Currency

This takes money laundering to a different level. Customs and Border Protection agents at Philadelphia International Airport seized more than $11,000 from a Jamaica-bound passenger on Saturday after he tried to hide the cash, stashing some of it in six boxes of Irish Spring Soap in his luggage, officials said today. There is no limit to how much cash can be brought in, or taken out, of the country, but travelers are required to declare amounts in excess of $10,000. The passenger was released and allowed to depart Saturday after agents returned $200 to him and seized the remaining $11,143 he was carrying.

Pride is Albert Pujols' chosen currency St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols will almost assuredly become a free agent after this season. Depending on whom you listen to (Tom Verducci or Jon Heyman at SI.com, Ken Rosenthal at Fox Sports, Tim Brown at Yahoo), the Cards offered Pujols a deal for somewhere around $22 million a year for about eight to 10 years. That's $3 million less per season than the Phillies will be paying Ryan Howard to strike out every 31/2 plate appearances from 2012 until 2016.

If you're annoyed at paying $2 for a small bottle of water at an airport before taking off to Europe, think of Philadelphia native George Terhanian. At the Barcelona, Spain, airport last week, he paid $3.50. That's just one example of rising costs vacationers and business travelers face because of the sinking value of the U.S. dollar against the euro, the British pound and other currencies. Adding to the pain, higher oil prices are driving up international airfares. While some travelers have found a way to cope with the higher costs, the dollar's decline - it has set new record lows against the euro in recent months - and a slowing economy mean fewer business trips, vacations closer to home, or more careful spending for everyone headed abroad, travelers and industry officials say. "I don't meet the number of people I used to meet coming to Europe to do business," said Terhanian, who grew up in Germantown and now lives in London, running the European office of market-research firm Harris Interactive Inc. "They're holding many more conference calls.

Software developer SAP AG said yesterday that its third-quarter earnings had risen 10 percent, but that its software-license sales had slowed in the Americas during the period. The German company, one of the world's largest makers of business-management software, has its headquarters for the Americas and 2,000 employees in Newtown Square. Net income in the quarter ended Sept. 30 rose to 408 million euros ($578.7 million, or 48 cents a share) from 370 million euros ($524.8 million, or 43 cents a share)

China has announced that its foreign-currency reserve will reach one trillion U.S. dollars this month, creating an extraordinary "miracle" in modern economic history: No country in the world has ever possessed so much ready money. While this is good news for Chinese leaders, the money also presents them with a new dilemma in relations with the United States. China's trillion-dollar cash reserve will inevitably raise new concerns in Washington and complicate election politics.

In a suburban house decorated with American flags and a pencil portrait of President Reagan, three men who call themselves patriots are waxing cranky about the United States. Their anger begins with the Federal Reserve and its monopoly on America money. "When the government owns the money, it controls the people. When the people own the money, they control the government," said Bert Olley, 84, a semiretired businessman whose basement office is a regional clearinghouse for the alternative currency called Liberty Dollars.

Vince Cignarella says his teenage daughter isn't impressed by the high-stakes currency trades he makes from Sovereign Bank's subterranean trading room. "She says we just instant-message people all day. And, you know, we do," Cignarella said Wednesday, tapping his computer keyboard and swiveling among three monitors flashing multiple data screens from Bloomberg and Reuters, and zipping price gossip to traders in New York, Toronto and other cities. But it's not idle chat. There's a lot riding on the questions and answers that securities and currency traders like Cignarella and his colleagues send around the globe every weekday and weeknight.

ISEE THAT Pepsi has a new patriotic can with a picture of the Empire State Building and the Pledge of Allegiance on it. But Pepsi decided that "they didn't want to offend anyone" by putting the words "under God" on the can. Well, I'm offended that they left it off. This is yet another case of hypocrisy in this world of ungodly creatures. Money, which is all anyone cares about, has a big four-word phrase on every single piece of currency that says "In God We Trust. " America: The country of idiots.

As Chinese President Hu Jintao prepares to visit the United States this week, he knows he will face hostile fire on trade and the global economy. Congress is threatening to impose import tariffs, the Treasury Department is considering branding China a currency manipulator, and the U.S. trade representative just filed a complaint accusing China of distorting global trade in auto parts. While the United States remains concerned about a range of political and security questions involving China, this year, public attention is focused mostly on economic issues.

The U.S. Congress is in no mood to put up with further delays by China on relaxing its currency controls, three U.S. senators visiting Beijing said yesterday. The bipartisan delegation said the Senate was ready to consider a long-postponed bill that would slap a 27.5 percent tariff on all Chinese products to compensate for China's pegged exchange rate. Debate could begin as soon as the end of next week. "Our goal is to let the Chinese government realize that the politics of this issue is about to get out of hand," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.)