Business

If you listen to administration officials, the key to winning the war on ISIS is to cut off the group’s funding, some of which the government claims is tied up in stacks of U.S. dollars. At the same time, banking interests and policymakers claim possession of a $100 bill is practically evidence of criminality in and of itself. As these two efforts to stigmatize cash intersect, America faces a dramatic push to eliminate, or at the very least drastically curb, the existence of physical money.

By EconMatters

After short covering Monday, Tuesday pushed the oil market down with no help from OPEC and a Risk Off mode in financial markets. With a bad API report after hours look for weakness ahead of the Department of Energy Report on Wednesday morning.

There are three certain things in life: death, taxes and paying vault storage fees to keep your gold safe. Or at least there were: recently the third of these certainties got somewhat muddied when, over the past year the government of India unleashed an attempt to soft-confiscate the nation's publicly held gold, by offering to pay interest for said gold. Incidentally, the effort has failed miserably as India has been able to collect only a few tons of gold as part of this gold monetization scheme.

Late last month, we brought you the latest from Barclays on Venezuela, where Nicolas Maduro’s socialist paradise is rapidly collapsing in the face of falling oil prices.

“The economic emergency decree and any measures that the government could take at this point may be too late,” the bank declared. “After two years of inaction and the recent decline in oil prices, a credit event in 2016 is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid.”

A new supermarket in Rotterdam is giving away food to the poor and anyone who can prove they need assistance. The supermarket is located in an improvised area of the Netherlands and is staffed by volunteers. It makes money by selling grocery items to customers who can afford them. It does not get any government subsidy. Food and Wine reports: Swingmarket, located in one of Amsterdam’s poorest neighborhoods, is a nonprofit grocery store that covers its expenses by catering to paying customers while also giving food away for free.