Apart from the security and privacy of your coins there are also other concerns around Bitcoin’s stability and security that deserve our attention. These risks are endemic to Bitcoin’s design and its young ecosystem, and they are often outside of our control.

Let’s return to our simple picture of economies as having capital, labor and an efficiency factor. Capital is valuable because it increases output directly and also because it increases the productivity of labor. Yet Jones reports that capital-output ratio is remarkably stable across countries. Its average value is very close to one, meaning that an extra dollar of capital gives you an extra dollar of output. Even the poorest countries tend to have a capital-output ratio very close to the U.S. value.   So differences in physical capital contribute almost nothing to differences in GDP per worker across countries. It has also been documented that the marginal product of capital is very similar in rich and poor countries.

A recession is when the economy declines significantly for at least six months. That means there's a drop in the following five economic indicators: real GDP, income, employment, manufacturing, and retail sales. People often say a recession is when the GDP growth rate is negative for two consecutive quarters or more. But a recession can quietly begin before the quarterly gross domestic product reports are out. That's why the National Bureau of Economic Research measures the other four factors. That data comes out monthly. When these economic indicators decline, so will GDP.

Second, international trade is an important part of the economic growth story for most countries. Think about two kids in the school cafeteria trading a granola bar for a chocolate chip cookie. They are willing to trade because it offers them both an opportunity to benefit. Nations trade for the same reason. When poorer nations use trade to access capital goods (such as advanced technology and equipment), they can increase their TFP, resulting in a higher rate of economic growth.7 Also, trade provides a broader market for a country to sell the goods and services it produces. Many nations, however, have trade barriers that restrict their access to trade. Recent research suggests that the removal of trade barriers could close the income gap between rich and poor countries by 50 percent.8

First and foremost, I’ve only invested an amount that I can live without – so no matter what happens, I won’t need to sell my crypto to sustain myself – and so should you. Having a safety net to fall back on will also prevent you from letting your emotions get the best of you, something that can become financially lethal.

Developing a routine can help you stay active and out of the mire of depression. This routine can involve scheduled activities or a daily repetition of mental health strategies. For example, you can start your day with a positive self-affirmation and end it by writing down something you are grateful for (more on that later).

Positive thinking sounds useful on the surface. (Most of us would prefer to be positive rather than negative.) But, “positive thinking” is also a soft and fluffy term that is easy to dismiss. In the real world, it rarely carries the same weight as words like “work ethic” or “persistence.

Furthermore, who is going to challenge the United States for global leadership? The Europeans?  The Japanese? The Russians?  The EU today has 12 percent unemployment – reaching 26 percent in Greece and Spain – almost zero economic growth, a declining population in many of its member states. The Japanese are suffering from a declining and rapidly aging population, lack of immigration, a Nikkei Index that is still more than 20,000 points below the level of 1988 and debt that equals 240 percent of GNP.  Not to mention a weak economic growth in a last two decades.  While Russia may have grabbed the headlines for hosing the forthcoming Olympics and Edward Snowden, it’s no super power.  Russia has a  trade profile of a Third World country, a GNP the size of Canada, which is less than 15 percent of the United States GDP, no soft power, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Wall Street or highly rated universities.

Even if you have good intentions, trying to accomplish a whole host of things at once can backfire. More often than not, you'll end up stretching yourself too thin. As billionaire Warren Buffett says, "The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say 'no' to almost everything."

Many organizations are helping people in poor countries to gain access to credit. Most of these credit loans are repaid, and they have created many industries, such as farms, that help create a sustainable provision for people and also develop nations economically. If these people do not have access to credit, they cannot start up industries that combat poverty.

I don’t believe that religion itself is slowly dying. Rather, it’s being slowly replaced by scientific advances. There is nothing wrong with being a person of faith, but there are certainly good reasons why it isn’t as common now as it may have been a few centuries ago.

Drinking a lot over a long time or too much on a single occasion can damage the heart, causing problems including:

Cardiomyopathy – Stretching and drooping of heart muscle
Arrhythmias – Irregular heart beat
Stroke
High blood pressure