Previous issues of Bits about Money
Bits about Money yearly recap and plans
What we covered in 2024, what are plans are in 2025, and a solicitation for supporting memberships.
Debanking (and Debunking?)
Crypto advocates kicked off a recent, somewhat politicized, discussion of debanking. Strap in for scintillating banking compliance trivia.
Fiction and Finance
Recommendations of works of fiction of interest to financial practitioners or enthusiasts.
Why the CrowdStrike bug hit banks hard
Regulation-induced monocultures meet unfortunate but explicable engineering decisions.
Working title (insurance)
Title insurance is grossly overpriced relative to actual risks involved. Why is that?
Guys what is wrong with ACATS
Ever transferred assets between brokerages? Impressive, terrifying machinations happened in the background. No cats were harmed.
The business of wallets
How digital wallets work, and how payment costs drive a lot of product decisions inside and around them.
Anatomy of a credit card rewards program
Credit card rewards are mostly funded out of interchange, a fee paid by businesses to accept cards.
Financial systems take a holiday
Ever wondered about what happens when banks are closed or why some apps have operating hours? It's fascinating.
The business of check cashing
Check cashing, as a business, is a poorly understood "alternative" financial service.
Payroll providers, Power, Respect
Payroll processors exist to provide financial infrastructure and because political economy is complicated.
The Long Shadow of Checks
A lot of more modern financial infrastructure follows the paths blazed by checks, at least in the U.S.
The Bond villain compliance strategy
Jurisdictional gamesmanship is a common strategy for crypto businesses. Here is how it worked out for Binance and its CEO. Spoiler: poorly.
Seeing like a Bank
The structural reasons why banks sometimes behave bizarrely in interactions with customers, like forgetting things which customers tell them.
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I write roughly biweekly on the intersection of tech, financial infrastructure, and systems thinking. It's free.