The Curse of Cash

Back in the days of the Apollo 11, the program ran into a major problem: the biro ball-point pen could not work in the absence of gravity and was useless in space. A bit like what happens if you try to use yours on a wall. Famously, a high-tech solution was devised that solved this problem once and......more

Rogoff effectively proves that large denomination bills only help crime and tax evasion, and that they have no other legitimate utility. He does this with very strong data and analysis, and shows governments allow this explicitly for profit (~0.5% of GDP, in seigniorage, in two distinct ways), and c......more

Phasing out cash and the likely implications for its aren’t exactly watercooler talk. Yet, this was the focus of a lot of conversations that I used to have with an ex-colleague, where we imagined several scenarios of an economy operating without cash, how it would function and how it would affect th......more

Good book, inspiring my future research. Once met the author on a seminar.......more

If you can accept the idea that a central bank should manage currency, this is a very well written book with a nuanced argument that seems pretty reasonable. Basically phase out the big notes, keep the small ones, while fairly addressing any potential objection you care to come up with. Many 1 star......more