Yearly Archives: 2017

Warning: Trump’s Federal Reserve Pick Hates Gold and Cash

"Marvin Goodfriend thinks there should be a robust negative interest rate placed on cash. For example, if there was a -10% interest rate on cash, your $10 bill would actually be worth only $9. It is basically a penalty for using cash. The excuse is that this will stabilize the economy by keeping more capital in the banks. It means banks, and by extension, the Federal Reserve, have more control over your money. The gold standard, Goodfriend argues, was also an encumbrance on monetary policy, 'destabilizing' prices."

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The Bulgarian Government Is Sitting on $3 Billion in Bitcoin

"A crackdown on organized crime by Bulgarian law enforcement in May resulted in the seizure of more than 200,000 bitcoins – an amount worth more than $3 billion at today's prices. Twenty-three Bulgarian nationals were arrested during the operation, and officials said at the time that the arrests and subsequent asset seizures followed an investigation into an alleged customs fraud scam. In all, the alleged perpetrators avoided paying some 10 million leva (Bulgaria's national currency), worth roughly $6 million."

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Double standard: Mugabe ‘was leasing out land to whites’, says report

"As recently as late October, Mugabe said black owners who invited whites back to rent and work seized fields would lose their farms. But the Zimbabwe Independent reports that the former first family was doing exactly that: leasing out part of Mazowe Citrus Estate to a company in which some of the main shareholders were white."

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Huntington’s gene therapy breakthrough may stop disease

"The defect that causes the neurodegenerative disease Huntington's has been corrected in patients for the first time, the BBC has learned. An experimental drug, injected into spinal fluid, safely lowered levels of toxic proteins in the brain. The research team, at University College London, say there is now hope the deadly disease can be stopped. Experts say it could be the biggest breakthrough in neurodegenerative diseases for 50 years."

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Texas National Guard Using Airborne Stingrays for Domestic Surveillance

Big Brother is definitely watching you in the state of Texas, where the state National Guard last year installed stingray devices on two surveillance aircraft, The Observer reports: Dirt boxes mimic cellphone towers by tricking every smartphone within a geographic area of up to one-third of a mile to connect with the technology, usually without…

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Senate Tax Bill’s Marginal Rates Could Top 100% for Some

"The possible marginal tax rate of more than 100% results from the combination of tax policies designed to provide benefits to businesses and families but then deny them to the richest people. As income climbs and those breaks phase out, each dollar of income faces regular tax rates and a hidden marginal rate on top of that, in the form of vanishing tax breaks. That structure, if maintained in a final law, would create some of the disincentives to working and to earning business profit."

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Sport Betting Case Before SCOTUS has Tenth Amendment Ramifications

Last week, the Supreme Court heard testimony on a case that could reinvigorate the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution. Surprisingly, it’s all about football and sports betting in the State of New Jersey. The results of Governor of New Jersey v. National Collegiate Athletic Association may have consequences for a range of issues, including gun…

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Nasdaq plans bitcoin futures contract in 2018, joining CME and CBOE

"Nasdaq Inc plans to launch a futures contract based on bitcoin in 2018, making it the third exchange operator to plan U.S. derivatives contracts linked to the digital currency, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, and CBOE Holdings, have both said they plan to launch futures products based on bitcoin this year, pending regulatory approval, helping fuel the crypto-currency’s rally. While Nasdaq does not have a hard date set for its product, the transatlantic exchange operator has offered an exchange-traded note based on bitcoin on its Stockholm exchange since 2015."

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