The push to ban cash, in particular notes with a high denomination (such as $100 dollar bills), is picking up momentum. The European Central Bank President announced earlier this week that Europe is strongly considering phasing out the 500 euro note. Sovereignman.com reports: Yesterday, former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers published an op-ed in the Washington Post about getting rid of the $100 bill. Prominent economists and banks have joined the refrain and called for an end to cash in recent months. The reasoning is almost always the same: cash is something that only criminals, terrorists, and tax cheats use. In his op-ed, Summers refers to a new Harvard research paper entitled: “Making it Harder for the Bad Guys: The Case for Eliminating High Denomination Notes”. That title pretty much sums up the conventional thinking. And the paper goes on to propose abolishing, among others, 500 euro and $100 bills. The authors claim that “without being able to use high denomination notes, those engaged in illicit activities – the ‘bad guys’ of our title – would face higher costs and greater risks of detection. Eliminating high denomination notes would disrupt their ‘business models’.” Personally I find this comical. I can just [...]