Bibliographic overview · Money & public policy
The Curse of Cash
How Large-Denomination Bills Aid Crime and Tax Evasion and Constrain Monetary Policy
What risks move when an economy changes its reliance on cash?
What the book examines
Kenneth S. Rogoff argues about the role of physical cash, especially large-denomination notes, in crime, tax evasion, and monetary policy. WorldCat identifies this as the 2017 first paperback printing from Princeton University Press. The book is a policy argument, not a guide to choosing a business payment method. Its place in this collection is analytical: controls inside an organization operate within larger systems of money, privacy, access, enforcement, and central banking. This page is a bibliographic overview based on exact-edition records and limited descriptive material.
Approach and structure
The book combines monetary economics with policy proposals about reducing reliance on high-denomination cash while addressing practical and social consequences. A policy argument should be read by separating diagnosis, evidence, assumptions, and proposed transition. The publication date also matters; payment technology, regulation, inflation, interest rates, and public debate have continued to change. This overview describes the edition’s documented focus without endorsing its prescriptions or claiming that later events confirmed them.
Operational relevance
For a small finance team, the direct lesson is not to eliminate cash or adopt a particular digital alternative. It is to recognize that each payment medium distributes visibility, access, cost, privacy, and risk differently. A control designed for electronic records may not fit a cash process, and a digital process can introduce identity, outage, or intermediary dependence. The appropriate method varies by context and current law. No universal claim of cheaper, safer, or faster is made here.
Who it may help
The title may interest finance leaders, policy readers, founders, and anyone who wants to examine the public assumptions behind payment practices. It may be less useful to readers seeking a hands-on accounts-payable procedure. Read it as a structured position to evaluate, not a personalized recommendation. Comparing the argument with current primary sources and alternative views is essential, particularly where financial inclusion, privacy, enforcement, or monetary authority is involved.
Why it belongs in this collection
The first four books focus largely on organizations: records, managerial interpretation, reliable steps, and system constraints. The Curse of Cash changes the scale. It asks how the form of money itself affects public goals and private behavior. That wider frame prevents a lean-controls discussion from becoming purely internal. A business process depends on payment rails, counterparties, laws, and institutions it does not control.
Limits or cautions
The book advances contestable policy conclusions. Readers should distinguish empirical claims from normative judgments and should not assume that a proposal suitable for one jurisdiction or period applies elsewhere. The 2017 paperback predates later developments in instant payments, digital identity, central-bank projects, and regulation. Current decisions require current authoritative information. This publication offers no policy, legal, tax, security, or investment advice.
Edition and reading note
The documented edition is the English-language Princeton University Press paperback dated June 27, 2017, ISBN 9780691178363 and ASIN 0691178364. It is distinct from the earlier hardcover and electronic editions. Read it last in the collection, after the operational books have established the internal view, and list which assumptions depend on public infrastructure. The Amazon.com link is an ordinary external locator; all purchase details are controlled by Amazon or the named seller.
A question to bring back to the team
Compare cash and one digital method across five questions: what record is created, who can reverse an error, what happens during an outage, which users may be excluded, and which institution carries the final obligation. The comparison should not produce a universal winner. It should show that convenience, privacy, traceability, resilience, and access can move in different directions. For current practice, confirm the applicable US laws, bank terms, fees, settlement rules, and security guidance. The book supplies a policy argument; it does not determine the right method for a particular business or transaction.
Sources
Edition evidence
Last verified October 28, 2026. Authorized exact-edition cover media was not established.
External destination
Locate the edition
Amazon.com links are provided only to help readers locate the reviewed edition. They are not paid links, and this website is not affiliated with Amazon.
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