Apple Writes the (Dangerous) Next Chapter of Money

Andy Snyder|April 19, 2023

The death of cash took another leap forward this week.

The geniuses at Apple are hooking their claws deeper and deeper into the wallet of the American spender. They’re using a world-class business model, having created a product that’s required for everyday life for everybody but the Amish.

The side effects, though, could be painful.

The key idea to understand here is the concentration of power.

With its combination of technological wonders, Apple has effectively made the old-fashioned wallet obsolete. It’s replaced your cash… your credit cards… your driver’s license… and even the pictures of your kids.

It’s done away with everything but the old condom left over from high school. (Leave the little box of radiation in your front pocket too long, though, and you won’t need that, either).

With its debut of a new high-yield savings account this week, Apple just took a big swing at the banking sector. Apple Savings and its floating yield of just over 4% have turned up the pressure in the brewing battle for your excess cash.

Traditional banks, especially brick-and-mortar regionals, can’t keep up with the high yielders. Their business models won’t allow it.

But Apple – and its business model that sucks in customers like an octopus eating a popsicle – most certainly can. Folks brave enough to dive into the finer details of this new offering will see that Apple has tied up with Goldman Sachs for the deal. And, despite the profits being split in two, Apple’s accounts yield nearly 100 basis points more than Goldman’s equivalent accounts.

Apple will easily make up the margin elsewhere.

That’s the rub of it all.

It’s as much of a threat as it is an opportunity.

Trouble Ahead

For the traditional banking world, it’s an incredible threat. Money – and the power that comes with it – is quickly being consolidated with the aid of strongarm technology.

Regional banks – the kind where they know your name when you walk in the door – are in trouble. They can’t compete with Tim Cook and his omnipresent power.

Money is being sucked out of them and put into the hands of just a few firms.

It’s convenient. It’s profitable for shareholders.

But, oh boy, eventually it’s trouble.

Elon Musk tells us the folks in D.C. had access to private messages sent on his platform. Other social sites tell us the folks in charge have long been influencing the messaging that shapes the nation.

But money, dear friend, is even more powerful than information. And it’s a lot easier to wrangle four too-big-to-fails than it is to control 400 small-town brick-and-mortars.

Janet Yellen has already admitted as much. Depositors at those small-town banks in places like Oklahoma won’t get the same protection they would get if their cash was with one of the big Wall Street firms.

That’s no good.

It’s dangerous. Your money is your freedom.

And your freedom is quickly being handed over to some powerful folks.

We can’t blame Apple for doing what it’s doing. It’s good business. Again, it’ll treat shareholders well.

But it’s kicking off the next chapter in something much bigger.

The control of money is being consolidated. The cash in your pocket has no hope of surviving.

History tells us that’s never good.

Here’s how you can prepare… in five simple steps.