Word: banking
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...Hour makes the deeper case that to change our ecological destiny we have to change not just how we live but how we buy. Again and again, we're told that Americans need to stop the insanity of relentless consumption, and instead live simpler, smarter and slower. My dwindling bank account and I are all for it, but there's something not quite right about having that message brought to you by someone like DiCaprio. DiCaprio would neither be wildly rich nor wildly famous - he wouldn't be Leo, in other words - without the efforts of a celebrity machine that...
...seen in any part of the world," he says. The trend is being driven by macro forces. As the country becomes richer and more urban (the number of people living in cities will rise to 461 million by 2025, from 286 million today, according to the Asian Development Bank), demand for housing should go right on booming...
...excess" and that the boom could end in a bust. Real estate stocks plunged as much as 50% in a general market sell-off last spring, while property prices have fallen 20% or so in some areas in the past six months. Both the government and the Reserve Bank of India are trying to cool the real estate sector without crashing it. The RBI has raised interest rates six times in the past 18 months to try to rein in inflation, which peaked in March at an annual rate of 7%. The Securities and Exchange Board, meanwhile, has tightened...
Ironically, banks have long benefited indirectly from the thriving check-cashing industry by supplying the loans and cash that check cashers use to pay these same customers. ACE Cash Express, which has more than 1,700 outlets across the country, works with Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Union Bank and others. Banks have shied away from serving the unbanked population directly because this slice of the market clashes with their business model. Banks get much of their profit from the interest they earn by lending out the money held in long-term deposits, but check cashers depend on a high volume...
...banks and check cashers, the serious competition will come over the next year as Wal-Mart rolls out more than 1,000 dedicated check-cashing outlets in its stores, charging a flat fee of just $3 per check. Check cashers have already responded by sprucing up their offerings. Pay-O-Matic, which operates 100 outlets in New York City, recently launched a debit card that earns 3% annual interest on the unused balance. (Wal-Mart's debit card, on the other hand, does not earn interest.) With such nimble competitors, banks will have to move faster than ever...