Abolishing the 500-Euro Note: Fighting or Facilitating Crime?

by Joseph T. Salerno
Mises.org

Citing grave concerns that “this banknote could facilitate illicit activities,” those desperate inflationists intrepid crime fighters at the ECB have announced that production of the 500-euro note–the so-called “Bin Laden note”–will cease at the end of 2018. To allay public suspicion that this despotic measure portends the beginning of a movement to abolish cash in order to facilitate the passing of negative interest rates through to the retail deposit market, the ECB solemnly assured that the note would continue to circulate as legal tender and be accepted at central banks throughout the euro-zone for an unlimited period. It also promised that lower denomination euro notes will remain and be available in sufficient quantities to meet demand.

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