ANOTHER OF THE MOST WELCOME CHANGES THE PANDEMIC COULD FORCE:

Stores are shuttering all over the United States, and many of those still open are balking at cash. Shoppers are switching orders to Amazon and Walmart.com. Many restaurants that have stayed open won't take cash, and operate without any contact at all, requiring customers to pay first online.

What once seemed like the oldest, most reliable way of paying now seems fraught: A physical object changing hands, bringing people closer than 6 feet, covered in who knows what.

"Do I want to grab the thing that you were just holding in your hand? No," says Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff, who has advocated for a less-cash society, and predicts the crisis "is absolutely going to drive people to prefer credit and debit to cash."

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