Demonetisation: Evaluating the critics

Most claims against it are untenable; note ban is more than a one-time step jump

Last week has seen a contentious debate on demonetisation replay itself. Predictably, critics have gone on to make several untenable claims. The present article challenges three of them. 

Claim 1: With nearly all of the high-denomination notes returned to the banking system, the primary objective of demonetisation — extinguishing unaccounted cash — has been wholly defeated.

This claim is false on two counts.  First, the primary objective of demonetisation was combating corruption, not extinguishing unaccounted cash. The latter was seen as the mechanism through which demonetisation would attack corruption. Second, demonetisation did successfully attack corruption, though not by extinguishing unaccounted cash as