| Would getting rid of paper money give central bankers more room to maneuver? Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff thinks so. In a new paper, “Costs and Benefits to Phasing Out Paper Currency,” Mr. Rogoff doesn’t take a position on the merits of replacing dollars or euros or yen with electronic currency. But he argues that doing so would make life easier for monetary policy makers hemmed in by the extraordinarily low interest rates of the post-recession economy.
Since lowering nominal interest rates to nudge the U.S. out of the 2007-2009 recession, Federal Reserve policymakers have been “going through contortions trying to run monetary policy” while nominal interest rates are at or near zero,” Mr. Rogoff said in an interview.............................................Full Article: Source
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