There are more $100 bills in circulation than $1 bills, and it makes no cents
Taylor Telford, Jeanne Whalen
40 mins ago A puzzling surge in the number of $100 bills in circulation and the planned demise of the 500-euro bank note have resurrected debate on the need for three-digit currency at all — given their favor with criminals around the globe.
A decade ago, the number of $100 bills lagged well behind $1 and $20 notes. But the tally has doubled since the end of the financial crisis, according to data from the Federal Reserve; by 2017, the $100 note eclipsed the $1 to become the most widely distributed U.S. currency. Output is still climbing, and experts are perplexed.
“It could be driven by a global fear of negative interest rates in Europe and Japan, or it could be a savings vehicle for U.S. households worried about another financial crisis, or it could be driven by more demand from the global underground economy,†Torsten Slok, chief international economist of Deutsche Bank, wrote in a note to investors last week.
The Benjamin Franklin-faced currency has been the largest U.S. bill since the $500, $1,000 and $5,000 were axed in 1969, but it’s not very popular for day-to-day transactions. The average American carries about $60 in cash, according to a 2017 study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. A December study from Pew Research Center found that about 30 percent of Americans use no cash at all on a weekly basis, suggesting that, in the digital age, cash is going out of style altogether.
<..snip..>
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/there-are-more-dollar100-bills-in-circulation-than-dollar1-bills-and-it-makes-no-cents/ar-BBUncpu?ocid=ientp