A library of snippets
xxx
“Prisoners are so unhappy with the quality and quantity of prison food that they receive that they have begun relying on ramen noodles — a cheap, durable food product — as a form of money in the underground economy,” he said. “Because it is cheap, tasty, and rich in calories, ramen has become so valuable that it is used to exchange for other goods.”
From: Ramen noodles supplanting cigarettes as curre | EurekAlert!.
xxx
Hanhui Guan Nuno Palma Meng Wu / 23 Mar 2024
Based on historical narratives, we divide the Yuan’s monetary regimes into three stages: full silver convertibility period (1260−75), nominal silver convertibility period (1276−309), and fiat standard (1310−68). During the first of these, the issuance of paper money was backed by a quantity of silver at a fixed exchange rate. Throughout the nominal silver standard, the new issuance was no longer fully backed by reserves and was only convertible when the local exchange bureau had silver. When the Yuan government began to print the third paper money, zhidachao, in 1310, silver did not play the reserve role, and thus, the monetary system changed to de jure fiat money after 1310
From: The rise and fall of paper money in Yuan China, 1260–1368 | CEPR.
xxx
Noelle Acheson provides an interesting case study from Germany looking at LBBW. This is the country’s largest “landesbank”, a type of savings institution reknowned for being among the most conservative financial institutions in existence. Jürgen Harengel, COO of the Corporate Bank at LBBW, recently said that they see increasing demand for digital assets from their corporate customers. Now, in contrast to the US, Germany’s financial industry is dominated by banks rather than by markets and, as Noelle points out, German banks are more deeply embedded in corporate activity than are their US counterparts.
LBBW is not so much interested in “crypto” for speculative trading as it is in utility, and what that can do for its corporate clients. In 2022, LBBW was one of the first to issue digital securities on Deutsche Börse’s D7 post-trade platform this year it will be one of the first participants in the ECB’s wholesale DLT trial. As LBBW is actively exploring enterprise distributed ledgers applications it is seeing the need for some kind of token management services to allow for “on chain” settlement and is therefore preparting for a business ecosystrem where value is “more about function than form, and liquidity matters more than price appreciation”. Noelle concludes, and I could not agree more, that future digital-first markets about more efficient distribution, accountability and flexibility and it is interesting see such institutions emerging.
JP Koning says that he is not a fan of mandatory investor education classes as envisaged by former chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Sheila Bair, who suggested that early financial education might be a way to stop future FTX-style disasters. I have to say that I am sceptical that any strategy that relies on consumer education to improve financial health is doomed. Surely a much better way to protect retail investors is to get bots to do the investing for them.
xxx
Harries called Qian — referred to in court by a false name, Yadi Zhang — a “supervillain” and told the jury she was a “master of deception” who indulged in “skilful manipulation”.
From: Accused crypto laundering mastermind dreamt of being a Buddhist goddess.
xxx
xxx
Wen eventually provided the correct blockchain address to Liffen. But the blockchain evidence didn’t match Zhang’s story. Mined bitcoin would come newly minted from just a few sources, but Zhang’s bitcoin had come from hundreds of sources, including crypto exchanges.
From: The mystery of the Hampstead mansion and the £1.4bn bitcoin haul.
xxx
The latest data from ING suggests that the dollar did not market share in global transactions last year. The euro, for comparison, did lose some ground and this led to rebalancing in favour of a number of Asian currencies. These included the Yuan, which remains challenged as an alternative reserve currency, but is certainly advancing as a transactional option.
xxx
The global data regarding the FX structure of transactions is also suggesting that the US dollar didn’t lose ground in 2023. Here the international SWIFT system with its over 11,000 participants and over $400bn in daily transaction volume and monthly disclosures remains the primary data source. One important caveat for the 2023 data is that there has been a change in methodology which led to the exclusion of a large portion of non-transaction financial messages done by European central banks. This has led to a material drop in the previously inflated share of the euro in transactions. Therefore, both the 14ppt decline in the EUR share to the 22-23% level, the 6ppt increase in the share of USD to 46-47%, and the increase in the shares of ‘other currencies’ should be taken with a pinch of salt. Nevertheless, the overall picture suggest that the US dollar at least didn’t lose its dominant position in transactions, in line with the decade-long trend.
From: Global de-dollarisation takes a pause, embattled euro gives room for Asian FX | articles | ING Think.
xxx
Another general observation from the SWIFT data, is that despite the stable and high role of the US dollar, diversification is taking place at the regional level and is focused primarily on the Asian currencies. RMB has gained the most in 2023, showing a 2ppt (or 1.3ppt net of the effect of changed methodology) increase in the share to 4.0% in the last year. Meanwhile, the Chinese yuan is not the only winner: Singapore dollar gained 1ppt (0.7ppt net of the methodology shift), while JPY’s share increased 1ppt (or by 0.3ppt net of the shift). The change in other major currencies, including GBP, CHF, CAD, AUD adjusted for the changed methodology was, in our estimates, negative.
xxx
For consumers, the changes could be a decent deal. By the CFPB’s calculation, late fees cost American families $14 billion a year, and it says the rule will save people some $10 billion annually. The swipe-fee cap will save merchants some money for a while, which could, in theory, be passed on to their customers, though it’s unclear how much that will happen in practice.
From: Credit Card Companies Are About to Invent New Fees for Consumers.
xxx
xxx
Retailers have found a few ways around it, so consumers aren’t devoid of options on their rest day. Supermarket chain Tegut, for instance, has run automated stores without any human workers for the past four years.
But now, even those won’t open after a German court upheld a ban impacting Tegut’s stores—even those without human staff—forcing them to remain closed on Sundays. In December, it ruled that Tegut’s 40 automated shops will not be excluded from the Sunday rest law, or Sonntagsruhe, despite the absence of workers.
A member of Tegut’s management board, Thomas Stäb, described the move as “entirely grotesque” in an interview with the Financial Times, since the shops were more like “walk-in vending machines” than actual supermarkets. Business on Sundays also contributed to up to 30% of the shops’ weekly sales as few establishments are typically running.
From: German chain Tegut under pressure from law closing businesses on Sundays | Fortune Europe.
Automated supermarkets aren’t exacty new.
xxx
We’re in Memphis Tennessee, 1948, at the Keedoozle store, a vending machine concept developed by the man behind Piggly Wiggly, Clarence Saunders, who had patented the concept of the “Self-Serving Store” in 1917.
In the 1930s, Clarence Saunders, founder of the Memphis, Tennessee-based Piggly Wiggly supermarket chain, introduced the “Keedoozle.” Customers viewed products behind glass-enclosed display cabinets, then inserted a key into a corresponding keyhole near the display cabinet to identify the product they wanted, according to Wikipedia. Stock personnel then put the selected items onto conveyor belts that took the products to the cashier for checkout. The system, which was not fully automatic, proved mechanically unreliable.
The idea of a vending machine version of supermarket has been tried in the UK as well. I can remember working on a project for one of the major supermarket chains here many years ago. The project was to do with communications and although I can’t remember exactly what it was I was doing, I know it involved looking at different types of stores to try to work out the bandwidth requirements of the town centre mini stores, the edge of town stores and the out of town macro stores.
At that time one of the stores had been fitted with an experimental vending machine which carried a limited number of goods (I think from memory it was 300 lines but I may be wrong) that could be sold outside stores hours. I can’t remember where it was exactly but it was somewhere up near Manchester I think. I do remember that I was dispatched to visit the store very early in the morning to talk to the manager and some of the employees before the store opened for business. I done this at a couple of other stores, but this one was particularly interesting because of the vending machine.
As a junior deputy assistant under consultant I took my pencil and notepad and went off to see the woman who was in charge of the vending machine. I don’t remember anythign about the communications requirements, other than that it was fitted with a (then new) chip and PIN reader that was desgined for external use. I do, however, remember the two key things that I learned about this fascinating experiment in automated shopping. I asked her what the best selling items in the vending machine (just out of curioisty as it had nothing to do with the bandwidth requirements) and she told me that the two top items were milk and condoms. When I commented, somewhat naïvely, that I didn’t understand the connection between the two she told me it was because of the nursing accomodation near the supermarket. And I remember, pencil poised, what the main lesson learned from the vending machine experiment had been and she told me “you have to sellotape the egg boxes shut”. So much for high technology.
Snippings