Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Submitted by Thorstein Polleit via The Mises Institute, Some politicians want to ban cash, arguing that cash is helping criminals. The first steps in that direction are the withdrawal of big denomination notes and the limits imposed on cash payments. Proponents of a ban on cash claim that this will help fight criminal transactions —…
Brynjar Gunnasrson/AP Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson announced his resignation on Tuesday amid mounting public anger over evidence that he and his wife owned a secretive offshore company called Wintris, which managed millions of dollars of investments in three Icelandic banks that collapsed during the 2008 financial crisis. Calls to step down were sparked by…
This weekend, Fusion and more than 100 other media organizations started publishing the Panama Papers, a global investigation into the secrets of offshore finance. So far it has yielded huge revelations about heads of state and politicians around the globe. Some of the biggest names to come out of the files include close friends and…
FROM THE START of the reporting based on Edward Snowden’s leaked document archive, government defenders insisted that no illegal behavior was revealed. That was always false: Multiple courts have now found the domestic metadata spying program in violation of the Constitution and relevant statutes and have issued similar rulings for other mass surveillance programs; numerous articles on NSA and GCHQ documented…
It’s easy to get confused by all the headlines about the Panama Papers, a massive 2.6-terabyte leak of documents that reveals a global web of corruption and tax avoidance. But Vox’s German Lopez uncovered a great explanation of what’s happening, and it’s courtesy of brilliant redditor DanGliesack. He uses piggy banks to help explain the…
The Panama Papers leak is still in its infancy, but one thing is clear: the largest data leak in the history of investigative journalism promises to have repercussions for the rich and powerful around the world. Already, leaders in Iceland and Russia are facing questions about their use of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca…
Updated on April 3 at 9:58 p.m. EST News organizations from around the world have published investigations based on a massive trove of leaked documents they say reveal corruption and questionable business dealings of world leaders, politicians, sports stars, and others. The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung said Sunday it received encrypted internal documents from Mossack…
Up to 30 percent of the current employees in the banking industry may lose their jobs to new technologies in the next 10 years, according to new projections from Citigroup. A 112-page report, “Digital Disruption,” released on Wednesday, said that the number of employees at American banks would drop to 1.8 million people in the…
View this image › Wells Fargo ATM bank machines are shown at one of their new retail banks in Carlsbad, California January 25, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake Mike Blake / Reuters ID: 8082612 America’s big banks collected over $11 billion in overdraft fees in 2015, according to a new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,…
Federal Reserve policy makers are beginning to worry that a corporate-credit squeeze will constrict the economic expansion. With banks tightening standards on business loans and investors demanding higher yields on some corporate debt, companies may find it harder and more expensive to raise the money they need to grow. The concern is that could prompt…