Tag Archives: Money

Are You Making This Financial “Mistake”?

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“Not many people give much thought to the financial standing of the banks to which they entrust money. That’s a mistake. When you deposit money in a bank, you become an unsecured creditor holding an IOU. That IOU is only as good as the financial standing of the bank.  In return for assuming this risk, what do you get? The highest interest account I have in the US pays me a whopping 0.46% annually.  That reassuring FDIC logo on your bank’s front door masks the fact that the FDIC Insurance Fund has a reserve ratio of 0.79%. For every $100 on deposit, the FDIC has only 79 cents to back it with.  The new global model is the ‘bail-in,’ first seen during the Cyprus banking crisis that began in 2013.”

http://www.nestmann.com/are-you-making-this-financial-mistake

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The IMF, the SDR, and the Dollar: One Big Happy

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“Lyndon Johnson was fighting two wars, both of which America lost: the war in Vietnam and the war on poverty. He lowered marginal income tax rates in 1964 to 70% from 99%. He refused to raise taxes. The phrase was popular: ‘guns and butter.’ By 1969, there was price inflation. There was also a run on the federal government’s gold supply, because foreign governments demanded payment, which they could do under Bretton Woods. France was the main ‘culprit.’ The U.S. Treasury was experiencing a classic bank run.  Here was what the International Monetary Fund did, according to Wikipedia. It created a new fiat non-currency, the SDR.”

http://www.garynorth.com/public/12781.cfm

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Continued EU Weakness Gives Rise to Two Inflationary Trends

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“China – the BRICS – and the US are printing endless gouts of money, and now it appears as if the European Union is headed in the same direction. According to economists, the ECB could cut interest rates even further while embarking on a campaign of asset-backed purchases that might include a ‘fullblown’ QE. What’s the timing of something like this? According to the article, ‘the market is clearly expecting a large-scale asset purchase programme, maybe not at the next meeting but by the end of the year.’ It would seem that even as the US is scaling back such programs, Europeans may be exposed to an aggressive variant of the same strategy.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/35594/Continued-EU-Weakness-Gives-Rise-to-Two-Inflationary-Trends/

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Gold: No Longer a Safe-Haven Asset?

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“Russia, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Serbia, Greece, and Ecuador all reported higher gold reserves for June. Contrary to mainstream expectations, almost no central bank liquidated their gold holdings—just the opposite, in fact.  Take a look at the recent buying habits of central banks:  In the first quarter of this year, central banks bought 122.4 tonnes (3.9 million ounces), a pace that that puts them on track to surpass the record 2013 purchases of 409 tonnes (13.1 million ounces). In dollar terms, central banks invested $22.2 billion in gold from January 2013 through March 2014. And this excludes all Chinese data.”

http://www.hardassetsalliance.com/investing-news/newsletter/gold-no-longer-a-safe-haven-asset

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Swiss Parliament Rejects Gold Standard Initiative Pending Popular Vote

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“Swiss parliamentarians urged rejection of a popular initiative that would curtail the Swiss National Bank (SNBN)’s independence by requiring it to hold a fixed portion of its assets in gold.  Members of the Swiss parliament’s lower house voted 129 to 20 with 25 abstentions today against the plan, which demands that at least 20 percent of the central bank’s assets be in gold. It would also disallow the sale of any such holdings and require all SNB gold be held in Switzerland.  No date for a national vote has yet been set. Parliament and the multi-party government issue recommendations on all national referendums as a matter of procedure.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-05/swiss-parliament-recommends-rejection-of-initiative-on-snb-gold.html

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Uncle Sam, the Bitcoin Mogul

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“The US federal government may be ladling on more regulations to Bitcoin and making disparaging comments about the cyber-currency, but it’s one of the largest holders of the virtual money in the world.  The federal government has trashed Bitcoin by way of an investor alert from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority entitled ‘Bitcoin: More than a Bit Risky.’ FINRA said it issued the alert to caution investors that buying and using digital currency, such as Bitcoin, carries risks. The government still holds 110,000 bitcoins, worth $55 million at today’s price.  The US government is the second largest single holder of this unregulated, potentially ‘worthless’ digital currency.”

http://www.caseyresearch.com/articles/uncle-sam-the-bitcoin-mogul

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Sending Money Home: Technology or Bureaucracy?

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“Some of the world’s poorest people depend on the money they receive from relatives working in developed countries. In fact, this money dwarfs the world’s official foreign aid budget, and the gap is increasing.  In 2011, total private flows of aid totaled $680 billion—almost five times the $138 billion official figure.  This increase in private aid is great news for all concerned.  Except, perhaps, for bureaucrats, who are loath to let good deeds go unpunished. World Bank and United Nations bean counters are denouncing remittance transfer fees as exploitative. The U.S. C.F.P.B. has issued a rule to crack down on supposed fraud and exploitation affecting the existing remittance-transfer infrastructure.”

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/sending-money-home-technology-or-bureaucracy

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When the highway robber wears a badge

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“The victim that September day in 2013 wasn’t a bank. It was Tan Nguyen, a California man traveling on Interstate 80 near Winnemucca, about 165 miles northeast of Reno. He was pulled over by a Humboldt County sheriff’s deputy for doing 78 mph in a 75 zone. The deputy thought Mr. Nguyen ‘looked nervous’ and insisted on searching the vehicle, eventually finding a briefcase that contained $50,000 in cash.  So he took it.  Mr. Nguyen was never charged with any crime. Nothing illegal was found in the vehicle. Mr. Nguyen didn’t even receive a speeding ticket.  The following day, the sheriff’s office issued a news release trumpeting the windfall.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/15/kerrwhen-the-highway-robber-wears-a-badge/

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Russia launches China UnionPay credit card

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“Forget Visa and MasterCard. After the two American credit system payment companies froze accounts without notice in March, Russia has been looking for an alternative in China UnionPay.  China UnionPay plans to have 2 million cards in Russia in the next three years.  Instead of seeing the small Visa and MasterCard logo on credits cards, ATMs, and retail outlets, Russians will start to see the three words ‘China. Union. Pay.’  China UnionPay first emerged in 2002 on the domestic Chinese market as an alternative to Visa and MasterCard, but quickly expanded internationally, and now is already number one in terms of quantity of cards in the world.”

http://rt.com/business/180696-china-russia-union-pay/

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‘How China’s official bank card is used to smuggle money’

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“Growing numbers of Chinese are using the country’s state-backed bankcards to illegally spirit billions of dollars abroad, a Reuters examination has found.  This underground money is flowing across the border into the gambling hub of Macau, a former Portuguese colony that like Hong Kong is an autonomous region of China. And the conduit for the cash is the Chinese government-supported payment card network, China UnionPay.  Hundreds of neon-lit jewellery, watch and pawn shops are doing a brisk business giving mainland Chinese customers cash by allowing them to use UnionPay cards to make fake purchases – a way of evading China’s strict currency-export controls.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/12/us-china-unionpay-special-report-idUSBREA2B00820140312

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