The Incredible Shrinking Dollar

When the Trading with the Enemy Act, predecessor to the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, established a $10,000 surveillance threshold in 1945, the sum that would trigger snooping was roughly equivalent to $180,000 today. If the threshold had been adjusted for inflation, few of us would ever have to concern ourselves with it. As a recent Cato Institute article expressed it, …the Bank Secrecy Act regime is swallowing up more transactions every year as inflation decreases the value of the dollar. No bills are passed; no regulations are open to the public. Yet, the wheel is turning, and financial surveillance increases without any checks or balances. When the Supreme Court effectively signed off on the Bank Secrecy Act, it only did so because $10,000 was considered “abnormally large” in the 1970s…[the] point [at which spying on such small transactions ran afoul of the Fourth Amendment] was crossed a long time ago…and…beyond [that, the government] has dramatically expanded financial surveillance…