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One day before the Senate's digital currency hearing titled "Beyond Silk Road: Potential Risks, Threats, and Promises of Virtual Currencies", Bitcoin is largely oblivious to any potential regulatory threats, either at the legislative or the city level, where as reported previously the New York superintendent is in a rush to enforce BitLicenses on businesses that accept BitCoin, and moments ago crossed $500 for the first time ever. Instead, it appears that as we also reported previously, the Chinese Bitcoin craze has reached the parabolic threshold, going so far as making Bitcoin an acceptable payment for real estate, which means...

Moments ago BitCoin hit $395, and will likely cross $400 in the immediate future (the chart looks a little less scary in log scale). So as more and more pile into the electronic currency, some due to ideological reasons, some simply to chase momentum, some out of disappointment with the manipulated gold price looking to park their savings in an alternative, non-fiat based currency, which a year ago traded 40 times lower, the attention of the government is finally starting to shift to what has been the best performing asset class in the past year, outperforming even the infamous Caracas...

Having now tripled since August, Bitcoin's break above $300 ($324 highs) raises an important thought experiment - can a digital currency act as a global reserve currency? It seems yesterday's CNBC discussion that Bitcoin is nothing but a beanie-baby fad just served to feed the beast... on heavy volume after Draghi's comments... Charles Hugh-Smith, from OfTwoMinds blog, attempts an answer of just that question: Could Bitcoin (or equivalent) Become a Global Reserve Currency? Could a non-state issued digital currency like Bitcoin become a global reserve currency? The idea came up in my recent conversation with Max Keiser on the Keiser...

Detroit was to be a workers' paradise, a symbol of progressive success. Instead, it has become a symbol of big government failure, corruption, violence, and decay. In 2013, after a great withdrawal of more than a million productive residents, once-great Detroit became the largest American city ever to declare bankruptcy. "The Great Withdrawal" explores why Detroit failed, why other liberal cities may soon follow, and how this could drag America into insolvency and prolonged depression. It explores the bizarre Nanny Statist Progressive movement that took power in America in 1913 and has driven America on a 100-Year detour away from...

Former Assistant Housing Secretary Catherine Austin Fitts says all U.S. citizens are partly responsible for banker fraud. Fitts, also a top Wall Street Banker, says, “What popular opinion has said again and again and again is it wants the dirty money. . . . It wants the U.S. to play this geopolitical top dog game to the extent it provides subsidy to them. We can’t have our cake and eat it too. . . . If we have a model that is dependent on crime and fraud . . . we have to change the model.” Fitts calls what we...

AN ECONOMIC CHART THAT COULD SPELL TROUBLE Oct. 21, 2013 by Becket Adams Fund flows are interesting in thatthey help market analysts gauge investor sentiment in specific assets or the markets as a whole. “For instance,if net fund flows for bonds funds during a given month is negative by a large amount,this would signal broad-based pessimism over the fixed-income markets,” Investopedia notes, offering a helpful explanation for the concept. That being said, something interesting happened earlier this year with foreign interest in USD-denominated assets. Simply put, foreign interest collapsed. Here’s a chart to help you visualize the drop: “It...

The US dollar hit 8-1/2-month low on worries about U.S. economy, the headline blares. usdeur101913 True, but the USDEUR rate took its biggest beating during the 2002-2008 period. But since the latter half of 2008, the dollar has been floating around in a relatively narrow band (although it seems larger on a day-to-day basis). bfmB3 And if we look at a longer term pictures of the US dollar spot rate (DXY), we see the Reagan economic recovery and asset bubble and then the Clinton/Bush economic recovery and asset bubble. dxy1960s But the asset bubble that followed the Clinton economic growth...

(Reuters) - The dollar fell to eight-and-a-half-month lows against the euro and a currency basket on Friday on expectations the Federal Reserve will delay scaling back its monetary stimulus following this month's political battles over the U.S. budget.Volume was thin as investors braced for a deluge of U.S. economic data next week now that the U.S. government was open following a two-week shutdown. The September nonfarm payrolls report is due on Tuesday.The first wave of U.S. data released on Thursday after the government returned to work was fairly upbeat. September U.S. payrolls are due next week, with the market forecasting...

The dollar and European shares fell on Thursday as market relief at a last-ditch U.S. budget deal gave way to worries over the economic impact of the 16-day government shutdown and prospects of a re-run early next year. Chinese credit agency Dagong, downgraded the U.S. sovereign rating to A- from A with a negative outlook, driving further dollar losses.

Dow futures down -105 at this time. Were -95 a little earlier.

We use the term “reserve currency” when referring to the common use of the dollar by other countries when settling their international trade accounts. For example, if Canada buys goods from China, it may pay China in US dollars rather than Canadian dollars, and vice versa. However, the foundation from which the term originated no longer exists, and today the dollar is called a “reserve currency” simply because foreign countries hold it in great quantity to facilitate trade. The first reserve currency was the British pound sterling. Because the pound was “good as gold,” many countries found it more convenient...

For Immediate Release October 8, 2013 Federal Reserve Board Issues Redesigned $100 Note The Federal Reserve on Tuesday began supplying financial institutions with a redesigned $100 note that incorporates new security features to deter counterfeiters and help businesses and consumers tell whether a note is genuine. Distance, demand, and the policies of individual financial institutions will influence how quickly the redesigned notes reach businesses and consumers around the world. “The new design incorporates security features that make it easier to authenticate, but harder to replicate,” said Federal Reserve Board Governor Jerome H. Powell. “As the new note transitions into daily...

Russia has climbed 10 places since 1995 in a global ranking of economic freedom, while the United States has fallen 13 spots over the same period, according to a report from a Canadian public policy think-tank released Wednesday. Russia ranked 101st out of 151 nations, up 10 places from 1995 and 12 places better than its ranking in 2000, in the “Economic Freedom of the World” report, compiled by Canada’s Fraser Institute. After ranking as the world’s third freest economy behind Hong Kong and Singapore for most of the two decades from 1980-2000, the United States began to lose ground...

The Federal Reserve's FOMC statement is out, and it's a shocker! The Fed is NOT TAPERING its massive $85 billion large-scale asset purchase program. Almost no one expected this. The Dow went from -40 to +63 in the blink of an eye. The S&P 500 got as high as 1,718, which is an all-time intraday high. The U.S. dollar tanked, and gold spiked. The 10-year Treasury note yield tanked to 2.76% from around 2.86% before the announcement.

Canadian billionaire businessman Ned Goodman predicts the end of the U.S. Dollar as the world's reserve currency. He predicts the transition out of the U.S. Dollar will become, "...quite ugly." He delivered the lecture at Cambridge House's Toronto Resource Investment Conference 2013 on Thursday, September 12, 2013.

Following the poor new homes sales report in the US and economic weakness in developing countries, we see gold and silver rising this morning. Gold: gold082313 Silver: silver082313 And the USD/EUR is plunging. usdeur666 And the USD/JPY is doing likewise. usdjpy082313 The 10 year US Treasury yield is down 8 basis points. ust10082313 Stay tuned!

If there is a global currency devaluation war, the U.S. is losing.

What I'm about to say will challenge even the most steadfast gold bears - or anyone for that matter right now who thinks that gold has seen its better days. The chart below tells a story - a big story. In fact, I encourage you to forward this email to anyone you know who serious about his money. What I found here, with the help of Frank Holmes from U.S. Global and one of the smartest people on earth on the potent combination of Asian markets and commodities, is a chart that shows a truly astounding fact about gold.

A look at how the stock markets have performed over the last year in countries where Central Bankers have ruled the roost, versus countries where Central Bankers have not. If you ain't got Ben Bernanke or the Bank of Japan on your team, better of keeping your ball and bat and staying home.

Greece and, for that matter, the rest of Europe are showing cracks again this morning. The Dollar is screaming higher (how's that "dollar collapse" thesis working out?) Gold is around $1,200; up fractionally on the day, but in general not in good shape -- and making a mockery of the "Gold to $5,000" callers. Interest rates are again going up, while The Fed is trying to claim that they really didn't say that they were going to taper. But that's a lie, because they have to stop the QE. This isn't about wanting to exit, it's about being forced to...