“Andreas giving a talk on Bitcoin at the Maker Faire in Detroit, July 26 2014.”
“Unlike with bitcoin—which keeps its currency scarce by rewarding it only to those who participate in what amounts to a race to solve complex cryptographic puzzles—anyone will be able to create a new Document Coin anytime they want. The value of each coin will be completely subjective, depending on who creates the coin and why. ‘For example, the coin my disco singer friend created and gave me at my barbeque might be what gets me past the rope at the club,’ Anderson says. A coin minted by tech pundit Tim O’Reilly might be highly prized in Silicon Valley circles, but of little interest to musicians. ‘It’s a bit like a combination of a social network with baseball trading.'”
http://www.wired.com/2014/07/document-coin/
“Stellar, the long-secret digital currency project helmed by industry entrepreneur Jed McCaleb, has officially launched. McCaleb is the original founder of defunct Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox and a co-founder of digital currency-focused payment network Ripple Labs. The new platform is a decentralized gateway for digital currency to fiat currency transfers. Like Ripple and bitcoin, Stellar will act as a public transaction authenticator and feature its own in-house digital currency called ‘stellar’. The launch of Stellar cuts McCaleb’s remaining ties with the Ripple project. In May, McCaleb announced his intention to sell his holdings of XRP, the native currency of the network.”
http://www.coindesk.com/mt-gox-ripple-founder-jed-mccaleb-unveils-project-stellar/
“The founders of this effort, Nikhil Chand and his wife, Rebecca, greeted us in the driveway of their vintage 1920s home. As we strolled through their neighborhood toward our dinner spot, we discussed how they had set up more than one dozen businesses on Lee Road (aka Bitcoin Boulevard) to accept bitcoin through the third-party merchant processor, BitPay. If you are a food lover and interested in trying your hand at bitcoin-only travel, I would suggest you book a hotel with bitcoin on CheapAir and stay in Cleveland Heights. Every bite of every meal was simply amazing. What a fabulous ‘bitstop’ on our journey.”
https://www.yahoo.com/travel/welcome-to-bitcoin-boulevard-in-cleveland-no-cash-94439973607.html
“European banks are already cutting ties with American citizens and businesses due to the stringent compliance required by recently-passed laws such as FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act). In the IRS’s quest to suck in as much tax dollars as possible from around the world, the agency has made Americans into the pariahs of the international financial system. As the burdens the US government places on European banks grow heavier, it should be expected that more and more European banks will reduce their exposure to the United States and to the dollar, eventually leaving the US isolated. Attempting to isolate Russia, the US actually isolates itself.”
http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/35547/Ron-Paul-US-Sanctions-on-Russia-May-Sink-the-Dollar/
“We can’t just make the case for capitalism based on the fact, as indisputable as it is, that capitalism produces more stuff. Even if you convince someone of that, they are vulnerable to the first charlatan who comes along and says it’s not fair, that if we only empower politicians and bureaucracies we can improve things. The case for liberty must ultimately rest upon a deep and abiding moral dimension. It’s right because it’s what humans were made for. We’re not a fleet of homogenous robots that function best when somebody programs us. We’re at our best when we’re free to be ourselves, to be responsible for our decisions without the power to impose our mistakes at gunpoint.”
“There are many paths by which political leaders may destroy a country’s economy through hyperinflation. But those leaders who follow the standard checklist of the most common components to collapse can generally be assured that the economy will be destroyed. War (Can be one major war, or, as in today’s world, perpetual small wars); Depletion of gold reserves; Excessive Debt (Create a debt level that is beyond the ability to repay); Devaluation of currency (Print massive amounts of currency to diminish debt); Loss of control of inflation (Inflation morphs into hyperinflation—a state in which citizens actively try to rid themselves of the currency, as it is devaluating so quickly.)”
http://www.internationalman.com/articles/not-worth-a-continental
“‘If I scare you this morning, and as a result you take action, then I will have accomplished my goal.’ That’s what I told the audience at the Sprott Natural Resource Symposium. But the reality is that I didn’t need to try to scare anyone. The evidence is overwhelming and has already alarmed most investors; our greatest risk is not a bad investment but our political exposure. And yet most of these same investors do not see any need to stash bullion outside their home countries. They view international diversification as an extreme move. Many don’t even care if capital controls are instituted. I’m convinced that this is the most common—and important—strategic investment error made today.”
http://www.caseyresearch.com/cdd/the-single-most-important-strategy-most-investors-ignore
“We have a two-tier economy. We have an economy of well-to-do people from which I have benefited because I’m in the financial sector. My asset value has gone up, I benefit from rising asset prices because I own shares and I’m on the board of companies that own shares, fund management companies and so forth, but I’m not happy about the fact that the typical household and the working class worldwide is not doing well. And what will eventually happen and has begun to happen when you have rising wealth inequality, eventually you have politicians that will not assume personal responsibility for the rising wealth inequality that is largely fostered by monetary policies by central banks.”
“The presidents of Russia and Brazil have met ahead of the BRICS Summit. Vladimir Putin and Dewma WHO-sseff were present as some of the two countries’ largest corporations signed agreements to deepen the economic ties between the two. Corporate investor Jim Rogers tells RT that the BRICS members are capable of challenging the United States’ financial dominance.”