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Mysterious Surge in U.S. $100 Bills in Circulation, Possibly Linked to Global Corruption

posted by martyb on Friday March 01 2019, @12:43PM   
from the think-global-act-local dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The amount of $100 bills in circulation is surging. And it's leaving some economists scratching their heads.

The number of outstanding U.S. $100 bills has doubled since the financial crisis, with more than 12 billion of them across the world, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve. C-notes have passed $1 bills in circulation, Deutsche Bank chief international economist Torsten Slok said in a note to clients this week.

[...] "By eliminating high denomination, high value notes we would make life harder for those pursuing tax evasion, financial crime, terrorist finance and corruption," [former Standard Chartered bank chief executive Peter] Sands wrote.

The global illicit money flows were "staggering" and fuel crimes from drug trafficking and human smuggling to theft and fraud, Sands said. He estimated that depending on the country, tax evasion robs the public sector of anywhere between 6 percent and 70 percent of what authorities estimate they should be collecting. And despite "huge investments in transaction surveillance systems, and intelligence, less than 1 percent of illicit financial flows are seized.

[...] "The Federal Reserve and Treasury make 99 dollars for every $100 dollar bill they print and sell offshore," Colas said. "There's a natural desire to keep printing these things — the U.S. government makes a lot of money selling them."

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/27/theres-been-a-mysterious-surge-in-100-bills-in-circulation-possibly-linked-to-global-corruption.html

Superbills?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar

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Original Submission

• Re:Cash use is suspicious Re:Cash use is suspicious (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @08:07PM (3 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 01 2019, @08:07PM (#808900)

  Suspicious it may be, but is anybody really going to give you shit for using cash at a grocery or hardware store? Maybe if you bought $1,000 of stuff at Best Buy some eyebrows would be raised.

  I think it does depend on location. Some places see a lot of cash or EBT card use.

  "How much is that?"
  "$52.37, sir."
  "Are pennies okay? Sorry, they're not rolled."
  [Hands a sack of pennies to the cashier]
  "Just let me know if it's not enough."

  That could happen. Just not to me. I save my pennies for when they're really useful. Like when I travel by air.

  Parent

• Re:Cash use is suspicious Re:Cash use is suspicious (Score: 2) by dry on Saturday March 02 2019, @06:58AM (2 children)

  by dry (223) on Saturday March 02 2019, @06:58AM (#809082) Journal

  Are large amounts of pennies legal tender? Here in Canada, they were only legal tender up to 25 cents. Other coins are similar, only legal tender up to 20-25 or so coins. Of course if the store chooses, they can take more and I notice that the super market I shop at has an automatic coin machine, dump in your change, get a piece of paper that you can spend or trade for higher denominations. Even takes pennies, unlike most all stores now.

  Parent

  • Re:Cash use is suspicious Re:Cash use is suspicious (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @12:10AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 03 2019, @12:10AM (#809283)

    Are large amounts of pennies legal tender? Here in Canada, they were only legal tender up to 25 cents. Other coins are similar, only legal tender up to 20-25 or so coins. Of course if the store chooses, they can take more and I notice that the super market I shop at has an automatic coin machine, dump in your change, get a piece of paper that you can spend or trade for higher denominations. Even takes pennies, unlike most all stores now.

    Apparently, the Canadian government [www.mint.ca] doesn't agree with you WRT the (discontinued) Canadian penny. They state that:

    Are businesses required to accept pennies after February 4, 2013?

    While businesses do not have a legal obligation to accept any particular Canadian coins or bank notes in a retail transaction, the penny will continue to be legal tender like all other Canadian coins, and businesses may accept the coin as a means of payment if they so choose.

    And yes, any and all US currency (including pennies) are "legal tender" (US Code Title 31, Section 5103) [cornell.edu]:

    United States [cornell.edu] coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts. [emphasis added]

    Parent

    • Re:Cash use is suspicious (Score: 3, Informative) by dry on Sunday March 03 2019, @01:08AM

      by dry (223) on Sunday March 03 2019, @01:08AM (#809299) Journal

      From https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-52/page-1.html [justice.gc.ca] so actually the Canadian governments law,

      Limitation

      (2) A tender of payment in coins referred to in subsection (1) is a legal tender for no more than the following amounts for the following denominations of coins:

              (a) forty dollars if the denomination is two dollars or greater but does not exceed ten dollars;

              (b) twenty-five dollars if the denomination is one dollar;

              (c) ten dollars if the denomination is ten cents or greater but less than one dollar;

              (d) five dollars if the denomination is five cents; and

              (e) twenty-five cents if the denomination is one cent.

      Every time I pull out a penny now (I keep 2 cents worth in my pocket), cashiers laugh and refuse them.

      Seems America had something similar before 1965 and today stores are free to accept or refuse whatever currency they choose if they're upfront about it. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/penny-whys/ [snopes.com]
      Here, you do see stores that post that they won't take a hundred. OTOH, American coinage is usually accepted at par.

      Parent