The U.S. is seeing the biggest spike in demand for cold, hard cash since the Y2K “bug” panic of 1999, as customers of U.S. banks and credit unions have made big withdrawals to brace themselves for coronavirus fallout.
According to data by the Federal Reserve, the number of banknotes in circulation rose by $35 billion, from $1.808 trillion on March 11 to $1.843 trillion on March 18.
Last week the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the agency that insures bank deposits and protects customers from any losses, urged people to keep their cash in the bank. FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams told Cheddar Wednesday that money in insured institutions will be safe, "even if we need to go above and beyond the bank assets to pay out depositors and then replenish the funds.”
The FDIC historically has insured customer deposits up to $250,000 per depositor at FDIC-insured institutions.
McWilliams said the agency doesn’t currently anticipate any bank failures directly resulting from the coronavirus pandemic and that despite the spike in cash withdrawals the FDIC isn’t worried about the system or financial stability of the U.S. The big banks themselves have also insisted they won’t need bailouts.
Nevertheless, the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill, signed into law on Friday, includes a provision allowing the FDIC to insure deposits that total more than $250,000.
Updated March 31 to clarify that the FDIC does not anticipate any bank failures directly resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
Elon Musk may not have founded Tesla, but he has become the company, and it’s become him. Now sales are plummeting. Is he toxic for the Tesla?
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
Europeans upset with Elon Musk still aren’t buying his electric cars, adding to a long losing streak for his company.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
Nvidia reported a 56% increase in second-quarter revenue and a 59% rise in net income compared to a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos claims audiences don't want to watch Netflix movies in theaters, but that seems not to be the case recently.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
