money

Bill Bonner: American grifters

"Here on the pampas, on the other hand, the Argentinians know better. Their brains have been sharpened by adversity and enlarged by necessity. They know they’re getting ripped off by the government. They find ways to protect themselves. 'There are invoices, and there are invoices. You can get an invoice at the official rate, or one at the unofficial rate. Or one that is not at any rate at all. A, B, or C. The government rigs the system to cheat us; we rig it right back. You just have to make sure you have the right invoice for the right transaction. At the end of the year, people buy and sell invoices. Everybody’s got a trick or two. You have to. Otherwise, you’re a sap.'" Continue reading →

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Britain signs agreement with off-shore havens to share tax information

"Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands have agreed to 'much greater levels of transparency of accounts held in those jurisdictions', Britain’s Treasury said. The agreement means the jurisdictions have agreed to pass on names, addresses, dates of birth, account numbers, account balances and details of payments into the accounts. The jurisdictions will share the details with Britain but also with tax authorities in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Britain recently reached similar tax information-sharing agreements with Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man." Continue reading →

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Arizona governor vetoes bill making gold legal tender

"Republican Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill late Thursday that would have made Arizona the second state in the nation to recognize gold and silver as legal tender. Brewer said she shared concerns with the measure's proponents about a declining dollar, but she said the proposal was sloppily put together and did not address basic issues such as how transactions usingprecious metals would be taxed. Brewer said it was unclear whether the state would have to exempt income tax related to a transaction involving precious metals under Senate Bill 1439. She said it could give businesses that buy and sell collectable coins an unfair tax advantage." Continue reading →

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IRS Takes A Bite Out Of Bitcoin

"Bitcoin is virtual currency much in the news these days. It’s peer-to-peer so there’s no central bank or government. But if you think that means the IRS won’t get a piece, think again. The IRS already gets a piece where you swap one product or service for another, as the IRS explains at its Bartering Tax Center. Soon the IRS may have a Bitcoin Center too. The Treasury unit called FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, already has rules about Bitcoin and the IRS is likely to follow. In the meantime, the tax rules seem pretty clear. If you provide services or sell goods for Bitcoin, you have income." Continue reading →

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Living On Bitcoin For A Week: The Journey Begins

"On Tuesday morning, I emptied my wallet of all of the cash and credit cards before I left my house. Many journalists have been writing about the mechanics of buying Bitcoin and the resulting heart palpitations as they watched the dramatic rises and falls in the digital currency’s worth over the last few weeks. But that’s just a story about gambling. My editor issued a different challenge to test the currency’s legitimacy: 'Don’t just buy Bitcoin. Live on it for a week.'" Continue reading →

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Meet Mr. Money Mustache, the man who retired at 30

"I didn’t start saving and investing particularly early, I just maintained this desire not to waste anything. So I got through my engineering degree debt-free and worked pretty hard early on to move up a bit in the career, relocating from Canada to the United States, attracted by the higher salaries and lower cost of living. Then my future wife and I moved in together and DIY-renovated a junky house into a nice one, kept old cars while our friends drove fancy ones, biked to work instead of driving, cooked at home and went out to restaurants less, and it all just added up to saving more than half of what we earned. We invested this surplus as we went." Continue reading →

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David Graeber, DEBT: The First 5,000 Years [2012]

"Graeber carefully shows that everything from the ancient work of law and religion to human notions like 'guilt,' 'sin,' and 'redemption,' are deeply influenced by ancients debates about credit and debt. It is no accident that debt continues to fuel political debate, from the crippling debt crises that have gripped Greece and Ireland, to our own debate over whether to raise the debt ceiling. Debt, an incredibly captivating narrative spanning 5,000 years, puts these crises into their full context and illuminates one of the thorniest subjects in all of history." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDavid Graeber, DEBT: The First 5,000 Years [2012]

Will Bitcoin Be Accepted by PayPal?

"EBay may open its wallet to the virtual currency Bitcoin. The e-commerce heavyweight is exploring ways to integrate bitcoins into its PayPal payments network, Chief Executive John Donahoe said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. 'It’s a new disruptive technology, so, yeah, we’re looking at Bitcoin closely,' Donahoe said. 'There may be ways to enable it inside PayPal.'" Continue reading →

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Fincen’s New Regulations Are Choking Bitcoin Entrepreneurs

"More than a decade ago, regulators nearly suffocated PayPal. Now it looks like they’re trying to squelch another disruptive, innovative payments system. At least three exchanges in the U.S. that traded the digital currency Bitcoin have shut down, apparently as a result of guidance issued last month by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. That agency has emerged as the top threat, at least in in the United States, to the decentralized Bitcoin network – moreso than the widely reported price volatility and hacker attacks. The fact that bitcoin survives at all with so many powerful forces lined up against it is a testament to its resiliency and tenacity." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFincen’s New Regulations Are Choking Bitcoin Entrepreneurs