Mainstream News

New $100 bill costs 60% more to produce

"The C-note just got a colorful makeover — and a heftier price tag. The revamped $100 bill costs 12.5 cents to produce — a 60% increase over the 7.8 cents it cost to print the older version of the bill. The government has printed 3.5 billion of the new $100 bills, which it began delivering to financial institutions Tuesday. How soon customers will see the new bills depends on their distance from a regional Fed office, demand, and a few other factors. Among the reasons it’s more expensive than the older currency: Its new security features, which help prevent counterfeiting." Continue reading →

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MasterCard joining push for fingerprint ID standard

"MasterCard is joining the FIDO Alliance, signaling that the payment network is getting interested in using fingerprints and other biometric data to identify people for online payments. MasterCard will be the first major payment network to join FIDO. The Alliance is developing an open industry standard for biometric data such as fingerprints to be used for identification online. The goal is to replace clunky passwords and take friction out of logging on and purchasing using mobile devices. Google is part of the Alliance, and devices running Google's Android operating system will have fingerprint sensors by next year." Continue reading →

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Families hoard cash 5 yrs after crisis

"An Associated Press analysis of households in the 10 biggest economies shows that families continue to spend cautiously and have pulled hundreds of billions of dollars out of stocks, cut borrowing for the first time in decades and poured money into savings and bonds that offer puny interest payments, often too low to keep up with inflation. A flight to safety on such a global scale is unprecedented since the end of World War II. The growth of cash is remarkable because millions more were unemployed, wages grew slowly and people diverted billions to pay down their debts. They also poured money into bank accounts knowing they would earn little interest on their deposits." Continue reading →

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The Invisible Plumbing Of Our Economy

"It turns out the money collected on Kickstarter is handled by Amazon. Great, we figure: This is the company that will sell you anything on the planet and get it you you the next day. And what we need in this case isn't even a thing, really. We just need Amazon's bank to send money electronically to a checking account at Chase bank. It's just information traveling over wires. How long could it take: A minute? An hour? It took five days. On today's show: Why the invisible pipes that move money around America are so slow. (And why the ones in England are so much faster.)" Continue reading →

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Americans Abroad Stranded as US Check Clearance Blocked

"U.S. citizens staying in Israel have discovered this week that they are no longer able to get Israeli shekels in exchange for their checks which are drawn to U.S. banks. Until this week, Israeli foreign exchange places would accept U.S. checks, at least from their regular customers, and would pay them out for a fee of 1 percent of their value. But this is no ,longer the case. 'The problem is with the check clearance process,” a Jerusalem money changer told The Jewish Press. 'No one outside the U.S. is able to do check clearance. It’s an international problem, it’s not a problem only in Israel.' American banks are not processing for clearance any checks coming from outside the U.S." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin billionaires

&"Since graduating in mechanical engineering this June, Sanket Shah hasn't bothered hunting for a job. But that hasn't thrown a spanner in his lifestyle. The secret to Sanket's self-sustenance lies in Bitcoins. The Reserve Bank of India has not yet formulated regulations to govern trading or profits generated from Bitcoins. An RBI spokesperson told Mirror over email that the RBI doesn't consider Bitcoin legal tender and, therefore 'trading in Bitcoin is not legal. Obviously, there cannot be regulations from RBI for an illegal activity. People who use it, do so at their own risk and responsibility.'" Continue reading →

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Credit card firm cuts off nation’s No. 1 gun store — for selling guns

"A subsidiary of Visa, a key Obama campaign donor, that specializes in credit card transactions has abruptly stopped servicing the nation’s largest gun store after four years because the store sells guns, a fact the owners never hid. Hyatt Gun Shop of Charlotte, N.C., told Secrets that the subsidiary, Authorize.net/CyberSource, simply sent an email to owner Larry Hyatt to announce that it was suddenly breaking off the business relationship. The reason: 'The sale of firearms or any similar product.' The brushoff of Hyatt's business has sparked a national boycott effort against Authorize.net and parent company CyberSource." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCredit card firm cuts off nation’s No. 1 gun store — for selling guns

Obama names campaign donor, Goldman exec as ambassador to Canada

"US President Barack Obama named a Goldman Sachs executive and large campaign contributor as ambassador to Canada on Thursday amid potential rifts between the allies over the Keystone pipeline. Bruce Heyman, managing director for private wealth management at the investment bank, lives in Obama’s base of Chicago and is a so-called 'bundler' who raised funds for the president’s campaigns. Like previous presidents, Obama has regularly named prominent fundraisers to diplomatic posts, seen as one of the top rewards doled out to campaign supporters." Continue reading →

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New Orleans Police Department To Wear Cameras

"The 'body-worn cameras' are not mandated under a federal consent decree governing NOPD reforms that Mayor Mitch Landrieu signed last year with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Serpas said the body cameras are a major step that other police agencies across the country have embraced, both to protect the public and to forestall false complaints against officers. 'Imagine a day in the city of New Orleans, in the not too distant future, where every single time we pull over a car, we ask somebody who they are or what they’re doing, that that entire incident is audiotaped and videotaped,' Serpas said. 'We’re very excited about it. It’s coming.'" Continue reading →

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Texas lawman sentenced to 1 year prison for protecting drug smugglers

"A Houston-based federal judge Monday ordered a former Starr County lawman to spend a year in prison after he admitted to taking money from drug traffickers in exchange for police information. Ramirez was arrested on March 12. He pleaded guilty a month after to a violation of the Hobbs Act, which deals with public servants taking bribes. According to court records, from January 2006 to September 2008, Ramirez accepted about $30,000 from drug traffickers in exchange for the location of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers. Before his arrest, Ramirez was in charge of the jail division for the Starr County Sheriff’s Office." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTexas lawman sentenced to 1 year prison for protecting drug smugglers