money

Bill Bonner: The Virgin Central Banker

"The air-traffic controller can help make sure people get where they were going safely. If he does his job well, things will turn out as expected. But if he does a ‘brilliant’ job, travellers end up where they didn’t expect to go; he has not really added to the sum of human happiness. Out-of-the-box air traffic controlling will not make the world a better place. It can only make a mess of things. Likewise, the best a central banker can do is the normal thing. Creative central banking — and experimental central bank policies — should be avoided. They don’t make the world a better place; they only take people where they didn’t want to go." Continue reading →

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Bernanke’s Bubble: A Counterfeit Boom Based on Counterfeit Money

"A lot of people on Wall Street think this stock market is a bubble. And a lot of people don’t. A lot of people think this market will fall sharply if the FED stops inflating. And a lot of people don’t. I think the people who blame the FED are right. I also think the FOMC thinks so, too. That is why it has no intention of tapering. Nothing it has said in print since last December indicates otherwise." Continue reading →

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Bitcoins are a buy at $50, says equity fund VP

"Bitcoins aren’t going to crash and burn, and could be be a good investment at $50. So says famed banking analyst Richard Bove, vice president of equity research at Rafferty Capital Markets. What’s more, Bove wouldn’t mind buying bitcoins at the right price. 'If I could buy them at a low enough price, like $50, then I think it would be worthwhile speculating with a few of them,' he said in a phone interview. Bove decided to write about bitcoins after a top New York bank regulator issued subpoenas to several major bitcoin companies and issued a memo on virtual currencies." Continue reading →

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Micropayments now ready to slash price of online news

"Microtransactions could let users read the rest of a New York Times article for a few cents instead of signing up for a full monthly subscription, Armstrong wrote, or 'pay for Wi-Fi internet metered by the minute (or second!) if you just need to check one email' or 'support your favorite artists or coders with a tip'. The idea of a Bitcoin-based paywall is already out there. BitWall aims to give publishers more flexibility over how they charge for content, allowing for sales of daily, weekly or monthly subscriptions, or on a per-article basis. Meanwhile, Flattr allows people to make donations to the creators of free online content." Continue reading →

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US misprinted 30 million new $100 bills, costing millions to fix

"The US is approaching the release date of its new $100 bills, but the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is facing an embarrassing problem: 30 million bills were incorrectly printed, and fixing them will cost taxpayers an estimated $3.79 million. The new $100 bills are designed to contain a Liberty Bell that changes its color, 3-D images that move when the bill is tilted, and a hidden message on the collar of Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers. Once these bills were delivered to the Federal Reserve, they were rejected. Officials have sent back about 30 million of them, and refuse to accept any more bills from the Washington, D.C. factory." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS misprinted 30 million new $100 bills, costing millions to fix

It’s Time for a Crypto Bank: The Crypto Finance IPO

"Coupled with recent moves from the US Government, the sporadic shutdown of Bitcoin services, and suspicion from many other banks over Bitcoin transactions, users must be eagerly awaiting the launch of the world’s first crypto bank: Crypto Finance. Crypto Finance is planning to launch in Q4 this year, and will be based in Panama. The company will offer personal and business bank accounts for individuals converting up to 20 different Fiat currencies, and an exchange for purchasing crypto currency with Fiat currency. Transactions will be faster, fees lower, and '100% of the funds will remain intact in the customer’s account'." Continue reading →

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Australian bank closes personal accounts of Bitcoin startup’s founders

"Last Friday we found out that our automatic payouts weren’t being processed. Incoming transactions were fine and unaffected. Our first point of contact was the business banking hotline, CommBiz, which advised us to go in to our local branch to sort things out. Going in to the branch we were told that it had to be settled by the Security team. The worse case scenario we were told, was we would have to close and re-open our bank account with CBA. We were told there would be an update on Friday. We had a call back from our branch to tell us the update was, 'no further information.'" Continue reading →

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Google confirms critical Android crypto flaw used in $5,700 Bitcoin heist

"Google developers have confirmed a cryptographic vulnerability in the Android operating system that researchers say could generate serious security glitches on hundreds of thousands of end user apps, many of them used to make Bitcoin transactions. This weakness in Android's Java Cryptography Architecture is the root cause of a Bitcoin transaction that reportedly was exploited to pilfer about $5,720 worth of bitcoins out of a digital wallet last week. The disclosure, included in a blog post published Wednesday by Google security engineer Alex Klyubin, was the first official confirmation of the Android vulnerability." Continue reading →

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How the Fed Goes Bust With Richard Ebeling

"Little ink has been spilled about the Austrian economists, such as Friedrick Hayek, Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard. So we've taken it upon ourselves to interview someone who knew two of them personally. Bob speaks with Richard Ebeling, economics professor at Northwood, about quantitative easing and the future of Bernanke's so-called 'exit.' Then Perianne explores US aid to Egypt and the problems with doling out money to foreign groups. Finally Bob duels Prime Interest regular, Sam Sacks on the BP oil settlement and intellectual property rights." Continue reading →

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How Nixon the Keynesian Destroyed the Monetary Regime of Keynes

"Richard Nixon made a lot of bad decisions, but this one was his worst. This one has had long-term consequences far beyond anything he ever imagined. We are now trapped by the Federal Reserve, which buys $1 trillion worth of government debt every year. If it stops, we will get into another major recession. So far, there are few signs the Federal Reserve is going to stop. From 1965 until 1971, foreign governments and central banks could put pressure on the Federal Reserve to stop its expansion of money. All the government or the central bank had to do was order gold at $35 an ounce. That leverage ceased 42 years ago." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow Nixon the Keynesian Destroyed the Monetary Regime of Keynes