MasterCard is at war in Canada, and it’s not against who you’d expect

As ex advisor to Ronald Reagan, Martin Armstrong, says: The current goal for major institutions and governments is to eliminate cash. This is how you keep bankruns from happening, plus you’re able to track down every single transaction. It’s an all-out assault on your freedom.

 

TORONTO — In Canada, the biggest rival MasterCard Inc. is working to obliterate, according to its local president Brian Lang, isn’t Visa Inc., American Express Co., Interac Association or Bitcoin dealers. It’s cold, hard cash.

“The benefit of Interac and Visa for me is that we’re competing towards the same goal of a digitally enabled country,” Lang said in a recent telephone interview. “I actually appreciate that (Interac) is advertising right now not to pay with cash and that there’s a much better way, that you can tap or pop in your card.”

China poised to surpass U.S. on business travel spending by 2016

For years Americans have led the world in business travel spending. That is about to change.

With China’s economy surging, business travel spending from the world’s most populous country is expected to jump 14% in 2013 and 17% next year, according to the Global Business Travel Assn., the trade group for corporate travel managers.

China is expected to surpass the U.S. as the world’s largest business travel market by 2016, the trade group says.