In Sweden, a Cash-Free Future Nears ... Parishioners text tithes to their churches. Homeless street vendors carry mobile credit-card readers. Even the Abba Museum, despite being a shrine to the 1970s pop group that wrote "Money, Money, Money," considers cash so last-century that it does not accept bills and coins. Few places are tilting toward a cashless future as quickly as Sweden, which has become hooked on the convenience of paying by app and plastic. – New York Times

Dominant Social Theme: Remove analog money ASAP.

Free-Market Analysis: Sweden is being touted as the wave of the future as regards money, but perhaps not.

When something is profiled in The New York Times, as the "new" cashless Sweden just was, we need to consider whether the trend is subject to change or is not so powerful as we are being led to believe.

One of the problems with seeing Sweden as a pioneer is that its population is fairly cohesive. In fact, Swedes constitute a good example of the tribes we often refer to in Europe. Europe is full of tribes. The French are notoriously tribal and it strikes us that the British fought two world wars to shatter Germanic tribal unity.

Years ago, we reported regularly on what would happen when "Europe" stopped being of benefit to the tribes. Because it has been disguised by rhetoric, people often don't understand why the tribes gave up so much including their ancient currencies to join Europe.

In fact, they were often bribed by pots of EU money that poured into the government to adjust unallowable deficits. The top elites pocketed this money and then went to work campaigning for EU unity. Once the EU agenda triumphed, those in power slipped away with the money and the larger population was stuck with an evolving authoritarian empire.

It was inevitable that the tribes, once lulled by good times and cash infusions, would begin to resent an era of "austerity" and impoverishment. What we didn't anticipate was that the European elites had an answer: Organize a mass Islamic migration (apparently this is what's going on) that would cause confusion within Europe's tribal countries and focus resentment away from Brussels and the monetary system and toward "Islamification."

It is true we didn't anticipate this breathtaking attempt at cultural reshaping but otherwise events are unfolding much as we expected. Sweden, though the Times article doesn't note it, is reacting much as we anticipated. While the Swedish intelligentsia has portrayed itself as shocked and dismayed, the "far right" has made enormous political strides in the country. Anti-immigration forces now reportedly support the country's third largest party.

The Times predictably ignores the political trends, however. It burbles on about Sweden's "tech forwardness" and the "personal safety" that a cashless society offers.

This tech-forward country, home to the music streaming service Spotify and the maker of the Candy Crush mobile games, has been lured by the innovations that make digital payments easier. It is also a practical matter, as many of the country's banks no longer accept or dispense cash. At the Abba Museum, "we don't want to be behind the times by taking cash while cash is dying out," said Bjorn Ulvaeus, a former Abba member ...

Advocates like Mr. Ulvaeus cite personal safety as a reason that countries should go cash-free. He switched to using only card and electronic payments after his son's Stockholm apartment was burglarized twice several years ago. "There was such a feeling of insecurity," said Mr. Ulvaeus, who carries no cash at all. "It made me think: What would happen if this was a cashless society, and the robbers couldn't sell what they stole?"

Of course, this is hard to fathom. Ulvaeus may feel safer in his apartment but someday hackers may clean out his bank account or hijack one of his credit cards. Physical crime may drop even as cybercrime rises.

For some critics of the "cashless society," the reasons it is evolving are considerably more mundane than "progress" or "technology." It is the lower bound that is stiffening determination. As financial institutions are increasingly forced toward the "zero bound" by the failure of monopoly central banking, less-than-zero rates are being contemplated. And what's stopping the program is cash.