Harvard Economist Is Trying to Kill Cash

Re:Harvard Economist Is Trying to Kill Cash by thr0waway1239 on Saturday September 10, 2016 @08:56AM (#12468975)

Assuming this article is serious, exactly how do they plan to phase out the higher denomination bills? Is it actually feasible?

"Rogoff says he doesn't want to get rid of cash all at once. First, he would phase out 100s, then 50s, then 20s, leaving smaller bills in circulation for the foreseeable future. "I want to have a less-cash society, not a cashless society," he said."

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Re:Harvard Economist Is Trying to Kill Cash by zalepa on Saturday September 10, 2016 @09:07AM (#12469009)

Phasing out bills is definitely feasible. Bills usually pass through a bank fairly often, at which point they can be removed from circulation. In general banknotes have their design changed every 10-20 years, and very old banknotes are no longer legal tender (though they can sometimes be exchanged at the central bank). A regular bank won't accept a deprecated banknote.

The ECB is currently phasing out 500s, first by removing those it can get its hands on from circulation, and after a few years by declaring the rest no longer legal tender.

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Re:Harvard Economist Is Trying to Kill Cash by DashRattlesnake on Saturday September 10, 2016 @10:49AM (#12469480)

> In general banknotes have their design changed every 10-20 years, and very old banknotes are no longer legal tender

IIRC, the US has never declared any version of its old currency not-legal-tender, and no-one would have any problem spending any US banknote that in any way resembles the current ones in size or shape.

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Re:Harvard Economist Is Trying to Kill Cash by nommm-nommm on Saturday September 10, 2016 @09:14AM (#12469035)

I've never had problems spending very old banknotes in the US.

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Re:Harvard Economist Is Trying to Kill Cash by monkeyprojects on Saturday September 10, 2016 @09:24AM (#12469068)

I don't believe US banknotes change design that frequently. In europe bank notes change design every 5-10 years and quickly stop being legal tender a 3-5 years afterwards...

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Re:Harvard Economist Is Trying to Kill Cash by nommm-nommm on Saturday September 10, 2016 @08:45PM (#12471560)

We had a major redesign in about... 2001ish. You still see the old notes circling around sometimes and they are still legal tender. The $100 bill was redesigned about two years ago. We have new paper notes coming out soon... https://modernmoney.treasury.gov.

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Re:Harvard Economist Is Trying to Kill Cash by umanwizard on Saturday September 10, 2016 @09:14AM (#12469036)

Bills have a pretty short lifetime. Banks can readily exchange them with the government (presumably, for credit in their account with the Fed) and vice versa. The government then destroys then old or mutilated ones. I imagine if the government simply stopped printing physical 100s, the number in circulation would dwindle pretty fast.

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Re:Harvard Economist Is Trying to Kill Cash by Turing_Machine on Saturday September 10, 2016 @10:46AM (#12469463)

Hundreds last a lot longer than ones, though.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/how-long-is-the-life-spa...

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Re:Harvard Economist Is Trying to Kill Cash by DashRattlesnake on Saturday September 10, 2016 @10:46AM (#12469465)

> Bills have a pretty short lifetime.

It depends on the denomination. I think $1s have a lifetimes of ~18 months, but it goes up from there. I would imagine $100s have useful lifetimes of at least a decade if not more.

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Re:Harvard Economist Is Trying to Kill Cash by venomsnake on Saturday September 10, 2016 @09:04AM (#12469001)

Stop printing them. And remove them from circulation when they enter the financial system. It is easy.

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