The Curse of Cash: How Large-Denomination Bills Aid Crime and Tax Evasion and Constrain Monetary Policy

Cabot Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is coauthor of the New York Times bestseller This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. Based in Danbury, Connecticut, Barry engineers and calls live webcasts of his son's ice hockey games. Kenneth S. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Winner of the 2017 PROSE Award in Economics, Association of American PublishersSelected for Canada’s Financial Post Best Personal Finance and Economics Books of 2016One of Bloomberg’s Best Books of 2016One of Financial Times (FT) Best Economics Books of 2016Longlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year 2016"In a brilliant and lucid new book, The Curse of Cash, the Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff gives a fascinating and thorough account of the argument against cash."--John Lanchester, New York Times Magazine"An excellent book on the history and the origins of cash, which also goes into much depth on the issue of cash constraining monetary policy."--Jon Hartley, Fo

"This is not a book to be tossed aside lightly -- it should be hurled with great force." according to James E. Mitchell. Seriously, yes, criminals use cash. But without cash, all transactions between consenting adults can only occur at the pleasure of financial gatekeepers. This book's an apologia for the most corrupt rent-seeking scheme imaginable: literally destroying the universal freedom to transact under the false flag of catching the small percentage of folks who abuse this freedom in service of criminality.. Orwell is laughing "In the mind of an economic tyrant, banning cash represents the holy grail." --Michael KruegerIt is difficult to think that anyone intelligent enough to be a chess grandmaster would fail to see that going cashless would be the last brick in the government’s wall of absolute control over the masses. Anyone who might irritate the government in ANY way, however minor, could have accounts frozen, leaving the individual absolutely naked, unable. "Jim Grant reviewed this book the best: "Curiosity is notable by its absence in these" according to Amazon Customer. Ever been in a hurricane? How did your digital money work when the power went out?Jim Grant reviewed this book the best:"Curiosity is notable by its absence in these pages. How have we come to this radical pass? What is it about today’s monetary and banking arrangements that seems to impel us to more and more desperate policy gambits? The nature of modern central banking and the pseudoscience of modern monetary economics are themselves sur

This constraint has paralyzed monetary policy in virtually every advanced economy, and is likely to be a recurring problem in the future.The Curse of Cash offers a plan for phasing out most paper money—while leaving small-denomination bills and coins in circulation indefinitely—and addresses the issues the transition will pose, ranging from fears about privacy and price stability to the need to provide subsidized debit cards for the poor.While phasing out the bulk of paper money will hardly solve the world’s problems, it would be a significant step toward addressing a surprising number of very big ones. dollars alone, or $4,200 for every American, mostly in $100 bills. From the New York Times bestselling author of This Time Is Different, "a fascinating and important book" (Ben Bernanke) about phasing out most paper money to fight crime and tax evasion—and to battle financial crises by tapping the power of negative