Galt's Gulch

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  • Posted by RobertFl 11 years, 1 month ago
    IMF thought Bitcoin was a threat to the World Currencies - someone had to go.

    I don't think it was. If you think US fiat currency is vulnerable, BC was much more vulnerable.
    If the power went out around the world tomorrow, your dollar would still physically exist. BC's are gone until the power is restored.
    I know we've discussed the value of gold over dollars in a SHTF scenario, but either one of those, is more valuable than a BC.
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    • Posted by MattFranke 11 years, 1 month ago
      If the power went out around the world tomorrow, the dollar would be as non-existent as bitcoin. Sure there would be lots of paper floating around, but its value will be demoted to TP in a SHTF scenario.
      In a collapse situation, tangible assets would be the only store of value: food, guns, medical supplies, silver, gold and other precious metals, tools, petro, seeds, and a big roll of 'Federal Reserve Notes' packed in with the Charmin. Then of course, the most valuable non-tangible asset one would want is a sharp mind.
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    • Posted by khalling 11 years, 1 month ago
      that's not necessarily true. You can exchange your bitcoin for whatever fiat currency you'd like or gold or silver. As well, you can pull your bitcoins out of the exchanges into wallets. Part of its value is that it can be exchanged easily into any currency and cheaper than going through currency exchanges
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      • Posted by RobertFl 11 years, 1 month ago
        You can exchange it, IF there's electricity to initiate that exchange.
        It only virtually exists, while paper money virtually has value (or no value depending on how you look at it). True, if the power is out, you're not getting money out of an ATM, but dollars in the pocket are better than BC's in a eWallet.
        Paper money value doesn't fluctuate much day-to-day, month-to-month. BC does.
        In a stable, free world, I think BC could work.
        If the markets, and dollars all collapsed, I'm not sure you could exchange BC for gold at that point. I have a love/hate relation with BC. I have trust issues :-)
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        • Posted by khalling 11 years, 1 month ago
          it's part of an overall plan. There are upsides and downsides to every investment. In the meantime I like that-my international transactions are not easily tracked by the govt in bitcoin exchange, the cost for international transfers is competitive and easy, I hedge everything.
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          • Posted by RobertFl 11 years, 1 month ago
            "...easily tracked"
            On a scale of 1- 10, 10 being untrackable, where to you put "easily" that allows you to sleep at night? :-)
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            • Posted by khalling 11 years, 1 month ago
              the govt wants to know everything. every transaction you make. they still can't trace cash under certain monetary amounts and it's none of their damned business where I spend my cash.
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              • Posted by RobertFl 11 years, 1 month ago
                They might need to be able to identify potential enemy combatants by examining the number guns and bibles you buy.
                Or, determine your political leaning by what Pandora tunes you listen to.
                I question the security of the transactions of Bitcoin. I'll accept that the wallets are secure, but, I think the transactions are discoverable. If they weren't, I doubt highly the US gov, or others would allow BC to continue to exist. Excluding the current suicide as evidence that they don't want it to exist.
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  • Posted by $ Susanne 11 years, 1 month ago
    Bitcoin. Why am I not surprised?

    Ya know (and some here will disagree with this) I've always felt something is awfully fishy about the whole Bitcoin thing... never bought into it, as it never seemed tangiable. After the past few weeks, I can't say I'm sorry for missing out on this new "financial miracle".

    (See: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101463888)
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    • Posted by CircuitGuy 11 years, 1 month ago
      I like the competition, though, with state-sponsored fiat money. Unlikely many libertarians, I think the US monetary system is very good, but competition wouldn't hurt.
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      • Posted by edweaver 11 years, 1 month ago
        I do not understand at all how anyone can think the US monetary system is very good. Please explain.
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        • Posted by CircuitGuy 11 years, 1 month ago
          It keeps inflation low and stable and maintains interest rates that are stable and slightly higher than inflation. In short, it's pretty good about taking away the punch bowl just as the party's getting started. If you find you're able to raise prices at a fast rate, I suggest you're providing more value-- not that it's hidden inflation. If it is hidden inflation, it doesn't cost that much to update your prices in Quickbooks or on menus or whatever you use.
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          • Posted by edweaver 11 years, 1 month ago
            But isn't that just a game? Interest rates have been very low for a long time and they really cannot go lower. So much money has been dumped into the system to stimulate the economy, which has not worked and sooner or later it is all going to show as inflation or they will need to remove it which will create deflation. Neither are good for growth. The accountant in me does not see how we do not end like Venezuela.
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            • Posted by CircuitGuy 11 years, 1 month ago
              The amount of goods and services in the economy will increase commensurate with the money supply, if the central banks do their job.
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              • Posted by edweaver 11 years, 1 month ago
                But that is not happening. There is a massive transfer of wealth to a few cronies with the low end of the food chain receiving enough to keep them quiet and most of us producers getting the squeeze. That is why I cannot accept your analogy.
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                • Posted by CircuitGuy 11 years, 1 month ago
                  I can understand it not working and that making you raise prices and pay your suppliers more. That can be inconvenient. How is that a wealth transfer from producers to a few cronies?
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                  • Posted by edweaver 11 years, 1 month ago
                    Paying suppliers more or raising prices simply transfers money for money between the payers and creates no additional value. The bigger problem is the money the fed is dumping into the system. Look to where that is going and you will find the answer to the wealth transfer. And who will pay for it. The producers of course because they are to only ones that pay every debt. But many of us are now just trying to produce as little as we can to get by. There is no incentive left for us to work long & hard to have it stolen by our government to pay for their abuses.
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                    • Posted by CircuitGuy 11 years, 1 month ago
                      "Paying suppliers more or raising prices simply transfers money for money between the payers and creates no additional value"
                      Correct. Fluctuations in currency values do not create or destroy value. All the value is in the goods and services we provide for each other. The medium of exchange is not very important.

                      I understand your allusion to open-market operations, but I don't get where you're going with it. I think you're against the gov't having such a large deficit; I am too. Even if we had a surplus, though, I'd support free-market operations with outstanding Treasuries.

                      The "no incentive left for us to work" because you think monetary policy is too loose is either hyperbole or melodrama. Lots of people go out and serve other people in exchange for dollars, pesos, pounds, euros, etc, and they do an amazing job and turn that money into factories, web services, and buildings that act as a space for more value creation. The fact that it now takes 20 Mexican pesos to buy a pound instead of 5, as it did 20 years ago, does not stop people from using pesos as a medium of exchange. All the value is in serving one another's needs in fair exchanges.
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                      • Posted by edweaver 11 years, 1 month ago
                        This subject is becoming much deeper that I have the time to go into. I agree with many of the thoughts you offer with the exception that we have a great monetary system. For this to be a great monetary system, the paper would need to have a standard of some kind and right now there is no standard. All historical fiat currency to my knowledge have failed and I believe ours will too.
                        The "no incentive left for us to work" has more to do with out taxation system which is tied to our monetary system. To me it is simply, the harder someone works the more they lose through progressive taxation to pay for the poor money management of our government.
                        I appreciate the conversation.
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  • Posted by DrZarkov99 11 years, 1 month ago
    Want to survive? Invest in lead. Gold doesn't mean much when your government can take it from your unarmed home. Ammunition of a wide variety will become the barter currency if things start to fall apart.
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  • Posted by $ pixelate 11 years, 1 month ago
    I was listening to a radio program early this AM "Free Talk Live." Anyway, they had a guest on that was talking about the Bitcoin technology and its applications outside the realm of currency. One useful application included using the Blockchain as a trusted 3rd party - the idea being that it could act as the broker between buyers and sellers (such as in the case of an escrow company as it relates to real estate transactions). The implementation of the Blockchain would involve authentication of all the parties in the transaction and "release of the funds" when all funds / transfer elements were in proper order, so-to-speak. This would eliminate much of the time and cost in bringing traditional escrow companies into the mix for closing transactions - it would hurt their business, if you will. The guest then spoke on the subject of having legal entities (such as wills) encoded along with logic that represents the legal processing that takes place in the context of the administration of a will. I may be a bit off on the exact context / content of what the guest was sharing -- but what I got out of it is that the Bitcoin / Blockchain technology and its derivatives, will have a serious impact on the financial inflows of traditional institutions and practices. In any case, perhaps these sundry 'coincidental' deaths are part of a plan to either derail or slow down the implementation of these technologies.
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  • Posted by $ jlc 11 years, 1 month ago
    Many toxins are extremely difficult to find and are effective in low doses. The only way to discover them is to suspect them and hope that the evidence is recent enough to be able to discern the effects. I wonder if someone has found a really good toxin (I have only a layman's knowledge) and is methodically putting it to use.

    Jan
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  • Posted by LarryHeart 11 years, 1 month ago
    Virtual currencies are used by the underworld and terrorists. Maybe she ran afoul of them.
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    • Posted by richrobinson 11 years, 1 month ago
      Possible but that doesn't explain the others. Multiple young successful people die under strange circumstances. Mob and terrorists would probably make an example of them. If there is a link, whoever is doing this is trying to be quiet about it.
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  • Posted by evlwhtguy 11 years, 1 month ago
    here is the diffrence between government and private industry...If this was a government initiative this lady would have taken the 5th, got promoted, then retired and then got another government job, while still collecting her retirement. In the private world....THERE ARE CONSIQUENCES TO F-ING UP!
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  • Posted by Danno 11 years, 1 month ago
    These fly by night bitcoin exchanges took a page out of the central banking book, leverage. The strong will survive. We have to move to an equity-based lending scheme to reduce the casino leverage. Politicians will fight that.
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  • Posted by Notperfect 11 years, 1 month ago
    The pale horse in Revelations. One of the four horses in the Bible. More death more turmoil. As prophesied. Money is not the root of all evil the love or greed of it is, but everyone has heard this once or twice. Need I say more. Those who believe you and I are the problem will keep this up. Sad yes, but the only thing to do is pray Yahushua returns soon.
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