Economy

Investment Manager Explains Why 99.5% Of Americans Can Never Win

"The bottom line is this: A highly complex set of laws and exemptions from laws and taxes has been put in place by those in the uppermost reaches of the U.S. financial system. It allows them to protect and increase their wealth and significantly affect the U.S. political and legislative processes. They have real power and real wealth. Ordinary citizens in the bottom 99.9% are largely not aware of these systems, do not understand how they work, are unlikely to participate in them, and have little likelihood of entering the top 0.5%, much less the top 0.1%. Moreover, those at the very top have no incentive whatsoever for revealing or changing the rules. I am not optimistic." Continue reading →

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A Propaganda War

"We’ve long imagined that only the state and its central bankers can issue money. The Bitcoin protocol directly challenges that notion. Most importantly, unlike similar inventions before it, Bitcoin can only be stifled. It can never be stopped. Its importance is unequivocal. As Bitcoin continues to spread globally, we, as a community, must grapple with a very challenging and unsettling question of principle: should Bitcoin actively engage the apparatus of state? Bitcoin is getting political. Parties are forming. unSystem, through its Dark Wallet, has ostensibly drawn a line in the sand. There is much at stake. A battle is now on for the protocol and the hearts and minds of we, the 99%." Continue reading →

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American Express Ex-Chief Privacy Officer On ‘The Last Days of Cash’

"Andy Roth, a partner in Dentons' Privacy and Security Group, and Victor Boyajian, a partner in Dentons' Venture Technology Group, explore the evolution of digital payments, virtual currencies and security. The video examines: Bitcoin and other virtual currencies; Regulatory issues in connection to digital payments; The balance between privacy and technological progress; Privacy as a product or feature; and The outlook for consumer payments." Continue reading →

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Here’s Why The Winklevoss Twins LOVE Bitcoin

"'This idea that people aren't betting when they hang on to a dollar is incorrect.' They also love the currency's transparency, explaining that 'there is nothing predictable or transparent about the US dollar. No one has any idea what the Federal Reserve's going to do, how they operate.' Bitcoin, on the other hand, is fixed at 21 million coins that will come out incrementally and predictably over time. 'Bitcoin brings the promise of email to the finance sector. Now it's instant and effectively free to send money anywhere,' the twins said." Continue reading →

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Virtual cash is no threat to the real thing, Bank of Canada paper says

"The case of Bitcoin – a fully convertible, pure digital currency – is more problematic. Earlier this year, the U.S. Treasury department started requiring that all virtual transactions worth more than $10,000 (U.S.) be reported to authorities to prevent virtual currencies being used for money laundering and other illegal purposes. The authors don’t reach a firm conclusion on whether governments should crack down on virtual currencies, pointing out that regulation might stifle innovation. At the same time, they warn that 'multiple competing platforms creates inefficiency' that will dissuade people from embracing them." Continue reading →

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Black Market Dollar Exchange Sparks Argentina Luxury Sales Crackdown

"Argentines who buy a car valued at more than 350,000 pesos ($58,600) will now be required to justify the transaction with the Financial Information Unit, the nation’s money-laundering watchdog, according to a Nov. 11 decree. Argentina is boosting its currency controls as consumers faced with 25 percent annual inflation turn to everything from luxury cars to gold and bitcoins as a store of savings. With the black market offering holders of undeclared U.S. currency 3.8 pesos more than the official exchange rate of 5.9764 pesos per dollar, demand for premium cars from Volkswagen AG’s Porsche and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is causing a 33 percent jump in imports this year." Continue reading →

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The Downturn in the Spot Gold Price

"Virtually from the day that Germany demanded to have its gold delivered back to the Bundesbank, three very clear phenomena have occurred: 1. The gold price, which had been trending sideways, has plummeted. 2. The physical gold held at the COMEX has been pouring out of the warehouses. 3. The amount of physical gold held by the ETFs has stopped rising and started falling. Fast. Coincidence? I very much doubt it." Continue reading →

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Andrew Huszar: Confessions of a Quantitative Easer

"I can only say: I'm sorry, America. As a former Federal Reserve official, I was responsible for executing the centerpiece program of the Fed's first plunge into the bond-buying experiment known as quantitative easing. The central bank continues to spin QE as a tool for helping Main Street. But I've come to recognize the program for what it really is: the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time." Continue reading →

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Jeffrey Tucker: Has the Fed Met Its Match?

"'It is hard to imagine a world,' says the unimaginative study, 'where the main currency is based on an extremely complex code understood only by a few and controlled by even fewer, without accountability, arbitration, or recourse.' Blink, blink. This is the Fed talking here. Talk about complex. When the Fed governor speaks in Congress, he (soon she) speaks in such a blithering array of econ-babble that no one dare respond, for fear of seeming ignorant. It’s like the first day of an Intro to Physics class. The professor asks if there are questions, and everyone sits in terror. In a half-century of this nonsense, only Ron Paul ever really dared to ask serious questions of the Fed." Continue reading →

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