Tag Archives: Money

The morning after: When a government destroys its currency

Posted on by

“This is a familiar story that repeats across history. Despite obvious warning signs, people almost universally allow themselves to ignore reality.  It’s human nature to want to believe that everything is going to be OK. And when our political leaders whisper soothing words of hope and optimism, we take the bait.  Looking back, it was plain as day that Mexico was going to devalue the peso. Everything about the economy and currency was totally unsustainable. Deep down people knew it.  Similarly, it was plain as day that Hitler was going to decimate Poland. And people knew it.  Yet millions allowed their confidence to be misplaced in leaders who assured them that everything was OK.  Are we so different?”

http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/the-morning-after-what-happens-when-a-government-destroys-its-currency-14925/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

The Fed: Strangling the Saving Ethic and Values

Posted on by

“Around the time Nixon was pulling the plug on what remained of the gold standard, the personal savings rate in America was north of 12.5%. These days, it’s 5.4%, and that’s up from 2.2% in the boom year of 2005. The 2008 crash tightened people’s belts. However, prudence is not bursting out all over. The WSJ says the personal savings rate has increased ‘in large part because it counts reductions in personal debt, such as mortgages and credit-card balances, as savings’, but that most debt reduction has been driven by defaults, rather than paying back.  It’s clear that since the last tethers tying the dollar to gold were cut, money production has soared, and a casualty has been the savings ethic.”

http://www.caseyresearch.com/articles/the-fed-strangling-the-saving-ethic-and-values

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

The Forfeiture Curmudgeons

Posted on by

“Cash became the crime.  The government figured out that drug sales weren’t done on Visa or MasterCard, but in currency.  Evil currency. So they criminalized cash.  But that still wasn’t enough to feed the hunger of the government and starve the drug kingpins, so then the ‘instrumentalities of the crime’ was conceived. If you drove to a drug deal, the car was an instrumentality. If the drug deal happened in a house, the house was the instrumentality. And even if there was no drug deal at all, it was all an instrumentality or substituted proceeds.  Take the profit out of crime.  This became as important, if not more so, than proving the existence of a crime at all.  And it was so much easier.”

http://blog.simplejustice.us/2014/09/20/the-forfeiture-curmudgeons/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

BitPay Expands European Headquarters

Posted on by

“Last week, BitPay announced plans to move to a larger office in the Dutch capital after observing a bitcoin payment explosion in Europe of €28 million this year: a whopping 1,900 percent increase from last year’s €1.4 million.  With demand for the cryptocurrency found particularly high in the U.K., Germany, and Netherlands, BitPay hopes to acquire 30,000 merchants in Europe by the end of 2014. The company cited already had 7,000 by earlier this year.  In May, BitPay received $30 million capital infusion led by London-based Index Ventures, just a month after announcing plans to expand operations in South America and Europe.”

http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/27164/bitpay-expands-european-headquarters/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

PayPal’s Braintree Embraces Bitcoin, One-Touch Payments

Posted on by

“Nearly a year after PayPal acquired it in an all-cash $800 million deal, online and mobile payments platform Braintree is unveiling one-touch payments and is integrating Bitcoin.  They’re partnering with Y Combinator and Andreessen Horowitz-backed Coinbase to enable Bitcoin-based payments.  ‘This is PayPal making a move to embrace Bitcoin,’ Ready said, pointing out that Braintree is the go-to developer platform for PayPal.   Developers who have integrated Braintree’s software development kit will also be able to add Bitcoin to their payment methods. The integration will support instant exchanges, meaning that the merchant doesn’t have to handle Bitcoin directly.”

http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/08/paypal-braintree/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Apple Pay won’t bite into bitcoin: Winklevoss

Posted on by

“Apple’s entry into mobile payments last week through Apple Pay won’t really waver use of bitcoin, investor Cameron Winklevoss told CNBC on Thursday.  ‘I don’t think they compete. I think Apple Pay is a closed system. You know, bitcoin is inherently open sourced, decentralized,’ Winklevoss said on ‘Squawk Alley,’ where he promoted his investment in Authy, a two-factor authentication app.  Bitcoin is a digital currency, not backed by any government or central bank, that fluctuates in value according to its users’ demand. Users can transfer bitcoins to each other online, store the currency in digital ‘wallets’ and pay for goods at select retailers.”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102013358

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Walmart Rejects Apple Pay For Rival Payments Service

Posted on by

“Instead, the country’s largest retail chain will throw its considerable clout behind a service under development by Merchant Customer Exchange, which is owned by Walmart itself and several other retailers, including 7-Eleven, Best Buy, Darden Restaurants, Shell Oil and Target.  MCE’s CurrentC Network is expected to debut in more than 100,000 retail locations in 2015. It lets consumers pay for goods with an Android or iOS app.  Merchants on board with Apple Pay, meanwhile, include Bloomingdales, McDonald’s, Staples, Disney and Macy’s.  Competing mobile payment networks could put consumers and businesses in the unwieldy position of having to deal with incompatible standards.”

http://www.ibtimes.com/walmart-rejects-apple-pay-rival-payments-service-1687016

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

PayPal Takes Potshot at Apple Pay, Mentioning iCloud Breach in New Ad

Posted on by

“eBay Inc. appears to be warily eyeing Apple Pay, the new iOS-tied NFC payment system which Apple, Inc. is preparing to launch for the iPhone, and (the upcoming) Apple Watch.  As PayPal steps up its own NFC payments campaign (using its Android app), Apple is perhaps the biggest obstacle given its propensity for closed, tightly integrated services.  But PayPal isn’t going quietly.  It took out a full-page ad in The New York Times, in which it proclaims: ‘We the people want our money safer than our selfies; PayPal, protecting the people economy.'”

http://www.dailytech.com/Paypal+Takes+Potshot+at+Apple+Pay+Mentioning+iCloud+Breach+in+New+Ad/article36555.htm

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Alibaba’s Alipay And PayPal Will, And Should, Destroy Physical Banks

Posted on by

“Who needs banks? I’m not questioning the basis of our financial system—I’m talking about  physical (high cost, low service) bank branches.  Someone will truly digitize the entire experience—and when they do, the product will look a lot like China’s Alipay. Controlled by Jack Ma  and other Alibaba executives, the PayPal-like company processed $519 billion worth of digital payments in 2013 (Paypal processed $180 billion). Alipay offers a lot more than easy e-commerce payments.  Alibaba’s payment platform is morphing into all-in-one banking tool:  a savings bank, wire service and investment house. Most importantly, it’s all done via mobile device.”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2014/05/08/why-alibabas-alipay-and-paypal-will-and-should-destroy-physical-banks/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

China’s Largest Bank Declares War on Alibaba

Posted on by

“ICBC informed customers that it was cutting back resources needed to process such transfers.  Alipay said the restrictions were imposed by ICBC and referred customers to the bank’s service hotline. It also suggested customers try using a different bank account for Alipay.  The move follows on the heels of similar moves in recent months, with all four state-run banks imposing new monthly limits on the amount of money customers can transfer to mobile payment products like Alipay. In response to such moves, Alibaba founder Jack Ma has come out swinging. ‘What determines success in the market shouldn’t be the monopolies and those with power, but the consumers,’ he said.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/03/26/chinas-largest-bank-declares-war-on-alibaba/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet