Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the so-called "war on cash". I have seen this bandied about across the internet, really over the past few years as more and more places are trying to go so-called cashless. Then there is all this discussion about so-called Central Bank Digital Currencies which are kind of a different thing from digital currencies - things like bitcoin or ethereum. I'm not going to claim to be any kind of expert on cryptocurrency, but I do understand what Central Bank Digital Currency would be which is, yeah we get to track and trace essentially financial transactions and we are going to replace cash with this sort of "track and trace" digital system for lack of a better term. I got to thinking of making this video after reading a recent article from Thai PBS World, that's thaipbsworld.com, the article is titled: New rule for cash deposit machines from November 15th. Quoting directly: "From November 15th, people who want to deposit cash via cash deposit machines (CDMs) in Thailand will be required to identify themselves by inserting their credit or debit cards and entering their Personal Identification Number (PIN) or password. The new measure has been introduced by the Anti-Money Laundering Office and will be applied to all Commercial Banks to prevent the laundering of money earn from drug trafficking, illegal gambling or other criminal activity." Wow. Hmm, where to begin with this. Obviously, this is not the same, although I have seen articles sort of out there in the internet ether talking about, from reputable sources, talking about the possibility of Thailand having essential Bank Digital Currency. Obviously we are not anywhere near that but this is a major change.

For those who are unaware, cash deposit machines are used pretty heavily especially by the cash economy here which is substantial. There's a number of street vendors and things, that they don't want to be carrying around substantial amounts of cash so they go to a cash deposit machine and they usually get off in off hours. This isn't a 9 - 5 thing where they can walk into a bank branch and deposit money into their bank account; they're needing to do this at times when Banks aren't open. I find this a little bit concerning because I have got to be honest with you anytime I ever hear “money laundering” it always kind of makes my ears burn and I will explain why. If you go back to 1987 and prior, there was no such thing as money laundering. This whole notion was created in the 80s. It's a legal construct, it did not exist. People's position at that time and I think it was the correct position to have was hey man your money, is your money. What you do with it is on you. Now they kind of have, I don't know how to put it, conflated or have kind of tacked on notions like drug trafficking, illegal gambling, other criminal activity. Okay, other criminal activity well whatever. I mean you can always say anything is designed to deter criminal activity but drug trafficking and illegal gambling, right! I'm pretty sure drug traffickers, at least major drug traffickers are not wedging a million Baht at a go into a cash machine at 10 p.m. at night, but the guy that has a street food bending operation who made eight and a half thousand Baht doesn't really want to carry it around and has other expenses he needs to deal with the next day, that guy goes to a cash deposit machine, throws his money in there, doesn't have to worry about it. He gets back a receipt that says the banks got it, okay that is in my account off I go and I don't need to worry about where all my money is at. So the drug trafficking angle I have a problem believing, and I can be wrong but I have a problem believing that like Scarface was ever using the CDMs in Thailand to move large quantities of cash; it's just not designed that way. Then illegal gambling I find to be rather interesting because there are serious talks right now about legalizing gambling in Thailand so my question is, is this really necessary or is it financial surveillance at the end of the day? If it is financial surveillance, I would kind of prefer it if they just said that is what it was, because at least they are being honest and it is like "okay this is what we are doing." 

Again I have issues with the whole notion of money laundering. I do understand it's one of those things that when it was created there were issues but at the time it was created, if you go back and kind of read the Acts and you read about, I read a lot about this in law school. This is why I kind of know about this. I did a project where I had to do pretty extensive research on sort of the jurisprudence of "money laundering". When it came about I mean it is the usual the usual thing. It's kind of how Government goes. They come out and they say "well this for the very limited purpose of dealing with this specific issue", and then the next thing you know, it's everywhere. I mean you are always dealing with anti-money laundering and it's kind of also one of those neat buzzwords that when people say it, it just kind of causes people in their mind to just click over and say "oh yeah we need to do that", it's almost like a short circuit in people's brains where they're not really thinking hey what are they doing here? At the end of the day, what they are doing here is they are making it harder for people to just put money into their own bank account via Cash Deposit Machine. Okay, it's not that much harder, you have to put a card in, but it's definitely surveilled where it once was. So it definitely is a diminution if you will of people's privacy especially when it comes to financial transactions.