ziet veel gelijkenissen tussen goud en Bitcoin. Hij ziet beide als de ultieme betaalsystemen in de toekomst. Bitcoin is geen digitaal geld, maar een crypto-CURRENCY, een technologische revolutie in het valutalandschap. Het grote verschil is dat Bitcoin nog maar in zijn kinderschoenen staat terwijl goud al eeuwen zijn waarde heeft bewezen.
With the shadow (or blue) market for Argentina Pesos already devalued by an incredible 50%, it is little surprise that the population is bidding for any store of value. Demand for luxury cars is soaring (BMW sales up 30% in the last 20 months) and Bitcoin activity is often discussed as the population transfer increasingly worthless Pesos into a fungible "CURRENCY" or domestic CPI protection; but it is USD that are the most-cherished item (despite a ban on buying USD) as hyperinflation hedges. But as Bloomberg Businessweek reports, a lot of US Dollar bills are tucked away somewhere in Argentina (in stacks of $100 bills since the number in circulation has risen from 58% of the total to 62% since 2008). One table is a 2012 Fed paper on demand abroad for US CURRENCY shows net inflows to Russia and Argentina has increased by 500% since 2006 (compared to US demand up around 10%). In fact, demand for large dollar transfers to Argentina since 2006 has outstripped demand for dollar cash overall in the world. It is safe to surmise from the data (that is relatively well guarded by the government) that over $50bn is being hoarded in Argentina (or well over one in every fifteen dollars). It is little wonder that the government is furiously digging at the country's undeclared (stashed under the mattress) wealth.
Argentines are buying more BMWs, Jaguars and other luxury cars as a store of value as inflation decimates their deposits and pummels the nation’s bonds.
As we first noted here (regulation) and here (supervision), the US government has been gradually encroaching on the independence and freedom of the virtual CURRENCY. This week, as The Washington Post reports, the government escalated. The feds took action against Mt. Gox, the world’s leading Bitcoin exchange. Many people use Dwolla, a PayPal-like payment network, to send dollars to their Mt. Gox accounts. They then use those dollars to buy Bitcoins. On Tuesday, Dwolla announced that it had frozen Mt. Gox’s account at the request of federal investigators.
Steeds meer landen komen in de arena waar de CURRENCY wars uitgevochten worden. De volgende in het rijtje is Israël, waar de centrale bank bij het begin van deze week als een donderslag bij heldere hemel de % verlaagde. De maatregel kwam inderdaad onverwacht.
The same man who called for a united Europe and spearheaded the euro CURRENCY in 1999 , Germany’s former finance minister Oskar LaFontaine has formally retracted his support for the troubled CURRENCY, and is calling for its abandonment.
