money

What About Karzai Cash Before 9-11?

"The entry below at History Commons (www.historycommons.com) includes a reference to a Vanity Fair article and the note that 'Blee hands Massoud a briefcase full of cash.' That would be before 9/11, given that Massoud was assassinated a couple days before 9/11. I've also seen references to Karzai being aligned with / working with Massoud in the years before 9/11. Did cash payments to people like this accelerate in July/August 2001, amidst intensified covert operations in Afghanistan or elsewhere in Central Asia?" Continue reading →

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The Enduring Glow of Gold

"The use of monetary stimulus, in the hopes that a demand kick will snowball into a virtuous cycle in each national economy, hasn't worked to achieve its main objective for the past five years. But it has created big fluctuations in asset markets, giving speculative capital a golden opportunity to engage in the biggest wealth redistribution in modern history. Despite its recent setback, gold remains a big beneficiary of the current macro environment. It could make a new high in the current year and rise much higher in 2014. The gold bull market will end when an inflation crisis pushes central bankers around the world to tighten aggressively." Continue reading →

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Sweden’s War on Cash: News from the Frontlines

"Three of the four largest banks in Sweden continue to phase out the manual handling of cash at their branch offices at a rapid pace. Taken together, Swedbank, Nordea, and SEB, have stopped offering cash services at their branches at the rate of three branches per week since 2010. Thus during the period 2010-2012, cash disappeared from 465 Swedish bank branches. At Swedberg bank, only 75 of its 340 branches still handle cash. Leif Faithful, Head of Financial Infrastructure at the Swedish Bankers’ Association, believes that eventually all Swedes will need a bank card and sees this development as beneficial to 'both consumers and trade.'" Continue reading →

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Argentina: Dollar price at 10.45 Pesos over two times the ‘official’ price

"The blue dollar jumped past the key psychological barrier of 10 Pesos on Tuesday in thin t rade, reflecting persistent demand for greenbacks amid tough currency controls. Meanwhile, the official rate remained unchanged at exchange offices in Buenos Aires at Pesos 5.16 (buying price) and Pesos 5.22 (selling price), with the gap between the two markets over 100%. In a context of high inflation, negative interest rates or other options to defend the value of the Argentine currency, Argentines are increasingly taking refuge in the US dollar. To this must be added an overall feeling of distrust and uncertainty which can have a greater impact that what stats can present." Continue reading →

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Argentina offers tax amnesty to head off devaluation

"Argentina's latest effort to tease out billions of U.S. dollars said to be held by citizens through sweeping tax breaks and interest earnings received lukewarm response, though this may change. Argentine citizens are said to be holding the greenback in illegal stashes as a hedge against the Argentine peso's unstable performance, a runaway inflation and general distrust of the government's fiscal and monetary policies. Official estimates say at least $160 billion is held in cash at home and abroad by Argentines who have yet to declare their holdings." Continue reading →

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Making Sense of Bitcoin

"Despite the various opinions on Bitcoin, there is no question as to its ultimate value: the ability to bypass government restrictions, including economic embargoes and capital controls, to transmit money quasi-anonymously to anyone anywhere virtually instantaneously irrespective of geopolitical restrictions. While virtually all digital currencies can more or less do the same, no other currency offers an equal combination of peer-to-peer transactions, strong encryption, anonymity, and liquidity that Bitcoin has possessed up to this point." Continue reading →

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Should Libertarians Join the ‘Underbanked’?

"Big Data – that immense plethora of worldwide digital information that is now easily tracked, stored, and analyzed through increasingly powerful technology – is redefining the study of consumer behavior across the economy and raising critical questions about consumer privacy and security in its wake. The availability of digital consumer information continues to expand. The volume of the digital universe is projected to multiply 50 times between 2010 and 2020 to 40 zettabytes (ZB) of usable data. For the underbanked financial services market in particular, Big Data’s most profound impact lies in unlocking access to credit." Continue reading →

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Stodgy Netherlands is nation that’ll blow up euro

"Consumer debt in the Netherlands has hit 250% of available income, one of the highest levels in the world. In Spain, by comparison, it has never gone above 125%. The Netherlands has turned into one of the most heavily indebted countries in the world. It has slumped into recession and shows very little sign of coming out of it. The euro crisis has been dragging on for three years now but so far has only infected the peripheral nations within the single currency. But the Netherlands is a core member of both the euro and the European Union. If it can’t survive in the euro zone, then the game really will be up." Continue reading →

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In Argentina, More Official Lying About Basic Economic Facts

"How much inflation is there? Who can buy dollars legally? Who really runs the economy? Last Friday these questions tripped up Angel Toninelli, one of the directors general of the Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos, the national tax agency. Toninelli admitted that he did not really understand the inner workings of the approval process for obtaining foreign currency to travel abroad. 'It is a formula that changes periodically,' he said in answer to a question. 'It contains ingredients that come from the central bank, the A.F.I.P., and others that come from God,” he explained, adding, 'It isn’t the Coca-Cola formula, but it’s very similar.'" Continue reading →

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Ron Paul On The Bubbles the Federal Reserve Is Creating

"Although many were up in arms when the Fed said it would buy $600 billion in government debt outright for the previous round, QE2, all seems quiet about the magnitude of QE3 because it doesn’t come with huge up-front total price tag. But by year’s end the Fed’s balance sheet could hit $4 trillion. With no recovery in sight, where’s all this money going? It is creating bubbles. Bubbles in the housing sector, the stock market, and government debt. The stock market has been hitting record highs for the past two months as investors seek to capitalize on the Fed’s easy money. As long as the Fed keeps the spigot open, nominal profits are there for the taking." Continue reading →

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