99% Invisible
What happens on the trading floor at the end of the movie Trading Places when Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd get rich and the Duke brothers lose everything?
Showing posts with label Money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Money. Show all posts
The Eddie Murphy Rule
99% Invisible
What happens on the trading floor at the end of the movie Trading Places when Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd get rich and the Duke brothers lose everything?
The World’s First Central Banker Was Sentenced to Death for Printing Too Much Money
Maybe the New York Fed is trying to tell modern bankers something by reminding them of history.
This article appeared on Fed’s website.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
In 1668, Johan Palmstruch, the head of Stockholm Banco, the precursor to the oldest central bank still operating today—the Swedish Riksbank—was charged and sentenced to death.
At the time, Sweden was one of Europe’s great powers, an empire that stretched across Scandinavia into today’s Baltic nations and parts of Germany, Poland and Russia. The country’s principal currency was enormous copper plates, called dalers. The Swedish King deputized Palmstruch to modernize the country’s finances.
Palmstruch issued Europe’s first paper currency (China’s first version had appeared in 1024) which would be backed by the dalers held in the bank. As the dalers piled up, Palmstruch started making loans. But King Gustav died and Sweden’s ruling council decided to strike new copper plates that were worth less than the old ones.
Swedes began lining up at the Banco to claim their old dalers, whose value had suddenly gone up.
But Palmstruch had lent out too much. His solution: Start printing out even more paper that anyone could redeem at will. But the amount of paper money in the market began to vastly outpace the Banco’s actual daler holdings and the bank failed.
Palmstruch was sentenced to death although he was later pardoned.
This article appeared on Fed’s website.
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
In 1668, Johan Palmstruch, the head of Stockholm Banco, the precursor to the oldest central bank still operating today—the Swedish Riksbank—was charged and sentenced to death.
At the time, Sweden was one of Europe’s great powers, an empire that stretched across Scandinavia into today’s Baltic nations and parts of Germany, Poland and Russia. The country’s principal currency was enormous copper plates, called dalers. The Swedish King deputized Palmstruch to modernize the country’s finances.
Palmstruch issued Europe’s first paper currency (China’s first version had appeared in 1024) which would be backed by the dalers held in the bank. As the dalers piled up, Palmstruch started making loans. But King Gustav died and Sweden’s ruling council decided to strike new copper plates that were worth less than the old ones.
Swedes began lining up at the Banco to claim their old dalers, whose value had suddenly gone up.
But Palmstruch had lent out too much. His solution: Start printing out even more paper that anyone could redeem at will. But the amount of paper money in the market began to vastly outpace the Banco’s actual daler holdings and the bank failed.
Palmstruch was sentenced to death although he was later pardoned.
J-Pop & The Economy
Forbes
Chem Chambers
Japan is famous for its J-pop bands, where music and Manga meet. The U.S. and the West for all its Justin Beiberisation and Kardashianification simply can’t match Japan for mixing pure fantasy with crystalline escapism and the unexpected.
The country is a complex culture—steeped in humour and irony. While the youths of Western rock want freedom, the punks anarchy, Japanese youth want growth and employment. This is the vibe this J-pop band is plugging into.
So it has not come as too much of a shock to me to discover the Japanese office of ADVFN—which has a stock market information site based in Tokyo—has discovered a J-pop band that considers the performance of the Nikkei as important as their producers performance at the mixing desk.
Called Machikado Keiki , meaning “the street corner economists of Japan,” and also potentially a play on words meaning, “give them cake.” The band is made up of four pretty women lead by 20-year old University student Sakura Yuki.
Part of their sales pitch is that as the economy gets better, their skirts get shorter.
“So when the Nikkei goes below 9,000 we wear long skirts; when it's between 10 and 11,000 we go medium-length, and miniskirts when it’s 11 to 13,000.”
The four young Abenomics devotees dress in giant glittery bow-ties and denim mini-skirts and hand out fliers in Tokyo’s central Akihabara district. When the Nikkei hit 15,000 the band gave out 1,000 cakes and wore French underwear to celebrate.
Chem Chambers
Japan is famous for its J-pop bands, where music and Manga meet. The U.S. and the West for all its Justin Beiberisation and Kardashianification simply can’t match Japan for mixing pure fantasy with crystalline escapism and the unexpected.
The country is a complex culture—steeped in humour and irony. While the youths of Western rock want freedom, the punks anarchy, Japanese youth want growth and employment. This is the vibe this J-pop band is plugging into.
So it has not come as too much of a shock to me to discover the Japanese office of ADVFN—which has a stock market information site based in Tokyo—has discovered a J-pop band that considers the performance of the Nikkei as important as their producers performance at the mixing desk.
Called Machikado Keiki , meaning “the street corner economists of Japan,” and also potentially a play on words meaning, “give them cake.” The band is made up of four pretty women lead by 20-year old University student Sakura Yuki.
Part of their sales pitch is that as the economy gets better, their skirts get shorter.
“So when the Nikkei goes below 9,000 we wear long skirts; when it's between 10 and 11,000 we go medium-length, and miniskirts when it’s 11 to 13,000.”
The four young Abenomics devotees dress in giant glittery bow-ties and denim mini-skirts and hand out fliers in Tokyo’s central Akihabara district. When the Nikkei hit 15,000 the band gave out 1,000 cakes and wore French underwear to celebrate.
Bitcoin Booms
The New Yorker
A number of panicked Europeans appear to have reckoned the wildly volatile, vulnerable, and tiny bitcoin market a preferable alternative to their own banking system, even if temporary, this signals a serious widening of the cracks between the northern and southern E.U. countries in the wake of the euro-zone debt crisis. It also illustrates the broader collapse of trust that is threatening the world of global banking and fiat money.
The weakness in existing currencies stems from lack of faith in institutions—particularly central banks, which are often in league with commercial and investment banks. When a government bails out a failed bank or insurance company—in essence, by printing money—the net effect is that the currency as a whole is debased, in favor of a few and at the literal expense of everyone else, which amounts to a fair description of today’s global financial system. Hence the sudden appeal of bitcoins, which appear, for the moment, at least, to be immune to the machinations of inept or crooked bankers and politicians. Continue reading at The New Yorker.
A number of panicked Europeans appear to have reckoned the wildly volatile, vulnerable, and tiny bitcoin market a preferable alternative to their own banking system, even if temporary, this signals a serious widening of the cracks between the northern and southern E.U. countries in the wake of the euro-zone debt crisis. It also illustrates the broader collapse of trust that is threatening the world of global banking and fiat money.
The weakness in existing currencies stems from lack of faith in institutions—particularly central banks, which are often in league with commercial and investment banks. When a government bails out a failed bank or insurance company—in essence, by printing money—the net effect is that the currency as a whole is debased, in favor of a few and at the literal expense of everyone else, which amounts to a fair description of today’s global financial system. Hence the sudden appeal of bitcoins, which appear, for the moment, at least, to be immune to the machinations of inept or crooked bankers and politicians. Continue reading at The New Yorker.
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