- Banks need to maintain a maximum amount in cash for insurance reasons. Low amounts of cash = low amount of loss in robbery = low insurance payout = low insurance rates.
- In 3 years of working at the bank, I myself saw about 4 instances where an elderly lady was essentially being coerced by a relative (often 50+ yr old son) into ‘helping’ him out. They often feel they are entitled to her money and all hell breaks loose when the siblings find out – about how he/she essentially screwed over mom and took their inheritance. The bank doesn’t want to be accused by the siblings of anything or have their name smeared in the papers.
- Many elderly people start making poor decisions the older they get. A draft will do fine for their purpose 99/100 times, but they’ve got something in their head that they need that $100k in cash.
- And of course there is fraud, where criminals are often trying to disguise the paper trail of a draft or chq, so they need cash.

So, having to wait and take $100k out in portions helps the potential victim have a moment of clarity if the bank can’t see anything obvious, and minimizes the damage. The banks have a duty to their clients to look out for their best interest. And that is usually why they appear nosy in these situations.

Also note that banks receive cash all the time. Ultimately, the BoC can just print the cash and send it to the branches.

Gold has a role as a hedge againsg inflation. But it ain’t money. — Garth

First, thanks for the serious response. (I like your witty quips as well, so don’t stop.)

A ponzi scam is an investment that requires more participants or the system collapses, bankrupting the business running the scam and the participants.

Money exists because someone owes the bank that created it when someone went into debt. Interest is never created thus the only way for the interest to get paid is someone else must go into debt. Thus, if people paid off their debts well before we ran out of money, individuals would go bankrupt and the banks (running the scam) would go bankrupt as well. Thus, it’s a classic ponzi. Since the banks are too big to fail, governments will go into debt, in effect printing the money to keep the ponzi scam going.

As for money management, I also used financial advisers and did everything that a “normal” person did.

What bugged me was why did I have to gamble my money on the stock market or why the government bonds did not kick off enough interest to cover real inflation.

These questions I did not answer, the questions just stayed in the back of my head until 2 years ago when I read about Ron Paul.

He opened my eyes and what I saw… I did not want to see or believe. But I knew it was true. I even tried to prove Ron Paul wrong about the monetary system.

I felt ignorant and stupid as I continued to deny the truth.

It took months before it clicked.

Up or down prices of real goods are relative to everything else and gold and silver is the only item banks hold other than currency.

So even if gold went to $500, I know that in order for it to do that, everything else would be a lot cheaper and real money just went on sale for my long term future.

My conviction is that absolute now. Paper money is useful for debt. Having paper money in your house is losing purchasing power and is dumb because you can’t see how much you are losing. If you use paper money for what it’s good for, then you would use an asset (gold) to borrow against and the interest payments will be the monthly reminder of purchasing power you are losing. Meanwhile, you have the asset increasing in value and the paper money to pay back the debt at anytime.

Many have asked me, “why don’t you just use your own paper money instead of doing that”. Well, only real things have value not paper that can be created out of debt. So why hold it as an asset, instead you should hold paper money as a liability to the bank instead of the bank holding the currency you own as liability to you. ;)

When I re-read my post, I wonder how anyone can dispute my logic. But it’s not logic I am disputing with you, it’s your lifetime of financial belief. If that’s your reason for denying my logic, believe me when I say, I understand.