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Only eat organic... Gluten free if available.
MEET and PERI both are bouncing off of recent lows...
Tax loss selling might be over for these two.
UBS Is Using Ethereum Technology To Soften The Impact Of MiFid II
( There are many real world applications being developed using the blockchain technology. Banking is just one area. )
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-11/ubs-using-blockchain-soften-impact-mifid-ii
In case you missed it...
This is the best 7 minutes this week !
Litecoin is up 90% in last 24 hours.
Crypto stuff is flying ! The modest position that I took in Litecoin less than 3 weeks ago is up over 3 X and is starting to look like real money !
See Coinbase.com and GDAX.
The market is moving too fast for me to trade so I am still sitting on the original position. There are no fees to trade unless you put in a market order. Given the insane rise I'm confident that traders can't possibly come out ahead. Litecoin is up 92% in the last 24 hours.
It's not likely that the banks will allow crypto currencies to make an end run around their fiat system or that the IRS will let this go without taking their piece of it. It's also not likely that crypto currencies will just fade into the sunset so expect lots of regulation that will be put in place all for our protection.
Congress will receive sufficient money from the bank lobbyists to assure that laws are passed so that it will be legal to allow the banks to sell junk crypto products with high fees. The legislation will provide exemption for congress.
The IRS will justify their cut so that a new IRS crypto division can be funded. The guise will be consumer protection.
Crypto stuff is flying ! The modest position that I took in Litecoin less than 3 weeks ago is up over 3 X and is starting to look like real money !
See Coinbase.com and GDAX.
The market is moving too fast for me to trade so I am still sitting on the original position. There are no fees to trade unless you put in a market order. Given the insane rise I'm confident that traders can't possibly come out ahead. Litecoin is up 92% in the last 24 hours.
It's not likely that the banks will allow crypto currencies to make an end run around their fiat system or that the IRS will let this go without taking their piece of it. It's also not likely that crypto currencies will just fade into the sunset so expect lots of regulation that will be put in place all for our protection.
Congress will receive sufficient money from the bank lobbyists to assure that laws are passed so that it will be legal to allow the banks to sell junk crypto products with high fees. The legislation will provide exemption for congress.
The IRS will justify their cut so that a new IRS crypto division can be funded. The guise will be consumer protection.
Record-setting December snow falls on Alabama
This snowstorm certainly surpassed expectations.
Areas across Alabama were blanketed with snow on Friday, with totals reaching the double digits in some areas.
As of Friday night some of the highest totals came from Randolph and Calhoun counties in east Alabama.
I read my reply again and it does seem like I asked you to provide a link....
That's not what I meant. The meaning was that the information is at the link that you had already referenced ( provided ) in your post.
An 8% unemployment rate is too high but it Looks like a good trend over the past 12 months.
Down from 9.3%. This number will improve even further when drug testing is required to receive food stamps. Some states have seen a massive 90% drop in food stamp use after enacting a required drug test. Many people will decide to get a job.
9.3
8.6
8.6
8.3
7.9
8.0
Reference your link.
New CME Bitcoin Futures And The Goldman Sachs Connection
( This all sounds so familiar. )
Embedded into Bincoin’s genesis block by Satoshi Nakamoto on January 3, 2009, the day Bitcoin went live, was a message which is now well-known throughout the Bitcoin community. This message, taken from The Times newspaper of that day, read “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”.
While there is ongoing debate as to its significance, the message was arguably a commentary on Satoshi’s less than favorable regard for the parasitic, unstable and inflationary nature of the contemporary banking system, as well as a statement on Bitcoin being able to provide a more equitable transfer system by cutting financial institutions out of the equation.
We can therefore conclude that the Bitcoin creator does not have a high opinion of banks in general, which probably also explains why Satoshi created Bitcoin in the first place, and why Satoshi’s white paper about Bitcoin was first published on a cypherpunks mailing list, and not, for example, within the pages of a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) research report.
Which is why it would be intriguing at this time to know what Satoshi thinks of the imminent launch of (US dollar cash-settled) Bitcoin futures by the CME Group. But even more interestingly, it would be intriguing to know what Satoshi would think of the fact that the settlement prices of these new CME Bitcoin futures are based on calculations by a private London-based company whose founder and sole director is from Goldman Sachs.
As a reminder, this is the same Goldman Sachs which Matt Taibbi described as follows, coincidentally also in 2009:
"The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."
This is also the same Goldman Sachs, whose alumni currently occupy positions in the most powerful financial positions in the world, positions such as US Secretary of the Treasury (Steven Mnuchin), President of the European Central Bank (Mario Draghi), Governor of the Bank of England (Mark Carney), and President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Bill Dudley).
The Fix is In: CME Bitcoin Futures
One key feature that stands out when glancing at the contract specs of these soon to be launched CME Bitcoin futures contracts is that they will be cash-settled based on a “CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR)”
A recent CME press release elaborates:
“CME Group's Bitcoin futures will be cash-settled, based on the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) which serves as a once-a-day reference rate of the U.S. dollar price of bitcoin.
Since November 2016, CME Group and Crypto Facilities Ltd. have calculated and published the BRR, which aggregates the trade flow of major bitcoin spot exchanges during a calculation window into the U.S. Dollar price of one bitcoin as of 4:00 p.m. London time.
The BRR is designed around the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks.
Bitstamp, GDAX, itBit and Kraken are the constituent exchanges that currently contribute the pricing data for calculating the BRR.”
A reference rate / benchmark calculated in the City of London that is used as a basis for the settlement of multi-billion dollar financial contracts. Wait, where have we heard that before?
The CME web site also helpfully hosts a methodology document for this Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR), but which strangely has very little mention of CME, and a lot of citations to Crypto Facilities Ltd.
The document is even titled "Crypto Facilities - Digital Assets Unleashed" (dated March 6, 2017) and also copyrighted by Crypto Facilities Ltd. “© 2015 - 2017 CRYPTO FACILITIES LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PATENT PENDING.”
In this methodology document, both the Administrator and Calculation Agent of the BRR are exclusively listed as "Crypto Facilities Ltd", based at an address in the City of London:
Contact Details: Crypto Facilities Ltd 4th Floor 25 Copthall Avenue London EC2R 7BP
Web: https://www.cryptofacilities.com Phone: +44 20 7655 6085 Email: contact@cryptofacilities.com
So who or what is “Crypto facilities Ltd”? Looking at the UK Companies registration web site (Companies House), reveals that 'Crypto Facilities Ltd' was incorporated on 12 August 2014 as a private limited company in the UK.
According to Companies House, 'Crypto Facilities Ltd' only has one director, a certain Timo Schlaefer.
Who is this Timo Schlaefer? According to LinkedIn, Timo Schlaefer was with the Vampire Squid Goldman Sachs between 2011 to 2015. Strangely though, the header of Schlaefer's LinkedIn profile still says “Goldman Sachs”.
LinkedIn screenshot https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timoschlaefer/en
Then there is a Bitcoin Magazine article about Schlaefer dated February 2015 which describes him as “Executive Director in Credit Quantitative Modelling at Goldman Sachs.”
In summary, here we have a new Bitcoin futures contract, a derivative on the global phenomenon that is Bitcoin, whose settlement price is based on a reference rate calculated in London by an unknown company whose sole director is from Goldman Sachs.
But there is nothing to worry about, because CME also confirms that there is an Oversight Committee for this Bitcoin Reference Rate calculation. This committee has the impressive title of the “Bitcoin Pricing Products Oversight Committee”, and the Committee:
“has been established jointly by Crypto Facilities Ltd. (“CF”) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (“CME”).
The initial members of the Oversight Committee and its Chairman shall be appointed jointly by CF and CME”
While we will leave you to ponder what all of this means, its difficult to imagine that US dollar cash-settled CME Bitcoin Futures were on Satoshi’s radar when he typed “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” into his computer on January 3, 2009, hitting the enter key and kicking off Bitcoin’s genesis block and the creation of a new global system for disintermediating banks and sparking the emergence of an entire new universe of crypto currencies and blockchain platforms.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-09/new-cme-bitcoin-futures-and-goldman-sachs-connection
New CME Bitcoin Futures And The Goldman Sachs Connection
( This all sounds so familiar. )
Embedded into Bincoin’s genesis block by Satoshi Nakamoto on January 3, 2009, the day Bitcoin went live, was a message which is now well-known throughout the Bitcoin community. This message, taken from The Times newspaper of that day, read “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”.
While there is ongoing debate as to its significance, the message was arguably a commentary on Satoshi’s less than favorable regard for the parasitic, unstable and inflationary nature of the contemporary banking system, as well as a statement on Bitcoin being able to provide a more equitable transfer system by cutting financial institutions out of the equation.
We can therefore conclude that the Bitcoin creator does not have a high opinion of banks in general, which probably also explains why Satoshi created Bitcoin in the first place, and why Satoshi’s white paper about Bitcoin was first published on a cypherpunks mailing list, and not, for example, within the pages of a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) research report.
Which is why it would be intriguing at this time to know what Satoshi thinks of the imminent launch of (US dollar cash-settled) Bitcoin futures by the CME Group. But even more interestingly, it would be intriguing to know what Satoshi would think of the fact that the settlement prices of these new CME Bitcoin futures are based on calculations by a private London-based company whose founder and sole director is from Goldman Sachs.
As a reminder, this is the same Goldman Sachs which Matt Taibbi described as follows, coincidentally also in 2009:
"The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."
This is also the same Goldman Sachs, whose alumni currently occupy positions in the most powerful financial positions in the world, positions such as US Secretary of the Treasury (Steven Mnuchin), President of the European Central Bank (Mario Draghi), Governor of the Bank of England (Mark Carney), and President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Bill Dudley).
The Fix is In: CME Bitcoin Futures
One key feature that stands out when glancing at the contract specs of these soon to be launched CME Bitcoin futures contracts is that they will be cash-settled based on a “CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR)”
A recent CME press release elaborates:
“CME Group's Bitcoin futures will be cash-settled, based on the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) which serves as a once-a-day reference rate of the U.S. dollar price of bitcoin.
Since November 2016, CME Group and Crypto Facilities Ltd. have calculated and published the BRR, which aggregates the trade flow of major bitcoin spot exchanges during a calculation window into the U.S. Dollar price of one bitcoin as of 4:00 p.m. London time.
The BRR is designed around the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks.
Bitstamp, GDAX, itBit and Kraken are the constituent exchanges that currently contribute the pricing data for calculating the BRR.”
A reference rate / benchmark calculated in the City of London that is used as a basis for the settlement of multi-billion dollar financial contracts. Wait, where have we heard that before?
The CME web site also helpfully hosts a methodology document for this Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR), but which strangely has very little mention of CME, and a lot of citations to Crypto Facilities Ltd.
The document is even titled "Crypto Facilities - Digital Assets Unleashed" (dated March 6, 2017) and also copyrighted by Crypto Facilities Ltd. “© 2015 - 2017 CRYPTO FACILITIES LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PATENT PENDING.”
In this methodology document, both the Administrator and Calculation Agent of the BRR are exclusively listed as "Crypto Facilities Ltd", based at an address in the City of London:
Contact Details: Crypto Facilities Ltd 4th Floor 25 Copthall Avenue London EC2R 7BP
Web: https://www.cryptofacilities.com Phone: +44 20 7655 6085 Email: contact@cryptofacilities.com
So who or what is “Crypto facilities Ltd”? Looking at the UK Companies registration web site (Companies House), reveals that 'Crypto Facilities Ltd' was incorporated on 12 August 2014 as a private limited company in the UK.
According to Companies House, 'Crypto Facilities Ltd' only has one director, a certain Timo Schlaefer.
Who is this Timo Schlaefer? According to LinkedIn, Timo Schlaefer was with the Vampire Squid Goldman Sachs between 2011 to 2015. Strangely though, the header of Schlaefer's LinkedIn profile still says “Goldman Sachs”.
LinkedIn screenshot https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timoschlaefer/en
Then there is a Bitcoin Magazine article about Schlaefer dated February 2015 which describes him as “Executive Director in Credit Quantitative Modelling at Goldman Sachs.”
In summary, here we have a new Bitcoin futures contract, a derivative on the global phenomenon that is Bitcoin, whose settlement price is based on a reference rate calculated in London by an unknown company whose sole director is from Goldman Sachs.
But there is nothing to worry about, because CME also confirms that there is an Oversight Committee for this Bitcoin Reference Rate calculation. This committee has the impressive title of the “Bitcoin Pricing Products Oversight Committee”, and the Committee:
“has been established jointly by Crypto Facilities Ltd. (“CF”) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (“CME”).
The initial members of the Oversight Committee and its Chairman shall be appointed jointly by CF and CME”
While we will leave you to ponder what all of this means, its difficult to imagine that US dollar cash-settled CME Bitcoin Futures were on Satoshi’s radar when he typed “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” into his computer on January 3, 2009, hitting the enter key and kicking off Bitcoin’s genesis block and the creation of a new global system for disintermediating banks and sparking the emergence of an entire new universe of crypto currencies and blockchain platforms.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-09/new-cme-bitcoin-futures-and-goldman-sachs-connection
You are completely missing the point...
If China is doing such a great job why are they the world's largest polluter ???
"at least there is something to recycle ". You seem to think that because there is a way to recycle these hazardous metals that we should use them... That's crazy!
Nature recycles fossil fuels.
Yes, the power grid can use some upgrading but that has near zero impact on line losses when electricity is transported over long distances. The grid problems are related to aging infrastructures and issues with load management. The losses due to power transportation are almost entirely related to wire size and distance that results in losses. The losses have to be overcome with higher energy input at the beginning. Adding all those batteries that require charging will result in higher polution... Not less.
The liberals keep peddling the same story that we need to make solar panels, make batteries and use that for transportation. They never explain the full concept... All we hear is that there is no pollution coming out of the car exhaust. Never mind what is required to make it all work and what to do with all the hazardous material that's left over. You can be certain that the liberals will blame the Republicans when nobody wants this crap in their back yard.
Harry Reed spent most of his career fighting to keep hazards waste out of Nevada.
Please do a google on this stuff and provide some facts. The no exhaust pipe talking point doesn't provide any information.
I have 30 years as a mechanical design engineer designing large GE gas turbines that are sold to the electric utility industry for electric power generation. So if you would like to get into this stuff a little deeper just let me know.
I don't have a problem with batteries and solar panels as long as all the liberals take the responsibility for the contaminated environment that all the nonferrous and heavy metals will cause. What are you going to do with all that crap when it can't be recycled any more? Not to mention that it cost more to transport all that electricity for many miles in order to charge all those batteries. It creates less pollution to burn your fossil fuel at the source where you need it rather than pay for all the losses to transport the electricity. You guys never seem to be able to grasp what happens next as a result of your actions.
Bitcoin almost hit 20,000
I'm sure Ayock wouldn't be posting fake news...
Maybe he'll provide the link to the reverent tax changes that support this.
That's interesting, I was not aware of that.
Would you please show us the actual text in the proposed tax change that eliminates deducting all the business expenses you referenced? Thanks.
Say it ain't so !
From The Archives: Obama Administration Confirms "No Problem" With Flynn Contacting Foreign Officials
Watch the short video at the end of this article...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-02/archives-obama-administration-confirms-no-problem-flynn-contacting-foreign-officials
After learning about the ABC news retraction she must be on her way to the nearest emergency room. Are these people really part of the human race ????
ABC Makes "Epic Mistake", Retracts Bombshell Flynn Story
( Just more fake news. )
During a live Special Report, ABC News reported that a confidant of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said Flynn was prepared to testify that then-candidate Donald Trump instructed him to contact Russian officials during the campaign.
That source later clarified that during the campaign, Trump assigned Flynn and a small circle of other senior advisers to find ways to repair relations with Russia and other hot spots.
It was shortly after the election, that President-elect Trump directed Flynn to contact Russian officials on topics that included working jointly against ISIS.
So to clarify - just as President Trump had stated, there was no contact with Russians during his time as a candidate but in fact it was in transition as he attempted to mend broken bridges with another world super-power in his role as president-elect - this in no way a criminal act at all. In fact, reaching out to foreign governments during transitions is standard procedure.
The original tweet published by ABC News containing Ross' initial report had been retweeted more than 25,000 times and embedded in various news stories online before it was deleted.
But the clarification - issued at 7:53pmET - has just 2600 RTs...
More...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-01/abc-makes-epic-mistake-retracts-bombshell-flynn-story
Tom Steyer... the guy spending millions running TV ads asking people to sign a petition to impeach Trump has a new twist to his appeal....
Now he is telling us that the deficit will blow up and hurt the middle class.
Where has this imbecile been for the past 8 years ???? Typical liberal.
Tom Steyer... the guy spending millions running TV ads asking people to sign a petition to impeach Trump has a new twist to his appeal....
Now he is telling us that the deficit will blow up and hurt the middle class.
Where has this imbecile been for the past 8 years ???? Typical liberal.
EVOL Thanks for the reminder. I put some in my son's account.
Sounds like the CME is making sure that they stay between the investors/speculators and the real bitcoin market.
I opened an account at GDAX.com which can also be done at Coinbase.com and did a wire transfer to fund the account. I can trade Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum. I currently have a long position in Litecoin.
You can buy and sell without paying any commission fees although a market order will incur a fee. This exchange does not allow short positions. Market data is available without opening an account.
BTW... There are no market makers... This is a pure market where buyers and sellers meet. Certainly if someone can find a way to game the system they will but it won't be a market maker. The real order book is shown in real time with the order depth displayed.
We all know there is never a free lunch ( unless you're a democrat ) so the price you pay for commission free trading is probably the risk associated by dealing with a smaller exchange. I didn't look it up but my son says that GDAX has a very large part of the market in cryptocurrencies and is about the 5th largest. One thing you can be certain about... If you have an account at the CME they will get part of your money !
Anyway... I just opened the account yesterday and my position is already up 9.5%
https://www.gdax.com
Rocket launch will prove Earth is flat
California man says
( I'm looking forward to the update on this later Saturday )
A California man intends to launch himself 1,800 feet high on Saturday in a home-built rocket to prove that astronauts faked the shape of the Earth.
Mike Hughes, a 61-year-old limo driver, said his stunt will be the first phase of the flat-Earth space program, sponsored by Research Flat Earth, a group that believes Earth is, well, flat.
More...
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/11/23/rocket-launch-will-prove-earth-is-flat-california-man-says.html
It's entertaining how a $20 Trillion deficit was acceptable during a democratic presidential term and all of a sudden is no longer good for the economy.
FBI Informant Has Video Of Russian Agents With Briefcases Of Bribe Money In Clinton-Uranium Scandal
An undercover FBI informant in the Russian nuclear industry who was made to sign an “illegal NDA” by former AG Loretta Lynch, claims to have video evidence showing Russian agents with briefcases full of bribe money related to the controversial Uranium One deal – according to The Hill investigative journalist John Solomon and Circa‘s Sara Carter.
The informant, whose identity was revealed by Reuters as William D. Campbell, will testify before congress next week after the NDA which carried the threat of prison time was lifted. Campbell, originally misidentifed by Reuters as a lobbyist is actually a nuclear industry consultant who is currently battling cancer.
As previously reported, Campbell was deeply embedded in the Russian nuclear industry where he gathered extensive evidence of a racketeering scheme involving bribes and kickbacks.
“The Russians were compromising American contractors in the nuclear industry with kickbacks and extortion threats, all of which raised legitimate national security concerns. And none of that evidence got aired before the Obama administration made those decisions,” a person who worked on the case told The Hill, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by U.S. or Russian officials. –The Hill
Campbell’s attorney, former Regan Justice Department official Victoria Toensing, previously told Fox Business host Lou Dobbs “He can tell what all the Russians were talking about during the time that all these bribery payments were made.”
Sara Carter and John Solomon sat down with Fox News host Sean Hannity to discuss:
Sarah Carter: He’s very sick and he’s been battling cancer and going chemo. He is in a battle for not only his life, but in a battle against what he perceives as people within the US government that don’t want this story to come out. But there’s so much information that he is willing to share with the public to set the record straight, and believe me we’re gonna get it out there. He is going to have his say. His voice will be heard.
Hannity: He knew about the bribery, kickbacks, extortion of Putin’s agents in the US?
Sara Carter: Yes, and he will be able to lay that all out for everyone, and he will do that for Congress. John and I have been working on this for months and months and months. He came to the [Obama] DOJ with this information.
John Solomon: He is going to be an extraordinary fact witness because he gathered so much information. There are videotapes where the Russians are opening up briefcases full of cash. These are the people we then gave uranium to, that we then gave nuclear fuel contracts to.
Hannity: This is happening before they sign off on Uranium One? They knew about bribery extortion kickbacks money laundering before? They knew this was Putin and they did it anyway!
John Solomon: Yes. The Russians really thought they had played America on this one.
Watch:
Doug Casey On The Destruction Of The Dollar
“Inflation” occurs when the creation of currency outruns the creation of real wealth it can bid for... It isn’t caused by price increases; rather, it causes price increases.
Inflation is not caused by the butcher, the baker, or the auto maker, although they usually get blamed. On the contrary, by producing real wealth, they fight the effects of inflation. Inflation is the work of government alone, since government alone controls the creation of currency.
In a true free-market society, the only way a person or organization can legitimately obtain wealth is through production. “Making money” is no different from “creating wealth,” and money is nothing but a certificate of production. In our world, however, the government can create currency at trivial cost, and spend it at full value in the marketplace. If taxation is the expropriation of wealth by force, then inflation is its expropriation by fraud.
To inflate, a government needs complete control of a country’s legal money. This has the widest possible implications, since money is much more than just a medium of exchange. Money is the means by which all other material goods are valued. It represents, in an objective way, the hours of one’s life spent in acquiring it. And if enough money allows one to live life as one wishes, it represents freedom as well. It represents all the good things one hopes to have, do, and provide for others. Money is life concentrated.
As the state becomes more powerful and is expected to provide more resources to selected groups, its demand for funds escalates. Government naturally prefers to avoid imposing more taxes as people become less able (or willing) to pay them. It runs greater budget deficits, choosing to borrow what it needs. As the market becomes less able (or willing) to lend it money, it turns to inflation, selling ever greater amounts of its debt to its central bank, which pays for the debt by printing more money.
As the supply of currency rises, it loses value relative to other things, and prices rise. The process is vastly more destructive than taxation, which merely dissipates wealth. Inflation undermines and destroys the basis for valuing all goods relative to others and the basis for allocating resources intelligently. It creates the business cycle and causes the resulting misallocations and distortions in the economy.
We know the old saw “The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.” No one ever said life had to be fair, but usually there is no a priori reason why the rich must get richer. In a free-market society the sayings “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” and “A fool and his money are soon parted” might be better descriptions of reality. We do not live in a free-market society, however.
The rich and the poor do have a tendency to draw apart as a society becomes more bureaucratic, but not because of any cosmic law. It’s a consequence of any highly politicized system. Government, to paraphrase Willie Sutton, is where the money is. The bigger government becomes, the more effort the rich, and those who want to get that way, will put into making the government do things their way.
Only the rich can afford the legal counsel it takes to weave and dodge through the laws that restrict the masses.
The rich can afford the accountants to chart a path through loopholes in the tax laws. The rich have the credit to borrow and thereby profit from inflation. The rich can pay to influence how the government distorts the economy, so that the distortions are profitable to them.
The point is not that rich people are bad guys (the political hacks who cater to them are a different question). It is just that in a heavily regulated, highly taxed, and inflationary society, there’s a strong tendency for the rich to get richer at the expense of the poor, who are hurt by the same actions of the government.
Always, and without exception, the most socialistic, or centrally planned, economies have the most unequal distribution of wealth. In those societies the unprincipled become rich, and the rich stay that way, through political power. In free societies, the rich can get richer only by providing goods and services others want at a price they can afford.
As inflation gets worse, there will be a growing public outcry for government to do something, anything, about it.
People will join political action committees, lobbying groups, and political parties in hopes of gaining leverage to impose their will on the country at large, ostensibly for its own good.
Possible government “solutions” will include wage and price controls, credit controls, restrictions on changing jobs, controls on withdrawing money from bank accounts, import and export restrictions, restrictions on the use of cash to prevent tax evasion, nationalization, even martial law—almost anything is possible. None of these “solutions” addresses the root cause—state intervention in the economy. Each will just make things worse rather than better.
What these solutions all share is their political nature; in order to work they require that some people be forced to obey the orders of others.
Whether you or I or a taxi driver on the street thinks a particular solution is good or not is irrelevant. All of the problems that are just beginning to crash down around society’s head (e.g., a bankrupt Social Security system, federally protected banks that are bankrupt, a monetary system gone haywire) used to be solutions, and they must have seemed “good” at the time, otherwise they’d never have been adopted.
The real problem is not what is done but rather how it is done: that is, through the political process or through the free market. The difference is that between coercion and voluntarism. It’s also the difference between getting excited, frustrated, and beating your head against a wall and taking positive action to improve your own standard of living, to live life the way you like it, and, by your own example, to influence society in the direction that you’d like to see it take—but without asking the government to hold a gun to anyone’s head.
Political action can change things. Russians in the ’20s, Germans in the ’30s, Chinese in the ’40s, Cubans in the ’50s, Congolese in the ’60s, South Vietnamese and Cambodians in the ’70s, then Rhodesians, Bosnians, Rwandans, and Venezuelans today are among those who certainly discovered it can. It’s just that the changes usually aren’t very constructive.
That’s the nature of government; it doesn’t create wealth, it only allocates what others have created. More typically, it either dissipates wealth or misallocates it, because it acts in ways that are politically productive (i.e., that gratify and enhance the power of politicians) rather than economically productive (i.e., that allow individuals to satisfy their desires in the ways they prefer).
It’s irresponsible to base your own life on what hundreds of millions of other people and their rulers may or may not do. The essence of being a free person is to be causative over your own actions and destiny, not to be the effect of others. You can’t control what others will do, but you can control yourself.
If you’re counting on other people, or political solutions of some type, most likely it will make you unwary and complacent, secure in the hope that “they” know what they’re doing and you needn’t get yourself all flustered with worries about the collapse of the economy.
* * *
Really, there’s no need to get worried or flustered. But you do need to act… now. We think there’s a strong chance widespread economic collapse is just around the corner. That’s why we’ve put together a timely special report, our Guide to Surviving and Thriving During an Economic Collapse. Click here to download your free PDF copy now.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-11/doug-casey-destruction-dollar
TSLA Tesla Bonds Tumble To Record Low As Trump Tax Plan Kills EV Credits
Article aout production problems and financial pain at TSLA Includes several charts.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-11/tesla-bonds-tumble-record-low-trump-tax-plan-kills-ev-credits
Reading the LPTH "Highlights" and reading the financial details sounds like two completely different reports !
That's probably the best cartoon for 2017 !
And Bernie knew what happened and still openly supported Hillary afterwards. The perfect patsy !
"Share Consolidation (1 for 5) is a normal part of the up-list process"
That's actually not correct... The normal uplift process is for companies to improve their financial status so that investors will pay more for the stock resulting in a higher stock price.
The ABNORMAL process is for companies that don't have the required financial results to do a reverse stock split to get the price up.
Sorry, but you are wrong.
DNC: White men shouldn't apply for tech jobs
( And they wonder why they lost the election. )
White men need not apply.
That’s the message from a Democratic National Committee data services manager, currently on the hunt to filll multiple vacancies in the tech department.
The political organization, which routinely makes grand statements about inclusion, recently sent an email to its employees looking to recruit people for eight open spots including IT Systems Administrator, Product Manager and Chief Security Officer.
Though the Oct. 30 email says that the DNC is looking for a “staff of diverse voices and life experiences,” it apparently doesn’t mean white men.
DNC’s Data Service Manager Madeleine Leader purportedly wrote in an email that the desire for diversity excludes “cisgender straight white males.”
Leader adds, “I personally would prefer that you not forward to cisgender straight white males, as they are already in the majority.”
Cisgender is a term for people whose gender identity matches the sex that they were assigned to at birth.
“The email in question was not authorized by the DNC nor was it authorized by senior leadership," spokesman Michael Tyler told Fox News. "All hiring decisions at the DNC are made consistent with the DNC’s commitment to equal employment opportunity and hiring an inclusive and talented staff that reflects the coalition of the Democratic Party, because our diversity is our greatest strength.”
The Daily Wire, which first reported the incident, posted a screenshot of the email sent to DNC insiders.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/11/01/dnc-white-men-shouldnt-apply-for-tech-jobs.html
Do you think that ANYONE cares what Linda Sanchez wants to hear ????
She is part of the reason that you lost.
$10 Billion for a wall might be a bargain.
We will probably save more than that by not providing housing, meals, healthcare, education as well as many other "entitlements" that the illegals take advantage of.
I have explained this to you MANY times... How the Obama policies have destroyed the lower income part of our economy. And now you are presenting this as if there is something new here. Next we expect to hear from you how this is all Trump's fault !
Since the 2008 financial crisis, asset inflation has fully recovered, and then some. The US household net worth is 34 per cent above the peak in 2007, versus 30 per cent for nominal GDP.
The inflation of paper wealth has a serious impact on inequality. The top 1 per cent in the US owns one-third of the wealth and the top 10 per cent owns three-quarters. Half of the people don’t even own stocks. Asset inflation will increase inequality by definition. Moreover, 90 per cent of the income growth since 2008 has gone to the top 1 per cent, partly due to their ability to cash out in the inflated asset market. An economy that depends on asset inflation always disproportionately benefits the asset-rich top 1 per cent.
There have been so many theories on why inequality has risen. The misguided monetary policy may be the culprit.
Navellier recommended it today.
Thank you for your participation in helping grow the economy.
There will be MANY jobs created as a result of your spending and lavish life style. We hope that you enjoy your vacation.
This is a MUCH BETTER way to improve our economy rather than turn our hard earned money over to politicians that will spend it on pet projects that are sponsored by lobbyists.
I have already been vacationing for a long time so a tax cut will provide an additional economic boost.
Bernie Sanders has a great tax plan.
Liberals Love Trump's Tax Plan (When Told It's Bernie's)
President Donald Trump's proposal for comprehensive tax reform was almost immediately dismissed as heartless and impractical by his political opponents.
But Campus Reform wondered what would some of those opponents think if they were told the same plan was being proposed by someone they adore - Senator Bernie Sanders?
fter watching student after student express their disapproval of the plan, we then asked those same students what they thought of Senator Bernie Sanders’ new tax plan.
Immediately, they expressed excitement and support after hearing the details of the plan.
The only problem for them? There was no tax plan for Senator Sanders. The plan they loved was actually President Trump’s.
Liberals Love Trump's Tax Plan (When Told It's Bernie's)
President Donald Trump's proposal for comprehensive tax reform was almost immediately dismissed as heartless and impractical by his political opponents.
But Campus Reform wondered what would some of those opponents think if they were told the same plan was being proposed by someone they adore - Senator Bernie Sanders?
fter watching student after student express their disapproval of the plan, we then asked those same students what they thought of Senator Bernie Sanders’ new tax plan.
Immediately, they expressed excitement and support after hearing the details of the plan.
The only problem for them? There was no tax plan for Senator Sanders. The plan they loved was actually President Trump’s.