美国国家公共电台 NPR 'The Curse Of Cash' Makes Case For A World Without Paper Money

'The Curse Of Cash' Makes Case For A World Without Paper Money 

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0005:18repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser¹ to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: 

How much cash do you have in your wallet right now - $50, $100? How about $4,200? That is not a random² number. Actually, $4,200 is the average amount of cash in circulation for every man, woman and child in the United States. So why is your wallet so light?

Well, here's another number that comes from economist³ Kenneth Rogoff's new book. Eighty percent - nearly 80 percent of the cash in circulation is in 100-dollar bills. And maybe those 42 Benjamins are in the wall safe or under your mattress⁵. Is this a problem?

Well, considering that Kenneth Rogoff's book is called "The Curse Of Cash," he obviously thinks it is. His book is an argument for phasing out cash or at least most of it. And Ken⁴ Rogoff joins us now. Welcome to the program once again.

KEN ROGOFF: Thank you, Robert.

SIEGEL: Your book documents that this huge share of cash being in high-denomination bills isn't just an American phenomenon. It's true of the euro, the pound, the Swiss franc. What does all this tell you?

ROGOFF: Well, I think that a lot of the money - these big bills - is used to facilitate tax evasion⁶ and crime. We all use cash in our everyday life, but we don't use hundred-dollar bills. We're not using 500-euro notes. And yet these account for mountains of cash out there. I think they're being used in tax evasion and by criminals of all types.

SIEGEL: Tax evasion, as in hiding the receipts from the business, but also perhaps paying the household helper without paying Social Security tax on it?

ROGOFF: Exactly. I mean, the Internal Revenue Service thinks that they're losing hundreds of billions of dollars a year from cash and businesses hiding the receipts, exactly as you say. And a lot of people pay their household help without paying Social Security - that sort of thing. And it adds up.

SIEGEL: People paying immigrants who enter the country illegally?

ROGOFF: Well, that, too. I mean, you know, if you didn't have employers able to pay off the books and off the record safely in cash, you wouldn't have illegal immigration on nearly the scale that we do.

SIEGEL: So if this is a problem, describe your solution to it.

ROGOFF: So what I propose is very slowly phasing out the larger bills - the hundreds, the 50s, eventually even the 20s - over say 10 to 20 years and leaving, you know, $10 and below so that people who do every day transactions - and lots of surveys and studies show that most legal, tax-compliant transactions are pretty small. And yet making it difficult to run a wholesale⁷ business with cash. Cash is very easy to hide. It's easy to hoard⁸. It's easy to move, especially these large bills. And so I'm trying to find a middle ground.

SIEGEL: What about poor people - people who don't have bank accounts?

ROGOFF: That's one of the most important things to take into account. And so my proposal not only calls for leaving around the $10 bills, but in providing for financial inclusion by giving free debit⁹ accounts to low-income individuals. The Nordic countries have done this. A lot of countries have. It doesn't cost much, but that's something absolutely you have to pay attention to.

SIEGEL: You argue that if we phased out the big bills, there would presumably be more tax compliance¹⁰ in the U.S., and the government would realize more revenue. The government also loses money in that case if it doesn't make money, as you describe. Creating cash is a profitable activity for the government.

ROGOFF: It is. So central banks do make a lot of money printing money. You know, it ranges depending on how you calculate it from 30 to, say, $70 billion a year, but tax evasion is on the order of 500 billion for the federal government. So if you could cut tax evasion by 10 percent, you know, you'd get the high end of those estimates and at the same time, you know, be putting a blow against crime.

SIEGEL: You know, in the book, as you enumerate¹¹ the various illicit¹² or tax-evading activities in which cash makes them possible, I thought, yeah, we should be getting taxes on those things, or they shouldn't be done. You do, though, eventually find, at least in me, of some latent libertarian nerve that says wait a minute. Then must every transaction that we do - must it be somewhere digitally on the record for the government to examine and check? It's a tough sell.

ROGOFF: Fair enough, but I'm leaving around the $10 bill, so what kind of transactions are we talking about? If you want to do one to $2,000, that's really no problem. Should you be able to buy a million-dollar apartment, a $100,000 house? And you'll still be able to. You can use gold coins, uncut diamonds, other things. But should the government facilitate it? Where's the balance? That's really what the question is. I don't think it's time yet to eliminate cash, but I propose having a less-cash society, not a cashless one.

SIEGEL: Kenneth Rogoff, thanks for talking with us about it.

ROGOFF: My pleasure.

SIEGEL: Professor Kenneth Rogoff's new book is called "The Curse Of Cash."

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

3 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

4 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

5 mattress   

n.床垫，床褥

参考例句：

• The straw mattress needs to be aired.草垫子该晾一晾了。
• The new mattress I bought sags in the middle.我买的新床垫中间陷了下去。

6 evasion   

n.逃避，偷漏(税)

参考例句：

• The movie star is in prison for tax evasion.那位影星因为逃税而坐牢。
• The act was passed as a safeguard against tax evasion.这项法案旨在防止逃税行为。

7 wholesale   

n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售

参考例句：

• The retail dealer buys at wholesale and sells at retail.零售商批发购进货物，以零售价卖出。
• Such shoes usually wholesale for much less.这种鞋批发出售通常要便宜得多。

8 hoard   

n./v.窖藏，贮存，囤积

参考例句：

• They have a hoard of food in the basement.地下室里有他们贮藏的食物。
• How many curios do you hoard in your study?你在你书房里聚藏了多少古玩？

9 debit   

n.借方，借项，记人借方的款项

参考例句：

• To whom shall I debit this sum?此款应记入谁的账户的借方？
• We undercharge Mr.Smith and have to send him a debit note for the extra amount.我们少收了史密斯先生的钱，只得给他寄去一张借条所要欠款。

10 compliance   

n.顺从；服从；附和；屈从

参考例句：

• I was surprised by his compliance with these terms.我对他竟然依从了这些条件而感到吃惊。
• She gave up the idea in compliance with his desire.她顺从他的愿望而放弃自己的主意。

11 enumerate   

v.列举，计算，枚举，数

参考例句：

• The heroic deeds of the people's soldiers are too numerous to enumerate.人民子弟兵的英雄事迹举不胜举。
• Its applications are too varied to enumerate.它的用途不胜枚举。

12 illicit   

adj.非法的，禁止的，不正当的

参考例句：

• He had an illicit association with Jane.他和简曾有过不正当关系。
• Seizures of illicit drugs have increased by 30% this year.今年违禁药品的扣押增长了30%。