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‘Dollar valueless, about to crash’ – World Bank whistleblower

"The US government shutdown - a temporary ailment or a symptom of a grave disease? Are the Republicans right in their move to block Obamacare spending? Who gains from the shutdown turmoil? Do the politicians care about their citizens? Our guest comes from the very heart of the banking system: Karen Hudes was World Bank lawyer when she blew the whistle on major corruption cases in the system and was fired as a result." Continue reading →

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Families hoard cash 5 yrs after crisis

"An Associated Press analysis of households in the 10 biggest economies shows that families continue to spend cautiously and have pulled hundreds of billions of dollars out of stocks, cut borrowing for the first time in decades and poured money into savings and bonds that offer puny interest payments, often too low to keep up with inflation. A flight to safety on such a global scale is unprecedented since the end of World War II. The growth of cash is remarkable because millions more were unemployed, wages grew slowly and people diverted billions to pay down their debts. They also poured money into bank accounts knowing they would earn little interest on their deposits." Continue reading →

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How Bitcoin solved my startup’s international banking problem

"I spent literally months and hundreds of dollars trying to open a bank account in Europe. I called every bank I could find. Most of them were not willing to open an account for a US citizen due to recently tightened money laundering laws and the few banks that would allow me to open an account required that I travel to their country to submit my application in person. Some of the banks that wanted me to travel to the UK to open an account actually had a branch in the city I live in within the US. I decided to add the ability for users to buy & sell items using Bitcoins on my site in order to attract a niche audience. However, I had also solved my banking problem without even realizing it." Continue reading →

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The Invisible Plumbing Of Our Economy

"It turns out the money collected on Kickstarter is handled by Amazon. Great, we figure: This is the company that will sell you anything on the planet and get it you you the next day. And what we need in this case isn't even a thing, really. We just need Amazon's bank to send money electronically to a checking account at Chase bank. It's just information traveling over wires. How long could it take: A minute? An hour? It took five days. On today's show: Why the invisible pipes that move money around America are so slow. (And why the ones in England are so much faster.)" Continue reading →

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Americans Abroad Stranded as US Check Clearance Blocked

"U.S. citizens staying in Israel have discovered this week that they are no longer able to get Israeli shekels in exchange for their checks which are drawn to U.S. banks. Until this week, Israeli foreign exchange places would accept U.S. checks, at least from their regular customers, and would pay them out for a fee of 1 percent of their value. But this is no ,longer the case. 'The problem is with the check clearance process,” a Jerusalem money changer told The Jewish Press. 'No one outside the U.S. is able to do check clearance. It’s an international problem, it’s not a problem only in Israel.' American banks are not processing for clearance any checks coming from outside the U.S." Continue reading →

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Have We Reached Peak Government?

"How can government expand 300+% while the underlying economy that supports it expanded by 75%? Answer: borrowing money, i.e. debt--lots of it. Federal debt has skyrocketed by 600% since 1990. This is simply part of a vast, unprecedented expansion of debt in both public and private sectors since 1990. So the question of Peak Government is ultimately a question of Peak Debt: how much money can the government borrow to sustain its current spending? Can public and private debt expand at rates four or five times that of the underlying economy? If so, for how long? If we are not yet at Peak Debt, we are getting close, and that means we are also getting close to Peak Government." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin billionaires

&"Since graduating in mechanical engineering this June, Sanket Shah hasn't bothered hunting for a job. But that hasn't thrown a spanner in his lifestyle. The secret to Sanket's self-sustenance lies in Bitcoins. The Reserve Bank of India has not yet formulated regulations to govern trading or profits generated from Bitcoins. An RBI spokesperson told Mirror over email that the RBI doesn't consider Bitcoin legal tender and, therefore 'trading in Bitcoin is not legal. Obviously, there cannot be regulations from RBI for an illegal activity. People who use it, do so at their own risk and responsibility.'" Continue reading →

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Credit card firm cuts off nation’s No. 1 gun store — for selling guns

"A subsidiary of Visa, a key Obama campaign donor, that specializes in credit card transactions has abruptly stopped servicing the nation’s largest gun store after four years because the store sells guns, a fact the owners never hid. Hyatt Gun Shop of Charlotte, N.C., told Secrets that the subsidiary, Authorize.net/CyberSource, simply sent an email to owner Larry Hyatt to announce that it was suddenly breaking off the business relationship. The reason: 'The sale of firearms or any similar product.' The brushoff of Hyatt's business has sparked a national boycott effort against Authorize.net and parent company CyberSource." Continue reading →

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Obama names campaign donor, Goldman exec as ambassador to Canada

"US President Barack Obama named a Goldman Sachs executive and large campaign contributor as ambassador to Canada on Thursday amid potential rifts between the allies over the Keystone pipeline. Bruce Heyman, managing director for private wealth management at the investment bank, lives in Obama’s base of Chicago and is a so-called 'bundler' who raised funds for the president’s campaigns. Like previous presidents, Obama has regularly named prominent fundraisers to diplomatic posts, seen as one of the top rewards doled out to campaign supporters." Continue reading →

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QE3 is a Huge Subsidy to the Top 10%.

"The Federal Reserve System’s policy known widely as QE3 is a massive subsidy of the rich at the expense of the middle class. This is the conclusion of Stephen Roach, who for years was chief economist for Morgan Stanley. He calls this policy destabilizing. He says this: the FED 'is courting an increasingly treacherous endgame at home and abroad.' The FED’s creation of $85 billion of counterfeit money — euphemistically called 'liquidity' — is based on a theory. The theory is that rich people, who buy most of the stocks and bonds, will feel wealthier, and therefore will buy more stocks and bonds. In short, QE3 is an indirect way to goose the equity markets." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingQE3 is a Huge Subsidy to the Top 10%.