Edward Snowden revealed that government can actually observe our thinking even as we type, back up occasionally and revise sentence structure here and there. He, bless him, revealed to us that everything electronic -- everything -- is available for government's permanent record -- data for every individual's "chip", as it were. Although Rogoff makes casual reference to "anonymous electronic money", surely he knows that electronic anonymity is pure pipe dream any more. The ability to observe and record, whether by government or hacker, improves practically by the day.
Even though every citizen's most casual online exploration -- political, religious, sexual, literary -- may be recorded, conversation and material exchange person-to-person is still possible away from the Internet Eye. But where every buy/sell transaction is electronic, there could be no "black market", the only truly "free" supply/demand marketplace. The only alternative to electronic money would be gold or other precious material (which, as the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 has shown, can be outlawed by governmental decree) or simple barter.
If, at any time, a citizen might, in any way imaginable, be deemed an irritant to some aspect of government, all accounts could be electronically frozen, which of course would leave the individual totally naked in a cashless environment, unable to access the means to purchase food or shelter or anything else. At such a point, governmental control of The People would be absolute, and George Orwell's vision of the future, with a boot stamping on a human face, would be realized.
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