Indian has a problem with large hoards of cash being used to evade taxes. This is basically a come to Jesus moment for tax evaders with these hoards.
It is a pretty crazy policy, but this article glosses over some major points.
Most day-to-day cash transactions work perfectly fine using $20 bills.
See e.g. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/16/its-t...
> [...] illicit activities are facilitated when a million dollars weighs 2.2 pounds as with the 500 euro note rather than more than 50 pounds as would be the case if the $20 bill was the high denomination note.
The ECB is getting rid of the €500 note[2]
[1] http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/08/14/340356790/shoul...
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/05/business/international/ecb...
And ? I don't want my large or small transactions traced, monitored and monetized upon the untouchables called banks and I don't understand anyone who agrees with this but otherwise supports freedom and anonymity in tech.
The whole thing is just an excuse for more control.
The burden would fall heavily on illicit transactions, while only slightly impacting most cash users, if at all.
(I’m not advocating for this, merely linking it as topical to the discussion.)
See Ken Rogoff’s NBER paper http://scholar.harvard.edu/rogoff/publications/costs-and-ben...