**For Russia, It’s All About the Benjamins** **Ending the circulation of the $100 bill would put far more political pressure on Putin over Ukraine than sanctions have.** **By Markos Kounalakis, The Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2022**
**Most Russians haven’t been affected by Western sanctions, but there’s one thing the U.S. Treasury can do to put real political pressure on Vladimir Putin — immediately stop circulating and honoring $100 bills in Russia. ... ...**
**Rather than investing in a retirement fund, ordinary and wealthy Russians alike protect their life savings by converting their rubles to dollars and stashing them at home. ... For years, Russians’ bill of preference has been the $100. As of 2019, more than 661,500 pounds of $100 bills were in Russia — many of them stashed in lumpy mattresses and home-sewn money belts. That’s $31.5 billion. ...** **It could even be a good idea to sunset the $100 world-wide. Almost 80% of U.S. $100 bills reside overseas and a lot of that fuels bad actors. ... In the U.S., research suggests that eliminating the $100 bill could help curtail tax evasion and commercial theft as well as that by employees...** [end quote]
An idea both radical and simple. Discontinue the Benjamin! In the U.S. the bills can be brought to a bank for deposit. In the current Russian banking environment, there wouldn’t be an easy way to convert these discontinued bills to other currency. Russians’ savings would be reduced to paper.
That would put pressure on ordinary Russians in a way that the sanctions don’t. That’s playing hardball. A lot of ordinary Russians would be hurt.
A lot of ordinary Russians would be hurt.
That may be what is required in order to accomplish the change that is needed.
Pick your quote:
(1) If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.
(2) Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.
(3) When you stand for nothing, you fall for everything.
The general idea’s been around for awhile, mostly as a way to get on top of the drug trade but also under-the-table schemes in general:
tomorrow, the US Treasury stops printing the current green Benjamins and starts printing orange ones
everyone has two years to turn in their green Benjamins in exchange for the new orange ones
2a) if they don’t have a good explanation as to where their suitcase full of $10,000 banded packages came from, unspecified consequences ensue…at the least, they are brought to the attention of various federal constabularies/regulators
On Jan 1 2025, the green Benjamins become worthless, as in, no longer legal tender
we all live happily ever after
(Apparently, professional economists turn pale at this suggestion, as the value of currency relates to the implicit assumption of its further worth.)
The general idea’s been around for awhile, mostly as a way to get on top of the drug trade but also under-the-table schemes in general: 1) tomorrow, the US Treasury stops printing the current green Benjamins and starts printing orange ones 2) everyone has two years to turn in their green Benjamins in exchange for the new orange ones
When I lived in Saigon back in the day, there was a black market for US dollars as the Viet Nam government has set a fixed exchange rate. Every few months the US would switch from using dollars to MPCs (military payment certificates) and later back again. It slowed the black market but didn’t get rid of it.
An idea both radical and simple. Discontinue the Benjamin!
I personally don’t like it. I keep a fair supply on hand in case of cyberattack, a bank “holiday” (there have been times in US history when banks were closed for weeks), sometimes I like to make purchases for cash. With the no to very low money market rates there’s no lost opportunity cost for having part of my prudent reserve in cash.
So, if I have to go into the bank with $100 bills, if there are say $4000 to $10,000 worth of $100 bills, I could be subject to a SARs report being filed even though I engage in no illegal activity. Sometimes I’ve made a big purchase on my credit card and want to pay cash until the statement is paid in full when it comes due. Sometimes a friend needs a short term loan to get by and I like that to be between us. Lots of legitimate reasons for cash transactions. Lots of intrusive reasons provided to paint with a broad brush of truthiness.
We’ve been subject to the Euros being changed, pound sterling notes being changed. However, no governmental reports were a function of changing old for new.
So I’m not in favor of the move. A lone voice, it seems…
“So I’m not in favor of the move. A lone voice, it seems…”
Lone voice? Not at all.
The fact that we are limited to notes of $100 is already a bad idea.
It’s pretty much a method a moving us on from a cash-based economy.
$100 is not even grocery money these days. Inflation over the years took care of that.
I guess that’s the penalty for being the reserve currency though.
Would it be good if the serial numbers on cash meant something? We could trace them and/or cancel specific ones?
$100 is not even grocery money these days. Inflation over the years took care of that.
I see several retail establishments now with signs at the cashier that they will not take a $100 bill, yet a Benjamin today is worth about the same as a $10 bill in 1959.
It’s pretty much a method a moving us on from a cash-based economy.
Ever watch a movie named “They Drive By Night”? Made in 1940 about two brothers (George Raft and Humphrey Bogart) driving truck. All the transactions in that film are in cash. The guys buy loads of produce with cash, drive them into LA and sell the loads, for cash. My mom used to tell me how, when she was a kid, her parents had charge accounts at several stores, and, once a month, her mom would make the rounds of the stores, in person, paying up the accounts, with cash. The insurance agent would come to the house each month to collect the premium, in cash. I remember in the 60s, some drug stores would accept payments for the local utility company, in cash.
I was at the eye doc for a checkup and new prescription a couple weeks ago. The charge was $80. (exactly the same as four years ago. take that media inflation hysteria) I whipped out my checkbook, commented how hard it is to write a check with my eyes dilated because I can’t see, and the cashier says “it would be easier for me if you used a credit card”, so the checkbook went back in my pocket.