“Intervention in the freedom of contract”: paper alleges cash plans as unlawful – n-tv.de NEWS

 Economy
 

 Tuesday 09 February 2016

 
 
 

 
 Probates means of combating crime or interference with the freedom of citizens? The plans to restrict the use of cash, heat many minds. On the side of the critics of the project now proposes former constitutional judges paper.
 

 
 

The former president of the Constitutional Court, Hans-Jürgen Papier, maintains restrictions of cash payments unconstitutional. “This would be unjustified interference with freedom rights, namely freedom of contract and freedom of contract,” said the paper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. In addition, the Constitutional Court has repeatedly emphasized, “that the freedom exercise of citizenship can not be totally measured and recorded”.

The Federal Government is considering how other European countries to introduce a limit on cash payments. Talking is a limit of 5000 euros. Proponents are hoping in this way to curb money laundering, illegal working and terrorist financing.

The SPD financial expert and deputy parliamentary leader Carsten Schneider defended the project. “In Germany about 60 billion euros annually washed and only one percent of criminal funds are drawn. This can not be the state accept”, Schneider said the “Saarbrücker Zeitung”. Germany is now in Europe a “Eldorado” for money laundering. In addition to a cash limit of 5000 euros and the 500-euro bill should be abolished. “This is the cash in black money in a big way.”

paper criticized, however: There is no statutory cash ceiling and forced to resort to electronic means of payment, represented a “strong step towards further regulation, detection and suspicion without registration” , Also was probably not sufficiently shown that those restrictions are to protect the public good really appropriate and necessary.

Ohoven suspected plans for negative interest rates

Also, the German Association of Judges had appeared skeptical. It should be relatively easy to conceal cash flows and to launder money, board member Peter Schneiderhan had recently told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. This done by transfer chains and through the use of accounts that have been opened using a false identity. “The abolition of cash would therefore not prevent terrorist financing or money laundering, but only shift to electronic means of payment.”

critical of the President of the Federal Association of medium-sized business, Mario Ohoven, steps towards a possible abolition of cash: “the proponents of Bargeldlosigkeit it comes into truth about something else,” he says. The general aim was to gain sovereignty over monetary assets and monetary transactions. “Has he attained this only once, to savers can no longer resist the negative interest rates, for example,” Ohoven is certain. “Therefore: Cash remains.”

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Support receives the association leader by the president of the liberal Ludwig von Mises Institute: In truth, Thorsten Polleit, there go to the state not to the fight against terrorism or the fight against money laundering, but the debt problem. “In order to reduce the debt, especially from governments and banks, central banks are now to produce a negative interest rate environment,” Polleit is convinced. His main job is chief economist of Degussa gold trade.

Economists like Polleit fear that banks could introduce a penalty interest rate for savers, as the financial institutions have to shell out for deposits at the European Central Bank him today. In cash, this penalty rate can not prevail but. The interest rate of notes and coins is zero. The president of the Mises Institute fears behind the advance also to all the monitored state. “Without cash the financial privacy of citizens is lost,” warned Polleit.

Practical objections mind games, the retail. The industry association HDE sees the plans critical because a negative signal could go out on the use of cash. “Cash is still happy to accept and fully commercially – that should stay as long as the customer wants it”, demanded HDE Managing Director Stefan Genth. He sees certain segments of trade as furniture and car rentals, as well as jewelers and designer boutiques, threatened by disadvantages.

  Source: n-tv.de
 

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