Free Republic

On Aug. 14, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Social Security into law. Eighty-eight years later, our Social Security system is among the most successful and popular government programs in history. Nearly every worker pays premiums (Federal Insurance Contributions or FICA) for Social Security. In return, they receive insurance benefits when they retire, become disabled, or lose a family breadwinner. Social Security is secure, efficient, and the most important source of retirement income for the vast majority of Americans. Social Security does have one major flaw, though: Its benefits are too low. The average Social Security benefit is only $1,700...

Jill Drehmer claims to have cracked the code to financial freedom. The year was 2015, the place an upstate New York grocery store, where the 36-year-old mom of two discovered that federal assistance no longer covered her kids’ favorite cereal. A revelation ensued: “I thought, ‘There’s got to be a better way to make some extra income — something.’” As fate would have it, Drehmer found that something in LuLaRoe, a multilevel marketing company that today is riddled with controversy. The California-based brand peddles women’s clothing to a loyal fan base. Its pièce de résistance are buttery soft leggings covered...

Patrick called his new business venture Holiday Magic and set up company headquarters at 616 Canal St. in San Rafael. Although the company sold cosmetics, its actual moneymaker was signing up distributors. Those distributors bought products from Holiday Magic and had to sell that product in order to make a profit — or even hope to break even. *SNIP* Riding high on his business success, Patrick turned next to politics. In 1965, Patrick announced he was challenging Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination for California governor. The grandstanding, trash-talking businessman was a harbinger of the modern political era. He campaigned...

Former Pres. Trump: “Bitcoin, it just seems like a scam. I don't like it. I want the dollar to be the currency of the world.” Video...

Thodex, a crypto platform based in Turkey, said its platform has been “temporarily closed” to address an “abnormal fluctuation in the company accounts.” Local media reports say that Faruk Fatih Ozer, Thodex’s founder, has flown to Albania, taking $2 billion of investors’ funds with him. According to the state-run Anadolu Agency, Turkish authorities have now issued an international warrant seeking Ozer’s arrest. ...In 2019, Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX went bankrupt after its CEO died, resulting in millions of dollars’ worth of digital assets being trapped in a digital wallet.

The entire crypto market could increase in size by 50,000%, according to macro investor and Bitcoin advocate Raoul Pal. In a new interview on the Gestalt University podcast, The Real Vision Finance founder says that the public is generally unprepared for the ways in which digital assets could transform the current financial landscape.“There is a parallel financial universe being built in front of our eyes and people are slowly migrating across. People have no comprehension yet of how big this is. They’re still bickering over whether Bitcoin is an investment vehicle without realizing the magnitude of what is actually going...

Brian Armstrong is poised to become one of the richest people in the world after Coinbase Global Inc. goes public Wednesday. Coinbase, co-founded by Mr. Armstrong in 2012, runs the largest bitcoin exchange in the U.S. and is set to become the first major cryptocurrency-focused company to go public in the country. It is expected to fetch a valuation of between $65 billion and $100 billion, which could make Mr. Armstrong’s 20% stake worth up to $20 billion. That would put the 38-year-old chief executive among the 100 wealthiest people in the world, based on Forbes’ most recent billionaires list.

In its latest monthly “Crypto Outlook” report, Bloomberg outlined the “rising bitcoin adoption tide” with some bullish sentiment. On April 6, Bloomberg released the April edition of its monthly “Crypto Outlook,” in which it outlined the bullish narratives around bitcoin and the burgeoning industry surrounding it. The report was notably bullish, particularly as it came from a reputable legacy firm in the financial and media industry. Exerpt summary form: “Indicators Point To Rising Bitcoin-To-Gold Ratio” “Bitcoin Replacing Old-Guard Gold Is More Sudden Than Gradual “Digital Vs. Analog: Bitcoin's Upper Hand” “Few Signs Of Bitcoin Holders Looking To Sell” “Bitcoin Rhyme...

Ki Young Ju, chief executive of on-chain insights platform CryptoQuant, says that it’s time to go all-in on Bitcoin. In a new tweet, Ki Young Ju tells his 124,600 followers that he believes the time has come for him to put all his chips into the world’s largest cryptocurrency. To support his bullish call, Ki Young Ju points to the correlation between the price of Bitcoin and the stablecoins ratio, a metric that divides BTC reserves by all stablecoin reserves stored in exchanges. According to the CryptoQuant executive, a plummeting stablecoin ratio indicates that Bitcoin and the broader crypto market...

By using energy to validate transactions in a way that is independent of any existing grid or source, Bitcoin mining will save the climate. It’s in vogue to think that Bitcoin is accelerating the climate crisis. The common argument is that Bitcoin uses lots of energy, which must mean more carbon emissions, so as a result, it’s ruining the climate. Of course, critics also seem enraged at Bitcoin itself, believing it doesn’t do anything useful beyond facilitating a casino for Reddit memelords and “libertarian nerds” to get rich in. To these critics, Bitcoin is a totally useless, degenerate system that...

'Goldman Sachs said that Bitcoin’s 2021 returns had eclipsed that of the stock market’s best performing sector Investment bank Goldman Sachs revealed that it had started tracking Bitcoin’s performance at the beginning of the year, and so far, the leading cryptocurrency has outperformed the stock market. According to Goldman Sachs, Bitcoin’s year-to-date return is double that of Wall Street’s best performing sector. ... As of 4 March, the leading cryptocurrency’s year-to-date returns are around 70%. The ROI is double that of the energy sector (35%), which occupied the second position. Bitcoin (BTC) began the year close to the $30,000 mark...

According to the politician, Hunter Biden was paid by laundered money for his services for Ukraine's Burisma Holdings energy company IEV, November 20. /TASS/. The Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor General has drawn up an indictment against the owner of the Burisma Holdings energy company, ex-Ecology Minister Nikolai Zlochevsky, that contains information that the son of former US Vice President Joe Biden, Hunter, as a Burisma board member along with his partners received $16.5 million for their services, Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada MP from the ruling Servant of the People party Alexander Dubinsky told a press conference on Wednesday, citing the...

Search on Facebook for “secret sister gift exchange” and you’ll find people posting and re-posting the same message over and over again. The message claims you can buy a gift for $10 or more, add your name to a list and then receive a bounty of 36 gifts. “A lot of friends are doing it, or at least posting about it. Doesn’t sound like a good idea,” Lauren Kidwell said. Kidwell said “secret sister” sounds a whole lot like a pyramid scam she saw years ago. “You only spend $10, get one gift for someone else. Everybody else sends you...

I have a confession.  When I was in college, I read a book by a prominent megachurch pastor. The author told me to live like a child of God. He told me God wanted to bless me. He also mentioned that if I only believed, God would give me the nicest house in the neighborhood. That seemed to make sense. The author explained that he once wanted the nicest house in the neighborhood, and God gave it to him. Here was a man with evidence. Not only did he have the story about the house, and other anecdotes, he also had a very nice set of white...

A new report looks at the state of the legal profession in 2030, and it doesn't look too pretty as far as employment is concerned, io9 reports. "It is no longer unrealistic to consider that workplace robots and their AI processing systems could reach the point of general production by 2030," the report, by Jomati Consultants, says. And those robots could eventually "do the work of a dozen low-level associates. They would not get tired. They would not seek advancement (or) pay rises." A firm's upper echelons would still be populated by actual human lawyers, but the need for associates...

WASHINGTON – The federal Highway Trust Fund, which contributes to road building and maintenance projects across the country, is expected to run out of money in early August, leading some states to issue plans to halt construction in case the well runs dry. The House and Senate are considering dueling packages and have not reached an agreement on how to address the fund’s impending insolvency. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has advised governors that reimbursements may slow to a trickle if the chambers can’t agree in time. Foxx told the states his department “will continue to take every possible measure to...

The P20 Pyramid project in Grand Rapids has been characterized as a "mystery project" due to the lack of details about it. But Sen. Mark Jansen, R-Gaines Township, says the story behind his effort to get state funding for the project is neither unusual nor mysterious. "I saw a project that was very close to my community that had time sensitivity concerning donors' decisions," he said. "I believed and still believe it can be a very important project." On that basis, he sought $5.5 million in state funding for the project as a line item in Senate Bill 608, a...

Shares of Herbalife Ltd. suffered their biggest loss in more than a year Friday following a report that criminal authorities are investigating the Los Angeles nutritional products company. The FBI has launched a criminal investigation of Herbalife and its web of independent distributors, a federal law enforcement source told The Times. A federal law enforcement official in New York confirmed Friday that the FBI had opened an inquiry into Herbalife but did not know first-hand the extent of the investigation. “I can’t give any guidance on where it’s headed,” the official said. …

Is this George Soros and Carl Icahn-backed firm running a "pyramid scheme"? 13 March 2014 | By Sophie Hobson George Soros and Carl Icahn both hold stakes in it, but controversial US firm Herbalife has come under consistent fire from rival investor William Ackman over its allegedly dubious operations. Now it’s being investigated by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over claims it might be running a “pyramid scheme”. The key accusation against Herbalife, which makes weight loss and nutritional supplements and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is that it makes most of its money from signing...

A Congressional report quietly released last month suggests that bitcoin could be a threat to US monetary policy, and makes the case for continued central banking control. The report, Bitcoin: Questions, Answers, and Analysis of Legal Issues, was published by the Congressional Research Service, which produces research reports for US policy makers. It argues for the benefits of a single, incumbent currency (the US dollar), for stability. “If greater use of bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) leads to multiple monetary units, these benefits could be threatened, particularly if these new currencies continue to exhibit a high degree of price volatility,” the...