[atonse]

By the way, Planet Money (a public radio show in the US) had a great episode on how ACH works, and the history behind it.

Excerpt from summary: "On today's show: Why the invisible pipes that move money around America are so slow. (And why the ones in England are so much faster.)"

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/10/04/229224964/episode-...

[ajtaylor]

The most interesting part was at the end when they talked about a proposal & vote to upgrade the payment network (and not even real-time like England's) which failed to pass. A later survey found that the prime reason was cannibalisation of existing revenue streams - aka wire transfers.

Having lived in the US, Ireland and Australia, I find the US banking system to be archaic compared to Ireland or Australia's. I can pay anyone up to around 1000 EUR/AUD in a few clicks. No fees or waiting days for money to show. It's brilliant!

[rsync]

I keep seeing this radio program referenced every time a thread comes up related to (blah blah ACH...).

So I listened to it. It wasn't that interesting. If you had never heard of ACH before, it would perhaps be illuminating, but if you already have a decent grasp of the existence of this system and it's shortcomings, there's not a lot more meat in that program...

YMMV.

[halcyondaze]

Why listen to it when it's a layman's finance podcast if you already have a decent grasp of ACH and it's shortcomings? Did you really expect them to be giving an in-depth look at ACH for their 3million+ audience?

[joezydeco]

Well they have 22 minutes to fill and the situation with ACH is pretty simple. Antiquated system, no motivation to change, done.

Planet Money's original charter was to explain what was happening, literally day-by-day, as the 2007-2008 financial meltdown was happening. And those were pretty informative and well-written shows.

[lsc]

What I find interesting about the program is that I have an emotional reaction like they are talking down to me.

I mean, yeah, it's a podcast targeted at the average person, sure, I'm not expecting them to really go deep. But I don't know very much about that sort of thing, so sometimes they really are giving me information I don't have.

But the tone? Well, it really does feel like I'm being talked down to. I do not know why. I find my own reaction odd, and I've listened to the podcast several times in an effort to try to figure out what, exactly, I found condescending.

It's especially odd because I'll listen to other podcasts targeted at the average person, and I'll be entertained or informed, and I won't feel like they are talking down to me. There's something about the planet money folks that sets me off.

[joezydeco]

Wow, and this podcast was done by Bloomberg and Kestenbaum, two of their better reporters.

I mean, yeah, it's NPR. You're not going to get amazing voice talent reading the stories. I don't feel talked-down-to as much as I feel like I'm hearing a work done by second-year broadcasting students trying to finish a project. Listen to Chana Joffe-Walt or Zoe Chase sometime.

But if you think this podcast is annoying, best you skip the rest of them...

[lsc]

nah, the voice acting is fine. And certainly, I'm not claiming that they are objectively arrogant, or that a 'reasonable person' would feel talked down to, and when you get down to it, I'm the last person to call someone else out on arrogance.

It's odd, too, as the non-financial stories on, say, this American life usually doesn't trigger the same response. (I mean, I'm not a huge fan of this American life, but not because I feel talked down to.)

I was commenting mostly because I find my own reaction... unexpected. And I think the question "what is arrogance?" is an interesting one. Different people will perceive vastly different levels of arrogance in the same document or reading.