money

Gold smuggling rampant in India

"Gold smuggling has gone up several notches in India. According to customs officials, after banks stopped selling gold coins and following the hike in import duty, there has been a spurt in demand for the metal prompting people to smuggle. Officials pointed out that smugglers and buyers of smuggled gold tend to save on import duty as well as other taxes like value added tax and income tax. Given the severe curbs on gold buying and selling, other sources are trying to pitch in and take advantage of the situation, by selling gold through illegal means, they added." Continue reading →

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George Clooney Arrives at the Bank of England

"We wrote just yesterday about Mark Carney, the central banker from Canada who has arrived on the scene in Britain to take over the reins of England's central bank. The adulatory press coverage has been just what we expected, and even more so. We've already been treated to reports of how Carney took the 'tube' to work and in this video we learn that he arrived a full hour early to work. We are reminded once more that central banking is as much a public spectacle as an exercise of monetary power. Carney has obviously been picked because he is a man who seems relaxed even under the glare of publicity and comes across as confident but levelheaded." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin ATM launched

"A bitcoin ATM was revealed at a London conference today, allowing users to convert bank notes into the digital currency. To use the ATM, you need to have an existing Bitcoin wallet number. First, it scans a QR code of your Bitcoin address. Then, the user has to feed bank notes into the machine, which are converted at the current exchange rate and deposited into their account. While the deposit takes moments, it can take several minutes for an account to be updated. Bitcoin can be purchased via online exchange sites, but the ATM means you don't need to use a credit or bank card, helping to keep the transactions anonymous, the company said." Continue reading →

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Mastercard and Visa Start Banning VPN Providers

"There’s an unwritten rule that Mastercard and Visa don’t accept file-hosting sites that have an affiliate program and PayPal has thrown out nearly all cyberlockers in recent months. It now turns out that these policies have carried over to VPN providers and other anonymizing services. Before the weekend customers of the popular Swedish payment service provider Payson received an email stating that VPN services are no longer allowed to accept Visa and Mastercard payments due to a recent policy change. The new policy went into effect on Monday, leaving customers with a two-day window to find a solution." Continue reading →

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The Politics Of Bitcoin Mixing Services

"The emergence of services that mingle bitcoin for the purpose of returning bitcoin not associated with the original input address has had a somewhat spotty history. Also called bitcoin laundries, these web-based services charge bitcoin holders a nominal fee to receive different bitcoins than the ones initially transferred. The largest such service operating today is the Blockchain.info mixing service which has a maximum transaction size of 250 bitcoins and a 0.5% transaction fee. Other services include BitLaundry and The Bitcoin Laundry operated by Mike Gogulski." Continue reading →

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What Level of Taxation Is Too Much?

"It was reported that more than 8,000 French households had tax bills that exceeded 100% of their income in 2012. This occurred due to a so-called 'one-off levy' imposed by the socialist president in an attempt to 'offset' previous tax breaks. Ouch. Contrast France with these 18 countries that have no personal income tax. When it comes to confiscating wealth, desperate governments know no limit – other than 'what they can get away with.' In other words, it is only pragmatic to assume that anything within a desperate government's immediate reach becomes fair game." Continue reading →

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US institutions to expats: ‘Take your retirement account elsewhere – now’

"First American expatriates were told that their bank accounts weren’t welcome because of the growing hassles and expense banks have to deal with when they have American citizens as clients. Now, Americans’ tax-deferred retirement accounts – many of which were set up decades ago, and never touched since – are also increasingly unwanted by US financial institutions, unless these accounts are of significant size. The reason, according to a US-based adviser, is because the companies have become increasingly concerned about 'know your customer (KYC) rules' that were first introduced in the US in 2003." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS institutions to expats: ‘Take your retirement account elsewhere – now’

Thin Wire – Hawala

"With the ingenious method of hawala, money moved time zones and continents via a single communication between two hawaladars or thadekars (hawala agents): a promise that the cash had been deposited on one end, and thus could be withdrawn from the other. So long as cash trades at either end were relatively balanced, the system worked—so well that hawala remained the mainstay of monetary trade in more than 50 countries until the early 20th century. Fast-forward a few hundred years, and hawala has a less celebrated reputation. But for families in developing countries supported by diaspora relatives, hawala is a lifeline." Continue reading →

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Regulation Means The Bitcoin Gold Rush Will Not Happen In The US, Say Experts

"Europe is better positioned as a better place to create Bitcoin-based startups than the US. That was the message coming out of Bitcoin London today, the first major conference in London to cover startups, investors and business models. Covering the broad sweep of Bitcoin businesses, technologists and institutions, the conference heard that the US may have made a fatal strategic mistake in classifying Bitcoin as if it were money. Bitcoin is being treated in many different ways: as money, as an asset class, as the first highly secure P2P global information exchange, as a technology platform and even as a if it were a startup entity in its own right." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRegulation Means The Bitcoin Gold Rush Will Not Happen In The US, Say Experts

New U.S. Sanctions Imposed on Iran to Halt Gold Trading

"The first American sanctions on Iran since a moderate cleric won the presidential election there on June 14 went into effect on Monday, expanding the number of penalized industries and imposing rules that theoretically could halt all gold and currency trade by the country. Bullion dealers in other countries who flout the prohibition risk severe American penalties, including expulsion from the United States precious metals market. Iran has increasingly traded its oil and gas for gold with countries like Turkey because of earlier financial sanctions that have prevented the Iranians from using conventional bank payment methods." Continue reading →

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