Matt Phillips described a strange quirk of American currency – close to four out of every five bills – 77% – are $100 bills. Seeing as most people don’t stuff their wallets with $100 bills, what’s going on?

• The demand for $100 bills has been rising since the 70s. This is, in part, a result of inflation. Things didn’t really cost $100 before then.
• Most $100 bills appear to be kept outside the United States – the majority of the demand for the bills comes from a New York office which sends the bills abroad in pallets with $64 million worth of bills.
• The amount of American currency outside of the United States is estimated to be anywhere between 25% and 70% of all bills.
• Those outside the US aren’t using the bills to buy groceries. Instead they’re stores of value that are insurance against unstable domestic currencies.
• American currency is also the preferred means of exchange for illicit transactions related to the drugs, arms, and human trafficking markets.

Read more about why credit cards might threaten the supremacy of the $100 bill, and why this would be bad for America’s deficit over here.

Source: The Atlantic

An increase in demand causes prices to increase – that basic and intuitive economic relationship appears to fall apart during thanksgiving when supermarkets advertize their discounted turkeys – even though demand must surge then. In 2011 and 2012 Matthew Yglesias explained why this was the case:

• Stores discount the turkey to lure you in…but they jack up the prices on complimentary goods such as stuffing and sweet potatoes.
• Evidence also suggests that instead of giving you standard turkey at lower prices; supermarkets sell lower quality turkey for the discounted price – the idea being that you know that most of the turkey will be consumed by your guests instead of you and so you don’t care about its quality as much.
• The price of higher quality turkeys seems to be going up.

Read more about the economics of thanksgiving Turkey at the source links below.

Source: Slate 2011, Slate 2012

We don’t really understand how China’s Great Firewall works writes Eveline Chao. Some of the things you might not know include:

• For the most part it’s not the government who does the censoring. Instead private companies who operate on the internet are forced to obtain a license which requires them to censor their own content, based on what might offend the communist party.
• Not all criticism of the government is censored. In fact the majority of criticism remains uncensored; it’s only calls to organize or take action that is blocked.
• The internet will not lead to democracy. While the internet provides opportunities to express the desire for democratic, freedoms; it can also be used to more easily monitor and quash dissent.

Read more about the dangers of using a VPN in China, the rarity of blanket bans, and how much the Chinese understand about the firewall that surrounds them over here.

Source: Foreign Policy

The Telegraph looked at the economics of being selected to play James Bond:

• Daniel Craig was paid £1.9 million the first time he played James Bond in Casino Royale.
• By the time of Skyfall Craig was making £10.7 million per film.
• For the next two films his earnings will rise to total £31 million.
• This not only makes Craig the best paid Bond actor, it also makes him among Hollywood’s best paid actors, just behind Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Read more about the reason for his salary increases and how much other Bond actors made over here.

Source: The Telegraph

Alyson Shontell described the origins of some of the stranger company names around. The list includes:

• The founders of Twitter first called the service “status” and then “twitch”. Eventually they looked in the dictionary and found a word that meant: “a short burst of inconsequential information”. Thus, “Twitter” was born.
• Zynga was inspired by Zinga, the pet dog of the company’s founder.
• Skype was based on peer to peer technology and so the service got its name from “Sky-Peer-to-Peer”.
• Pandora got its name from the curious Greek Goddess who received multiple gifts, including the gift of music.
• Zillow, the real estate service, wanted a “Zillion” data points of places which you could call home – or put your head on a “pillow”. Zillion pillow. Zillow.

Click here to read the full list of 16, and to find out about the origins of “Google”, “Apple”, “Yahoo”, “Hulu”, and “Meebo” among others.

Source: Business Insider

Sony, a Japanese company that was once the poster-child of a future where western companies would no longer dominate, has stumbled upon hard times write Jake Adelstein and Nathalie-Kyoko Stucky. In fact, it’s not clear if the company will survive for long. They looked at what went wrong for what was once one of the biggest, most exciting companies:

• In a possible attempt to bring in fresh blood and new ideas, Sony encouraged its older workers to retire early. However these experienced hands went on to work for Sony’s competitors while the inexperienced engineers lacked the confidence to experiment and innovate.
• Domestic sales in Japan make up a significant portion of Sony’s revenue. However Japan’s loyalty for Japanese products is waning, and Sony can no longer rely upon generating sales in Japan with mediocre products.
• The brand itself has lost its veneer. Once associated with dependability and reliability, that reputation is rapidly deteriorating as manufacturing facilities are moved out of Japan and into countries with lower labour costs, but also lower levels of skill.
• The company may also have lost its focus. Is it a hardware company that builds televisions? Is it a gaming company that sells games for its PlayStation system? Or is it an entertainment company that produces Spiderman films?
• The company also has a history of trying to lock customers into its proprietary formats. This is becoming an increasing disincentive to buy Sony products.

Read more about what went wrong, the internal management struggles, the role of Japan’s yen, and many more fascinating details over here.

Source: Kotaku