General – Page 7

Jim Willie: The Coming Isolation of the US Dollar

Julia Dixon on December 29, 2012

“The typical human reaction to any infection, vermin, danger, or toxicity is to stand back, to isolate the agent, to trap it, to prevent its further spread or release, then to remove it in a safe secure way if possible using trained professionals. Eventually decisions must be made on the level of acceptable risk on the removal, like what is willing to be lost or damaged or killed in the process. Risk analysis, cost trade-offs, and minimization decisions must be evaluated and executed. The toxic agent in global trade, global banking, and global bond market is the USDollar. In 2009, the Jackass began making a certain firm point. Those nations that depart from the entire USDollar system early will be the leading nations in the next chapter, with stronger foundations, richer solvency, emerging economies, healthier financial markets, efficient credit engines, growing wealth, stronger political helm activity, and better functioning systems generally.“

Economic Policy Journal: 50 Reasons For The Separation of Money & State

Julia Dixon on December 24, 2012

The Economic Policy Journal’s Chris Rossini list “50 thoughts to help reach a very important conclusion: That money must be completely severed from State control. Our economic lives literally depend on it.” Read More about Economic Policy Journal: 50 Reasons For The Separation of Money & State

Jon Matonis: Fear Not Deflation

Julia Dixon on December 24, 2012

A few months ago Keynesian economist Paul Krugman wrote a piece criticizing Bitcoin. He compared it to gold and argued that Bitcoin would lead to “hoarding, deflation, and depression.” In the Keynesian world a lack of inflation = deflation = depression.

Deflation is commonly feared, but as Jon explains “Deflation is not a problem in the traditional monetary system and it will not be a problem in the bitcoin economy.”

GATA’s Chris Powell explains the importance of gold price manipulation

Julia Dixon on December 20, 2012

“It’s the destruction of markets and it’s the manipulation of the value of all capital, labour and goods and services in the world.“

In a recent appearance on RT’s Capital Account GATA’s Chris Powell gave an excellent explanation of why market manipulation is an important issue.

“What they are doing is really [trying] to seize control of everything economic in the world. And really surreptitiously behind peoples backs. It’s an essentially tyrannical system, that is what we are trying to expose. “

GoldMoney’s Alasdair Macleod: Goodbye to Liberty

Julia Dixon on December 16, 2012

I think of money as simply a way to measure and store value, particularly the value of people’s time energy and effort. When the way in which you measure value is being manipulated and the method by which you store your productive value is being eroded, the implications for ‘liberty’ are frightening. This distortion of value is disruptive to people’s ability to interact with one another rationally and productively.

This frightful thought has not been lost on GoldMoney’s Alasdair Macleod who today writes “The US, UK, Europe and Japan are all implementing economic policies that must ultimately result in the complete destruction of their currencies; and if you destroy the means of exchange of goods and services, your people will starve.”

No Such Thing as a Bitcoin Bank

Julia Dixon on December 9, 2012

Bitcoin Central, a Bitcoin exchange based in France, has announced that they are the “first exchange licensed to operate as a bank.”

This is certainly exciting news for Bitcoin’s acceptance and ease of use, but one line in this announcement struck me. They clarified that they are not exactly a bank, but a payment services provider “which is basically the same as a bank, just without the debt-money issuing part.” That’s right; they can’t be a bank because they don’t create money out of thin air. After all they’re working with Bitcoins, it’s just not possible.

Assange tells RT that the internet has become a tool for totalitarian rule

Julia Dixon on December 1, 2012

In an interview with RT’s Laura Smith conducted in Ecuador’s London embassy, Assange says that nearly everything everyone does online is permanently recorded as it is cheaper to spy on everyone rather than single people out.

“We have this position where as we know knowledge is power, and there’s a mass transfer as a result of literally billions of interceptions per day going from everyone, the average person … all the infrastructure has been built for absolute totalitarianism It’s just the matter of turning the key.”

Forbes: FATCA Makes Foreign Banks Report Americans

Julia Dixon on November 28, 2012

FATCA or the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act was enacted in March 2010 to improve tax compliance involving foreign financial assets and offshore accounts. The law requires foreign banks to report U.S. account holders to the IRS and in 2014 the IRS will start penalizing foreign banks for failing to comply.

Forbes’ Robert W. Wood explains that this could have serious consequences for Americans living abroad.

The world’s ‘un-banked’ need payment innovation, but it won’t come from banks

Julia Dixon on November 27, 2012

M-PESA is a mobile money transfer service that has experienced “wild” success in Kenya. Yesterday the Freakonomics blog put up a post examining how M-PESA has achieved such success. The service is owned by Safaricom, a telecom with “monopoly power” and is “35% government-owned,” but perhaps it’s biggest advantage is that it is not a bank.

The post explains that prior to its launch “only 14% of Kenyans participated in the formal banking sector”, and due to regulation the country’s banks were unable to offer banking services to those in rural areas. Today roughly half of all adults in Kenya use M-PESA. However, because of their special situation and lack of competition, they have “sky-high prices, little incentive to innovate, and a limited range of services to customers.”

While it may be true that M-PESA’s success has been in large part due to a combination of regulation and monopoly power that is not necessarily going to be repeated elsewhere, this story illustrates the huge need for financial innovation in so many parts of the world and the willingness of the worlds ‘un-banked’ to use products that offer them even a semi-decent service. It is clear that there is a huge demand for financial innovation amongst the ‘un-banked’, and even more importantly, it is clear that this innovation will not come from banks.

Austrian Economist and Former Mises Institute President Makes the Case for Innovation in Currencies

Julia Dixon on November 15, 2012

Doug French is Senior Editor at Laissez Faire Club and a former President of the Mises Institute. In a new post he supports “Currencies of the Future” (i.e. Bitcoin) and argues that “The answer to the currency question may not be to reform government” but instead to make “an end run around the government’s iron grip on the monetary system.”