CLibertyC

Billionaire investors take aim at Fed’s policies at Sohn event

"Wealthy money managers bashed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's easy money policies at a closely watched annual investment conference and charitable event on Wednesday. The Sohn Investment Conference, which raises money for pediatric cancer research, gets big name hedge fund managers to share their 'best ideas' with other wealthy investors. This year's conference was sprinkled with criticisms of the Fed's $85 billion in monthly purchases of Treasuries and mortgage securities in an attempt to stoke the economy." Continue reading →

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Argentina: Dollar price at 10.45 Pesos over two times the ‘official’ price

"The blue dollar jumped past the key psychological barrier of 10 Pesos on Tuesday in thin t rade, reflecting persistent demand for greenbacks amid tough currency controls. Meanwhile, the official rate remained unchanged at exchange offices in Buenos Aires at Pesos 5.16 (buying price) and Pesos 5.22 (selling price), with the gap between the two markets over 100%. In a context of high inflation, negative interest rates or other options to defend the value of the Argentine currency, Argentines are increasingly taking refuge in the US dollar. To this must be added an overall feeling of distrust and uncertainty which can have a greater impact that what stats can present." Continue reading →

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Argentina offers tax amnesty to head off devaluation

"Argentina's latest effort to tease out billions of U.S. dollars said to be held by citizens through sweeping tax breaks and interest earnings received lukewarm response, though this may change. Argentine citizens are said to be holding the greenback in illegal stashes as a hedge against the Argentine peso's unstable performance, a runaway inflation and general distrust of the government's fiscal and monetary policies. Official estimates say at least $160 billion is held in cash at home and abroad by Argentines who have yet to declare their holdings." Continue reading →

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Making Sense of Bitcoin

"Despite the various opinions on Bitcoin, there is no question as to its ultimate value: the ability to bypass government restrictions, including economic embargoes and capital controls, to transmit money quasi-anonymously to anyone anywhere virtually instantaneously irrespective of geopolitical restrictions. While virtually all digital currencies can more or less do the same, no other currency offers an equal combination of peer-to-peer transactions, strong encryption, anonymity, and liquidity that Bitcoin has possessed up to this point." Continue reading →

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The enduring mystery of U.S. offshore cash

"The U.S. Internal Revenue Service lumps in the foreign dividend with corporate income. While the U.S. offers a credit for foreign taxes paid, U.S. multinationals typically face an extra tax bill when the foreign earnings come home for a number of reasons, including the higher U.S. corporate income tax rates. So when Apple says it intends to give $100-billion back to shareholders by the end of 2015, it's all well and good. It's got just $45-billion in the U.S., however, and that's what leads to a cash-rich company borrowing more cash, just to give it away." Continue reading →

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Chris Martenson: Official Gold Numbers Don’t Add Up

"If a lot of gold has been leased out, someday it will have to be rebought, and difficulties may emerge if the gold cannot be rebought in sufficient quantities without creating mayhem within the financial system by causing a very large hike in the price of gold. The amounts of gold leased by central banks is a very closely guarded secret, and we do not have direct information on them, which means we have to try and back-calculate these amounts by other means. After accounting for all known flows of gold into and out of the US over the past 22 years, the Sprott team arrived at a figure of nearly 4,500 tonnes of gold that cannot be accounted for." Continue reading →

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The Government’s Us? Not Last Time I Checked

"In a speech last month about proposed gun control legislation, President Obama decried opponents’ attempts to encourage 'suspicion about government.' 'The government’s us,' he responded. 'These officials are elected by you. They are constrained as I am constrained, by a system that our founders put in place.' But if government were 'us,' why would we have ever needed a Bill of Rights or defense attorneys? In order for the government to be 'us,' and for its elected officials to be our 'representatives' in any meaningful sense, a number of prerequisites would have to be met." Continue reading →

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Why Cops Bust Down Doors of Medical Pot Growers, But Ignore Men Who Keep Naked Girls on Leashes

"Strange, isn’t it, that hunches and vague tips about potential marijuana growing (in a state that recently legalized the drug!) is motivation enough to send a SWAT team busting down a door? Compare that to recent reports that police in Cleveland, Ohio ignored years of tips and calls about strange things going on in the home of the three Cleveland men suspected of holding captive, brutally raping and beating three women for nearly a decade. Neighbors say they knew something was up and claim that they repeatedly called the cops. The police did not appear concerned; they certainly lacked the enthusiasm many law enforcement officers display regarding drugs." Continue reading →

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Why No Construction Workers Memorial Day?

"A reader tells me that Peace Officers Memorial Day is held annually in the United States on May 15 in honor of federal, state and local officers killed or disabled in the line of duty. Then he wonders why no Construction Workers Memorial Day. He says: 'According to Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS), about 140-160 officers are killed in the line of duty each year,' but 'according to stats, each year in the US about 1,100 construction workers die on the job.' Here is an article with figures." Continue reading →

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