It's Time To Kill the $100 Bill, Says Larry Summers

HughPickens.com writes: The NYT has an interesting editorial on why getting rid of big bills will make it harder for criminals to do business and make it easier for law enforcement to detect illicit activity. That's why officials in Europe and elsewhere are proposing to end the printing of high-denomination bills. According to a recent paper from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, a stack of 500-euro notes worth $1 million weighs just five pounds and can be carried in a small bag, whereas a pile of $20 bills worth $1 million would weigh 110 pounds and would be much more difficult to move around. Lawrence Summers, the former Treasury secretary and former adviser to President Obama, has argued that the United States should get rid of the $100 bill. "The fact that in certain circles the 500 euro note is known as the "Bin Laden" confirms the arguments against it," says Sanders. "Technology is obviating whatever need there may ever have been for high denomination notes in legal commerce."

Critics who oppose such changes say the big bills make it easier for people to keep their savings in cash, especially in countries with negative interest rates. Some people also prefer not to conduct transactions electronically because they fear security breaches. According to Sanders the idea of removing existing notes is a step too far but a moratorium on printing new high denomination notes would make the world a better place. "The United States stopped distributing $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills in 1969," concludes the NYT editorial. "There are now so many ways to pay for things, and eliminating big bills should create few problems."

Comments

better recommendation

[argStyopa]

Since you have campaigns for getting rid of the smallest currencies - the penny, the $1 bill - and now a campaign for getting rid of the largest, we should meet somewhere in the middle.
My suggestion would be to have ONLY a single cash token, worth $37.61.

In the first place, the odd amount would improve American numeracy; in the second, anything purchased below that, the change could be absorbed by the US government to offset the debt.
It could be made of plastic harvested from the ocean, so we get the industrious folks who see the effort at bitcoin mining growing too ridiculous to turn their efforts toward a public good: cash mining from the seas, and the substance itself is intrinsically valueless, which is metaphorically representative of the US gov't generally.

It's a win-win-win.

Already dead

[Orgasmatron]

The $100 bill is already dead. You can hardly buy 6 real dollars (1oz silver coins) with it.