Investment/Trends

Bernanke Is Getting Killed in the Bond Market

"Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke's latest disclosure statement for year end 2012 shows that he held positions in the Blackrock High Yield Bond Fund and US Treasury strips. If he continues to hold these positions, he is losing big time. His Blackrock bond position is down by at least 5%. Meanwhile, his strips position is likely getting destroyed. Here is a chart on the PIMCO 25+ Year Zero Coupon U.S. Treasury Index ETF, which is likely comparable to what Bernanke is holding. Over the last 12 months, it is down more than 24%. Bottom line: Bernanke is not only screwing up the nation's economy, he is screwing up his own portfolio." Continue reading →

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The US-Syrian Quandary: A Case of Déjà-Vu

"All of this sounds just a little bit too familiar for our taste. We all know how much of a problem the Iraq debacle has been for the US government and its budget. In fact, we may just be weeks away from seeing Tomahawk cruise missiles raining on Damascus. As Doug Casey likes to put it, never let a good crisis go to waste. Though Syria is not a major producer of oil, the impact of its civil war can reach far beyond its borders to countries such as Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. We believe this saber-rattling by the US government is simply another step toward trying to secure the Persian Gulf… and its precious oil resources." Continue reading →

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Dubai And Saudi Stock Markets Getting Totally Smoked

"There's a lot of ugly stuff today. Emerging markets (India, Indonesia, Turkey, etc.) are getting crushed on all the standard emerging market worries. Plus there's all the Syria stuff that seems to be having a financial market impact. You can really see that in Mideast stock markets. Dubai is getting simply demolished, as the stock market there is down 7%. Saudi Arabia is down 3.5%." Continue reading →

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The Rush to Bitcoin ASICs: Ravi Iyengar launches CoinTerra

"Coming into the ASIC market is CoinTerra, headed up by Ravi Iyengar, former CPU Lead Architect at Samsung’s Austin Research Center (SARC). Ravi’s focus at SARC was on the CPU Mid-Core, including integer execution and special purpose registers (good for Bitcoin). His history also includes helping design chips for the SGS4, as well as stints at Intel, Qualcomm and NVIDIA. At CoinTerra he is joined by Jim O’Connor, VP of Engineering with a history of SOC design and Dr. Naveed Sherwani, CEO of Open Silicon. CoinTerra has raised $1.5 million from investors to fund development costs and an initial production run. CoinTerra’s CEO was happy to speak to us and answer a few questions." Continue reading →

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Chip veterans form new startup, will sell high-end Bitcoin miner for $14,000

"On Tuesday, a new Bitcoin startup called CoinTerra announced that it raised $1.5 million in venture capital. This likely puts the company in a position to dominate the Bitcoin hardware market—assuming it can come through on its promises. Earlier this month, CoinTerra revealed the TerraMiner IV, a two terahash per second ASIC Bitcoin miner that will sell for $13,999 and is set to ship in December 2013. (An ASIC is a specialized computer designed to one specific task, in this case the goal is mining bitcoins.) By contrast, the one that Ars tested earlier this year was a five gigahash per second device made by Butterfly Labs." Continue reading →

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10 Futuristic or out of the ordinary projects that accept Bitcoin

"Financing novelty projects can be a challenge when it comes to gather supporters, but Bitcoin might be a great help. In these cases, when the projects sound too outrageous for conventional financial investment, cryptocurrency steps in to change the game. Take a look at these 10 examples." Continue reading →

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What Are Bitcoins: The How, Why and Why Not

"There is a large and growing list of internet based companies that do business in bitcoins. Earlier this year, bitcoin payment processor BitPay partnered with gift card company Gyft, which now accepts bitcoins for its mobile gift card products. So now, buy using these gift cards, you can use your bitcoins at large number of big companies that include names like Burger King and Nike. Interestingly, areas in Germany have many merchants that do business in bitcoins. Germany has now declared this virtual money as official 'unit of account.' Adding a bit more credibility to this virtual currency, the Winklevoss twins, of Facebook fame, are working on launching an ETF that will track the value of bitcoins." Continue reading →

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Study Indicates That America’s Driving Boom is Over

"After decades of adding more cars to their household fleet while moving further and further out into the suburbs, Americans are waiting longer to get licensed, driving less and increasingly turning to alternatives such as mass transit or car-sharing programs, according to a new study by the U.S. Public Research Interest Group, or PIRG. It's not just millennials. Overall, the percentages of Americans of driving age who actually were licensed fell to just 86 percent in 2011, a 30-year low. As recently as 1992, the figure stood at 90 percent. Meanwhile, the number of vehicles Americans owned has also begun to tumble." Continue reading →

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Obama Signs Law Gutting Insider Trading Regulations For Congress

"President Obama signed a law that gutted the reporting requirements originally included in the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act. Before these changes were made the STOCK Act required congressional staffers to disclose their finances to the public to help ensure they were not engaging in corrupt practices. But on second thought, President Obama and Congress decided that congressional staffers should be able to escape transparency. Unanimous consent, no one wanted to put their name down as openly supporting corruption while supporting corruption. And now President Obama has signed the bill guaranteeing a more corrupt Washington." Continue reading →

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Immense, Needless Human Misery Caused by Speculative Credit Bubbles

"Speculative bubbles based solely on cash have very short lifespans, as the bubble bursts violently as soon as the gamblers' cash has been sucked into the vortex. Truly devastating speculative bubbles require a vast expansion of credit and the corruption of the political class that feeds off the state. As Credit is ultimately managed by the state, central banks and the banking cartel, no speculative credit bubble can arise without the complicity and collaboration of all three. The destructive incentives, corruption and erosion of productive investment are masked by the rapidly rising phantom wealth created by the bubble in real estate and stocks." Continue reading →

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