Tag: banking
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The Stimulus Fades, But Interest Rates Stay Low
The ongoing draw down of the Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing plan is in full swing, with another $10 billion slashed from the buyout budget every couple of months. According to predictions, that should cause interest rates to jump. But despite the fading of the Fed’s artificial manipulation, those rates are hovering close to the historically…
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Successful Investors Use Their Heads
It’s the stuff of happy endings everywhere: a gut feeling a tug at the heart or an intuition opens doors to just the right thing. That can be true in money matters, too – but financial experts say that the best investing outcomes are those driven by cool, collected logic: objective, not subjective, thinking. Subjective…
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The US: The Last Superpower Standing?
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Data Theft Crosses All Borders
The Digital Age has all but erased many of the world’s conventional borders. While that’s undeniably useful for commerce and communication, it’s also made cybercrime a household word, as thousands of American Express cardholders in California found out this spring. Back in March 2014, the American Express Company revealed that data hackers had stolen the…
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Over-Regulation Strangles Business Innovation
It’s only hummus – that chickpea and tahini spread gaining popularity in grocery stores around the country. But a new battle over what exactly constitutes real hummus offers a sobering lesson about the way small businesses and entrepreneurs can be crushed by regulations pushed by their larger competitors. The story is simple. Sabra, makers of…
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The MintChip: Mainstream Banking Tries to Get Digital
It sounds like a new kind of snack: the MintChip. But this product of the Royal Canadian Mint represents a new stage in the evolution of digital currency: digital money created and controlled by a state bank. And its demise in April 2014 serves as a cautionary tale about the efforts of governments and traditional…
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The Dollar’s Stil a Mainstay of World Currency
The venerable American dollar has taken a beating of sorts in recent months, facing fluctuating values in world markets and incursions from digital alternatives like the Bitcoin. But even with its ups and downs, the dollar’s still king in a world hungry for currency that’s stable, solid and backed by a secure government. As a…
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Tax ID Theft: Tis the Season
It’s nearly tax day, and whether you’ve filed long ago and are awaiting a refund or scrambling to make the midnight April 15 deadline, you might find that your refund never appears – or that your bank accounts are suddenly empty. Tax ID theft is up 66 percent from 2010, and fraud officials expect it…
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Does the Ukraine Crisis Affect US Money Matters?
As Russian troops seized control half a world away in Ukraine, and international tensions began to rise, we’ve been uncomfortably reminded that in an interlinked global economy, what happens across the globe can also affect conditions in our own backyard. Because the US is massively indebted to foreign countries, money market watchers worry that the…
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Who’s Really Paying For Bank Settlements?
Since 2010 the nation’s biggest banks have paid out billions in settlements over fraud, misrepresentation and downright illegal banking practices. But lawsuit after lawsuit continues to catch the megabanks red handed, with no apparent damage done by those multimillion-dollar payouts. Where do the big banks get their money? From the very government that’s prosecuting them.…