Free Republic

They say that cash is king, but newer and more convenient payment methods are gunning for the crown. These days, more and more countries are adopting cashless payments, which includes credit card purchases, contactless payments, mobile banking apps and digital options like Apple Pay. To see which countries were adopting cashless the quickest, Forex, a global travel site, conducted a study comparing 20 of the world’s largest economies. In the report, Canada was singled out as the country most embracing cashless technology, which could be attributed to its population changing attitudes that began several years ago. A recent survey in...

When Hurricane Maria knocked out power in Puerto Rico, residents there realized they were going to need physical cash — and a lot of it. Bloomberg reported yesterday that the Fed was forced to fly a planeload of cash to the Island to help avert disaster: William Dudley, the New York Fed president, put the word out within minutes, and ultimately a jet loaded with an undisclosed amount of cash landed on the stricken island...[Business executive in Puerto Rico] described corporate clients’ urgent requests for hundreds of thousands in cash to meet payrolls, and the challenge of finding enough armored cars to satisfy endless demand at...

Ranking US lawmaker seeks sanctions on 12 Chinese banks over N. Korea WASHINGTON -- A ranking American lawmaker has asked the US government to sanction 12 large Chinese banks as part of efforts to cut off North Korea's access to the international financial system, an informed source said Wednesday. The measures, if implemented, would mark a significant increase in pressure on China to rein in North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. They could also endanger US-China ties. The list, submitted by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), includes the world's largest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Monday charged Deutsche Bank's former head of subprime mortgage trading with civil fraud in connection with conduct dating back to the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Paul Mangione, the former trader, is accused in the complaint of misrepresenting information about the loans underpinning two residential mortgage-backed securities that were sold to investors. The government's case against the former trader, filed in a federal court in Brooklyn, came after the bank in January reached a $7.2 billion settlement in a related case over risky mortgage securities sold to investors.

A federal judge in San Francisco has refused to dismiss a lawsuit accusing Wells Fargo bank of denying loans to immigrants who came to the U.S. as youngsters and have been allowed to remain here. Denial of loans based on citizenship status violates a federal law, passed in 1870, and a California civil rights law, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney said Thursday in rejecting the bank’s attempt to dismiss the proposed nationwide class-action suit. Wells Fargo, according to the suit, has a policy of granting loans only to U.S. citizens or to noncitizens who have become permanent legal residents and...

President Obama never was shy about using his phone and pen to achieve what he could not get from Congress on regulatory matters. But documents revealed last week show the Obama administration may have been willing to get around congressional decisions on spending by using a slush fund of sorts funded by the profits of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two government-sponsored home loan giants. Fannie and Freddie are federally chartered enterprises which buy mortgage loans from banks and bundle them into securities that are sold to investors, thus freeing up capital so that banks can make more home...

In Washington, it’s never about what they tell you it’s about. So take this to the bank: The case of Imran Awan, Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s mysterious Pakistani IT guy, is not about bank fraud. [Snip] Awan and his family cabal of fraudsters had access for years to the e-mails and other electronic files of members of the House’s Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees. It turns out they were accessing members’ computers without their knowledge, transferring files to remote servers, and stealing computer equipment — including hard drives that Awan & Co. smashed to bits of bytes before making tracks. [Snip]...

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, big banks paid tens of billions of dollars to settle state and federal fraud investigations, yet not one top bank executive was prosecuted. One investigator calls it the "immaculate corruption." But buried in recently unsealed documents is a revelation: major bank executives WERE referred to the Justice Department for possibly violating the law. A key whistleblower, Richard Bowen, is asking why none of them was charged. Richard Bowen knew where the figurative bodies were buried at banking giant Citigroup, once the largest company in the world. Richard Bowen: Over 60% of these...

Billions of dollars in student loans may be wiped out for tens of thousands of borrowers in the US because a lender didn't keep track of the paperwork verifying ownership of the loans, according to The New York Times. The National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts, which holds 800,000 private loans and is one of the country's largest owners of private student loans, is at the center of the legal dispute, the Times reported. Borrowers are failing to repay more than $5 billion of the $12 billion in private student loans held by National Collegiate, sending the loans into default. The...

... As relations with the West continue to deteriorate — and the potential for crushing sanctions remains tangible — President Vladimir Putin has begun preparing to release Russia from the crushing grip of the international banking system completely, by moving to a nationalist model based and conducting transactions with allies in gold. In short, Russia has plans to abandon central banks and the dollar — if, indeed, shit hits the fan. Russia isn’t alone — the move away from the much-maligned, Western-centric international banking cartels toward a system less dependent on massive banks comprises a new plan for BRICS nations...

Fed Chair Janet Yellen said Tuesday that banks are "very much stronger" and another financial crisis is unlikely anytime soon. Speaking during an exchange in London with British Academy President Lord Nicholas Stern, the central bank chief said the Fed has learned lessons from the financial crisis and has brought stability to the banking system. Banks last week passed the first round of the Fed's stress tests to see how they would perform under adverse conditions like a 10 percent unemployment rate and turbulence in commercial real estate and corporate debt. "I think the public can see the capital positions...

You wouldn't know it from the mainstream media, but President Donald Trump is not under FBI investigation (repeat: NOT). But you know who is? Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders. Loretta Lynch. In early June, Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, launched a new probe of former Secretary of State Clinton’s attempts to deflect a Bangladesh government corruption investigation of Muhammad Yunus, a Clinton Foundation donor and friend of Hillary and Bill Clinton. "While secretary of state, Hillary Clinton made a personal call to pressure Bangladesh’s prime minister to aid a donor to her husband’s charitable foundation...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is calling for the ouster of 12 board members at Wells Fargo due to the fake accounts scandal that has rocked the bank. In a letter sent Monday to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, the Massachusetts Democrat said the scandal has "revealed severe problems with the bank's risk management practices." Warren said the central bank has the authority under federal statute to remove the members who were on the board as the matter transpired. "We have received the letter and plan to respond," a Fed spokesman told CNBC. In an agreement with multiple authorities last September, Wells...

A new bill seeks to track your money and assets incessantly, will enjoin any business with government ties to act as a de facto arm of DHS, and would steal all of your assets — including Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies — should you fail to report funds when traveling with over $10,000. Under the guise of combating money laundering, Senate Bill 1241, “Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017,” ramps up regulation of digital currency and other autocratic financial controls in an attempt to ensure none of your assets can escape one of the State’s most nefarious, despised...

This is a long article and a dire warning which must be read. Roberts expresses it in stark terms: without the restoration of the Roosevelt-era Glass/Steagal law and the separation of commercial from investment banking, the United States will collapse. Roberts' Article Roberts was Ronald Reagan's Treasury Secretary.

President Donald Trump appears ready to remake the Federal Reserve in an image that will be considerably different than what investors have known for many years. The president is prepared to nominate Randal Quarles and Marvin Goodfriend to two of three vacancies at the central bank, according to multiple press accounts that have not been disputed by the administration. Quarles likely would assume the role vacated by Daniel Tarullo to oversee the nation's banking system. White House officials did not respond to a CNBC request for comment. Should Trump nominate the two men and they receive confirmation, it will represent...

After the latest bombshell, Congressmen and Senators are calling for the Clinton email scandal to be re-opened! Yesterday, the Trump administration quietly released even more of Hillary Clinton's previously-unreleased emails and it includes a bombshell. There is now (concrete evidence) that Hillary Clinton emailed classified information to people outside of the government and asked them to print out a hard copy for her and Bill. This is one of the emails that the Obama administration tried to hide. In it, Hillary Clinton is seen forwarding 2-3 pages worth of classified information to Doug Band. If that name sounds familiar, he...

Can we finally admit that eight years of following the Keynesian coloring-book have not just failed, but failed spectacularly? ___ What do we call a status quo in which "emergency measures" have become permanent props? A failure. The "emergency" responses to the Global Financial Meltdown of 2008-09 are, eight years on, permanent fixtures. Everyone knows what would happen if the deficit spending, money-printing, zero interest rates, shadow banking, asset purchases by central banks and all the rest of the Keynesian Cult's program stopped: the status quo falls apart. Keynesianism Vs The Real World Let’s start by reviewing the core contexts...

Have you noticed that free checking accounts are now nearly nonexistent, and locally owned stores are increasing the $5 minimum charge on debit cards? These are not the result of some financial conspiracy. They are a direct result of Dodd-Frank regulations. After the financial crash of 2008, President Barack Obama decided to increase the role of the federal government in the economy and impose massive new regulations on banks. As one might assume, this hasn’t worked out so well. Included in the over 3,500-page Dodd-Frank bill are rules restricting access to credit for investors and homebuyers, raising lending costs for...

In the land of NIRP refugees and “Reverse Yankees,” who will get crushed? At the end of the week, something special happened, something totally absurd but part of the new normal: the average yield of euro-denominated junk bonds – the riskiest, non-investment-grade corporate bonds – dropped to the lowest level ever: 2.77%. April 26 had marked another propitious date in the annals of the ECB’s negative yield absurdity: the average euro-denominated junk bond yield had dropped below 3% for the first time ever. By comparison, what is considered the most liquid and safe debt, the 10-year US Treasury, carries a...