"The scene at the apple store just before the phones release was also a sight i'd never experienced. Beyond excitement it was closer to hysteria. Encouraged by hundreds of equally hysterical employees in blue shirts. At the peak of that hysteria i stopped and reminded myself what the impetus was for all of this; a new phone. That warranted a head shake and an eye roll." Continue reading →
"For foreigners, it used to be that hard work and plenty of patience for bureaucratic red tape would garner access into a coveted country. But, these days, sometimes all it takes to grab that golden ticket is achieving multimillionaire status and promising to make a hefty investment in a new homeland. Countries such as the United States, Australia and New Zealand are all embroiled in a global tug-of-war for the wealthy, and each has either rolled out or reauthorized what are known as millionaire visas in recent years. These programs, which are aimed squarely at wealthy investors, fast-track these individuals' path to permanent residency—and sometimes even citizenship." Continue reading →
"BTC Trading Corp (BTC-TC) announced that it will close all trading by October 7, two weeks from today. BTC-TC is one of the largest bitcoin securities exchanges, responsible for 101,000 BTC ($12M) in deposited securities and 2,900 BTC ($350K) in daily volume. The company’s notice cited 'recent changes in the virtual currency regulatory environment' as the reason for shuttering operations. Also closing is LTC-Global, a litecoin-denominated securities exchange also run by Ethan Burnside, the same operator as BTC-TC. All trading was temporarily halted and order books were cleared after the announcement was made at 5am EST." Continue reading →
"Five years after the financial crisis crested with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., top executives from the biggest subprime lenders are back in the game. Many are developing new loans that target borrowers with low credit scores and small down payments, pushing the limits of tighter lending standards that have prevailed since the crisis. Some experts fear they won’t know where to stop. The Center for Public Integrity in 2009 identified the top 25 lenders by subprime loan production from 2005 through 2007. Today, senior executives from all 25 of those companies or companies that they swallowed up before the crash are back in the mortgage business." Continue reading →
"The industry is clearly rebounding. Guy Cecala, publisher of the trade magazine Inside Mortgage Finance, says, 'You're going to see a little more risk coming into the system' as lenders permit smaller down payments and finance more investment properties. 'Five years down the road and we're back in the thick of it again. It's a weird place to be,' says Cliff Rossi, who was a high-level risk management executive at Countrywide, Washington Mutual, and Freddie Mac before the crisis. 'In that intervening 20 years, we forgot what we learned in the '80s,' he says. 'I fear right now, human nature being what it is, that downstream we could find ourselves in the same situation.'" Continue reading →
"Under normal conditions, you'd be smart to assume that the Fed won't taper until unemployment falls below 7% and inflation rises above 2%. But there's a curveball: Bernanke will almost certainly step down as head of the Fed in January 2014. Rumors say that he wants to begin tapering before he leaves, for obvious reasons. Such action would increase the odds of history viewing him favorably. If Bernanke tapers, he can take credit for putting the US on a responsible path before handing the reins over to the next guy or gal. Whatever happens after that is Janet Yellen's problem (or whoever-replaces-Bernanke's problem)." Continue reading →
"David Stockman, former Director of the Office of Management and Budget under the Reagan adminstration and author of 'The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America,' discusses JPMorgan's 'London Whale' case." Continue reading →
"If you look at bitcoin, it has all those same characteristics of gold in terms of it being easily recognizable, easily divisible and similarly, they both have a limited supply and can’t just be made out of thin air. Where bitcoin differs from gold is that it is easily transportable. You can send bitcoins anywhere on the planet instantly basically for free. It is incredibly expensive to ship gold around the world and if you do, you have to trust the shipping company or the delivery company, with bitcoin you don’t have to trust anybody at all. All you do, is send the bitcoins and they have been sent. So bitcoin has gold’s valuable characteristics as money but it is also transportable." Continue reading →
"Ever since the financial crisis of 2008, our politicians have been running around proclaiming that they will not rest until they have fixed 'the too big to fail problem', but instead of fixing it those banks have rapidly gotten even larger. We are witnessing a consolidation of the banking industry that is absolutely stunning. Hundreds of smaller banks have been swallowed up by these behemoths, and millions of Americans are finding that they have to deal with these banking giants whether they like it or not. These banks have been unbelievably reckless, but when they fail, we will all pay the price." Continue reading →
"Marc Faber is an economic authority on global macroeconomics, capital markets, and investment and the Editor & Publisher of 'The Gloom Boom & Doom Report'. He spoke with The Prospect Group about university style formal education, the coming economic collapse, and the options people to preserve their wealth." Continue reading →