Author Archives: admin

xxx In fact, some state and local governments are forcing businesses like restaurants and retail shops to continue accepting cash — concerned that cashless businesses effectively discriminate against consumers who do not have bank accounts or credit cards. New York City will require most stores and restaurants to accept cash as of Nov. 19, joiningContinue reading “Who Gets Hurt When the World Stops Using Cash – The New York Times”

xxx Deference to efficient market theory and “consumer choice” has created a regulatory system that largely places responsibility — absent the most egregious abuse — on the individual consumer. In a new report, we argue that what is needed is a different regulatory approach that ties financial-services providers’ profit to customers’ financial health. In short,Continue reading “It’s Time to Tie Bank Profits to Customers’ Financial Health”

xxx performance management is frequently conflated with strategy—producing all sorts of unwelcome consequences. The problem is that business metrics are inherently imperfect; most are used to quantify an intangible goal. Even earnings, the most common measure, represents an abstract concept. As the authors say, “Your performance management system is full of metrics that are flawedContinue reading “The Tyranny of Numbers”

xxx Venezuela might soon mandate collecting taxes in Petro, the state’s digital currency, as the Bolivarian Council of Mayors have signed the “National Tax Harmonization Agreement.” From Venezuela Moving to Accept Taxes in State-Issued Crypto: xxx

xxx Here, we consider an attack in which an adversary attempts to manipulate the behavior of energy consumers by sending fake discount notifications encouraging them to shift their consumption into the peak-demand period. Using Greater London as a case study, we show that such disinformation can indeed lead to unwitting consumers synchronizing their energy-usage patterns,Continue reading “How weaponizing disinformation can bring down a city’s power grid”

xxx Mr Koning has an intriguing theory as to why this might be so: he suspects that, with so many shops and restaurants closed as a result of the lockdown, crooks have fewer ways of laundering their ill-gotten money so must hold on to it. From Daily chart – Why cash has been piling upContinue reading “Daily chart – Why cash has been piling up during the pandemic | Graphic detail | The Economist”

I’m fascinated by stories about what is “real” and what is “fake” and I’m also interested in stories about valid and bogus credentials such as academic qualifications (and being English, I have a particular obsession with stories about fake dentists).  But the Court of Appeal has now reversed this decision, arguing that Andrewes had givenContinue reading “Questions raised after former builder used fake CVs to become an NHS boss and make £1million | Daily Mail Online”

xxx The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is collaborating with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on building and testing a “hypothetical central bank digital currency”. The two- to three-year project will begin by developing a CBDC for “wide-scale, general purpose use”, the Boston Fed says. From Boston Fed and MIT collaborate on digital currency researchContinue reading “Boston Fed and MIT collaborate on digital currency research – Central Banking”

xxx “In times of crisis like the one we are jumping into, the main issue is lack of liquidity, even when there is work to be done, people to do it, and demand for it,” says Paolo Dini, an associate professorial research fellow at the London School of Economics and one of the world’s foremostContinue reading “A Depression-Era Idea Gets a New Look: Local Money – Bloomberg”

The pandemic has revised interest in a topic that has surfaced repeatedly over the years, and that is the issue of local and complementary currencies. In the UK, the Bristol Pound, the Brixton Pound, the Lewes Pound and many other experiments have sprung up and (just as they are elsewhere) to try to stimulate andContinue reading “FORBES City cash”