According to a new study from the Federal Reserve, the amount of cash in circulation continues to grow in our country, up 42 percent from just five years ago. Most of this is in the form of $100 bills. In the past five years, the amount of one-dollar bills in circulation has gone from 9.3 billion to 10.3 billion, a rise of 11 percent, and the value of $20 bills in circulation has gone from $121.8 billion to $148.9 billion, a rise of 22 percent. But the value of $100 bills has gone from $569.3 billion to $863.1 billion - an increase of more than 50 percent.
This might be an indication of an increase in criminal activity. Cash-only businesses that trade heavily in hundred-dollar bills tend to be illicit ones. But a possibly related factor is that more and more American cash is being held outside the United States. There was $272 billion in U.S. dollars being held abroad in 2007; in 2012, that number has risen to $454.2 billion.
Put those two trends together, and the upshot is that most of the $100 bills are actually outside the United States. Nearly two thirds of all hundreds, or 65 percent, are no longer on American soil.
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