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Cybersecurity: The NSA’s Big Budget Action Movie

"The exercise had an awesome name, inspired by the movies: 'Quantum Dawn 2.' On July 18, scads of U.S. banks, stock exchanges and government agencies took part in a digital fire drill — a practice run in the event all of Wall Street came under massive cyberattack. The scope of this exercise was systemwide, full-on meltdown. 'In some cases,' reads a new account of the exercise from Reuters, 'a blue chip stock started to plummet inexplicably. Soon, shocking news about the company hit the market, but unbeknownst to the participant, the news was fake. For others, trading systems were on the fritz, or government websites stopped functioning.'" Continue reading →

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Dwolla Credit launched as competitor to PayPal’s Bill Me Later

"Pay instantly and get paid instantly. It’s just how payments in the modern world should work. No more loading your account, no more typing in your card information. Simple and quick checkouts are just one benefit to building a new network, working with great developers and great retailers is another. On Dwolla’s network, there are no plastic cards, no terminals, no complicated reseller agreements, and no card data that could be left behind. Just the internet…simple. Credit, is now a feature. Dwolla Credit, provided by our friends at Comenity Capital bank, owned by Alliance Data (NYSE: ADS), is making this all possible. I’m exceptionally proud of the work both of our teams have done." Continue reading →

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The Markets Are Rigged! How to Opt Out and Still Profit

"Call me nostalgic, but I remember a time when a bad jobs outlook sent the large-cap companies down, not up. The economy is weak, so a company's profit expectations suffer. The logic makes sense. Today, however, we live in the topsy-turvy world of government-manipulated markets, where such asinine statements make complete sense… until they don't. The problem with a market that lives at the teat of Washington's policies is that it can be reversed in mere moments. One election. One popular news story. One social media outcry. One back-channel policy. One bloody coup d'état. That's all it takes." Continue reading →

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Bloated Fed Balance Sheet Propelling Market Rally

"Like preceding surges, the rally's latest chapter is disconnected from the real economy's fundamentals. Instead, what we are witnessing is the direct result of an unprecedented expansion of the Fed's balance sheet. Recently, it has become clear just how addicted the stock market is to easy money policies, as even the slightest hint of the Fed tapering its asset-purchasing program sends the markets into a frenzy. When the Fed might actually rein in its money printing is anyone's guess, but if the chart above is any indication, there's only one direction the market is headed once its life support is yanked away." Continue reading →

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Kirby Cundiff: Why Do Banks Keep Going Bankrupt?

"During the recent crises in Cyprus, proposals were seriously considered to ignore the 100,000 EUR deposit insurance and seize a fraction of even small depositors’ money. Most depositors lost access to their accounts for over a week and large depositors are still likely to lose a large fraction of their assets. Most depositors still believe that deposit insurance will cover any possible losses. If banks are to become more stable, the amount of equity relative to debt in the banking system must be drastically increased to something resembling what it would be without government deposit insurance, central bank subsidies, and treasury bailouts." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: Alan Greenspan’s Shock Revelation

"We know from bitter experience that trying to force economies to do what you want is a thankless task. Markets are fundamentally based on free exchange, cooperation, trust and trade. Force them in one direction or another and you are just asking for trouble. As Alan Greenspan described this week, in an interview with John Stewart on 'The Daily Show,' people are a little 'screwy' from time to time. Which means they don’t necessarily go along with your central planning, no matter how good you think it is. But still economists insist that, if they are allowed to monkey around with it, they can make an economy better. This is occasionally true." Continue reading →

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FINTRAC collecting too much info on innocent Canadians: privacy watchdog

"By law, Canadian banks, casinos and thousands of other businesses are required to report all financial transactions over $10,000, and any movement of money they suspect may be linked to terrorism or laundering the proceeds of crime. But in a special report to Parliament today, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart complains that an investigation of the Financial Transactions Reports Analysis Centre, known as FINTRAC, found found everyday financial transactions of ordinary Canadians — things such as down payments for homes and cars, and wire transfers from families overseas to their children studying here. FINTRAC has amassed over 165 million reports." Continue reading →

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European Parliament votes to suspend US SWIFT data exchange

"The European Parliament has voted to suspend its SWIFT data exchange agreement with the US. They’ve called for US access to the SWIFT database to be halted following concerns that the US is spying on the EU, and not simply trying to combat terrorism. EU lawmakers suspect that the US has abused an agreement giving it limited access to SWIFT. As such, they voted to freeze Washington’s capacity to track international payments through the site. The worry comes after leaked American documents indicating the US was covertly tapping into SWIFT were aired on Brazilian television. The US denies any wrongdoing." Continue reading →

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SEC Proposes Crowdfunding Rules, But…

"To produce an offering disclosure document, enlist a funding portal, run background checks and file an annual report with the SEC year after year might well cost upwards of $100,000. In order for equity crowdfunding to the public to serve as a useful tool, as intended, Congress needs to amend the JOBS Act to make it less onerous and costly. Unfortunately, the SEC’s hands are tied since the JOBS Act itself creates most of the restrictions in the proposed rule. The SEC, for its part, did not tighten restrictions from the JOBS Act. This might be signal that even the SEC thinks the JOBS Act is too restrictive. Time will tell." Continue reading →

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