“Everyone understands the basic need for fixed weights and measures in daily life: the amount of liquid in a gallon, the number of ounces in a pound, the number of minutes in an hour. None of these amounts fluctuate; they are unchanging,” writes Steve Forbes. Here’s his latest Fact & Comment on the greenback. The dollar. Markets are finally waking up to the implications of the weak dollar, which has been declining for months. The greenback’s slide has been nowhere as bad as it was in the early 2000s, but the trend isn’t good. Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin let the cat out of the bag a … [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.
Paul Singer Epically Savages Bitcoin
You can count hedge fund manager Paul Singer as among the bitcoin skeptics. He recently savaged bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a form of investment saying: “When the history is written, cryptocurrencies will likely be described as one of the most brilliant scams in history....It is not just a fraud. It is perhaps the outer limit, the ultimate expression, of the ability of humans to seize upon ether and hope to ride it to the stars....But is it not glorious that when the equivalent of nothing attracts priests and parishioners who run up the price, the very willingness of the mob to buy it … [Read more...]
CNBC Blows the Whistle on Blockchain Abuse
When Bioptix Inc. changed its name to Riot Blockchain Inc., investors flooded in to the company they thought was working on blockchain technologies. CNBC says the change may have been made simply to enrich Bioptix's founders. Bloomberg reports: The shares had more than quadrupled to as high as $46.20 after the company changed its name from Bioptix Inc. in October and said it would focus on cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. But the euphoria didn’t last long and the stock has lost more than half of its value since Bitcoin’s Dec. 18 peak, on concern the company isn’t doing much more than … [Read more...]
Bitcoin: Bubble, Ponzi Scheme, and Environmental Disaster
Bitcoin is a “combination of a bubble, a Ponzi scheme and an environmental disaster,” a top central-banking official recently cautioned, referring to the large amount of electricity needed to create bitcoin. You don’t have to tell that to the residents in Wenatchee, Washington, where a bitcoin invasion is under way. Why? Because the electricity is cheap. “Home to hydroelectric dams that harness the flow of the Columbia River, north central Washington has some of the cheapest power in the U.S. That has made the largely rural area best known for its apple orchards a magnet for bitcoin … [Read more...]
Bitcoin is Interesting, But It’s Not the Next Gold
Last year the word bitcoin became part of the everyday lexicon in America, and many parts of the world. The phenomenon "investment," was being traded by grandmas and kids. Coverage of bitcoin's rises and falls has been on TV every day for months now. If there was ever a classic bubble, this was it. Olga Kharif reports at Bloomberg: Bitcoin tumbled for a fifth day, dropping below $7,000 for the first time since November and leading other digital tokens lower, as a backlash by banks and government regulators against the speculative frenzy that drove cryptocurrencies to dizzying heights last … [Read more...]
Bitcoin Down 70% from High
A central bank official quoted by the Wall Street Journal's Steven Russolillo and Andrew Jeong referred to bitcoin as the combination of a bubble, a Ponzi scheme, and an environmental disaster. That trifecta is only a symptom of the frenzied buying of bitcoin in recent months, followed by the somewhat predictable sell-off. Central banks are likely to cut short any attempt to make bitcoin great again. The WSJ writes: “If authorities do not act preemptively, cryptocurrencies could become more interconnected with the main financial system and become a threat to financial stability,” said … [Read more...]
Bitcoin Plunge
The price of bitcoin is plunging as regulators begin to recognize the real threat alternative currencies pose to their fiat currencies and begin to fire back with restrictions. Between new regulatory scrutiny, and the threat of hacking, bitcoin investors are beginning to find better places for their money elsewhere. The neck-snapping volatility of bitcoin prices must be shocking to some of the late investors who bought when prices were heading up by 20% a day. Steven Russolillo and Kenan Machado report: The digital currency has now fallen by nearly 60% from a record high of close to $20,000 … [Read more...]
Gold Strong on Dollar Fears
With dollar weakness spurred on by comments from Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin at the World Economic Forum in Davos that suggested the Trump administration might be targeting a weaker currency, gold prices are strengthening. While the tax reforms passed by the Trump administration have certainly buoyed optimism about the American economy, that optimism also comes with some expectation that inflation may tick up. Gold is a hedge against inflation, and a weakening currency. It's no surprise investors are taking interest once again in the precious metals market. Amrith Ramkumar … [Read more...]
How Much Bitcoin Has Been Stolen?
Apparently hacking crypto currencies is a $200 million annual revenue industry. That's according to Lex Sokolin, who was asked by Bloomberg's Olga Kharif. Kharif writes that in less than a decade, $1.2 billion worth of bitcoin and ether have been stolen from their legitimate owners. She continues: All told, hacks involving cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have cost companies and governments $11.3 billion through lost potential tax revenue from coin sales and illegitimate transactions, according to Susan Eustis, chief executive officer of WinterGreen Research. The blockchain ecosystem -- … [Read more...]
How Will Americans Pay Tax on Their Crypto-Currencies?
As I explain in my four part series on bitcoin (read parts one, two, three, and four), I'm a skeptic of crypto-currency trading and I don't own any crypto-currencies. I believe, much like Warren Buffett told CNBC on Wednesday, that the crypto-craze won't end well. The IRS has given some guidance on how to account for sales of crypto-currencies, but keeping track of all sales may be hard. Brian Fung explains in The Washington Post: The most recent IRS guidance on the matter is from 2014, when it said taxpayers should treat their virtual currency like property. Under that rule, taxpayers … [Read more...]
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