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Financial news and economic items of interest
Is the return of Israel in the 20th century truly a work of God, or is it a result of a cosmic chess move to deceive the elect by the adversary?
U.S. Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer said on Wednesday the Senate should reject any Supreme Court nominee put forth by President Donald Trump who would vote to overturn the Roe v. Wade abortion decision or "undermine" healthcare protections.
In a speech on the Senate floor shortly after Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced that he was retiring, Schumer said, “The Senate should reject on a bipartisan basis any justice who would overturn Roe v. Wade, undermine key healthcare protections.” Schumer said. - WDEZ
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court issued in 1896. It upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality – a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal".
Emerging-market debt crises are as predictable as spring rain. They happen every 15–20 years, with a few variations and exceptions.
It has been 20 years since the last EM debt crisis and 10 years since the last global financial crisis. EM lending has been proceeding at a record pace. Once again, hot money from the U.S. and Europe is chasing high yields in EMs, especially the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the next tier of nations including Turkey, Indonesia and Argentina.
Argentina’s ratio of debts and deficits to reserves is over 120%. The ratio for Venezuela is about 100%, and Venezuela is a major oil exporter.
These metrics don’t merely forecast an EM debt crisis in the future. The debt crisis has already begun.
Venezuela has defaulted on some of its external debt, and litigation with creditors and seizure of certain assets is underway. Argentina’s reserves have been severely depleted defending its currency, and it has turned to the IMF for emergency funding.
Ukraine, South Africa and Chile are also highly vulnerable to a run on their reserves and a default on their external dollar-denominated debt. Russia is in a relatively strong position because it has relatively little external debt. China has huge external debts but also has huge reserves, over $3 trillion, to deal with those debts.
The problem is not individual sovereign defaults; those are bound to occur. The problem is contagion. – Daily RecknoingIn just the past month Argentina received the largest bailout from the IMF in their history. and Venezuela's attempt at an oil backed cryptocurrency appears to have stalled, with their inflation rate now sitting at 8100%. In addition, the Fed is attempting to slow down expansion by raising rates and lessening their balance sheets, and Russia has just announced their are doing the same by raising taxes.
That whooshing sound you hear is the draining of $1.4 trillion worth of global liquidity.
Quantitative tightening, or the unwinding of central banks’ extraordinary stimulus, has been the primary driver of asset-class performance this year, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts say. The march higher in U.S. interest rates and tighter financial conditions mean securities that did well during quantitative easing, such as corporate bonds and emerging-market debt, are now underperforming, while “QE losers” have become stars.
The year marks a shift in a tide of global liquidity that helped push up asset prices, according to Merrill Lynch’s analysis. Securities purchases from the Fed, European Central Bank and Bank of Japan are just $125 billion year-to-date, well below the $1.5 trillion run-rate of 2017, they estimate. That suggests markets are missing an injection of some $1.38 trillion thanks to policy makers changing tack. - BloombergCentral bank heads admitted back in 2008 they never saw the financial crisis coming, but contrary to the fact that as a whole they are telling the public that everything is fine, behind the scenes they are preparing for not only the collapse of the current system, but the advent of a new one. And like back in October of 2008, it will come swiftly and nearly overnight, and if you aren't prepared now, you will not get the chance when the system you know today suddenly no longer exists.
From a solar-powered sports arena, to bitcoin and now cryptocurrency mining, the Sacramento Kings are back at it, setting the stages for yet another technological blueprint in the technology sector. The NBA organization announced Wednesday, that it has partnered with global cryptocurrency leader, MiningStore.com, to become the first sports team in the world to mine digital currency. That’s right, the Kings can add another “first’ to its scoreboard of ever-growing technological innovations.
The Kings are going crypto! The NBA is going crypto! And, so should fans! - ForbesWhile the Sacramento Kings franchise appears to be the first NBA team to embrace cryptocurrencies, their owners are not the first to see crypto's and the blockchain as a potential vehicle to help the sport. No that trophy goes to Dallas Maverick's owner Mark Cuban who last year signed on to co-found a blockchain based sports betting ICO using the proprietary UniKoin platform.
In what looks like a validation of the growing public expressions of anger directed at members of the media, a new Axios poll found that nearly all (a staggering 92%) of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believe that mainstream media organizations knowingly report false or misleading stories, at least occasionally. And while Democrats proved to be the most credulous group, a majority still doubt that US media organizations are 100% credible.
All told, 72% of respondents said they believe mainstream media organizations to be knowingly misleading. Other studies from Gallup and Pew Research Center have drawn similar conclusions, with Democrats, unsurprisingly, revealed as the only group that still has any substantial level of trust in the media. Back in the 1970s, trust in media rose as high as 74% during the aftermath of Watergate. - ZerohedgeFor years trust in the media has been nearly as low as trust in politicians, with a majority of voters even believing that they carry political bias towards both candidates and parties.
An exhaustive new study from the Center for Union Facts (CUF) crunched the numbers on union political spending, tracking down where members’ dues ended up. Nearly $140 million — about 99 percent of all union political contributions — went to Democrats and liberal causes, the study found.
“I believe what this illustrates is that union members have very little control over their own dues money, which is supposed to be for collective bargaining — but a whole lot of it is going to political causes and political advocacy,” says Richard Berman, executive director of CUF.
Planned Parenthood and its advocacy nonprofit received $435,000 in 2014 from unions spending their members’ dues. Most of it came from the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, CUF says.Besides using the majority of their dues/fees for political reasons, a large number of unions are also being scrutinized for mishandling billions of dollars in pension contributions, which have made union sponsored retirement programs extraordinarily underfunded.
In 2014, major unions also gave more than $680,000 to Al Sharpton’s tax-indebted nonprofit, the National Action Network, and more than $108,000 to Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. – National Review
Epidiolex contains cannabidiol, one of the chemicals found in marijuana, however, it will not produce a high that is commonly seen in THC. FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb stressed in a statement that approval of the drug wasn’t a co-sign for marijuana, but just for "one specific CBD medication for a specific use." It also marks a landmark moment in the agency’s advancement in considering cannabis for medical purposes.
"This approval serves as a reminder that advancing sound development programs that properly evaluate active ingredients contained in marijuana can lead to important medical therapies. And, the FDA is committed to this kind of careful scientific research and drug development," Dr. Gottlieb said. "Controlled clinical trials testing the safety and efficacy of a drug, along with careful review through the FDA’s drug approval process, is the most appropriate way to bring marijuana-derived treatments to patients." - ComplexHopefully this approval now opens the door for more research and acceptance of cannabis to one day replace opioid based drugs for pain relief that have spawned a severe and very real epidemic among America's patients.
KaratBars International is pleased to announce that their gold-based cryptocurrency KaratGold Coin (KBC) has been enlisted recently in HitBTC, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges. The first ever cryptocurrency to tie its value to the price of gold, KaratGold Coin has recently concluded one of the most successful ICO campaigns ever with a collection of well over one hundred million US Dollars.
The architecture of the KaratGold Coin (KBC) ecosystem is based on the safe, cost-efficient and fast Ethereum blockchain protocol and proven financial hedging strategies. Unlike many other utility tokens, this coin has been designed to be a crypto asset backed by a certain tangible amount of gold. As a result, the long term stability of the coin is ensured by its gold collateral. – Null TXWhile there are now over 40 different gold backed cryptocurrencies in the crypto sector, Karatbars stands out due to the fact that they have been a proven and viable gold company since 2011. And with their being picked up by a major crypto exchange here on June 25, it will only increase their exposure in both the physical and cryptocurrency gold markets.
The world now, under very different circumstances, is once again considering official use of gold in the monetary system. A growing consensus agrees that a world-wide monetary crisis is fast approaching and once again the importance of gold as money is being discussed. Those who benefit from the fiat dollar standard are not pleased with this renewed interest in gold, nor with the possibilities that blockchain technology may provide a nongovernment alternative to the current system of money and banking. The principle of gold as money has been acknowledged for thousands of years and is not going to be ignored any time soon.
The current financial chaos brought back the debate over the exact role gold should play in the international monetary system. There are many signs that various governments are considering using gold as an alternative to the fiat dollar. China for the past three years has been a net seller of dollar denominated assets and a major importer of gold. It is making an effort to popularize a gold Yuan to be used in place of the dollar in international oil transactions. China may well have more clout in this endeavor than is generally realized. Other countries like Russia, India and Brazil are cheering the Chinese on and are net purchasers of gold. The US, picking a fight in a senseless trade war with China, only adds to that country’s resolve to stand up to our domineering attitude. – Mises WireIn addition to these countries seeking to not only accumulate but also integrate gold into the global monetary system, smaller ones like Zimbabwe are themselves seriously looking at backing their currency with gold and other resources.
The race is definitely on as to who will be dictating the terms of the reset.
Everybody has their eyes on China and Russia, thinking they join forces to form the dominance in the global economy to push out the dollar and elevate China to world reserve currency status, or elevate a combination of China and Russia to world reserve currency status with a gold and/or silver backing in this new monetary system, perhaps even with a return to gold and silver via a Chinese Gold-backed Yuan and a Russian Silver Ruble.
Well, it’s not only the East that is actively working on the global reset.
England seems to frantically be in the race as well.
Yesterday, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney gave a speech, and it wall basically all about the coming reset.
That phrase that we all can’t stand – the “new world order”.
Yup. It’s coming.
Its a very long, super boring speech, but I’ve read between the lines, and I want to show you some of the thing he has said, so that you can come to your own conclusions as to what is going on.
To me, it speaks to the end of the dollar dominated world and the coming reset and re-ordering of the global monetary system
Here’s some of the things he said in no particular order (bold and red bold added by Half Dollar for emphasis):
The Bank recognises that a new economy, a new world and new demographics demand a new financial system.
While we prepare for great change, we will be guided by one constant: our mission to promote the good of the people we all serve.
This infrastructure must be overhauled now that the economy is on the cusp of the fourth industrial revolution and our demographic challenges are intensifying.
And rebalancing of the global order is proving as dramatic as it was in Montagu Norman’s time.
Such profound changes demand a new finance.
We now have a balance sheet fit for a new world order with greater reliance on markets in a wider range of reserve currencies. – Silver DoctorsThe average citizen will NEVER receive warning from either governments or the financial powers unless they are able to read between the lines in speeches such as this one on what is being worked on, and what is coming. Because all one has to do is remember back in 2008 when CNBC went out of their way to tell us how solvent and stable Bear Stearns was, only to see it vanish forever just four days later, with Congress having to push through a bailout under the guise that this crisis could bring about the institution of Martial Law.
China’s Center for Information Industry Development (CCID) has published the second edition of its Global Public Chain Technology Evaluation Index. The publication, which evaluated 30 cryptocurrencies, concluded that EOS is the top cryptocurrency based on technology, application and innovation.
EOS received the top ranking due to its “outstanding technical advantages in transaction confirmation efficiency, network throughput, and transaction costs,” the report said.
The report gave the nos. 2 and 3 spots to Ethereum and NEO, respectively. Ethereum was the top-ranked cryptocurrency when the first version of the report circulated back in May.
The top-15 projects are ranked in order below:
EOS is a blockchain platform with its own cryptocurrency that uses the security and decentralization inherent with Bitcoin and couples it with the transactional efficiency of Ethereum to build a system for Smart Contracts.
- EOS
- Ethereum
- NEO
- Stellar
- Lisk
- Nebulas
- Steem
- BitShares
- Ripple
- Qtum
- Waves
- Cardano
- Monero
- Ark
Bitocoin, the first and largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was ranked all the way down at no. 17. Komodo, which was ranked no. 5 in the first version of the scorecard, dropped to 16. - Hacked
- Ethereum Classic
From $260 billion to $241 billion, the valuation of the cryptocurrency market has dropped by over $19 billion in the past 24 hours, as major cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, and EOS fell by large margins.
For a third day in a row, EOS, the delegated proof-of-stake (PoS) network based on the Ethereum blockchain protocol, has recorded the biggest loss amongst major cryptocurrencies. On June 24, EOS recorded a loss of 13 percent, while BTC, ETH, XRP, and BCH fell 3.5%, 4.6%, 5.8%, and 8.5% respectively. - CCN
Initial coin offerings (ICOs) continue to overflow the crypto universe, but bitcoin bull Brian Kelly told CNBC that the market is overvalued.
He said investors are in a "wait-and-see mode."
"People are starting to say, 'I'm going to put the brakes on the ICOs right now. I've got my portfolio. I don't need a seventh or eighth ICO,'" the cryptocurrency investor said on
"Fast Money" Thursday. "To me, [ICOs are] not as hot as they used to be."
In fact, Kelly said the market for ICOs, or initial coin offerings, a crowdfunding way to raise funds for cryptocurrency ventures, is "very frothy."
There have been more than 300 ICOs launched in the first half of 2018 — nearly the same amount as all of 2017. And to date, in the first six months of this year, more money has been raised. - CNBC
“The Dollar Index to foreign exchange gold conflict is reflective of a paper to physical battle, and given the absolute certainty that the physical kilobar market (as Swiss gold refiners have told me) is now backlogged 2 months out and extending, this battle will be resolved to the upside and soon…
Andrew Maguire continues: “All Swiss refiners are now fully booked out on all gold kilobar production until the end of July. Also, there is reliable feedback that China has been quietly forward purchasing (large) tonnage of refinery production since May and utilizing spot index positions to settle at delivery. With refinery order books now full for 2 months out, each day gold stays below $1,300, more tonnage orders are spot-indexed for delivery. And with order books already full, this backlog was already threatening to extend out into August. - King World NewsWhile last eight days saw the gold cartel severely crush prices to back below their 200 and 50 day moving averages, demand from central banks and institutions for gold at these discount prices have created shortages at the world's largest refiners. And when there are no longer sufficient supplies of any commodity or currency to satisfy demand, as seen over a year ago when India decided to eliminate their highest denominations of currency, the results are more often than not a sharp and rapid rebound of the price to the upside.
Thursday evening, nearly 40 men and women made history by becoming the first class to graduate from the Cleveland School of Cannabis.
"I feel like we're making history. I really do," said graduate William Hutson.
Hutson majored in horticulture. He believes his degree will set him apart from others eying the cannabis business.
"I want to put my app in at the Buckeye Relief, so getting this today kind of helps me with that and furthering my career," he said.
Graduates range in age. Some are fresh out of high school, while others are older and recently changed career paths.
"What they all have in common is that they believe in the good that cannabis can serve, particularly as medicine, and they believe in the good cannabis can serve for the economy," said Jacob Wagner, Cleveland School of Cannabis Dean of Instruction and Student Services.
"We have students who want to work at dispensaries as budtenders. We have students who are interested in processing, students who are interested in business, so you don't have to work directly in the industry," he said. - Cleveland 19
Yesterday, Bill Baruch, President of Blue Line Futures, told CNBC bitcoin's "bottoming process can begin" following signs that volatility is "depressed" and that "selling has become exhausted".
Luis Carranza, founder of London Fintech Week has responded by telling Express.co.uk that crypto has come a long way in 2018 and there are plenty of reasons to be "optimistic".
He said: "Crypto is unpredictable. There are massive spikes and drops. $4500 could be the bottom, but there is nothing preventing $2500 from being the bottom. Likewise, as crypto becomes more mainstream the price tends to rise. Even if the price drops to $1000 there's nothing preventing another surge to $14,000." – UK Express
Stephen Silver, the CEO at Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry, has revealed that after four years of integrating Bitcoin in 2014, cryptocurrency transactions have surpassed credit card sales at the retail shop and 20 percent of the company’s sales are now attributable to cryptocurrency.
Silver, who had previously led Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry to become the first jewelry retailer in the world to accept cryptocurrency back in 2014, said:
“Cryptocurrency has surpassed the volume of retail credit-card purchases in the company in a very short time period. We’ve created revenue that the company would not even enjoy without being able to accept cryptocurrency. Large sums of money are where we are finding cryptocurrency to be a huge advantage.” – BTC NewsWhile the use of cryptocurrencies as a full medium of exchange has not caught on with most retail and service establishments, it does appear to work well in high end retail and with real estate transactions. And since enough exchanges have arisen since 2014 to make the acceptance of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies possible, the only two things potentially standing in the way of it one day reaching a critical mass would be that of price stability, and improving the speed to transactions as the blockchain and technology progress.
ZIMBABWE should re-introduce its own currency backed by commodities since bond notes and dollarisation has failed, financial expert Persistence Gwanyanya has said.
Speaking during the CEO Africa Roundtable discussion in Bulawayo on Friday, Gwanyanya said the government needed to go back to the drawing board and come up with a permanent solution to the country's cash crisis.
"What is a permanent solution to our cash crisis because it seems dollarisation has reached its sale by date, it would appear the best solution is for the country to re-introduce its own currency," he said.
The plan, Gwanyanya said, would be executed through the forward sale of commodities to other countries.
"It is easy to forward sale our gold production at $2 billion a year. If we forward sale it for five years, we get $10 billion, our tobacco production at $1 billion a year and if we forward sale it we get $5 billion. The same can be done to platinum."
Speaking at the same event, Finance deputy minister Terence Mukupe concurred with Gwanyanya, saying the country needed to adopt its national currency.
"We have to adopt a national currency without doubt and there has to be a cap on the maximum release of how much of the new currency you are going to put out. The numbers that are there right now are indicating that probably the maximum release should not be more than a billion dollars," he said. – Bulawayo 24
4. THE MAJOR IMPACT OF PRIVATE U.S. OWNERSHIP, ACCORDING
LIMITED OFFICIAL USE
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TO THE DEALERS' EXPECTATIONS, WILL BE THE FORMATION OF A SIZABLE GOLD FUTURES MARKET. EACH OF THE DEALERS EXPRESS- ED THE BELIEF THAT THE FUTURES MARKET WOULD BE OF SIGNIFI- CANT PROPORTION AND PHYSICAL TRADING WOULD BE MINISCULE BY COMPARISON. ALSO EXPRESSED WAS THE EXPECTATION THAT LARGE VOLUME FUTURES DEALING WOULD CREATE A HIGHLY VOLATILE MAR- KET. IN TURN, THE VOLATILE PRICE MOVEMENTS WOULD DIMINISH THE INITIAL DEMAND FOR PHYSICAL HOLDING AND MOST LIKELY NEGATE LONG-TERM HOARDING BY U.S. CITIZENS.
5. AS TO FUTURE DEMAND BY U.S. CITIZENS FOR GOLD, MOST DEALERS DID NOT FORESEE DEMAND FOR PHYSICAL HOLDING AS SIGNIFICANT, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF AN INITIAL SURGE DURING THE FIRST 2 TO 3 MONTHS OF THE YEAR FOLLOWING DEREGULATION THEY DID NOT FEEL THAT U.S. CITIZENS, ON THE WHOLE, WERE PSYCHOLOGICALLY PREPARED TO SWITCH FROM SMALL SCALE GOLD COIN PURCHASES TO LARGE SCALE, LONG-TERM BULLION HOARDING. SEVERAL EXPRESSED THE VIEW THAT THE DEMAND FOR COINS (AFTER THE INITIAL SURGE) WOULD MOST LIKELY BE SUCH THAT IT COULD BE MET FROM WITHIN SHOULD THE U.S. DECIDE TO MINT GOLD COINS FOR SUCH PURPOSES. SPIERS LIMITED OFFICIAL USE - Wikileaks
Central banks in emerging-market nations are likely to keep adding gold to their reserves, says BMO Capital Markets. Analysts offered this view after citing a Bloomberg news report that the Bank of Russia added another 1% to its gold holdings in May, taking its total to 62 million troy ounces. “This continues the trend over the past few years where Russia is selling U.S. Treasuries and allocating more to gold,” BMO says. “We expect global central banks, particularly those in emerging markets, to continue to add to gold holdings at a steady pace over the coming years amid efforts to diversify their reserves.” - Kitco
"the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units … of the value [mass or weight] of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenth parts of a grain of pure … silver.
The Liberty Dollar is being resurrected as an asset-backed cryptocurrency that, according to its developers, "facilitates vaulted, physical ownership of precious metals and the real-time trading of physical precious metals."
The cryptocurrency, identified as LD2, is the brainchild of Extra von NotHaus (son of Liberty Dollar creator Bernard von NotHaus) and Steven Brendtro.
The cryptocurrency will first appear with silver assets, with a future issuance to include gold assets.
According to the developers, the LD2 cryptocurrency is "a blockchain-based digital warehouse receipt, issued by [ISSUER], with the precious metals backing on deposit with the [DEPOSITORY], and the [AUDITOR] providing a monthly examination of all holdings. The [AUDITOR] works on behalf of the token holders to verify that all issued tokens are backed by the prescribed amount of precious metals. This third-party vaulting verification and independent auditing ensures that there is exactly one troy ounce of physical precious metal in the vault for each token issued, at all times —– independent of token ownership. As a digital warehouse receipt, every LD2 token is fully redeemable through the [DEPOSITORY] for its precious metals backing."
According to Extra von NotHaus, "the first two issuances, LD2.zero and LD.silver, will be backed by silver before we issue a gold-backed version." - Coin World
Only supercomputers will be able to process cryptocurrencies in nearest future, and transactions can lead to an internet collapse, according to a recent report by Swiss-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
“To process the number of digital retail transactions currently handled by selected national retail payment systems, even under optimistic assumptions, the size of the ledger would swell well beyond the storage capacity of a typical smartphone in a matter of days, beyond that of a typical personal computer in a matter of weeks and beyond that of servers in a matter of months,” the report said.
Records of cryptocurrency transactions are kept on a digital ledger. With every money transfer, the ledger swells in size.
Then, users of cryptocurrencies will face other problems with transactions, according to the report. “Only supercomputers could keep up with verification of the incoming transactions. The associated communication volumes could bring the internet to a halt, as millions of users exchanged files on the order of magnitude of a terabyte,”BIS wrote. - Russia Today
Today, Jinbi Token (https://jinbitoken.io/), a UK and Belarus-based gold-backed blockchain business has gone live with the public pre-sale starting at 12 noon. The pre-sale is currently open to the public and will run for 72 hours prior to the main sale scheduled to start on Thursday June 21 2018.
The Jinbi Token merges traditional gold investment with blockchain technology, which allows the token holder to experience the best of both worlds. Jinbi has developed this concept further by being one of the first tokens to be partnered with a gold mining company. Using blockchain technology allows Jinbi to hold its primary assets and secure transactions anonymously, safely, traceably and transparently. – PR NewswireJune 19: GoldCrypto
In a world first, GoldCrypto is providing a much-needed industry breakthrough in cryptocurrency security and is guaranteeing its cryptocurrency tokens from any hacking theft.
GoldCrypto offers 150% gold-backed tokens that keep increasing in gold backing. As well as token protection from hacking theft the AuX tokens present a rock-solid unmatched entry into the gold and cryptocurrency markets. See: https://goldcrypto.io
GoldCrypto AuX token security is being implemented through the CryptoSecure Platform which makes hacking and theft of tokens futile. If any tokens are stolen, they are rendered worthless in the hands of any cybercriminal and replaced into the victim’s account. See: https://cryptosecure.com. – Business InsiderJune 21: Cyronium
Cyronium is a crypto asset that aims to overcome weaknesses in the financial sector by creating an asset that enables individuals to invest and benefit from blockchain technologies.
What makes Cyronium unique is that the platform’s utility token, the CYRO token, is tied to the value of gold which protects the value of the token from bear markets and sudden price changes. This system also reduces the risks bore by crypto investors due to the volatile nature of cryptocurrency prices, making it an ideal option for individuals who are new to cryptocurrency investing.
Aside from investments, Cyronium plans to introduce a platform where SMEs have access to a variety of solutions including interest-free loans and business help to grow their businesses rapidly. The company will also integrate its technology with existing businesses to increase the adoption of the blockchain and Cyronium’s solutions. - ChipinThese new gold backed cryptos bring the resource/asset backed sector of the cryptocurrency market to nearly 40 different tokens.
China’s neighbor Kyrgyzstan has been piling up gold reserves as a hedge against a possible trade war between Beijing and Washington.
The country is seeking to boost the share of gold in its $2-billion international reserves to 50 percent from its current 16 percent.
“The rules of the game are changing,” Kyrgyz Central Bank Governor Tolkunbek Abdygulov told Bloomberg in an interview. “It doesn’t matter what currencies we have in our reserves; dollars, yuan or rubles all make us vulnerable.”
The Kyrgyz currency, the som, slumped to a record low in 2015 following steep depreciation of the Russian ruble amid an oil crisis and stand-off with the West. Since then, the country boosted the share of gold in its reserves from 8 to 15 percent.
A professor at the University of Exeter claims in a new textbook that learning mathematics can cause “collateral damage” to society by training students in "ethics-free thought."
“The Ethics of Mathematics: Is Mathematics Harmful” was written by University of Exeter Professor Paul Ernest, and published as a chapter in a 2018 textbook he edited called The Philosophy of Mathematics Education Today.
"The nature of pure of mathematics itself leads to styles of thinking that can be damaging when applied beyond mathematics to social and human issues."
Despite the myriad benefits math offers to society—such as increased scientific knowledge and improved healthcare, allowing us to live longer and happier lives—Ernest warns of three ways mathematics education causes “collateral damage” to society.
First, Ernest asserts that “the nature of pure of mathematics itself leads to styles of thinking that can be damaging when applied beyond mathematics to social and human issues,” since math facilitates “detached” and “calculative” reasoning.
“Reasoning without meanings provides a training in ethics-free thought,” he writes, fretting that this “masculine” paradigm “valorises rules, abstraction, objectification, impersonality, unfeelingness, dispassionate reason, and analysis.”
Second, he argues that the “applications of mathematics in society can be deleterious to our humanity unless very carefully monitored and checked,” worrying particularly about how math facilitates transactions of money and finance.
“Money and thus mathematics is the tool for the distribution of wealth,” he states. “It can therefore be argued that as the key underpinning conceptual tool mathematics is implicated in the global disparities in wealth.”
Finally, Ernest worries of the personal impact math has on “less-successful students,” especially women, since math is often perceived as a “masculine” and “difficult” subject.
“One of the persistent myths of the twentieth century has been that females are ‘naturally’ less well equipped mathematically than males,” Ernest claims, albeit without acknowledging data that would complicate his theory. – Campus Reform
Hollywood star Kurt Russell is one of a number of performers set to star in an upcoming indie film about cryptocurrencies.
The film, entitled Crypto, will feature Russell as well as Alexis Bledel, Jeremie Harris and Luke Hemsworth, among others. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the film focuses on a young anti-money laundering agent, played by Beau Knapp, who returns to his hometown in New York to investigate a case of corruption and fraud. Russell is playing the father of Knapp's character, according to press materials.
Crypto's producers are calling it "a thriller in the vein of The Firm and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" – but with a decidedly cryptocurrency-focused twist. The film was written by Carlyle Eubank and David Frigerio. – Coin Desk
That plan has now become a reality, as the Texas Bullion Depository opened in Austin on June 6. The opening of the facility represents a shift away from the federal government’s and the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money. More accurately, we should say, away from Americans’ forced reliance on the government’s fiat currency in place of real, gold-backed money.
When Abbot signed the bill into law three years ago, he said, in part, “The Texas Bullion Depository will become the first state-level facility of its kind in the nation, increasing the security and stability of our gold reserves and keeping taxpayer funds from leaving Texas to pay for fees to store gold in facilities outside our state.” – New American