“For years star investor Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, has been ripping the Federal Reserve and other central banks for their massive easing programs. He sees no reason to feel differently now.

“This is absolute insanity, what’s going on,” he told Reuters TV.

“It’s not just the Fed, it’s central banking. This is the first time in recorded history that all major central banks are printing a lot of money trying to debase their currencies. The world’s floating around on a huge artificial sea of liquidity.”

The European Central Bank cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low Thursday.

And what’s the end game?

Eventually, Rogers asserts, “it’s going to dry up. And when it dries up, we’re all going to pay the price for this madness.”

He doesn’t expect the Fed to taper its quantitative easing anytime soon. The central bank is buying $85 billion of Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities a month.

“Mr. Bernanke’s certainly not going to do it. He wants to get out while he can before it all falls apart,” Rogers said. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s term ends Jan. 31. President Barack Obama has nominated Fed Vice Chair Janet Yellen to replace him.

“Mrs. Yellen undoubtedly will not do anything at first because she knows – I hope she knows – that this is going to cause problems when they stop producing so much money,” Rogers said.

“So I would suspect they will go home for a while—maybe [until] 2015.”

And what’s going to happen when the Fed finally shifts policy? “The markets are going to react and react pretty badly, and then they’ll probably loosen up again,” Rogers said.

“These are not very smart people. They’re government bureaucrats, and they think like government bureaucrats.”

So what should investors focus on next year?

“All you have to do is watch the central banks of the world, because if they’re all going to continue to print money, then a lot of it’s going to wind up in financial markets,” Rogers said. “That’s the most important thing that’s going on in the world right now.”

Rogers has been bullish on China for years and remains that way….”

Full article

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[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKt2Mhk73J4 450 300] [youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb-2WVepAUQ 450 300]

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Full video & article

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“Although the real significance of these assets is just the same as the value of the paper they are printed on, still the damage inflicted upon the masses, of which the fiat financial system serves as the control mechanism to the access of all the essentials for one’s survival, is immensely immeasurable.

Greed is never enough to describe the true cause and motivation by which such global torment was perpetrated. The power to extract worship by force is but a shallow understanding of the experience we all refer to as Life.

In the final analysis, those who are doing these senseless acts are not really that smart but suffer beyond idiocy could ever grasp.

Since America’s inception…  there has been a lingering notion that European Illuminati bankers seek to bring America to its knees and return it to the fold of the Crown of England, which centuries ago became the key political vassal for the Eight Families who own majority stock in every private central bank in the world- Rothschild, Rockefeller, Kuhn Loeb, Lehman, Goldman Sachs, Warburg, Lazard and Israel Moses Seif.

Many US Presidents warned of the intrigues of the cabal, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, John Quincy Adams; and later Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.  The latter two were assassinated for trying to nationalize the Federal Reserve via the issuance of Treasury Department-backed (publicly-issued) currency.

As cited in my Big Oil & Their Bankers… book and by others, the Eight Families own 52% of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, far and away the most powerful Fed Bank.  Their ownership is disguised under names like JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Do I exaggerate when I claim that there are Eight Families?  Well, yes, actually these oligarchs have interbred to the point that they are now, for all practical purposes, one big family, with the Rothschilds being the most powerful.  Their net worth alone is estimated at well over $100 trillion. These people, whose latest justification for lording over us is that they are descended from Jesus Christ himself, are, for obvious reasons, counter-revolutionary.  In their collective if obtuse minds, there are no good revolutions.  Democracy is antithema.  Government is something that only gets in the way.  It must be discredited and bought.  The American Revolution really pissed these inbreds off.  In Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the Crown of England still holds sway via the Governor General.  Most European countries retained their monarchies.  In America, we had a revolution, democracy and government.

A medieval rollback of the American Revolution begins with the concept that “government is the root of all evil”.  This strain of thinking is promoted by theSaudi/Israeli-owned Fox News.  These nations are not “Islamic” and “Jewish”.  They are fronts for the Crown of England and the Rothschilds.  The well-paid corporate lackey leadership of the Republican Party pushes this anti-government agenda, while the idiocracy misnomer known as the Tea Party takes this monarchist argument to its fascist extreme.

Deutsche Bank: born of of the Third Reich, now influencing the European Super State plan

Key to this revolutionary rollback is that seminal event- 911- which was used by Windsor family country cousin George Bush Jr. to dismantle our Bill of Rights, bankrupt our nation and destroy our image throughout the world via two oil-grab, narco-stimulant, contractor-friendly wars.  In the weeks before 911 the financial weekly Barons reported that Deutsche Bank had purchased huge put options (betting that a stock will go down in price) on American & United Airlines, and WTC reinsurance giants Munich RE, Swiss RE and the French Axa. Deutsche Bank, historically owned by the Nazi-funding Warburg family, bought Bankers Trust in 1999 to become the world’s largest bank with $882 billion in assets.  Bankers Trust, as its name indicates, had been the Eight Families’ US wealth repository and is the largest shareholder of the Four Horsemen- Exxon Mobil, Chevron Texaco, BP Amoco and Royal Dutch/Shell- who later reaped the Iraq/Afghanistan oil bonanza. In 2001 Sen. Carl Levin’s (D-MI) Banking Committee fingered Banker’s Trust as a major player in drug money laundering.  On August 28th, just two weeks before 911, Deutsche Bank executive Kevin Ingram pled guilty to laundering heroin proceeds and arranging US weapons sales to parties in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  A June 15, 2001 New York Post article said Osama bin Laden was the likely buyer.  Kevin Ingram is a close friend of Clinton Treasury Secretary and Goldman Sachs insider Robert Rubin, now a board member at Citigroup.  Ingram had worked at both Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers……”

Full article

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4smim2MNvF8 450 300]

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[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYgyDjl2nCU 450 300]

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[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeCUbpkqSFY 450 300] [youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpa-5JdCnmo 450 300] [youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKO868Vbizs 450 300]

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So the last time we had a very poor consumer confidence reading the fed opened the QE3 spigot. Could we be in for additional stimulus for the upcoming holiday season?

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“Just one in 10 American adults is opposed to auditing the shadowy Federal Reserve, with an overwhelming 74 percent supporting an audit of the controversial central bank, according to a new poll released by Rasmussen. While the banking cartel-run institution has hired lobbyistsand unleashed various gimmicks to improve its image and protect its cloak of secrecy from Congress and the public, it appears increasingly clear that the people see through the charade. Now, the question is whether lawmakers will side with the establishment to protect the Fed, or with the American public and their demands for transparency.

The survey results, which echo the findings of numerous other polls conducted on the issue in recent years, show that support for an audit of the Fed transcends party lines. While backing for transparency at the central bank was strongest among Republicans — 83 percent support an audit, versus 7 percent opposed — nearly two thirds of Democrats also want to know what is going at the Fed, compared to 14 percent who do not. Among Americans who do not identify with either major party, almost eight in 10 support an audit, with less than one in 10 against it.

According to Rasmussen Reports, which released the results on November 8, part of the reason that Americans still “overwhelmingly support” a public audit of the Fed might be “because a sizable number think the Fed chairman has too much power over the economy.” Neither current central bank boss Ben “Helicopter” Bernanke nor his likely replacement, Janet Yellen, was very popular with the public either. Among respondents who expressed an opinion and had heard of the central bankers — over a third did not recognize Yellen’s name — strong majorities held unfavorable views of them.

Overall, without even knowing what is going on behind closed doors at the central bank due to a lack of transparency, half of likely voters said they had a negative impression of the Fed — with more than 20 percent saying they viewed the institution “very” unfavorably. Among Republicans, an overwhelming seven in 10 respondents had a negative view. Just seven percent of adults surveyed had a “very favorable” impression of the central bank, and around one fourth said “somewhat favorable.” About 16 percent said they were unsure. Wealthier Americans were less likely than others to have a negative view, though even among higher earners, the Fed was hardly popular.

With just 10 percent of American adults opposed to auditing the shadowy but unimaginably powerful central bank, and a full three fourths in favor of opening up the books, there have been strong efforts in Congress to pass “Audit the Fed” legislation for years.Led in part by then-Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), the push to audit — and eventually abolish — the controversial institution has been gaining momentum quickly. From being virtually unknown among much of the public prior to the most recent economic crisis, trillions in lawless bailouts, the ongoing erosion of the dollar’s purchasing power, and increasing awareness have all contributed to the escalating political shift surrounding the Fed.

Of course, some members of Congress — for the most part responding to overwhelming public pressure — have been trying for years to find out what is going on behind the impenetrable veil of silence shrouding the U.S. central bank. However, the privately owned institution, which has a government-granted monopoly on America’s rapidly depreciating U.S. dollar, has fiendishly resisted transparency at every turn. Even Freedom of Information Act requests have been met with defiance, with the New York Fedpointing out in its refusal to hand over documents that it is privately owned by shareholders and not part of the government.

In response to the growing public outcry, the Fed actually resorted to hiring a lobbyist to protect its interests on Capitol Hill. More recently, it began waging what the New York Times described as a “public relations offensive.” When that failed to stem the escalating outrage, the central bank even asked for contractors to help it spy on critics — with one of the stated goals being to help tailor its “public relations” gimmicks, also known as propaganda, more effectively. In an apparent fit of desperation, the shadowy institution even began peddling propaganda to high-school students last year, in addition to pro-Fed comic books targeting young children.

Despite its best efforts, however, the House of Representatives has already voted overwhelmingly to audit the Fed in the past, obliterating normal partisan divides. Still, the secretive monetary cartel has managed to avoid serious scrutiny thus far. Thanks largely to certain establishment-minded senators — especially Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who fought hard to protect the Fed’s secrecy and ensure that only a watered-down audit would make it through — a real “audit the Fed” to investigate all of what the central bank is doing has remained elusive.

Even the neutered version of the audit that did pass, however, revealed more than $3 trillion in bailouts to foreign banks, major conflicts of interest, and much more. In just two and a half years, the Fed pumped more than $16 trillion — trillion with a t, more than the entire GDP of the United States — into bailouts for banks and mega-corporations. On both sides of the aisle, lawmakers claimed to be outraged about the heist, yet for some reason, Congress and the president have steadfastly refused to take real action. Of course, there have been a few efforts to rein in the Fed in recent years, but the institution continues to conjure trillions into existence with no accountability and no transparency.    …”

Full article

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Cheers on your weekend!

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFQJNeQDDHA 450 300] [youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HB5Gfo6ouQ 450 300] [youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7MhpFF1vv0 450 300]

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“The Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing has given rise to an all time low in the money multiplier which, in turn, has a higher probability of rising than falling. Notwithstanding the recent explosion of personal debt, Chart #5 above shows an emerging propensity of the US public to want to save a higher percentage of their income and/or pay down debts.  Therefore, the most likely driver of a rising ratio will be a rise in savings relative to money stock which, in turn, will place a downward pressure on corporate earnings.  It follows that continuation of QE by the Fed will do nothing other than push the money multiplier ratio lower. Therefore QE is becoming impotent as a strategy for driving the US economy. By extension, if the savings rate continues along its early rising trend, this will likely be accompanied by recessionary conditions which, in turn, will place a downward pressure on Price:Earnings ratios.

There are two unconventional analysts who have come to my attention over the years and whose work is unique to them:

The first is Mr. Alan Newman, who publishes a report entitled “Pictures of a Stock Market Mania”. His latest report, dated November 5th 2013 can be viewed here:   www.cross-currents.net/charts.htm ).

The second is Professor Didier Sornette, who’s bio can be viewed at (http://www.er.ethz.ch/people/sornette ) and whose stock-market relevant work is summarised on the following You-Tube of a TED Talk entitled “How can we predict the next financial crisis?”that he gave in June 2013.http://www.ted.com/talks/didier_sornette_how_we_can_predict_the_next_financial_crisis.html

If Professor Sornette’s model is to be believed, we can expect a significant market peak in mid November 2013 – see chart below: (source: Casey Research)

Chart # 1 – Time Singularity Forecast

Of course, this begs the question as to whether this will be just another trading peak or whether it will be a significant peak.

My own view is that Alan Newman’s work should be seen as a backdrop to any analysis. From the time that Alan Greenspan came onto the scene, the Dollar Trading Volume (DTV) as a multiple of Gross Domestic Product has been rising. At the peak of the 1929 stock market bubble it was well over 100%. Now it is around 350%.

In 1929, the ratio of DTV to Market Capitalisation (the combined value of all companies quoted on the NYSE) was around 200%. Now it is just shy of 300%, having fallen from a peak of 400% in 2009.

Of course, this has occurred as a direct consequence of what has come to be known as “algorithm” trading and as an indirect consequence of the US Federal Reserve’s loose money and low interest rate policies.

A couple of days ago a friend sent me a Point & Figure chart of the gold price – which showed a “buy” signal. Within a day or so of his having sent it, the chart looked like this (source stockcharts.com)

Chart #2 – Point & Figure Chart of the Gold Price (Nov 6th 2013)

Note how the buy signal reversed itself with a high pole warming sell signal and that reversal coincided with a rise to a new high by the Dow Jones Industrial Index (not shown).

Of relevance, on November 6th 2013, the percentage of financial advisers who were bullish on equities was 82.4%, having pulled back from a high of 89.2% on May 29th. “Blue skies, nothing but blue skies”, do they see

Of course, this begs the question of when the stock market mania will end? Will it end around mid November, as per Sornette’s model? The short answer is: There is a high probability.

The chart below (courtesy Bigcharts.com) is worrying from two perspectives:

Chart # 3 – Monthly Chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Index.

First, the reader will note the two diverging red trend lines…..”

Full article

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“The only two charts that matter from today’s distroted nonfarm payrolls report.

First, the labor force participation rate, which plunged from 63.2% to 62.8% – the lowest since 1978!

But more importantly, the number of people not in the labor force exploded by nearly 1 million….”

Full article

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“No legal issue arises when the United States responds to a challenge to its power, position, and prestige. — Dean Acheson , 1962, speaking to the American Society of International Law.

Anthony Freda Art

Paul Craig Roberts
Activist Post

Dean Acheson declared 51 years ago that power, position, and prestige are the ingredients of national security and that national security trumps law. In the United States democracy takes a back seat to “national security,” a prerogative of the executive branch of government.

National security is where the executive branch hides its crimes against law, both domestic and international, its crimes against the Constitution, its crimes against innocent citizens both at home and abroad, and its secret agendas that it knows that the American public would never support.

“National security” is the cloak that the executive branch uses to make certain that the US government is unaccountable.

Without accountable government there is no civil liberty and no democracy except for the sham voting that existed in the Soviet Union and now exists in the US.

There have been periods in US history, such as President Lincoln’s war to prevent secession, World War I, and World War II, when accountable government was impaired. These were short episodes of the Constitution’s violation, and the Constitution was reinstated in the aftermath of the wars. However, since the Clinton regime, the accountability of government has been declining for more than two decades, longer than the three wars combined.

In law there is the concept of adverse possession, popularly known as “squatters’ rights.” A non-owner who succeeds in occupying a piece of property or some one else’s right for a certain time without being evicted enjoys the ownership title conveyed to him. The reasoning is that by not defending his rights, the owner showed his disinterest and in effect gave his rights away.

Americans have not defended their rights conveyed by the US Constitution for the duration of the terms of three presidents. The Clinton regime was not held accountable for its illegal attack on Serbia. The Bush regime was not held accountable for its illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The Obama regime was not held accountable for its renewed attack on Afghanistan and its illegal attacks on Libya, Pakistan, and Yemen, and by its proxies on Syria.

We also have other strictly illegal and unconstitutional acts of government for which the government has not been held accountable. The Bush regimes’ acts of torture, indefinite detention, and warrantless spying, and the Obama regime’s acts of indefinite detention, warrantless spying, and murder of US citizens without due process. As the Obama regime lies through its teeth, we have no way of knowing whether torture is still practiced.

If these numerous criminal acts of the US government spread over the terms of three presidents pass into history as unchallenged events, the US government will have acquired squatters’ rights in lawlessness. The US Constitution will be, as President George W. Bush is reported to have declared, “a scrap of paper.”

Lawlessness is the hallmark of tyranny enforced by the police state……”

Full article 

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“If James Bond, Sergey Brin and Paul Volcker…designed their ideal currency, it might look a lot like bitcoin.”

Full article

Is Bitcoin in a bubble ?

Source

Exchanges

Market	Last	Volume (24h)	Bid	Ask	High	Low
mtgoxUSD	316.8110	87,486.39	316.51	318.49	324.20	266.00
btcnCNY	1912.9800	65,506.58	1913.30	1913.48	1919.99	1665.01
bitstampUSD	297.0100	51,193.33	296.00	297.02	299.12	264.67
btceUSD	286.5000	36,257.66	285.30	287.20	292.50	255.00
mtgoxEUR	237.0000	13,258.27	233.96	234.00	237.00	195.60
btcdeEUR	212.0000	3,530.09	216.12	220.00	251.97	185.00
mtgoxJPY	30487.2040	2,994.61	30500.00	31186.45	31650.00	25597.96
bitcurexPLN	900.0500	2,796.03	891.00	910.00	910.00	779.50
mtgoxGBP	200.0000	1,743.34	197.00	198.71	200.00	166.50
btceRUR	8900.0000	1,383.13	8870.00	8890.00	8998.99	7900.00
virtexCAD	293.0100	1,377.72	293.01	295.00	297.99	260.51
mtgoxAUD	334.0000	1,163.03	330.10	336.64	339.48	280.00
localbtcGBP	212.4600	1,041.78	211.54	137.40	1142.68	166.67
cbxUSD	284.9500	978.85	281.01	284.96	291.13	245.01
localbtcUSD	356.9800	880.74	1172.00	131.40	500.15	202.99
mtgoxPLN	978.0000	728.57	964.99	979.88	990.00	825.00
btceEUR	218.6770	674.37	216.50	218.34	222.93	185.00
virwoxSLL	70000.0000	418.72	68708.00	70000.00	70000.00	62337.00
localbtcEUR	217.8500	360.38	286.92	129.54	299.62	136.25
mtgoxCAD	334.5000	273.24	330.00	334.35	336.74	272.77
kptnSEK	1850.0000	252.13	1850.00	1889.50	1950.00	1731.73
localbtcAUD	314.1800	170.56	429.73	256.73	367.57	210.03
mrcdBRL	788.9900	154.78	752.74	788.99	797.15	671.00
bitcurexEUR	212.0000	133.52	209.00	212.00	225.01	190.00
rockEUR	217.9900	110.53	210.00	219.80	220.00	190.01
localbtcCAD	345.8800	92.40	341.58	295.00	369.57	257.56
bitcashCZK	6000.0000	85.81	5890.00	6000.00	6250.00	4850.00
rippleXRP	30999.0000	84.58	30502.00	31888.00	35453.94	30501.00
bitnzNZD	399.0000	82.53	366.00	399.90	400.00	320.00
justNOK	1839.0000	74.73	1718.00	1823.46	1839.00	1596.86
btcmarketsAUD	320.0000	49.63	295.00	320.00	320.00	257.00
bit2cILS	980.0000	47.63	980.00	1000.00	989.00	888.00
mtgoxCHF	284.0000	46.81	284.15	295.72	290.47	249.00
fybsgSGD	383.0000	34.44	350.00	375.00	384.00	316.50
fybseSEK	1800.0000	33.48	1800.00	1870.00	1870.00	1690.00
mtgoxNZD	378.1942	31.09	368.39	382.44	378.19	350.00
mtgoxHKD	2360.2646	20.13	2393.62	2491.22	2502.36	2315.00
mtgoxCNY	1840.0000	16.50	1881.10	1952.86	1964.94	1662.77
crytrUSD	282.9900	16.49	261.00	290.00	290.00	259.00
justEUR	202.0050	15.86	209.70	212.40	212.21	196.52
bidxtrmPLN	900.0000	15.60	854.59	940.00	940.50	789.99
localbtcMXN	4247.7400	14.20	4036.08	3982.99	4798.00	3540.81
bitxZAR	3180.0000	13.27	3180.00	3250.00	3420.00	3110.00
localbtcINR	18085.3200	13.24	18526.01	19289.79	18906.60	15580.39
localbtcNOK	1892.2400	12.71	1882.52	1936.54	1892.24	1580.99
localbtcSGD	297.5000	11.42	360.01	471.57	353.86	297.50
mtgoxSEK	2038.6310	10.98	2012.59	2089.33	2074.72	1822.68
localbtcHKD	1986.5500	10.27	2302.31	2455.72	2427.89	1986.55
mtgoxSGD	392.5262	9.87	383.95	399.60	392.53	364.28
localbtcZAR	4059.7400	9.72	3081.16	4118.38	4059.74	2771.29
localbtcCHF	263.7700	8.91	271.91	281.62	313.44	217.13
localbtcARS	2755.6600	8.70	2700.00	2756.99	2900.00	2495.00
intrsngEUR	215.0000	8.52	212.39	215.00	225.00	198.96
justLTC	30.0000	6.30	41.00	69.70	74.73	30.00
localbtcBRL	751.7500	5.49	706.99	763.23	758.02	657.78
anxhkHKD	2299.9474	4.87	2152.00	3100.00	2300.00	1858.00
bitkonanUSD	281.0000	4.58	280.01	348.00	426.00	269.00
localbtcNZD	435.0900	4.35	370.00	325.18	435.09	341.89
mtgoxRUB	9568.3347	3.69	9993.74	10401.07	10185.47	8642.51
justUSD	287.7700	3.31	282.60	305.62	287.77	259.32
localbtcDKK	1516.5400	3.00	1545.54	1780.26	1516.54	1516.54
localbtcSEK	1524.3500	2.96	2326.20	2068.46	1642.05	1524.35
localbtcCZK	4782.6800	2.93	5855.87	6387.74	5255.69	4765.67
localbtcPLN	946.4000	2.88	995.66	945.00	946.40	946.40
rippleUSD	259.0000	1.56	260.00	300.00	295.00	250.00
localbtcRUB	9583.9700	1.37	9577.25	9778.81	9667.79	9518.59
justXRP	29000.0000	1.07	29000.00	34900.00	35000.00	29000.00
localbtcTHB	8927.5200	1.00	9487.26	8396.13	8927.52	8927.52
rockUSD	280.0000	0.90	268.00	299.00	280.00	268.00
crytrEUR	207.0000	0.61	207.00	280.00	214.00	207.00
intrsngGBP	69.3600	0.05	68.94	69.36	69.36	69.36

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[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wIq2xeyal8 450 300]

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[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnon_EfCWRc 450 300]

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“Bitcoin, an online-only currency scarcely four years old, is breaking out to new highs this week and now sports a total value of $2.8 billion.  Just a few months ago, it looked like this economic experiment as the world’s first decentralized technology-based form of money would crash and burn.  Since then, ConvergEx’s Nick Colas points out that the U.S. government has shut down a large drug website which accepted bitcoins and promised further scrutiny of its uses; and omputer science experts have warned that bitcoin is neither especially private – one of its notional values – or especially well constructed.  The market doesn’t seem to care, with incremental demand from U.S. citizens (through Second Market) and Chinese nationals leading the path higher. Could bitcoin still fail? Sure.  But, as Colas notes, its success to date speaks to how much the world is changing…  Technology – properly packaged – can engender enough trust to develop a new asset class.

Bitcoin will eventually have to develop a lot more infrastructure to be a useful global currency, to be sure.  But there’s close to $3 billion of real money to help back that transition.

Via ConvergEx’s Nick Colas,

Bitcoin – The Lazarus Currency

Every great religion, or company, or country, or rock band has a dramatic ‘Creation myth’ – the story of its birth.  The Judeo-Christian tradition has the story of God creating the world in seven days.  Google has the grad-student thesis story.  American culture is still informed by the Revolutionary War.  And where would the Rolling Stones be if Keith hadn’t chatted up Mick on the train, just because he holding some new R&B albums from the States?

Bitcoin, the online-only stateless currency, has its own creation myth and it is purpose-made to appeal to exactly the kind of people who would find value in it.  The highlights are:

The original design for bitcoin comes from a 2008 paper published by a person named Satoshi Nakamoto.  Who, by the by, doesn’t actually exist.

 

Bitcoin’s basic architecture is decentralized – no one is “In control.”  People with fast computers and some coding skills compete to solve a puzzle created by the algorithm described in Satoshi’s paper.  Simultaneously, they track all the transactions in the bitcoin universe – people and businesses exchanging value for goods and services.  Every ten minutes, on average, some lucky coder – or group of coders – solves the puzzle, gets a few new bitcoins, and validates the transaction list.  Then the whole thing resets and everyone gets to work on the next puzzle.

 

In principle, this process leaves everyone exchanging or “mining” (cracking the code gets you 25 bitcoins currently) anonymously in the system.  Everything in bitcoin is identified with a nearly-impossible-to-crack coding of letters and numbers.  No names, phone numbers, or addresses needed.

Now, who do you think would find this creation story appealing?  A few candidates:

Tech savvy people, who by their nature and high-functioning professional skills tend to have a few shekels lying around? Yep – classic early adopters.

 

Then there might be independence-minded older white males in the U.S., ticked off by the Federal Reserve and government in general.  Yes, they like the story as well.

 

And then there are the criminals – drug dealers and so forth – who might not know a creation myth from crystal meth, but appreciate the potential for secrecy.

 

Offshore millionaires from essentially anywhere in the world, looking for classic diversification and a liquid investment.  All you need to access your bitcoins is that long alphanumeric key and a local bank account which links to a ‘Wallet’ – an online repository to hold the currency.  Deposit money in China, write down the key, fly to Monaco and go into an Internet café.  Easy-peasy.

The basic appeal of this “Genesis” creation story lit a fire under bitcoin, starting at the beginning of 2012 at around $5 and ending up in a spectacular bubble top at $240 in April 2013.  The cause of that peak – overwhelming tulip-bulbish demand for bitcoin – was its undoing.  Exchanges where people went to trade dollars or euros for bitcoin couldn’t keep up with the volume.  Accounts froze or moved very slowly, and confidence in the currency dropped, along with the price.  Just a few days after the $240 high, bitcoin was trading for less than $60…..”

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“Twitter Inc. priced its shares at $26 apiece for an initial public offering of 70 million shares that will be the biggest U.S. technology IPO since Facebook Inc. FB -1.97% ‘s debut last year.

The short-messaging service priced shares a dollar higher the range it set earlier this week, giving the company a market capitalization of $14.4 billion.

The deal is set to raise as much as $2.1 billion for the San Francisco-based company, which remains unprofitable but which has transformed public discussion on subjects from celebrities to public policy to pets.

The price of $26 is available primarily to large investors such as mutual funds and hedge funds, as well as some of the individual clients of the banks underwriting the deal, led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.GS +0.97% Other investors should be able to buy the stock Thursday when shares are expected to trade on the New York Stock Exchange NYX +0.78% under the symbol TWTR.

The average one-day “pop,” or price rise, for U.S. listed IPOs this year is 17%, the highest since 2000. Six companies so far this year have doubled in price on their first day, Dealogic said.

The banks aimed to place the bulk of the shares with a relatively small number of long-term investors, they added. About three quarters of the shares were set to be placed with around 30 investors, the people said.

Retail investors, including customers of some online brokerages and brokerages affiliated with the investment banks on the deal, were slated to receive less than 20% of the offering, people familiar with the plan said. That total could change in the final pricing. Facebook placed a larger amount of its shares, 26%, through retail channels. TD Ameritrade HoldingCorp. AMTD +0.91% and Fidelity Investments both expected to receive Twitter shares from underwriters for some customers….”

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[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEroBD7fE78 450 300]

 

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[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5BeMshuSeg 450 300]

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“As Twitter embarks on its initial public offering roadshow, the company has issued another update to its S-1 today with a curveball. IBM has recently issued a letter to Twitter alleging that it infringes on “at least three U.S. patents” held by IBM, “inviting us to negotiate a business resolution of the allegations.” The disclosure comes at the same time that Twitter has also raised its IPO estimate to $23-25 per share, up from the previous $17-20 — a sign of Twitter’s confidence that despite details like the IBM note, it’s expecting a strong turnout when it lists.

The S-1 filing appears to indicate that although IBM is seeking a settlement over the alleged infringement, it looks like Twitter is ready to defend itself. “We believe we have meritorious defenses to IBM’s allegations, although there can be no assurance that we will be successful in defending against these allegations or reaching a business resolution that is satisfactory to us,” the company writes.

The specific patents in question are U.S. Patent No. 6,957,224: Efficient retrieval of uniform resource locators; U.S. Patent No. 7,072,849: Method for presenting advertising in an interactive service; and U.S. Patent No. 7,099,862: Programmatic discovery of common contacts.

The note appears in an update to the S-1 that offers extended caveats on how patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets are frequently the subject of litigation. Twitter admits that it’s not a strong player in this area.

“Many companies in these industries, including many of our competitors, have substantially larger patent and intellectual property portfolios than we do, which could make us a target for litigation as we may not be able to assert counterclaims against parties that sue us for patent, or other intellectual property infringement,” it writes, with a special flag for trolls: “In addition, various ‘non-practicing entities’ that own patents and other intellectual property rights often attempt to aggressively assert claims in order to extract value from technology companies.”

Although Twitter has shown itself up to now to be a very developer-friendly player in the patent space, it is salvos like IBM’s that may prove to test that resolve, especially as Twitter continues to evolve its service and move into new areas — a point it also makes, adding that right now it’s also potentially liable for claims against its partners and customers, too….”

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