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by bsedlm 1848 days ago
I'm always left wondering about the invention (the encoding into laws) of "money laundering".

I believe that this happened at some point during the 70s right around the time congress declared "war on drugs"?

edit: aha, I refer to 91st USA congress: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_Secrecy_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_Drug_Abuse_Preve...

3 comments

Yes this is accurate in the sense that these are the basis for the modern enforcement tools in use

The state has never had a right to understanding the financial flows or private property, it found a convenience with the electronic financial system and deputized all financial intermediaries to data mine and snitch for it.

This has subsequently become conflated with a right of the state to have all of this information, as the people running it now are unfamiliar with not having these conveniences.

The market, on the other hand, is simply reverting to a mean. It has developed and chosen an electronic financial system that doesnt require financial intermediaries.

So the state is going to lose its power to criminalize transactions. If there are any actual criminal behaviors with distinctive victims, then it has to do an actual investigation and find the individual and prosecute them. It really isnt that absurd of a concept.

It happened earlier: in the USA many laws and agencies related to it were brought out during prohibition.
They date back until at least 1930's with the prohibition :)