Sunday, December 10, 2017
Bitcoin Doesn’t Exist – Forks and Mad Max / Currencies / Bitcoin
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Dr. D: Well, all parts of the system rely on accurate record-keeping. Look at voting rights: we had a security company where 20% more people voted than there were shares. Think you could direct corporate, even national power that way? Without records of transfer, how do you know you own it? Morgan transferred a stock to Schwab but forgot to clear it. Doesn’t that mean it’s listed in both Morgan and Schwab? In fact, didn’t you just double-count and double-value that share? Suppose you fail to clear just a few each day. Before long, compounding the double ownership leads to pension funds owning 2% fake shares, then 5%, then 10%, until stock market and the national value itself becomes unreal. And how would you unwind it?
Sunday, December 10, 2017
SMIGGLE Christmas 2017 Fun Shopping Trip Haul Surprise! / Personal_Finance / Shopping
By: Anika_Walayat
It's Christmas at the Meadowhall Shopping Centre! So off we went to our favourite shop SMIGGLE for a fun shop christmas lights trip, looking for surprise gifts other than pencil cases. See what we bought as we journey beyond stationary.
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Saturday, December 09, 2017
Bitcoin Doesn’t Exist – Putting the Banks Out of Business / Currencies / Bitcoin
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Dr. D: The money, the unaccountable, uninhibited release of tokens can do more than just buy centuries of hard labor in seconds, it‘s also a method of control. Banks, our present issuers of money, can approve or destroy businesses by denying loans. They can do this to individuals, like denying loans to unpopular figures, or to whole sectors, like gun shops. They can also offer money for free to Amazon, Facebook, and Tesla, which have no profitable business model or any hope of getting one, and deny loans to power plants, railroads, farms, and bridges as they fall into the Mississippi.
Saturday, December 09, 2017
Buying an Approved Used Land Rover Discovery Sport - Travelling the DIstance / Personal_Finance / Money Saving
By: HGR
Thinking of buying an approved used Landrover Discovery Sport or another land rover model? Then here is what you can expect when buying from a main dealer. In this video we literally travel the distance to a main landrover dealer (Hunters - Chester) for the purpose of part exchanging and then driving away with an approx 1 year old Land Rover Discovery Sport.
Saturday, December 09, 2017
China’s Struggle for Market Economy Status / Politics / Global Economy
By: Dan_Steinbock
Recently, the Trump administration joined the EU and rejected the view that under the WTO terms China should have graduated last year to market-economy status. Now Trump is using Obama’s accession legacy to undermine world trade.The accession debacle intensified a year ago, when then president-elect Trump stated categorically in Iowa that “China is not a market economy.”
In the prior months, Trump had pledged to beat back the Trans-Pacific Partnership TPP (which he buried on his inaugural day), undo the North-American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA (whose fifth round of talks ended recently in simmering friction), and impose huge tariffs on China and rewrite the rules of world trade - in which the accession mess could prove a milestone.
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Saturday, December 09, 2017
Stock Market Bull/Bear Ratio: Is "More Leverage" Better? / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: EWI
Bull/Bear Ratio: Is "More Leverage" Better?
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Saturday, December 09, 2017
Jerome Powell vs. Janet Yellen / Interest-Rates / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
As expected, Donald Trump nominated Jerome Powell as the next Federal Reserve Chair. He is often perceived as a merely Republican version of Yellen. But is that really the case? Let’s analyze in a more detailed way what impact on gold Powell’s term as the head of the U.S. central bank would mean for the gold market.
Saturday, December 09, 2017
Is Gold Really Strong? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: P_Radomski_CFA
Silver and mining stocks declined for yet another day, but this time gold ended the session with a (slight, but still) gain. How can we interpret the latter? Is it a sign of strength?
In short, not at all. In yesterday’s, alert we emphasized that gold’s breakdown was one of the key developments that one should consider while analyzing the precious metals market. The tiny upswing that we saw in gold yesterday was a classic example of a post-breakout pause. Let’s take a closer look (charts courtesy of http://stockcharts.com).
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Friday, December 08, 2017
Bitcoin Parabolic Mania / Currencies / Bitcoin
By: Zeal_LLC
Bitcoin’s meteoric skyrocketing this year has been astonishing, captivating traders across the globe. This once-obscure cryptocurrency has exploded into the world’s hottest market. With fortunes being won on paper, everyone is talking about bitcoin. But with its price shooting parabolic, unfortunately this wild ride has all the hallmarks of a classic popular speculative mania. And those all end badly, totally collapsing.
In the annals of financial-market history, the word “mania” is never used lightly. These are very-rare events where some market blasts higher so radically that it captures the popular imagination. The dictionary definitions of mania include “an excessively intense enthusiasm, interest, or desire” and “a pathological state characterized by euphoric mood, excessive activity or talkativeness, and impaired judgment”.
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Friday, December 08, 2017
SPX Make a 61.8% Retracement / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
SPX has been challenging the Cycle Top at 4649.38 which is very close to the 61.8% retracement at 2649.68. This may be the final probe with a reversal to follow. From there a panic decline may develop. A 4.3 day decline may take the SPX until Thursday to find a bottom.
While even some bears are expecting another push higher, the Model says a nasty decline may be imminent.
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Friday, December 08, 2017
Gold, Stocks and Bonds - The 3 Amigos Update / Stock-Markets / Financial Markets 2017
By: Gary_Tanashian
I realize this theme could be wearing on some people, but with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer I am going to pound it until it either aborts or completes. It is, in my opinion, too important not to.
Amigo 1: Stock Market vs. Gold
The pattern that formed from 2015 to 2017 measures to 2.50. The 38% Fib retrace level just happens to be that as well. Interpretation: Bullish until the 2.50 area is reached, then major caution.
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Friday, December 08, 2017
Merry Christmas to You - Gold Bullion Premiums at Multi-Year Lows / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: GoldSilver
There’s nothing like a bargain during the holidays. And here’s an unexpected one even I was surprised to see…
It’s not easy to dig up industry-wide data on coin and bar premiums. To do it manually is incredibly time-consuming and then would be out of date as soon as you published it, since premiums always fluctuate.
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Friday, December 08, 2017
Gold Stocks Break, Gold to Follow / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: Jordan_Roy_Byrne
We’ve been persistently bearish on precious metals since September and that has annoyed our readers. The weak price action, negative divergences and bearish fundamentals are too much to currently overcome for the time being. The gold stocks finally cracked this week and have lost another 7%-8% in only the past seven trading sessions. Silver and Gold denominated in foreign currencies have joined the breakdown. Gold meanwhile has not broken down yet but all indications are that it will soon.
Friday, December 08, 2017
Republicans Fake Tax Reform / Politics / Taxes
By: Peter_Schiff
After supposedly chomping on the bit for years to pass meaningful tax reform, Republicans are now set to blow an historic opportunity. Whatever version of the Bill that emerges from the House and Senate Conference Committee (which will be signed by President Trump faster than he can down a Filet o'Fish), will be far less than the Republicans envisioned when they finally captured the White House and both Congressional Chambers in 2016. But from what I have seen of the particulars, the revisions to the tax code will offer a marginal, although temporary, win for low income individuals, a major slap for moderately successful wage earners and home owners, (especially in the high tax Blue States) and a huge victory for the extremely wealthy and certain categories of business owners. While it is certain that the plan will add to the growing deficit, its immediate economic and political impact is hard to predict.
Friday, December 08, 2017
Will Technology Spur Gold Demand? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: Arkadiusz_Sieron
This week, the WGC released a market update entitled “Technology – a brighter outlook?”. What are the main conclusions of the report?
On Tuesday, the World Gold Council published its latest report about the technology sector’s demand for the yellow metal. The main point is that we see a rebound in gold’s use in electronics. As it is commonly known, gold’s physical properties (such as high electrical conductivity) make it an excellent metal for wide use in electronics. But due to high prices and the advancing substitution in the electronics sector, the volume of gold used in technology has decreased in recent years.
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Friday, December 08, 2017
Stock Market Bounce May be Over / Stock-Markets / Stock Market 2017
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
SPX appears to have completed a 38.2% retracement of its decline from the top. Yesterday’s 23.6% apparently allowed room for one more push higher. This is what I had originally expected.
Friday, December 08, 2017
4 Charts That Show How Trump Tax Cuts Will Trigger A Recession / Economics / Recession 2018
By: John_Mauldin
BY PATRICK WATSON : Not so long ago, I explained why tax cuts won’t stimulate the economy as much as Republicans think.
In short, most CEOs say they will use any tax savings for stock buybacks or dividends, not new hiring or expansion.
But what if, instead of little or no growth, this tax bill sets off an outright contraction?
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Friday, December 08, 2017
The US Fed Might Shrink to Two Members in 2018 / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: John_Mauldin
BY JOHN MAULDIN : In talking with some of my Fed-watching friends, it appears the world’s most important central bank is about to experience some potentially profound changes—not just in personnel but more importantly in the kind of people who lead it.
Those changes could, in turn, have some serious economic impacts, so it’s worth taking a deeper look.
But before we get into the impending changes at the Fed, let’s quickly review how the organization works.
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Thursday, December 07, 2017
Precious Metals Breaking Down! 3 Amigos to Abort? 4 Horsemen to Ride? / Commodities / Gold and Silver 2017
By: Gary_Tanashian
I am not trying to be a wise guy with the first half of the title (it’s a goof on alarmist media), but if you were not bear biased or outright bearish on the gold sector’s daily and weekly technicals, and its macro and sector fundamentals by now all you have left are the alarmist headlines now telling us about H&S breakdowns, HUI/Gold ratio bearishness and whatever else is going on out there in media large and small to scare the lowly gold bug.
Thursday, December 07, 2017
The One Oil Market Indicator OPEC Must Watch / Commodities / Crude Oil
By: OilPrice_Com
“We will not let go of our current approach until we reach a balanced market,” Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih said Monday at a news conference in Riyadh.
OPEC ended months of speculation last week when it decided to extend its production cuts through the end of 2018, easing concerns that the limits would be lifted before the oil market was ready. But while it put some uncertainty to rest, the next question is what OPEC does when the oil market becomes “balanced”? What is the exit strategy?
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