Up in My Grill: 4th of July Rap (featuring Remy)
"Ain't no party like a nanny state party." Continue reading →
Obamacare: Insuring Lawlessness
"Western law is a plaything in the hands of the powerful. First, laws should apply to everyone. Congress, for instance, routinely exempts itself from laws applicable to others. When the legislative body constantly exempts itself from obeying the Law of the Land (no matter how irrational it might be) then lawlessness and corruption have reached the highest levels of society. Second, a legislative body (or law enforcement agency) shouldn't single out certain individuals or groups with specific lawmaking. From what we can tell, this is happening more and more. Even the targeting of Edward Snowden seems representative of this sort of activity." Continue reading →
The biggest scams in Bitcoin history
"The Bitcoin world is a lovely place graced by anonymity and (almost) zero government interference. However, a while ago – when people didn’t know Bitcoin so well and security was less important – these characteristics made the currency prone to scams and theft. Here we unearth some of the greatest scams that have hit our favorite digital currency and hope that users will avoid suspicions situations in the future. Stay safe!" Continue reading →
Kipochi launches first Bitcoin wallet in Africa with M-Pesa integration
"This enables Kenyans to receive money transfers from the diaspora in an easier, faster and cheaper way, compared to using banks and money transferring services such as Western Union and MoneyGram. Kipochi is a light weight easy to use BitCoin Wallet that allows users to receive and send BitCoin all over the world. Even for people using simple low cost feature phones. M-Pesa currently accounts for 31% of Kenya’s GDP. M-Pesa, the leading mobile payment system in Kenya and in the world, more than 70% of Kenya’s adult population uses Mpesa for small transfers, such as cash between family/friends, paying domestic help, utility bills etc." Continue reading →
In London, the next wave of Bitcoin growth will be led by startups and innovation
"At Bitcoin London this week, it was clear that it would be the next wave of innovative startups that might be able to eventually move Bitcoin from an experimental currency into a more mainstream financial force in London. The event highlighted some of the bigger Bitcoin startups, which have launched exchanges or apps, as well as newer players, like a Bitcoin conversion machine maker, which is looking to install its first box in the Fall. Britons in general seem more keen on Bitcoin and, for those that have heard of the cyber currency, 40 percent of them trust Bitcoin as much as British sterling, according to a recent survey. That’s compared to 16 percent in the U.S." Continue reading →
Bill Bonner: What I’m Doing With My Money Now
"Family offices have for hundreds of years been protecting and growing family wealth, based on a number of unique long-term investment strategies. They've also been helping families pass on their wealth through the generations. The skills necessary for building wealth – including the habits and the customs that allow you to hold onto it and pass it along to the next generation – can take a long time to accumulate. Why are the Swiss so wealthy, for example, and the Bolivians... or the Zimbabweans... or the Albanians... or the Baltimoreans... so poor? The Swiss have the habit of wealth; the others do not. There are some skills that take more than a generation to acquire." Continue reading →
Gideon Gono is Not Disappointing Me
"I have just started reading former Zimbabwe central banker Gideon Gono's book, Zimababwe's Casino Economy. It is meeting my expectations. So far I have learned, he has four children, Passion, Prince, Pride and Praise. He has an undergraduate correspondence degree from Rapid Results College and in the book, he slams critics of his honorary PhD degree from the University of Zimbabwe. In a Krugman-would-be-proud fashion, Gono informs in the book, that toward the end of his reign as head of the central bank, inflation hit 231 million percent annually." Continue reading →
Detlev Schlichter: Forward Guidance? – Nonsense! Central bankers have no choice.
"This was the first policy meeting under new Bank of England governor Mark Carney, the ‘most talented central banker of his generation’ to some, the most overpaid bureaucrat in the world to others. But credit where credit is due. Carney is a marketing genius. Not only when it comes to marketing himself, but also when it comes to selling policy paralysis as strategy. Never before has the phrase 'What can we do? We can only stick to what we have done for years.', so effectively been presented as at the BoE’s press conference yesterday. It is now called ‘guidance’, and it evidently requires a specific skill-set." Continue reading →
Now They Tell Us: China Debt Levels ‘Unknown’
"A senior Chinese official said on Friday that the government did not know precisely know how much debt local governments had built up and warned that it could be more than previous estimates. Estimates of local government debt range from Standard Chartered's 15 percent of the country's GDP at end-2012 to Credit Suisse's 36 percent. Fitch put the figure at 25 percent when it downgraded China's sovereign debt rating in April. Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said China had not released official figures since a 2010 auditing report that put local government debt at 10.7 trillion yuan." Continue reading →
Campaign to Salvage Central Banking
"LeBor himself rehearses the history of the BIS in this interview and points out how it probably should have been shut down several times. Certainly after World War II it should have been shut down because the leadership engaged in communication with Germany's wartime corporate cartels. These cartels were specifically assured that their profits would be protected if they cooperated with the BIS and other allied authorities. It was a secret deal that would have caused immense outrage in Britain and the US if publicized. It never was. The BIS is obviously more than the 'bank of banks.' It is a command-and-control mechanism for the entire globalist machinery of finance." Continue reading →