Yearly Archives: 2013

It’s Time for a Crypto Bank: The Crypto Finance IPO

"Coupled with recent moves from the US Government, the sporadic shutdown of Bitcoin services, and suspicion from many other banks over Bitcoin transactions, users must be eagerly awaiting the launch of the world’s first crypto bank: Crypto Finance. Crypto Finance is planning to launch in Q4 this year, and will be based in Panama. The company will offer personal and business bank accounts for individuals converting up to 20 different Fiat currencies, and an exchange for purchasing crypto currency with Fiat currency. Transactions will be faster, fees lower, and '100% of the funds will remain intact in the customer’s account'." Continue reading →

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Australian bank closes personal accounts of Bitcoin startup’s founders

"Last Friday we found out that our automatic payouts weren’t being processed. Incoming transactions were fine and unaffected. Our first point of contact was the business banking hotline, CommBiz, which advised us to go in to our local branch to sort things out. Going in to the branch we were told that it had to be settled by the Security team. The worse case scenario we were told, was we would have to close and re-open our bank account with CBA. We were told there would be an update on Friday. We had a call back from our branch to tell us the update was, 'no further information.'" Continue reading →

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Google confirms critical Android crypto flaw used in $5,700 Bitcoin heist

"Google developers have confirmed a cryptographic vulnerability in the Android operating system that researchers say could generate serious security glitches on hundreds of thousands of end user apps, many of them used to make Bitcoin transactions. This weakness in Android's Java Cryptography Architecture is the root cause of a Bitcoin transaction that reportedly was exploited to pilfer about $5,720 worth of bitcoins out of a digital wallet last week. The disclosure, included in a blog post published Wednesday by Google security engineer Alex Klyubin, was the first official confirmation of the Android vulnerability." Continue reading →

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Why the White House Is Panicking About Obamacare

"About one in every four individuals who are eligible for Medicaid in this country has not bothered to enroll. About one in five employees who are offered employer-provided health insurance turns it down; among workers under 30 years of age, the refusal rate is almost one in three. Think about that for a moment. Millions of people are turning down (Medicaid) health insurance, even though it’s free! Millions of others are turning down their employers’ offers. Welcome to the huge disconnect in health reform. On the one hand there are the people who are supposed to benefit from health reform. On the other hand there are the people who talk about it and write about it." Continue reading →

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Missouri lawmaker wants ‘personal exemption’ from Obamacare birth control mandate

"A Catholic state legislator from Missouri has filed suit with the U.S. District Court in St. Louis asking that his family be exempted from the contraception coverage mandate section of the Affordable Care Act, also known as 'Obamacare.' According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, state Rep. Paul Wieland (R) said that the provision, which stipulates that insurance companies offer birth control pills and other forms of pregnancy prevention at no cost to policy-holders, violates his First Amendment right to religious freedom." Continue reading →

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How the Fed Goes Bust With Richard Ebeling

"Little ink has been spilled about the Austrian economists, such as Friedrick Hayek, Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard. So we've taken it upon ourselves to interview someone who knew two of them personally. Bob speaks with Richard Ebeling, economics professor at Northwood, about quantitative easing and the future of Bernanke's so-called 'exit.' Then Perianne explores US aid to Egypt and the problems with doling out money to foreign groups. Finally Bob duels Prime Interest regular, Sam Sacks on the BP oil settlement and intellectual property rights." Continue reading →

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How Nixon the Keynesian Destroyed the Monetary Regime of Keynes

"Richard Nixon made a lot of bad decisions, but this one was his worst. This one has had long-term consequences far beyond anything he ever imagined. We are now trapped by the Federal Reserve, which buys $1 trillion worth of government debt every year. If it stops, we will get into another major recession. So far, there are few signs the Federal Reserve is going to stop. From 1965 until 1971, foreign governments and central banks could put pressure on the Federal Reserve to stop its expansion of money. All the government or the central bank had to do was order gold at $35 an ounce. That leverage ceased 42 years ago." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: America’s faith-based economy

"Did Mary really ascend to Heaven on this day? Was she really a virgin? Did she really give birth to the son of God? You need faith to believe such things. Likewise, you need faith to believe that a piece of green paper is ‘money’. You are also supposed to believe that its managers will make sure this ‘money’ holds its purchasing power even as they do their damnedest to undermine it. But to believe that you need more than faith. You need a full frontal lobotomy." Continue reading →

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Detroit, Demographics and Detonation

"The baby boom generation is an abnormality. It was the byproduct of halcyon days — not that we knew it at the time. But as we have seen in Detroit, when demographics shift from production to pension, there is trouble ahead. Low birth rates combined with a plethora of maturing adults on the cusp of retirement turns the pyramid of society on its head. Lower growth in itself is not a bad thing. We are still moving forward. The problem is certain promises (welfare and health commitments) have been made that cannot be kept if growth does not return to around the 3% mark. Putting this genie back in the bottle is going to be a political nightmare." Continue reading →

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