That’s the proclamation of the stock market in a resounding fashion.

I always find it entertaining when pundits draw ridiculous correlation relationships between the stock market and [insert something popular at the time]. This time, it’s the winner of the Presidential election in November and the performance of the stock market three months beforehand.

What’s fun is that the CNBC article, Who’s the Next President? The Stock Market Might Know, was written on August 26th - predating all the thick of the market turmoil. The largest single day drop of 777.68 in the Dow didn’t occur until September 29th, almost a month later. The second largest single day drop of 733.08 in the Dow didn’t occur until the 15th of October! (though we did see the single largest point gain on Oct. 13th, a gain of 936.42 in between).

So, you might be wondering how the recent changes in the market have affected the chances of our candidates?

According to the article, an up market in the three months prior to an election signaled victory for the incumbent party 80% of the time, since 1928. At the time the article was written, the S&P 500 was up about 2%. As of Monday’s close, Oct. 20th, the S&P had fallen from it’s August 1st close of 1,269.42 to 985.40. -22.4%!!! Incumbents aren’t looking too good here.

“A poor stock market performance usually anticipates and/or accompanies a weak economy—and that usually leads to the ouster of the ruling party and its president (think Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush).” - Heh, talk is of a recession, a bad recession in part caused by a freezing of the credit markets in a manner not seen in quite some time.

The article goes on to discuss a few other fun frivolous statistics like this one:

Since 1833, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has posted an average gain of 6.7 percent in presidential election years, with 20 up years and 14 down ones.| Even if the Dow does turn around and close higher than its 13,264.82 opening level in 2008, history shows it will be an inferior gain to the year before-election year category, when the blue-chip index has gained an average of 10.6 percent and notched 32 up years.

I’m not going out on a limb when I say the chances of the Dow closing above 13,264.82 this year is nil, I think we’re looking at one of those times when we’re in the minority of all those statistics

The U.S. Mint announced the four designs of the new penny to debut next year on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, February 12th. They will be rolled out in three month intervals, starting Feb. 12th, with a Lincoln commemorative silver dollar released in 2009 as well. It’ll be the first time in fifty years that the penny will have changed and each of the four rear designs will show milestones in his life:

Log Cabin design, his birthplace

Indiana rail splitter design, where he worked as a young adult

Illinois State Capitol design, where he served as a representative

Half-finished US Capitol design, representing his work to build/preserve the Union

If you’re a fan of trivia, you’ll be happy to learn that Abraham Lincoln was the first person to appear on a regular US coin in 1909 (the penny of course). Here are 49 other fun facts about money.

Lastly, some want to see the penny abolished all together!

New Lincoln penny designs unveiled [CNN Money]

For all intents and purposes to the consumer, there is little difference among thrifts, commercial banks, and credit unions. The financial services they all offer will be similar and you probably don’t even know if the financial institution you’re banking with is a thrift or commercial bank (Washington Mutual is technically a savings and loan and the largest one). In fact, the only real notable difference between thrifts/banks & credit unions has to deal with depository insurance. Thrifts and commercial banks are covered by FDIC, credit unions are covered by NCUA, though both are covered to the same limit of $100,000 per person per financial institution.

Now, for the academics and trivia buffs out there, here’s a little more on their differences.

Thrifts

Thrifts, probably better known as savings and loan institutions (mostly because of the S&L crisis in the 1980s and 90s when 747 banks failed), originated as institutions that deal only with savings accounts and mortgage loans (hence savings & loans). Nowadays, they’ve broadened their financial offerings such that the only differences are in business dealings. By law, thrifts may lend up to 20% of their assets to commercial loans and only half of that can be used on small business loans. Also, in order to obtain advances from the Federal Home Loan Bank, thrifts must meet a ‘qualified thrift lender test.’ That test requires that 65% of its assets must be in mortgage and consumer-related assets. In plain English, they’re just restricted to keeping most of their lending in the mortgage and consumer arenas.

By the way, IndyMac Bank was a thrift bank and the largest at the time it failed (it was also the second largest bank failure ever, second to Continental Illinois Bank in 1984)

Credit Unions

A credit union is cooperative bank that is privately owned and controlled by its members, the account holders. The purpose of the cooperative is to provide credit and financial services at reasonable rates and that’s why you’ll often find better loan rates at credit unions. Another requirement of credit unions is that there must be a restriction on who can join based on its “field of membership.”

What’s also interesting about credit unions is that each depositor is given a vote in the board of director elections and each member is considered an “owner” of the credit union. The elected board of directors is charged with the responsibility of setting policies governing interest rates and other services.

Other than that, the only other major difference is in vocabulary. A savings account is called a share account, a checking account is called a share draft account, and certificates of deposit are known as share term certificates. The “share” is a reminder that everyone is an owner in the union.

Lastly, deposits are insured by the National Credit Union Administration up to $100,000.

Commercial Banks

A commercial bank is “everything else.” The term is really just a way to distinguish a bank as most consumers recognize it (savings and checking accounts, ATMs, etc.) from an investment bank, like a Merill Lynch or a Lehman. As I mentioned before, the deposit insurance that governs your assets at these banks is the FDIC and that covers you up to $100,000 (there are certain ways to extend that limit).

Those are the basic differences from a layman’s perspective, there are actually far more differences when you get into the specifics (here’s an intriguing Economic Letter out of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco detailing some differences between bank charters and thrift charters). I skipped over those because they weren’t as interesting and didn’t really have much bearing on how consumers are affected.

(Photos: Thrift sign by zieak, BofA ATM by neubie, and Credit Union by Consumerist)

On Tuesday, Madame X blogged about the increases in prize money at Wimbledon this year and I thought it’d be fun to check out all the purses at all the major American sports from football to baseball to golf to tennis. I managed to catch the final set between Federer and Nadal and it was amazing. Madame X, if you though there were some crazy shots in the beginning, the fifth set was unreal. What’s even more surprising is that the champ takes home nearly a million and a half dollars, I didn’t know the prize money was that big.

Unless otherwise indicated, the prize money listed is for 2008 and the conversions were done through Google just a few minutes ago. I was surprised that many sports don’t have a guaranteed championship winning prize payout. Many of them simply share a bit of the gate receipts (or something similar) with the players, though I imagine in those sports there are rich contract incentives.

Football - The Super Bowl

The players on the winning team will each receive $64,000 for winning the game. That pay day doesn’t include the championship ring each of the players will receive or any contract bonuses they may have. New York Giants players were each given 1.5 karat diamond rings that cost $5,500 and are valued at $25,000.

Hockey - Stanley Cup

In hockey, according to WikiAnswers, there is no cash payday for the players on the winning team unless it’s specifically written into their contract.

Baseball - World Series

Again, like in hockey, unless its written in the contract, players don’t get anything extra outside of a share of the gate receipts. You can read more about the shares at Baseball Almanac.

Basketball - NBA Championship

According to the Wages of Win Journal, the payout for a championship win is a little trickier to calculate. Player salaries are all paid out in the regular season and bonuses are paid to each team during the post-season. The winning team of the NBA Finals takes home $1.77M split amongst all the players and coaching staff. WOW did the math and found that, assuming the winner sweeps every series and plays only 16 games, they get only $9,342 (versus around $50k in the regular season on average) if it was split across the players alone.

Golf Majors

Men’s:

• Masters: 1,350,000
• U.S. Open: $1,350,000
• The Open Championship: $1,542,450 (2007)
• PGA Championship: $1,260,000 (2007)

Women’s:

• Kraft Nabisco Championship: $300,000
• LPGA Championship: $300,000
• Women’s British Open: $320,512 (2007)
• U.S. Women’s Open: $560,000 (2007)

Tennis Majors

Australian Open:

• Men’s Singles - A$1,370,000 (~$1,302,596)
• Women’s Singles - A$1,370,000 (~$1,302,596)

French Open:

• Men’s Singles - €1,000,000 (~$1,566,900)
• Women’s Singles - €1,000,000 (~$1,566,900)

Wimbledon:

• Men’s Singles - £750,000 (~$1,477,650)
• Women’s Singles - £750,000 (~$1,477,650)

US Open:

• Men’s Singles (2007) - $1,400,000
• Women’s Singles (2007) - $1,400,000

Of course, we all know that salary and prizes don’t tell the whole story, the richest sports athletes rely heavily on endorsements. I’m still waiting for mine.

(Photo by aldinegirl12)

It’s April 15th and today I will not write a single thing about last minute tax moves (you’re too late) or about the tax stimulus (just fill out a tax return and put in your direct deposit information) or anything boring like that. You don’t want to be like that guy to the right, right? Nope! Today will be a day of fun and we can start it off with fifty fun facts!

Some of these facts, I can guarantee, will not be fun. There will be a mix of tax history, some current tax laws, some mind boggling statistics that will likely piss you off; but at least we’ll start you off with some of the weirdest tax laws and funny trivia! You’ll read some of them and say, “Hmm… okay, kind of interesting, but not actually fun.” However, some of them will be fun or your money back! Let’s get started.

Weird Tax Laws

• Drug Tax Stamps - In at least 23 states there is a tax on illegal drugs. When you buy an illegal drug, like marijuana or even moonshine, in Tennessee, you have 48 hours to report it to the Department of Revenue to pay your tax and get a stamp for the substance. No identification is needed, though there are a dozen cop cars sitting outside the office. (Just kidding about the cop cars, I have no idea)
• North Carolina has had a illegal drug tax stamp law in place for 15 years, only 79 people have purchased stamps since 1990 (most of those were stamp collectors, or complete and utter morons).
• If the law sounds absurd, it’s only because of the way it was worded. The real end result is that people are taxed on drugs found in their possession when they’re busted. This creates a new revenue stream for the state or county and I can’t say I can argue with that.
• “Jock tax” - Levied on athletes who earn an income competing in a particular city or state. California first levied this tax on athletes from Chicago in 1991 after the Chicago Bulls beat the LA Lakers in the 1991 NBA Finals. What a bunch of sore losers.
• Alabama has a 10 cent tax on a deck of playing cards.
• Blueberries from Maine are subject to specific tax too, anyone who grows, purchases, sells, handles, or processes blueberries in Maine has to pay a penny and a half tax per pound.
• “Fountain soda drinks” in Chicago are taxed at 9%, if it comes in a bottle or can then it’s only taxed at 3%.



• Peter the Great in Russia once taxed beards (he doesn’t do much taxing anymore). There was also a tax on souls, hats, boots, beehives, basements, chimneys, food, clothing, birth, marriage, and burial.
• In the UK, everyone under the age of 75 pays a TV license fee £126.50 for color TVs and £42.00 for black and white TVs (it in part pays for state run networks like the BBC). If you are legally blind, you only owe half that fee.
• According to the UK’s Tax Avoidance Schemes Regulations 2006, “it is illegal not to tell the taxman anything you don’t want him to know, though you don’t have to tell him anything you don’t mind him knowing.” What!?
• Royal Navy ships that enter the Port of London must pay a barrel of rum in tax to the Constable of the Tower of London. All visitors to my house must pay a case of beer in tax to me.

Tax History & Facts

• The first income tax ever was in 1404 in England.
• The first property tax in the United States was in 1798 and it was on land, houses, and slaves.
• The first US income tax started during in the Civil War to help raise money back in 1862.
• The first federal tax office in the US was the Office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue in 1862, what a coincidence!
• The 16th Amendment, ratified in 1913, established the first permanent US income tax.
• Four states rejected the amendment: Connecticut, Florida, Rhode Island, and Utah.



• Two never considered/discussed it: Pennsylvania, Virginia
• Everyone pays income tax. [this fact is decidedly not fun, I concede this]
• There are over 7 million words in the tax law and regulations. That beats the Gettysburg address, the Declaration of Independence, and the Holy Bible all rolled into one (269+1,337+773k).
• There were 402 tax forms in 1990, by 2002 that number had jumped to a staggering 526.
• My personal favorite is Form 6478 - Credit for Alcohol Used as Fuel. (I don’t think the IRS really counts beer as fuel, though it does keep me going sometimes)
• According to CCH, the number of pages in the tax code and regulations went from 26,300 in 1984 to an astonishing 54,846 in 2003. Those 1.2M tax preparers are smiling every year.
• The IRS sends out over 8 billion pages in forms and instructions every single year, that’s nearly 300,000 trees (now they use recycled paper).
• The easiest form, the 1040EZ, has thirty-three pages of instructions.
• Tax Freedom Day was April 23rd in 2008, a few days earlier than last year because of the tax stimulus rebate.

Tax Collection & Forms

• You know how everyone hates the taxman? Did you know that in 1789, the start of the French Revolution, tax collectors were sent to the guillotine? Poor folks were just doing their jobs… it’s not like they enjoyed it!
• Too bad those French tax collectors didn’t live in Greece a few thousand years earlier, back then the tax professionals were considered the most noble man in society (perhaps that’s why they were given the slice in France, the French Revolution wasn’t particularly friendly to “nobles”)
• 21% of paper returns have errors, 0.5% of e-file returns have errors; do your taxes electronically.
• In 2003, 78% of returns received refunds to the tune of $205B and an average of $2,073 per return.
• The first e-file (electronic transmission of a tax return) occurred on January 24, 1986…
• By 1989, taxpayers in 36 states could e-file their taxes…
• By 1990, everyone could.
• For each $100 that the IRS collects, it costs only thirty-nine cents. While you might hate them, tell me what other agency runs with such efficiency? The answer is probably none.
• The Cato Institute estimates that there are approximately 1.2M tax preparers in the country.
• AMT was designed to snag 155 wealthy taxpayers in 1969. (Yeah, they created a whole new tax to get 155 people!)
• Technically, income tax is voluntary (but not optional)!
• There are 114k employees at the IRS, that’s more than the CIA or the FBI.
• According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, in 2006, 53.7% of all federal income taxes were paid by those earning $200k+. Those between $100k and $200k paid out 28.3% of income taxes. That means 82% of taxes paid are by those making more than $100k. (link)
• Taken in aggregate, those earning less than $40k paid 0%.

Facts That Will Piss You Off

• A Government Accountability Office report released in 2004 showed that…
  • 61% of US corporations paid no income tax between 1996 and 2000.
  • 94% of US corporations paid less than 5% their total income in taxes.
  • US corporations paid, on average, $11.88 in taxes for every $1,000 in gross receipts.
  • 38% of big companies ($250M+ assets or $50M+ revenue) paid no taxes.
  • in 1943, 39.8% of taxes collected came from corporations; only 7.4% in 2003.
• From 1996 to 1998, these companies paid zero taxes: AT&T, Bristol-Myers, Squibb, Chase Manhattan, Enron, ExxonMobil, General Electric, Microsoft, Pfizer and Phillip Morris. (link)
• In 1998, these companies received a total of $1.3B in rebates (despite making $12B in pre-tax profits): Texaco, Chevron, CSX, PepsiCo, Pfizer, J.P. Morgan, Goodyear, Enron, General Motors, Phillips Petroleum and Northrop Grumman. (link)

Now that you’re all fired up… I will leave with one final quote, most often mis-quoted (except right now, duh!). Benjamin Franklin, on November 13, 1789, wrote the following to Jean-Baptiste Leroy: “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

(”Taxes suck” by net_guy, “Breads Rule” by hkmacs, “Tax forms” by lauren_pressley, and “Ben Franklin” by Wellstone)

Cash, cabbage, paper, scratch, scrizzle, dineros, dough, whatever you want to call it, it’s all means the same - it’s cold hard cash. There is plenty of useless and fun trivia about currency that is certainly fun to know and you guessed it, I’m going to give you at least fifty fun facts about currency, mostly US facts but a sprinkling of international ones near the end. The first bunch have to deal with US money history in general such as the creation of the Mint and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, then moves onto specifics about the bills and coins such as what they are made of. Then we move onto some of the interesting facts that deal with counterfeiting. The 50 facts end with a few facts on what you should do with damaged or mutilated currency and then a few international facts for those of you looking to get an edge in Trivial Pursuit. I hope you enjoy it!

Oh, and in keeping with the tradition of these 50 fun facts posts, I added a few bonus facts so there are a few more than 50 in the list. If you enjoy this list, you might enjoy 50 Fun Facts about Credit Cards and 50 Fun Facts about Banks.

US Money History

• The Massachusetts Bay Colony was the first the issue paper money in the American colonies in 1690.
• The Bureau of Engraving and Printing of the Department of the Treasury didn’t become the sole producer of currency until 1877.
• In 1894, the production of postage stamps was added to the responsibilities of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.



• The Mint didn’t become part of the Department of the Treasury until 1873, before that they reported directly to the President.
• The Mint is responsible for producing military medals (such as the Silver and Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart and the Navy Cross) as well as the Congressional Medals.
• In 1865, the Secret Service Division of the Treasury Department was created to suppress counterfeit currency. Two years later, their mandate was expanded to include “detecting persons perpetrating frauds against the government.”
• As an aside: the Secret Service didn’t start informally protecting Presidents until Grover Cleveland in 1894. They officially began protecting Presidents until 1913 though they received funding (they received funding and began protection Presidents as far back as William McKinley in 1907).
• Legal tender refers to how currency can be used to satisfy “debts, public charges, taxes, and dues” but no one is required by law to accept it.

Bills & Coinage Facts

• According to the Treasury Department, there are three reasons why US currency is green (the “greenback”): 1) That color ink was readily available in large quantities back when they were first being printed; 2) It is highly resistant to chemical and physical changes, and; 3) it’s a color that the public identifies with strong and stable credit.
• Most coins have a copper filling with another metal on the outside, usually a mix of copper and nickel (75/25). Pennies are made of zinc coated in copper and nickels are entirely that copper and nickel mix.



• In 1943, pennies were made of zinc coated steel to conserve copper for the war, it gave them that silverly look.
• Between 1942 and 1945, during World War 2, nickels didn’t actually have nickel in them. It was a mix of copper, silver, and manganese.
• With the exception of WW2, nickel has stayed the same material composition since it was first designed in 1866. It’s the only coin that has stayed the same.
• Until 1804, none of the non-copper coins made in the US had their value engraved on it, people just had to know based on size. It wasn’t until the quarter in 1804 were the values engraved on the coin.
• The first batch of coins produced by the Mint was 11,178 copper cents in March 1793.
• “In God We Trust” was first put on coins in the Civil War but didn’t make it onto all coins until 1955.
• “E Pluribus Unum” was first used in 1795. “E Pluribus Unum” means “One from Many,” one country from many states.
• Abraham Lincoln was the first person to appear on a regular US coin in 1909.
• Queen Isabella of Spain was the first woman to appear on a US commemorative coin in 1893. She’s also the only real person to appear on a coin produced by the Mint.



• In general, living people don’t appear on US coins but Calvin Coolidge in 1926 became the first President on a coin while he was still alive.
• To determine which Mint facility produced a coin, look for an engraved letter on the front. “P” means it came from Philadelphia, “D” means it came from Denver, and “S” means it came from San Francisco.
• The lifespan of a coin is thirty years, the lifespan of a bill is a mere 18 months.
• Bills today are 2.61″ wide by 6.14″ long with a thickness of 0.0043″.
• Bills are made of a cotton (75%) and linen (25%) fiber mix known as “rag paper.” This is distinctly different from regular paper, made from the cellulose in trees. This helps the paper withstand wear and tear, like when you accidentally wash a hundred dollar bill in a pair of jeans!
• Nearly half the bills printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing are one dollar bills (~45.47%)
• 95% of the bills printed each year are used to replace bills already in circulation.
• Each bill is supposed to weigh about a gram, so there are 454 bills per pound. A million dollars in $100 bills would weigh a little over twenty-two pounds. If you used $1 bills, it’d be about a ton in weight.
• If you instead used pennies, a million dollars would weigh around 246 tons!
• If you were to stack a million $1 bills, it would be around 361 feet high.
• Only one woman has ever appeared on a bill… can you guess who it was? Martha Washington appeared on the $1 Silver Certificate of 1886 and 1891, then appeared on the back of that bill in 1896. Not a single woman since!
• It costs about 6.2 cents to print each bill (2007).
• The cost to make each coin varies because of the material inside of them but a USA Today article puts the price per penny at 1.23 cents and the price per nickel at around 5.73 as of mid-2006.
• During the Civil War, 3 cent bills (”fractional currency”) were printed because coins were being hoarded for their intrinsic value. The largest denomination bills were the $100,000 bank transfer note in 1934.

Counterfeiting Facts

• Do you know why there are ridges on the edges of coins? Back in the day, when coins were made of gold and silver, people would shave off or clip the edges of the coins and then save the shavings for later. While illegal, it was difficult to catch because coins were always irregularly shaped because of poor manufacturing so the ridges helped in detecting that.
• It wasn’t until 1877 that Congress passed a bill that prohibited the counterfeiting of any coin, gold or silver bar.
• It’s been estimated that between 1/3 and 1/2 of all bills in circulation after the Civil War were fakes! (this was the impetus for creating the Secret Service)
• In 1980, 777,957 $50 and $100 were passed and seized. That number increased to 1,240,840 by 1990. (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco)
• In 1994, with the Crime Bill Public Law 103-322, Title 18 USC Section 470 was revised to state that “any person manufacturing, trafficking in, or possessing counterfeit U.S. currency abroad may be prosecuted as if the act occurred within the United States.”



• Counterfeiting money is a felony, convictions can result in prison sentences for as long as 15 years and fines of up to $15,000.
• If you counterfeit a coin worth more than 5 cents, you’re subject to the same laws. If you alter an existing coin, you are violating Title 18, Section 331 of the USC. The crime is punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 and/or prison time of up to 5 years.
• If you want to print funny money, make sure it’s a different size (50% larger or 25% smaller). If you print only in black and white, that’s okay too as long as you satisfy the size change.
• Counterfeit bill detecting pens work by reacting with the cellulose found in regular paper. Since bills produced by the government is made on this special rag paper, it doesn’t react in the same way to the pen.
• The ink used to print the bills are magnetic and so vending machines use that as one of the means of detecting whether a bill is legitimate (since it can’t rely on many of the usual methods people can such as touch).
• The Treasury Department is looking to enhance the designs of bills every 7-10 years. This began with the $20 bill in October 2003.

• On March 6th, 2004, Alice Regina Pike tried to pass a $1,000,000 bill at a Wal-Mart in Georgia (the largest bill in use is the $100). She might have gotten away if she only used a $200 bill!

Damaged/Mutilated Bills & Coins

• If you have a damaged bill and you have more than half, you can bring it to a commercial bank to be replaced. The bank will then send it to the Fed along with other damaged and worn bills.
• If it’s damaged and you have less than half, you’ll have to send it to the Treasury Department.
• Damaged coins? Same process, except the bank goes to the Mint.

International Money Facts

• Largest numerical denomination bill ever is 1 Milliard Hungarian Pengő (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) in 1946. (Wikipedia) It was only worth twenty cents US! Hyper-Inflation is rough.
• The oldest currency bills known to have existed come from China and the Han and Tan Dynasties. The earliest bills to still exist (as in not disintegrated) come from the Ming Dynasty and were issued between 1368-1399.
• The largest bill by size is the 100,000 Piso of the Philippines according to the Guinness Book of Records, it’s about the size of legal paper.
• In 180 other countries, differently denominated bills are different in either color or size or both. In the US, all bills are of uniform size and similarly colored - an issue that has been taken up with the courts lately.

If you thirst for more facts, there are plenty at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Also, if you’re a fan of looking at old bills, you can check out this incredible American Currency Exhibit provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Nearly 1 year ago I wrote 50 Fun Facts about Credit Cards, a post that was very well received, so I figured why not follow that up one year later with another 50 fun facts post - this time talking about banks. I like reading about history so the first batch of facts revolve around the central bank, starting with the First Bank of the United States and ending with our current Federal Reserve system (you can see the progression!), then wash that meal down with some more entertaining facts like some other firsts, a few mind boggling statistics, and then some fun stuff like bank robberies and banking sponsorship information. It was fun (and educational) putting it together so I hope you enjoy reading the list. (much like last time, I added in a few bonus facts!)

Central Bank History

• The first chartered bank of the United States was the First Bank of the United States, formed in 1791 by The United States Congress.
• If you want to visit, it’s located at Third Street, between Chestnut & Walnut Streets in Philadelphia; but it’s not open to the public.
• The bank was the brainchild of then-Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who proposed that the bank sell $10M in stock to help establish its initial funding. Of the original $10M, $2M would be purchased by the United States. However, since the newly formed United States didn’t actually have $2M, the bank would loan the government $2M that the government would pay back in ten annual installments.
• The creation of the bank was lumped in with an increase in excise taxes on liquor and the minting of paper currency. In order to push the bill through opposition to the excise taxes from southern members of Congress, Hamilton brokered a deal to support a bill that would move the capital from Philadelphia to what later would become Washington, D.C.
• The First Bank of the United States was not the first chartered bank in the territory that is now the United States, that distinction belongs to the Bank of North America. That bank was chartered on the last day in 1781 by the Congress of the Confederation.
• The Bank of North America would be succeeded by the First Bank of the United States.
• The Bank of North America, with national bank charter #1, still exists today and is held by Wachovia, N.A. Wachovia still operates a branch at the northwest corner of 6th and Chestnut in Philly, the site of the original bank.
• As you may have expected, that Wachovia branch is the longest continuously operating branch bank in the US, having been there since 1781.
• The Second Bank of the United States was chartered 5 years after the charter for the First Bank of the United States expired and the Second Bank was again located in Philadephia.
• Why a Second bank if the government allowed the charter for the First Bank to expire? War! The US found itself unable to finance the War of 1812 and thus chartered a Second Bank of the United States.
• There was quite a bit of controversy around the bank, there’s plenty of resources out there to read about it if you’re interested so I’ll skip it here, but eventually it went bankruptcy five years after the expiration of its charter in 1836.
• If you want to visit, it’s located on Chestnut Street between 4th and 5th Streets and it’s open to the public free of charge( National Parks Service info page).
• There was no Third Bank of the United States, or any central bank, for 80 years following the expiration of the Second Bank’s charter. That’s when the Aldrich plan, named after Republican Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island, of fifteen regional central banks was floated and discussed.
• Eventually, the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 instituted 12 Federal Reserve banks, headed by a seven member Federal Reserve board plus a single US currency, a Federal Reserve Note.
• The twelve Federal Reserve banks are located in Boston (1), New York (2), Philadephia (3), Cleveland (4), Richmond (5), Atlanta (6), Chicago (7), St. Louis (8), Minneapolis (9), Kansas City (10), Dallas (11), and San Francisco (12).
• All nationally chartered banks are required to become members of the Federal Reserve System, which means they must buy non-transferable stock in their regional Federal Reserve bank.
• In the 1930’s, the Federal Reserve Act was amended to include the Federal Open Market Committee that consisted of the seven members of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and five representatives from the regional Federal Reserve banks.

Other Firsts (and Lasts)

• Flatbush National Bank of Brooklyn, New York was the first bank to issue a credit card in 1946.
• The first bank to be managed entirely by women? First Woman’s Bank of Tennessee, founded in 1919. Unfortunately, its founder, Brenda Vineyard Runyon, was unable to secure a successor after her health began to fail and it was eventually absorbed by First Trust and Savings Bank of Clarksville in 1926.
• Curious to see a list of all the defunct banks in the United States? Check out this page on Wikipedia, it’s accuracy isn’t known.
• As of this writing, the last bank to close was Miami Valley Bank in Lakeview, Ohio on 10/4/2007. It was closed by the Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Financial Institutions.
• The one right before that was the much more publicized NetBank, shuttered only a few days earlier on 9/28/2007.
• The first bank Jesse James’ robbed was the Clay County Savings Association in the town of Liberty, it was the first armed robbery of a US bank after the Civil War.
• Barings Bank, founded in 1762 and helped finance the Louisiana Purchase, Napolean’s war effort, and other notable historic events; collapsed after Nick Leeson’s losses of £827 million in Singapore futures contract speculation. It was sold to ING for £1! Barings Bank had been the oldest merchant bank in the City of London. (This was the subject of Rogue Trader)

Stats and Figures (Some Mind-boggling)

• According to the Federal Reserve System’s National Information Center, the top five bank holding companies (in order) are Citigroup, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wachovia and Taunus (Deutsche Bank).
• As of 9/30/2007, the top five hold $6,775,079,249,000.00 in assets. That’s six trillion, seven hundred seventy-five billion, seventy-nine million, two hundred forty-nine thousand dollars of assets.
• Three of the top five are headquartered in New York City, NY (Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Taunus). Bank of America and Wachovia are headquartered in Charlotte, NC.
• In 2006, there were 1,279 savings institutions according to the FDIC. 435 were supervised by the FDIC, the balance were supervised by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS).
• In 2005, there were 7,527 FDIC-insured banks with 72,775 branches and 80,302 offices at year end.
• In 1934, there were 14,146 FDIC-insured banks (unknown number of branches) at year end.
• At the end of 2005, the total assets of all FDIC-insured banks was $10,090,355,277,000.00. That’s ten trillion, ninety billion, three hundred fifty-five million, two hundred seventy-seven thousand dollars.
• At the end of 1934, the total assets of all FDIC-insured banks was $46,437,000,000.00. That’s a mere forty-six billion, four hundred thirty-seven million dollars. Inflation adjusted according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics and you’re talking about $676,801,950,000.00 in 2005 dollars.

Consumer Protection

• If your bank has FDIC insurance, your deposits are protected up to $100,000.
• To check if your bank is FDIC insured, use the FDIC’s Bank Find tool. Just because they say they are insured doesn’t mean they are.
• Credit unions deposits are protected under the National Credit Union Administration.
• To check if your credit union is NCUA insured, use the NCUA Find A Credit Union tool.
• The insurance coverage increases to $250,000 if the account is a retirement account.
• There are over a dozen Fed Regulations and laws that protect consumers, a page on the Chicago Fed website has a list of all of them. You will notice a few popular ones such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Regulation CC (how long a bank can hold your check funds as they process). It may make for some dry reading but it’s useful information to know.
• I wanted to specifically call out Regulation AA, Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices, which governs the procedures a consumer should follow to report unfair or deceptive acts or practices performed by a bank with respect to the extension of credit. This is especially appropriate nowadays but the regulation spells out specifically what you should do.

Actually Fun / Interesting Facts

• Bank of America has merged/acquired plenty of other banks, the most prominent of which was the Bank of Italy. In fact, when Bank of Italy merged with Bank of America, it was the Bank of Italy’s founder that served as its head. So you could say that Bank of America could’ve just as easily been Bank of Italy!
• The largest cash robbery, about $18.9 million) to have taken place in the United States was called the Dunbar Armored robbery, which took place at the Dunbar Armored facility in Los Angeles, CA. While everyone was caught, about $10M of the stolen loot was lost. It was an inside job and no bank was involved but it’s still worth mentioning, don’t you think?
• The largest cash robbery of a bank was the Loomis Fargo bank robbery in 1997, in which $17.3 million was stolen from a regional office vault in Charlotte, NC. Again, another inside job and the thieves were caught (so was 95% of the cash).
• Moments before the US started bombing Baghdad, nearly $1 billion dollars was stolen from the Central Bank of Iraq and considered the largest heist in history. $650 million was later recovered in the walls of one of Saddam’s palaces but the balance is still missing.
• The N.A. after the name of a bank indicates it’s a national bank, it stands for “National Association.” It means that the bank is chartered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
• The FSB after the name of a bank indicates that it is a Federal Savings Bank or a Federal Savings Association. It differs from a bank in that it’s overseen by the OTS and takes deposits for the purposes of lending it out for residential mortgages.
• Savings and loans are slightly different, they’re like FSBs/Thrift banks but for all types of mortgages, not just residential ones. The distinction is very slight and the lines are blurring among the three types.
• The North Hollywood shootout occurred after the pair of heavily armed thieves robbed a branch of Bank of America.
• The Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act, passed in 1994, has a provision that states no bank may hold more than 10% of the all deposits in the United States. The bill also made it possible for banks to buy other banks headquartered in other states, this was previously illegal.
• Bank of America is the official sponsor of the United States Olympic Teams, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball, and even Little League Baseball!
• In the NFL, there are currently five stadiums sponsored by financial institutions. M&T Bank (Baltimore Ravens), Invesco (Denver Broncos), Lincoln Financial (Philadelphia Eagles), Bank of America (Carolina Panthers), and Raymond James (Tampa Bay Buccaneers).
• In the NBA, there are currently five six arenas sponsored by financial institutions. TD Banknorth (Boston Celtics), Conseco (Indiana Pacers), TD Waterhouse (Orlando Magic), Quicken Loans (Cleveland Cavaliers), Key Bank (Seattle Supersonics), and Wachovia (Philadelphia 76ers).
• In the MLB, there are currently five stadiums sponsored by financial institutions. Chase (Arizona Diamondbacks), Comerica (Detroit Tigers), Citizens Bank (Philadelphia Phillies), PNC (Pittsburgh Pirates), and Safeco (Seattle Mariners).
• In the NHL, there are currently eight arenas sponsored by financial institutions. Wachovia (Philadelphia Flyers), Mellon (Pittsburgh Penguins), TD Banknorth (Boston Bruins), HSBC (Buffalo Sabres), Scotiabank (Ottawa Senators), BankAtlantic (Florida Panthers), Scottrade (St. Louis Blues), and Pengrowth (Calgary Flames) RBC (Carolina Hurricanes).
• Blueprint for Financial Prosperity is not sponsored by any bank, but would certainly entertain offers!

Pull out a fifty dollar bill and flip over to the back of the bill, do you recognize what building that is? Now, if you ask anyone except this year’s Miss North South Carolina (my apologies!), you probably could get it on your first couple guesses (it’s an identifiable building but it’s not something that everyone could pull off the top of their heads) and it would probably take a few more guesses to get what exactly happens in that building. If you were to do the same with the twenty, I bet a few more people would be able to guess what that is. Move up to the hundred and you’d probably get fewer people able to guess the building and what happens there… so I figured I’d give a recap.

$1 Bill

The dollar bill doesn’t have a building on the back of the bill and one of the only two bills not to have a building on the back of it. The back of it features the two “sides” of the Great Seal of the United States: the coat of arms (the obverse) and the pyramid (the reverse). The obverse of the seal, the coat of arms, is used to authenticate documents issued by the US government and is stored in the Exhibit Hall of the US Department of State.

$2 Bill

The two dollar bill is the other bill without a building on the back, it’s actually a picture of the drafting committee presenting a draft of the Declaration of Independence to Congress.

$5 Bill

Ahh, now we’re talking buildings. The back of the five spot is none other than the memorial to the face on the front, the Lincoln Memorial. The memorial itself doesn’t conduct any official business, since it’s a memorial, but that doesn’t mean a lot of important events haven’t happened there. Arguably the most significant event that has happened there was when Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, 100 years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Incidentally, the Lincoln Memorial also appears on the penny as well.

$10 Bill

The back of the ten dollar bill is the Treasury Building, fitting since the front has the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. The Treasury Building is the home of the US Department of the Treasury, one of the Cabinet departments and is responsible for managing government revenue. Through the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the United States Mint, the Treasury prints and mints all the currency used in the US; and through the Internal Revenue Service, it collects all federal taxes. There are plenty of other responsibilities but I think you get the idea.

$20 Bill

The back of the twenty dollar bill is none other than the 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW - The White House. I think that’s all that needs to be said about that building.

$50 Bill

The US Capitol building graces the back of the fifty dollar bill and it is the location of the legislative branch of the United States, the Congress. It contains two wings, one for the House of Representatives (south of the rotunda) and one for the Senate (north of the rotunda), in which all of the legislative business is handled and has done so since 1800’s. In fact, even the Supreme Court met in the Capitol until a building was constructed for the Judicial branch in 1935.

$100 Bill

Last but not least, Independence Hall is the building on the back of the hundred dollar bill and it’s another landmark building and the only one that isn’t in Washington D.C. Independence Hall is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is where the Declaration of Independence was debated and signed back in the late 18th century. In fact, in addition to the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution were all signed in Independence Hall. And as another piece of trivia, the Liberty Bell (the one with the crack) was the bell used in the hall’s bell tower (until the crack).

Larger Bills

None of the larger bills, all of which are no longer in circulation, have pictures of buildings on the backs and in fact none of them have anything other than the denomination repeated in larger numbers. Only the $5,000 bill and the $10000 bill has an image on the back. The $5,000 features George Washington resigning his commission to Congress and is taken from a painting by John Trumbull. The $10,000 has a picture of the Embarkation of the Pilgrims.

There you have it, a quick recap of all the buildings gracing the backs of our nation’s currency. I hope you picked up as much fun trivia as I did in writing this and have a great Labor Day!

Images of the $1 - $10 are courtesy of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the rest are courtesy of Wikipedia.

I was a little bored one day and thought I’d try to find fifty fun facts about credit cards that I didn’t know before hand and put them all in once place for you all to munch on and enjoy over the weekend. Some of the things I already knew, like the AMEX Centurion card has a $2500 annual fee and a $250,000 annual spend requirement, but others I didn’t, like how American Express started off as a shipping company and later branched out into financial services.

I broke the fun facts into these general categories: Historical Nuggets (with subcategories for each major card company), Useful Things That Make You Go Hmmmm…, Technobabbliciousness, Legal Ways You’ve Been Hosed & Un-Hosed, and Department of Holy Crap They Make A Ton of $$$$$. Historical Nuggets obviously covers the history of cards and the various companies. The Useful Things That Make You Go Hmmmm… covers some useful consumer information that may one day come in handy in your daily life. Technobabbliciousness covers some interesting facts about the technology behind credit cards. Legal Ways You’ve Been Hosed & Un-Hosed covers various court rulings and other legalese that explain why the environment is the way it is (like ridiculous fees and interest rates!). Finally, Department of Holy Crap They Make A Ton of $$$$$ is just a collection of mind-boggling statistics that should make you think twice about starting your own credit card company.

Historical Nuggets

1. In the beginning, credit cards were just charge accounts, offered by individual stores and only usable at those stores. The first credit card that could be used at multiple locations was offered by The Diner’s Club in 1950. (full story)
2. Diners Club issued that first card to only two hundred customers and it could only be used at twenty seven restaurants in New York City.

American Express History

3. American Express started off as a shipping company in 1850, shipping products across the United States and capitalizing on the limited reach and slow speed of the United States Postal Service. Their main customers were banks and they shipped various financial instruments like stock certificates and other notes. They began selling money orders and traveler’s checks in 1882 and issued its first credit card in 1958. (full history)
4. In 1984, American Express billed their Platinum Card as extremely exclusive and it had an annual fee of $250 ($484.84 in 2006 dollars). Today, the extremely exclusive card for American Express is their black Centurion card with a $2,500 annual fee! (and requirement to spend $250,000 a year)

MasterCard & Visa History

5. MasterCard and Visa are networks of banks and financial institutions. American Express is its own company and Discover Card is a subsidiary Morgan Stanley (who is spinning off the business).
6. Visa was originally called BankAmericard, a card offered by Bank of America in 1958 in California. By 1970, they had created an association, called the National BankAmericard, Inc., of all the US Banks that issued the BankAmericard. It wasn’t renamed to Visa until 1976. (full history)
7. Visa actually stands Visa International Service Association.
8. The Visa logo colors were chosen because the blue represented the sky and the gold represented color of the hills in California where Bank of America was founded. (from Wikipedia).
9. Originally formed under the name Interbank Card Association and they acquired the MasterCharge brand and logo in 1969. MasterCharge was originally formed by four California banks in 1967, who joined together to form the Western States Bankcard Association to battle the BankAmericard of Bank of America. MasterCharge was renamed MasterCard in 1979.
10. In 1984, MasterCard was the first to use a hologram on its cards to deter fraud.

Discover Card History

11. Discover Card was introduced by Sears in 1985 and gained notoriety because it charged no annual fee.
12. At the time, Sears also owned the brokerage Dean Witter Reynolds Organization and the Discover brand was integrated into that organization. When Dean Witter merged with Morgan Stanley in 1997, Discover went along for the ride.

Useful Things That Make You Go Hmmmm…

13. Wonder why minimum payments are so low? It allows consumer to carry more debt while keeping to the same low minimum payment. You can give someone with the ability to pay $100 per month a credit limit as high as $5,000 if they only had to pay 2% a month. If the minimum payment were 5%, they could only have a credit limit of $2,000. The lower the minimum payment, the deeper in debt someone could be in.
14. It is against the merchant agreements of MC, Visa, and AMEX, for a vendor to require you to provide your phone number, home address, or other personal information for credit card transactions. In fact, some states make it illegal for them to require it. (It’s not illegal to ask, but it is if they refuse to process the transaction without that information)
15. Under the merchant agreements of MC, Visa, Discover Card and AMEX, you do not need to present a driver’s license in order to complete a credit card transaction.
16. Under the merchant agreements of MC, Visa, and Discover Card, vendors may not require a minimum purchase amount. Under AMEX, it’s more of a hint that the vendor shouldn’t put up any barriers to use but AMEX also has a discrimination rule, so if there is no minimum amount for MC/Visa, there cannot be a minimum amount for AMEX. (Consumerist has all the relevant merchant agreements consolidated)
17. Under the merchant agreements of MC, Visa, and Discover Card, vendors may not charge a surcharge for using the card (the anti-discrimination rules still apply for AMEX). In some states, it is actually illegal to charge a surcharge for credit card purchases. This rule does not apply to government agencies.
18. On the flip side, offering a discount for cash payment (over credit card payment) is permitted by all of the card companies (looooophole!).
19. A merchant may, on taking a personal check, require that you offer a credit card number. It is against merchant agreements to charge a credit card in the event of a bounced check (and it’s also very dangerous to have all that juicy information on one little slip of paper, plus this may also be illegal in your state).
20. You can lower your interest rate with a phone call. Credit card companies are like cell phone and cable companies, they’re afraid you’ll leave and join with one of their competitors. Use this to your advantage by comparing offers from other credit cards and bringing this information to your credit company.
21. When you use your card, you agree to the cardholder agreement, you don’t have to sign anything. If you get an update to the agreement, you also agree to the updates once you use your card.
22. A fixed interest rate on a credit card can change with only 15 days of notice. Fixed is not fixed in the sense that a mortgage loan is fixed, it’s fixed in the sense that the credit card company can change it with only 15 days notice!
23. If you have multiple balances with different interest rates on one card, payments are generally applied to the balance with the lower interest rate. You will have no choice in the matter and you cannot request it be made to the higher balance. So if you have a $100 balance at 19.99% and a $5,000 balance at 4.99%, your payments apply to the $5,000 at 4.99% first. A note about this will be in your agreement.
24. The credit card sale process works as follows: The vendor sends an authorization request for the value of the sale. The credit card company checks the card limit and reduces the credit limit by that amount (it puts a “hold” or a “block”) and sends the vendor electronic confirmation that the card is good. The vendor sends a deposit transaction or a sale transaction. The credit card company sends the money. This process is usually quick and painless… with the following exceptions:
25. Hotels and rental car agencies usually send an authorization request for the estimated cost of your stay or rental and they keep this “block” on your card for 10 to 15 days (independent of how long you actually stay there) even if you pay with something else.
26. When you use a credit card at a gas pump, the pump authorizes the purchase for something in the neighborhood of $50 first. So if you have less than $50 left on your limit, the pump will reject your purchase attempt.
27. Restaurants typically will authorize a credit card purchase for the amount of the bill plus 25% (for gratuity), so again, if your limit can’t handle the extra 25%, the purchase transaction will be rejected.

Technobabbliciousness

28. Ever notice all your credit cards are of uniform shape and size? Their dimensions are governed by the ISO 7810 standard, an international standard for identification cards. Banking cards, as well as driver’s licenses and retail cards, follow ID-1 (passports follow ID-3). If your card has a smart chip, it follows ISO 7816, and if it has RFID, it follows ISO 14443.
29. The expiration date on the card is “fake.” You can still use the card after its expiration date because the card number on your replacement will be the same. The reason why cards do expire varies from company to company but mostly it’s because the credit cards take a lot of abuse and just need replacing (they estimate the magnetic strip is good for only about three or four years of swiping).
30. Interested to know what’s on the magnetic stripe? Check out this breakdown of the three tracks on Wikipedia (the rest of the page explains other magnetic stripes).
31. There are generally two types of magnetic strips, high-coercivity and low-coercivity, with the high-coercivity being stronger and more durable (also requiring more expensive equipment to handle). (from Wikipedia)
32. Higher-coercivity are usually black and low-coercivity strips are a dark brown, but there are special cases such as American Express’ patented silver colored magnetic strip.
33. Hotel keys and other low-coercivity stripped cards are susceptible to being scrambled by a weak magnetic force, including cell phones.
34. Credit card numbers conform to the Luhn algorithm, which is just a simple checksum test on the number. What you do is start from the right and double each second digit (1111 becomes 2121), then add them all together, and you should end with a number evenly divisible by ten. If it doesn’t, it’s not a valid credit card number.
35. The first digit of the number is the Major Industry Identifier. 1/2 are for airlines, 3 is for travel/entertainment, 4/5 for banking and financial, 6 for merchandizing and financial, 7 for petroleum, 8 for telecommunications. 0 and 9 are for other assignments but you’ll likely never see them. If you look at an American Express card, you’ll see it starts with a 3, a throwback to their travel/entertainment roots.
36. The first six digits will correspond to the issuer, including the major industry identifier. 34xxxx/37xxxx are for American Express, 4xxxxx is for Visa, 51-55xxxx is for MasterCard, and 6011xx is for Discover.
37. The rest of the digits (except the last one, which is a checksum digit) is your account number.

Legal Ways You’ve Been Hosed & Un-Hosed

38. Minors, those under the age of 18, are not obligated to pay back any charges to their credit cards (unless a parent co-signs, but then its the parent who is on the hook) because they are not allowed to enter into a binding contract.
39. If there are unauthorized charges on your card, you’re on the hook for $50 each, maximum (unless your agreement says you are responsible for less, you cannot be responsible for more). If you report your card missing and an unauthorized charge appears after you’ve reported it, you are liable for $0.
40. By law, you are only allowed to dispute charges for “unsatisfactory goods or services” if you made the purchase in your home state or within 100 miles of your billing address and the purchase was for more than $50. (and if you’ve made a good faith attempt to resolve it with the vendor) While a credit card company may not hold you to this, they are protected by the law for purchases outside your home state/100 mile radius.
41. Credit card companies are prohibited by law from sending you a card that you didn’t ask for, unless it’s a renewal or a substitute card. If you get a credit card you didn’t apply for, contact the Federal Trade Commission and file a complaint.
42. A common clause in most user/member agreements is that the cardholder waives their right to sue the credit card company. The cardholder must instead go through a binding arbitration hearing with the credit card company and cannot take the company to court or participate in a class action suit.
43. Before 1996 and the Supreme Court case Smiley vs. Citibank (517 U.S. 735, Thanks j), there were restrictions on how much a credit card company could charge for a late payment. The ruling in Smiley vs. Citibank lifted that restriction and fees that were once around $5-$10 jumped to $30 or more today.
44. There is no federal law regulating the rate of interest a credit card company can charge! The federal government use to regulate but repealed those laws during the Great Depression and never put them back in place, they now rely on the states to handle usury.
45. In the Supreme Court case Marquette National Bank v. First of Omaha Service Corp (439 U.S. 299, Thanks j) in 1978, the Court decided that national banks only need to follow the usury laws of the state they are headquartered in, not the state in which their customer resides.
46. Credit card companies are all headquartered in states with high or no cap on interest rates. American Express is located in Utah (no cap), Bank of America is in Arizona (36%), Citibank is in South Dakota (no cap), Capital One is in Virginia (no cap), Providian is in New Hampshire (no cap), and JP Morgan Chase, MBNA (now Bank of America), Morgan Stanley/Discover, and HSBC are all located in Delaware (no cap).

Department of Holy Crap They Make A Ton of $$$$$

47. Each American household receives approximately 6 offers a month. The typical response rate is .33% (one third of one percent). You can opt out of these mailings via OptOutPrescreen.
48. Each direct mailing acquisition costs approximately $80, according to R.K. Hammer, bank card advisory firm.
49. Credit card companies earned $90.1B in interest in 2006, up from $89.4B the year before (according to R.K. Hammer).
50. Credit card companies earned $55.2B in fees in 2006, up from $54.8B the year before (according to R.K. Hammer).

Bonus Fun Fact:
Mastercard’s market capitalization is a whopping $14.24B, American Express’s stands at $71.62B, and Morgan Stanley stands at $86.40B. Visa is not publicly traded (yet). While you can’t compare their market caps because such a large part of Amex and Morgan Stanley’s businesses are not in credit cards, it’s still interesting to look at the numbers. Incidentally, Bank of America has a market cap of $239.17B. (These figures as of 1/11/07)