worthy of a read. makes crypto contingences look small and petty, and fiat currency contingencies as primal as they have ever been.

mass affluent clients also deserve live interactions with a very well dressed swiss banker wearing a tailored suit.

‪as it turns out, and if the situation does not inprove drastically in the US, it will have been a virus that officially ushers the beginning of the end of the $ denominated global financial system. ‬ ‪not a financial crisis, not a tech arms race, not guns & powder... a virus. ‬

‪the inevitable demise of the $ as the global settlement currency.‬ ‪what we do not know yet is how swift will the fall be, what will emerge in its stead, how the financial services industry will be rearchitected, how the new global financial technology plumbing will be governed.‬

Margrethe Vestager is the most powerful woman in the EU. more so than Lagarde at ECB & Ursula von der Leyen at EU Commission given how big tech is such a crucial topic at moment. top three powerful EU posts are held by women btw. symbolic & important. Vestager is also the most powerful tech regulator in the world, with jurisdiction over one of the largest & richest markets in the world. she will impact financial services, fintech, not because she is a financial regulator, but because the industry she regulates encroaches & impacts so much banking in all its forms. how effective she will be is of paramount importance to democracies & to financial services. #fintech #banking #banks #regulation #financialservices #bigtech #eu #tech #innovation #competition …see more

one partnership with a fintech alt lender and they all three merge to become a bank. i don’t make the rules.

an age old issue. how terrified would have been the carpenters & various woodworkers when around the beg. of the 11th century churches and cathedrals started being built in stone. otoh masons, stone workers rejoiced. closer to us, banking employment is bound to decrease across many countries as technology is systemically and systematically applied to increase output. …see more

anyone dealing with fx should be terrified with Libra (assuming success) their business will never be the same, they will either be disrupted or end up participating in the Libra ecosystem (as resellers, or wallet or services providers) and their margins will be controlled by a combination of Facebook, Calibra or the Libra foundation. (and if not Libra, then another similar consortium.) this includes banks (fx trading desks), independent fx dealers, fintech startups (TransferWise)... …see more

money is a social construct. human beings interact based on social norms. it goes that: - physical money’s norms deal w/the physical world - digital money is deployed with a set of digital/physical norms - p2p money interactions has its own set of norms - crypto money will or already has its own set of norms there are foundational attributes to money: fungibility, privacy, bearer or not... much like w/attitudes towards risk & returns, social norms applied to money evolve intra and inter-generationally. #digital #cryptocurrency #money #social #fintech #risk #payments …see more

title should be “hackers steal ONLY $40 million worth of bitcoin because what fun is there in stealing everything at once”

kids these days. more seriously though, the number of CVCs is not declining and new CVCs are even more specialized than their forebears. of course, how many will remain in that business when the market sours. …see more

‪- ethereum may be a security.‬ ‪- ethereum is not “not a security”.‬ ‪- the situation is fluid. wait for more SEC pronouncements to yield further frustration or lack of clarity.‬ …see more

‪when one uses the words automate & trust together (“automate trust”) one demonstrates a lack of understanding of either words. ‬

‪hierarchy of trust:‬ ‪- individual responsibility leads to trust in self‬ ‪- 2 individuals each w/self trust interacting w/1 another unlocks transactional trust‬ ‪- sharing of responsibility w/individuals creates mutual trust‬ ‪- sharing of responsibilities unlocks broad social trust‬ …see more

the day when 21st century payment rails, including state of the art RTGS, are fully implemented in the US, is the day lRge Us banks will have lost their war against modernity and openness in financial services.

I just got back from San Diego, where the American Economic Association held its annual conference. I've been going to the meetings for close to a decade now, and this year's version looked and felt different. Job interviews (the conference doubles as a giant hiring fair) moved out of hotel rooms, where female candidates have long felt uncomfortable. There was an ombudsperson holding office hours to hear about harassment and abuse. There were even lines for the ladies room. In other words: Economics has made progress in the year since its longstanding problems with sexism and racism burst into public view. Many people told me they have seen the beginnings of a culture shift. And there have also been more concrete reforms: new committees, new policies, new enforcement mechanisms. But it is still unclear whether those reforms will translate into deeper, more lasting change. And in terms of hard numbers, economics has a long way to go: Gender and racial gaps in economics are wider -- and have been more stubborn -- than in many other fields. For more, see my story with Jim Tankersley and Jeanna Smialek in today's The New York Times . #economics #diversity #gender #race …see more

Are you rejoining the workforce after some time away (maybe to raise a family)? Or is your company looking to attract such workers? I'd love to talk to you for a possible story. Feel free to get in touch at ben.casselman@nytimes.com . Thanks!

Paytm was among the first movers in India’s mobile payments scene and remains a key player. But what started out as an effort to remove friction from making payments, Paytm President Madhur Deora tells me, has become a push to create a connected commerce ecosystem that provides Indian consumers and businesses more ways to engage. …see more

When digital 1.0’s wave hit in the mid-1990s, innovators were told that moving in “internet time” would give them an overnight competitive advantage. Two-plus decades and two digital evolutions later, those who survived recognize that using digital to solve for physical frictions — at scale — takes more than good tech, good luck and a slick user interface. It’s why the shift to a pandemic-fueled shift to digital 3.0 will take longer than we now think — even though consumers are chomping at the bit for more digital-first experiences, and faster. Here’s why. …see more

Sam's Club is mostly known as a wholesale membership retail experience, because that’s what it’s been for most of its history. But SamsClub.com CEO and EVP of Membership & Technology Jamie Iannone tells me that these days, the company more closely resembles a tech start-up than a retailer. Albeit one with $60 billion and massive scale. …see more