Free Republic

The payment company's CEO Alex Chriss told staff on Tuesday that another 9% of the workforce — about 2,500 positions — will be slashed. The news comes after PayPal said it would reduce its headcount by about 2,000 in January last year."We are doing this to right-size our business, allowing us to move with the speed needed to deliver for our customers and drive profitable growth," Chriss wrote in a memo. "At the same time, we will continue to invest in areas of the business we believe will create and accelerate growth." The cuts will come from current positions as...

Elon Musk is presently the richest man in the world. He may also be the smartest. In an interview with the British prime minister, Musk warned about the dangers of AI (artificial intelligence). He said, "There will come a point when no job is needed – you can have a job if you want for personal satisfaction, but the AI will be able to do everything."Breitbart.com has added a new category to its menu: AI danger. Here you can read some of what Musk has concluded:Google has replaced its ad sales employees with AIAn L.A.-based company, Channel 1, claims it...

The IRS announced on Tuesday that it is delaying a controversial tax reporting requirement targeting Americans who made more than $600 online through third-party payment apps like Venmo or PayPal. The rule change – approved by Democrats in March 2021 with the passage of the American Rescue Plan – would have required payments platforms, including Venmo, PayPal, Etsy and Airbnb, to send Form 1099-K to the IRS and users if their transactions totaled more than $600 over the course of the year. Instead, the IRS will treat 2023 as "an additional transition year," meaning that payment apps will not be...

wasn’t clear at first why Peter Thiel agreed to talk to me. He is, famously, no friend of the media. But Thiel—co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, avatar of techno-libertarianism, bogeyman of the left—consented to a series of long interviews at his home and office in Los Angeles. He was more open than I expected him to be, and he had a lot to say. But the impetus for these conversations? He wanted me to publish a promise he was going to make, so that he would not be tempted to go back on his word. And what was that thing...

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who previously supported former President Trump, said the Trump administration was “crazier” and “more dangerous” than he expected, in a recent interview. Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist who co-founded PayPal, has been a vocal supporter and financial advocate for Trump. In an interview with The Atlantic published Thursday, Thiel said he is not giving money to the former president — or any other candidate — in the 2024 presidential campaign.

I have no idea whether this report is accurate, but given the nature of events and revelations in the past several years – this seems plausible, possibly likely.In the aftermath of the 2020 election outcome, several people on the more libertarian/conservative side of the political spectrum, were concerned about being targeted by an Obama third term. As the rather revelatory story is told today, that provided the motive for Peter Thiel to cozy up to the FBI and avoid being a target.Business Insider is reporting that Billionaire PayPal founder Peter Thiel became a “confidential human source” for the FBI in...

A pair of Senate Republicans are demanding PayPal remove the account for a Black Lives Matter chapter that showed support for the terrorist group Hamas after its deadly attack against Israel. BLM Chicago came under the spotlight last week upon sharing an "I stand with Palestine" graphic on social media that depicted a Hamas terrorist in a paraglider, although the group later deleted it and said it wasn't "proud" of the post. But because the chapter is actively fundraising through PayPal, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) are calling on the payment processor to support Israel and cut...

The Federal Reserve Thursday officially launched its long-awaited instant payment service FedNow, which allows consumers and businesses to send and receive money in seconds. The system lets Americans pay for groceries instantly, businesses pay their suppliers, or people pay each other. It will be available 24 hours a day, every day of the year, with full access to funds immediately. FedNow isn’t offered directly to individuals and businesses, but it will serve as the basis of infrastructure for instant payments by linking banks. Transactions occur between bank accounts and enable funds to be transferred from a sender’s bank account to...

Crypto YouTuber and trader Lark Davis has posted a tweet, in which he reminded followers of the recent news of the Bitcoin whitepaper spotted within the operational system of Mac computers...The blogger also stated that the periods when Satoshi went off the grid and Steve Jobs differ by just one year, with these events happening in 2010 and 2011. With this tweet, he started a poll, offering his audience the choice between three answers: "yes" Steve Jobs was Satoshi, "no" he was not and "it does not matter."A total of 37.7% of the respondents chose "no." Slightly less but close...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sided with conservative investors this week in their request to investigate what they say is PayPal’s systematic political and religious discrimination against customers. Over the objections of PayPal’s management, the SEC allowed a proposal by the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) to go to a shareholder vote at the company’s next annual meeting. This decision follows a similar decision on March 29, in which the SEC green-lighted a proposal regarding alleged political and religious discrimination at JPMorgan Chase, America’s largest bank. In an April 10 letter to PayPal’s attorneys, the SEC stated...

Mark Ruffalo is an American actor who spends his free time spewing antisemitic rhetoric and dangerous anti-Israel propaganda to his nearly 30 million social media followers. Ruffalo regularly aligns himself with antisemitic positions and fans the flames of Jew-hatred masked as pro-Palestinian activism.In 2018, Ruffalo tweeted his outrage over CNN’s firing of antisemite Marc Lamont Hill. Hill was caught inciting violence against Israel and the Jewish people by reciting rhetoric that called for the dissolution of the Jewish people and the only Jewish nation. Ruffalo stated Hill was advocating for Palestinian rights, when in reality Hill openly called for the...

PayPal on Tuesday announced plans to lay off 2,000 employees, or around 7% of its workforce, according to a release posted to the company’s website. President and CEO Dan Schulman wrote in the release that PayPal is working to address the “challenging macroeconomic environment.” He said the company has made progress focusing resources on core priorities and rightsizing its cost structure, but that there is more work to be done. “Change can be difficult – particularly when it includes valued colleagues and friends departing,” Schulman wrote about the layoffs. “We will face this head-on together, drawing on the unparalleled scale...

Twitter CEO Elon Musk is not messing around. The billionaire truly does want to take over the world. Back in October, Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion and made it clear from day one that he had high ambitions. As Elon Musk strives to revive Twitter, the company has taken action by submitting applications for regulatory licenses in various parts of the US and developing the necessary software to incorporate payments within the social media platform. This would directly compete with PayPal who has been slammed by Conservatives for their ‘woke’ practices including banning and suspending payments from people who...

One by one, they go to start their business day only to find a baffling message from their payments app informing them: “You can no longer do business with PayPal.”There is little or no explanation. They have somehow offended the sensibilities of someone somewhere deep inside the bureaucracy. They are simply told via an email from PayPal’s Risk and Compliance Department that, after an internal review, “we decided to permanently limit your account as there was a change in your business model or your business model was considered risky.”In case there is any doubt, the email adds: “You’ll not be...

Critics are sounding the alarm on the Internal Revenue Service significantly lowering the threshold for transaction reporting through payment apps, warning the change signals a new level of government overreach that targets small businesses and middle-class Americans. The IRS issued a reminder last week to taxpayers who utilize third-party payment processors like Venmo and PayPal about changes to reporting income in an updated explainer on their website. These changes created by the American Rescue Act now require the platforms to report any transaction over $600.

The Internal Revenue Service is reminding tax filers to prepare to report transactions of at least $600 that are made through so-called “third-party” facilitators such as Venmo and PayPal. The agency on Tuesday posted an explainer warning American business owners earning $600 or more per year on payments that are received through apps such as Zelle, Cash App, Venmo, and PayPal to file a tax form known as Form 1099-K. The IRS is interested in transactions involving part-time work, side gigs, and selling goods, according to the agency. The rule does not apply to noncommercial payments like reimbursing someone for...

As digital payments have become increasingly popular, many of the largest companies in this sector have used their dominant position to censor users, harvest their private financial data, and threaten them with huge fines if they violate vague and subjective rules. Here are some alternative payment services that promote freedom, reject censorship, and/or have privacy-preserving features: GabPay A person-to-person payments network from the free speech software company Gab. Gab uses the First Amendment of the United States (US) Constitution to guide its content moderation and describes GabPay as a solution that “allows you to spend your processing dollars with companies...

Leaving PayPal? Here Are Your Christian Alternatives For Online Commerce Christian and neutral alternatives to PayPal exist.

Iron Laws of Economics Reside There.. When people talk about economics, they generally refer to macroeconomics. Macroeconomics is a squishy science. Over the last several decades, economists have tried to bring rigor to it, but the variables are so random with such a significant variance that there is a lot of room to argue. That’s how Janet Yellen can whisper in Biden’s ear that there is no recession based on how she sees it. It’s also how Alan Blinder can write editorials in the Wall Street Journal claiming that more central planning and government bureaucracy always gets it right so...

A little over 2 weeks ago, PayPal made an announcement that the company planned on “fining” users $2,500 for spreading so-called “misinformation.” Eventually the company wiped the whole initiative due to furious users and plummeting stock. But as people pointed out on Wednesday, it appears PayPal is quietly bringing those $2,500 fines back. The internet erupted with backlash over this news yet again, with even more users threatening to ditch the platform forever over this resurfaced announcement. Initially, PayPal shamelessly walked their comments back, saying they were made “in error.”