The Hidden Agenda of Davos 2016, by Nick Giambruno. It appears that at a secret meeting in Davos, world leaders decided to dramatically escalate the War on Cash, making it easier for them to impose negative interest rates. After Davos, the rhetorical war against cash went into overdrive.

Negative interest rates mean the lender pays the borrower for the privilege of lending him money. It’s a bizarre, upside-down concept. Negative rates could not exist in a free market. They can only exist in an Alice in Wonderland economy created by central bankers.

Think of it as “punishment interest.” Punishing savers is exactly what central bankers—who are really central economic planners—would like to do. They think stinging savers with negative interest rates will encourage them to spend now. It’s effectively a tax on saving money.

Central planners just want you to spend money. Even if you have to go into debt to do it. Consumption based on fear of negative interest rates is somehow supposed to “stimulate” the economy.

Negative interest rates make it harder to save. Put $1,000 in your bank account at the beginning of the year, and it becomes $950 by the end of the year. And that’s not even accounting for inflation.

This scenario scares people. It doesn’t induce them to spend.

If you have to keep all your money in the banking system, the government and banks know everything about your money and can tax it at will.

Australia is one of the few advanced economies without zero or negative interest rates.