The ever resourceful MacGyver had nothing on ladies who lunch.

Well-heeled women who meet for long lunches — often for a good cause, often for a nice pause – simply have more ingenuity than the late 1980s action-adventure TV star. Take a case in point from the Great Financial Crisis: Their wallets stripped unceremoniously by their husbands of their credit (cards), armies of determined women descended upon Needless Markup with something more powerful than a piece of plastic. Back in the day, unbeknownst to their hapless husbands, there was no need to carry a physical card to get the day’s shopping done. Zip, zap, charge that! And away they fled, packed with fancy furs and frocks, teetering under the weight of designer bags and baubles. The destination? But of course, the high end consignment shop that paid a premium for NWT, as in new with tags, in cold, hard cash.

These circa 2009 wives followed generations of women who had fashioned ingenious ways to maintain their lifestyles regardless of where the business cycle may have been. The secret ingredient throughout the ages has always been cash – actual currency whose circulation is now at risk. It’s safe to say that the drug lords and other money laundering sorts will have their own lobbyists strong- arming politicians to shelter the means to their ends. But it’s the Ladies the brilliant economists should fear most.

The past few months of heated debate about the efficacy of negative interests has predictably led to talk of banishing currency as we know it. Which has led to a chorus of livid Ladies’ replying: “over our dead bodies!”

A bit of history here. The origins of wives who stealthily siphon money from their spouses in one form or another is technically an unknown. What can be posited is that Romans preferred cash over credit transactions. After the fall of Rome, banking in Europe went into a 700-year long hiatus and would not enjoy a renaissance until Henry II levied a tax to raise the vast sums required to finance the crusades.

Suffice it to say the fall of Rome was a traumatic event for the average Italian housewife. Perhaps it was then that the tradition of a cash society extended to the advent of mama’s mad money. Why, the writer of this commentary herself was schooled in the fiscal fine art of establishing a cash stash by her Nona from Naples.