Investment/Trends

China Bitcoin Crackdown Intensifies

"The People's Bank of China has issued a new ban on third-party payment processors from doing business with Bitcoin exchanges. Bitcoin prices on the yuan-traded BTC China exchange are down 34% on the news, and prices on the USD-traded Mt. Gox exchange were flirting with $700 all night. Mt. Gox prices were off 19% on the day. The latest ban is a a separate regulation from the People's Bank of China's Dec. 5 ruling barring formal financial institutions from processing Bitcoin. Rui Ma, a China-based angel investor, commented that if the crackdown continues, Chinese may only be able to purchase Bitcoins via miners or other traders." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChina Bitcoin Crackdown Intensifies

Who’s Afraid of Bitcoin? These Countries

"Governments do hold some force over the decentralized cryptocurrency, insofar as they wield control over the banks, which in turn can either stand in the way of Bitcoins beginning to circulate through the market or help open the floodgates. But the way some financial regulators see it, the risk of mass adoption is still too high; no one’s sure the bubble isn’t about to burst. Here’s a glance at the nations who have piped up about Bitcoin so far, and where they come down on the futurist money." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWho’s Afraid of Bitcoin? These Countries

China Bans Payment Companies Working With Bitcoin Exchanges?

"Sources close to China’s Central Bank today reported that the institution has banned third-party payment companies from doing business with bitcoin exchanges. A reputable source told CoinDesk that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) met with most of the top third-party payment companies this morning. The source said the meeting topic was unrelated to bitcoin, but digital currency became an important part of the discussion. 'PBOC, in no uncertain terms, directed third-party payment companies not to do business with bitcoin exchanges in China,' they explained." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChina Bans Payment Companies Working With Bitcoin Exchanges?

The Biggest Interest-Rate Turn in 37 Years

"We witnessed the power of bond market vigilantes in 1980, at a time when most of them were in the United States. Now it’s much worse because so many are overseas. We witnessed their power again in 1994, at a time when there was virtually no inflation scare. Now, it’s worse because all the Fed’s money printing is spooking investors about future inflation. We also saw their power repeatedly in 2011 and 2012, when they dumped the bonds of Greece, Spain and Italy. Now it’s worse because, unlike the situation in Europe, there’s no country or union in the world big enough to bail out America. In one sense, nothing has changed since Carter’s day of reckoning on April 15, 1980." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Biggest Interest-Rate Turn in 37 Years

Money for Nothing: Inside the Federal Reserve (2013)

"Nearly 100 years after its creation, the power of the U.S. Federal Reserve has never been greater. Markets and governments around the world hold their breath in anticipation of the Fed Chairman's every word. Yet the average person knows very little about the most powerful - and least understood - financial institution on earth. Money For Nothing is the first film to take viewers inside the Fed and reveal the impact of Fed policies - past, present, and future - on our lives. Join current and former Fed officials as they debate the critics, and each other, about the decisions that helped lead the global financial system to the brink of collapse in 2008. And why we might be headed there again." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMoney for Nothing: Inside the Federal Reserve (2013)

How the Paper Money Experiment Will End

"We are now in a situation that looks like a dead end for the paper money system. After the last cycle, governments have bailed out malinvestments in the private sector and boosted their public welfare spending. Deficits and debts skyrocketed. Central banks printed money to buy public debts (or accept them as collateral in loans to the banking system) in unprecedented amounts. Will money printing be a constant with interest rates close to zero until people lose their confidence in the paper currencies? Can the paper money system be maintained or will we necessarily get a hyperinflation sooner or later? There are at least seven possibilities." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow the Paper Money Experiment Will End

Barbados PM: Central bank ‘indulgence’ a threat to economic stability

"Former Barbados prime minister Owen Arthur said that the Central Bank had printed BDS$370 million to purchase Government Treasury Bills, which had caused the country’s foreign exchange reserves to plunge. 'The printing of money on this scale to accommodate government’s fiscal deficit is the chief factor that has triggered the dramatic plunge downward in the country’s foreign exchange reserves. If this plunge downward is not immediately checked, the economic affairs of Barbados will enter a new and very dangerous territory,' he warned, reminding of the economic and social problems of Guyana and Jamaica as a result of excessive increases in money supply and inflation." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBarbados PM: Central bank ‘indulgence’ a threat to economic stability

Barbados Debt Higher Than Cyprus Prompts Firing of 3,000

"Barbados will fire 3,000 public sector workers by March and freeze wages as the eastern Caribbean island’s debt burden soars and the International Monetary Fund says 'urgent adjustments' are needed. Barbados’s ratio of debt to gross domestic product reached 94 percent in September, the IMF said today, more than the 93 percent that forced Cyprus to seek a European Union-brokered bailout in March. Finance Minister Chris Sinckler told lawmakers yesterday that the government risks 'further hemorrhaging' of its reserves and the local currency’s peg to the dollar if nothing is done. Barbados’s financial struggles are mirrored across much of the Caribbean, which has seen eight debt defaults since 2003." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBarbados Debt Higher Than Cyprus Prompts Firing of 3,000