After a decade of dollarization to escape from the hyperinflationary hell of Mugabe’s money-printing, Zimbabwe has implicitly re-introduced the ZimDollar as the nation’s sole legal tender – banning the use of currencies such as the USDollar and South African Rand in favor of its so-called RTGS dollar.

The total number of bitcoin ATMs (BTMs) worldwide reached 5,000 for the first time. There are now 5,006 standalone BTMs in around 90 countries, where cryptocurrency users can buy or sell bitcoin (BTC). Some machines offer both services simultaneously. A deal earlier in the year involving coin counting kiosk operator Coinstar brought bitcoin functionality to over 2,200 U.S. locations. The U.S. currently has more than half of the world’s BTMs at 3,229, with a new pilot scheme this month bringing the machines to Circle K convenience stores in Arizona and Nevada.

In an otherwise slow news-cycle, the mainstream media has somehow failed to report on an undercover exposé by Project Veritas in which a senior Google employee admits that the company is manipulating its algorithms ahead of the 2020 election in order to prevent the “next Trump situation.”

How does the U.S. public feel about a military clash with Iran? After the two tanker attacks in the Strait of Hormuz last week but before the drone shootdown, YouGov polled Americans about their thoughts on military action.

As consumers, people are skeptical. We know that everyone selling anything is probably telling a lie of some kind, or at least stretching the truth to its legal limit. But as voters, our healthy skepticism seems to go right out the window. When politicians promise all sorts of “free” things, it doesn’t occur to many of us that those things can’t possibly be free. It doesn’t occur to us that, like businesses seeking our dollars, politicians will tell us whatever it takes to get hold of our votes.

U.S. college students currently working on their degree are in for an unpleasant surprise when negotiating their first salaries. That’s because, according to a new study, undergraduate students in the United States are overestimating what they’re worth.

Apple has used the phrase “what happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone” many times before, but it turns out that may not be entirely true.

Estimates are that consumer credit card debt will increase $70 billion for 2019 alone. Considering that Americans now owe more than $1 trillion, the fact that they are paying back less of what they owe proves that “consumers aren’t quite as healthy as some other metrics may indicate.”

At Uber’s “Elevate Summit” last week, the company unveiled what it believes the future of automated aerial transportation will look like. The now-public rideshare company, is ready to make its push into “air taxis”.

It seems the sleeping masses are finally waking to the privacy dangers posed by the rise of facial recognition technology.

The Justice Department has lost track of 62 foreigners brought into the United States under a special program which allows otherwise inadmissible individuals into the country to assist with criminal investigations, according to an audit performed by the DOJ’s inspector general. 

Even if the weather is ideal between now and harvest time, 2019 will just be a terrible year for farmers. The amount of corn produced in the United States this year is going to be way below expectations.

A recent Nielsen survey delved into why Americans are interested in trying legal cannabis, and the results were astounding. Americans DON’T want to get high or experience the effects of the psychoactive THC compound found in cannabis, rather most simply want a more natural way to combat pain or depression.

The Austin County Soil & Water Conservation District held their annual “Banquet of Champions” for 2019. The Conservation Rancher of the Year Award was presented to Harvey Stuessel, Jr.

Two days after over 1 million people protested in the streets of Hong Kong – unsuccessfully – against a proposed extradition bill that would allow Beijing to take people from Hong Kong to stand trial in mainland China on Wednesday morning in a fresh display of defiance against the contentious extradition bill, thousands of protesters started barricading roads and began stopping traffic from accessing the HK legislature on Wednesday morning, as the government’s proposal returns to a full council meeting.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday signed a sweeping new law that aims to protect free speech on college campuses across the Lone Star state.

JPMorgan recently examined what types of goods the US imports from China and Mexico and where they go. While it is still too early to see much reaction to the news on trade policy from recent weeks in the economic activity data, JPM thinks that “understanding the cross section of goods imports will be useful in observing effects of the tariffs over time.

A recent Bloomberg report looked at the stark disconnect between Fed policy and well, everybody else but banks and the 1%. While the Fed sees low inflation as “one of the major challenges of our time,” many of the nation’s most vulnerable, low-income workers, stated the obvious: people don’t want higher prices.

The daily rate of people aging into retirement (i.e. turning 65) will peak in 2022 at just below 12,000. Over the next two decades, about 10,000 people will turn 65 every day. This impending milestone is set to tax the resources of the Social Security Administration at a level not yet experienced in the system’s 84-year-existence.

Recent research supports the idea that this under-the-radar migration is already under way.