#744 Involuntary Monetary

So, thanks, to Visa, I was just given the involuntary opportunity to participate in the specialized field of international currency market speculation.
You may remember recently that one of the crises in world financial markets brought about by the credit collapse was the monstrous malfunction of hedge funds. Hedge funds are supposed to be a strategy to make money on the market whether it goes up or down.
Except our recent hedgesters all bet on the same side of the market and went, to use the technical term, kerplooey.
Currency markets can sometimes be played the same way. Or they can be played like any risky stock purchase. Buy low sell high.
You hope.
If the dollar is on a more or less consistent downward slide and you’re, say, a gigantor financial institution like Visa, who processes millions of tiny transactions a day, the less dollars you have to pay today and can pay out tomorrow, when they are worth less, they better off you are.
So how to hedge your bets?
I got a notice from Visa that my supposedly “same-as-cash” debit card, backed by them, is no longer actually same as cash.
They are saying it’s their new right to pay me whatever favorable exchange rate they choose.
So say I went to Canada and bought a 10 Canadian dollar latte at the equivalent that day of 10 American dollars. If the next day the American dollar were to fall in value relative to the Canadian, such latte would now cost 10.50 American.
And Visa could pocket the difference. Risk free.
Pay Canada $10 on the day of the first transaction. Charge me $10.50 when they process it.
Because, according to this new “agreement” they sent, they don’t have to report the transaction and post it to my account until they are ready.
Bankcards have redefined the concept of “agreement” to mean “they agree I have no real choice in the matter.”
Actually I do. Get my cash exchanged for cash at the border. And the only Visa I’ll use in a foreign country is if one is attached to my passport.
America, ya gotta love it.