Well, at least the $100 U.S. banknote isn’t going away anytime soon.
According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, the United States government doesn’t have any intention of killing the $100 bill. Despite many prominent individuals calling for the end the Benjamin Franklin to combat criminal activity, the Treasury Department doesn’t have any plans to remove it from circulation.
Why is the Treasury Department keeping the banknote? Because criminals would use other denominations anyway.
“Even if the U.S. did drop the $100 bill, several government agencies predicted criminals would simply gravitate to whatever denominations were available,” a spokeswoman for the Treasury Department told the newspaper.
And not all people who use the $100 bill are criminals. Many average Americans take advantage of the $100 bill as many ATMs across the country dispense them each day.
The newspaper further cited how the $100 bill is an important piece of paper in the global economy. It also warned that replacing the $100 would be very expensive because $50 bill costs 10.6 cents to produce, and twice as many would need to be printed.
In the past, the U.S. has dropped many denominations from its circulation, including the $100,000 bill, the $10,000 bill and the $1,000 bill.
But don’t espouse these arguments to Peter Sands, a Harvard University fellow and former bank executive, who wants to ban the $100 bill, the $1,000 Swiss franc and the 500 euro.
“My argument is if you have something that society doesn’t really need but illegal activity really likes, why are you producing it?” Sands said.
Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary in the Clinton administration and economic adviser to President Obama, opined earlier this year that he wants to “kill the $100 bill.” He would later advocate for the end of the $50 bill, too, citing criminal activity and helping innocent people (SEE: War on Cash: Larry Summers now wants to kill $50 bill, urges Switzerland to end SFR1,000 franc note).
In the meantime, the war on cash has hit a bump in the road. When cash is banned, freedom is gone (SEE: War on Cash: Cash Banned, Freedom Gone).
What do you expect from Bankers. They hate cash, because they make nothing on the transaction. They want to move to a cashless system, so they can make even more money. Greed at the top, no surprise.