BACK TO THE GOLD STANDARD: A LETTER TO THE ECONOMIST (February 20, 2007)

Your main leader will surely worry your readers associated with organized crime (“The End of the Cash Era,” February 17, 2007). Operating at several percentage points of world’s total output, they need plenty of cash, too. And especially cash in respectable currencies and large denominations. Electronic money in whatever form will not serve them well, if at all, for it can be traced way too easily. If cash really goes the way of the dinosaurs, as you cheerfully foresee, the good chaps may have to go back to the gold standard. Although somewhat awkward to cart about, it guarantees anonymity even better than cash.