Willem Buiter, once a critic of the banksters, albeit, as much as an insider can be,  is now doing their bidding:

Bloomberg, via LRC/North:

“In a new piece, Citi’s Willem Buiter looks at this problem, which is known as the effective lower bound (ELB) on nominal interest rates.

Fundamentally, the ELB problem comes down to cash. According to Buiter, the ELB only exists at all due to the existence of cash, which is a bearer instrument that pays zero nominal rates. Why have your money on deposit at a negative rate that reduces your wealth when you can have it in cash and suffer no reduction?

Cash therefore gives people an easy and effective way of avoiding negative nominal rates.

Buiter’s note suggests three ways to address this problem:

Abolish currency.

Tax currency.

Remove the fixed exchange rate between currency and central bank reserves/deposits.“

So  perhaps that was what that scandal with Helene Mees was all about.

A little arm-twisting by the powers-that-be?

While Mees has agreed to a deal that keeps her out of jail, she is said to be planning a suit for defamation against the economist.