Yearly Archives: 2013

U.S. Banks Buy Gold Futures in Dramatic Position Change

"Clearly the U.S. banks, presumably including U.S. bullion banks, are not positioning as though they believe there is a great deal more downside left in gold futures. If they did or do believe that gold could probe even lower than the $1,320s, they are not positioning for it in COMEX futures. That does not necessarily mean they are 'right,' but it is a window into how the largest, best funded and presumably the best informed traders of gold futures on the planet - the U.S. banks - are positioning, both for their own book and for their clients." Continue reading →

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Switzerland to sign free trade agreement with China

"Switzerland has reached an agreement on details of a free-trade pact with China and expects to sign a deal in coming months, the country's economy minister said on Wednesday. 'What we currently have is a deal at the technical level,' Johann Schneider-Ammann told a news conference in Berne. He said exact details of the agreement would be given once it has been signed in the next few months. China is Switzerland's third biggest trading partner after the European Union and the United States, and the pact covers industry as well as agriculture. More details may emerge when China's Premier Li Keqiang visits Switzerland next week." Continue reading →

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U.S. Officials Deal Blow to Bitcoin

"The scrutiny comes after the Treasury Department ruled in March that firms issuing or exchanging online cash, including currencies not backed by a central bank, would be subject to the same money-laundering rules as traditional providers like Western Union Co. A number of firms have registered as money-transmission businesses since the agency issued the guidance, but Mt. Gox hasn't done so, according to a FinCen list. The agency doesn't have authority to take on Mt. Gox directly because it is based in Tokyo, but has fired a shot across the exchange's bow by going after its U.S. subsidiary." Continue reading →

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Obama accepts resignation of IRS acting chief over ‘inexcusable’ tea party scandal

"Barack Obama fired the most senior tax official in the US on Wednesday in an effort to bring a speedy end to a scandal over the targeting for special scrutiny of Tea Party organisations and other conservative groups. The president said that the acting commissioner, Steven Miller, was asked to resign and that Miller had done so. Miller’s sacking followed an independent report by the Treasury’s inspector general, which found that the conduct in the IRS office in Cincinnati had been 'inappropriate'. Officials had picked out groups with the words Tea Party or Patriots in their titles and subjected their requests for tax-exempt status to extra scrutiny." Continue reading →

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Power to Tax = Power to Destroy

"Think, for a moment, about the implications of the IRS’s actions. If you dare to advocate a political position that it dislikes, will your taxes be audited? How much will it cost you to defend yourself? This is not small-time Chicago ward heeler politics. This is serious, criminal official misconduct on a massive scale. High IRS officials knew about and concealed their anti-conservative policy for two years, since at least June 29, 2011. Equally shocking, one of my least favorite bureaucrats, IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, for a year falsely denied that the IRS had done the very thing they just finally admitted doing." Continue reading →

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Google Folds Wallet Support Into Gmail So You Can Send Money As Attachments

"According to a post on the official Google Commerce blog, Google Wallet support has been baked into Gmail, so users will soon be able to send each other money by simply shooting each other emails. In the coming weeks and months, a dollar sign will start popping in Gmail accounts of people who already use Google Wallet, and a quick click lets users define the recipient and the amount they’d like to send along as an attachment. Since all of these transactions run through Google Wallet, the usual caveats are in place — sending funds from a connected bank account is totally gratis, but credit or debit cards are subject to an additional 2.9 percent fee." Continue reading →

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The Feds Are Cracking Down On Mt. Gox (Not On Bitcoin)

"It’s important to note here that Homeland Security is not cracking down on Bitcoin itself, just on how it’s being exchanged by Mt. Gox. This is actually good news for Mt. Gox’s US-based competitors, such as Seattle-based CoinLab and San Francisco-based Coinbase, Bitcoin exchanges that have registered with the Treasury Department as money transmitters and thus are in the legal clear to conduct Bitcoin $ exchanges. Mt. Gox’s legal troubles don’t seem to be affecting the value of Bitcoin, which has been hovering in the $115 range for the last week." Continue reading →

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Earlier This Week, UK Government Agents Held a Conference on Bitcoins

"About 50 civil servants from HM Revenue & Customs, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Home Office and GCHQ – the intelligence listening service – held a one-day conference which examined how Bitcoin works and how criminals might seek to exploit the electronic cash system, which is currently unregulated by any financial authority. The Future of Money conference, which included presentations on how the cryptocurrency works, was organised by the government’s Foresight Horizon Scanning Centre, an arm of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills which develops 'innovative, long-term policy.'" Continue reading →

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Mt. Gox Funds at Wells Fargo Have Been Seized

"Not only have Mt Gox funds been seized from the Dwolla account, but according to the warrant issued for that seizure, a separate seizure warrant was issued to allow Homeland Security to seize the funds in the Mt Gox account held in the name Mutum Sigillum at Wells Fargo. It appears that Mt Gox has been shutdown for all practical purposes in the United States." Continue reading →

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