recession watch
I've always thought that the U.S. should bring back larger-denomination coins. I like concluding an evening out in Canada or in the Euro zone and discovering that there's the equivalent of $14 or so in change sitting in my pockets. A man in Pennsylvania apparently feels the same way, and succeeded in buying ice cream with a counterfeit $20 coin.
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identification
Who pays for a six-piece McNugget with a
$20 $50 bill? Counterfeiters, that's who, and the
McDonald's near Madison Square Garden is ready for them. Sorry guys, you're going to have to ask Wendy's to anonymously break your shadily large bills.
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ebay
That headline is the good news. The bad news is the $61 million in damages ordered by a French court isn't meant for regular shoppers who have been defrauded when shopping on eBay. Instead, it's been awarded to LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the French luxury goods company behind Louis Vuitton purses (among other fancy things, as you can see from their name). LVMH argued that
"90 percent of the Louis Vuitton bags and Dior perfumes sold on eBay are fakes," and that eBay profited off the sales without doing enough to stop them. EBay can appeal the decision, or simply click the "Pay It Now!" button.
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labels
That $1,500 Prada bag may have been
stitched by an illegal Chinese immigrant slaving away in a Tuscan factory. The tentacles of globalization are starting to snake dirt-cheap foreign laborers into once-protected enclaves known for their quality swag.
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bad consumer
37-year-old Mesa, Arizona resident Scott Martin didn't understand why a shop owner wouldn't sell him a watch in exchange for two $100 bills
bearing Abraham Lincoln's watermark. The shop owner gently explained that President Lincoln appears on the penny and the $5 bill. This was enough to start a fight that ended with the shop owner tasering Martin.
When fire rescue personnel arrived, they cut off Martin's shirt to treat him, and three more counterfeit $100 bills fell out, the document said.
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Consumerist
