At one time or another, almost everyone dreams about receiving an unexpected inheritance. Maybe you share DNA with a rich person you didn’t know about. Maybe an ex has forgiven you for whatever reason you broke up. Maybe a relative has more money to leave than you know of. Or maybe some rich person will pick your name from a phone book and make you a beneficiary. Yeah, right, but… all those things have happened! Shown is former waitress Cara Wood, who received a half-million dollars when a regular customer died. Link -via Look at This
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Dark Roasted Blend takes a look at artful and unusual bank notes from around the world, past and present. You thought Zimbabwe’s inflation was outrageous when they issued the 100 billion dollar notes? Now they have 100 trillion dollar notes! That kind of hyperinflation is not new, as you’ll see in this post. Link
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Nowadays you can customize your debit or credit card with a (non copyright-violatin’ or pornish) photo you send to the card makers at your bank. When Flickr user Tony Webster saw that, he naturally chose an LOL Cat. Find out more about “badging” your debit or credit card to make it more personal at creditcards.com
via CatLadyDiary Photo: Tony Webster
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A Russian circus chimpanzee named Lusha picked stocks that tripled in value over a year’s time. Lusha was presented with cubes representing 30 different stock options and selected eight to invest money in by picking the cubes. Her chosen portfolio outperformed 94% of Russian investment funds!
‘She bought successfully and her portfolio grew almost three times. She did better than almost the whole of the rest of the market,’ said editor of Russian Finance magazine Oleg Anisimov.
He questioned why so-called financial whizz-kids are still receiving hefty perks for their expertise .
‘Everyone is shocked. What are they getting their bonuses for? Maybe it’s worth sending them all to the circus.’
Link -via Blame it on the Voices
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Once, the United States issued $5,000, $10,000, and even $100,000 bills. Why on earth would someone carry bills that big, especially back when they were really worth something?
Believe it or not, it wasn’t just to save space in fatcats’ wallets. When the Treasury started printing these giant bills, their main purpose was making transfer payments between banks and other financial institutions. Before sophisticated wire transfer systems were fully developed, it was apparently easier and safer just to fork over a $5,000 bill to settle up with a fellow bank. Once transfer technology became safer and more secure, there really wasn’t much need for the big bills anymore.
Mental_floss has the story on when and why such large bills were issued, what they looked like, and why they aren’t in circulation anymore. Link
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Misery loves company, so this should make you feel as if you aren’t alone. -via the Presurfer
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Perhaps it has something to do with their field of choice, economics AKA the dismal science, but many of the world’s most famous economists share one extraordinary trait: they’re cheapskates!
Some economists may be cheap, at least by the standards of other people, because of their training or a fascination with money and choices that drives them to the field.
In recent research, University of Washington economists Yoram Bauman and Elaina Rose found that economics majors were less likely to donate money to charity than students who majored in other fields. After majors in other fields took an introductory economics course, their propensity to give also fell.
"The economics students seem to be born guilty, and the other students seem to lose their innocence when they take an economics class," says Mr. Bauman, who has a stand-up comedy act he’ll be doing at the economists’ Atlanta conference Sunday night. Among his one-liners: "You might be an economist if you refuse to sell your children because they might be worth more later."
Economists long have studied "free riders," the sort of people who take more than their fair share of something when circumstances permit. Think of the person who orders the most expensive entr[eacute]e at a restaurant, knowing that the check will be shared equally among companions.
University of Wisconsin sociologists Gerald Marwell and Ruth Ames, in a 1981 paper, found that in experiments, economics students showed a much higher propensity to free ride than other students. In questioning after the experiment, the sociologists found that for many of the economics students, the concept of investing fairly "was somewhat alien."
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I love that the only way you can qualify for the Van Valkenburg Memorial Scholarship – is if you’re a direct descendant by birth or adoption. Why even have the scholarship? Other scholarships may be easier to qualify for -IF you know about the opportunity! Here are a few examples:
9. Sophie Major Memorial Duck Calling Contest – If you love ducks season you may be eligible for $2,000 in scholarships. So get your favorite duck call and get prepared to win some money!
12. The Billy Barty Foundation – This scholarship is awarded to students who are short in stature – under 4’ 10” – and have proof of dwarfism.
33. Carnegie Mellon University Bagpipe Scholarship – This highly uncompetitive scholarship offers $7,000 yearly to bagpipe major students.
(image credit: Flickr user heather)
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The Salary Theorem proves mathematically that those who know more make less money. Therefore, if you know nothing, you should be fabulously wealthy! Link -via Digg
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Image: US Debt Clock
The stupendously large US national debt (currently at nearly $12.1 trillion and growing) is a depressing thing for most of us, but not to the number nerds at the Bureau of Public Debt! They LOVE to calculate how much the American government owes.
Lisa Desjardins of CNN Radio has the story:
At a large desk in Parkersburg, Jaime Saling watches over roughly 6,500 pieces of data and trillions of dollars each day. Her title takes up a few characters itself: Saling is the debt accounting branch manager for the Bureau of Public Debt.
She and a division of just 15 people quietly and relentlessly work to account for every penny of the national debt. It is tedious and potentially overwhelming work, but Saling acts as if she flies jet fighters. [...]
The public debt building has become a number nerds’ paradise. Employees say they balance their checkbooks at least weekly, some daily. A big happy-face sign marks progress on a recent audit. A written goal is taped to a Nerf-sized football. And the security guards brag that someone brings in a cake about every other day.
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This cute Japanese coin bank has a kitten inside with its hand raised just like Maneki Neko! In this case, money does come to him. I wish I knew where to buy this. -via Buzzfeed
Update: You can get one here. -Thanks, Rumpus!
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We all have to keep up with the times, and the classic arcade game Whac-A-Mole is no exception. Inventor Tim Hunkin found what could be the best villain for the game ever: bankers!
Mr Hunkin said the game was "proving very popular."
"I keep having to replace worn-out mallets," he said. "The bankers are bald and all look the same because that’s how I think people see bankers, as faceless."
Players, who are promised a "truly rewarding banking experience", pay 40p to hit as many bankers as they can in 30 seconds. When a customer wins a voice says: "You win. We retire. Thank you very much to the taxpayer for paying our pensions."
Link | Tim Hunkin’s website | Making of Whack-a-Banker
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Can you imagine losing $1 million to the casinos? No? How about $127 million? In one year. That’s how much Terrance Watanabe lost, making it one of the biggest – if not the biggest – losing streaks by an individual in Las Vegas history.
The run is believed to be one of the biggest losing streaks by an individual in Las Vegas history. It devoured much of Mr. Watanabe’s personal fortune, he says, which he built up over more than two decades running his family’s party-favor import business in Omaha, Neb. It also benefitted the two casinos’ parent company, Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., which derived about 5.6% of its Las Vegas gambling revenue from Mr. Watanabe that year.
Today, Mr. Watanabe and Harrah’s are fighting over another issue: whether the casino company bears some of the responsibility for his losses.
In a civil suit filed in Clark County District Court last month, Mr. Watanabe, 52 years old, says casino staff routinely plied him with liquor and pain medication as part of a systematic plan to keep him gambling.
Like the motto says, apparently your cash really does stay in Vegas. Alexandra Berzon from The Wall Street Journal reports: Link
(Photo: Peter McCollough for the Wall Streer Journal)
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Now that Dubai’s economic bubble has popped and the emirate’s mega-projects are imploding under their own debt crunch, we can weep over all the fantastically outlandish buildings that will never be built. Like the rotating tower by architect David Fisher above, a refrigerated beach, a vertical seawater farm, and so on.
Inhabitat and Treehugger have the post: Link
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Economic activity inside North Korea has reportedly ground to a halt following a government announcement that it is devaluing its currency at a rate of 100:1.
There were reports of public outrage and confusion after the announcement of the measure, which requires North Koreans to swap existing won notes for new ones at an exchange rate of one to 100 — effectively knocking two zeroes off their value. Because of a cap of 100,000 won per family (£475 at the official exchange rate), anyone with significant holdings of cash will have their savings wiped out.
The move is seen as an effort to quash small businesses and private enterprises which have proliferated in the unofficial economy. As many as 30,000 vendors are believed to operate in a market outside the capital, Pyongyang, and many of them had accumulated substantial cash reserves. This move effectively confiscates that cash.
Analysts do not foresee any direct economic repercussions outside the country, but it does serve as a reminder that many other world currencies are, like the North Korean won, “fiat money”
Links at the Times Online, Wall Street Journal, and Economist. Photo credit.
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A new survey by the Centre for Retail Research revealed that shopping shoplifting has increased at an astonishing rate:
They found that shoplifting in Britain has increased in the past year by nearly 20 per cent to almost £5 billion, £750 million more than in 2008, keeping Britain at the top of Europe’s shoplifting table. Clothing and fashion accessory shops were hardest hit, with branded designer goods high on thieves’ shopping lists, closely followed by DIY stores.
Neil Matthews, vice-president of Checkpoint Systems, said that he was astonished at the rise of middle-class shoplifters. “We are not simply looking at your traditional shoplifters here. We are seeing more instances of amateur thieves stealing goods for their own personal use rather than to sell on than before,” he said.
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Seattle artist Jack Daws made eleven pennies by casting them from 18 karat gold and plating them with copper. One of those pennies was sold for $1,000 as a work of art. Another penny was spent at a news stand in Los Angeles. Yes, Daws sent one of the pennies into circulation in 2007 as a counterfeit -on purpose. He expected never to see it again. Over two years later, a graphic designer from Brooklyn noticed a golden gleam on a penny she was given as change. She put it away to investigate later, as she was a fan of unusual coins.
Then recently, while doing research about a 1924 Mercury-head dime, she remembered the penny and typed “gold penny” into Google, which returned information on science experiments to give a penny a gold color. She added “1970” and found an item about how Mr. Daws had put a 18-karat gold penny, dated 1970 with no mint mark, into circulation. It was heavier and smaller than a real penny.
In disbelief, she weighed the penny on a digital scale. It came in at three grams, one gram more than similar pennies from 1970. And it was slightly smaller than a normal penny, owing to the shrinking after the casting process.
She traced Mr. Daws’s phone number through the gallery and left him the message. When he called back, he knew it had to be his penny as soon as she described it to him.
Reed will keep the penny as a work of art. How many other hands did the gold coin pass through before she found it? We will probably never know. Link -Thanks, Bill!
(image credit: Lynn Rogan)
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Remember the record-breaking Penny Pyramid built by Marcelo Bezos? Well, Marcelo had built a "glow in the dark" pyramid featuring Neatorama:
Marcelo's selling the Penny Pyramid, along with the house it comes in:
How do you get a record 3,500 lb. Penny Pyramid out of a house before you sell it ?........ YOU DON”T, you list it as one of the many upgrades and amenities that comes along with it!
Welcome to the current home of the World’s Largest Penny Pyramid! The penny pyramid which was originally built in 2006 to raise awareness for colorectal cancer and the screening process will be auctioned off along with the house it was built in this winter to raise funds in support of the Penny Pyramid Project. Mr. Bezos, the creator and holder of the record is also the founder of the Penny Pyramid Project, a non-profit child philanthropy educational program that uses its signature world record penny pyramid in fundraisers used to support other charitable organizations in the greater Miami area. The Penny Pyramid Project was founded in 2007, it ran its first annual fundraiser that same year raising over 1,200 dollars in pennies alone. Unfortunately, the fledgling program was temporarily forced to go dormant during the 2008 school year. Mr. Bezos, “it is my hope that this unique approach to the sale of the house will generate enough local and national interest that will generate the necessary funding in order to bring back this really neat educational program for our school children.”
and…. if it does not sell?, well then each coin used in the pyramid will be encased in an aluminum outer shell, a lost art only a few companies in the US now can reproduce. In its hay day from 1900-1970, millions of these encased pennies were used to commemorate or used as a premiums to help advertise a company’s product. Mr. Bezos, This type of coining is just a really cool way to showcase what now is the Worlds Largest “Glow” in the dark penny pyramid!”
The current Pyramid has grown to just over 525,000 pennies. The accompanying video series has also been a viral sensation around the world receiving over 3,300,000 views and counting!
The latest work has caused the outer coins to glow in the dark turning the current structure into the Worlds Largest “Glow” In The Dark Penny Pyramid!
Link - Thanks Marcelo!
Update 11/3/09: Marcelo gave us further info on the Neatorama Penny Pyramid statistics:
The letters are made up of the following number of piles and coins
All pennies are uncirculated 2009 D Professional Series.
N= 57 piles 570 pennies
E= 63 piles 630 pennies
A= 64 piles 640 pennies
T= 61 piles 610 pennies
O= 40 piles 410 pennies
R= 56 piles 560 pennies
A= 64 piles 640 pennies
M= 65 piles 650 pennies
A= 64 piles 640 pennies
1. takes about 1min 30 to process each pile so it glows, (secrete process, last about 600 hours when subjected to continous UV light)
2. took about 5 hours to insert in pyramid
ok, that’s a total of 534 piles or 5340 pennies
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Climate change may be serious stuff for many of us, but for Al Gore, it’s seriously profitable. He’s about to become the world’s first "carbon" billionaire:
Few people have been as vocal about the urgency of global warming and the need to reinvent the way the world produces and consumes energy as Mr Gore. And few have put as much money behind their advocacy and are as well positioned to profit from this green transformation, if and when it comes.
Critics, mostly on the political right and among global warming sceptics, say Mr. Gore is poised to become the world’s first "carbon billionaire," profiteering from government policies he supports that would direct billions of dollars to the business ventures he has invested in.
Representative Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, has claimed that Mr Gore stood to benefit personally from the energy and climate policies he was urging Congress to adopt.
Mr Gore had said that he is simply putting his money where his mouth is.
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If you’re feeling a tad poor because of the economic meltdown, tell yourself that at least you’re not Nicolas Cage. The highest paid actor in Hollywood is broke:
How could one of Hollywood’s highest paid actors find himself owing $6.3 million in back taxes and deep in money troubles? The answer is, "Easy," if you believe Nicolas Cage.
In a lawsuit filed Oct. 16 in Los Angeles, the National Treasure star, 45, claims that his longtime business manager, Samuel J. Levin, "lined his [own] pockets with several million dollars in business management fees while sending Cage down a path toward financial ruin."
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Money is the Root of All Evil – $11.95
You’ve heard the common saying "Money is the root of all evil," and now it’s been conclusively proven with mathematical precision. From the Neatorama Shop: Link | More Geektastic Science T-Shirts
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Mr. Dalton Chiscolm sued Bank of America for $1,784 billion trillion dollars. That’s $1,784,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. In the International System of Units this amount would be expressed as 1.784 yottadollars.
The range of SI unit prefixes is shown above; “yotta” is the largest accepted prefix, used to measure things like the diameter of the known universe (in yards).
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin, who heard the case in Manhattan’s federal court, presided over the Bernie Madoff trial, and thus is familiar with large amounts of money – but even he was impressed by the size of Mr. Chiscolm’s claim. If every person on earth had as much money as Bill Gates, that total wealth would still only be 1/1000th of the amount requested.
The plaintiff was asked to provide further evidence to support his claim.
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People have deducted swimming pools, breast implants, and body oil from their income for tax purposes -and the IRS allowed it! You can deduct anything if you can justify it as a legitimate business expense. Eleven people did just that in this article from Kiplinger.
1. Pet food. A couple who owned a junkyard were allowed to write off the cost of cat food they set out to attract wild cats. The feral felines did more than just eat. They also took care of snakes and rats on the property, making the place safer for customers. When the case reached the Tax Court, IRS lawyers conceded that the cost was deductible.
(image credit: Flickr user play4smee)
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Das Kapital Money Bank – $19.95 + s/h
This one will make Karl Marx spin in his grave (you may be surprised to find where the father of communism was buried. No, not the Soviet Union. Karl Marx was buried in London.)
Behold the Das Kapital Money Bank – a secret storage case shaped like his Das Kapital manifesto. And at $19.95 over at the Neatorama Shop, you don’t have to be the bourgeoisie to buy one: Link
See also: Good Marx, Bad Marx T-Shirt
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Sportswriter Wright Thompson tried out the “Legends” section at the new Yankee Stadium. The seats originally went for $2,500. Now they are mostly empty, even though the price has dropped to $1,250. In telling the story of how such an exclusive luxury section came to be, Thompson relates the changes in baseball with the state of the economy.
A recent poll discovered an unsettling trend emerging for the first time. American families whose household income is $75,000 or less now have zero dollars of discretionary income. According to Luker, that means about 75 percent of the country can never responsibly afford to go to a live professional sporting event. Franchises want them to be fans, to buy the gear and pull for their teams and watch the telecasts the leagues are paid billions for. But they don’t need them to come to their stadiums. There are, right now, plenty of rich people who love games. The prices reflect that. The reason sporting events cost so much now, Luker’s research shows, is because they are designed to be affordable only to those making $150,000 or more a year.
This wasn’t always true. Ten years ago, it was cheaper to go to a baseball game than to a movie in half of the big league markets (take away parking at the game, and it was cheaper in every market). Today, there isn’t a single city in America where it costs less to go to a major league game than to a movie. Everywhere we turn, we see examples of the collapsing middle class. This is where that issue lives in the world of sports, and it has predictable consequences.
You don’t have to be a baseball fan to relate to this story of a business choosing short-term profits over long-term growth. Link -via Metafilter
(image credit: Julie Jacobson)
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Engineeer and cartoonist Tim Hunkin created an arcade game that at first appears to be an ATM or banking kiosk. When coins are inserted, the banking poster drops and reveals Wack-A-Banker, giving you an opportunity to take your aggressions out on a group of financially oppressive stereotypes. See more pictures and read how this project came about at Tim’s site. Link -via Everlasting Blort
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Families differ on how they give their kids money. Kelly writes about how her family does it, and the many questions that go along with allowances.
* Should the allowance be given freely OR tied to chores?
* Should I only pay for extra chores?
* How much money should I give my kid?
* Should I let them spend it on what they want OR should I force them to save a portion of it?
* Coins, bills, or a savings account?
* How often should I give him/her allowance?
Personally, I give the kids a set amount every week, in order to teach them by trial and error how to handle money. The amount is less than their friends get, which forces them to think hard about how they spend it. Their allowance is not tied to performing family chores, but occasionally I give a bonus to someone who has been extra helpful (only as a surprise). How does your family handle children and their money, or how do you plan to do it? Link -via Consumerist
(image credit: Flickr user Pingu1963)
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Marcelo Bezos has been collecting pennies for the past 35 years, and when his father-in-law died from colorectal cancer, he decided to do something to raise awareness for the disease: building a record-breaking pyramid out of pennies!
Here’s the video clip of the Penny Pyramid Project from 2006 – the structure contained some 280,000 pennies (Marcelo’s most recent pyramid contains over 435,000 pennies):
[YouTube - turn your speakers down if you don't like O Fortuna from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, the techno version]
Thanks Marcelo!
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Out of a job? If you live in the Great State of California, you’re in good company: two out of five working-age Californians do not have a job!
“The current recession stands apart from prior downturns for both the depth and breadth of destruction in the job market,” the report says. “California has lost more jobs at a faster rate in the past two years than during any prior recession for which data are available, and employment has fallen in nearly every major sector of the economy.”
Because of the decline in the number of jobs coupled with growth in the labor force, the report finds that the percentage of working-age Californians who hold jobs has fallen to its lowest level in 32 years. Citing U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, the report says just 57.5 percent of California adults are working.
The last time the percentage was that low was in 1977, a time when many women voluntarily chose not to work outside their homes. The percentage of employed adults peaked in 1989 at 64.9 percent.
Timm Herdt of Ventura County Star has the grim news: Link | California Budget Project Press Release [PDF]
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Steve Valdez of Tampa, Florida had a check written to him from his wife. He took a check to her bank to cash it. Bank of America requires a thumbprint to cash a check from anyone who does not hold an account there. The problem is that Valdez was born without arms. The bank refused to cash the check.
According to Valdez, when he gave the teller the check, she said “Obviously you can’t give a thumbprint.” But Valdez says the manager refused to cash the check unless he did.
When Valdez told the manager giving a thumbprint would be impossible, she suggested he either bring in his wife or open an account. Valdez says that’s not the way the bank would treat someone without prosthetic arms, and he refused.
A spokesman for Bank of America said that the bank should have made accommodations for Valdez. Link -via J-Walk Blog
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