Free Republic

Foreign Exchange: Thailand's ham-fisted capital controls, announced Tuesday, sought to halt the baht's rise. But all that did was knock $23 billion in value from Thai stocks and rattle world markets. It's not the answer. What it actually shows is that the caretaker military regime, in power since its September coup, isn't quite up to the task of running Thailand's economic powerhouse. Thailand's markets, which have done well this year, don't need new controls. What they really need are the same thing Thailand's people need — more freedom, economic and political. Thailand's government Tuesday told foreign investors they would no...

BANGKOK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Tuesday said part of the government's vaunted 450 billion baht ($13.1 billion) "digital wallet" handout will be distributed in cash, in another change to its flagship populist policy. Details are still being finalised and will be announced in a policy statement to parliament, she added. The digital wallet handout had previously entailed transferring 10,000 baht ($292) in credit to 50 million Thais via a smartphone application to spend in their localities within six months.

The European Central Bank is inviting experts in identification and authentication to contribute to the development of rules for the digital euro. A ‘workstream’ is being set up to establish identification and authentication requirements for the digital currency, with the goal of enabling best-in-class user experience and security. Impact assessments for various existing approaches to identification and authentication will also be carried out. The EU’s planned digital currency is expected to be stored in the EU Digital Identity Wallet, with support for peer-to-peer transactions. The Chair of the Rulebook Development Group is setting up several dedicated workstreams to support the...

Major US banks, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan, and others, will push into the digital wallet space in the second half of this year to take on Apple Pay and PayPal. Early Warning Services LLC (EWS), the bank-owned company that operates the money-transfer service Zelle, will be managing the new digital wallet, according to WSJ. The wallet has yet to be named but will be separate from Zelle and allow shoppers to pay at merchants' online checkouts with linked debit and credit cards. EWS plans to offer the new digital wallet later this year and can handle up...

The European Commission will on Thursday announce plans for a digital identity wallet to allow Europeans to access public and private services, prompted in part by the COVID-19 pandemic which has seen a massive surge in online services. The move also seeks to counter the growing popularity of digital wallets offered by Apple, Alphabet unit Google, Thales and financial institutions which critics say could pose privacy and data protection concerns. The digital identity wallet “can be used anywhere in the EU to identify and authenticate for access to services in the public and private sectors, allowing citizens to control what...

One of the chief benefits of living in a capitalist society is seeing those greedy corporations actually compete for your business.  Every so often, we get to enjoy a true cataclysmic battle between titans of commerce, and the one that’s shaping up between Apple and Walmart is a doozy that could put money in your pocket. In Apple’s corner, we have the Visa and MasterCard associations, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Barclays, and soon a host of other card issuers.  In Walmart’s corner, there’s a line-up of heavy-hitter retailers, like CVS, Rite-Aid, Best Buy, Circle K, Lowe’s,...