The fastest way to send money electronically We put Square, Google, Paypal, and Popmoney to the test

The fastest way to send money electronically

We put Square, Google, Paypal, and Popmoney to the test-

Nov. 6, 2013, 7:05 a.m. EST 

Downloading a book, movie or album takes just minutes. But electronically transferring cash to a friend can take the better part of a week. 

In an earlier story, we explained how part of the reason computers move money so slowly is that banks still rely on 1970s technology. But with a growing number of services vying to become the new go-to way to message money, MarketWatch decided to take the tech for a test spin. 

We sent $10 from New York to a colleague, multimedia producer Billy Higgins, in San Francisco five different ways: through PayPal, Popmoney, Google Wallet GOOG -0.08%  , and the recently launched Square Cash. As a control, we also sent $10 by putting a good, old-fashioned check in the mail. All of these transactions were initiated at 3 p.m. eastern on a recent Friday afternoon....http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-fastest-way-to-send-money-electronically-2013-11-05?link=sfmw_sm 

Google, Square thwarted by banks’ 1970s tech

Disco-era computers bedevil efforts to allow for instant money transfers- Nov. 5, 2013, 8:55 a.m. EST

Shutterstock.com

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

New services are popping up to make sending someone cash as easy as sending an email. 

There’s just one problem: the technology banks use to move money dates back to the 1970s. So while the Internet makes it possible to transmit 10 books across the country in several seconds, moving 10 bucks can take several days. And demand for instant payment services isn’t nearly strong enough to convince the banking industry to join the 21st century, experts say...http://www.marketwatch.com/story/banks-rely-on-1970s-tech-to-move-money-2013-10-21

 

 

Cotacachi, Ecuador: Griller Guy for NOV/DEC 2013 Tail Gator Magazine-

Cotacachi, Ecuador: Griller Guy for November/December 2013:

by patrice  |  on October 30th, 2013  | November/December 2013 Tail Gator Magazine-

 

Dave Schroeder was interviewed by Tailgater magazine … 

Interview by Jane Ehrhardt: http://www.tailgatermonthly-digital.com/tailgatermonthly/20131112?u1=promo1#pg34

Indigenous peoples - Death in the Amazon

Nov 8th 2013, 11:03 by S.K. | QUITO

  MINUTES before its planned release on September 25th a judge in Ecuador blocked the distribution of “A Tragedy Hidden Away”, a book detailing a massacre of 20-odd members of one indigenous Amazonian tribe, the Taromenane, by another, the Waorani. The authors, Miguel Ángel Cabodevilla, a Capuchin missionary, and Milagros Aguirre, a journalist, promptly distributed it via the internet. Faced with a public outcry over the censorship, the judge reversed her decision two days later.

  That was the latest twist in the tragic tale of tribal warfare. An uncontacted, or “hidden”, tribe, the Taromenane are protected under Ecuador’s 2008 constitution. Article 57 protects the hidden peoples from “ethnocide” and blocks their territories from incursion to guarantee their rights and survival. Not, it seems, against the Waorani (who as a “recently contacted” tribe do not enjoy similar protection)...http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2013/11/indigenous-peoples
via:http://latinamericacurrentevents.com/ecuador-death-in-the-amazon/29968/

Drone mapping the pyramids of Zuleta in Ecuador

Article created on Tuesday, October 29, 2013

By Mark Willis

  The Pyramids of Zuleta are one of the hidden treasures of the Andes. Built around 1,000 years ago, by the native Caranqui people, these earthen mounds and platform pyramids dominate the landscape near Hacienda Zuleta in the mountains of northern Ecuador and 110 kilometres north of Quito.

 

  Unlike much of our planet, high resolution aerial imagery and digital elevation models are unavailable for this part of the world. This is due to the fog that often blankets the area and the agrarian nature of the region. As a part of a team of archaeologists who visited the site in August 2013, we aimed to change that.

Pyramids deep within the canyon.

Mark Willis Programming the UAV while in flight.

  
A challenging task Using a small, hand-launched, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV aka drone) equipped with a downward facing camera and a sophisticated autopilot system, we documented the site as it has never been seen—from extremely low altitude and at high resolution.  
  This was a challenging task as most of the pyramids are located in the bottom of a steep constricted canyon inhabited by Andean Condors. To make things more challenging there were high winds, clouds, and quirks of the micro-climates within the canyon to contend with. In spite of that, we were able to fly nine missions and collect hundreds of photographs in just a couple of days...http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/10/2013/drone-mapping-pyramids-zuleta-ecuador

Why Ecuador?: 4 Types of Internet Expats (and why they should be...

Why Ecuador?: 4 Types of Internet Expats (and why they should be...: I originally posted this on my other blog Life Unmapped , but felt it would be of value here also since many of our readers are potenti...

Are You Prepared For a US Bank Bail-In? - the dollar vigilante blog

 [Editor's Note: The following post is by TDV Editor-in-Chief, Jeff Berwick] 03 NOV 2013

If you have cash in a US bank, you can expect to have the federal government take it all the next time US banks find themselves in trouble.  

The days of the federal government stealing money from taxpayers, or borrowing it from the Federal Reserve, to save troubled banks -- as in they did in the 2008 crisis -- may be over. Congress is considering imitating the theft in Cyprus and letting troubled banks "bail-in" depositor money in order to make themselves solvent. 

Jim Sinclair, chairman and chief executive officer of Tanzania Royalty Exploration Corp., and whose family started Goldman Sachs, Salomon Brothers, Lehman Brothers, and others, has been warning of this for a while.

 “Bail-ins are coming to North America without any doubt, and will be remembered as the ‘Great Leveling,’ of the ‘great Flushing’. Not only can it happen here, but it will happen here...It stands on legal grounds by legal precedent both in the US, Canada and the UK."

If you don't get your money out now, possibly by end of this year or sooner, you may not be able ever to get it out. Once doors are closed the federal government might do a bank holiday and bail in to make the banks "solvent" again. At best you may get some "bank equity" that is both illiquid and which will ultimately be worth a tiny fraction of the deposit it replaces. 

And, not to mention FATCA coming into effect in July 2014 it will be nearly impossible for an American to get a bank account outside the US (it already is, but will be even worse). Now is the time to get your assets in an offshore account and TDV can help. Click here to learn more about how with TDV Offshore...http://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2013/11/04/plans-in-place-for-a-us-bank-bail-in.html

An American Military Veteran in Ecuador: If I am this close to the sun, why the hell am I s...

An American Military Veteran in Ecuador: If I am this close to the sun, why the hell am I s...: Yesterday we flew out of Guayaquil (GYE) and into Quito (UIO) (the capital of Ecuador) to take care of some business with our residency visa...