Yeah, I've had no response by email, nor have they updated twitter, which is their stated publishing forum for known problems.

I filed a trouble ticket for blockchain.info.  I suspect that whatever they use in place of bitcoind needs to be restarted, since they are stuck about 8 blocks behind the rest of the network.  Kind of sucks, because it means that their wallets, and any wallets that use their API are not seeing incoming transactions...

Take a look at OpenTransactions (https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions).  It's a platform that FellowTraveller is developing to enable easily setting up private banking, which can be conveniently backed and cleared by BTC.  If someone wanted to then issue paper money that was redeemable for their private bank, that would be up to them (it's risky, since paper money is really hard to make unforgeable; you basically have to be big enough to absorb the losses when people eventually do forge it.)  But FT's solution gives you instant clearing, as well as double blinding, so it's truly anonymous (as compared to Bitcoin, which is only as anonymous as you are able to obscure the connection between your addresses and your identity.)