt crisis toppled his government.<Rest of the Article>

@ BePrepared: Great reporting and analysis. Mega H/T 

What this says to me is that things are drawing to a head. As BePrepared is right - they want all commerce inside their computer system. The whole economy is one gigantic credit algorithm.

Obtain your Gold and Silver now - because it sure seems like the opportunity to do so without the approval of "the system" is coming to a rapid close in Italy.

What a mess.

haha greece at the atlantic

Gold Bottom Targets Trend to $4000

There has been so much talk about gold and so little understanding of the reality behind the move in the price of the yellow metal over the last 90 plus days that I think it’s necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff. I want to discuss what gold has done, where it’s at now, and then end with where it’s going from here and postulate why it’s going to do what it will do.

Right now you need to understand that gold is beginning the twelfth year of major bull market; perhaps the most unprecedented bull market in our lifetime.

Read more »

Casey Research interviewed Neil Howe co-author of the Fourth Turning in 2009 and this is the report that came from the interview:

http://www.caseyresearch.com/pdfs/1255444078-0909TheFourthTurning.pdf

RaRa

Falling prices is the normal state of an economy. Gold supply grows at only about 1.5% / year. So in a normal economy, prices fall as technological gains improve productivity, allowing the amount of goods to increase faster than the money supply. To simplify, with a little more gold chasing an even greater amount of goods, prices fall.

TheSilverJournal.com

And if you follow that thought to its logical conclusion, life would become a Garden of Eden through sound money because improvements in productivity would make goods ever easier to obtain with less effort.  

We can't have that, so the primary job of central bankers is to keep prices high through the erosion of our money so that we continue to serve as debt slaves.  They are truly the snakes in Eden.

They are buying time by heading off a bank run in Italy.  What happens next?

When Money Dies, by Niel Furgusen, detailed how the capital controls in Wiemar Germany drove everybody into stocks.  They wouldn't let people trade into other currencies.  I would expect the same to happen in Italy.  People want a way to protect their wealth, and if they can't get it to put under a mattress, or convert it into some other form of a currency, they will drive it into the equity markets.  For anyone willing to ride that wave, I recommend caution.  Italy is just stalling.  There's going to be a global devaluation, and I believe stocks are going to get ruthlessly hit by insiders in the know looking to pick up bargains just before that devaluation happens, because if you cut the value of your currency in half, stocks have to double in price to tread water.

With the exception of measures intended to prevent bank runs, you are unlikely to see the same sort of currency controls here because when the USD fails, it's all over.  There won't be any other fiat currencies to flee to.  This net is going to be thrown over the whole globe, and the only way to squeeze through it is PMs.

+1000.  You get it more than a lot of others who think they do.

Withhold your consent for continuation of the current system.

• Adopt tax minimization strategies.
• Stop using your credit/debit cards.
• Move bank accounts to a Credit Union.
• Reduce your consumption.
• Buy second hand.
• Boycott BigBox, support local when buying new.
• Start a garden. 
• Buy your seeds from a local open pollinated source or learn to save your own.
• Support local farmer's markets.
• Buy local grass fed meat to avoid GMO feed, hormones and antibiotics.
• Stack tools as well as PMs and food.
• If possible acquire arable land or a woodlot.
• Learn a skill that will increase your ability to be self sufficient.
• If you have a brokerage account, switch from "margin" to "cash" and direct register your shares.
• Strive to have exited the system before universal chip implanting is a reality.

It doesn't take 100% of the population to make a difference with these types of strategies.  If even a portion of the population organized their lives in the above manner it would cause the Ineptocracy to wither and die.

Is it just me, or does anyone else get a strange vibe about "the Mark of the Beast" when they read about the stuff going on in Italy????

Pretty revealing that this is the policy that comes down when a country gets effectively taken over by the Cartel.

Facism on steroids. Mussolini would be proud. Where and in what form will the next Hitler be seen?

Hate to be apocalyptic, but that's what it seems like.

When Money Dies, by Niel Furgusen, detailed how the capital controls in Wiemar Germany drove everybody into stocks. 

What few people grasp was that despite the stellar stock price rises, people putting their cash into stocks would still lose money due to hyperinflation kicking in.

In other words, they were better off than people who had cash, but way worse than people with their money in hard assets like PM's, land, and jewelry etc.

Enjoyed the interview, I look forward to another.  I've been perusing burningplatform for awhile.  I like his stuff.

Good article @RaRa thanks for the link on the fourth turning!

@cris   Hate to be apocalyptic, but that's what it seems like.  ~ ​Kind of hard not to be these days when everything seems that way!

"I guess with our new and improved, 'enlightened society', I'd better have a young boy in case they don't go for the hooker."

​You're prepping this mission for all possible outcomes.  Now the hard part; finding 5 reasonably sober hunters.

Thanks for posting those links to the Telegraph articles on Italy. If people stopped to read them there might be a little less hysteria & paranoia about what's happening - namely, the Italian authorities are finally taking serious steps to halt the long-running epidemic of tax evasion in that country. If Greece did likewise the Eurozone finances might be in a somewhat healthier state.

The culture in these countries is to lie and evade paying tax altogether but at the same time expect a pension from the government  at 55 and screw the EU for fraudulent subsidies.

The folks with the Lambos and Ferrarris not paying tax do not have my sympathies.  As much as I love being in these 2 countries, the recent flow of easy money has created a whole gimme gimme generation, who like big babies,  just want to suck from the government/EU spigot. 

Those that want to work find it impossible to get a job if they are not well connected. That's why many of them are forced to leave. Some even find the UK a dynamic open country by comparison - and that's saying something.   It's a shame because there is so much to love about Italy and Greece. 

Withdrawal of easy money is  going to very hard for them, but might make them grow up and do something worthwhile with their lives. Hrmph.

Boardwalk, Jacey,

Many thanks. That's what I suspected.

I'll just buy a nice diamond and have it set for my wife and leave it at that.

Howe is saying that the Millennial generation (1980-2004) are what's going to shape our world in this 4th turning. People currently 7- 31 years old.

- overwhelmingly voted for Obama, 2/3 of them.

- will look to bigger government to solve problems

on the positive side, they will be more family oriented & socially conservative. He says that this generation is reversing trends towards teen pregnancy, smoking, drinking/drug use etc. More serious minded about values. Intergenerational housing coming back into vogue.

The snippet below is chilling and I believe spot on. One major incident and you can kiss freedom goodbye. Take a good hard look at what went on in the USA in WWI & WWII as far as encroachment on civil liberties & you'll see that we've already seen this movie, or at least its trailer.

http://www.caseyresearch.com/pdfs/1255444078-0909TheFourthTurning.pdf

"Despite impressions to the contrary, when it comes to foreign

policy and the war on terror, Obama is basically adopting

– without claiming to do so – much the same policies as

Bush on issue after issue. And if a nuclear bomb goes off anywhere

in the world, not necessarily here, but for instance in

India, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran – anywhere – the mood of

the world would change overnight.

I don’t think enough people have thought through how much

that would just change everything on a dime. Can you imagine

what would happen in the world’s financial markets? Can

you imagine what would happen to civil liberties? Even if

such an attack doesn’t happen here, I imagine we would still

react by suddenly allowing house-to-house searches, tapping

of phones, and so on. This speaks to the Fourth Turning

mood.

You can talk all you want about civil liberties, but once people

are suddenly afraid and they see, in that case, maybe a million

dead, regardless of where in the world it occurs, our world

would be just changed overnight, literally overnight. And

when the dust settles, all the rules will be different."