CLibertyC

Jeffrey Tucker: Is Bitcoin Real or Not?

"Certainly government can regulate exchange between government currencies and Bitcoin. It can also regulate income in Bitcoin the same as with other currency. This is not some tax-free nirvana in the making. The government can also oversee contractual regulations and securities activities in Bitcoin. However, Bitcoin itself is a peer-to-peer system of cryptographically guarded exchange, and it lives on a distributed server model. It is not a company. It is not a stock. It is not a product. It is a ledger that no one in particular runs or owns. It is not possible for Bitcoin as such to be destroyed any more than government can destroy algebra." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJeffrey Tucker: Is Bitcoin Real or Not?

Peter Schiff: What Doesn’t Kill Gold Makes It Stronger

"In July, the gold net-short positions reached record highs. When gold began to rebound last month, a massive number of shorts were left exposed and many still remain exposed. Gold shorts are stuck holding the losing bet on an asset that is going to do the opposite of what they anticipated. If the price rally continues, these traders will feel increasing pressure to unwind their shorts before their losses become catastrophic. This 'short squeeze,' as it is known in finance, will reverse the vicious cycle and could send gold dramatically higher than when the correction started." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPeter Schiff: What Doesn’t Kill Gold Makes It Stronger

A territorial tax system would help U.S. exports, jobs and prosperity

"Germany, a territorial tax country where wage levels are higher than in the U.S. and which has the highest job-creating 12-month trade surplus in the world of $248.5 billion, has its record lowest unemployment rate in 21 years. Germany doesn’t subject its citizens living abroad on top of the tax they pay their host countries, so Germans relocate abroad and capture foreign markets. Americans, unable to survive this double taxation, stay home, and the U.S. continues to lose export market share. The 'fruits' of the U.S. world-wide tax systems are a $721.8 billion 12-month world-trade deficit and $315 billion trade deficit with China." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA territorial tax system would help U.S. exports, jobs and prosperity

Bill Bonner: The Bottom Is Still Ahead for This Bear Market

"The last top in Treasury prices (and a bottom for yields) occurred in 1946. Yields rose for the next 34 years. Now the Treasury market appears to be topping out again… and is headed for a new high in yields… which may not arrive until 2047. It may be a long way off… or right around the corner. Either way, it will be hell getting there. The Detroit pension disaster is just the first of many. Wait until long-term interest rates hit 5%… or 10%. How many companies, cities and pension funds will still be solvent? We’ll see! But wait. You don’t think the Fed will sit on its hands and let the markets take over, do you? Taper off? Forget it." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: The Bottom Is Still Ahead for This Bear Market

America’s Fastest-Growing Cities Since The Recession

"An analysis of post-2007 population trends by demographer Wendell Cox in the 111 U.S. metro areas with more than 200,000 residents reveals something both very different from the conventional wisdom and at the same time very familiar. Virtually all of the 20 that have added the most residents from 2007 to 2012 are in the Old Confederacy, the Intermountain West and suburbs of larger cities, notably in California. The lone exception to this pattern is No. 15 Portland. The bottom line: growth is still fastest in the Sun Belt, in suburban cities and lower-density, spread out municipalities." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAmerica’s Fastest-Growing Cities Since The Recession

Fast-food worker protests help labor unions, not labor

"Terrance is not your typical minimum wage worker. Most minimum wage workers move on after a couple of years, because turnover in the fast-food industry is rapid. When I asked NPR how to get in touch with Terrance, I was given the name of his publicist. A minimum-wage worker with a publicist? That’s something. Worker centers such as NYCC should stop masquerading as friends of workers and admit they are paid by unions to do work that unions are not allowed to do. Higher minimum wages will price the young and unskilled out of jobs, and add to their difficulties in finding employment." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFast-food worker protests help labor unions, not labor

The Magic of Monetary Figures

"Hitting our magic number was a fantastic milestone for us. All the 60-80 hour work weeks, tosses and turns in the middle of the night, and struggles to keep our financial house in order had finally paid off. We would never have to worry about money again. We were home free… or so we thought. Now, twenty years later, our account balance is many times higher than our original magic number. We have come to grips with the fact that our magic number was aptly named. We had forgotten what magic really is: an illusion. In reality, our magic number was nothing more than ink on a sheet of paper that made us believe something that was not true." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Magic of Monetary Figures

Why Are Your Children Buying Houses for Ben Bernanke?

"The Fed sells all those bonds to investors – who will, of course, want their money back, with interest. So, where will the money for paying off those bonds come from? From taxes, of course. When a government sells a bond, they are selling a right to their tax receipts. And that means your kids will be taxed to pay it all off. The Fed will keep the houses, of course, but hidden behind paragraphs of confusing financial and accounting terminology. Home ownership in America is falling off a cliff, as you can see in this graph. So, Mr. and Ms. America, get ready to meet your new landlords: Benny and the Banks." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhy Are Your Children Buying Houses for Ben Bernanke?

Janet Yellen: “A Wise and Humane Policy Is Occasionally to Let Inflation Rise”

"Yellen comes out of the economic school of thought that holds the view that printing money can somehow boost the economy. In essence, she holds the thought that the economy can somehow at times get stuck, that prices at such time don't adjust to supply and demand and that thus money needs to be printed by the Fed via Wall Street cronies to distort prices via monetary and price inflation and fool the public into doing transactions they wouldn't do without the distortions. This is what is held these days as 'utterly unquestioned credentials.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJanet Yellen: “A Wise and Humane Policy Is Occasionally to Let Inflation Rise”

Credit Outbids Cash = Resource Wars

"Trader 1 only has cash that has been earned and saved; Trader 2 has access to leveraged credit (i.e. borrowing $100 based on $10 of cash collateral) and Trader 3 has a printing press that creates cash currency. As a result, Traders 2 and 3 could buy a lot more real-world goods at the fair than Trader 1, enabling the two traders with essentially unlimited credit/cash to reap enormous profits on carry-trades and other speculative trading. Not only can trader 2 and 3 purchase more goods than trader 1. Trader 2 and 3 have no limit on what they can bid and therefore can price trader 1 out of the market completely." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCredit Outbids Cash = Resource Wars