The Use of Cash in U.S. Payments during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Manuel A. Bautista-González
February 15, 2021
A year after the Covid-19 pandemic spread globally, there is more data available to determine its impact on the use of cash in U.S. retail payments. The public has not stopped using cash, but some retailers have stopped accepting it altogether, threatening the economic well-being of large, vulnerable segments of U.S. consumers who use cash as their main means of payment.
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Australian National Science Agency claims Virus can Survive for Weeks on Banknotes and then Plays Down Panic
Guillaume Lepecq and James Shepherd-Barron
October 14, 2020
Since the beginning of the pandemic, a steady flow of disinformation has distorted the role cash may play in spreading Covid-19. Now, Australia’s national science agency has published a controversial study suggesting that the virus could survive up to 28 days on banknotes in strict laboratory conditions. However, the study’s lead author, confusingly, is minimizing the infection risk presented in his own work.
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Following the Money - The Future of Cash
Michael G. Malloy
September 04, 2020
With the coronavirus pandemic moving past the six-month mark, one of the first notable side effects was a reduction in the use of physical greenbacks. The cash-out had several drivers: Most retail stores were closed or saw their operations greatly reduced, virtually all bars and restaurants that remained open could provide takeout service only, almost everyone who was able to began working from home, and online shopping from Amazon and other home-delivery options boomed.
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Ethiopia's Cashless Society: Radical or Reckless
James Shepherd-Barron
July 17, 2020
For countries emerging from conflict like Ethiopia, digital payment systems are a tempting way to extend control over the people. Do Ethiopians want their government to have complete and absolute control over every financial transaction they make or would they prefer to retain the financial resilience, privacy, freedom from exploitation, and protection from poor governance which cash offers them?
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