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In defense of cash: why we should bring back the $500 note and other big bills

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Re: In defense of cash: why we should bring back the $500 note and other big bills

#11

Post by dragonwriter »

jcranmer wrote: post #7

Okay... let's say we should avoid a cashless society and encourage people to carry cash. Why is a $500 note useful? If you look at businesses today, you'll find several with signs that say "no bills greater than $20 accepted." If you think it useful to keep cash stuffed in your mattress in $500 notes, and there's a massive disaster that shuts down all the banks... where are you going to convert that $500 into everyda…

> If you think it useful to keep cash stuffed in your mattress in $500 notes, and there's a massive disaster that shuts down all the banks... where are you going to convert that $500 into everyday spending money?

Since the Fed, which issues currency, is, in large part, the banks themselves, if a disaster causes a general banking collapse, you've got bigger problems with the value of your cash than whether you can convert denominations.

Re: In defense of cash: why we should bring back the $500 note and other big bills

#12

Post by [deleted] »

pzxc wrote: post #9

This article is blog spam. It was written by someone with only a rudimentary understanding of the topic, which is pretty evident if you read it. The entire purpose of this article being written was to get a good looking (SEO-wise) back link to the domain "businessmacroeconomics.com". If you look at all the links in the article, they are almost all to major news media publications (safe links to make the page look goo…

[deleted]

Re: In defense of cash: why we should bring back the $500 note and other big bills

#13

Post by jcranmer »

dragonwriter wrote: post #11
jcranmer wrote: post #7

Okay... let's say we should avoid a cashless society and encourage people to carry cash. Why is a $500 note useful? If you look at businesses today, you'll find several with signs that say "no bills greater than $20 accepted." If you think it useful to keep cash stuffed in your mattress in $500 notes, and there's a massive disaster that shuts down all the banks... where are you going to convert that $500 into everyda…

> If you think it useful to keep cash stuffed in your mattress in $500 notes, and there's a massive disaster that shuts down all the banks... where are you going to convert that $500 into everyday spending money? Since the Fed, which issues currency, is, in large part, the banks themselves, if a disaster causes a general banking collapse, you've got bigger problems with the value of your cash than whether you can con…

This is less "collapse of the financial system" and more "all the infrastructure be fucked and ATMs don't work," as posited in the article.

Re: In defense of cash: why we should bring back the $500 note and other big bills

#14

Post by e2e8 »

pzxc wrote: post #9

This article is blog spam. It was written by someone with only a rudimentary understanding of the topic, which is pretty evident if you read it. The entire purpose of this article being written was to get a good looking (SEO-wise) back link to the domain "businessmacroeconomics.com". If you look at all the links in the article, they are almost all to major news media publications (safe links to make the page look goo…

It is the article author's own book. Their list of publications: http://u.osu.edu/zagorsky.1/sample-page/

Re: In defense of cash: why we should bring back the $500 note and other big bills

#15

Post by justboxing »

pzxc wrote: post #9

This article is blog spam. It was written by someone with only a rudimentary understanding of the topic, which is pretty evident if you read it. The entire purpose of this article being written was to get a good looking (SEO-wise) back link to the domain "businessmacroeconomics.com". If you look at all the links in the article, they are almost all to major news media publications (safe links to make the page look goo…

> Then the real link appears at the end of the second-to-last section (the perfect spot for SEO).

Curious. Why is the 2nd to last section perfect for SEO? Also what does that link get in terms of SEO cred?

Re: In defense of cash: why we should bring back the $500 note and other big bills

#16

Post by majewsky »

jcranmer wrote: post #13
dragonwriter wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you think it useful to keep cash stuffed in your mattress in $500 notes, and there's a massive disaster that shuts down all the banks... where are you going to convert that $500 into everyday spending money? Since the Fed, which issues currency, is, in large part, the banks themselves, if a disaster causes a general banking collapse, you've got bigger problems with the value of your cash than whether you can con…

This is less "collapse of the financial system" and more "all the infrastructure be fucked and ATMs don't work," as posited in the article.

> all the infrastructure be fucked and ATMs don't work

Which is not that far away. A few months ago, in my town, underground workers dug in the wrong place and cut a central internet connection, and ATMs and other cash terminals in the better part of the city center stopped working. I luckily carried enough cash, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do my shopping.

Re: In defense of cash: why we should bring back the $500 note and other big bills

#17

Post by Spooky23 »

jcranmer wrote: post #7

Okay... let's say we should avoid a cashless society and encourage people to carry cash. Why is a $500 note useful? If you look at businesses today, you'll find several with signs that say "no bills greater than $20 accepted." If you think it useful to keep cash stuffed in your mattress in $500 notes, and there's a massive disaster that shuts down all the banks... where are you going to convert that $500 into everyda…

Because $100 bills are an inconvenient way to hold wealth, and other mechanisms like gold are too unpredictably unstable and have negative tax implications.

You could have made the same argument about small denominations in 1917, when probably half the population never saw a $20 bill.

Re: In defense of cash: why we should bring back the $500 note and other big bills

#18

Post by Spooky23 »

fatbird wrote: post #4

It would be a much stronger article if the author did more to counter the reasons for eliminating large denomination bills than simply to say "the positives outweigh the negatives". In particular, the argument that cash is useful under catastrophic circumstances seems very weak against the problems large denomination bills cause in everyday life .

What problems do they cause in everyday life?

The standard argument is money laundering, but we just had a case not long ago where a multinational bank facilitated billions in money laundering. So criminals seem to have found a way.

Re: In defense of cash: why we should bring back the $500 note and other big bills

#19

Post by harperlee »

pzxc wrote: post #9

This article is blog spam. It was written by someone with only a rudimentary understanding of the topic, which is pretty evident if you read it. The entire purpose of this article being written was to get a good looking (SEO-wise) back link to the domain "businessmacroeconomics.com". If you look at all the links in the article, they are almost all to major news media publications (safe links to make the page look goo…

> Either a voting ring got this post to the front page of HN, or 29 HN readers (at the time of this post) were swindled into thinking there was any substance here at all.

I sometimes vote things solely by their title, and keep it open in a tab until I read it later. This way, I vote on topics that might provide an interesting conversation for later, without the investment of spending a lot of time reading each entry on the front page. Most of the value of HN ist the comments, and it would not be the first time that a bad article produced a great discussion.

But thanks for the research! I didn't know that was a thing.

Re: In defense of cash: why we should bring back the $500 note and other big bills

#20

Post by vfXander »

Such a dumb article. In case of natural disaster, you might risk losing your cash in your house, something that can't happen with digital currency. Also, the problem is not just the access to ATM or cellphones, but lack of energy and cellular data at all: by creating a more robust grid and connections you already solved all the issues related to them. Having cash handy doesn't solve the real problem, only partially patch it up.
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