The Curse of Cash
How Large-Denomination Bills Aid Crime and Tax Evasion and Constrain Monetary Policy
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“A brilliant and lucid new book” (John Lanchester, New York Times Magazine) about why paper money and digital currencies lie at the heart of many of the world’s most difficult problems—and their solutions
In The Curse of Cash, acclaimed economist and bestselling author Kenneth Rogoff explores the past, present, and future of currency, showing why, contrary to conventional economic wisdom, the regulation of paper bills—and now digital currencies—lies at the heart some of the world’s most difficult problems, but also their potential solutions. When it comes to currency, history shows that the private sector often innovates but eventually the government regulates and appropriates. Using examples ranging from the history of standardized coinage to the development of paper money, Rogoff explains why the cryptocurrency boom will inevitably end with dominant digital currencies created and controlled by governments, regardless of what Bitcoin libertarians want. Advanced countries still urgently need to stem the global flood of large paper bills—the vast majority of which serve no legitimate purpose and only enable tax evasion and other crimes—but cryptocurrencies are like $100 bills on steroids.
The Curse of Cash is filled with revealing insights about many of the most pressing issues facing monetary policymakers, from quantitative easing to alternative inflation targeting regimes. It also explains in detail why, if low interest rates persist, the best way to reinvigorate monetary policy is to implement fully effective and unconstrained negative interest rates.
Provocative, engaging, and backed by compelling original arguments and evidence, The Curse of Cash has sparked widespread debate and its ideas have moved to the center of financial and policy discussions.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
According to this fascinating economic manifesto from Rogoff (coauthor of This Time Is Different), a public policy professor at Harvard University, money isn't the root of all evil; cash is, and the sooner it's rooted out, the better. Why? Cash, he argues, is key to criminal activities: tax evasion, bribery, smuggling, human trafficking, illegal immigration, and more. Cash's liquidity, anonymity, and ungovernability place it beyond the authorities' control. Rogoff's principal concern is not with tax evasion or crime, however, but with the ability of central banks to compel consumer spending during economic crises. If central banks could implement negative interest rates, they would have substantially greater power to combat deflation and avoid recessions but large cash reserves could defeat such efforts. Rogoff sidesteps the politically sticky problem of governments attempting to take away citizens' cash. Even if one disagrees with him, Rogoff has collected so many fascinating facts about cash (how much is held abroad, how much is used for criminal activities, how much governments profit from its use) that the book never feels like ivory tower pontification. The result is an absorbing exploration of the uses, and misuses, of currency, and its intractability in controlling modern economies.
