"An astonishing 50% of millennials with student loans are willing to give up their right to vote in the next two presidential elections to have their debt forgiven, but far fewer would give up texting."
"Republican tax-writers have decided to shift the tax code’s inflation index from the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, to something known as chained CPI, which is a slower-growing method of calculating cost-of-living increases. Using the lower rate of inflation to calculate future tax rates means taxpayers will more quickly fall into higher tax brackets, meaning they will pay more in taxes than if Republicans stuck with the traditional measuring stick. It works out to taxpayers paying $128 billion more to Uncle Sam than they would otherwise over the next decade, and $500 billion more in the subsequent decade."
"Every single major world central bank is either raising rates, cutting QE, or both."
"'It just doesn't make sense. This thing is not regulated, it's not under control, it's not under the supervision' of any central bank, Alwaleed said in an interview on CNBC's 'Squawk Box.' 'I just don't believe in this bitcoin thing. I think it's just going to implode one day. I think this is Enron in the making,' Alwaleed said."
"It’s very bad parenting always to be ready to pay the kids’ debts. It’s similarly bad citizenship always to be willing to pay the government’s debts."
"According to the official, the state issued cryptocurrency cannot be mined and will be issued and controlled and maintained only by the authorities. The CryptoRubles can be exchanged for regular Rubles at any time, though if the holder is unable to explain where the CryptoRubles came from, a 13 percent tax will be levied. The same tax will be applied to any earned difference between the price of the purchase of the token and the price of the sale."
"'The only value of bitcoin is what the other guy'll pay for it,' Dimon said. On Thursday, Dimon said during a post-earnings conference call with media that he's 'not going to talk about bitcoin anymore.' The executive called bitcoin a 'fraud' in September and said it 'won't end well.'"
"Investors placed almost 11 billion euros of orders for Austria’s first century bond, which had a yield of 2.1 percent. That’s less than the current yield earned on Treasuries coming due in just 10 years. The 'quite peculiar' bond market reflects expectations of a subdued investor response to when the European Central Bank decides to rein in its super accommodative monetary policy, according to Kim Liu, senior fixed-income strategist at ABN Amro Group NV."
"Buyers of Lennar's homes could receive a payment of up to $13,000 toward their student loans, as much as 3% of the home's purchase price, from its subsidiary, Eagle Home Mortgage. The nation's collective student debt stands at an all-time high of $1.34 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York."
"IMF Director Christine Lagarde hinted at the development of a digital currency, similar to the bitcoin, for the organization's special drawing rights (SDR) mechanism to replace existing reserve currencies. The international finance organization has already begun exploring the possibility with an External Advisory Group discussion last December. Referring to a possible future situation along these lines, Lagarde said that the prospect of a digital currency as a replacement for reserve currencies that are part of the SDR was not 'a far-fetched hypothetical.'"