The F$100 bill is under fire as aiding violations of federal law, though many honest people use them.
If you use cash, you support local economy and help establish your manliness and virility. Yes, using cash is more manly than using a credit card.
In light of the federal PR war on the F$100 bill, consider how using F$100 bills in your business transactions and in shopping show you are a tough guy.
By David Tulis
We know men who have F$8 in their billfolds, or F$3, not enough even to buy a hamburger. Why don’t you be a HE MAN and keep F$434 in your billfold — two hundreds, four 50s and the rest in fives and ones.
The man who has an auto repair done and pays with Federal Reserve notes projects power and finality. A repair at S&S Auto Repair in Brainerd, say, comes in at F$325. You hand Jessica at the counter three C-notes, a 20 and a F$5. All it settled. All is done. Steve Smith (the senior mechanic) and his son Aaron (the junior) are happy. The account is settled; no one on either side of the transaction has paperwork, records or further to-do with the sale.
The user of the credit card has just that — a flagellum of details that trail after the repair. There’s his statement later in the month, the accounting of that purchase on Page 3. He has to write a check to cover that expense from the credit card issuer. The Smiths have only to endure the finance charge for the use of the card.
The man who knows nothing of C-notes surrounds his purchases with a spider webbery from the tapeworm economy, with a clutter of reporting and procrastination.
Larry Summers, former treasury secretary, favors ending the printing of F$100 banknotes by the Federal Reserve System.
The man with Franklins folded into his pocket is courageous; he boldlly buys a sandwich, salad and tea without creating a mortgage for his fare.
He likes the trouble the C-note causes. When he draws them from his bank or credit union, he savors the reverse multiplier effect of that step. Just as putting F$100 into a bank lets it create an estimated F$1,000 in credit, so taking a Franklin from the banker has a like negative effect, at least in theory.
Cash is criminal
The war on cash is built into American law and American culture has come to account for that hostility.
Money laundering has only been a federal crime since 1986, and reporting to the government of large cash transactions and suspected money laundering has only been required since the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, notes Paul-Martin Foss of the Menger Center. “Inevitably, this criminalization of ancillary conduct has ensnared many innocent people. But that isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. The $10,000 cash reporting threshold in 1970 is equivalent to over $60,000 today, meaning that as the dollar continues to be devalued through inflation, more and more cash transactions will be reported to the government by banks. Criminals, as always, will find ways around any new restrictions on cash use while innocents will be forced to suffer the new burdens placed upon them.”
The good people in 1969 discontinued issuance of F$500, F$1,000, F$5,000 and F$10,000 banknotes. About F$1.38 billion circulates as currency, and of that F$1.08 trillion are in F$100 notes.
On Tuesday former treasury secretary Larry Summers proposed on an oped eliminating the F$100 bill because people involved in crime and terrorism use them.
Well, good people like you use cash, too, not because you are bad, but because you are good. If you use cash, you help local economy avoid the national economy credit tax. If you use F$100s, you give the consistent impression that you are a man.
The man.
Sources: John Carney and Joshua Zumbrun, “Is Now the Time to Kill $100 Bill?” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 16, 2016
Paul Martin-Foss, “War on Cash: The Fix Is In,” Lewrockwell.com, Feb. 18, 2016
— David Tulis hosts a talk show weekdays in Chattanooga from 9 to 11 a.m. on 1240 AM Hot News Talk Radio, covering local economy and free markets in Chattanooga and beyond. Support this site and his radio station in Chattanooga, on your smartphone via the TuneIn radio app or at Hotnewstalkradio.com. Noisily patronize his advertisers. Encourage the free press by having David air your commercials. Also, “buy me a coffee at the tip jar.”
