New Credit Card Rule in Japan Bad For Small Businesses

Because of so many credit card scams and crooks running around nowadays, it seems that the credit card companies are getting stricter and stricter by the day.... 

A good friend at Citi Bank informs me that the Japan Credit Card Association has passed a new rule that says all internet companies using credit card must register with the association and get a individual "credit card approval stamp" for their site and every sale must run through their approval process first before each and every purchase is made! 

The big companies like Amazon and Rakuten have rejected this new rule but the association, according to my friend, is insisting upon new and small businesses to toe the line by early next year... 

This is just another scam targeting small businesses and making it more difficult for them. 

How this process works is like this: A customer decides to buy something. They must access the Japan Credit Card Association site first to get an approval (to confirm they are the registered user of that card and not a fraudster). The customer gets the approval first, then receives some sort of numbered identification. Then, after that, they go to an individual site and buy what they were looking for! 

It's obvious that this is damaging to small businesses and just the big guys (like Amazon or Rakuten) can say "No! We're not going to do this!" But to others, this is another block in the road. 

Anyhow, it seems, according to my friend at Citi, that there is a fight going on about this right now but the association is insisting upon it.

Like I said, the big guys won't follow the rules (Why should they? They have all the money and money equals clout!) But the little guys and small businesses will be damaged by this new rule as customers will find it troublesome to have to go through just another process and a bunch of clicks to buy something.

Amazon's and Rakuten's "One-Click" systems will become even easier to use... The small businesses? They'll lose sales.

Citi's Chief Economist: "Greece Will Be Forced Out of Euro" - The Greek Elections Don't Matter!

Got gold?

Citi's Buiter: Greece will be forced out of the euro regardless of who wins the Sunday elections

New Democracy. Syriza. Doesn't matter. According to Citi's senior political analyst Tina Fordham, chief economist Willem Buiter, and global economist Ebrahim Rahbari, "any new Greek government, regardless of its composition, will struggle with implementation challenges related to the imposition of further austerity measures demanded by the Troika in exchange for further assistance," and as a result, they "consider it likely that a new troika deal would ultimately fall apart and lead to Grexit."

Citi notes that there is growing sense among European leaders that "promotion of economic growth can no longer be subordinated completely, even in fiscally unsustainable euro area member states, to the requirements of fiscal austerity," but no one has any idea what that means.

This seems to be the current thinking, according to Citi:

"The only operational, practical consensus on growth is that austerity policies should not be unnecessarily pro-cyclical. If a deficit target is overshot because of bad luck (economic activity and government revenues are weaker than expected despite full adherence to all conditionality) rather than bad faith (there has been a failure to implement agreed measures or policies), the shortfall will not have to be made up immediately – in the original time frame. More time will be given to achieve the original objectives without the need for deeper and faster austerity than originally envisaged. Bad faith (non-compliance) will, for incentive-compatibility or moral hazard reasons, continue to be punished with demand for enhanced and faster austerity."

Warning. Also, reminder: "And of course, reduced austerity does not mean no austerity, let alone the reversal of austerity...fiscal policy will remain contractionary overall – just less contractionary."

Citi's doesn't think Greece is able to handle any more austerity, and its rapidly deteriorating fiscal condition is hastening a day of reckoning.

Read more.

There was another article that caught my eye at Zerohedge:

As Greek Banks Run Out Of Safe Deposit Boxes, An Eerie Calm Takes Over The Country 24 Hours Before D-Day

...the most ironic moment in the Greek denouement will come when fractional reserve lending collapses onto itself:

Stavropoulos and her friends have a new strategy to deal with their daily expenses. "We charge everything to our credit cards," she says. If the Greek banks fail, they won't be able to collect the outstanding debts, she argues. "If they want to mess me around, I will do the same to them."

In other words, Greece is now America, where the vast majority of people also live on credit alone, and have taken up the following motto when dealing with banks: "you pretend to be solvent, we pretend to have money."

At the end of the day, it is all just one big global monetary circle jerk, only this time in reverse, as the snake of fractional reserve banking has finally started to eat its own tail. With people spending money they don't have, and in debt to their eyeballs to a banking system that itself is just as insolvent, is there any wonder that nobody really panics any more over daily threats the grand reset is finally coming?

And on that note, 


I've found the best place to buy gold and silver in Tokyo. The place is called Ishifuku Metals and it is located in several locations around Japan. In Tokyo, it is just a 20 second walk from Kanda station on the JR line.

I went there the other day and found that Ishifuku's price on a 20 gram gold bar was a full ¥2,000 yen lower than the price on the place I usually go to in Okachimachi (I won't go there anymore!). 


Ishifuku Metals is not a just wholesale metals dealer, they are a metals factory that provides materials for medical uses and dentistry as well as for product manufacturers. Since they are a factory, buying from Ishifuku gives you rock bottom prices since there is no middle man. And, of course, they also sell to the public just like a regular gold or precious metals dealer.

From Kitco


Ishifuku Metals has been in business since 1930 so you know they are a reputable company and the service is excellent..


Address in Tokyo is:


Ishifuku Metals
Uchi Kanda 3-20-7, Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo, 101-8654


Tel: 03-3252-3131

Other locations? Here.

Move Your Money Nov. 5, 2011 ~ Dec. 31, 2011

My wife and I removed all our money from Citibank last week.