Thirty years ago most people used cash.  Today, the world has turned away from cash and towards a variety of electronic payments, like credit cards, Venmo and cryptocurrencies.  Most young people don’t even carry paper money.  While many see this movement as a wonderful trend, the digital shift has overlooked dark sides.  Eliminating cash can harm us in many ways.  It causes us to spend more, reduces our privacy and boosts prices we pay.  It hits the poor especially hard by making them pay for bank services they cannot afford.  It weakens our national defense by making us vulnerable to cyberattacks and natural disasters.  It increases crime since criminals can target us from anywhere in the world.

  Countless times technologists have presented the electronic future as utopia, but have failed to comprehend technology’s problems. This book sounds an alarm, because once paper money, ATMs and cash registers are gone it will cost billions to restore them.  Cash is an essential tool and this book shows why preserving it for the long run makes us all better off.

 Hardcover Available April 1, 2025; Audio and E-Book Available in May

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About the Author

Professor Jay Zagorsky is an economist at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.  At Boston University he has taught over 12,000 students.  His teaching has won a number of awards and prizes.  He was also a researcher at Ohio State University for over twenty years seeking to understand the causes and consequences of poverty and wealth.  He has published scientific articles in a wide range of disciplines and has written four books.  Beyond his scholarly work each month he writes easy to understand articles at TheConversation.com, which have been read by millions of people.  Currently, he is one of Boston University’s most widely quoted professors and frequently appears on television, radio, podcasts and in print.