The German-speaking world is different from what I've heard. Germans love their cash and Switzerland is generally considered a land of financial freedom.

Convenience can indeed be a pathway to a loss of freedom. AML regulations and practices have become tighter here in Finland, too. A year and a half ago my wife and I were at the bank with the sellers of the house we bought. There was a delay with the paperwork and the sellers, us, and the loan officer had time for a little chat. She told us that it wasn't out of the ordinary for someone to come with a bag full of money to buy some cheap piece of property in the 1990s. But if you tried to buy, say, a property lot with €20,000 in cash, it would trigger an investigation.

That may be reasonable. But making cash transactions larger than $10,000 is excessively harsh. Indeed, it is in our interest to fight it because these regulations are likely a slippery slope.