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How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish [2007]

“The US flew nearly $12bn in shrink-wrapped $100 bills into Iraq, then distributed the cash with no proper control over who was receiving it and how it was being spent. The staggering scale of the biggest transfer of cash in the history of the Federal Reserve has been graphically laid bare by a US congressional committee. In the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million notes, weighing 363 tonnes, were sent from New York to Baghdad for disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130 planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22 2004, six days before the handover.” Continue reading →

No Negative Rates Without Banning Cash, Says Former Fed Official

“I think it’s going to be hard to push the Fed Funds rate below negative 1. That’s going to be difficult. People can basically take out cash and put it in a vault and they get a zero return on it. This is supporting the ban on cash rhetoric. This is a huge social debate that we should start having. One way of doing it is to ban cash. Banning cash is a social and political debate, which is going to happen increasingly. As long as we have cash, we can’t have rates of much below negative 1 percent.” Continue reading →

Bitcoin Exchange Loses $60M In Hack; US Regulations ‘Prevented Cold Storage Use’

“Bitfinex was previously fined $75,000 by the CFTC for failing to register as an appropriate entity for the services it offered as well as: ‘[F]or offering illegal off-exchange financed retail commodity transactions in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.’ These ‘off-exchange’ transactions could be alluding to the storage of funds offline — commonly known as cold storage — one of the best ways to keep your funds out of hackers’ reach. If this is indeed the case then the incident could undermine calls for more regulation as cryptocurrency exchanges face a dilemma between security and compliance.” Continue reading →

New Louisiana Law Strengthening Right to Try Act Now in Effect

BATON ROUGE, La. (Aug. 3, 2016) – On Monday, a new law that strengthens Louisiana’s Right to Try Act went into effect. Last year, the Louisiana legislature passed, and the governor signed,“Right to Try” legislation giving terminally ill patients access to medicines not yet given final approval for use by the FDA. Earlier this year,…

Turning Federal Acts into “Hot Air”

“Without local enforcement, by compliant local authorities, the will of the central government is not much more than hot air.”

More Unconstitutional War in Libya

Yesterday, the US government launched a new round of airstrikes into Libya. While the Constitution mandates that Congress declares war, this new war is being waged on the “request” of United Nations-created government of Libya. The Constitution is quite clear on war power. Congress has the power to determine if the country will wage offensive…

Feds Suing to Access Utah Prescription Database; State Should Refuse to Comply

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency wants to access a Utah database of confidential prescription records. But the feds have a problem. The state requires a warrant before law enforcement agencies can access the Utah Controlled Substance Database. The DEA doesn’t have one. Not to be deterred, the drug police have sued the state in federal…

Massachusetts Voters to Decide on Legalizing Marijuana This Fall, Despite Federal Prohibition

BOSTON, Mass. (Aug. 2, 2016) – The Massachusetts secretary of state has approved a ballot measure to legalize adult use and retail sale of marijuana in the state. This provides the opportunity to take another step toward nullifying federal prohibition in effect. Last week, the secretary confirmed The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol has…