The protection of cash.

There is growing use of cash in Europe, except in Sweden and Denmark, which is puzzling economists, wrote Leonid Bershidsky. The share of cash relative to GDP is increasing, including in Japan where the shadow economy is small, at 10%. The use of cashless transactions is increasing all over the world and amounted to $617 billion last year, up from $60 billion in 2010. Prof Kenneth Rogoff has been arguing against the use of cash, especially high value notes. "Cash facilitates crime because it is anonymous and big bills are especially problematic because they are so easy to carry and avoid," he wrote. "A million dollars in $100 notes fits into a briefcase, a million dollars in 500 Euro notes (each worth about $565) fits into a purse." True. But the vast majority of the population do not possess a million dollars and cash gives ease of transaction, you avoid bank charges and it allows people to limit spending to what they can afford. Cash is still preferred in Germany, maybe because Germans are reputed to be thrifty. In the US families earning less than $25,000 use cash in 48% of transactions, and families earning between $25,000 and $50,000 use cash in 33% of transactions. Poor people are denied credit cards by banks, you have to pay charges for possessing a card and banks charge merchants for the use of cards, including debit cards, which is sometimes passed on to the customer. Using cards allows people to postpone payment, which gets them into debt. The middle class in Britain has racked up 198 billion pounds in unsecured debt on their credit cards. A lot of people do not trust banks. Details of our accounts are insecure because banks do not spend money on anti-virus software. Details of bank accounts of 10 million Indians are available for 20 paise each. Bank managers are seen as crooks. Even as banks are making huge losses they are paying massive bonuses to their managers. The Royal Bank of Scotland paid out 340 million pounds in bonuses despite incurring losses of up to 5 billion pounds in 2016. Credit Suisse paid more to its chairman despite making losses and despite opposition from shareholders. During demonetization the use of cash dropped because there was hardly any cash available. But as soon as cash was available the use of cash jumped by 78% in January, compared to December. "If governments were not so drunk from the profits they make by printing currency, they might wake up to the costs," wrote Rogoff. We are told by politicians that it costs a lot to print currencies but the government is actually making a huge profit from notes. This is called 'seigneurage'. Why would Indian politicians give up this income? Because it gives the government enormous power over the people by knowing what we are doing, wrote A Nageswaran. Cash is our only protection against these despots. If only the people understood.