Tech Storror

  Let's say you're a criminal with millions or even billions of dollars. But you have one big problem. Transferring large sums of money or carrying suitcases full of cash will raise eyebrows. You need to launder the dough to make the Dirty money appear to be clean money so that then it can be spent anywhere in the world, say on real estate, luxury yachts or at strip clubs, no questions asked. Fear not with a little financial detergent.  Your dirty money can become more or less untraceable. China leads the world in this ancient art. Between 2002 and 2011, some $1.08 trillion departed the country illegally, despite currency control laws that require people to obtain a permit to exchange more than $50,000 a year worth of yuan into any foreign currency. But this is a truly international pastime. Corrupt politicians, Drug cartels, Alimony deadbeats, nearly everybody's doing it. When it comes to money laundering, there are three main steps to doing it right.  The first step is ...

When central banks raise interest rates, it's big news. It can send ripples across the whole economy. It can sink consumer confidence, resulting in fewer jobs and lower wages, and cause stock prices to fall. So why do central banks raise interest rates? Let's start with the basics. If you borrow money, you'll have to pay back a little extra to make it worthwhile for the lender.   This is the interest rate. So if you are taking out the loan, you want the interest rate to be as low as possible so you don't have to pay that much back. On the flip side, if you want to save money, then a high-interest rate means you can earn more on your savings. See it as a reward for leaving money in your account, but the size of your reward depends on the circumstances. There's no single interest rate in the economy. You've got thousands of banks setting their own commercial rates. That's all influenced though by the interest rate that the Central Bank sets. A central bank is ...

   Life in Zimbabwe has never been easy. Since its independence, the Southern African country has seen factional violence, international sanctions and rampant political instability. But in the mid 2000s it lost something even more fundamental. Its currency surviving meant waking up as early as two in the morning, trekking to the nearest ATM and then waiting in line.  On a good day, you'd be able to withdraw the equivalent of about one or two US dollars, the maximum allowed by the government. Or you might find, after losing sleep and waiting for hours, that no more money was left. That's because around 2007, Zimbabwe experienced the second highest inflation in history after post war Hungary. It's hard to know exactly how bad it got, as the government stopped reporting numbers after 100,000% inflation when a loaf of bread costs 30 billion Zimbabwean dollars, employees stopped going to work when their annual salary wouldn't even pay for their bus ride home, and vending mac...

  Across the Globe, Finland is known for various things, heavy metal bands, saunas, unique bus stop etiquette, and Nokia.  Currently employing over 100,000 people worldwide and boasting annual revenues of over $29 billion, Nokia has risen to become a global force. But its beginnings in history are as unique as the country where it all started. In this article, we'll examine the rise of Nokia and how it became one of the world leaders in mobile phone technology.   Founded over 150 years ago, Frederick Artistan wanted to capitalise on Finland's huge forestry industry and created a paper mill near temporary. Not long afterward, he built a second paper mill near a town called Nokia on the Nokia and Verta River. A few years later, Frederick partnered with a man by the name of Leo McAllen, who had grander visions than running a couple of mere paper mills in the Backcountry of Finland. He convinced Frederick the former public company Nokia AB and after Frederick retired Mac...

  There's a new highway in Pakistan. And a new rail terminal in Kazakhstan. A seaport in Sri Lanka recently opened as well as this bridge in rural Laos.  What's interesting is that they're all part of 1 country's project that spans 3 continents and touches over 60% of the world's population. If you connect the dots, it's not hard to see which country that is. This is China's belt and Road initiative. The most ambitious infrastructure project in modern history that's designed to reroute global trade. And it's how China plans to become the world's next superpower.   It's 2013 and Chinese President Xi Jinping is giving a speech in Kazakhstan where he mentions the ancient Silk Road, a network of trade routes that spread goods, ideas and culture across Europe, the Middle East and China. As far back as 200 BC. He then says we should take an innovative approach and jointly build an economic belt along the Silk Road.   Then two sides should work toge...

  This super yacht is worth almost $100 million. It's owned by a sanctioned Russian oligarch, and in April, 2022, FBI agents and Spanish officials seized it. For years the oligarchs didn't have much trouble buying up boats, jets and mansions in places like this. That's if they didn't end up in prison, exiled, or mysteriously dead. Around 60% of the wealth of the richest Russians is held offshore. But the war in Ukraine has turned the world against members of this opulent Uber class. That's caused a lot of chaos. They've lost access to their accounts. Their family members have had their own accounts frozen or restricted, or been kicked out of their banks. So where did all the money come from, and is there still a chance of the oligarchs holding on to it?  The year was 1992 and new business opportunities were emerging from the ashes of the Soviet Union. The President of the New Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, started privatising companies that had been under Co...

  GameStop has been a key player in the video game industry for over 2 decades. Born at a time when brick and mortar retail reigned supreme, the store emerged as the go to destination for all things games.  Since then, the company's struggle to go digital and some questionable investments have brought it to the verge of collapse.           That is, until traders on the Reddit forum Wall Street bets decided to gamble on the ailing video game retailer and raise its stock 1700% in January alone. But will the sudden surge be enough to save GameStop?  What started out as a software retailer called babbages, et cetera in the 1980s, had become a video game hub by the late 90s and as the industry grew, the company established GameStop, a brand entirely dedicated to gaming. In this era of malls, the store thrived.  It served as a cultural touchpoint before there was an Internet. Before there were forums, or Reddit or whatever else to interact wit...

  Rolls-Royce makes some of the world's most luxurious cars. Known for producing handcrafted automobiles that promise a seamless magical carpet ride for its customers, a Rolls Royce car does not come cheap. These are some of the best selling Rolls-Royce models and these are their entry level prices. But with virtually unlimited optional extras,  upgrades and customizations, the true cost of a bespoke Rolls Royce has no limits. In fact, Rolls Royce refuses to even discuss its base prices. There isn't really a specific base price which we would discuss because it really depends on each customer as an individual and the bespoke options which they like to to design and develop with our with our bespoke team. So what are some of these bespoke extras and is that what makes Rolls Royce so expensive? One of the first obvious starting points probably is the color. We have a palette of 44,000 plus colours. We replicate people's lipsticks and something from your house, something you...

In 2016, the iPhone Seven started at $649. Three years later, Apple's flagship iPhone costs 54% more. It's even more dramatic for the Mac mini. When Apple released its new model, the price increased by 60%. These prices bring in huge profits for Apple. As the US is the first trillion-dollar company, Apple's market cap is higher than the GDP of Switzerland. So what makes Apple products so expensive? Apple has over the years built a reputation for quality and the industrial design of its products. That reputation has created millions of loyal customers. So brand loyalty translates into a premium that they're able to extract from customers who are unwilling to switch out of the Apple ecosystem. That premium is also known as the Apple tax, or paying more simply because it's an Apple product. The 256 gigabyte MacBook Air, for example, costs $1299, but you can get a more powerful Windows laptop for over $100 less. Apple's high prices reached mean proportions during th...

  This transformed the way we listen to music, and it helped turn Apple into one of the most valuable companies in the world. Apple has sold more than 400 million iPods since launching them in 2001, and over 35 billion songs. But sales have been in decline for over a decade. How did the iPod go from being one of the most popular gadgets to being basically nonexistent? In 1999, the US music industry had its biggest year yet. Around this time, two things were exploding and growing. Over 40% of households had a computer, and the Internet was rapidly gaining users. A new market for digital media was emerging. CD's made-up over 80% of US music revenue at the time. You could listen on a big stereo, or portable CD player or Rip an entire album to your computer. But CD players and early portable media players had a lot of issues. They were big and clunky, would often skip during playback, and neither held many songs. Apple saw this as an opportunity. It considered the competition totally i...

  The modern United States is the most powerful country in human history with over 800 military bases and 37% of global military spending, the US has become the leader of a vast, interconnected global system that has helped usher in an era of unprecedented prosperity with high levels of conflict.  To understand America's position in the world and why it's so pivotal for world politics as we know it, you have to go back to the country's founding. Back to when America wasn't a global power in any sense of the word. During the first 70 years of its existence, the United States expanded in both territory and influence in North America, eventually reaching the Pacific Ocean in a wave of expansionism that resulted in the wholesale slaughter of the indigenous people who populated the continent.  But early Americans were deeply divided as to whether the country should expand beyond the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. This became a major debate after the Civil War, when some leader...

(A, B, C , D) or (AAA, AA , A | BBB, BB, B | CCC, CC , C )  These grades aren't for students. They're for businesses based on how likely the company is to pay its debts back. A company like Microsoft has the best grade possible AAA since they have a long history of paying people on time. The Internet is about driving profitability, but a newer company like Tesla has a BB rating. Fundamentally change the equation. You've got to have an all electric vehicle and that affects their interest rates. Microsoft pays its investors 2.5% interest. Tesla pays a bit more at 5.3%. The riskier the grade, the higher the interest rate. But it's not just companies that have grades. Countries do too. the United States for really long time had a AAA rating until lawmakers have just two more days to raise the nation's debt ceiling.   the US has a weird thing called the debt ceiling, which is just a limit on how much debt the country can take on. If the national debt reaches that limi...