Now that the Chinese Communist Party Congress is over (it ended in late October), President Xi of China is more powerful than ever and ready to take strong measures to clean up inefficient state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and dangerous shadow banks. That cleanup task has now begun. On the one hand, it’s necessary to weed out
As the author of The New Case for Gold, I receive frequent invitations to speak at precious metals conferences around the world. I enjoy doing these events because I like meeting people and I learn a lot by interacting with the attendees. Lately, the event sponsors have insisted that my participation include some comment or panel participation
Click here to see a fascinating look behind the curtain of bitcoin trading. The author and several experts estimate that perhaps about 1,000 people control 40% of all the bitcoin in existence. The market capitalization of bitcoin was $322 billion as of Dec. 17 using a price of $19,210 per bitcoin. (Who knows, the market cap
The article above discusses how the war on cash has turned into a war on gold. But cash and gold are not the only forms of money in the regulators’ cross hairs. This article describes how bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are also getting the bum’s rush from regulators. Click here to see new EU regulations require greater
The war on cash is nothing new. It has been going on in various ways since the late 1960s. That’s when the U.S. banished the $500 bill and left Americans with the $100 bill as the largest-denomination note. Since then, the dollar has lost 80% of its purchasing power, so a $100 bill in 2017
After four articles from crypto world, you’re probably ready to read something about real money. The fact that Russia and China have been accumulating thousands of tons of physical gold bullion for the last 10 years is not news. What is news is that both countries are starting to make moves toward the end game
I love English English much more than American English. The English seem to have just the right turn of phrase for every situation. One of my favorite English English expressions is “too clever by half.” It describes a situation in which smart people, in an effort to show how smart they are, take things too
Investors and financial intermediaries like to complain about regulation, and with good reason. Regulation causes many transactions to be slow, burdensome and costly relative to the perceived benefits. But there’s a reason all of that regulation exists. At one time or another, every market in the world — stocks, bonds, gold, currencies, etc. — has
The history of bitcoin thefts, hacks and simple disappearances (because holders lose the “private key” needed to use the bitcoin) is long and getting longer. We’ve seen the collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange in Japan and heard many other horror stories about missing or stolen bitcoins. This article gives us the latest example.
Investors can be forgiven for not completely understanding the dynamics of bitcoin; very few do. We all read the headlines about four-digit exponential price increases in bitcoin and ask, “What am I missing?” Imagine how much more difficult it must be to look behind the bitcoin curtain at the thousands of alternative currencies, crypto applications,
