money

Is This the Future of Bitcoin?

"When it comes to Bitcoin, the fast-growing 'digital currency,' there are good ideas, bad ideas and pie-in-the-sky ideas galore. All of these were on display Thursday night when more than 300 Bitcoin investors and entrepreneurs gathered at Microsoft’s (MSFT) sleek, marble-lined offices in New York City to show off their Bitcoin-based business ideas, munch on free pizza, and ruminate on the future of virtual currency in the company of other enthusiasts. Bitcoin has inspired a range of potential businesses, from physical Bitcoin ATMs to trading platforms, to services that pay videogamers in Bitcoins." Continue reading →

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Ron Paul Interview with Charles Goyette

"It would be impossible to find someone in Washington who knows more about monetary and fiscal policy, the Federal Reserve, free markets, Austrian economics, and gold and silver than former congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul. From warning about the consequences of Nixon’s abandonment of the dollar’s ties to gold, to alerting the country to the calamity that would be the Iraq war, to his statement in Congress describing with shocking precision in advance just how the housing bubble would inflate and burst, Dr. Paul has demonstrated that his views must be taken very seriously, indeed." Continue reading →

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How the Federal Reserve Just Hid Important Data

"One of the most important data points released by the Federal Reserve has been the amount of excess reserves sitting at the Federal Reserve. This is important data because these reserves are sitting at the Fed and not in the economy bidding up goods and service. If banks start pulling this money out of the Fed and making loans with the money, the money supply will explode, as well as price inflation. This must be watched closely. But notice something about this chart, the chart title says the series is discontinued. Got that? One of the most important data points is no longer reported by the Federal Reserve." Continue reading →

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Who Really Whacked Tony Soprano

"Mr. Gandolfini’s estate is estimated to be about $70 million. Due to poor legal advice and estate planning, more than $30 million of his estate could go to the government thanks to a 'death tax,' or an estate tax of 55%. Unless Gandolfini was sitting on large sums of cash, his family will now be forced to sell off property and liquidate assets quickly in order to pay the tax bill. There are a few simple techniques that could have saved Tony millions, and they can work for you too." Continue reading →

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Monetary Mavens Talk, Talk, Talk

"The thrust of central banking coverage is one that emphasizes high finance, complicated terminology and impressive circumstances. The reality is that the tools are very limited and the choices are, well ... simplistic. Either a central bank prints money or it doesn't. Either it sets interest rates high or low. Officials can choose various targets but essentially, 'targeting' doesn't change the basic mechanism: more money or less, higher interest rates or lower ones. It's very simple and the amount of time, energy and mainstream media coverage lavished on these rudimentary – and primitive – decisions is incredible." Continue reading →

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Metal detector knows how much cash is in your wallet

"It has long been an urban legend that the security strips found in US banknotes let shadowy government agencies use metal detectors to track how much cash you are carrying. Now it seems the conspiracy theory may have been half right: it is possible to both detect and count concealed banknotes printed with magnetic inks. Physicists Christopher Fuller and Antao Chen at the University of Washington in Seattle realised that large bundles of notes would contain enough magnetic material to be detected at a distance, potentially allowing police to catch people attempting to smuggle cash over the border." Continue reading →

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Plain Old Money Has Gotten Buggy

"Just today I passed a sign at a local check cashing shop, proudly proclaiming 'Send up to $50 for only $5!' Only a 10% minimum fee for transmitting funds? What a bargain. Credit cards don’t work person to person, checks don’t work at pretty much any retail establishment, cash doesn’t work if the bill’s too big, PayPal shuts down if you look at it funny, and you can just lie about how much gold you have (a thing you pointedly cannot do with cryptographic currencies). Bitcoin isn’t perfect. But it’s certainly not competing with perfection. What if money worked as reliably as the Internet?" Continue reading →

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Man Has Home Ransacked by Police for Paying Cash

"It all started one Saturday morning when Jarl Syvertsen, a 59-year-old disabled Norwegian man, purchased a PC, TVs, and washing machines for 80,000 kroner which he paid in cash. On Sunday a male and a female police officer appeared on Mr Syvertsen’s doorstep. The police were there with a warrant to search his home, charging that the cash he had spent was money that 'came from a criminal offense.' In fact, the money was actually part of an approximately one-million dollar advance on an inheritance he had received. The police would have none of it and proceeded to invade his home and his privacy." Continue reading →

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What Every Student in America Needs to Know About the Federal Reserve

"This whole concept of infinite fiat is hard for people to grasp; it is something outside of their experience. People's lifelong experience with money is that it is a limited resource. It is hard to conceive of a group of people who have unlimited, infinite money. Yet the Federal Reserve has just that. The Fed is not like a doctor who prescribes a short-term stimulus for a patient who is feeling run down. The Fed is not like a parent who temporarily puts training wheels on a bike until the kid learns how to ride it. These metaphors make people think that the Fed's fiat printing is temporary and limited. It is not." Continue reading →

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9 foreign countries where you can use U.S. dollars

"There are many great pleasures of the globe-trotting life, but dealing with pesky Travelex lines is not one of them. Sick of exchange rates, transaction fees, and coming home with pockets filled with useless coins? Here are foreign destinations where you can pay with U.S. dollars, from the sunny and subtropical to the still-undiscovered." Continue reading →

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