The Americans have the Stealth Bombers, which are ‘undetectable,’ but in Spain we have the 500-euro note, which is completely invisible. The Minister for the Economy, Luis De Guindos, claims that he has never seen one, for example.

The 500-euro note earnt the nickname in Spain of ‘Bin Laden,’ precisely because nobody knew where they were hiding and had consequently never seen one. The reason that the 500-euro note is so scarce is that they are the prime vehicle for moving black money, which is why they could soon be phased out in Spain.

A proposal for the withdrawal from circulation of 500-euro notes in Spain came from the left wing; the PSOE and IU. They considered that this would force black money out into the open. But of course, this would only work if the ban is taken up by the rest of Europe.

When questioned about the idea, the Minister of the Economy said that he was in favour of such a move, but then surprised everybody by saying that he had never seen one nor knew what they looked like. Met by certain skepticism from the interviewer, he explained that ‘Ministers of the Economy’ are a strange breed. Indeed.

Anyway, the idea, you see, is that if the 500-euro note is withdrawn from the Euro currency, then people that hold them will have to cash them in for smaller-denomination notes, but to do this, they would have to justify where they came from; i.e. that they are not part of undeclared funds.

Critics of the idea point out that even if in the Eurozone anybody handing over a note of his size would be forced to give an explanation about where it came from, people doing so elsewhere in the world would not have such a problem.

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(News: Spain)