I was just commenting to a colleague about how ridiculous it is to still have a US payment/checking system that allows "pull" transactions from anyone with your

I was just commenting to a colleague about how ridiculous it is to still have a US payment/checking system that allows "pull" transactions from anyone with your account numbers, rather than a "push" system where you explicitly have to authorize sending money from your bank accounts. Like every other modern country you might think of. Our ACH system (plus the uncertainty of money clearing, holding periods, fraudulent checks / debits) creates such bad side effects for everyone, this PayPal situation included. I know there are some efforts to initiate a Fed-administered transfers system, but have no idea how it's going. We (with US government as a mediating authority) don't seem to be in control of having an effective banking system, and it's just getting more confusing over time.