one of my favorite pastimes is to go over every concept in finance and delve into how weak it is, until I realize most of the field is on shaky grounds. same applies to economics.

i wish the financial services world in general and the banking world in particular would get back to apprenticeships and learning a craft with real qualifications as opposed to focusing on crass financialization.

‪let me crystal clear.‬ ‪“moving from products to services” as an original banking/finserv meme is tired.‬ ‪what really counts is moving from advertising to subscriptions/tx rev. models that support that original meme. ‬ ‪that is where the real fintech innovation battle will be waged‬ …see more

underrated: open banking + APIs + big tech offering financial services + fintech startups + faster payments + non-bank banking can potential lead to an increased risk of deadly bank runs. so far depositors have been very loyal with their banks (even though there is evidence of deposit displacement h/t Ron Shevlin ). yet technology adoption & digitization is laying the groundwork for more fluidity. government guarantees of deposits is the ultimate stabilizing factor i guess. #banking #payments #financialservices #fintech #openbanking …see more

makes more sense than a Deutsche/Commerz merger, both strategically & tactically. easier to inject innovation w/new business models, tech, products/services (relative to a bank merger). should be Swiss led (to maximize chances of success). …see more

rating firms are the reason why financial markets never experience exuberant bubbles and always prices assets correctly.

‪bankers view of banking is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get something else expensively with poor service. ‬

to the millions of businesses that use FB Messenger for their b2b operations, i have one question: *WHY, are you insane?*

‪With US #interestrates so low, investors our pouring into junk bonds desperately seeking higher‬ #yields

Insightful data analysis from University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School Budget Model on #deaths #jobs tradeoff #COVID19 #USA

With UK Parliament vote today, 1 piece of Brexit uncertainty gone ... but so much uncertainty out there. I think my July piece is aging pretty well

The Fed cut rates again on Wednesday. Great news if you're trying to buy a house, right? Maybe. In The New York Times today, I wrote about why lower rates might not do much to help the housing market. Three main reasons: 1. It's still hard to get a mortgage, especially if you have imperfect credit: Lending standards are tight, not just compared to the bubble years (a good thing!) but also compared to the more normal period that preceded it. 2. It's hard to find an affordable home: Prices have risen much faster than wages in many cities, and inventories are low, especially for starter homes. 3. Rates are already low: Mortgage rates are already near record lows, so it's unlikely many people are sitting on the sidelines waiting for a cut. And if they were, bad news: The Fed's cut might not actually lead to lower mortgage rates. It could even raise them, at least temporarily. To learn why, and for more on who's winning and losing in this housing market, read my story in today's Times. #housing #interestrates #personalfinance #mortgage …see more

Come be my editor! FiveThirtyEight is hiring a senior editor to oversee our coverage of the Trump administration, and of other policy/politics issues. Details at the link, or reach out to me with questions.

Faster payments initiatives are gaining ground across the globe. In a PYMNTS TV exclusive with Ken Montgomery, the Boston Federal Reserve’s COO and FedNow program executive, tells me the Fed’s ambitious instant-payments initiative remains on track - with a pilot program set to launch shortly. Watch the full conversation here. …see more

Between March 6 and 17, the number of U.S. consumers extremely concerned about contracting the coronavirus doubled and two and half times as many worried about dying from it than losing their jobs. Those are just two of the results from the second PYMNTS survey of almost 2,000 U.S. consumers about the virus and its impact to their daily behaviors. A lot happened in just 11 days. Dive into the latest data on what consumers are doing and why. …see more

#NRF2019 kicks off this week, and with it will come loads of innovations intended to drive consumers back into the stores. There’s only one problem: Consumers don’t really want to go. Physical retail can survive the consumer’s shifting preferences for digital commerce, but the existing store model certainly won’t. Here’s why traditional retail might want to look at the evolution of traditional media for clues on what the future will hold. …see more

Online criminals are getting more sophisticated, and law enforcement can’t keep up — that’s the blunt message Whitepages Pro CEO Rob Eleveld has for us. Yet, even as new tech and better computer power help fraudsters, businesses can take advantage of those tools to thwart hacking and fraud attempts. Find out about the new era of fraud and what it means for payments and commerce defenses. …see more

Actions speak louder than words, our moms and Sunday School teachers taught us. And nowhere does that old adage ring truer than when it comes to blockchain, marketplace lending and digital-only bank tech. Pioneering FinTechs that set out to upend the incumbents using these three technologies haven’t really lived up the frothy hype cycle that fuels their juicy tech press headlines. For proof you just need to follow the smart money. …see more

In our December Mobile Order-Ahead Tracker, DoorDash ’s Abhay Sukumaran explains how the company is using machine learning to match the consumer’s need for ordering ahead - wanting it delivered - with new digital payments methods to eliminate the friction:  https://lnkd.in/eMRcNDC …see more

NACHA 's COO tells me what to expect as the ACH rails adds another notch to its faster, ubiquitous payments belt.