The Ugly Side of Microlending - Business Week

How big Mexican banks profit as many poor borrowers get trapped in a maze of debt

by Keith Epstein and Geri Smith December 24, 2007

Photographs by Bruce Gilden / Magnum

In a gleaming office tower in Mexico City secured with retinal scanners, bulletproof glass, and armed guards, dozens of workers in white lab coats dart around a large operations center monitoring long rows of computers. Along one wall, 54 enormous screens flicker dizzyingly with numbers, graphs, and fever charts: a relentless stream of data. You'd think the urgent mission involved tracking the trajectory of a spacecraft or the workings of a national power grid, not tiny amounts of cash and credit for Mexico's working poor. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_52/b4064038915009.htm?chan=magazine+channel_in+depth

Weak dollar spells belt-tightening for NRIs' families

Mumbai: Although India’s economic boom has got many thrilled with the rupee’s rising strength, for many Indians with expatriate children, it spells bad news.

Mrs Eula Pinto was dependent on the money sent by her daughter, who resides in the US. But with the dollar’s continuing fall, she has been forced to restructure her household budget.

“It's (the dollar has) gone down terribly and it's quite difficult to meet with my day to day expenses,” said Pinto. “I mean, earlier I could even save for my future like – you know – medical expenses, or like, some major purchases. That way, I could save.”

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/weak-dollar-spells-belttightening-for-nris-families/54011-7.html

De-Noted: Why Let Good Money Go to Waste?

Money is illogical, Captain...
De-Noted.com

Western Union Empire Moves Migrant Cash Home - NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/world/22western.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Richard Perry/The New York Times

NEW YORK Many of the customers at Armajeet Singh’s market in Queens are immigrants from South Asia.

By JASON DePARLE

Published: November 22, 2007

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 — To glimpse how migration is changing the world, consider Western Union, a fixture of American lore that went bankrupt selling telegrams at the dawn of the Internet age but now earns nearly $1 billion a year helping poor migrants across the globe send money home.

Trail of Tears installation

"This rubber stamp was created for participants to imprint alongside Jackson's portrait on the US $20 bill. The bills are then reintroduced into circulation. When exhibited in a gallery, the stamp is mounted underneath an example of it's use, alongside an inkpad which allows participants to alter the currency in their own pockets."

http://sslifer.net/sculpture&installation/trailoftears.html

Ugly Money - Modifications of Dollar Bills

Johnny Burrito website:
http://www.johnnyburrito.com/uglymoney.htm

"Since 1998, while running the cash register at Johnny Burrito, I have encountered unsung artists, poets, philosophers & pundits using our national currency as their medium. A cost effective delivery to be seen by many. Few folks would throw away money - offensive or not. I often wonder...what is someone thinking when they do what they do. After several years of collecting, this page was created Feb, 2002."

E-Cash Silencing the Jingle of Change - Japan Times

E-cash silencing the jingle of change

By SHINICHI TERADA

Staff writer

Since major electronic money services emerged in 2001, it has become common in Tokyo for people to go through ticket gates by just touching a smart card to electronic readers at train stations and to make small purchases without pulling out their wallets at convenience stores. Japan's cash-based tradition is changing. Following are some basic facts about e-money

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/member/member.html?mode=getarticle&file=nn20070801i1.html

Modifying a Kyotong Card (Korea)

http://blog.naver.com/zlzkcb/120032570256

Basically, it is reforming a kyotongcard to create your own style through the following process.

"Tuning" is from tuning a car/ a cell phone (people arrange and reform the

outfit of their cell phones)

tuning01(attached file name): Soak a regular kyotong card in Acetone (chemical source that makes nail polish remover- you have to get an undiluted liquid from drug store) to remove its plastic outfit

tuning02: Leave it under plastic wrap

tuning02_01: Soak it into hot water for a while

tuning03: "Abstract" the copper wire and micro chip (that are connected to

each other)

tuning04: (this blogger is going to use a Korean trump card - made of plastic)

turning05: use two pieces of card. cut out the middle part of one card and attach the frame to another card.

tuning 06, 07: Glue the copper wire and micro chip to the card.

tuning 03-another, tuning05-another: same process of another case. this person is tuning the card to his cell phone.

Hope you could get an idea of how it looks like! The picture attached (key holders and cell phone straps, at right) was made by a company. There are also companies that produce order-made kyotong cards. Maybe changing the materiality of virtual money?

(text courtesy of Seo Young Park)

Mobiles to become digital wallets - BBC

Mobiles to become digital wallets

Soon you could be paying for parking with a handset

The UK's big five mobile phone firms have switched on a payment system that turns handsets into digital wallets.

Called PayForIt, the scheme is designed for those buying goods and services with a value of up to £10.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6764979.stm

The Cover of Money (credit card covers) - NY Times

The most recent figures from the Federal Reserve noted an uptick of more than 9 percent in “revolving credit” — that is, the debt carried by the millions of American consumers who don’t pay off their cards every month — putting the total at $888.2 billion as of March. Still, some consumers have come to see the credit card as an emblem of something other than an albatross of monies owed. A few months ago, a company called CreditCovers started selling “skins,” with special designs that consumers can stick over the fronts of their cards, theoretically transforming them from mere financial tools to emblems of identity and potential conversation starters.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/magazine/27wwln-consumed-t.html?ex=1180929600&en=fc3eeb7797ce7164&ei=5070&emc=eta1
http://creditcovers.com/

G.E. Unveils Credit Card Aimed at Relieving Carbon Footprints - NY Times

Feel guilty about fueling up that gas guzzler or buying that box of incandescent bulbs? Would you feel better if, instead of frequent flier miles or cash, your credit card’s rewards program allowed you to offset your role in global warming?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/business/25card.html?ex=1186113600&en=4dda3cf96e1c4c64&ei=5070&emc=eta1

In Poorer Nations, Cellphones Help Open Up Microfinancing - NY Times

By CHRIS NICHOLSON

Published: July 9, 2007

In many developing countries, where bank branches and A.T.M.’s are few or nonexistent in rural areas, cellphones may finally make financial services practical such places, fitting in the palm of one’s hand.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/business/worldbusiness/09micro.html?_r=1&ex=1184644800&en=5f52080a12dda19d&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

Cold Hard Cash: Second Life Coins Available - 3pointD.com

http://www.3pointd.com/20070801/cold-hard-cash-second-life-coins-available/

Virtual Credit Cards Come to Second Life - SLNN.com

Virtual Credit Cards come to Second Life. http://www.slnn.com/article/metacard/

Ithaca, NY Forms Currency for Local Use - NPR

Morning Edition, July 11, 2007 · Some communities around the U.S. are busy creating their own currencies, hoping to give local businesses a chance to compete against big box retailers. The local currency in Ithaca, N.Y., is called "Ithaca Hours." They are bought with U.S. dollars and can be traded with local shops for products or services. The southern Berkshire region of Massachusetts calls its currency "Berk-Shares" and in Traverse City, Mich., the currency is called "Bay Bucks."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11867279&sc=emaf

Sharp practice of melting coins - BBC News

** Sharp practice of melting coins **
Millions of Indian coins are smuggled into neighbouring Bangladesh, creating an acute shortage.
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/6766563.stm >

What a project post might look like

This is an example of what a project post might look like. You post comments or notes about the object or practice you are studying here, with links to images or other content. You can even include an image. This is a painting by G.B. Tate, an artist who does trompe l'oeil money paintings.

Future home of Anthropology 125S

This is the future home of the Winter quarter Anthropology 125S course web archive.

Anthropology 125S, "The Anthropology of Money," will be offered at the University of California, Irvine in the Winter quarter of 2008. It will be taught by me, Bill Maurer, and the class will generate an archive of nonstandard uses of money objects, as well as monetary uses of non-money objects in various communities in southern California. You can also view past archives from the 2004 and 2006 classes.