AI Summary
5 min read“If you look at the value of US dollars in circulation, it doubles every decade as long as I’ve been alive,” says Oliver Bullock, a writer on financial crime. The $100 bill is the largest note the US prints, yet Americans use cash in only about 14% of transactions. The paradox is that the majority of those hundreds are held abroad, and the people who most value them are not ordinary savers but criminals—especially tax evaders.
On The Indicator from Planet Money, hosts Waylon Wong and Patty Hirsch examine a proposal by Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina to mint a new $250 note, featuring the face of President Donald Trump, to celebrate 250 years of American independence and offset the inflation-driven erosion of the $100 bill’s value. The episode’s central argument, delivered by Harvard economist Ken Rogoff and author Oliver Bullock, is that such a note would be a gift to financial criminals, particularly tax dodgers, and that the government would lose far more in uncollected tax revenue than it would gain from printing the new currency.
Why criminals love big bills
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:08) **Why a $250 Bill is a Bad Idea** - Hosts Waylon Wong and Paddy Hirsch introduce the controversial proposal for a $250 bill featuring President Trump, and the overlooked argument that it would primarily benefit criminals.
- 2 (02:26) **The Official Case for a $250 Bill** - Representative Joe Wilson’s three stated reasons: celebrating 250 years of independence, honoring Trump, and compensating for the $100 bill’s lost value due to inflation.
- 3 (03:27) **The Cash Paradox** - Americans rarely use cash (14% of transactions), yet the number of physical dollars in circulation has doubled every decade.
- 4 (04:05) **Who Uses All That Cash?** - The Federal Reserve estimates most $100 bills are held outside the U.S., but Bullock argues the primary driver is criminal use.
- 5 (04:44) **Counterpoint: Legitimate Foreign Demand** - A 2017 Fed study suggests it’s hard to quantify criminal use, as many foreigners use dollars as a stable store of value like gold.
- 6 (05:25) **Cash vs. Crypto for Crime** - Criminals use cash and cryptocurrency in tandem, not as alternatives.
- 7 (06:04) **Global Trend: Eliminating Large Notes** - Most governments are moving away from high-denomination notes to combat crime.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Fact checking by Sierra Juarez.
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