The Federal Reserve’s system that allows financial institutions to send money back and forth electronically went down Wednesday morning. From a report: The “operational error,” as the Fed described it, impacted multiple services, including its pivotal automated clearinghouse system, which connects depository and related institutions send electronic credit and debt transfers. There were no initial indications that foul play was suspected….
Tag: federal reserve
Can Oklahoma Return Its $2 Million Stockpile of Hydroxychloroquine?
A nonprofit watchdog news site in Tulsa, Oklahoma reports:
The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office has been tasked with attempting to return a $2 million stockpile of a malaria drug once touted by former President Donald Trump as a way to treat the coronavirus. In April, Gov. Kevin Stitt, who ordered the hydroxychloroquine purchase, defended it by saying that while it may not…
US Treasury Nominee Yellen Wants to Encourage Cryptocurrencies — ‘For Legitimate Activities’
Business Insider reports: The bitcoin price was set for its biggest one-week fall since September on Saturday morning, having slipped around 10% since Monday… Bitcoin came under selling pressure this week after Janet Yellen, Joe Biden’s pick for Treasury secretary, suggested the use of cryptocurrencies should be “curtailed” because they were used mainly for “illicit financing”. Writing at Nasdaq.com on Thursday,…
Bitcoin Surges 50% in Just One Month. CNN Ponders ‘Insane’ Record Run
The price of Bitcoin increased 50% — in the last four weeks. Now priced at $26,579, “Bitcoin is crashing — upward,” quips CNN Business: The digital currency has a market value north of $500 billion. Think Bitcoin is just a fad? It’s worth more than Visa or Mastercard. Or Walmart… Its rapid rise has been remarkable — or insane, depending on…
Pandemic May Permanently Replace Some Human Jobs With Machines
The coronavirus pandemic has the potential to permanently replace some humans with machines, according to a new study on Monday from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. From a report: Layoffs have been higher among workers in industries that can be automated, which increases the risk those jobs will become permanently obsolete, according to the study by economists Lei Ding and…
Investors Argue This Stock Market Isn’t Like the ’90s Dot-Com Boom
The stock market is setting new records, with some tech companies at “the steepest premium ever versus cheap shares,” reports Bloomberg. (Even Tesla “is trading at more than 800-times earnings while an electric-truck peer, which made just $36,000 last quarter by installing solar panels for its founder, is valued at $16 billion.”) So is it like the great dot-com bubble of…
Apple Is Now Worth $2 Trillion, Punctuating Big Tech’s Grip
It took Apple 42 years to reach $1 trillion in value. It took it just a two more years to get to $2 trillion. From a report: Even more stunning: All of Apple’s second $1 trillion came in the past 21 weeks, while the global economy shrank faster than ever before in the coronavirus pandemic. On Wednesday Apple became the first…
Is It Time To Kill the Penny?
COVID-19 has constipated the economy and prompted the U.S. Mint to cut back on coin production to keep its workers safe. As NPR’s Greg Rosalsky writes, this could be a rallying cry for a long-running movement that has lost steam in recent years: Kill the penny! “With the closure of the economy, the flow of coins through the economy has ……
Stanford Economist Predicts Working-From-Home Continues, City Centers Decline
The new “working-from-home economy” will likely continue after the pandemic, predicts Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom, in an article shared by Slashdot reader schwit1. Bloom cites results from several nationwide surveys he’s conducted: We see an incredible 42 percent of the U.S. labor force now working from home full-time. About another 33 percent are not working — a testament to the savage…
Coronavirus: Worst Economic Crisis Since 1930s Depression, IMF Says
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: The coronavirus pandemic will turn global economic growth “sharply negative” this year, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned. Kristalina Georgieva said the world faced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. She forecast that 2021 would only see a partial recovery. Ms Georgieva, the…