Investment/Trends

Trump reportedly calls Germans ‘very bad,’ threatens to end German car sales

"The president vowed to block German car exports to the U.S. during a meeting with top EU leaders on Thursday, according to German news magazine Der Spiegel. 'The Germans are bad, very bad,' Trump said, according to participants in the room who spoke to Der Spiegel. 'See the millions of cars they sell in the U.S., terrible. We will stop this.' The comments were said to have been made in a meeting with the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the European Council President Donald Tusk, who both showed support for Germany." Continue reading →

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Aetna to Obamacare: We’re outta here

"Aetna is saying goodbye to Obamacare. The insurance giant announced Wednesday that it would not offer policies in Nebraska or Delaware next year, completing its exit from the exchanges. Earlier this year, Aetna said it would pull out of Iowa and Virginia in 2018. The company said it expects to lose more than $200 million in its individual business line this year, on top of nearly $700 million in losses between 2014 and 2016. Aetna withdrew from 11 of its 15 markets for 2017. It has 255,000 Obamacare policyholders this year, down from 964,000 at the end of last year." Continue reading →

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Obamacare for some: 49% price hike since 2014, premiums of $14,300

"Millions of Obamacare customers who do not qualify for financial aid to lower the cost of their health insurance — or who opt not to apply for such assistance — pay the full cost of coverage for their plans. While the Republican Obamacare replacement bill pending in Congress would increase the number of people who would qualify for subsidies, the bill is also expected to increase average premiums over the next two years higher than they would be under Obamacare." Continue reading →

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One of the world’s largest financial services firms is mining bitcoins

"Abigail Johnson, chief executive of Fidelity, announced that her customers would be able to see cryptocurrency balances on Fidelity’s website, if they held an account with Coinbase, one of the largest providers of storage and trading services in the cryptocurrency business. Johnson also revealed a number of other Fidelity projects underway to figure out how to harness the potential of bitcoin and other digital currencies. One of Fidelity’s projects is mining bitcoin and ethereum, which Johnson said was started for educational purposes, but now turns a tidy profit." Continue reading →

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IRS Probe of Bitcoin Goes Too Far, GOP Warns

"The Republicans' concerns echo those of Coinbase and its customers, who argue the IRS does not need every single Coinbase account to carry out its audit, and that the investigation sweeps in people who have clearly done nothing wrong. The IRS investigation also comes at a time when the price of bitcoin has been on an incredible tear, climbing from $13 in 2013 to a new high of over $2,000 last week. Some Coinbase customers, however, have not sold any bitcoin at all while many others hold only a minimal amount, raising questions of why the IRS demanded information about every account." Continue reading →

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Supreme Court Messes With East Texas ‘Patent Troll’ Hotbed

"The Supreme Court on Monday delivered a major blow to so-called patent trolls—shell companies whose business revolves around acquiring patents and then suing others for infringing on them—by making it much harder to bring lawsuits in friendly venues like East Texas. In a unanimous ruling written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court overturned a lower court's interpretation of federal venue rules and said that patent owners must sue companies in the districts where they are incorporated." Continue reading →

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Congress Is Coming After Your 401(k)

"The new proposal would treat all 401(k) and traditional IRA contributions as if they were Roth IRA contributions. You’d lose the tax exclusion of those contributions, but your future 401(k)/IRA earnings and appreciation would be tax-free. Some think this could raise $1.5 trillion in additional tax revenue over the next decade, making the corporate tax slash feasible. Unless they decide to tax retirement earnings and appreciation too." Continue reading →

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The Venezuelan Crisis Is Due to Economic Ignorance

"The worst part of Venezuela’s tragedy is that it was so obviously predictable. Economists familiar with the work of Ludwig von Mises understood the necessary results of socialist policies. A sound money and freely floating prices provide a society with functioning markets that deliver the goods to the people. The market economy is true populism." Continue reading →

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Microsoft says governments should stop ‘hoarding’ security vulnerabilities

"Microsoft references the WannaCry ransomware's source as an vulnerability known by the NSA, noting that similar security holes were revealed on WikiLeaks in documents stolen from the CIA. It says that the governments of the world should treat the WannaCry attack as 'a wake-up call,' to consider the 'damage to civilians that comes from hoarding these vulnerabilities and the use of these exploits,' and to adopt the 'Digital Geneva Convention' the company first suggested in February. That Convention would have a new stipulation, too: 'a new requirement for governments to report vulnerabilities to vendors, rather than stockpile, sell, or exploit them.'" Continue reading →

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Supreme Court hands family’s 1933 double eagles to the feds

"The Supreme Court’s decision means that the coins will remain the property of the federal government and will not be returned to the Langbord family, which reportedly discovered the 10 coins in a family safe deposit box in 2003. The family — Joan Langbord and her sons, Roy and David — turned them over to the United States Mint in 2004 for authentication. Mint officials informed the family in 2005 that it was keeping the coins. A legal battle over ownership ensued, with both parties to the suit at different points being awarded the coins." Continue reading →

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