Land Of The Flea

U.S. Treasury cautions Bitcoin businesses on legal duties

"Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has sent 'industry outreach' letters to about a dozen firms, regarding potential anti-money laundering compliance obligations related to Bitcoin businesses, FinCEN spokesman Steve Hudak told Thomson Reuters' regulatory information service Compliance Complete. The letters have had a 'chilling effect' on Bitcoin businesses, which are intimidated by the threat of civil and criminal sanctions for non-compliance, said Jon Matonis, executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation, an advocacy group. The firms, he said, may effectively be 'put out of business in an extrajudicial manner.'" Continue reading →

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Being an Austrian Is Easier Than Ever

"In April 2011, two years shy of its 100th birthday, the Fed held its first press conference in history in response to mounting criticism of its lack of transparency. In other words, the Fed felt that it had to walk out into the sunshine and defend itself. And, as no doubt part of the same public relations effort, recent Fed publications reveal a concerted effort to perpetuate the myth that the Federal Reserve System is not a central bank at all, but a system of banks that serve 'our local communities.' What’s different this time is that, with the help of the web, Ron Paul’s 2012 campaign, and of course, the Mises Institute, the Austrian School of economics is no longer an obscure and ignored minority." Continue reading →

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Ron Paul: After 100 Years Of Failure, It’s Time To End The Fed

"A week from now, the Federal Reserve System will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding. Resulting from secret negotiations between bankers and politicians at Jekyll Island, the Fed's creation established a banking cartel and a board of government overseers that has grown ever stronger through the years. One would think this anniversary would elicit some sort of public recognition of the Fed's growth from a quasi-agent of the Treasury Department intended to provide an elastic currency, to a de facto independent institution that has taken complete control of the economy through its central monetary planning." Continue reading →

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Dark money: only 35 Bitcoin dealers are compliant with US law

"In the US, the virtual currency is subject to money transmitter laws at the federal level and in 47 states. The rules are not always clear, however, because they are written for money transmission services, not virtual currencies. The regulations are also in flux. New York is considering a special 'BitLicense' for virtual currency firms, for example. As a result, many Bitcoin companies have not registered at either the state or federal level. Only 35 Bitcoin companies have registered with FinCEN, the bureau of the US Treasury Department that has taken the lead on Bitcoin regulation, and the agency has reached out to several dozen more that it believes need to register." Continue reading →

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It’s Hard to Summon Sympathy for Big Banks

"It may not be easy to be sympathetic to the big banks, but it is easy to understand their surprise and frustration. They have gone from being viewed as national champions — proof of a country’s standing in the world — to being seen as a potential source of national disaster. Iceland and Ireland went broke because they had to, or chose to, bail out their irresponsible banks. Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general, did not help when he said last spring that the Justice Department had to keep in mind that filing criminal charges against a large bank could 'have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy.' He quickly backtracked, but the perception was reinforced." Continue reading →

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Tell President Obama to Support Warrants for Email Spying

"The IRS, FBI, DEA, and even local law enforcement can access your stored emails, private social media messages, and cloud documents, without a warrant. Bills to reform ECPA have gained huge support in recent months from both parties in Congress. But... A power grab by the Securities and Exchange Commission is now blocking this legislation. They want a special carve-out so regulatory agencies can continue to access your documents without a warrant. This would neuter ECPA reform. The SEC did NOTHING to stop Bernie Madoff, even when they had legally acquired evidence. Shouldn't they first demonstrate more ability to use legal evidence before asking for illegal sources?" Continue reading →

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Your Trip on My Time Machine

"How fast and how far could interest rates rise? How soon would they impact other sectors of the economy? How can you profit from this powerful megatrend? On a quest for the answers, I invite you to a voyage through time: We will visit five critical — and incredible — periods of the past. We will return for a reality check of the even more incredible present-day reality. And then, we will take a quick trip into the future to see, first hand, a scenario that we believe is absolutely unavoidable. Our first stop is over a half century ago." Continue reading →

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Why 2014 Will Be Even Worse Than 2013 for Bond Investors

"I’ve given many big-picture reasons: debt and deficits, foreign dumping of bonds, and domestic selling of bond funds and ETFs. Another key reason that’s increasingly coming into focus is this: The economy is on the mend. This does not mean our longer-term economic problems have all gone away. But as I have stressed, it does mean crisis-era interest rates and QE policy have absolutely, positively no justification whatsoever. So if there is any surprise that could rock the bond market in 2014, it’s that the economy is even better than Wall Street expects. That would validate my forecast that the tapering of QE will happen earlier than expected, and so will short-term interest-rate hikes." Continue reading →

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Bankers Balking at Bitcoin in U.S. as Real-World Obstacles Mount

"'Banks are scared to deal with Bitcoin companies, even if they really want to,' said Stephen Pair, co-founder and chief technical officer of BitPay Inc., an Atlanta-based company that processes payments for merchants in Bitcoin. Pair said BitPay has relationships with banks in the U.S., Canada and Europe; he declined to name them at the banks’ request. Because of regulatory pressure in the U.S., much of the exchange business has moved to Britain, Japan and China, Jered Kenna, founder of Tradehill, the Bitcoin exchange that lost its bank, said in an interview. LightSpeed Venture Partners announced on Nov. 18 that it would invest $5 million in BTC China." Continue reading →

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