[sunnykerr]

House passes stimulus bill, moves to Senate
http://www.fanforum.com/f117/economi...rong-62864036/
http://www.fanforum.com/f117/700-bil...tory-62857273/

Banner by 4N6 DNA

[sunnykerr]

On the last thread, we were discussing the weirdness of Bitcoins.

And we can totally continue doing that, but this story also caught my attention today:

EU investigation to probe Mastercard fees Mastercard is being investigated by the European Commission over fees charged for card transactions made by people visiting Europe. The Commission said some of the firm's "inter-bank fees and related practices may be anti-competitive". The commission is already investigating rival Visa over similar practices. Mastercard, which said it would "fully co-operate" with regulators, could be fined up to $740m, or 10% of its 2012 revenue, if found guilty. The credit card firm said that it always aimed "to balance the interests of both consumers and retailers". 'Crucial importance' The investigation will examine payments made by people from outside the European Economic Authority (EEA) - the EU's 27-member states as well as Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland - who use their credit and debit cards when inside the area. The EU said the main aim of its probe was to ensure consumers were not harmed. "When a US tourist uses a Mastercard to make a purchase in [the European Economic Area], these fees can be quite high, generally much higher than those paid in Europe," European Commission spokesman Antoine Colombani said. In 2007, a similar probe led to the Commission banning Mastercard from charging cross-border fees within the European Economic Area. The Commission said payment cards were of "crucial importance" for cross-border and internet payments. "It is therefore a priority for the European Commission to prevent competition distortions in inter-bank arrangements on fees," it said. As well as inter-bank fees paid by cardholders from non-EEA countries, the Commission said the probe would look at rules that obliged merchants to accept all types of Mastercard cards, even if some of them incur higher charges. The probe will also look at Mastercard's restrictions on merchants who wish to use banks outside their own country, which could be cheaper. "Ultimately, such behaviour is liable to slow down cross-border business and harm EU consumers," it said. The Commission said it would submit proposed regulation by the middle of the year on inter-bank fees aimed at ensuring a level playing field for all card providers.

Source

Once again, I think the EU is bang on.

It's a well-known fact that credit-card fees have become murderous.

If there's even additional hinky dealings when customers are travelling, then that should also be stopped.

[quaist]

Tftnt! And you've picked a very good title, I just hope that we're not material girls

I haven't heard about Mastercard charging any irregular fees before. But it's certainly good to hear that this is being investigated.

[sunnykerr]

Yeah, well guess which album I listen to every morning as I'm getting dressed for the day?

I really should switch to something else before my brain gets taken over by the lyrics.

Anyway, I'm not at all sure about what is going on in Europe with MasterCard.

I do know the EU is looking into it, so whatever is there will be resolved... hopefully.

Also, funny thing happened this morning. They talked about Bitcoins on the news-magazine show that I watch every morning before going into work.

The expert guest guy said that there are currently two problems with Bitcoins, and they seem fairly contradictory to me but, at the same time, they make sense.

One is that they keep increasing in value, so people are hoarding them, which means their value is in a sort of bubble that can blow up any time.

Second problem is that there are not a whole lot of businesses who are accepting them as yet. So they're kinda going nowhere.

[quaist]

I guess you should

It'll certainly be interesting to sit and watch where those bitcoins are heading to... I've heard that it's most likely a new bubble in the making, too.

But it looks as though value's already dropping now:

Bitcoin Charts / Charts

[sunnykerr]

So a very short bubble then.

[quaist]

Is it only me or is the link to the chart not working anymore?

Maybe they're already trying to cover up the 'bubble burst' (just joking)

[sunnykerr]

It's working for me just fine, but the value has continued to drop dramatically.

I'm not really sure what that means.

Although, apparently, there's new malware out there that's stealing people's bitcoins.

Does that mean it has secret value?

[quaist]

Now it works for me again, too -- and it's still dropping. Must really have been a short run on those bitcoins...

And if there's already malware out there to steal people's bitcoins, there's not much incentive left to get new ones.

[sunnykerr]

I hadn't thought of that.

Yeah, maybe the malware will prevent further interest from developing.

But with still few businesses accepting bitcoins as payment, you have to wonder why they even bother stealing them.

[quaist]

I believe there's a special 'stock exchange' where you can trade bitcoins against real money

[sunnykerr]

Well, that would at least make some of this make sense.

Because, honestly, it all seems irrevocably loopy.

[sunnykerr]

Fannie Mae to pay $59.4bn back to US after record profit US federal mortgage agency Fannie Mae has said it will pay $59.4bn (£38.5bn) in dividends to the US Treasury, after posting a record profit in the first quarter. The $58.7bn net profit reflected a huge gain of $50.6bn from reversing an earlier writedown of tax benefits. It compares with a profit of just $2.7bn in the same period a year ago. Fannie Mae and rival Freddie Mac had to be bailed out by the government at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. During the crisis, Fannie received tax benefits on the bad loans it had to absorb, and has now decided the time is right to capitalise on those. "After evaluating the recoverability of Fannie Mae's deferred tax assets, as of March 31, 2013, the company determined that the factors in favour of releasing the allowance outweighed the factors in favour of maintaining it," it said in a statement. 'Cold feet' With the latest dividend payment to the Treasury, Fannie will have repaid $95bn of the $116bn it has received from taxpayer funds. Freddie Mac is also profitable again. On Wednesday, it reported a profit of $4.6bn in the first quarter and said it would pay a dividend of $7bn to the Treasury. With that, it will have repaid about $37bn of the $71bn it had received. Fannie and Freddie buy home loans, package them as bonds, guarantee them against default and sell them to investors. Both the Obama administration and Congress want to eventually wind them down but it has yet to be decided how the government's role should be reduced. Anthony Sanders, a real estate professor at George Mason University, Virginia, said Fannie and Freddie's return to profitability and the money they are able to return to the government may give the administration "cold feet" about winding them down.

Source

Of course, it makes sense that they should repay the bailouts they were given now that the wind has turned in their favour.

At the same time, I see that they're not expected to pay interest on their federal "loans," which strikes me as ironic, considering the usual practices such financial institutions have.

I know nothing of Fannie May and Freddie Mac's specific practices, to be clear, but most financial institutions charge interests, right?

[sunnykerr]

Eurozone recession continues into sixth quarter The recession across the 17-nation eurozone has continued into a sixth quarter, figures show. The bloc's economy shrank by 0.2% between January and March, according to official figures. That left the region's economy 1% smaller for the period compared with a year ago. Individual data for member countries showed nine were in recession, although Germany recorded weak growth of 0.1% in the period. The figure marks the longest recession since the euro was launched in 1999. It was worse than the 0.1% fall expected by economists, although gross domestic product (GDP) numbers, like other economic statistics, are subject to revisions. Severe The weak state of so many economies in the eurozone has led to rising unemployment. About 19 million people in the 340 million-strong eurozone population are without work, with unemployment in Greece and Spain running at 27% of the workforce. In France, which figures show fell into recession for the second time in four years, unemployment is 10.6%. The European Central Bank acted this month to try to boost growth by cutting interest rates to 0.5%, a record low. Europe's leaders have been trying to rein in debt by introducing austerity programmes of varying levels of severity. The continuing level of economic pain has prompted debates about whether or not these programmes have the effect of further restricting growth,

Source

I don't understand how a 0.2% shrink can lead to a 1% loss, but obviously this is yet again a topic that isn't really up my alley.

However, please feel free to discuss it.

My thought, which stems from that same lack of understanding, is that if we're all going through and economic crisis, then obviously we're all in the same boat and therefore it can't be that bad. We just need to readjust our expectations.

[quaist]

I really don't know where this is all heading...

They always keep talking about the more than apparent North-South divide concerning unemployment rates and overall economic performance. Germany's facing federal elections this fall where there's going to be one new EU-critical party up for election that demands Greece and other Southern members states be thrown out of the euro zone. God knows if that'd help, even experts are divided over this matter.

Troubled times