Cutting Cash Would Be a Boon for the World’s Poor, Rogoff Says
- Says reducing cash could help limit illegal labor immigration
- Says cash will always be needed as back up, small transactions
People wash clothes in Kibera slum, located in Nairobi, Kenya.
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Getting rid of much of the cash in circulation might be an effective way to reduce inequality.
The world’s poor stand to be among the “biggest beneficiaries” of the changes that would follow should cash become almost obsolete, according to Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard economy professor and the author of “The Curse of Cash.” Benefits include less crime and a reduction in the kind of off-the-books labor that hurts society’s weakest members.