Igor Delovski Board

[delovski]

When Bad Is Good: Money by Dan Eden

"And what about higher oil prices... bad? No way. That keeps those pesky
foreign flat US dollars "out there" and in high demand. It's very good for
the dollar. Globalization, Nafta and Free Trade? Yep, they're also good for
the dollar since they perpetuate the demand for greenbacks."

[delovski]

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Why does fiat money seemingly work?

"In short, a free market medium of exchange/store of value can only be
something with an already established demand. No worthless object would
ever emerge to function as money in a free market.

So how did it happen?"

[XNote]

Gold and Economic Freedom, by Alan Greenspan

"An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue
which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense - perhaps more
clearly and subtly than many consistent defenders of laissez-faire - that
gold and economic freedom are inseparable, that the gold standard is an
instrument of laissez-faire and that each implies and requires the other."

[delovski]

"The budget should be balanced; the treasury should be refilled;
public debt should be reduced; and the arrogance of public officials
should be controlled." - Cicero. 106-43 B.C.

"This essay takes an in-depth look at the magnitude and consequences
of the large debt levels within the United States. Topics discussed include:
composition of foreign and domestic holders of U.S. debt, consequences
of the government borrowing from the Federal Reserve, and a look at the
current U.S. housing market."

[delovski]

The Politics of Prohibition

"From 1930 to 1931, income-tax revenues fell by 15 percent. In 1932 they
fell another 37 percent; 1932 income-tax revenues were 46 percent lower
than just two years earlier. And by 1933 they were fully 60 percent lower
than in 1930.

With no end of the Depression in sight, Washington got anxious for a substitute
source of revenue."

[XNote]

JoS: Is the dollar stable now?

"No. If you can predict the stability (or lack) of a currency, there are billions
of dollars to be made speculating. This is the point behind "forex" trading."

[Ike]

Large US banks having trouble with reserves?

"Check out 'The Money Masters' documentary for a history of banking:

- Part 1 (1 hour 43 mins)
- Part 2 (1 hour 45 mins)

The Fed Reserve issues the money on demand, but they don't borrow it from
elsewhere, they print fresh new money from nothing and then go and lend it
to the government. The government then has to go and pay this back, and
then the Fed Reserve owners get to keep the money they originally printed."

[XNote]

How The Diamond Cartel Turned Worthless Rocks Into Priceless Gems

"Convincing people that diamonds last forever and should never be resold
reinforces DeBeers' monopoly power and helps the cartel restrict the supply
of diamonds by keeping diamonds off the secondary market."

[Ike]

Better information reaps dividends

"In one demonstration that included dividends and other benefits of holding
stocks, Lupia and colleagues showed that an investor who bought all of the
stocks included in the Dow Jones on Jan. 2, 2001, and sold them on the record-
high closing date of 2006 (Dec. 27), gained $3,377.34 — or $2,870.74 after
taxes.

If, however, the same investor simply converted the money to Canadian dollars
on Jan. 2, 2001, and changed them back for U.S. dollars on Dec. 27, 2006,
his or her post-tax gain would have been substantially greater ($3,074.64)
than it would have been from participating in a "record-breaking" stock market."

[delovski]

Money creation and the Federal Reserve

"There seem to be some misconceptions about the monetary consequences
of actions that the Federal Reserve has taken to address liquidity needs."

[delovski]

Near-panic atmosphere as US Federal Reserve chairman testifies before Congress

"The US economy, saddled with massive trade and current account deficits,
depends on daily inflows of billions of dollars in capital from China, Japan
and other countries for the functioning of its financial system. Any significant
contraction of these capital flows would lead to a collapse in the dollar,
massive interest rate increases, deep recession and the possibility of a US
and global depression."

[delovski]

nyt: Innovating Our Way to Financial Crisis

"This time, market players seem truly horrified — because they’ve suddenly
realized that they don’t understand the complex financial system they created."

[Ike]

safehaven.com - Two Billionaires Describe Our Outlook

"According to the Federal Reserve Board website, U.S. non-borrowed bank
reserves have gone from $37B to $199M (nope, that's not a typo) in the
last month."

[delovski]

the guardian - The true cost of war

"2005, a Nobel prize-winning economist began the painstaking process of
calculating the true cost of the Iraq war. In his new book, he reveals how
short-sighted budget decisions, cover-ups and a war fought in bad faith will
affect us all for decades to come. Aida Edemariam meets Joseph Stiglitz"

[Ike]

reddit - How many people here are actually interested in economics?

Bernanke admits the Fed caused the Great Depression:
"Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative
of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the
Great Depression. You're right, we did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you,
we won't do it again."

[delovski]

THE DOW IS CRASHING - A Story in Pictures by Mike Maloney

Comptroller General David Walker, (chief auditor of the United States) says
that the unfunded (deficit) liabilities now exceed $50 trillion. So if we add
the debt to the liabilities, we end up with every man, woman, and child in
the United States owing $194,000.00… even a newborn baby. "Welcome to
the world kid! Here's the bill."

[XNote]

Eve of Destruction: How the Financial Crisis Was Built Into the System

"In 1913, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank was created as a direct result of
that secret meeting. Interestingly, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank isn't
federal, there are no reserves, and it's not a bank. Those seven men, some
American and some European, created this new entity, commonly referred
to as the Fed, to take control of the banking system and the money supply
of the United States."

[Ike]

Danny Sofer - An Outline of Money revisited

"Geoffrey Crowther wrote about the Great Depression in the final chapter of
his book An Outline of Money. Despite being written in the 1940's, what he
had to say has more relevance to the current economic crisis than anything
else I have read on the subject."

[Ike]

shiftshapers.gnn.tv - Debt: The First Five Thousand Years

"There seems little doubt that history, widely rumored to have come to an
end a few years ago, has gone into overdrive of late, and is in the process
of spitting us into a new political and economic landscape whose contours
no one understands. Everyone agrees something has just ended but no one
is quite sure what."

[delovski]

What does one TRILLION dollars look like?

"What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around
like so many doggie treats, so I thought I'd take Google Sketchup out for a
test drive and try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like."

[Ike]

salon.com - Economists agree: Print. Money. Now.

"Other economists chimed in with their own support. But their very unanimi-
ty could be a cause for some dismay. Quantitative easing is a fancy way of
saying "turned on the printing press." The expansion, out of thin air, of the
Federal Reserve's balance sheet by $1.2 trillion is a sobering acknowledg-
ment that Ben Bernanke believes the Fed needs to make the strongest pos-
sible moves to prevent an accelerating economic disaster."

[XNote]

reddit - Can somebody explain how this $1 trillion masterplan is
supposed to work?

"Q: What is the Geithner Plan?"

"A: The Geithner Plan is a trillion-dollar operation by which the U.S. acts as
the world's largest hedge fund investor, committing its money to funds to
buy up risky and distressed but probably fundamentally undervalued assets
and, as patient capital, holding them either until maturity or until markets
recover so that risk discounts are normal and it can sell them off--in either
case at an immense profit."

[Ike]

kyleconroy.com - What if I had bought Apple stock instead?

"Currently, Apple's stock is at an all time high. A share today is worth over
40 times its value seven years ago. So, how much would you have today if
you purchased stock instead of an Apple product?"

[delovski]

9to5mac.com - Apple’s market clout shaking S&P 500, making a run at $500B market cap

"What’s happening with Apple is real, because Apple’s earnings are real and
any wealth accruing to Apple gets into the hands of U.S. shareholders. But
to actually be able to look at trends and look at what’s happening to [other
companies], not just the one that’s so exceptional, it is important to strip
Apple out."

[Ike]

Apple, Cisco, and Dow 15000

http://blog.adamnash.com/2012/02/13/apple-cisco-dow-15000/

[delovski]

cnn - Chart: An Apple flash dump

"Tyler Durden, who tweets as @zerohedge, offers the Nanex chart above
as evidence that it was a premeditated flash dump executed by one or
more high-frequency trading algorithms. How else could 800,000 shares
worth nearly $300 million be sold in 17-second intervals?"

[Ike]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/opinion/how-austerity-kills.html


How Austerity Kills

[Ike]

theguardian.com - Capitalism simply isn't working and here are the reasons why

"Economist Thomas Piketty's message is bleak: the gap between rich and
poor threatens to destroy us.

Piketty deploys 200 years of data to prove them wrong. Capital, he argues,
is blind. Once its returns – investing in anything from buy-to-let property to
a new car factory – exceed the real growth of wages and output, as histori-
cally they always have done (excepting a few periods such as 1910 to 1950),
then inevitably the stock of capital will rise disproportionately faster within
the overall pattern of output. Wealth inequality rises exponentially."

[Ike]

http://www.businessinsider.com/one-traders-21-favorite-quotes-about-markets-and-investing-2014-4#!Iq0qb

One Trader's 21 Favorite Quotes About Markets And Investing

[Ike]

ft - How the euro was saved - FT series

"In the first of a series on the year that forever changed Europe, Peter
Spiegel recreates the three bitter days in November when the eurozone
crisis hit its lowest point.

To the astonishment of almost everyone in the room, Angela Merkel began
to cry"

[Ike]

bi - Tim Geithner: Germany's Finance Minister Had A 'Frightening' Plan To Deal With Greece

"In his new book 'Stress Test' just released in the US, Timothy Geithner
has revealed that in 2012 German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble
had presented him with a plan to kick Greece out of the eurozone."

[Ike]

reddit - Bitcoin SDK for iOS

"Our company recently released Razrbit, an open-source collection of
SDKs to make Bitcoin development super easy. The iOS SDK was released
recently, so I thought I would announce it here."

[Ike]

crackberry.com - Apple Pay: I can't stop laughing

"The banks have been working with Apple on this for over a year, and are
all in. They clearly feel it will be a success and have spent millions already
on a development that they obviously believe will work securely and help
in reducing fraud.

Consumers will pay no more for the convenience of using Apple Pay than
they do already as Apple's 0.015 percent fee is taken from the existing
transaction charges. Hard to see a downside from a consumer viewpoint.

The POS terminals are being replaced anyway under another already
funded programme.

Apple will sell millions on millions of iPhone6 devices with this capability
built-in.

With Apple and the Banks seeing business advantages to this, and being
prepared to back it with serious money, their will to ensure it succeeds
makes the chances of failure very slim IMO."

More over here Accepting Payments:

• Apple Pay At McDonalds,
• Get Ready For Apple Pay Based NFC Access And Ticketing For Trains, Planes, Buses, Subways And Events,
• One Big Reason Its Called Apple Pay,
• What Is ApplePay And Why Is It Important?,
• Apple Pay,
• How ApplePay Contributed To A Massive Shift At National Retail Stores...

[Ike]

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3675514

Ask me about the payments industry (Apple Pay discussion ITT)

[Ike]

wp - Why salaries don’t rise

"For a more plausible explanation, we must, as the great leaker Mark Felt
once told two Post reporters, follow the money. When we do, we find that
the funds corporations earmarked for their own investment, research,
technology and raises during the 20th century have been redirected to
shareholders in the 21st. Over the past decade, more than 90 percent of
Fortune 500 corporations’ net earnings have been funneled to investors."

[Ike]

thelongandshort - The War on Cash

"Banks, governments, credit card companies and fintech evangelists all
want us to believe a cashless future is inevitable and good. But this isn't
a frictionless utopia says Brett Scott, and it's time to fight back"

[delovski]

nybooks.com - Panama: The Hidden Trillions

"Previously, we thought that the offshore world was a shadowy, but minor,
part of our economic system. What we learned from the Panama Papers is
that it is the economic system.

The economic system is, basically, that the rich and the powerful exited long
ago from the messy business of paying tax"

[Ike]

http://blockgeeks.com/guides/what-is-cryptocurrency-everything-you-need-to-know-ultimate-guide/

What is Cryptocurrency: Everything You Need To Know [Ultimate Guide]

[delovski]

nyt - How to Hide $400 Million

"When a wealthy businessman set out to divorce his wife, their fortune
vanished. The quest to find it would reveal the depths of an offshore
financial system bigger than the U.S. economy."

[Ike]

http://www.jutarnji.hr/life/zivotne-price/nevjerojatan-put-od-zagreba-preko-londona-preko-londona-do-silicijske-doline-kucao-sam-na-tocno-257-vrata-i-na-kraju-stvorio-bogatsvo/5432131/

[Ike]

https://www2.gwu.edu/%7Eumpleby/mgt216/Mgt%20216%20Payne%20on%203%20Classes.ppt

[delovski]

r - Panama Papers law firm bosses arrested and denied bail

"After two days of questioning, Ramon Fonseca Mora and Jurgen Mossack
were detained by prosecutors in Panama on 9 February."

[delovski]

A 31-year-old millionaire who's read 360 personal finance books shares his favorite

"Since, the Chicago-based self-made millionaire has read over 360 personal
finance books and "the best book on money period" happens to be the first
one he picked up: "Your Money or Your Life," by Joe Dominguez."

[delovski]

r - Hacker documents show NSA tools for breaching global money
transfer system

"Documents and computer files released by hackers provide a blueprint
for how the U.S. National Security Agency likely used weaknesses in
commercially available software to gain access to the global system for
transferring money between banks, a review of the data showed."

[Ike]

r - I have more bathrooms than bedrooms in my house, so maybe
I can explain it a bit

"Most people think it's nice to be rich because you can buy whatever you
want and eat whatever you want. Want to eat a thawed mammoth? It can
be arranged. Want to fly around in a working jet pack? That's possible, too.
Want the city to shut down an entire interstate for you and your friends to
drive 200 mph on public roads? Done.

But that isn't really what's great about being rich."

edit - I'm that multi-millionaire app developer who explained what
it's like being rich after growing up poor. AMA!

[Ike]

https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/jun/14/tax-evaders-exposed-why-super-rich-are-even-richer-than-we-thought

Tax evaders exposed: why the super-rich are even richer than we thought

At the time of the leak, HSBC Switzerland was a major actor in the offshore wealth management industry. It managed US$118.4bn ? about 4% of all the foreign wealth managed by Swiss banks. This is a unique source of information through which to study tax evasion, because the leak can be seen as a random event, and it comes from a large (and, the available evidence suggests, representative) offshore bank

[delovski]

Y - How Two Brothers Turned Seven Lines of Code Into a $9.2 Billion Startup

"Stripe made its debut in 2011 with Patrick as chief executive officer and
John as president. The Collisons had spent two years testing their service
and forming relationships with banks, credit card companies, and regulators
so customers wouldn't have to. With Stripe, all a startup had to do was add
seven lines of code to its site to handle payments: What once took week
was now a cut-and-paste job."

[Ike]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-13/puerto-rico-without-electricity-wifi-atms-shows-importance-cash-gold-and-silver

Puerto Rico Without Electricity, Wifi, ATMs Shows Importance of Cash, Gold and Silver

[delovski]

ibt - Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin asks if Google, Apple and Facebook are threatened by blockchains

"So web 2.0 seems to have been very focused on the west coast but block-
chains are very geographically diverse. Like you see the west coast, east
coast, Toronto, London, China. That's one of the things really excites people:
it's very collaborative in an interdisciplinary way, it's very collaborative in an
international way, and ourselves at Ethereum, we have been trying really
hard to be as diverse as we can in both of those dimensions and I think it's
helping a lot."

[delovski]

r - BOOM. And all the altcoins shoot up

"There's a reason why Warren Buffet says that it's not easy to beat the
market."

Making money in cryptos is hard, needs lots of time because coins go up
and down at the speed of light, because you can't sleep on your altcoins
with ease since markets are open 24/7 and your 1000$ investment in Neo
is now worth 600$, what do you do? How do you recover easily from that
dip? We all have them.

You can still make money in cryptos ... but it's not easy, those markets are
unpredictable as fuck and since there's only a handful of cryptos accepted
over the internet basically all of them are potential and no real use case."

[Ike]

http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-movement-explained-by-one-equation-fundstrat-tom-lee-metcalf-law-network-effect-2017-10/

Analyst says 94% of bitcoin's price movement over the past 4 years can be explained by one equation

his model is based on Metcalfe's law, which says the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users on the network

[Ike]

https://www.coindesk.com/russias-largest-bank-joins-enterprise-ethereum-alliance/

Russia's Largest Bank Joins Enterprise Ethereum Alliance

Already, Sberbank reported that it has completed at least two blockchain proofs-of-concept ? one for a "smart" letter of credit and another for a letter of guarantee ? working in cooperation with regulators, the minister of the economy, other banks and Russia's International Chamber of Commerce.

[Ike]

https://rantt.com/the-paradise-papers-how-ridiculously-easy-it-is-for-the-rich-to-avoid-taxes-15b082cffb68

The Paradise Papers: How Ridiculously Easy It Is For The Rich To Avoid Taxes

While you and I might think that paying taxes is the price of living in a wonderful country, the 1% thinks differently. To them, dodging taxes is essential to wealth preservation. Taxation is tyranny.

[delovski]

apple - Core NFC

"Your app can read tags to give users more information about their physical
environment and the real-world objects in it. Using Core NFC, you can read
Near Field Communication (NFC) tags of types 1 through 5 that contain data
in the NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF). For example, your app might give
users information about products they find in a store or exhibits they visit in
a museum."

[Ike]

theatlantic.com - Can Putin Recover From This?

"Central-bank sanctions are a weapon so devastating, in fact, that the only
question is whether they might do more damage than Western governments
might wish. They could potentially bankrupt the entire Russian banking system
and push the ruble into worthlessness."

[XNote]

Y! - The 150-year-old chart that predicts the stock market

"In the late nineteenth century, an American farmer from Ohio called Samuel
Benner created a chart forecasting the rise and fall in the average price of
hogs, corn and pig-iron. Since then, it has been weirdly accurate at predicting
ups and downs of global stock markets -- seeming foreseeing the Wall Street
Crash, the Second World War, and the dot-com bubble."

https://www.reddit.com/r/atayls/comments/wung9g/135_year_old_strategy_with_a_90_hit_rate_george/