Bitcoins: Currency or Commodity?

Posted on by
Reply

If you buy 3 barrels of grain and take it to Duane Reade and buy goods worth  3 barrels of grain, does this differ from a Bitcoin transaction?

Digital currency is coming. Banks fully expect money to become digital, with some betting that virtual currencies like Bitcoin will become mainstream.

This is cheery news for folks fighting drug trafficking, terrorism, corruption and organized crime. Cash has been recognized as crucial to funding illegal activity. Five hundred Euro banknotes are known as “the bin Laden” for its role in financing terrorism. It’s nearly impossible to trace bribes and stolen public funds when they disappear in briefcases of hundred dollar bills. Bitcoins Future     The Future of Money

Bitcoin Currency

A New Monopoly Game?

Posted on by
Reply

Bloomberg News suggests:

Four changes turn the classic game into its deregulated — and more educational — variant:

1. Let every player borrow and lend from any other player. They are free to negotiate all terms, such as the interest rate, the repayment schedule, collateral and down payment requirements (if any), and what happens in the event of default. This allows players to borrow before buying any property.

2. Players who lend cash in exchange for pledges to be repaid can use those promises to secure loans from other players. They can also sell them.

3. Let players sell shares of the rental income generated by specific properties. The stakes can be traded and used as collateral for loans. Players can set their own rules about dilution and how to finance additional investments on their properties.

4. Let players write derivatives contracts with other players, such as insurance policies that pay out when a player lands on specific properties and options contracts that give a player the right to buy un-owned properties at preset prices from another player if he lands on it first.  ReWriting Monopoly

 

Monopoly

2000 Money-Laundering Case Involving Panama Based Jewelry Stores

Posted on by
Reply

US Rewards international AML Efforts2000 Money-Laundering Case Involving Panama Based Jewelry Stores

The U.S. signed an agreement with Panama that will result in the sharing of more than $36 million in forfeited assets from a 2000 money-laundering case involving Panama-based jewelry stores.

It marks the first time the U.S. shared assets with Panama, and it’s the second-largest sum of forfeited assets ever shared by the Justice Department with a foreign government, the department said in a statement.

“For more than 12 years, the assistance of the Panamanian authorities has been consistent, reliable, and broad-ranging,” said James Cole, deputy attorney general, in the statement.

The assets being shared result from an investigation into a jewelry store, operating in the Colon Free Trade Zone in Panama. It was found that the owners washed massive amounts of profits derived from narcotics trafficking through Speed Jewelers and another jewelry business, Argento Vivo SA.

The confiscated property will be used to strengthen the ability of the Republic of Panama to combat money laundering and the seizure of illicit goods in criminal investigations and prosecution ,” said the U.S. statement .

DOJ Panama PressRelease

2000 Money-Laundering Case Involving Panama Based Jewelry Stores

Blackstone GSO Ensures Credit Default Swap Trigger

Posted on by
Reply

GSO Capital Partners LP provided a loan to Spanish gaming operator Codere SA (CDR) in June with terms that gave it a guaranteed return on credit-default swaps, outmaneuvering sellers of the protection.

The unit of Blackstone Group LP (BX) structured the loan in a way that would lead to a payout on swaps it held, according to three people with knowledge of the situation who asked not to be identified because the discussions were private. The contracts were triggered on Sept. 18 after Codere delayed an interest payment by two days to comply with the loan terms. GSO held 25 million to 30 million euros of the swaps, meaning it may have made at least 11.4 million euros ($15.6 million), according to one of the people and data compiled by Bloomberg.  No Lose Codere Trade

Codere Gaming

Digital Human Watch

Posted on by
Reply

Problems with the UK and US surveillance programs are representative of a broader, global issue. Given how intrusive digital surveillance can be, all governments should review their practices and update laws to ensure protection of all users’ data, regardless of their citizenship or location, Human Rights Watch said.

The US and UK’s actions also call attention to the ways governments are increasingly pressing Internet and telecommunications companies to help monitor online activity. Internet users trust companies to store and transmit the most intimate details of their daily lives. These companies have a responsibility to safeguard user privacy and avoid contributing to governments’ misuse of surveillance powers.   Digital Human Rights

Digital Human Rights

The Unique Ways Women Approach Finance

Posted on by
Reply

The standard cliché is that, relatively speaking, men are financial daredevils who like risk and that women are cautious and want security. Alternatively expressed, men are more risk friendly than women. Or to rephrase the title of a bestseller, “men buy shares from Mars and women have a savings account on Venus.” Articles published in the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) and in various other sources, shed new light on the combination of myth and reality captured in the above paragraph.
The Unique Ways Women Approach Finance

Unique Ways Women Approach Finance

Fed Loan Warning May Hurt Riskiest Borrowers, Trade Group Says

Posted on by
Reply

Recommendations by top banking regulators that lenders strengthen underwriting standards for leveraged loans may decrease funding to the neediest borrowers, according to Loan Syndications and Trading Association.

The Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency sent letters to some of the biggest U.S. banks asking them to avoid arranging debt that may be classified by regulators as having some deficiency that may result in a loss, according to nine people with knowledge of the communication.
Fed Loan Warning
The head of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, warns of the consequences of its own policy: increase the risks in the banking sector.
Head of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen

Entrepreneurs: Start and Then Prepare?

Posted on by
1

Branson on Virgin Airways startup:  At the airport, my final flight to the Virgin Islands was cancelled because of maintenance or something. It was the last flight out that night. I thought this was ridiculous, so I went and chartered a private airplane to take me to the Virgin Islands, which I did not have the money to do.

Then, I picked up a small blackboard, wrote “Virgin Airlines. $29.” on it, and went over to the group of people who had been on the flight that was cancelled. I sold tickets for the rest of the seats on the plane, used their money to pay for the chartered plane, and we all went to the Virgin Islands that night.

After speaking with our group, Branson sat on a panel with industry experts to talk about the future of business. As everyone around him was filling the air with business buzzwords and talking about complex ideas for mapping out our future, Branson was saying things like: “Screw it, just get on and do it.” Which was closely followed by: “Why can’t we mine asteroids?”

As I looked up at that panel, I realized that the person who sounded the most simplistic was also the only one who was a billionaire. Which prompted me to wonder, “What’s the difference between Branson and everyone else in the room?”     Successful Entrepreneurs Begin Before They Are Ready

Start