I hate Andrew Jackson, and it's too bad he's going instead of Hamilton. I'd be all for replacing every statue of Jackson across the nation with, say, Tubman, but the one place where Jackson should stay is the money: it was long a snide reminder that if the central bank gets too out of hand in shoveling money into the faces of the wealthy at the expense of the people, a populist president could rise and take them down.

It's rather telling that we are going to lose this symbolism.

I would be for erecting a giant statue of Jackson in front of the federal reserve building in dc.

Adding $25 USD bills would break the greedy choice property for making change. Making $40 in change using a greedy strategy would mean selecting a 25, a 10, and a 5, while the optimal choice is to select two 20s.

what about change for 50?

It would be fewer bills than without the $25, but the greedy strategy would still work for both (without, you'd get 3 bills: $20, $20, $10, and that's the optimal). Whereas change for $40, the greedy strategy will give you 3 bills: $25, $10, $5—which is more than the optimal 2 bills.

change of 50 in two bills and change of 40 in three, is less optimal than change of 50 in three and 40 in two?

It's not about comparing the number of bills vs. each other—it's not surprising that adding an additional denomination lets you make change in fewer bills. It's about whether the greedy algorithm for making change gets you the optimum number. Currently it does, but if you add a $25 bill, it would not.

Currently:

$40: greedy: $20, $20

  optimal: $20, $20

  is greedy optimal: Yes

$50:

  greedy: $20, $20, $10

  optimal: $20, $20, $10

  is greedy optimal: Yes

Including a $25 bill:

$40:

  greedy: $25, $10, $5

  optimal: $20, $20

  is greedy optimal: No

$50:

  greedy: $25, $25

  optimal: $25, $25

  is greedy optimal: Yes

Given that we don't have $40 bills, I'm not sure this is a problem.

Or just have lots of designs like euros.

Lincoln is still on the $5. They're just updating the reverse. Per the official announcement by Sec. Lew:

The reverse of the new $5 will depict the historic events that have occurred at the Lincoln Memorial. In 1939, at a time when Washington’s concert halls were still segregated, world-renowned Opera singer Marian Anderson helped advance civil rights when, with the support of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, she performed at the Lincoln Memorial in front of 75,000 people. And in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech at the same monument in front of hundreds of thousands. Honoring these figures will bring to life events at the Lincoln Memorial that helped to shape our history and our democracy. The front of the new $5 will continue to feature President Lincoln.

> Bring back the 500$/1000$/5000$/10000$ bills?

There is a practical reason not to do this btw. Bills of this size get used for criminal purposes.

Lawrence Summers had a recent OpEd in The Post calling for the elimination of the $100 for this reason. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/16/its-t...

So do $1s and $5s and $10s.

> I really like Andrew Jackson

On what grounds.

I'm glad you asked. The history of the 1824 & 1828 presidential election is really interesting.

The first four U.S. Presidents were founding fathers, so the election of 1824 was the first time it was a completely different generation vying for what direction we should take the country in. John Quincy Adams, son of President John Adams, seemed like he fit the bill. He was secretary of state, and Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe all had served as Secretary of State before taking the mantel.

Andrew Jackson was cut from a different cloth as the first five presidents. Not wealthy/educated/elite/eastern, Andrew Jackson instead was a frontiers man and a war hero.

By the time the votes were tallies, Jackson won the popular vote, but since the race was split between more than two candidates and he only had a plurality but not a majority (more votes than anyone else, but less than 50%), congress got to decide the next President.

In a move of backroom bargaining, John Q. Adams offers the then speaker of the house Henry Clay a position as the 9th Secretary of State in exchange for whipping the votes. It worked.

Screwed out of an election that should have been his, Andrew Jackson held his tongue and his temper and instead looked towards the next election where he knocked the sitting president out of office.

Who are your favorite founding fathers of the U.S.A.?

Jackson wasn't a founder, so that last question is a little odd.

hahaha touché. I was kinda peeved someone asked me on what grounds I like something (what grounds are needed, we like what we like?) and I thought the best way to turn that around was to ask GFK about what they like (-:

For me, Jackson is in a weird place between "effective president" and "bad person". Monroe, Teddy Roosevelt, and Eisenhower all seem like more deserving presidents.

I'm a big political hack currently, I've been watching CNN's Race for the White House and taking a lot of more political history courses (HSTAA 212 U.S. Military History, etc).

I certainly don't agree with the direction a lot of these guy's moral compasses were pointing in, but boy did sure did get things done (most of the time).

I hold Teddy and Eisenhower in high esteem, but need to read up more about Monroe.

Monroe is a like a defanged version of Jackson. Equally impactful to the shape of the country (though less on the contours of our politics than Jackson), but with a healthy ambivalence towards slavery and less genocide.

>Bring back the 500$/1000$/5000$/10000$ bills?

Only terrorists, pedophiles and drug dealers use large denomination bills. Ordinary people have no use of paying big sums anonymously. Or the wages to make obtaining such sums possible. /sarcasm

There was some whining recently that 500 Euro was just too big of a banknote. i generally support the ability of citizens to do financial transactions anonymously. We have more than enough ways to track everything else.

I had a currency exchanger claim that the largest bill I could get had a value of around $15 USD and that they did not deal in high value notes.