modern nomad

MSN today has an article about Wal-Mart's domination of the marketplace with frightening echoes of the "company store" of migrant farmer days. Another hint that we're heading for a world of the ultra rich and debtors?

The superstore has been trying to get into banking for five years, but its efforts to buy banks in California, Oklahoma and Canada were thwarted by regulators. Wal-Mart has a ready-made market at hand: 20% of the 100 million customers that come through its doors weekly don't have bank accounts. The chain already offers financial services such as check cashing, bill payment and money orders, and it boasts 28 Wal-Mart Money Centers, which are operated by SunTrust Banks, as well as hundreds of other in-store bank branches. The company says it has no plans to get into retail banking, but industry sources say Wal-Mart is still pushing this agenda quietly and is expected to take another run at banking again.

things on the edge are more interesting because they can move into more states