A Risky Exchange in Venezuela

The most common denomination of Venezuela's currency -- the 100-bolivar banknote -- soon will not be worth the paper it is printed on. President Nicolas Maduro has announced that the country will phase out the note, its highest denomination, and introduce a 500-bolivar note as the country’s new lowest-denomination bill. Other bills with values up to 20,000 bolivars will be introduced later this month. The decision to eliminate the 100-bolivar banknote, which in November accounted for almost 80 percent of the bills in circulation, makes sense given Venezuela’s rampant inflation and the fact that high-denomination bills have made up a growing share of the currency used in the country. But the real risk the switch creates for the Venezuelan government lies in the way that it will be administered....