Essential comic viewing from John Bird and John Fortune for understanding the sub prime crisis.

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Think that counting money is done the same way all over the world, well think again, counting money is done very differently depending on where you are. This video shows how counting money is done in Japan, Korea, China and Singapore, then in Afghanistan,Iran,India, Tajikistan and the Middle East, then in Russia, Mongolia, Poland and Eastern Europe, then in Turkmenistan, Kazakistan, Pakistan, and parts of Turkey, then in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and Egypt, then in Africa, then in America, Canada and England.

Interesting differences in the counting styles of the different countries, who would of known that there are hugh cultural differences in money counting!

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And that reason is to ensure that nobody steals your identity! Clever, heh!

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The town of Lewes in East Sussex is printing it’s own currency, known as the Lewes pound. The currency is being produced by the local council in a bid to keep cash circulating in the local economy rather than losing money to the national stores and hence protecting the local economy from globalization. More than 70 stores in Lewes have signed up to accept the Lewes pound in their transactions.

The town have printed £10,000 worth of the new currency, which was an idea put forward by the Transition Town Lewes, which are a local developmental organization. The currency was printed on Royal Mint quality paper, with security features like UV fibres and watermarks.

People may think that this is a new fad, but historically it wasquiet common in 19th century Britian for towns or areas to have their own currencies, in fact Lewes previously had it’s own currency until 1895.

The Lewes pound has replaced the image of the Queen with that of Thomas Paine on it’s notes. Paine lived in Lewes and moved to the United States where he famously wrote the influential Rights of Man. The new currency can be bought for pounds sterling at outlets around Lewes, and can be exchanged back to pounds sterling at any time.

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- Counterfeiting wasn’t outlawed in the United States until 1877, when the Congress then passed a bill to forbid faking the production of coins and bars.

- After the Civil War a third to a half of all notes in circulation were estimated to be fakes.

- The Treasury are enhancing the US bills design every 7-10 years, this started with the $20 dollar bill in 2003.

- The US dollar bills have magnetic ink on them, this is how the vending machines are able to read which bill is which, since it can’t decide this on size.

- Altering a coin is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and/or a fine of $2000.

- Counterfeiting is a felony and are punishable by up to 15 years in prison and up to a fine of $15,000.

- Anybody counterfeiting US currency abroad is subject to the same prosecution as if they were in the US.

- Coins have edges because people used to clip or shave of the edges of gold and silver coins.

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As he was preening himself in front of the mirror he reached down to put his hands in the pockets and to his surprise he noticed that there were no pockets. He mentioned this to the tailor who asked him, “Didn’t you tell me you were a banker?”

The young man answered, “Yes, I did.”

To this the tailor said, “Who ever heard of a banker with his hands in his own pockets?”

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In the last seven days, Origami bank has folded, Sumo Bank has gone belly up and Bonsai Bank has announced plans to cut some of its branches. Yesterday, it was also announced that Karaoke Bank will go up for sale and will likely go for a song, while shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended today after they nose-dived. While Samurai Bank is soldiering on after sharp cutbacks, 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop and analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank, where it is feared that staff may get a raw deal.

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It’s the sort of question that would keep you up at night, ‘how many pallets would I need to transfer my $1 billion bucks down to the bank?’

Well….so long as you have it in crisp $100 dollar bills, the answer is 12!

So Barack Obama will need 9840 pallets for his economic stimulus package.

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‘This money is not worth the paper it’s printed on!’ ~ The Friar

Zimbabwe’s Central Bank, which is rapidly running our of paper, introduced the $50 billion dollar note. The new note is equivalent to about $1.25 US dollars.

What will $50 billion buy you? Well, two loaves of bread and no change. There is also a $10 billion and $20 billion note in circulation and the currency is dropping in value by 100% a day. Zimbabwe is in a real economic crisis with 80% unemployment and an inflation rate of 231 million %. We in the West have really nothing to complain about compared to Zimbabwe.

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The practice accounts are the best way to get started, most if not all of the online Forex brokers will provide one.

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