로고프의 헛소리

영국의 스코트랜드 왕립은행이 오늘부터 네거티브 금리를 적용하기 시작했고, 케네스 로고프가 <현금의 저주 The Curse of Cash>라는 책을 출간했다는 소식이다.

 

로고프는 현재 미국의 1.4 조 달러의 현금이 세금 회피와 불법 행위에 사용되고 있으며, 현금 없는 세상을 만들면 시민들이 돈을 숨겨두지 못해 통화정책을 효율적으로 만들 거라는 허튼 소리를 했다.

 

현재의 정신 나간 경제학자들을 제지하지 못하면, 미래에는 어쩌면 현금을 사용하지 못하고, 신용카드로만 거래를 해야할 지도 모른다.

 

The Blessing of Cash

 

Not coincidentaly, Harvard and former IMF economist Kenneth Rogoff has just published a book a few days ago bearing the lurid title The Curse of Cash. The book garners effusive praise in back-cover endorsements from leading professional economists such as Ben Bernanke, Alan Blinder, and Michael Woodford. Rogoff reportedly calls for the abolition of all cash, not merely large-denomination notes. While admitting that cash has some advantages, Rogoff makes the sensational claim that the bulk of the $1.4 trillion of US currency in circulation is used to facilitate tax evasion and to finance illegal activities like human trafficking and terrorism. Oh yes—Rogoff also argues that a cashless economy would make monetary policy more efficient by preventing savers from hoarding cash whenever central bankers—advised by sage macroeconomists like Rogoff—decide that the “natural” or optimal rate of interest for the economy has become deeply negative.

 

Cash is a unambiguously a blessing to productive workers, savers, and entrepreneurs who wish to protect their hard earned money from the crazed theories and swindling schemes promoted by statists like Rogoff and the central bankers he advises.

 

필자

: Joseph T. Salerno is academic vice president of the Mises Institute, professor of economics at Pace University, and editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.

(mises.org에서 가져옴)