One week ago, a day after the FOMC shocked most traders and economists by not hiking rates, keeping a very dovish outlook and in fact hinted negative rates may be coming (something Yellen noted further in her speech yesterday), a surprising speech by one of the Bank of England’s more cool-headed economists, Andy Haldane, led to even more head scratching when the central banker urged not only the implementation of negative rates but also called for a ban on cash.

Subsequently in a post analyzing what the Fed’s NIRP hint really meant, we suggested that while the market is focused on a Fed hike, the real story is the possibility of negative rates (which already are the norm in continental Europe) coming not only to the US but globally, which however may necessitate the partial or full elimination of cash as a monetary medium.

Fast forward to today, when we get yet another “very serious policy maker” confirm that cash as we know it may be on the endangered species list – again, a necessary precondition to make global NIRP effective – when overnight, former Bank of England central banker, Charles Goodhart, told a London audience that bills such as the Swiss National Bank’s 1,000-franc note and the European Central Bank’s 500-euro note should be abolished, adding this “move that might also prove beneficial by trimming interest rates.”

So one week after a BOE-er calls for elimination of cash and NIRP, another former BOE-er floats a more moderate trial balloon, demanding the abolition of high-denomination cash and a further “trim” in interest rates.

This constant NIRP/cash ban chatter simply confirms that discussions of NIRP boldly going where it has never gone before (yet) such as the UK and the US, are at a very advanced level during those secret central bank dinner meetings on the 18th floor at the BIS tower in Basel every other month, as is the discussion of abolition of  cash as a monetary medium.