Money & Finance

video interview with the mayor on this:

https://ccnews24.net/miami-plans-to-allow-its-citizens-to-pay-city-taxes-in-bitcoin/ Maybe they will give incentives if you pay in bitcoin. If they end up doing that then it could be a win win situation. Miami gets bitcoin, tax payers pay less in the short term and get exposure to bitcoin. Interested to see how this plays out.

Bitcoin miners major costs are electricity and cooling afford buying the hardware. The miners are heavily invented to find the lowest possible cost of energy in existence. With an incentive to lower the costs of mining, they are pushing the limits of using renewable resources at damns, solar, and wind. Beyond renewables you’re beginning to see smart use of miners working with energy companies to convert natural gas that has been getting flared (burned) and instead converting it to power mining equipment. Does every miner do this? No. But it means that the industry is going to continue to push for renewables where the cost helps their business mode the most. In the long run, a large majority of mining is going to be powered by environmentally friendly energy sources.

Litecoin seems to be the one that will survive alongside Bitcoin long-term. What do you think? Ethereum purchases seems to be another way to run their network... so as long as their network is running I guess it could go on.

They have been improving throughput, but transaction volume has outpaced their improvements. Coinbase specifically cited record breaking exchange volumes on Jan. 7 that were “easily 6x what had already been an elevated steady-state request rate.” https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-redoing-infrastructure-to-prevent-outages-during-peak-times

Ex-Canadian PM Stephen Harper has said that Bitcoin could be used as a part of a basket of reserve alternatives to the US dollar. He added that central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, were “inevitable” to some degree at one point, but it would still be subject to various monetary policies. He also expressed his concerns regarding central banks becoming “kind of a general banker” rather than just a financial monitor. https://thedailychain.com/ex-canadian-prime-ministers-says-bitcoin-could-be-a-reserve-currency/

Footprints believed to have belonged to a crocodile-like prehistoric reptile have been found in the Italian Alps in an extraordinary discovery that scientists say proves there were survivors of a mass extinction 252m years ago. The first footprints were found in rocks in the area in 2008, with the scientists continuing their exploration over the following years until they had the complete set of prints needed to identify the animal. "The fossil footprints were found in a kind of very wet sediment in which they could be preserved," said Massimo Bernardi, a palaeontologist at Muse. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/15/footprints-of-crocodile-like-prehistoric-reptile-found-in-italian-alps

(Except Gold... that is money too 😉 )

Goldman Sachs has issued a request for information (RFI) to explore digital asset custody, according to a source inside the bank. The RFI was circulated to at least one well-known crypto custody player toward the end of 2020. The bank's digital assets initiative is "part of a broad digital strategy," the source said. https://www.coindesk.com/goldman-sachs-to-enter-crypto-market-soon-with-custody-play-source

Wow!

Rip to the la la la guy his name was eduard khil he died in june 4 2012 he died of a stroke

After World War II, a new international monetary system called Bretton Woods was created. Bretton Woods established three main things: (1) the U.S. dollar was to be an international reserve currency, (2) the U.S. dollar would be backed by gold at a price of $35 per ounce, and (3) any country could exchange dollars for gold. Countries running trade surpluses with the US sought to exchange their dollars for gold, and this rapidly shrunk US gold reserves. This then led to the so called Nixon shock - President Richard Nixon effectively ending the Bretton Woods system in 1971. The world economy entered a new era: the US Dollar became the global reserve currency. The US made no effort to rein in deficit spending, in fact quite the opposite. Therefore, the US needed to continue to find ways to sell government debt (i.e. to find buyers of US Treasury Securities) without driving up interest rates. That is, the US needed more buyers for its debt. But by 1974, the enormous flood of dollars from the US into top-oil-exporter Saudi Arabia suggested a solution. That year, Nixon sent new US Treasury secretary William Simon to Saudi Arabia with a mission... The task: neutralize crude oil as an economic weapon against the US and find a way to persuade a relatively hostile kingdom to finance America's widening deficit with its newfound petrodollar wealth. The basic framework was simple: the US would buy oil from Saudi Arabia and provide the kingdom military aid and equipment. In return, the Saudis would plow billions of their petrodollar revenue back into US Treasuries and therefore finance America's spending. A win-win: the Saudis would receive protection from geopolitical enemies, and the US would get a new place to unload large amounts of government debt. This became known as "petrodollar recycling". By spending on oil, the US was creating new demand for US debt and US dollars. Moreover, since Saudi Arabia dominated the OPEC - the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries - this dollar deal was extended to OPEC overall, which meant that the dollar became the preferred currency for oil purchases worldwide. And so the petrodollar era began. This petrodollar system has had massive implications for US foreign policy, which has essentially involved imposing 'freedom' on any major oil-exporting state that moves towards ending its reliance on dollars. In 2000, Saddam Hussein, then-president of Iraq, announced that Iraq was moving to sell its oil in Euros instead of dollars. Following a particular catalyst event in 2001, the US invaded Iraq, deposed Saddam Hussein, and converted Iraqi oil sales back to the US dollar. Of course, this exact pattern was repeated with Gaddafi when he attempted to create a unified African currency backed by Libyan gold reserves to sell African oil. Shortly after his announcement, rebels armed by the US Government and allies overthrew the dictator and his regime. After his death, the idea that African oil would be sold on something other than the dollar quickly died out. Other regimes that have called for abandoning the petrodollar include Iran and Venezuela. The US has called for regime change in both of these countries... Although they have tried to keep it under wraps, Saudi Arabia is believed to be one of America's largest foreign creditors. Undoubtedly, Saudi holdings of US debt and other assets are significant. All else being equal, the US should be growing less dependent on foreign holders of debt, certainly in terms of Saudi and OPEC-held debt, since the global role of OPEC and the Saudis has been diminishing in terms of global market share. But all else isn't equal, and the US has been piling on ever-larger amounts of debt in recent years. In 2019, for example, the annual deficit topped one trillion. This immense growth in debt obviously makes the US regime more sensitive to changes in demand for US debt, and ever more reliant on foreign demand for both US debt and US dollars. In order to avoid a crisis, the US must ensure that interest rates remain low and that foreigners want to acquire both US dollars and US debt. Were petrodollars and petrodollar recycling to disappear, it would have a twofold effect on US government finances: First of all, a sizable decline in petrodollar recycling would put significant upward pressure on interest rates. The result would be a budget crisis for the US government, as it would have to devote ever-larger amounts of the federal budget to payments on the debt. (The other option would be to have the US central bank monetize the debt by purchasing ever-larger amounts of it to make up for a lack of foreign demand. But this would lead to growing price inflation.) Furthermore, if participants began to exit the petrodollar system (and, say, sell oil in euros instead) demand for dollars would drop, exacerbating any scenarios in which the central bank is monetizing the debt. This would also generally contribute to greater price inflation, as fewer dollars will be sucked out of the US by foreign holders. The result could be ongoing declines in government spending on services, and growing price inflation. The US regime's ability to finance its debt would decline significantly, and the US would need to pull back on military commitments, pensions, and more. Either that, or keep spending at the same rate and face an inflationary spiral. Or...how about another option? Anyone fancy a Great Reset? CREDIT: Ryan McMaken Huge Debt Got Us Hooked on Petrodollars — and on Saudi Arabia

https://tfipost.com/2020/04/big-hyundai-steel-and-several-other-south-korean-majors-are-all-set-to-shut-china-factories-and-move-to-india/ South Korea is considering moving some of the factories from China to India, according to a report in the Times of India. The rising trade wars between China and the USA had already led South Korea to mull its options and given the economic slump that has come in the wake of the Wuhan virus pandemic, it might very well have been the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Interestingly, India and South Korea have already pledged to take bilateral trade from the current US$ 21 billion to US$ 50 billion by the year 2030. The Korean consulate in Chennai has been working with a number of requests, some in preliminary stages, while others in advanced stages. “We have requests from two iron and steel companies, some startups and one from the hospitality sector which wants to come to India from China,” said Yup Lee, the deputy consul general for the Consulate General of The Republic of Korea. The majority of Korean companies are not doing well in China and, therefore, are pulling out of its ‘controlled economy’.

Here is a snapshot from 2020 during the pandemic: Amazing to see it go down to 21 a couple days ago. I see the phrase above "Global economic softening"..... LOL..... can you say CLIFF?!?!

U.S. stocks may frustrate investors looking to buy at lower prices this year. The S&P 500 Index’s performance on a total-return basis, including reinvested dividends, in post-World War II election years shows as much. Retreats of 10% or more, sing a commonly used threshold for corrections, occurred only half of the time during those years. They include 2008, when a financial crisis and a recession weighed on share prices, along with 2012 and 2016. The data on so-called drawdowns was cited in a report sent Thursday by Keith Lerner, SunTrust Private Wealth Management’s chief market strategist. ---------- Sincerely, David Wilson Stocks Editor, Bloomberg Radio Editor, Chart and Stock of the Day