free market

Why the Working Poor and Banks Are a Bad Match

"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to draft rules governing payday lending this year. But the conventional wisdom that will likely guide it is based on false perceptions about the working poor and the best way to serve them. So argues Lisa Servon, a professor at The New School in New York, who spent four months as a teller at a check-cashing business in the South Bronx and three at a payday lender in Oakland, Calif. Servon's conclusion is that many low-income consumers fulfill their financial needs outside the regulated banking system by choice and in many cases are better off for doing so." Continue reading →

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Overstock CEO: money ’too important to leave to government officials’

"Overstock.com Inc., an online discount retailer, is preparing to accept the virtual currency bitcoin as payment in the second half of 2014, according to Chief Executive and Chairman Patrick Byrne. The news was first reported by the website newsBTC, and confirmed in a Thursday morning phone interview with Byrne. The project is in an early stage, with no decision yet on whether Overstock.com would work with bitcoin companies to allow bitcoin payments or create its own system. A team of six to 12 people is expected to work on bitcoin payments at the company, said Byrne." Continue reading →

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China central bank suggests faster tempo for freeing yuan

"China's central bank governor has dangled the prospect of speeding up currency reform and giving markets more room to set the yuan's exchange rate as he underlines broader plans for sweeping economic change. The central bank under Zhou Xiaochuan has consistently flagged its intention to liberalize financial markets and allow the yuan to trade more freely, even before the Communist Party's top brass unveiled late last week the boldest set of economic and social reforms in nearly three decades. Since the 60-point reform plan was released, Zhou has suggested urgency in pushing for change, although he has not provided any specific timetable." Continue reading →

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Proposals announced to boost Shanghai Free Trade Zone

"In a six-page report that included 30 detailed instructions, the People's Bank of China said yesterday it would allow residents of the zone - seen as a test bed for liberalising the financial sector - to set up 'resident free trade accounts' in both domestic and foreign currencies, and would allow yuan to be fully convertible under those accounts 'when the time is ripe'. The 29 sq km zone, the first of its kind on the mainland, was set up two months ago and the guidelines suggest it will offer benefits that Beijing has been reluctant to offer other pilot areas. For example, 'qualified' individual investors will be able to make various foreign investments, including trading overseas securities." Continue reading →

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Jeffrey Tucker: Fun and Fascinating Bitcoin

"The emerging cryptographic monetary standard entirely bypasses the age of fiat money and the age of central banking. It takes money out of the realm of public policy and central planning and places it in the hands of the people actually using it. Of all the features of Bitcoin, this one is perhaps the most beautiful. It has emerged from within the social order and was not imposed from above. How long will it take before the full implications reveal themselves? It took email some 20 years to go from obscure to common. Digital phone technology needed about the same swath of time. Bitcoin, however, could be different. Information travels farther and faster than ever before." Continue reading →

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The American Economy is Not a Free-Market Economy

"Those inclined to dismiss Lewis’s claim as exaggerated must confront the solid body of evidence he amasses. Everyone knows that governmentally-sponsored mortgages helped to fuel the housing bubble that burst in 2008 with disastrous consequences. As Lewis points out, though, the situation is much worse than most people imagined. 'By the end of 2007 government-sponsored mortgages accounted for 81% of all the mortgage loans made in the US and by 2010 this had risen to 100%.' Government dominance is of course bad for the economy, but it works to the benefit of a small group of the powerful. A great strength of the book is that Lewis names names: he tells us who the predators are." Continue reading →

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The biggest Bitcoin win in gambling history

"In just one weekend of furious gambling, a single Internet high roller has taken home close to 11,000 bitcoins—or about $1.3 million. The man, known online as Nakowa, has turned one of Bitcoin’s most popular and profitable casinos into a loser. What no one can figure out: Is he a cheater, a genius, or the luckiest man on earth? Just-Dice.com, a European-based cybercasino offering a set of dice games played for the highly valuable digital currency Bitcoin, has been on a roller coaster ride. Nakowa’s weekend started on a losing streak that made Just-Dice richer than it had ever been, causing the site to hit its highest single profit point of all time (7,000 bitcoins or $862,400 on hand)." Continue reading →

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10 Simple Steps to a Billion Dollar Business

"There are some great technology companies worth billions of dollars like photo-sharing website Instagram, and microblogging platform Tumblr. But…that doesn’t make them great businesses either. Mainly because they don’t actually make any money. These two are examples of a great idea that people love, but don’t pay for. But there are a lot of great ideas in the world. A lot of inventions, a lot of smart people coming up with world changing ideas. Some get lucky (like Instagram and Tumblr), some fail and some take years of hard work. For those ideas to become great companies, the pathway to that destination is relatively simple." Continue reading →

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