Self-study
In recent decades, government efforts to fight counterfeiting have been extremely successful, especially efforts to remove counterfeit bills from circulation. ███ ██████████████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ███████ ███████████ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ████ ██████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
How can the government’s efforts to remove counterfeit bills from circulation be extremely successful while counterfeiters are easily passing counterfeit bills to merchants and banks?
Objective
The right answer will explain how successful government removal of counterfeit bills from circulation does not necessarily (and, in this case, largely does not) preclude counterfeiters from passing their bills to merchants and banks.
3.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
Government information campaigns ████ █████ █████████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ██ ██████ ███████████ █████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ █████
This does the opposite of what we need. If counterfeit detection campaigns are more effective than ever, we would expect it to be more difficult for counterfeiters to pass their bills to banks and merchants.
b
Governments are continually ██████████ ███ ████████ ███████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ █████████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████████
This does the opposite of what we need. New and complex currency designs would likely make it harder for counterfeiters to pass their bills off as real, but we know that they’re having an easy time doing so. We want to know how.
c
Counterfeiters are generally ███████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ████ █████
This doesn’t matter to us. Whether or not counterfeiters are aware of the percentage of fake bills in circulation, they are passing off their bills easily. We want to know how.
d
Government success in ████████ ███████████ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ ██████ █████████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ██ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██████
This gives an explanation of how counterfeiters are able to pass off their bills while government counterfeit bill removal programs are successful: merchants and bank tellers, calmed by the government’s success, are being less careful with the bills they accept.
e
Governments are spending ██████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███████████ █████ ████ ████████████
This doesn’t matter to us. Increased government spending might contribute to the success of the removal project, but we don’t care why the project is successful. That doesn’t help us understand how counterfeiters are easily passing their bills to merchants and banks.