From the Art Bell web site, posted 1999-03-06

Another Note from Our Treasury Department Insider:

"As we all know the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (US Treasury) can only produce so many bills, which can be printed in any denomation, this of course is due to the fact that there are only so many presses can produce "X" number of bills a day.

"Last year as we all know, it was announced that the Treasury would print an additional $50 billion in notes to be on the "safe side", in the event that there would be runs on the banks later on this year. However events in the last 6 months have had officials in high places making additional plans, in the event that demand exceeds supply. By bringing back the $500 bill would solve the problem, after all, in the time it takes to print one 500 $1 bills, 500, $500 bills could be printed.

END OF MESSAGE --

-- A (A@AisA.com), March 17, 1999

Answers

Kool! I need some more "mad" money! <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), March 17, 1999.

Let me guess, the 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, & last but not least the 500$ bills are all the same size, on the same % of cotton, and the same color of ink. How will anyone be able to tell them apart?

-- R. Wright (blaklodg@aol.com), March 17, 1999.

I've been pointing this out for years since "currency shortage" was first mentioned.

There's no reason why $500 bills would have to look like the old ones. Personally I'd have more confidence in them if they didn't (would much rather they had every modern security feature). Though, of course, I've rather more interest in UK#500 notes (which also don't yet exist).

And are the authorities really so stupid? Isn't it likely that somewhere is a secret warehouse of pre-printed paper, that could become high-denomination currency notes just as soon as the authorities chose to release it as such? Until then it's just bundles of paper of no great interest to thieves.

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), March 17, 1999.

The 500s question is really an extreme case of the question "Now that you've gotten all the currency out of electronic accounts into the hands of the public, what do we do with it?"

Will your shop take a $500 bill for a $50 item? How much change will you give back?

Gary North was saying way back to keep small bills, because people might not accept large ones. Why? Because they might suspect that others would not accept them. (North also talks about a 95-99% price deflation if electronic money disappears -- that seems an extreme result to me.)

What happens if the same suspicion that led to withdrawing from bank accounts altogether, leads to suspicion of bigger bills? They get discounted. A premium emerges on smaller bills. Moneychangers (or merchants giving change) mediate the differing values. Coins become more valuable.

Searching for "coin shortage" gives some articles from India in '97-'98, telling about premiums up to 20% that coin vendors make bringing a coin supply around to retail businesses that need them.

It would be interesting to speculate what premiums/discounts might evolve up and down the currency scale under different y2k 1-10 scenarios. Paralleled by the question of public trust of familiar fiat money vs. a switchover to precious metals.

Would bank runs this year produce currency premiums/discounts before year-end? Would they collapse in a road-bump scenario?

Would banking problems then persist (public distrust) even after a road-bump y2k?

A summary of the situation might be that Banking/Financial problems could be triggered by any of several problems that affect public confidence, y2k being only the most likely one at this time.

The system is fragile in that people lend banks their money so they don't have to worry or think about where it is. Now they're having to think. The banks have _already_ forfeited the 100% confidence level; e.g., they haven't done their job. A vicious circle, and probably "unfair" to them as businesses, but they are not normal businesses, but the conduits of currency and confidence. They should have produced a y2k "certain solution" by late 1998 and left no doubts remaining. It remains to be seen how much theyll be punished for this lapse.

The only question now is whether enough people will trust _each other_ to trust the banks. We're looking at each other now, or soon will be -- not bank remediation -- but the banks were supposed to keep us from ever needing to take that self-protective viewpoint.

-- me_again (going@it.com), March 17, 1999.

Let me guess, William J. Clinton on the front and an inside view of the oval office on the back!

-- Bill (y2khippo@yahoo.com), March 17, 1999.

One of my grand-uncles made it through the first three and a half years of the Great Depression on a $50 bill (roughly equivalent vaue to $500 bills today) - he'd go in and buy something small, and they'd give it to him on credit, 'cause the only thing he had was a $50. worked until the summer of '34 when the grocer showed grand-uncle that his tab had run all the way up to (you guessed it) 50 bucks...

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), March 17, 1999.

Actually, it likely will be a trap. Even $100 bills are enough to get you killed by the government.

(Wife of millionaire Don Scott shopped with $100 bills. Clerk reported her ["know your customer"]. Locals and feds "investigated", flying over his house with helicopters and "determined" that he was possibly a drug (marijuana) grower/dealer. He had a nice house on a plot of land next to Santa Monica (Calif) mountain reserved area that the government would have liked to annex. So they bust down his door ("no-knock") early one morning and as he comes staggering down the stairs, barely awake, with a pistol, the gestapo shoots him dead. BTW, no pot, no nothing, but one dead citizen -- all started by his wife shopping for cash with $100 bills.)

Ain't living in the freest country in the world grand?

-- A (A@AisA.com), March 18, 1999.

A -- you a*ho* -- go to Germany or South Korea or somewhere. This is the wealthiest and most compassionate country in the world.

-- pat (truepatriot@notrightwingwacko.com), March 22, 1999.

Yeah Pat:

For how long? Other countries are not catching up; we're declining to their level. In many instances, depending on your particular circumstances, other countries COULD be more atttractive than Amerika, particularly if you've got enough money to follow the advice of Harry Shultz or "Bill" Hill and become a "PT".

Check out Heritage Foundation ranking of countries for economic freedom. "'Only' economic?" you may ask. Well, as Russia and many other wog-lands have discovered, you can't have economic freedom without political freedom and vice versa. Diminish one, and the other also goes down the tubes.

http://www.heritage.org/index/execsum.html

-- A (A@AisA.com), March 22, 1999.