Sorry Ben Franklin

In a recent op-ed piece for the Providence Journal, real estate broker and author David Gorman called for the elimination of the $100 bill. He argues that the underground economy, run by "drug dealers, criminals, terrorists, illegal immigrants, smugglers, human traffickers, tax evaders and corrupt government employees" all exploit the cash economy by using predominately $100 bills. Gorman also describes the Iranian and North Korean governments' success at counterfeiting 100 dollar "supernotes" - literally getting money for nothing (and probably their chicks for free).

Consider it "Gorman's Law" to fighting crime and terrorism:

"By simply demonetizing the $100 bill, we can do more to undermine terrorist and other criminal activity without any expense to the taxpayer and no harm or loss of life to law enforcement and our troops. In fact, it would be a peaceful and nonviolent method for preventing crime, drugs and terrorism and will assist law enforcement in their crime-solving efforts."

It is definitely an interesting theory – I can't get enough of these "freakonomics" approaches to the world that are so en vogue at the moment. Only question is, what are the rappers going to throw around in their music videos now? Somehow, I don't think stacks of one dollar bills will have the same effect.