3 chapters across the catalog
Cash Businesses and Google-Mastercard Data Sharing
A Bloomberg report revealed a secret deal between Google and Mastercard to track retail sales by linking online ads to offline credit card purchases. This data sharing affects approximately two billion Mastercard users. The discussion also touches on the prevalence of cash-only restaurants as a means of tax evasion and the role of Bitcoin in modern money laundering.
Native Advertising, Venmo and the War on Physical Cash
A Business Insider article by Joe Wiesenthal is criticized as a "disgusting" example of native advertising for the payment app Venmo. The article characterizes physical cash as a "barbarous relic" similar to gold, promoting a cashless society. The hosts argue that this trend toward digital payments is a move to "dumb down" the public and increase financial surveillance.
The history of IBM is traced back to Thomas Watson's time at the National Cash Register Company (NCR). Watson reportedly modeled the name International Business Machines as an "upgraded" version of National Cash Register. The discussion also touches on the early "brutish" reputation of IBM and the longevity of the AS/400 computer systems in the corporate world.
