A Citi economist looks at abolishing cash for a different reason than you'd think.
Currency is clumsy and inefficient but that's not why Citi's Willem Buiter thinks its time might be up. He believes that eliminating cash would clear the way for negative deposit rates.
In short, it would allow central banks to lower rates below zero so savers would have to pay money to keep it in the bank, encouraging spending.
It's a pie-in-the-sky idea that would be demolished by voters. If not, it would create massive capital flight to jurisdictions where it wasn't implemented and hard assets, especially god.
