Larry Summers: "It’s time to kill the $100 bill"

Lawrence H. Summers, the Charles W. Eliot university professor at Harvard, formerUSTreasury Secretary and former director of the National Economic Council, in a column at The Washington Post tiled, It’s time to kill the $100 bill, is calling for the banishment from circulation of the US $100 bill.

He writes:

Harvard's Mossavar Rahmani Center for Business and Government, which I am privileged to direct, has just issued an important paper by senior fellow Peter Sands and a group of student collaborators. The paper makes a compelling case for stopping the issuance of high denomination notes like the 500 euro note and $100 bill or even withdrawing them from circulation.

The evil statist paints it as somehow a fight to protect ordinary citizens:

 [A] global agreement to stop issuing high denomination notes would also show that the global financial groupings can stand up against “big money” and for the interests of ordinary citizens.

Make no mistake about it, this is about making it difficult for individuals to conduct large size transactions in cash. It is part of the war on cash by governments so that all transaction can be tracked by governments.

-RW