Tag: Banking

Failure of a Bank

Quick trivia: Who is famous for the saying, “It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked”?? Ironically just last week Warren Buffett’s 58th annual “Letter to Shareholders” was reviewed by TGIF 2 Minutes, and, yes, Warren E. Buffett first famously uttered these words back in 1992.

The timing of his utterance was, as CEO of the insurance conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, just following Hurricane Andrew when the inadequacies of the insurance industry were negatively exposed. Buffett was describing “the rosy appearances that can mask financial recklessness until the good times end.”*

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Negative Interest Rates

Staying positive in a negative interest rate world just got a little easier. Sweden’s central bank, one of the world’s first to lower benchmark interest rates to below zero, this week raised its rate up to zero from negative 0.25%, or -0.25%.

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A negative interest rate from a bank means that instead of depositing monies and earning interest, the depositor pays interest over time. The concept has been said to signify ultra-safety of deposits thus providing “value” to the depositor.

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Somewhere Between Bitcoin and Cash

PayPal and Venmo: Non-Traditional banking says time and fees

No doubt you have heard of PayPal – and if you have not then read on for a brief introduction. Then there is Venmo, owned by PayPal, which gives you the ability to make payments even more easily in the digital world. Think: potentially saving time and money in a secure way.

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This is NOT an article about Bitcoin, the non-cash virtual currency which, in the graphic above, would be on one far end of the spectrum (above, far right) …with coin and paper “cash money” on the other end (above, far left). Continue reading “Somewhere Between Bitcoin and Cash”