The populist backlash across the euro-area is gathering momentum. Italy is headed for elections that may give populist parties more power and there is a no-confidence vote planned in Spain. The FT reports that the Bank of Italy has warned the Italian government that it may be losing the trust of markets. The governor of the Bank of Italy has warned that the country was “a few short steps away” from losing the “asset of trust”, a rare intervention by the central bank into a political crisis that underlined the risk Rome faces as it stumbles to new elections. Ignazio Visco said any new … [Read more...]
Gold, Silver, and Currencies
Young Research & Publishing has been providing research and insights on precious metals and currency markets to institutional investors, corporate financial officers, business owners, and individual investors for over four decades. Richard C. Young started Young Research & Publishing in the 70s to publish the authoritative Young's World Money Forecast, a 50-page monthly investment report on the precious metals and currency markets. Today, our research on gold, silver, and currencies is geared toward investors in or nearing retirement who are looking to preserve and protect wealth.
Forbes: Powell’s Fed Still Believes in Funny Money
In an editorial appearing in his eponymous magazine, Steve Forbes writes that the Federal Reserve's new chairman, Jerome Powell will continue the same bad policies that have done so much harm to the American economy. Forbes lists a number of these misguided approaches, but the first is the belief in what he calls "funny money." He writes: THE FEDERAL RESERVE'S new chairman, Jerome Powell, recently presided over his first meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets central bank policy, most particularly the level of interest rates. Powell looks to continue the same destructive … [Read more...]
Emerging Markets Currencies have Worst Week Since 2016
The FT reports that last week emerging market currencies had their worst week since 2016 and they are down again this morning. The Turkish lira faced the heaviest fall on Monday, sliding 0.85 per cent on the buck, with a dollar buying 4.2624 lira. South Africa’s rand was the second biggest faller, down 0.44 per cent on the greenback, while the Philippine peso, Russian rouble and Indian rupee were each off roughly 0.4 per cent. Trading in the Argentine peso, which tumbled 6.2 per cent last week and sparked a series of three rate rises from the central bank, opens at roughly 2pm London … [Read more...]
Cryptocurrencies: The Kolion
“Mr. Shlyapnikov has launched a cryptocurrency, the kolion, named after his hamlet some 80 miles southeast of Moscow, buoyed by an initial investment of a half-million dollars from investors in Russia and abroad,” writes Thomas Grove in the WSJ. It is an example of a crypto doing what it’s supposed to do: offer a trading network where money and trust are scarce. Grove continues: “Banks don’t want to lend to small farmers,” said Mr. Shlyapnikov. “So we created our own currency.” He said he wasn’t personally profiting, and appeared to live frugally. The tactic is popular in a part of … [Read more...]
Bitcoin Diehards are HODL
"After bitcoin’s frenzied rally last year, prices have lost about two-thirds of their value from a December high. The cryptocurrency had been trading around $7,000 in recent days, although a sharp jump Thursday morning briefly lifted the price above $7,900, according to CoinDesk,” writes Steven Russolillo in the WSJ. “Nonetheless,” he continues, “in the past few months, bitcoin has faded off the front pages of newspapers and it no longer dominates people’s social-media feeds. Global internet searches for the word “bitcoin” have fallen by over 80% from December, according to Google … [Read more...]
Emergency Cash: Bitcoin or Dollars?
Originally posted on December 1, 2017. Bitcoin is being considered by some as their emergency stash. For me, when the power goes out, I prefer having dollars on hand. ATMs will be out of commission, and depending on road conditions, even if my bank is open, I’m not sure I’ll be hitting the streets to make a withdrawal. One of the many hurdles bitcoin faces is frictionless exchange. It doesn’t have the general acceptance by society yet like the dollar, and to achieve that acceptance will be a monumental task. In an emergency situation, I want to be able to have cold hard cash on hand … [Read more...]
Digital Currency Risks: Sweden Considers Cashless Society
When you consider good governance vs bad governance, Sweden typically falls into the good camp. Life is pretty good if you’re a Swede. But a recent push by central banks to adopt a cash-free-society has put many on edge. Riksbank governor, Stefan Ingves, says going cash-less is for the “collective good” of society. “Most citizens would feel uncomfortable to surrender these social functions to private companies,” he said. “It should be obvious that Sweden’s preparedness would be weakened if, in a serious crisis or war, we had not decided in advance how households and companies would pay for … [Read more...]
Ready to Pay Your Bitcoin Taxes?
After raking in some profits on bitcoin (if they were lucky enough to find a greater fool) investors are now being targeted by the IRS. Apparently few bitcoin investors seem to be paying taxes on their gains. Most of them probably thought the anonymous currency wouldn't be on the radar of the IRS. Turns out however, that the IRS has forced Coinbase, one of the largest "digital-currency wallets" to give the government its customers' information. Laura Saunders reports in The Wall Street Journal: By March 16, the IRS will have data on about 13,000 Coinbase account holders who bought, … [Read more...]
Crypto Volatility Hurts
Crypto currencies are getting hammered once again in markets this week. CNBC reports: Prices of major cryptocurrencies saw a sharp downward slide Thursday, amid closer regulatory scrutiny on the space and after Google announced plans to ban advertising related to the sector. The market capitalization or value of all the world's digital coins stood at $310.4 billion early on Thursday morning, down from $372.9 billion a day before, according to Coinmarketcap.com, which tracks prices based on different exchanges. Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap, traded as low as … [Read more...]
The Irony of Bitcoin
The FT comments today (quoted below) on an upcoming meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers on bitcoin. One of the benefits of bitcoin, according to some of its proponents, is that it is a currency not controlled by government. That is indeed a benefit, and in a perfect world, bitcoin would supplant fiat money and we would all again have a hard currency to preserve purchasing power. But perfect isn't the world we live in. The primary purpose of the Fed is to manipulate the value of the currency. Take away the government's power to print money and you also takeaway their power … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- …
- 30
- Next Page »