Monetary Madness, Part II

“Like today, the Fed helped create a bond market bubble in the 1970s … but then began a panicky retreat in 1979 that helped drive T-bond yields to 13%, T-bill rates to 17% and the prime rate to 21%.  Like today, the Fed kept the lid on short-term interest rates in the early 1990s … but then was forced to unleash them in 1994, causing the largest calendar-year decline in bond prices in modern history.  And like today, in the first half of the 2000s, the Fed papered over every financial disaster it ran into — only to beat a sudden retreat by letting Lehman Brothers fail. They will do the same thing again — not because of any particular plan, but because they will have no other choice.”

http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/monetary-madness-part-ii-56401

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Flying and Driving with Weed: The 2013 Holidays

“Users of medical cannabis from California who drive sober into Nevada, Utah or Arizona are technically DUI when they cross state lines.  In Nevada, a person is guilty of DUI if he or she is found to be driving with trace amounts of marijuana byproducts in their system. These traces can linger in the body for weeks after use.  In Arizona, it is unlawful for a person to drive a vehicle while there is any drug or its metabolite in the person’s body, which is a loony as it sounds.  Ditto for Utah.  And be especially careful around the international border. Homeland Security and Customs works up to 100 miles from the border and regularly search random vehicles with drug dogs at checkpoints.”

http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2013/11/21/medical-marijuana-travelers-tips-for-the-2013-holiday/

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House Committee Rejects Requiring Account Of Drone Casualties

“The U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee rejected a proposal on Thursday that would have required U.S. spy agencies to make an annual public accounting of the number of casualties caused by U.S. drone attacks on militants overseas.  The provision would have required U.S. agencies every year to make public totals compiled by the U.S. government of both combatant and non-combatant deaths and injuries caused by U.S. drone strikes overseas. The House committee also rejected language with the intention of bolstering scrutiny of secret spy agency deliberations about targeting U.S. citizens or residents for lethal drone strikes overseas.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/21/house-drone-casualties_n_4319765.html

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WWW inventor: Government surveillance worse than outright censorship

“The insidious nature of government spying has a chilling and subtle effect on Web freedoms that could ultimately be more damaging to society than outright censorship, World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee said.  The legacy of the revelations made by whistleblower Edward Snowden into the actions of national security agencies (the NSA, GCHQ, and others) will be long-lasting, intimated Berners-Lee. While nations such as China openly engage in censorship, what the US and the UK have done could potentially leave a trail of paranoia that in turn leads to a trend for self-censorship among citizens of the allegedly ‘free’ West.”

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/11/berners-lee-insidious-government-surveillance-may-be-worse-than-outright-censorship/

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Most Bizarre Hedging Statement Ever?

Anthony-Wile1

“This last blow-off is going to be a merciless one that will precede perhaps a movement toward a more global currency or a diminishment of the dollar reserve standard itself. Many may be tempted to sit out this latest – promulgated – rally based on the obvious and evident macro-manipulations. And I will continue to point out the various machinations that are setting up the Party. They are a long ways away from snatching the punch bowl on this one and fortunes will be made because one thing this sort of vast manipulation portends is volatility and plenty of it. Is the market a kind of Titanic heading toward an iceberg? Of course it is.  But it’s going to be a helluva ride.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/34771/Anthony-Wile-Most-Bizarre-Hedging-Statement-Ever/

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Stewardess first to book $250k Virgin Galactic ‘space trip’ with BITCOINS

“A bitcoin is currently trading for around $763, versus $10 at the start of the year. You’ll need to pony up $250,000, or 327.7 BTC, to spend about 10 minutes weightless on the edge of space.  The first customer to have paid in Bitcoins is a stewardess in Hawaii ‘who made quite a lot of money by getting into Bitcoin early on,’ Branson said.  Branson has confidence that Bitcoin will go higher, as the systems controlling the crypto-currency limit the total amount of Bitcoins in circulation. This prevents the money printing (excuse us, ‘quantitative easing’) that central banks indulge in to doom subsequent generations to crippling inflation (‘stabilize markets’).”

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/22/when_hot_cash_meets_a_vacuum_virgin_galactic_takes_bitcoin/

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How a wire transfer stuck in OFAC almost cost me $140K

“My wire transfer for $600,000 got stuck for more than a week in two banks and I almost lost my $140,000 deposit on a house as a result.  If the funds transfer had been done with bitcoin, I would have had the funds there within an hour of sending them, and nobody could have stopped it. The escrow part could also have been done with bitcoin. One this becomes the norm, bitcoin is going to revolutionize the process of closing a house purchase, making it safer, cheaper, and faster for everyone.  Here is the OFAC SDN list. If your first and last names match any of the names in this list, don’t do any large wire transfers!”

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1rabx7/how_a_wire_transfer_stuck_in_ofac_almost_cost_me/

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Bootstrapping with Tony Gallippi of Bitpay on the tastytrade network

“Tom and Tony talk with Anthony Gallippi of Bitpay. Anthony Gallippi, co-founder and CEO of Bitpay, saw a need for Bitcoin payment processing and founded BitPay in 2011. Bitcoin is a new financial technology, invented in 2009 as the first peer-to-peer digital currency.”

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Sweden and Norway to add Bitcoin VAT; Norway to implement Bitcoin tax

“It has been known recently in the news that the Swedish government wants to add VAT on Bitcoin trading after receiving a request by a Swedish man trying to establish a Swedish Bitcoin exchange (you can read the story here in Norwegian). The man that contacted the Swedish government is very dissatisfied with their answer and tries to combat their views on Bitcoin trading. He believes that if Sweden enables VAT on Bitcoin trading, it will become useless as a currency.  The Swedish government explains that legal currencies are excepted VAT on trading, however they do not see Bitcoin as a legal and public currency hence it needs VAT.”

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2013/11/23/sweden-norway-add-bitcoin-vat-norway-implement-bitcoin-tax/

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Bitcoin Soda Machine: Make your soda machine take Bitcoins today.

“The Bitcoin Soda Machine is a device like a coin or dollar bill validator in a vending machine but it takes Bitcoins instead of dollar bills or coins. We intend to produce a device that is plug & play with most soda machines, vending machines, slot machines, and arcade games using a 120v AC coin/dollar bill validation system. We are currently in the process of making a plug & play system for 24v DC machines. If there is a coinco change validator in your machine our device will plug in and work right out of the box.  The QR code on the screen is dynamic and includes the bitcoin address and the current price. All the user has to do is scan it with the bitcoin app and hit send.”

http://bitcoinsodamachine.com/

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