Undercurrent.
A suggested reading trail

Follow the money

The incentives inside everyday financial products.

01

The Cashback Trap — How Earning Money Back Actually Costs You More

Every time you "earn" cashback, someone else already made more money from you spending it. This report follows the money trail from interchange fees to your wallet, reveals how cashback cards drive 10-25% more spending than you'd otherwise make, and exposes the hidden transfer where low-income cash users pay higher prices to fund rewards for higher-income credit card holders.

02

The Loyalty Trap — Why Points, Stamps and Memberships Cost You More Than You Earn

That coffee stamp card isn't rewarding your loyalty — it's engineering your habits. This report dismantles the behavioural architecture behind points, stamps, and memberships, from the endowed progress effect that makes pre-stamped cards so effective, to supermarket loyalty schemes where the data you surrender is worth far more than the points you earn, to the airline miles treadmill where your rewards quietly devalue every year while your spending doesn't.

03

The Broker's Cut

You think your broker is shopping the market for you. They are being paid by the people they are shopping at.