Yeah, but that’s non-counterfeit money. I suspect that figure is lower for the fake stuff. 😂

Fair point!

Interesting. More than 90% of all counterfeit US bills are $100’s.

William Gibson wasn’t wrong about the US $100 being “the international currency of bad shit.”

Take it in to a bank. They should be able to give you a clean bill in exchange, and scan it for counterfeit flags.

Weird that it would be a $10–hard to make a profit at that level—but weird stuff happens.

I’m DC-based for now. Happy to grab a cuppa sometime.

A few years ago I was overseeing a project looking into (among a lot of other things) how Chinese corruption networks influence technology and defense policy. Unfortunately it was shut down before we could really dig below some surface stuff.

Yeah, in deeply embedded corruption systems, the network can dictate decisions way out on its periphery.

In Afghanistan we used to say “you can’t sell an apple in Mazar without Atta Noor getting his cut”. (Pre-2021, obviously)

Makes sense.

I just flag it because mixing up opportunistic schemes and systemic corruption is probably the most common source of all sorts of really harmful misunderstandings about political corruption. But the exercise sounds like it would make for a great class session.

My point was just that the scenario suggests the mayor in question would be able to “freelance” those decisions. I’m no expert in Chinese municipal politics, but that seems unlikely. I suspect the decisions would be dictated or heavily influenced by others in the patronage network.

I didn’t mean to suggest it was a bad exercise! Every exercise is a simplification, and dealing with the systemic corruption questions would have required something much more complex and time consuming.

Unrepentant Nut Rat is the name of my swing/punk fusion band.

Congratulations, and happy birthday!

I’d absolutely play that.

That’s what those reusable silicone ziplock bags are for! You can get ones that fit in a purse, even.