money

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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‘Dollar valueless, about to crash’ – World Bank whistleblower

"The US government shutdown - a temporary ailment or a symptom of a grave disease? Are the Republicans right in their move to block Obamacare spending? Who gains from the shutdown turmoil? Do the politicians care about their citizens? Our guest comes from the very heart of the banking system: Karen Hudes was World Bank lawyer when she blew the whistle on major corruption cases in the system and was fired as a result." 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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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 →

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Life Takes Visa—Except If You Want to Buy Pot

"Because of regulations that bar banks from doing business with drug traffickers, many financial institutions refuse to open accounts for dispensaries or give them small-business loans. The same goes for major credit-card companies like Visa and MasterCard. Merchant service providers—the middlemen between retailers and credit-card companies who process customers’ payments—are also reluctant to run afoul of the federal government, so most won’t accept payments from dispensaries. These restrictions force dispensaries to operate as cash-only businesses. Without a bank account, dispensary owners can’t deposit their money in a secure place or write checks to their landlords." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLife Takes Visa—Except If You Want to Buy Pot

Woman sues officers for seizing $31,000 cash from real estate sale

"The suit said Dutton was traveling from Azle to Amarillo to visit a friend when Fry pulled her over for a suspected speeding violation. Fry claimed he smelled marijuana in the vehicle and asked to search it, but Dutton refused. Dutton told the officers that the money they found inside the vehicle, still wrapped in bank wrappings, was the proceeds from a recent real estate transaction. Later, Jolly arrived with a drug dog that alerted on Fry’s vehicle and the officers seized more than $31,000 in cash from the pickup, the suit said. In January, District Attorney Luke Inman’s office refused to accept charges in the case." Continue reading →

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Facebook Must Face Gambit Suit Over Social Game Currency

"Facebook Inc. (FB), owner of the world’s most popular social network, must face a lawsuit that accuses the company of breaking antitrust laws in the virtual-currency market. Kickflip Inc., which does business as Gambit, sued in October 2012, saying Facebook destroyed competition for virtual currency services and payment processing when it began offering services of its own in 2009. Facebook sought to get the suit dismissed, arguing that Kickflip failed to allege an injury. U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark in Wilmington, Delaware, today rejected that request." Continue reading →

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Cashless trend is redefining money, and a central bank’s role as printer

"Throughout the world, central banks have woken up to the fact that their wholesale interbank clearing and settlement systems can be bypassed by mobile-to-mobile payments. Indeed, who will get the seigniorage, or the right to interest on the monetary creation, which traditionally has belonged to the state and been delegated to the central bank? Of course, we used to believe that central banks could only print money when it is backed by gold or promises to pay by the government. Today, advanced central banks are printing money faster than ever." Continue reading →

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