Category: Business & Economy

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.

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.

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.”

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.