The Coast is Clear for Deposit Insurance
American Banker reports that the FDIC has collected nearly $6 billion too much for its insurance fund. That’s right, at year-end there was $33 billion in the fund and that’s plenty according to the deposit insurer. “It’s a watershed event that we are in a position to refund the remaining amounts of the prepaid assessments,”… read more
Read More CommentWhat should the price of Bitcoin be?
As I write, people are calling the Bitcoin/dollar exchange ratio a “crash” even though the price is right now what it was four days ago. The irony is intense and hilarious. It was only a few weeks ago that Bitcoin was exchanging at $30 each, and people were screaming that it was a crazy unsustainable… read more
Read More CommentInterview with a Bitcoin Entrepreneur
Read More CommentPodcast with Bad Quaker
Here is a podcast on paper money with Bad Quaker. Good discussion.… read more
Read More CommentNews show on Bitcoin, Interview with Jeffrey Tucker
Read More CommentFrom Risk Averse to Regret
The bulls are running on Wall Street and the public is coming back just in time. The average Joe and Jane have been sitting in cash since 2009 after experiencing shock every quarter when their 401k statements showed up. But four years of Bernanke’s ZIRP has kept the numbers from changing in their accounts. … read more
Read More CommentBourbon in Four Formats
All books should be released this way! Bourbon for Breakfast was a four-pronged release today: audio, epub, multimedia book, and…physical. It’s gratifying, I tell you!… read more
Read More CommentWhat if this is happening?
For a hundred years, governments have fully controlled money. In the course of this time, they have destroyed its integrity. Now half of every transaction is fully subject to the whims of central bankers and monetary planners. This absurdities have presented themselves most fully in recent years. Now you can’t earn from saving. Holding money… read more
Read More CommentShould You Move to New Zealand? Interview with Amanda BillyRock
Fascinating interview with a huge figure in the libertarian world over the last two years. Amanda is a young idealist who dreams of bringing freedom to the U.S. were shattered and so she decided to seek it out on her own, in New Zealand. Here is an interview she granted over the weekend.… read more
Read More CommentWhat Began on Jekyll Island Ends in Cyprus?
Wonderful thinking from Pete Earle On November 6, 2012 – Election Day (to me, Day-That-I-Go-About-My-Business-And-Don’t-Allow-Myself-To-Be-Drawn-Into-The-Disgusting-Political-Maelstrom Day) in the United States, Bitcoin were priced at $10.45. By the end of January 2013 they’d doubled to $21, and then they doubled in price again. And then again. It’s an extraordinary development that seems to have come out… read more
Read More CommentWhy you should come to FreedomFest
Read More CommentInterview with Peter Surda on BTC
Read More CommentWhen Will ‘When’ Occur?
So just when will another European country be Cyprused? Zero Hedge describes the problem. “The bottom line is that at its core, it is all simply a bad-debt problem, and the more the bad debt, the greater the ultimate liability impairments become, including deposits.” Using data from Credit Suisse, ZH provides a comparison between Cyprus… read more
Read More CommentNew Podcasts
Two new podcasts are up with interviews with me: Scott Horton’s show on war and foreign policy interviewed me on Bitcoin and other subjects. Play in new And Prometheus Unbound did an interview with me on LFB and our work here.… read more
Read More CommentVoters are Liars
I recently heard a political commentator bemoan the results of surveys and elections. He said the sad truth, whether libertarians wanted to hear it or not, is that Americans want big government. They want handouts, high taxes, regulatory interference, and on and on. They vote for people who talk about it. They re-elect them when… read more
Read More CommentPodcast with Prometheus Unbound
This is a very long interview and we cover IP, Rand, libertarian fiction, and so much more.… read more
Read More CommentBBC on Bitcoin
This is actually an excellent report… read more
Read More CommentS&P 500 Nears All-Time High, “Le Rêve” Goes For $155 Million
Forget the punk economy and the Cyprus bank problems, investors have bid the S & P 500 within a few points of its all-time high. ”If there’s a run on deposits [in Cyprus], there may be a sell-off (in U.S. stocks), but that could pose an excellent entry point to get into the market and… read more
Read More CommentMarch Madness Underdog Teaches Free Market Economics
Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) may have busted every single bracket this March Madness. The school that is known for its golf course management program is the first 15th seed in history to make it to the Sweet 16 with upset wins over Georgetown and San Diego State. New York Times numbers maven Nate Silver,… read more
Read More CommentMarketing Ideas: A Talk with Andrea Rich
Independent authors today think nothing of publishing and distributing their works today. Access to books is no longer an issue. You can get the physical thing or the digital thing from any publisher instantly. People complain that there is too much, that they don’t know what to read. It’s a nice problem to have (and… read more
Read More CommentRobert Murphy on The Illusion of Wealth
Read More CommentFinCEN Weighs in on Bitcoin
Well, it was bound to happen. FinCEN, the money laundering enforcement arm of the U.S. Treasury, has weighed in the subject of Bitcoin here. Surprisingly, some people in the Bitcoin world welcome this because it recognizes the reality of BTC and helps to legitimize its use. Timothy Lee of Cato says that the statement “sends… read more
Read More CommentStop the Archbishop!
The accepted wisdom in the banking business is to never loan money to a church (part of the 3 Ps of credit–never lend to priests, policemen, or politicians). If the loan doesn’t work out, no lender wants it to be front page news with the local bank foreclosing on a place of worship. As lines… read more
Read More CommentGalles on Leonard Read
The Freeman today carries a nice piece by Gary Galles on Leonard Read, taken from his book Apostle of Peace (a Club release).… read more
Read More CommentDon’t Hold Bitcoins; Krugman Won’t Like It
I’ve just now seen that Paul Krugman has written about Bitcoins, and he has come to the conclusion that they represent a grim development. This is not a regular payment system in which the units are fixed definitions of existing money; their value floats based on all existing monies, making them more like an alternative… read more
Read More CommentHOA Lien Exuberance
In Las Vegas, where most mortgaged homeowners remain underwater, and many mortgage holders don’t have the paperwork in order that would allow them to foreclose, another form of real estate speculation has popped up. People have walked away from thousands of homes in Vegas, so homeowners association liens are piling up. This presents an opportunity.… read more
Read More CommentHow Well is Well
The stock market is loving banks and why not, the industry had earnings of nearly $35 billion in the fourth quarter. FDIC chairman Martin Gruenberg says, “Based on our assessments now, most of those institutions are doing reasonably well. All of them, as of today, remain well capitalized or adequately capitalized and they are holding… read more
Read More CommentUncle Sugar’s Cruel Prank
Everyone’s got a bone to pick with the white, sweet stuff, from Mayor Bloomberg to Paleo lifestylers. Sugar is getting such a bad rap Americans just aren’t consuming enough of it. Taxpayers may be laying off the brownies but they are still going to have to pick up the tab to keep sugar producers in… read more
Read More CommentVegas Dirt Making A Comeback
The price of medium density residential land in Las Vegas popped 19% in the 4th quarter, and prices have nearly doubled from a year ago, reports the LVRJ. Some 60% of the city’s homes may be underwater, but builders see a screaming market. Hubble Smith reports, “A surge in demand for new homes has created… read more
Read More CommentUnemployment Italian Style
The Italian government lived high on the Euro hog and now the people are paying the price. The New York Times reports, But among Italy’s estimated six million companies, businesses of all sizes have been going belly up at the rate of 1,000 a day over the last year, especially among the small and midsize… read more
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