Impact of ATMs on the use of cash (*).
Abstract: This paper examines the role of cash usage in the development of payment media. For that purpose, the basic trends of change in payment media are scrutinized using European data. Although cash still clearly dominates in small retail payments, there has been a definite shift towards electronic payments...

Move over, Charles Keating.
Mother Teresa called him Charlie, as in, "How is my friend Charlie Keating?" That was the Calcutta matron-saint's first question to Senator Dennis DeConcini when they met. To her, Keating was the devout Catholic who had given her a $1.4 million donation. To most Americans, Charlie is a crook....

Avoid the poverty trap: create independence through asset development.
Individuals with disabilities often rely on federal and state benefits such as Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) to meet their financial needs. These federal entitlement programs have specific income eligibility and asset limitation requirements. For example, to be eligible for SSI, individuals must...

Finance on the Fringe: America's check cashers don't exploit the poor; they serve them.
THAT ANNA HAS a problem becomes clear shortly after I sidle up next to her on the cold stone steps of the First Union Bank in downtown New Haven on a chilly fall afternoon. In fact, the 56-year-old woman has many problems--including, she's quick to point out, more than...

How should telecom companies be valued? Real options analysis could bring sanity back to stock prices.
In the time of the Internet frenzy, logic concerning how companies should be valued went out the window. The so called "new economy" no longer had to rely on traditional valuation techniques. Instead valuations were based on the number of "eyeballs" viewing a web site; capacity of the system;...

Why your investments need to grow even in retirement.
Q: we are retiring in a couple of months. We are selling off a family business and rolling over our retirement-plan funds into IRAs. We are concerned about losing our hard-earned money and running out of money before our time. Should we put all our holdings in safe CDs?...

Economic bubbles: the Fed's financial control creates housing and other bubbles that burst with disastrous effect. The solution is to end central control and embrace free-market principles.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Many Americans today are understandably concerned about the state of the economy. The current recession is likely to be one of the worst in recent memory, and comes at a particularly difficult time for many Americans, just as many of the Baby Boom generation are...

Global Payments to Provide VIP LightSpeed Cash Access Services to 4 More Hotels.
TRAVEL AND LEISURE CLOSE-UP-18 June 2008-Global Payments to Provide VIP LightSpeed Cash Access Services to 4 More Hotels(C)2008 - CloseUpMedia - newsdesk@closeupmedia.com Global Payments, a company in both payment processing and gaming cash access services, announced agreements to provide its VIP LightSpeed suite of cash access products...

Bank of America Launches U.S. Olympic Team Advertising Campaign.
ENTERTAINMENT CLOSE-UP-24 June 2008-Bank of America Launches U.S. Olympic Team Advertising Campaign(C)2008 - CloseUpMedia - newsdesk@closeupmedia.com Bank of America, the Official Bank Sponsor of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team, announced the debut of its U.S. Olympic-themed advertising campaign. The multimedia campaign rallies support for Team...

Don't get burned by your toaster giveaway.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Your CEO has asked you to come up with a campaign to attract new interest-bearing checking account holders. You develop an offer to pay for the first order of preprinted checks (a $12.50 value) to any customer who opens an interest-bearing checking account with a...