Touchscreen keyboard by bassboybg. Credit Card Swipe by everythingsounds. Kira Bindrim: A few months ago, I saw a funny thing on the subway. It was my first time taking the train since the pandemic started. As soon as I sat down, a musician got on and started to play. This guy was good, like really good. So when he started to come around and collect tips, I pulled out my wallet hoping I had a few bucks on me. All I had to do was scan a QR code on his phone with my phone and I could donate a tip using digital payments app Venmo.
That might sound like a lot of legwork for a subway song. People all over the world are using credit cards and digital payments more and more often, even for tiny transactions. For the first time since paper money was invented over 1, years ago, a future without cash actually seems possible. And the pandemic only brought that future closer. But paper currency is not going down without a fight. Even as digital payments increase, there are more coins and bills in use than ever before. Because nothing, not even cryptocurrency, is as universal, foolproof, and anonymous as cash.
And that is why it might be worth protecting. This is the Quartz Obsession, a podcast that explores the fascinating backstories behind everyday ideas, and what they tell us about the global economy. Today: cash, and what we really lose in a world without it.
John is based in London. How is London today, John? Where in the city are you? John Detrixhe: London is lovely. John Detrixhe: Almost never.
I have a couple of bills in my wallet that are just kicking around. And the only reason is because I look inside my wallet so infrequently. Kira Bindrim: First of all, I like the idea that you just have the same three bills that have just been in your wallet for years collecting dust. Kira Bindrim: And I guess my first question for you is: Is cash dead? Is it a senior citizen living out its days in glory?
Where is cash right now? How much is it being used around the world? John Detrixhe: So cash is this amazing paradox. It is simultaneously losing popularity, and at the same time. People are paying for things much less often with cash. Kira Bindrim: And how does the use of cash or the prevalence of cash vary depending where you are in the world?
How do different countries treat this? John Detrixhe: Japan is a good example. And there are a couple of reasons why cash is still popular in Japan. Will be with you until I turn toes up and am looking forward to the ride… Good luck to you, and may the good Lord take a liking to you. Hey, Larry — thank you for joining us as a lifetime member! And thanks for the kind words as well.
I always want to help my subscribers succeed, and knowing my research has made a difference really does motivate me to keep putting in the long hours. They let me sleep well at night and tackle every day with enthusiasm.
And I can tell you that my team and I work countless hours to make sure that we are putting out high-quality investment research in this space. I regularly put in 70—80 hours every week researching, writing, traveling, and filming. All that effort is to make sure that my subscribers have the opportunity to beat the markets and hedge funds every year.
If any other readers would like to learn more about joining us with a lifetime membership, you can go right here for the details. If you have a question for a future mailbag, you can send it to me right here. Send your thoughts to [email protected]. Bleeding Edge. AR technology is improving many lives… Should we keep some cash under the mattress? This is important because it shows us that we are much closer to herd immunity than most think.
With that good news, I wish everyone a great weekend. And Mojo Vision is starting with the goal of helping those with low vision. The company is also planning to offer its contact lenses with prescriptions. What to do about paper money… Next, a reader wants to know more about the future of cash: My question: With the deflating dollar and the government going into digital currency, what will happen to paper money??
Here are a few ideas: We can finance or refinance our primary residence with a fixed year loan at the lowest possible rate. These are just a few general suggestions for readers to consider. I believe that there is a universal sense of justice that has guided me well over the years. Have a good weekend. Want more stories like this one?
Previous Article. Next Article. University of Edinburgh chair of design informatics Professor Chris Speed believes the world is moving away from transaction-based currencies to contract-based ones.
With a little bit of creativity you can actually begin to disempower the state and central banks. If they move too fast, they could trigger a run on conventional banks.
If they leave it too late, fiat money could have been supplanted. That may seem pretty whacky, and also potentially dangerous. They will obviously need to trust the bots but the question is — how will regulation develop to ensure that people are protected? The platform would then effectively become a mass-market retailer, dominating the sourcing and supply of the relevant products at as low a cost as possible.
He also predicted consumers will become less obsessed with ownership, for example of cars — as the economy will move to a pay-as-you-go, or subscription-based model. But scale to what purpose? Money has always been tied to authority; the ancient Greek word for coin, nomos , is linked to its word for law.
Authorities determine the rules for money, but those rules vary by culture: in the United States, for example, money in a democracy was a major political issue throughout the nineteenth century. China is not interested in such arguments.
It wants, first, to ensure domestic financial stability; second, to use fintech to bolster its economic competitiveness; third, to create international means of payments and reserves management independent of the US dollar; and fourth, to control its population.
In some respects we are back among earlier dynasties that saw paper banknotes as a technological edge both in supporting a growing economy as well as a way to finance military needs. It would take Europeans until the late seventeenth century to experiment with paper money, with a few disasters until the Bank of England founded in , combined with a newly credible monetary link to gold, wove a sensible path as a partnership between the Crown and private City interests.
0コメント