GoldMoney: QE for dummies

Julia Dixon on February 9, 2013

The Banking/Monetary system is both staggeringly simple, they push a button to create new money, and ridiculously complex, fractional reserve ratios, treasury bonds, interest rates, open market operations, M1, M2, etc.

In a new GoldMoney post PeakProsperity.com’s  Chris Martenson helps to explain one part of this bizarre system, Quantitative Easing.

“Despite its sophisticated-sounding name, QE is nothing more complicated than the Fed buying ‘assets’ from commercial banks and other private financial institutions. I put assets in quotes because the Fed does not buy things like land, Stradivarius violins, diamonds, gold, or silver from these institutions, but rather various forms of debt.”

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GoldMoney: Why price inflation will take off

Julia Dixon on February 5, 2013

Alasdair Macleod explains how “preference for money” impacts price levels and what role a shift in preferences will play in a ‘virtually certain’ new banking crisis.

“We are all aware, through application of logic if nothing else, that if you increase the quantity of money, prices will increase as that extra money is spent. What is less appreciated is that prices can change dramatically due to shifts in preference for money over goods.”

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Matonis: Government Ban On Bitcoin Would Fail Miserably

Julia Dixon on January 29, 2013

Jon argues that Bitcoin was designed to operate ‘underground’ and that any ban would only draw a large amount of attention to the currency serving to strengthen it. “The demand for an item, in this case digital cash with user-defined levels of privacy, does not simply evaporate in the face of a jurisdictional ban.”

After all, since when has banning things actually worked??

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The Economist: Airtime is Money – pre-paid mobile phone minutes as currency

Julia Dixon on January 21, 2013

In a recent article, The Economist takes a brief look at the continued, and growing, use of mobile air time as money in many African countries.  It would seem that banks everywhere, Africa included, just can’t give people what they want. Mobile air time holds its value and can be transferred in small amounts quickly and anonymously.

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Jim Sinclair sees German gold repatriation as ‘beginning of the end’ for US dollar

Julia Dixon on January 16, 2013

The Silver Doctors have posted an email from Jim Sinclair sent to his subscribers. In the email he compares the reports of Bundesbank’s repatriation of its gold holdings from the Fed to Charles De Gaulle ‘calling the hand’ of the US its obligation to convert French held dollars into gold.

“History will look back on this salvo fired across US war financing as being the beginning of the end of the US dollar as the reserve currency of choice.”

“Today’s report, if true, is a salvo fired at the concept that the USA has all the gold it claims and all the gold it stores for others. If true, this event is the most important gold development since Charles De Gaulle called the US hand that it would stand by convertibility which many then assumed it could not because even then the amount of gold held was publicly questioned.”

Read the email here.

Bitcoin Non-Technical FAQ

Julia Dixon on January 4, 2013

Oleg Andreev, a software developer and Bitcoin blogger has compiled a list of non-technical answers to common Bitcoin questions.  It’s a good read for those new to Bitcoin or for anyone who wants a better understanding of how Bitcoin works without having to learn programing jargon.

The FAQ list covers common questions such as…

Who creates bitcoins?

How do I use Bitcoin?

What do miners do exactly?

How are transactions secured?

Is Bitcoin anonymous?

 

Read it here.