Monthly Archives: July 2013

A Citizen Can Be Handcuffed And Driven To A Different Location But Still Not Be “Under Arrest”

"The Portland police and City Attorney are making an argument in federal court this month that gives another glimpse into the increasing claims of authority of police in our society. Scott Miller was stopped for jaywalking by Officer Dean Halley in 2010 and admitted that he committed the common violation of pedestrians. The officer however proceeded to handcuff him, tell him 'you’re under arrest,' throw him into the back of a cruiser and then drove him a block away. He was in custody for about 30 minutes, but Deputy City Attorney William Manlove is arguing that citizens cannot sue because such acts do not constitute an actual arrest." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA Citizen Can Be Handcuffed And Driven To A Different Location But Still Not Be “Under Arrest”

‘Sorry is not enough’: Bolivia demands EU find culprits behind aerial hijack

"EU apologies for the aerial blockade that forced the Bolivian president’s plane to land are 'not enough,' said Bolivia’s foreign minister. The presidential plane was grounded amid suspicions that NSA leaker Edward Snowden had stowed away onboard. The Bolivian Foreign Minister, David Choquehuanca, confirmed on Tuesday that Bolivia had received official apologies from Italy and Portugal, adding to those of Spain and France. However, Choquehuanca stressed that the apologies were not enough and the four countries “must identify those responsible and punish them in an exemplary fashion so that such an incident does not happen again.” Continue reading →

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Chris Becker on South Africa, Gold and the Ludwig von Mises Institute

"We've seen huge growth in private education, private security and private medical industries in recent years, without which we would have seen rapidly declining living standards of South Africans. In a micro sense this inefficient and disorganized state leaves the space for quite a lot of personal liberty and allows people to get on with things outside of government control. With this strong central planning and regulatory ethos, if the government could actually follow through with its grand plans, South Africa would be a very unfree place. I call it 'dangerous efficiency.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChris Becker on South Africa, Gold and the Ludwig von Mises Institute

With Gold, Don’t Miss the Top

"Zero Hour is the moment the price of physical gold starts to run away from the ‘paper price’ you see on CNBC’s ticker. The most likely catalyst is a chain of events that goes like this: Western central banks have leased their gold to commercial banks like JPMorgan Chase at an interest rate of less than 1%. The commercial banks have sold that metal and ploughed the proceeds into assets that earn more than 1%. The chain of custody on gold bars has become so cloudy that a major exchange like the Comex in New York is liable to ‘default’ on a gold contract – settling in cash, instead of metal. A rush for real metal would then be underway." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWith Gold, Don’t Miss the Top

The Bull Within the Bear

"The reason it's important to look at the entire picture of investment demand is because an investor might draw an erroneous conclusion if they read just the headlines. For example, China and other Asian nations represent well over half of all global investment demand, while North America is just 9%. Is this bigger source of demand experiencing a lot of selling, too? Let's look at the bigger picture of investment demand for gold this year. In the following chart, we compare GLD outflows to Chinese imports through Hong Kong, as well as other sources of demand for physical metal. Here are the data through last month." Continue reading →

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A Dozen Things I’ve Learned From Michael Mauboussin About Investing

"1. 'The only certainty is that there is no certainty… With uncertainty, the underlying distribution of outcomes is undefined, while with risk we know what that distribution looks like. Corporate undulation is uncertain; roulette is risky…' There is no single number which can be used to predict the future price of an investment because the future is not only risky (like roulette) but uncertain (unknown unknowns). There are known future states for which probability is unknown and future states that are unknown for which probability is not computable." Continue reading →

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It’s a Sound-Money Alternative to the Dollar

"It should be no surprise to any student of economics that when government has a monopoly on money, it will be mismanaged. A better approach would be a free market in money: currency competition among entrepreneurs. Bitcoin is one of the opening salvos in this battle. In some respects it is very promising as an alternative currency and as a possible wholesale replacement for a national currency. In other respects it falls short. Bitcoin is a fiat currency that has achieved popularity and value without the mandate of a government legal tender law. On the contrary, the government strongly discourages bitcoin use and has used regulations to frustrate its adoption." Continue reading →

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The Mind-Boggling Implications of a Bitcoin Economy

"While much has been said and written about the nascent crypto-currency's underlying technology and recent volatility, one nagging question remains: what if Bitcoin emerges as a viable and sound currency, just as the world's central banks reduce their notes to confetti? If this simple question doesn't inspire chills, perhaps it should, given Bitcoin's potential to overwrite the matrix of the world's ailing currency system even faster than the internet went mainstream. This will be among the topics of discussion this October at an unusual gathering of libertarians, economists, and computer scientists in Atlanta for the first ever Crypto-Currency Conference." Continue reading →

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Barclays account shutdown raises Somali fears

"Barclays bank is closing about 100 UK accounts held by cash transfer businesses, over fears they are being used for money laundering. The businesses are vital for Somali expatriates sending remittances back home, where banking facilities have collapsed. Aid workers say the service is a 'lifeline' for 40% of the Somali population, who rely on the transfers. It is feared that the cash transfer business could now go underground. Barclays is the last major UK bank that still provides such money transfer services to Somalia, which has an estimated 1.5 million of its nationals living overseas." Continue reading →

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Taxpatriate? Tax dodgers welcome to leave, not welcome to return

"An amendment to the Homeland Security Bill has been proposed banning US expatriates who have renounced their US citizenship or long-term residence in order to escape US tax obligations from entering the country. The amendment would mean that former citizens of the United States who officially renounced United States citizenship and who have been determined by Homeland Security to have done this for the purpose of avoiding US tax obligations are inadmissible. Furthermore, covered expatriates unable to present evidence that they renounced US citizenship with the purpose of avoiding US tax obligations would also become inadmissible." Continue reading →

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