Where’s George? and the Velocity of Money

[alex_tabarrok]

Originally posted on April 22, 2010.

An intuitive illustration of the velocity of (cash) money can be found on the website, Where’s George? Where’s George lets users enter the serial number of a bill and in this way track the bill as it circulates around the country.  Here’s a picture of one bill’s travels.  At the time of posting, this particular bill had traveled 7,293 Miles in 2 Yrs, 85 Days, 2 Hrs, 19 Mins at an average of 8.9 Miles per day. More information on when and how this bill was spent and received can be found here (including some slightly risque but potentially amusing notes from one bill receiver.) In a loose sense, Where’s George lets us see the velocity of cash by tracking how quickly cash moves from one person to another but the picture is incomplete since we only track the bill when someone enters its serial number.