30 Burst results for "Western Union"
The Breakdown
Privacy Is a Human Right – and the 118th Congress Must Defend It
"All right, next up we turn to this piece from fight for the future's Leah and SEO hey, called privacy is a human right, and the 118th Congress must defend it. As the 118th U.S. Congress begins, the stakes surrounding our privacy rights have never been higher. For decades, lawmakers have utterly failed to defend everyday people. Much less those who are the most vulnerable online, from dangerous encroachments into our digital privacy. Just last week, the American civil liberties union revealed a massive surveillance drag net of people who use services like Western Union to send remittances. Now both sides of the aisle begin 2023 having painted a target on the backs of privacy preserving software projects and those who build them. This attitude poses a real danger not only in the U.S., but for people across the globe. It's time for software projects that value privacy to get organized. This is why our organization fight for the future has released a letter signed by 40 plus open-source decentralized and or privacy preserving projects that asks lawmakers to protect a pro privacy future. Signatories on this letter include Tor, the blockchain association, nim, protocol labs, proton, zcash, to denote, and mysterium. We have four simple asks. Constitutional human rights protections both on and offline. The first asked to Congress is straightforward. Do more to protect our constitutional human right to privacy. The right to privacy has always been a foundational principle of the U.S.. There are express or implied rights to privacy in the first, third, fourth, 5th, 9th and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Even the legal victory that established the constitutionally protected right to code was about encryption, meaning it was about privacy. Unfortunately, that decision did not settle the law. Threats to the right to code in the right to privacy are inextricably entwined, especially as more of our lives move into digital spaces where our rights are ignored and invasive surveillance as the default. To seriously and vigorously defend these rights, many in Congress would need to shift their thinking on the simple act of writing code. To recognize that this freedom is core to the technologies that empower democracy and must be defended. That also means a representatives must analyze the potential impacts of new laws and regulatory action on First Amendment protections when drafting new legislation.
Markets Daily Crypto Roundup
"western union" Discussed on Markets Daily Crypto Roundup
"In Germany, the Dax traded relatively flat. Continuing to the East Asian stocks declined with Japanese markets leading losses as the strengthening yen exerted downward pressure on the country's equities. Hong Kong's hang sang index lost a third of a point while Mainland China's Shanghai composite lost just over a quarter of 1%. In Japan, the nikkei two two 5 lost 1.6%. In commodities markets, Brent Kerr, that's the global benchmark for oils currently trading at $86 and 89 cents per barrel. Down about 2% since yesterday's show, while gold is holding above $1800 currently changing hands at $1812 per Troy out that sent about one tenth of 1% since yesterday. Today's traditional markets coverage draws from the FT and market watch. Stay tuned for after the break we'll take a look at another path for regulating crypto exchanges. Back in a minute. Hey folks, this is Adrian blessed, associate producer on coin desk podcasts. If you like markets daily, it'd be great to hear from you. Give us a shout by leaving us a comment or review on your favorite podcast player. And check out our other podcasts on the coin desk podcast network. Like the breakdown within LW for a more macro perspective on the crypto market or the hash for a roundtable discussion on current hot topics in the crypto world. Also remember you can always reach us at podcasts at coindesk dot com. If you have any questions, feedback or topics you'd like to share with us. Just send us an email. Thanks again for listening and let's get back to the show. Today's featured stories and opinion piece by JP koning, a coindesk columnist, and author of the popular money Ness blog. Today's story is entitled, let's stop regulating crypto exchanges like Western Union. The collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX has been gut wrenching for its customers. Not only those who used its flagship offshore exchange in The Bahamas, but also U.S. customers of Chicago based FTX U.S., but there is a silver lining to the FTX debacle. It may put an end to the way the cryptocurrency exchanges are regulated or more accurately misregulated in the United States. U.S. based cryptocurrency exchanges, including coinbase, FTX, U.S., and binance U.S. are overseen on a state by state basis as money transmitters. Money transmitter regulations first emerged in the early 1900s with so called immigrant banks. Agents would collect funds from local immigrant communities in places like New York City, and forward it by steamboat to their families back in Europe and elsewhere. To protect immigrants from fraudsters, states began to impose licensing requirements on money transmission agents. Each state, except for Montana, has evolved its own set of money transmitter laws. Household names like Western Union and money gram are regulated as money transmitters. Oddly, PayPal was stuffed into this framework in the early 2000s. It currently boasts money transmitter licenses from 49 states. And then in the 2010s, crypto exchanges were subsumed under it as well. Coinbase has about 45 of these licenses. Later, stablecoins like USD coin were anointed as money transmitters themselves. In essence, money transmission has become the go to bin for a Motley crew of new financial things that people are using that we don't quite know how to regulate. The problem is that the public protections afforded by money transmitter laws are inadequate. Dan aury, a professor at Cornell University, has documented some of these failings, which include lax Bond security requirements, tiny capital requirements, and insufficient ring fencing of customer funds in the case of bankruptcy, and an overly permissive list of investments to which transmitters can deploy their customers funds. The inclusion of crypto exchanges under the money transmitter framework is particularly perplexing. Exchanges like FTX U.S. and coinbase offer brokerage services and liquid marketplaces for trading. In many cases, these exchanges store a significant chunk of a customer's life savings for long periods of time. Brokerage and trading are typically the domain of beefier federal agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and the commodity futures trading commission, or CFTC, which have far stricter rules than money transmission agencies, particularly around custody. So to review crypto exchanges are being regulated in the same manner as the neighborhood money transfer shop, which typically only handles small $200 cash transfers and rarely holds customer funds longer than overnight. The unfortunate failure of one of these money transmitters west from Shire's services Inc may be the final straw for this rickety arrangement. West realm shires services is the official name of FTX U.S., a large spot exchange that serves around 1 million Americans. On its website, FTX U.S. lists the 40 money transmission licenses. It has been awarded. For states where it has no licenses like California, FTX U.S. presumably uses a rental license agreement, whereby it contracts for the third party to ride shotgun under its licenses. When Sam bankman frees 160 company FTX octopus was put in a bankruptcy last week, the FDX U.S. spot exchange was one of the entities that found itself on the list. Not only are customers of FTX U.S. embroiled in what could very well become a multiyear bankruptcy process. Thanks to the Apache protections that money transmitter licenses afford to FTX U.S. customers, there's a good chance that when the process finally winds up, customers also won't get their money back. The bankruptcy status of FTX U.S. stands in sharp contrast to those parts of FTX U.S. operations that are regulated by the SEC and CFTC. FTX capital markets and embed clearing, which are both overseen by the SEC, remain solvent and are not listed as debtors in last month's bankruptcy filing. Neither is FTX owned ledger X, which offers crypto derivatives and operates under CFTC oversight. It's too early to be sure, but it appears that something about these three subsidiaries SEC and CFTC oversight has afforded them, and their customers, enough protection to stay solvent. In a different world, one where the FTX U.S. exchange was regulated by the CFTC and SEC might FTX U.S. and its 1 million customers have been likewise spared. It's very possible. Things didn't have to be this way. For two years now, SEC chair Gary gensler has been politely asking crypto exchanges like FTX U.S. to submit to SEC oversight. But FTX U.S. didn't listen. Neither did any of their competitors. They kept coasting on their money transmitter licenses. And now FTX U.S. customers appear to be in trouble. While exchanges certainly bear part of the blame for not complying, so does gensler for not pushing hard enough for exchanges to come in and register. There is an easy fix. It's time for U.S. crypto exchanges to face the same roles as non crypto marketplaces and brokers. There is precedent for this in Canada after the massive quadriga CX failure in 2019, securities regulators forced all Canadian crypto exchanges to register with watchdogs such as the Ontario securities commission. The closest thing that Canada has to our SEC. Canadian dollar balances at one exchange coin square are even protected by the Canadian investor protection fund, which is the Canadian equivalent of the securities investor protection corporation here in the U.S., which provides insurance to customers of failed broker dealers. This new and very much more robust framework seems to have kept Canadians safe from an FTX type failure. FTX international and FTX U.S., for instance, have been refusing to onboard Canadian customers for over a year now, much to Canadians benefits. Arrayed against the idea of putting crypto exchanges under SEC or CFTC oversight are exchange executives, and you can see why. The local money transmission examiner is never going to be as strict as a federal securities watchdog. Oddly, some crypto critics are also insisting that crypto exchanges remain unregulated. A pair of economists recently writing in the FT argued that post FDX, the world should just let crypto burn. To regulate crypto would be to granted unwarranted legitimacy. They say. The problem with that leaded burn view is that crypto has crashed and burned so many times. Each time it roars back only for more retail customers to lose all their funds in the next mount gox, quadriga, or FTX U.S.. It's time to get exchanges like FTX U.S. and its competitors, including coinbase under a more appropriate regulatory umbrella before additional damage is done. Exchanges aren't money transmitters and shouldn't be regulated as such. They're much more than that. And that's our show for today. Thank you very much for listening this episode was edited by Adrian blush, and we'll be back tomorrow with your weekend story. And just a reminder, that coin desk is a new source and is not provide investment advice.
Markets Daily Crypto Roundup
"western union" Discussed on Markets Daily Crypto Roundup
"Bitcoin slip below $17,000 in early morning trading, while other top tokens are seeing mixed action. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization had risen three consecutive days amid encouraging jobs and productivity data and hopes that the U.S. Central Bank was ready to scale back its hawkish monetary policy. This morning, we got new official employment numbers, more on that in the headlines. On Wednesday, though, U.S. Central Bank chair Jerome Powell had suggested in a speech at the brookings institute that the fed might raise interest rates 50 basis points or one half of 1% down from the recent 75 basis points regime. But in the 36 hours since Powell's remarks, cryptos have been largely unimpressed by the prospect of increased liquidity, and more concerned about contagion linked to crypto exchange giant FTX collapse, not to mention other 2022 debacles still winding their way through the courts, quote, cryptos are struggling wrote Edward moya, senior market analyst for foreign exchange market maker Hollande in an email, continuing concerns brew the tether loans could be the next big risk in the cryptoverse. Stablecoins are an important part of the crypto world, and if one of the major ones break, that will send Bitcoin and Ethereum to new lows. And speaking of Bitcoin and ether looking at the two together, ether's prices outperformed Bitcoin over the past ten days, increasing 15.4% versus Bitcoin 7.7% rise. Momentum in the ether Bitcoin pairing over the same time period spiked by 39% using a 14 period relative strength index, better known as the RSI as a proxy for price acceleration. The RSI is a technical indicator that measures the magnitude of price changes for an asset. It can be used by investors to determine the speed of price movements, allowing it to be better compared to past price levels. Either meanwhile, was holding steady slightly under $1300 but up on the day. Other major cryptos are trading mix this morning, although memecoin Dogecoin recently dropped more than 4%. Doja climbed about 50% over an 8 day stretch starting November 22nd. Matic, meanwhile, the token of the layer two polygon blockchain platform was down by more than 2% after rising the past couple of days, at least partly on news that its API would soon deploy on web three indexing service the graph. Edward moya who we discussed earlier noted that investors crypto and otherwise, at the time of his comments, would be awaiting the release of non farm payroll data for the latest read on the jobs market, which had shown signs of cooling over the last few months. In November, private companies added only 127,000 jobs, according to payroll processor ADP. That's less than half of the number in October. But the numbers that actually came out this morning were significantly better than that. Again, more in the headlines. Meanwhile, a portfolio manager for mutual fund and ETF company van Eyck told coindesk TV's first mover program on Wednesday that predicting where crypto prices would bottom out is difficult, although he struck an upbeat note about recent industry crises and market bearishness, quote, when we look at one of the positives coming out of what just happened, you've seen a lot of investors withdraw assets into self custody. My guess is that anyone who's remaining in the ecosystem are likely true believers in the underlying technology, and even the future upside of the asset class, end quote. Bitcoin is currently turning at 16,920 bucks per token. That's down just a touch over 1% since our episode yesterday, while either a shredding at $1280 per token. That's up slightly more than 1% over the same time period, according to the coin desk market index. And speaking of the coin desk market index, we're looking at a mild decline from yesterday's episode with current reading of 863, representing a loss of just over one quarter of 1% on the day. Now before we get to today's traditional markets update, let's take a quick look at some top headlines. First up, employers added 263,000 jobs in November, according to official statistics, down from an upwardly revised 284,000 in October, but topping professionally incorrect economists expectations of just 200,000. As the U.S. economy continues to show signs of strength, much to the fed chagrin. The official unemployment rate remained at 3.7%, which is in line with those mainstream expectations, quote, the labor market, which is especially important for inflation shows only tentative signs of rebalancing and wage growth remains well above levels that are consistent with 2% inflation over time. Fed chief Jerome Powell recently said, today's numbers have caused a minor rebalance, future traders on the Chicago mercantile exchange had priced in an 81% chance of a 50 basis point increase from the fed later this month, which would have been lower than the increases that we've seen over the last several cycles. In the minutes following this morning's jobs report, though, that percentage dropped by 4% currently sitting at 77%. This reporting comes courtesy of coin desk, slain Braun, who has more in the show notes. Meanwhile, payments firm stripe has debuted a project to facilitate Fiat to crypto payments for businesses and dozens of countries around the world. The company said on Thursday. The offering, which is a customizable widget that can be embedded directly into a decentralized exchange, non fungible token platform, wallet, or decentralized application, is designed to allow customers to instantly purchase cryptocurrencies in web three apps. The release noted that 11 of the company's initial 16 projects are built on the Solana blockchain ecosystem. Stripes said that it offers customizable on ramping services and handles know your customer processes payments fraud and compliance issues. Coin desk Elizabeth Napolitano and Jamie Crowley have more on this one. Elsewhere, DeFi protocol anchor, which called itself the first node as a service platform, has suffered a multi-million dollar exploit due to a bug in its code that allowed for an unlimited minting of its token. According to security research from pech shield, the code behind the anchor contract allows any user to mint an unlimited amount of the protocol's reward bearing staking token without any sort of verification. This allowed the attacker to mint 6 quadrillion of the AB and BC token. Since minting the quadrillions of tokens, the attacker was able to swap just 20 trillion of them for binance smart chain tokens, then move it to tornado cache. The attacker then swapped those BNB tokens for 5 million USD C stablecoin tokens. As the attacker nearly drained the liquidity pools on pancake swap and ape swap, the token loss nearly 99% of its value, according to coin gecko data. The project has since stated that it will reimburse the user's impacted by the loss, quote, we'll take a snapshot and reissue the tokens to all valid holders before the exploit. Coindesk Sam Reynolds has more in the show notes. In other news, crypto exchange coinbase has disabled non fungible token transfers in its iOS wallet application because it would dispute with tech giant Apple. Over the company's in app purchase policy, taking to Twitter on Thursday, coinbase said Apple is demanding it pay its cryptocurrency gas fees using Apple software, which would thus make those gas fees subject to apple's 30% in app purchase fee, quote, for anyone who understands how NFTs and blockchains work, this is clearly not possible coinbase said, continuing, apple's proprietary in app purchase system does not support crypto, so we couldn't comply even if we tried. Quote, the dispute is the latest in a months long saga between Apple and the NFT community. Back in October, Apple officially refused to exempt NFT trading from its 30% App Store fee. A policy that's kept marketplaces like open sea from offering NFT trading within its mobile app. Coindesk sea Li ten reports. And finally, messaging app telegram is sold $50 million in usernames in less than a month through its blockchain based auction platform known as fragment, CEO Pavel durov said on Wednesday. Those sales figures speak to these success of telegram's second go around at bootstrapping its own crypto infrastructure. Fragment is built atop the telegram open network, a blockchain that dura abandoned under regulatory pressure back in 2020, and later returned to after its community kept it alive. Bolstered by fragments strong sale, Durham is setting telegram on a course to build deeper crypto build outs. He said the company will build a decentralized exchange and non custodial wallets that could reach millions of users. Telegram is already a go to messaging app for many crypto traders, giving it something of a captive audience from the start, quote, the solution is clear, blockchain based projects should go back to their roots, decentralization. Cryptocurrency users should switch to trustless transactions and self hosted wallets that don't rely on any single third party. End quote. This one comes courtesy of coin desk and the fin bold. In traditional markets, global stocks decline this morning as official numbers outperformed expectations, which is good news for people and those bad news for markets and withdrawal from monetary policy intervention and return to up only trading. In the U.S., both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech heavy NASDAQ 100 lost about a quarter of a point while the S&P 500 lost a third of a percent. In Europe, major index has tracked similar losses with the original stock 600 losing just under a quarter of a point, while in London, the FTSE 100 lost just over a third.
Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
"western union" Discussed on Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
"Also, Visa due to some trademark trademarks they filed, excuse me, show that they're building a crypto wallet. And then Western Union is also looking to build a crypto exchange. And their own token. So these are all information released from research from filings from patents and trademarks and so forth. So things are moving in the right direction. I know some of you are going to say, dude, what about the price? Why isn't the price pumping on this news? Well, you got to understand market cycles. We are in a bear market. There's not going to be any major news that pumps the market because it's risk off right now. And people are not paying attention to crypto right now. Institutions are adopting, but they buy OTC. They don't buy any open market. And if they do, kind of like what Michael saylor said, they buy in very small increments that it does not move the market. So we got to wait for the bull market to come back. This is our opportunity once again. Another accumulation zone. We are near the bottom. If we haven't hit it already, so I'm personally dollar cost averaging accumulating and I'm going to wait for that 2024 bull market, my Friends. We may have some rallies along the way, as I've been talking about, maybe we see something next year. And you can take profits there, you can swing trade it, but the big new all time highs, the big money making machine is coming in 2024. So big news here with money grand, my Friends. You should be excited when you see stuff like this. And if you all recall, I had interviewed one of the representatives at money gram about, I think it was a month ago, and let me pull it here for you guys. It was with Luther made, and yes, Luther made, let me pull it up here and he is the let me get his title here for YouTube pause here for me. He is the oh boy. YouTube is not one to cooperate with me right now.
Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
"western union" Discussed on Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
"A case study of about web three and so forth. And one of the quotes that he pulled out of this case study, he tweeted it, and here's the quote, Gary gensler's lone crusade against digital assets represents a bad policy choice. That will translate into really bad politics for Democrats. So interesting that Brian is coming out on the offensive here. His finer way tweets and I think he knows, look, he had tweeted one at one point earlier this year. The SEC is acting shady. And he talked about what they did in blocking coinbase lending. So he knows what's going on. Now, something interesting. Senator Elizabeth Warren and AOC Alexandra Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have asked regulators to clarify their rules on former employees obtaining roles in the crypto industry. Did not see this one coming, guys. So the U.S. lawmakers asked how long an individual is barred from seeking employment in an industry he or she has regulated. In a letter sent to almost all federal financial regulators, the lawmakers noted the increasing number of revolving door hires and asked how long individuals involved in regulating the crypto industry are barred from seeking employment in it, along with their fellow signatories, the two say they are concerned that crypto firms may appoint former financial regulators and government officials to add some teeth to their lobbying efforts. Yeah, no crap because you have not provided clear regulations so these companies, they're getting desperate. They're going to say, hey, this guy is no longer the FCC. This guy is no longer the CFTC. This guy is no longer the treasury. Let's go bring him on our side to help us navigate these uncharted waters and to navigate without getting sued or enforcement action coming our way. So it's like wake the hell up. I mean, what do you expect, right? And Ron Hammond of the blockchain association actually, he gave some thoughts on this, which I thought were spot on. And let me pull it up here for you guys. Where he works at the blockchain association so they talk to a lot of people in government and in the industry. And here's what he said. These kind of complaints of the revolving door in D.C. are standard for progressives and not unique to crypto. So this is not a crypto specific issue. He said foreign industry plagued with regulatory uncertainty, companies seek to poach those who know crypto policy to best. That usually means those who worked on it in the government. That is obvious. So Elizabeth Warren and AOC doing this whatever, sending this crap out. The answer is right in front of your face. It's not a crypto specific thing. And crypto is in limbo right now because we don't have regulatory clarity. But if Congress wants to do its job, we would, they wouldn't need to go try to poach all these government officials and so forth, right guys. We have here Eleanor toretta Fox business also weighing in on this. She said, in a letter to Gary gensler, senator Warren and AOC ask him to clarify what he's doing to stop the revolving door issue between the agency and crypto industry, full letter before. Here's an excerpt from it over 200 government officials have moved between public services and crypto firms serving
Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
"western union" Discussed on Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
"Folks, I hope you see the building that's happening and the investing. These things don't just pop out of nowhere. It takes a lot of research and development. A lot of investing of money and preparation and product launches and go to markets and so forth, right? And to bring in the talent to do it as well because we're seeing a lot of folks leaving traditional financial jobs and coming to work into crypto. So really, really big time news here, very bullish in my opinion. And as these retirement funds start flowing into crypto, you're going to see new all time highs for sure. Now, Reddit, they've been pushing their NFTs and it's going well. So Reddit makes PFP NFTs cool again. Marketplace trading volume surges, nearly 3 million redditors have bought a collectible avatar, more than other leading native marketplaces. So Reddit has, of course, a really strong community. A lot of people use Reddit. And they're leveraging NFTs, which comes as no surprise. We've talked about how social platforms will leverage crypto and NFTs. And one thing I want to call out, guys, it's running on polygon and I've been talking about polygon for a long time. A lot of big brands are launching on polygon, including Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and so forth. That has me very bullish on the native token of polygon, which is Matic. So huge, huge here. So Reddit NFTs collectively have a $122 million market cap according to the marketplace. And that's amazing. It says here on Sunday daily volume surge from below 1 million to 2 million in less than 24 hours. At the time of publication, the 24 hour sales volume was at $2.6 million. So really amazing what's happening. NFTs are here to stay, my Friends, I will be launching an NFT collection soon. I'll be launching on the XRP ledger. And it will have utility. It's not just, okay, here's this artwork. It will unlock cool things for this channel. And once I'm ready to share the details, I will provide that to you all. Now, we have an interesting article from the block here the title is CFTC and SEC chairs may disagree over whether ether is a security. Wow. So certainly going to be butting heads here, we know, you know, as far as what we've been covering on this podcast of the potential conflicts of interest with Bill hinman and the Ethereum folks and the SEC essentially saying Ethereum is not a security. But left the other altcoins out in the wind, right? Well, the SEC recently said that every transaction on the Ethereum blockchain falls under their jurisdiction. They mentioned this in the Ian bolina lawsuit and the CFTC seems to not agree with this. So in a way, this conflict between the two regulatory agencies will force Congress to act.
Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
"western union" Discussed on Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
"Some more big news. Prime trust crypto IRA set to leave beta as Bitcoin volatility at historic low. Prime trust IRA product comes less than a year after for us all launched an investment vehicle that offers crypto exposure through 401k accounts. Another major on ramp guides, we now know how much trillions of dollars are in retirement accounts. And a lot of these folks can't put their money in crypto due to regulatory and compliance issues. That's why a Bitcoin spotty TF would be so critical, it would allow many of these companies to be able to access Bitcoin and other cryptos. Well, eventually, all the cryptos, but it has to serve a Bitcoin first and a lot of that capital will flow into crypto. Fidelity, we saw is trying to circumvent that, you know, without the spot ETF, but they
Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
"western union" Discussed on Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
"Hit that subscribe button, as well as a thumbs up button and leave a comment below. If you're listening on a podcast platform such as apple or Spotify, please leave a 5 star rating. This content is brought to you by uphold, which makes crypto investing easy. You can buy sell trade and earn cryptocurrencies on uphold. You can also trade precious metals and equities. I've been using uphold for years that one of my go to exchanges for liquidity. So if you'd like to learn more about Apple, please visit the link in the description. All right, my Friends, I want to quickly talk about the price here because Bitcoin is back over $20,000 Ethereum back over $1400. What's happening here? We're seeing some green, the stock market is up as well. Is there some sort of rally taking place before the midterm elections? Well, it's certainly plausible. That is theory that the markets that are going to look a bit good before the midterm elections and then crash after that. You know, I personally think we're still in that max Payne zone as I've been talking about for months upon months and that this is reminding me very much of 2018 and that the market could tank Bitcoin could go down between ten to $15,000, but that's okay. That's a great accumulation opportunity and to wait out the bear market for the next bull market and make ridiculous gains, right? I lived through this in 2018 to 2019, guys. And that's how I made money. And that's what I'm doing right now. I'm dull across averaging. So could put Bitcoin rally to 25,000, it's possible and then crash back down. It could certainly do that. It's not too far off, right? And it did do that back in July. August, where it went back to 24 25,000. So it wouldn't be a big deal for it to do it again. It would still be in that range of moving kind of sideways, not too much volatility. And then crash down to lower prices. Now that's not guaranteed, of course, but that's just from my own experience. How I think it's going to play out. Look, if Bitcoin decides to go to new all time highs tomorrow, I won't be upset. I won't be angry. I will be taking profits, right? I'm here to make money, but we want to call it based on how things that perform perform historically based on the facts and how we've seen the market cycles play out. And of course, there's macroeconomic factors. Fed is raising interest rates and so forth. So it's no joke out there, but we'll see what happens.
DreamCatcher Quest
"western union" Discussed on DreamCatcher Quest
"But he was nice and he was like, okay, please be aware in the future. Because it was my first flight. It was everything first experience. Please be very true. Have a nice experience. Then when the car, the rejected, that panic patterns, they checked in the bank, banks severity was fine. Fine, but it's not working. I can not use it. I can not, I went to ATM, it rejects. So my parents used Western Union sent me some money. Why can't I use that? I call the friend and both institutions. He's like, sit tight, I'll come. I caught him while he was on an exam, so he left exam. He went about an hour of trip to come for me to help me. Because when I called him, I was still waiting for my parents to finalize.
Lex Fridman Podcast
"western union" Discussed on Lex Fridman Podcast
"Take it to the ATM, pull cash out because you got the pin. All right? Started doing that. Well, sorry, I'm trying to understand so that means there's no, are they generating random numbers or do they have valid numbers for track two? No numbers needed at all. As long as just the track two was a complete track too. So it's a valid track too. That doesn't match with the pin is the thing that gets you in. Right. So back then, all right? Back then, what we're talking about is you need to typically today you need a whole track too. You need that valid track to all right. You need the 16 digit card number slash and then whatever that algorithm has help beside up. Back then, none of the banks had implemented that algorithm. So while the algorithm was there, you didn't need it to encode. Interesting, interesting. So you can make a lot of money with physical of that. Card not present fraud, remember I told you it was 30 to $40,000 a month. All right? That turned into 30 to $40,000 a day. The Ukrainians, again, they can't cash it out. They've got all the data on the planet, but they can't cash it out. Those three necessities of cybercrime. So the deal became, you have to rely on the Americans. Tell you what, we'll give you 40%. So you had all these cashiers that were 40% of $40,000 a day. Yeah, we'll take that. All right. Send the rest of it over to by Western Union or what have you to Ukrainian contact? That's before cryptocurrency came into play. Now you had a couple of four runners with ego, liberty reserve, things like that. But back then, it starts out with Western Union, then it becomes prepaid cards, sending track information over, loading the car up like that, and then finally you get to ego old liberty reserve and today it's with crypto. That's used..
Artificial Intelligence (AI Podcast) with Lex Fridman
"western union" Discussed on Artificial Intelligence (AI Podcast) with Lex Fridman
"Take it to the ATM, pull cash out because you got the pin. All right? Started doing that. Well, sorry, I'm trying to understand so that means there's no, are they generating random numbers or do they have valid numbers for track two? No numbers needed at all. As long as just the track two was a complete track too. So it's a valid track too. That doesn't match with the pin is the thing that gets you in. Right. So back then, all right? Back then, what we're talking about is you need to typically today you need a whole track too. You need that valid track to all right. You need the 16 digit card number slash and then whatever that algorithm has help beside up. Back then, none of the banks had implemented that algorithm. So while the algorithm was there, you didn't need it to encode. Interesting, interesting. So you can make a lot of money with physical of that. Card not present fraud, remember I told you it was 30 to $40,000 a month. All right? That turned into 30 to $40,000 a day. The Ukrainians, again, they can't cash it out. They've got all the data on the planet, but they can't cash it out. Those three necessities of cybercrime. So the deal became, you have to rely on the Americans. Tell you what, we'll give you 40%. So you had all these cashiers that were 40% of $40,000 a day. Yeah, we'll take that. All right. Send the rest of it over to by Western Union or what have you to Ukrainian contact? That's before cryptocurrency came into play. Now you had a couple of four runners with ego, liberty reserve, things like that. But back then, it starts out with Western Union, then it becomes prepaid cards, sending track information over, loading the car up like that, and then finally you get to ego old liberty reserve and today it's with crypto. That's used..
The Doug Collins Podcast
How Does One Access Their Bitcoin Funds?
"You brought up an interesting subject just a few minutes ago and I wanna come back to it now. You said, 'cause this is very, very true. The Mexico's economy really could not exist without transfers of monetary dollars back from the United States. Economy would crash. We know that from Western Union to this the old saying he's going back for. You might have mentioned this I sent it back in Bitcoin that more than likely the family in Mexico would get the transaction through the computer, however, you know, they got it. And they would convert it, I'm assuming in the dollars or pesos, whichever one they wanted. Where would they do that at? If you, Derek, you sent me about whatever means through a server, however it is. You sent me a Bitcoin today. And I said, well, that's really nice. I want the money. Where would I go, just so to speak get the money? Sure. Well, first of all, I would say it depends on the country that you're in if you would want your local currency. If you're in Venezuela, you probably want to keep it in Bitcoin. Mexico, their currency has actually been quite strong. So that's a bit different. Colombia, the currency hasn't done so well. So not all of them wanted their local currency, but many do. The Sri Lanka, for example, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, just announced it as a Bitcoin as the official currency for El Salvador as one of several. So you may just keep it in Bitcoin. But to answer your specific question, there are more advanced ways to do this, but I'm just trying to explain the easiest way to solve some of these problems. And so you may use something like a Gemini or a similar product. And so that can help manage this operation and help you transfer it back to your Fiat currency at your local bank. And so once the transaction is sent to you, you may immediately essentially send a wire. It's not actually a wire you're not going to pay a wire fee, but you have the Bitcoin and your Gemini account and you push a button to transfer it to your bank account so that way you have it in that local currency.
AP News Radio
Taliban Say Western Union to Resume Operations
"The Taliban says Western Union will resume its operations in Afghanistan in financial services giant halted operations when the Taliban took power in Kabul on August fifteenth the move that full opens a red conduit for foreign funds to flow into the cash strapped country the decision will be especially welcomed by Afghans with foreign relatives abroad hundreds of people have been lining up daily outside banks to withdraw cash withdrawal rules would be limited to two hundred dollars per week and the cash machines aren't always working the overcrowding means that not everyone manages to obtain money on a given day I'm Charles Taylor that's my
Gun Talk
"western union" Discussed on Gun Talk
"There's there's that and it takes us back to the whole deal of the second amendment sanctuaries or this house bill nine fifty seven out of texas. And there're going to be much. They're gonna thump their gesture. Say yep i can do this year. No you cannot if you buy suppressor as far as the feds are concerned as far as the. Atf is concerned. You have to go through the process and it doesn't matter what the legislature says. That's like saying you know. What is the guy who cut your grass. Say well we'll take his advice to the has just as much sway on the legality at the texas legislature. In this case. I thought it was kind of smoke and mirrors. That's that was my concern too will let you get on and i love your show appreciate that. I'm glad you asked because look the reality of this folks who'll left and the right. Legislators elected officials they pander pander and we're sitting there cheering and we got the second amendment sanctuary bill. It doesn't mean anything. It's a feel good means nothing. Measure and people will say well sending a message. Well you know there's the old line about if you want to send a message call western union. That was way back but nobody cares. It's like sticking your hand in a bucket of water and put out and trying to see how big hole you make no impact whatsoever. It's in my view. Personal view i think is a waste of our effort. Waste of our resources to marshal forces to get these things pass which you're going to mean thing. If you're going to pull the team together you gotta marshal your forces and people go to the legislature. Why don't we try to pass up. That actually matters you know we could we could resend some gun..
Computer Talk Radio
"western union" Discussed on Computer Talk Radio
"A- wasn't quite sitting in the pool or the ocean for a long time but it was rusted enough so that there was no way they could've had any expectations that this would still be operational It was it was in a very bad state cell. Look yeah we get a good deal on ebay but you know you want to protect yourself. And there's no reason for you to move to western union. I don't care if they want you to. I don't care if they tell you there's only one way we're going to deliver this and if you pay with western union no you're gonna pay with the agreed upon. It's it's just like you know. Hey i agreed to pay you one hundred fifty dollars for this product. I'm not come in help. Pay you two hundred dollars. The auction was for one hundred and fifty dollars. It's it's a you don't change the terms of the agreement after the fact. Nobody should ever do that. Nobody should ever insist that you do some kind of violation of the agreement if they do. There's a chance that they're scamming you. So what do you do. Yeah you report it to ebay and that person may or may not dismiss teary asli disappear. They may decide began. Okay pavia.
Consumer Finance Monitor
"western union" Discussed on Consumer Finance Monitor
"So all of these The way it stored is in not one server so in order to it'd be much more difficult to hack Blockchain protocol with these data attributes in it That's number one number. Two is the concept is that you could store. you could have control over those data attributes. You're not giving it to a third party to verify your identity. So that's again the second part of it There's a lot to be addressed there. I think I don't know that. I have all the answers. But i do know that the entities that are looking at putting identity on the blockchain are addressing these kinds of points as they as they build out these protocols right right right right so You mentioned kyc And for our listeners We're referring to the know your customer Rule and am l. anti-money-laundering The you mentioned that the process in the context of smart contracts. How else could block. Jane work in these procedures. So i am a proponent that blockchain technology can not only enhance how institutions engage in compliance procedures. But i think that it actually could revolutionize the entire compliance ecosystem. And what i mean by that is. It has the potential to streamline the am l. process because of all the due diligence that goes into Fulfilling the kyc processes in an efficient manner. So let me just give you a few examples of that. So for instance. We talked about data points. It could improve the method by which all the data is managed in this ammo process Secure identity manage manage management. Talk a little bit about identity but basically You can share these data. This data across risk officers and regulatory bodies as they need them Record keeping and reporting you can have access to ledger by the by the parties. That need it. When you're doing these processes you can have automated reporting you have real time. Updates and probably most importantly is transparency so You can identify clients. You can do due. Diligence on an enterprise wide level The immutability of the ledger. That you could you could see who was putting what in when they were putting it in and you're again you're sharing it across that entire Enterprise so that road flags are more easily identified by sharing that data through the enterprise. So that's kind of the at high level. I've read a lot about this written a little bit about it and i'm just very There's a lot of platforms out there being developed to address address. Kyc procedures right right So another question that. I have for you debbie Wire transfer fraud in the closing. Process can blockchain Technology in dealing with that. Yeah so that's one of our bake points right now in our industry right at the last minute instructions go to go to the purchaser and been hacked. And then they they they send their lifetime savings to the wrong entity right so a blockchain would allow for this transparency traceability and the record keeping during the closing process. I'm not saying just at the one step where they have to do. The wiring but in the entire process so ultimately this platform that you communicate on and you have all the parties on their you had the buyers sellers and the other stakeholders using this platform. That is it's very transparent. Would prevent that. So it's again. It's not just at the last level it would have to be during more of the whole entire process right right right okay. So what about peer to peer lending. I is blockchain being used in an area or does it have potential for use in that area. Yeah alan it's being used. All blockchain's being used in peer to peer and student.
Consumer Finance Monitor
"western union" Discussed on Consumer Finance Monitor
"Makes downpayments in the amount of let's say twenty thousand dollars and To purchase the home if that's the execution if that's the down payment price the smart contract could accuse and say okay buyer put. The money in escrow services now has to be sent to the inspector and the appraiser to continue with their work. It's an automatic workflow. You don't need a person they're hitting a button saying okay go get the appraiser on a go. Get the inspector on it. It just automatically would happen if it was coded into the smart contract. So that's kind of the way it works and you can think about that in everything that do in in consumer finance so from credit history. When when you do the credit history checks the identity checks you can do it in. Kyc and am l. You could Obviously in the release of funds. So there's just a variety of ways that smart contracts could be coded into the operations within a within a lenders in our internally within a lender and is this going used right now in certain areas like for example you mentioned it gave as an example somebody buying a home and Which i just did you know last year and there were a lot of things that had a fall into place. Yeah getting an appraiser Getting Somebody to to.
Consumer Finance Monitor
"western union" Discussed on Consumer Finance Monitor
"Dion a new technology in the consumer finance world and As i was searching for the right speaker fortunately i found out about Debbie hoffman Who is our guest today and And i learned about how knowledgeable debbie is in the area and so the topic. We're going to talk about today after I give debbie. The appropriate action is What are the use apple in the consumer finance world For blockchain We're not gonna be talking about crypto currency and What's going on in that area. Which course is all connected to blockchain. But we're gonna talk about other Use applications so Let me introduce debbie to you. And then we'll get into a discussion of this topic. So debbie serves as associate general counsel western union. And she heads up the technology. I p real estate and procurement team She's also an adjunct professor at alba albany law school and teaches a graduate program course called understanding. Block chain crypto currencies and will law Prior to joining western union. Debbie founded her own company called symmetry blockchain advisors which focused on endeavors related to the education strategy and implementation of blockchain solutions With a focus on the real estate finance industry so Debbie a very warm welcome to our show today. thank you allen. It's great to be here. And i'm excited to introduce your listeners. A little bit more to blockchain. Okay I know that there are people who listen to our show who are very expert in the area of consumer finance but when it comes to some of the the newer technologies Maybe not so Expert and And i've found that you're one of the few people i know That's really In a simple way able to define blockchain so Really as a way of a level set..
The Addicted Mind Podcast
Love Without Martinis With Chantal Jauvin
"Hello chantale thank you for coming. To the addicted mine podcast. I'm excited to talk about your book. Love without martinis but before we start. I wanna know a little bit about you and your story and how you got to this book. Hello dwayne thank you very much for having me on the show so i said my initial apologize and i come from canada so you will have a little french accent here and there. I currently reside in philadelphia. My career has been mostly as an attorney. It's been a lot of fun. I've had the opportunity to work and live in places. Such as cambodia and russia and vienna. Because i've practiced international trade law and then financial services in my last position was with western union general counsel which is what brought me to the. Us their head office is in denver. Colorado and eventually became general counsel and was moved to you their head office beautiful place denver awesome. Wow so you've been all over at all kinds of experiences and started this journey of recovery somehow and and got there so tell me a little bit about your story and how that all evolved and what went on and got this book. Yeah my journey of recovery. Actually i started by meeting the man that i fell in love with. That would eventually become my husband. He also was working at your western union and he was the president of western union. We were both working in denver. Fortunately he left the company and our friendship was able to bloom and your romance recycling together motorcycling and decided that we wanted to have a new fresh start together
Bay Curious
Why Theres A Cross on San Franciscos Highest Peak
"Mount davidson crossed. We sent bay curious producer susie rancho to find out just west of twin peaks above a quiet residential neighborhood is mount davidson park. It's not well known or well marked but once you start. Walking one of the parks trails. You're surrounded by eucalyptus trees and you start to forget that you're in the middle of a major city coming up trail breath mason amazing view when you get to the top. You see two things of you that stretches all the way to the east bay and one very big cross. The cross is an imposing sight. It stands at one hundred three feet tall and ten feet wide at the base made of concrete it stands in stark contrast to blue sky and the eucalyptus grove that surrounds it to learn more about how it got here. I went to mount davidson historian. I- jackie proctor. Jackie says the crosses origin story goes back almost a hundred years to nineteen twenty-three two time when the area was a forest a guy named james decatur who is a employee of the western union telegraph company and with the ymca hikes through that forest and comes to the top and he sees this incredible view of downtown and he is just overwhelmed. Inspire knee writes this long essay about the experience. Peace and quiet were so profound that it seemed almost unbelievable that the noise and roar of a great city was only a few minutes behind them the solitude of the forest conveyed a sense of fastness quite as real as one would experience among the age. Old monarchs of the high sierras
Bloomberg Markets
Western Union's CFO Raj Agrawal Discusses COVID-19's Impact on the Company
"Just briefly tell us about the trends that you saw during the pandemic. Did people need to use Western Union more? Hey, Thanks for having me. Yes, absolutely way actually saw that need to receive money during the pandemic Over the course of the last 12 months was greater than ever before. We also saw a shift in terms of how people were using our business. You know, we have obviously. A very broad retail network. But we have also a fantastic, you know, well growing digital business. That is now present more than 75 countries. And so we saw tremendous growth in our digital difference because people were looking very frequently for online ways of sending money to their loved ones and You can imagine that during the pandemic, um you know, in many of these other countries were going through a very difficult time, which would continue to do so. And the people who have the ability to send continue to send money and they used our business quite frequently. So No, we really saw a makeshift not only in our business, but also in the market overall, where digital parts of the market really took off during the course of last year. Raj. We still have persistent higher than we would like unemployment in the United States. How's that impacted your flows in your business? Yeah, way. We're very much a global business, Paul. You know we are presently 200 countries and territories around the world. The U. S is obviously very important Market for us. Yeah, we certainly saw. You know some impact from the unemployment. The pandemic is not behind this yet. We need to see how things play out. We are assuming that the second half of this year will be in a better position economically, not only in the U. S, but also globally. As the vaccines are more widely distributed. So we're hoping for a better second half economically, and I think that again, people who have had the ability to send money people who are Still employed and making money basically continue to use our business at a at a high rate, and we've also seen the amount of principle going through our business go up quite quite a bit. We grew a cross border principle by 12% last year. Where's the entire market was probably down a little bit. So, you know, I think we're still getting good traffic, and people still have a need to receive money. I'm a customer myself of our business and I've spent more money in the last 12 months and I have historically because my my relatives have a need to get that money. So Roger why the decision to increase the dividend? It's really a trip. We've had a track record over the last 14 years. We've increased the dividend by 13 of those 14 years. So we have a lot of confidence in the strength of our business. We know that regenerated A very strong large amount of cash flow. Last year we generated about $900 million in cash. Operating cash flow will have another good year this year, and we think it's really what our shareholders want. And so we've raised the dividend in 13 of the last 14 years, and this is just a continuation of that trend. And you know we're looking for good things. We have a good strategic agenda this year and Being a good healthy dividend is a key part of that for us Raj tucked us about the competitive landscape for Western Union. You guys obviously been in this business for a long, long time, have tremendous brand value. But there's a lot of technological competitors whether it's you know, the apse Venmo or something like that talked to us about the competitive landscape for Western Union. Sure, yeah, I mentioned before we have a very large and strong and fast growing digital business. Our digital business will be about a billion dollars inside this year in terms of revenue side. And we are very focused on the cross border Remittance market as you know, and there many acts like Kendall is much more of a domestically oriented chaotic here in the U. S. So ours is much more about Lending money all around the world, and that's really where our strength is. We have the ability to settle in 130 currencies. In a matter of minutes. We have the regulatory compliance capabilities that go with it. We serve a number of different kinds of partners. We have a white label offering that we've you know that we're partnering with banks and other fintech type players, so we can really be the back and provider to other companies. Even other digital players that may not have the reach that we do. Saudi telecoms is one example. That's been very successful for Saudi Arabia. We have another one in Russia with spare, which is a bank is one of the largest bank in Russia. And so we really have a number of different angles. We have a branded Western union calm offering and, you know, I use our services as well. And you can. You can initiate and completed transaction in the matter of 30 seconds and I can do it for the money. My loved one of in India, you know, matter of seconds very recent college if he's air quite high, considering some competitors don't charge really at all. Are you going to do anything about that? You know, our fees are very representative of the cost of doing business that we, You know, it's not simple. It's not free to really move money around the world. You know, to have regulatory compliance capabilities and to actually protect consumers in terms of when they spend their money. There's a cost of doing business, right 200 markets and that's really what we do, and we're in the business to make money and the other others who are not charging a few. It's not a sustainable business model for them, so that's really the way we look at it.
Xtra Sports Radio 1300 AM
"western union" Discussed on Xtra Sports Radio 1300 AM
"Home. Western Union Global Reach Denver roots. Tonight's game is brought to you by Central City Casino Parkway. Take the four lanes of fun. I 72 exit to 43. Parents. Another shoot Basketball academy host their first ever virtual clinic February 8. I just heard today another stock come and receive a basketball T shirts the opportunity to test your skills for a chance to win exclusive prizes. Denver basketball to start the fourth Corps Monte Morris has it too green for three choppers up in and the Nuggets leading by 26 eases 1st 100 cause 1st 100 win this game will go on top of the key is honored. Bialo another. See that 174. He gets it back from Coco Shove in ski down the way he goes, and he got fouled from behind. By John Michael Green cases. Michael Green definitely knew that one was on him, too. It gave a little pointy hit his chest saying mounds on me. I got to be better defensively. And you know what? Cause I like that accountability. I like him being like now. That was me. That was my positioning. I could have stepped up for my team in a better way. Their first free throw by Amadou Diablo is no good. It will have one more second free throw is on the way. And that one is up. Michael Green gets the inbound under fucking composite. As a back out on top, the green catching ghost. Oh dump pass. He had a great dumped down the hardest time, but he bobbled the past over to composite composite baseline Clippers. No good hearted, starting the rebound. Not gonna count foul from behind on Isaiah and that will be thunder basketball coming back the other way. Don't mind the aggressiveness, though on the boards and trying to create a chance opportunities like that. I think that's a foul that you just Comes in Malibu yesterday, the mid court circles and he gets bumped by compositing. That'll be a foul on him and thunder basketball on the side. Okay, But don't let the snowball now either. Like to Michael Green. Got a chippy foul Hartenstein got chippy foul capaz. Oh, be disciplined defensively here. And here we go. Mama do beyond girls Cross court over the election spoke. Oh, shit. Pinsky will take a three jumpers. No good rebound comes down to Monte Morris. Monte Morris has it across the timeline High pick from Hartenstein wide open his green for three Damn, was no good rebound tipped out by Does your right toe heart this time. Hands up behind him That composite nine on the shock off back over the green drives in on the scholar leans in lay up is up and in good with the shooter's scholar. Easy, Scott, slow feet. It's like that play their local Shippen's. He has it on top of a scholar. Right side over. Mamadou Yalla. Yalla cross court pass in the corner. Josh Hall, catching ghosts, hook shot good and a foul on hard and stuff. Now who do we have? Who's checking it? Now? Let me just say that the Nuggets bench mob right now is probably the most energetic or at an all time high that I've seen them all season. What you might green just did. He turned on and point at the entire Nuggets bench and everybody was on their feet. Jamal Murray is jumping up and down, pointing.
Bitcoin Radio
What is "Unbanked"? CEO and Founder of Electroneum, Richard Ells
"You often described Trillion as a microbe aiming service. But i think it's a lot of other things as well. And i know one of the things that make you you. All unique is your focus on you know helping freelance for the gig. Economy third world countries right. 'cause you're actually helping them get paid in the etienne currency. So can you talk a little bit about. Have you seen any upticks in usage related to geography free during this time. I'm sure there's obviously many people looking for work and many people even Switching industries right. They just they just kinda want to survive in the best roy. Difficult cool about same. Things changed because because all dates are being pretty wild. We only launched pools during covid pretty much. Most of the february twenty twenty where mesa madness was going on and it has been a bit of a welwyn to win all suggest before cameras coors nineteen thousand and fifty talks. Fifteen thousand tubs on the platform fall off of more than than i thought we would be. They sites in all in a life cycle. And it's it's a really amazing thing to say that word of mouth which is which is now joining the whole ecosystem is it's been an actual rate thing so identity have data specifically A change i would imagine the likes of five hundred People who've been around for a long time next release deductible on Extrapolate specifically about cogan unfortun- got it's understandable because yeah sometimes in crypto. You don't have that direct data but why do you think you've seen such large growth in just the the community and like you mentioned. There's a lot of other alternative freelancing opportunities and focusing on this one thing. Because i read a lot about how people in the in the third world like you said word of mouth. They're all kind of talking to each other and accepting this currency as their new as their new valid currency. I think for a lot of people in the us It's sometimes hard to understand that perspective because a lot of our money and foundation is stays the same in its stable but when you talk about third world countries these people in many in many ways their skilled but they can't even get a paid inefficient raids right. So what do you think makes you all unique in that sense to to cater to this new generation. Maybe talk a little bit about that. This what is the effects of this new generation. When they start them they start to earn and work at Earning crypto per se rather than traditional Like what effect is half so first of all. We re still with your idea of every running freedoms platform ourselves. I mean we all. We don't select turning. We've this idea of having a very small highlands very very transaction fee to give you. The spirits appear payment system. There is insanely cheap to use almost free not want free but mike is microscopic fraction of a fraction of essent transactions. So it made you mike. You could make a two cent four cent transaction in a gun which is all twenty cent transactional fifty cent. Transaction solid transaction sizes. You couldn't possibly do on the on. The vase of mouse to coordinate Really very efficiently because most of the payment providers should providers charge of minimum of twenty or thirty cents per transaction so micro payments all really not that sixty two to traditional finance and then we shall ending slightly more helping to the twenty thousand dollar range which still to to the global twenty of thirty dollars. Sounds like peanuts bucks. A year said life changing of money for lots of people with good skills so but when he gets back. You still got the site of transfer. Bank banking system is antiquated. And it's antiquated evening. If you go to the united states want to save money from one place in the united states to another or in the fight from the uk to to else of the that. It's pretty good now. So you know you can do soon as you move outside of that country a money approach to your skin certainly probably three days before i see it here if i wanna far outside of your it may take considerable. You want relocate writing three minute drive at all then you have to try and track them down and some banks somewheres filling in a form doing something or is lost it so we've got quite a few of them some of your choice to build a relationship and so you feel a free. Three beat render eka might three being models. He's gonna laptop can make three two months. These scandals has the time to build that relationship. You have to be able to send him a twenty dollars in the thirteen doors. And he's in nigeria. We caught them us. Pay pal okay. Any use western union money transfer. Because that's gonna cost you hope that on the money just to send it so subtly you limited as to why you can get height so the traditional if you can call traditional in a fairly disruptive industry that freelance industry is disrupt table read the wheel of disrupting that further by giving access to this massive body of people all brilliant skills just skills as anyone else so don't donate affect their own back mike. You say they're going to do aerobics jolt doing fred. And they don't want that much money and they call physically get paid when banking acog high-power but so boy this thing that training having easy implements it makes really is so easily and it's almost season for them. It isn't quite instantaneous. That go to work deliberate. It's fourteen minutes july between delivering and getting pike.
How to Money
"western union" Discussed on How to Money
"Yeah so. Let's talk about matt how you could potentially use a credit card in order to pay for your mortgage like jen said. It's pretty hard to come by. We'll do our best to give you just a couple of that. You could potentially consider and interestingly enough you're more likely to find an apartment complex or landlord who's willing to accept credit cards for rent payment. Then you are to find a bank willing to accept a credit card for a mortgage payment for instance if your landlord uses a service like cosy. You can choose to pay via credit card. Although at the same time you're gonna pay a fee in order to do that and even the mortgage servicers that do accept them on the fee that they pay to oftentimes plus extra at the time of the payment so i do have one mortgage company that will accept credit cards. Nice but i. I can't i forget if it's two and a half percent or three percent need to go back and look so it just never make sense. It just negates the bonus from the car exactly right so and then another potential option is you could use the checks. Your credit card company sends you aka the convenience checks if they certainly will want you to start using convenience. Checks is what they call them really what they heart like cash advance checks and they're just not good for you because of the fees that are charged for using those checks they sent out to you and it's typically somewhere between three and five percent so again with those as well. It just doesn't make sense to use them in order to pay your mortgage and that's because the rewards that you're getting from doing so are typically capped at two percent. It just doesn't make sense to pay four percent to get two percent. Yeah sure unless. Amex starts categorizing mortgage payments as groceries right. Exactly six percent two percent spread but jin a roundabout way that we've heard of before is to use your credit card to purchase a money order deposit that money order with your bank and then pay your mortgage with the account that you deposited the money order into however the the problem there is. There's only a couple of money order. Companies who accept credit cards just <hes>. Western union seven but even then another hurdle or the big fees charged by the credit card company. By the way. I like to get my money. Orders when i get my slurpee at seven and that's perfect combo. I don't think there are seven. Elevens around us are there like i don't see them anywhere near atlantic. Maybe in the burbs. We don't like near where we live. Yeah yeah but the the problem here though is <hes>. A money order jen. You're gonna touch on this. It's a type of guaranteed payment right and so much credit card. Companies are going to treat that expense as a cash advance. And so because of that you'll be charged for it again in the in the three to five percent range so again this is another instance where the benefits you would receive would be outweighed by the fees that they're going to charge plus in this case. There's a lot of hassles. Well we're gonna keep coming up with option. Here's one more. Plastic is another <hes>. Website that you could turn to. It's the one option that we know that allows you to pay a bill like a mortgage with your credit card and it's worth looking into matt. You've used this before when they had promotional offense but they don't have a professional offering the rate that they charge us two point eight five percent and so again the only time that it would make sense to use plastic to pay mortgage is potentially in the case that you need to hit a credit card sign up bonus in order to score what like six seven eight hundred dollars from the initial spin that you gotta meet with credit card if you're having trouble meaning it through other things that won't <hes>. Charge you a fee that it might make sense to pay your mortgage with that credit card through a website like plastic at least just at once in order to make sure that you get that sweet bonus and basically the way plastic forks. Is that when you pay via their website. They then cut a check to the mortgage company. Nashville paper check. So that's how that's how it works. It's certainly an interesting service. And when they do have promo lineups matt. Didn't you at some point. Five grand and free money. Think so and so. This was a couple of years ago. I think when they first launched <hes>. But basically they were giving away fee free dollars and so you had to spend limit in. Hey up to five thousand dollars. We'll cut those checks for you free of charge. And so i was able to like you said literally. I was able to hit a spend limit for a new credit card. Sign up bonus <hes>. That i may not have otherwise hit but to be honest. I have not seen any other sort of promotions like that. Since then you are able to get fee free dollars by referring friends and so every time you refer somebody they use their service. You will then receive some feverish dollars but again. This isn't something. That is really sustainable. <hes> it can be something that maybe do once saying here to hit a spend limit but otherwise. It's not something that you can kinda regularly go to and so jen for you. It's probably just stick with those automatic. Ach payments and then. Just keep an eye out for you. Know maybe codes that plastic does put out there to kind of maybe less than that fee for at least a month or two of payments ultimately trying to get your mortgage on a credit card. It's just a lot of hassle and even if you were able to get to work out you likely won't be earning enough in cashback to to actually make it. Worthwhile might be more of a key hot pursuit or audit quixotic. Okay all right so yeah. It might be one of those things where you're tilting at windmills. You're pursuing an opportunity to try to earn greater cashback when you're paying your mortgage but ultimately there's just not a cut route that exists in order to help you do that. And score those cashback rewards every month without paying fees that outweigh the potential opportunity.
How to Money
Can You Pay Your Mortgage with a Credit Card?
"Yeah so. Let's talk about matt how you could potentially use a credit card in order to pay for your mortgage like jen said. It's pretty hard to come by. We'll do our best to give you just a couple of that. You could potentially consider and interestingly enough you're more likely to find an apartment complex or landlord who's willing to accept credit cards for rent payment. Then you are to find a bank willing to accept a credit card for a mortgage payment for instance if your landlord uses a service like cosy. You can choose to pay via credit card. Although at the same time you're gonna pay a fee in order to do that and even the mortgage servicers that do accept them on the fee that they pay to oftentimes plus extra at the time of the payment so i do have one mortgage company that will accept credit cards. Nice but i. I can't i forget if it's two and a half percent or three percent need to go back and look so it just never make sense. It just negates the bonus from the car exactly right so and then another potential option is you could use the checks. Your credit card company sends you aka the convenience checks if they certainly will want you to start using convenience. Checks is what they call them really what they heart like cash advance checks and they're just not good for you because of the fees that are charged for using those checks they sent out to you and it's typically somewhere between three and five percent so again with those as well. It just doesn't make sense to use them in order to pay your mortgage and that's because the rewards that you're getting from doing so are typically capped at two percent. It just doesn't make sense to pay four percent to get two percent. Yeah sure unless. Amex starts categorizing mortgage payments as groceries right. Exactly six percent two percent spread but jin a roundabout way that we've heard of before is to use your credit card to purchase a money order deposit that money order with your bank and then pay your mortgage with the account that you deposited the money order into however the the problem there is. There's only a couple of money order. Companies who accept credit cards just Western union seven but even then another hurdle or the big fees charged by the credit card company. By the way. I like to get my money. Orders when i get my slurpee at seven and that's perfect combo. I don't think there are seven. Elevens around us are there like i don't see them anywhere near atlantic. Maybe in the burbs. We don't like near where we live. Yeah yeah but the the problem here though is A money order jen. You're gonna touch on this. It's a type of guaranteed payment right and so much credit card. Companies are going to treat that expense as a cash advance. And so because of that you'll be charged for it again in the in the three to five percent range so again this is another instance where the benefits you would receive would be outweighed by the fees that they're going to charge plus in this case. There's a lot of hassles. Well we're gonna keep coming up with option. Here's one more. Plastic is another Website that you could turn to. It's the one option that we know that allows you to pay a bill like a mortgage with your credit card and it's worth looking into matt. You've used this before when they had promotional offense but they don't have a professional offering the rate that they charge us two point eight five percent and so again the only time that it would make sense to use plastic to pay mortgage is potentially in the case that you need to hit a credit card sign up bonus in order to score what like six seven eight hundred dollars from the initial spin that you gotta meet with credit card if you're having trouble meaning it through other things that won't Charge you a fee that it might make sense to pay your mortgage with that credit card through a website like plastic at least just at once in order to make sure that you get that sweet bonus and basically the way plastic forks. Is that when you pay via their website. They then cut a check to the mortgage company. Nashville paper check. So that's how that's how it works. It's certainly an interesting service. And when they do have promo lineups matt. Didn't you at some point. Five grand and free money. Think so and so. This was a couple of years ago. I think when they first launched But basically they were giving away fee free dollars and so you had to spend limit in. Hey up to five thousand dollars. We'll cut those checks for you free of charge. And so i was able to like you said literally. I was able to hit a spend limit for a new credit card. Sign up bonus That i may not have otherwise hit but to be honest. I have not seen any other sort of promotions like that. Since then you are able to get fee free dollars by referring friends and so every time you refer somebody they use their service. You will then receive some feverish dollars but again. This isn't something. That is really sustainable. it can be something that maybe do once saying here to hit a spend limit but otherwise. It's not something that you can kinda regularly go to and so jen for you. It's probably just stick with those automatic. Ach payments and then. Just keep an eye out for you. Know maybe codes that plastic does put out there to kind of maybe less than that fee for at least a month or two of payments ultimately trying to get your mortgage on a credit card. It's just a lot of hassle and even if you were able to get to work out you likely won't be earning enough in cashback to to actually make it. Worthwhile might be more of a key hot pursuit or audit quixotic. Okay all right so yeah. It might be one of those things where you're tilting at windmills. You're pursuing an opportunity to try to earn greater cashback when you're paying your mortgage but ultimately there's just not a cut route that exists in order to help you do that. And score those cashback rewards every month without paying fees that outweigh the potential opportunity.
True Mysteries of the Pacific Northwest
War of the Worlds: A Wave of Halloween Hysteria
"We're going to look back eighty-two years. Why because it's almost Halloween eighty-two years ago people America woke up to discover that the night before they had been the victim of a theatrical radio presentation. The date was October 30th 1938 the radio show was Orson Welles Mercury on the error version of HG Wells War of the Worlds now in 1938 war was brewing Germany invaded Austria. And Japan was strongly along with the Invader prior to World War II. It was forecasted Britain would suffer night are bombing attacks causing large numbers of Civilian casualties in Mass Destruction. It was widely agreed that navigation and targeting would be more difficult if man-made lights on the ground could be extinguished as early as July 1938 American citizens were off. To practice lights out beginning at dusk. It would not be called blackout drills until nineteen thirty-nine fear across the country as rumors spread about coming to the aid of our British allies should War break out but the sounds of war that came over the radio that October 30th 1938 were not from Europe but from Mars Choice a live broadcast Across America 5 p.m. In the west which would have made it about 8 p.m. Eastern time meant that there was no time to warn the West Palm about what was to come a wave of Hysteria that swept across United States at night before Halloween has risked realistic radio dramatization reached all the way to Portland, Oregon 2500 miles from the scene of the fictional Invasion. The telephone switchboard of The Oregonian newspaper in Portland was swamped by hundreds of excited dog. As people rushed into the business office of the newspaper demanding information hundreds of calls were made to the Portland Police most wanting to know what protection the city could off and what place might be safe in the event that wholesale destruction spread to the Pacific coast doctors reported cases of women fainting a mandamus reported to a loaded his family into a car and driven frantically through the streets of Portland searching for a Haven of Refuge Portland officers or the Western Union Telegraph company were jammed with person seeking to send off of grams to relatives in the East inquiring as to their safety just as an announcer was choked off by poisonous gas in what he had said might be the last broadcast ever made the town plunged Into Darkness would be the town of War again Portland, Oregon. Of course, this was the effect of the early blackout program announced a previous week off. Few people remembered that elsewhere in the Northwest calls poured into newspapers and press Association offices by the thousands a Seattle newspaper switchboard report hysterical calls from persons wanting to know if it was true that New York had disappeared beneath the Atlantic Ocean phrases, like here they come Paula skyscrapers, they're throwing Heatwave shocked and horrified listeners one, Oregon Journal newspaper reporter returning from the coast pulled into a gas station and was informed by a pack stricken McMinnville attendant not to bother gassing up that the world was coming to an end. That was Nineteen thirty-eight Americans today are much more Savvy and have many more ways of or receiving news other than radio. And of course if message came over Facebook Twitter or one of the other internet services, we wouldn't be fooled or would we change? Portland Oregon's response
True Mysteries of the Pacific Northwest
Two Hauntings
"You Welcome to kiss myths and mysteries, I'm your host Kit Chrome today to get us in the mood of haunted ghost towns that we're going to be talking about later in the we thought I'd cover a couple former military basis that were active during and slightly after world. War Two, but the two I found were six hundred fifty miles apart in one, thousand, nine, hundred, forty, two Tillamook Bay, Oregon was prepared for Submarine Attack Naval Air. Station, as it was called, was the base. Base for squadrons E. P. Thirty three and housed eight K class blimps that carried a crew of ten and dozens of depth charges. They were stored in an all wood, the hanger get this one thousand seventy two feet long two hundred ninety six feet, wide, one hundred ninety two feet high, that took thirty three million board feet of lumber to build originally the basis, one thousand six hundred acres held over sixty buildings, but as of today only thirty five or left standing. In a heavily wooded area paths lead to five separate ammunition bunkers, and the basis littered with dozens of locomotives left rusty on their tracks. There are several aircraft and radar bunkers. Also, it was nineteen forty eight when the base was decommissioned in our story really begins. The two huge hangars were filled with warplanes hanger a contained T. B.. M. Grumman Avenger torpedo boats Henry. Be stored. S. B. TO C. Hell diver dive bombers, five hundred planes in all being made ready for A. A last flight to the Aircraft Cemetery Arizona Robert. smedley was flying a hell diver to San Diego when bad weather said in when he turned back, a group of loggers saw the planes circling under low cloud cover just before the crash, wreckage of the plane was scattered over two hundred yard radius among the wreckage was copy of a Western Union note he'd sent to his wife just days before coming home soon, it said loud Bob People visiting the old base of reported seen. Seen a man dressed in a typical world war, two flight suit wandering among the wreckage, one visitor walked up to a Russian plane complete with a pilot and thought it was part of an act Robert. smedley left behind a wife and three-year-old daughter, and it's believed by local residents claim to have seen. The ghost is probably the spirit of Robert. Smedley, trying to find his way home now travel last six hundred fifty miles. I mentioned to San. Francisco's old hunters point shipyard originally. Originally built on six hundred thirty eight acres of Waterfront. Our story began so the dawn of July first nineteen, forty six, when the able day atomic airburst over tiny Bikini atoll took place over one hundred US military ships surrounded the island of all the vessels. It was light aircraft carrier. US Independence that the government decided to toe into hunters point shipyard intent on finding a way to decontaminate it. They also wanted to determine the potency of the radioactive contamination I. They tried sandblasting. We're left with tons of radioactive sand that had to be packed in of dump some thirty miles off the San Francisco coast next they brought in cats and dogs monitor effects radioactive poisoning on them, then placing the dead contaminated animals into barrels to be dumped into the Pacific. Finally, prisoner volunteers from nearby San Quentin prison were made to clean the ship when they died. You can only guess what happened to their remains. But that's ancient history, the grounds that made up the old shipyard or be decontaminated as soldier real estate investors, one investor reported that when crews were brought out to transient build foundations for his apartment complexes. They stopped short when they approached the side, it was overrun by cats and dogs, and a group of men, wearing vintage prisoner uniforms shuttle days later they were brought in again and found the lots and question deserted. Could the animals have been the spirits of the cats and dogs sacrificed and all those years ago, and what about the group of men were they go? So the volunteers as note of interest the US US independence began to sink before being decontaminated and. And was towed three hundred twenty eight miles out to sea at skull. At least that's what the navy says, but the Ocean Exploration Trust discovered the independence twenty eight miles west of San Francisco Bay and slightly cell of the fair alone
Native America Calling
COVID 19 frauds and scams
"This is native America calling. I'm Monica Brain. Scammers will take any opportunity to bilk you out of your money or personal information. Currently they're using the Kovic global pandemic as a way to prey on fears about the uncertainty with the virus and economic issues around the pandemic. Here's one example of a Robo call. Some folks are getting. The Corona virus has caused the. Us declared a national emergency. The Families First Corona Virus Response Act has made corona virus testing more accessible immediately. If you want to receive a free testing kit delivered overnight to your home press one if you do not want your free testing press to do to be clear you cannot take a corona virus test at home. Here's another scam. That involves a mortgage blow due to the krona virus. Mortgage interest rates have dropped an all time low. You may be able to benefit from updated modification in refinance programs. Today we're going to go through a list of scams that are out there and give you tips for avoiding scams altogether. And we'd like to hear from you. Have you been getting calls about in nineteen? Do they involve cures or personal requests for personal information to get your relief? Check call us right now and share your experience you can be an anonymous of the number is eight hundred nine six two eight four eight once again. Is Sean Spruce? He's the programs consultant. He's a programs consultant for First Nations Development Institute and Co hosts the PODCASTS natives on a budget Schon is Laguna Pueblo. Hey Monica how you doing good good? I'm I'm excited to talk about this topic today. Even though it it's a little tricky you know because it involves people who are committing crimes and really taking advantage of Sometimes unsuspecting folks so Have you recently wrote about A scam in your doctor per cap column that involved the Corona Virus. Tell us about it. Yeah absolutely so I got a an email from a woman End into the country and she had received a phone call very late at night from somebody who claim to be her niece and then he said I'm really sick I mean hospital and I've racked up these huge bills because of Cova nineteen. I'm infected and I need help paying the bills and this woman is elderly and she was at home and you know she was again. It was late at night. She wasn't quite isn't allergic. She could have been and she just but it didn't sound quite right so I'm quite like her these even though the woman identified herself as her knees with the right name and everything. Fortunately her nephew was also home and he grabbed the phone and he very quickly could tell that this was a scam. This was not actual niece. It was basically what we call grandparents scam. Where Somebody Will Foam Cau- call it older person and pretend to be a grandchild or niece or nephew and say they're in some kind of trouble and usually it's some kind of trouble with the law or something like that This case this person claim to be sick with covert nineteen and needed help paying medical bills. So fortunately they hung up the phone and that was the end of it but she she sent me an email just to let me know what was going on. And this was something that was headed occurred in her with her personal life and You know these kind of things just always bring out. The worst. In people. Natural disasters are hurricanes earthquakes tornadoes forest fires. You know every time. One of these huge natural disasters or crises erupts. There's always some bad actors scammers fraudsters that look to take advantage and this was an example of that fortunately she wasn't victimized but scary that people will approach somebody or contact. Somebody call somebody like with that kind of a sinister plot to defraud them or steal from them. Yeah I know especially late at night and I I know I would be all confused and take me a minute to realize whether or not I was dreaming or something like that I wonder for that out there to our listeners. Have you ever experienced something like this? Has Someone called and pretended to be your family member and asked You for help And then it turned out that they weren't at all Give us a call and share. The number is one eight hundred nine six two eight four eight vessels one eight hundred nine nine native. I want to add another voice to the conversation. We've got Chuck Harwood on the line. He's the regional director of the Federal Trade Commission for the Northwest Region. Hey there chuck. I'm GONNA so are you. Seeing lots of reports of an increase in scams are the scammers. They're just taking their regular catalogue of Scams and just adding cove in nineteen to it and Is that increasing the answer. To all requested yes That's exactly what's happening. We're seeing lots of reports of scams about liberate. Thousands of reports are scams which in which Cova Nineteen Corona virus being referred to. They are taking their usual catalogue of scams and just tacking on corona virus or Cova nineteen to the for example. The one Sean talked about it they classic grandparent or family. Birds Scam that we've been hearing about for years sometimes traffic accidents or something like that now. They're saying Rovers So Yeah we've seen both. Wow that's That's upsetting to hear so Exactly how okay. Let's talk a little bit more about how this actually works with the grandparent. Scam for example. So you know Sean was saying she was saying she was in the hospital and she needed money if they had continued that conversation. What would happen next chuck? Almost certainly they would have asked for money to be sent They would have said that they need the money immediately. needs to be perfectly overnight faster that the victim can be convinced to get the money in the mail or more likely. Frankly Sent through wire Western Union or these days. They even use know gift cards to send money. like Amazon itunes gift cards That's the way they want to do it. And as soon as the money has sent it disappears and doing impossible to reverse the payment And tumors out the money. It is extraordinarily. You'd think it can't work but extraordinarily common. How often people fall for the scam and my time said one more thing about the scam described in point of an important point important Element in fighting. These scams net is consulting with your friends and neighbors family The example that Sean describe was prevented because the woman who received the call had a family member. She could consult with And that's that's really critical. Find is a lot of people who avoid scams do so because they talk to friends and family members of course in the middle of lockdowns at viruses increasingly hard to do so. They can't further like to fall victim to these games. I had this conversation with my dad. Who's in his late seventies and I told him if somebody calls saying there me and they need money for the emergency room hospital or anything like that or I'm in jail. Just leave. Just tell them now. You can stay there and we'll just go ahead and because that's not gonNA happen. I'M NOT GONNA call you that way. You know our tell them. Oh call your sister and she'll take care of it Which I think is you know I mean I. It seems weird to have a a scam plan. Sean have you talked to folks about that like having conversations with your family members in advance as a preventative measure. Not so much you know like having you know like a plan like a strategy if when whatever and I think because one of the challenges is there are just so many different ways to scam. Somebody and like Chuck mentioned people just continue to Kinda easy same scams. They just always a new twist to them. So you know it's just it's difficult to kind of create a plan because scams can come in so many shapes and sizes and like You know we talked about earlier. Anybody can be a victim of a scam. Anybody can be caught essentially Scam proof impossible. I don't care how much education you have and I don't care how many plans you create can never completely scam proof yourself. And that's because scammers know how to appeal to people's emotions and why again and again when you really effective scam designed to prey on base human emotions. You've got love. Which is those romance scams which are really effective Natural Disaster Death Sickness. Things like that people aren't necessarily thinking clearly they're not thinking straight their emotionally vulnerable and they can be victimized when they're in that setting so yeah. I really encourage people you know. Hang up the phone quickly. Don't engage with a scammer. But not so much of a game plan like which relatives the contractor not to contact although it might be effective for some people to to think like that and come up with you know basic strategy for dealing with some of these issues.
This Day in History Class
On This Day in History: Pearl Street Station Began Generating Electricity
"I'm eve and welcome to this day in history class a show that uncovers a little bit more about history every day. Today is september fourth twenty nineteen <music>. The day was september fourth eighteen eighty two pearl street station. The first commercial central power plant in the united states started generating electricity building on the work of other inventors. Turn edison created an incandescent lighting system. He had already constructed experimental power installations. He used a dynamo now. No known as a generator to deliver power to each of these small installations but incandescent lighting in homes and endorse was becoming more popular and a substantial source of power was needed in eighteen eighty the same here. He received the patent for his incandescent lamp. Thomas edison established tablet the edison electric illuminating company of new york to build power stations in new york city edison decided to build the first permanent central power power stations for supplying incandescent lighting in new york's financial district in lower manhattan construction of the station began in eighteen eighty one the mechanical and electrical part of the plant was at two fifty seven pearl street since the building was constructed for commercial use. The structure had to be strengthened. Thanks to hold all of the necessary equipment. The flooring was replaced with a floor of girders supported by columns. The building used for storage ridge. Sleeping and offices was at two fifty-five pearl streets. Each building has four floors edison chose this location because it provided a good mix of commercial and residential business and was home to many major newspapers. It was also close to the western union telegraph telegraphy company in city hall the company paid around three hundred thousand dollars to buy the properties and built the station and distribution system constructing the network of wires and conduits that delivered energy to customers was one of the most expensive parts of the project after administrative expenses canvassing and patent license fees the cost came to about five hundred thousand dollars or two hundred and i'm forty horsepower babcock wilcox boilers were in the basement of two fifty seven pearl street fix engine and dynamo assemblies were on the floor above that the dynamos were driven by reciprocating steam engines supplied by coal fired boilers each assembly wait about about thirty tons and was raided for around twelve hundred lance. The third floor housed wooden frame wrapped with copper wire resistances that were used used for manually regulating the dynamo fields. The fourth floor was home to a thousand lamps that were used to test dynamos that needed inspection or repair. The first engine and generator assembly was tested on july fifth eighteen eighty two the station went into service on september fourth pearl street street station used direct current which is an electric current that flows in one direction with alternating current on the other hand. The electric current changes direction periodically. Atakli customers were not charged for current until eighteen eighty three after the system for accurately recording the flow of current proven reliable so the first bill was to antonia brass and copper company for fifty dollars and forty four six the new york times officers were one of edison's since first customers pearl street station did not become profitable until eighteen eighty four other direct current low-voltage central station electric systems were later built around new york city in january of eighteen ninety. A fire destroyed some of the station but it was back up up and running not long after and stayed in operation until eighteen ninety four though edison defended the use of direct current. The rest of the world was gravitating toward alternating current. Either tom pearl street station shutdown. Other power plants have been designed to service larger areas edison sold the buildings and they were later torn down. I'm jeff code in. Hopefully you know a little more about history today you yesterday saturday.
Planet Money
The IT Guy Vs. The Con Artist
"Hundred responses. They turn those responses into a great episode. They just published it. You can go listen now. One of the stories they included in their show was just so delightful and so- eliminating that we said we have got to run this as one as a planet money so that's what today's episode is a now. I'm just gonna turn the show over to gregory warner. The host of rough translation in in two thousand and ten felipe fernandez was laid off from his i._t. Job at hewlett packard in costa rica fully based costa rican and the layoff was a huge blow. He didn't what he was going to do next someone from his family fully they didn't want me to say who approached him with a potential job. There was a business that needed an i._t. He person which sounded good he was an i._t. Guy he needed work so i was obviously curious. What he said was <hes>. We actually <hes> run. This cam on senior citizens the people who need the i._t. Guy they were in the business of calling people steal their money senior citizens in the u._s._a. He elaborated said we have a script. All you have to do is call and call and call until someone bites. You know this groped ma'am. I have good news for you. You have won a sweepstakes prize of four and a half million dollars. All you have to do due to collect that prize is wire a small deposit for our insurance policy that is forty five hundred dollars and you can send that today by western union. I was doubtful awful. How can you really make money out of that but this scam is pulling in hundreds of deals a week. They call it deals each call it deal the scammers are called agents and this operation like all businesses needs an i._t. Guy philippe as hearing this and he's horrified. I that this is a business seconded. His relatives involved but philippi keeps a poker face. I immediately told him to. This is not something that i can just decide site right there and then <hes> but that i will think about philippi goes home any google's the phone number for the f._b._i. They tell them that's. That's not our jurisdiction. He should call up the u._s. Embassy in costa rica. I called him and they asked me to come in for a meeting which i did and is it like the the movies. Do they meet you you in a in a room with you know the blinds closed. It was just a conference room and and the u._s. embassy in this conference room. He explains his plan dan. He wants to take the job. Collect information that the u._s. authorities might use like the names of these games and their location. Maybe some license plates you as you said. I am about to take this job and i want to stop this stuff from happening. I want you to know what i'm doing so you don't think i'm one of the bad guys so that pretty much astounded us to a year. That joe healy was a u._s. Postal inspector these now retired but in two thousand and ten he was investigating mail fraud specifically telemarketing scams in costa rica and weirdly the hard thing about prosecuting these cases was not finding the bad guys it was finding the victims crooked you so so embarrassed and so ashamed the victims didn't come forward because they felt so ashamed about falling for the con and so for joe healy it's kind of the reverse of the typical investigators problem instead of having the dead body trying to figure out who the bad guy is. He knows the bad guy. He has to track down enough victims to make the arrest. We needed a lot of victims a lot of credible victims and lots of losses without lots of victims and lots of losses. We couldn't bring cases joe. Healy is sitting in this conference room with fully bay the i._t. Guy in his buttoned-up shirt physically little guy. He's five foot four and not not overly muscular. He's trying to explain to this isn't some quick job where you grab some license plate numbers and addresses he would need the names of the victims and philippa is considering doing it heading into the criminals den to get that information himself. We said okay you know. We can't guarantee your safety because we can't be there. You know so as long as you're going into the open is <hes> you know that that would help when felipe day was a kid. He never imagined himself in i._t. He thought he'd be a cop like his grandfather. A police chief in san jose flea bay remembers watching his grandfather on the local news when he solved a big case. I remember him <hes>. <hes> you know in the in the in the police headquarters the way everybody looked at him and i grew up admiring his sense of duty philippe as grandfather used to tell him that seeing something wrong being done and not doing