... NO ONE knows the future.Since OP seems to have a decent ("enough" ?) amount of BTC and even gold (or at least close to enough), then it makes very good sense to look at some diversification. PM diversification is not a bad idea either. Have gold? Then buy some silver or platinum.  (Note: I practice what I preach) Oil and/or stocks would seem to count as diversification (of course I do not know spazzdla's exact situation). It is SMART to retain some 3 - 6 months worth of FIAT$ (much of it outside the bank in "long green" in your physical possession) if possible. Never know what will happen, and people and stores would take CA$H in a pinch if the ATMs and credit card systems go down, at least for a while. |
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TPTB and troller
Even Peru has started in the killing of privacy (and Economic Totalitarianism) game. ALL of our invoices (of our Peruvian bearing wholesaler/importer) have to be sent by email on MS Excel to Peru's taxation authorities. They are very aggressive (although Peruvians do have a habit of cheating on their taxes).
There seems to no escape for the average José...
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spazzdla
If you have been buying PMs and crypto, then you are in pretty good shape! If you feel that you have "enough", then yes, it's OK to look at some alternatives. Some ideas:
Oil & Gas LP and an ETF:
-- Tallgrass Energy Partners (TEP). Mostly Nat Gas, they process some of it (for NGLs) and they are in a stable part of the USA (Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming and Kansas). Nice yield.
-- Alerian ETF of oil & gas (AMJ) . Also has a good yield. AMJ holds a number of oil & gas LPs. (I own some AMJ)
Stocks:
I would only buy something that you do NOT already have, for diversification. IMO, the stock market is risky (priced very high) now, so I wold only buy shares of companies that are strong with little debt.
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How about putting in BTC mining in my car? I drive around enough...
Or when I go for a run or do my taichi forms?
Maybe I can sneak putting something in the elevator here in my condo building.
My wife could put in mining equipment in the vacuum when she cleans the house, same with the dish washer.
Our A/C and hot water heater use lots of electricity.
Would I need an electrician to install all of that?
/LOL
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neurotypical
Perhaps these proposed changes should be explained? Clearly enough, "with words small enough so that my grandmother could understand"? *
I have been following (and an owner of) Bitcoin for a year or so. I try to follow BTC's various developments, but controversy without nice explanation can be unnerving... I am not trying to instill FUD, just pointing out that loud controversies re basic properties of BTC is NOT confidence inspiring...
Care to take a shot at explaining the proposed changes?
* Wayne Strand
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Genuine rumor!
One member of my extended family told me very recently that *someone* he knew had taken a very large position against the euro. Of course taking a large position vs. a currency is nothing unusual, but it was unusual for him to tell me that. The family member does not speculate in currencies.
He did tell me, however, that if the euro goes down to 80 cents (the bet of the guy with the "large position"), then he (family member) would perhaps go buy a villa in Italy or something.......
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OK, as a non-expert, all of this controversy re the future of Bitcoin comes perilously close to discouraging use of BTC...
"Confidence makes a currency."
All of this talk of forks, selling BTC by well-known names, etc. is likely to lead to loss of confidence in Bitcoin. Maybe those intimately involved with BTC development might not see this, but a loss of confidence among the general public (better said: casual users of BTC) will be a serious blow to confidence.
Loss of confidence would cause me (and many others I would guess) to SELL my Bitcoin.
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... lyth0s Nice charts showing exuberance (perhaps even irrational?) in the financial markets today. Especially Shanghai, although it looks pretty normal to me   . To me the markets look high, esp. S&P 500 and China. But, I do read conflicting opinions from writers I trust (that is, whose analyses make sense, not that their predictions are very good), and some say that we could be in for MOAR BULL (markets could still go up for a while) until we get a crash... For those who have been in the S&P 500 (or otherwise have nice long term gains -- paper gains), it would not hurt at all to sell some, take some profits... I plan to sell some ETFs soon (tickers VB and VO, these track small cap stocks and mid caps) soon. |
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TPTB
I have a question for you, as you have given this whole matter of quiet assets a lot of thought.
Alas, the "real TPTB" (the ones who want to take our wealth away from us and makes us slaves) might have a hard time with their own, that is, with other components of the rich & powerful fighting each other for their own wealth and power. NO CASH and no "money" that is anonymous would seem to NOT serve their purposes...
So, if there is no way for them (the real TPTB) to steal and hide their assets without cash or gold or anonymity (esp. from others of their class/group), how do they protect themselves from each other?
(real question that I do not know the answer to)
EDIT: Nice links, TPTB. It is curious that it is getting harder to buy gold in Europe...
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... deisik notes that palladium might be a great speculation/investment because of its special properties. I agree. It can absorb and store huge amounts of hydrogen gas. Pd is impermeable to ALL gases except hydrogen, so there could be very high demand for Pd if/when hydrogen fuel cell (eg, for cars) technology gets rolling. Physical palladium coins are available, Canada and Russia make them for small speculators. APMEX and provident metals have them. Also you might check bitcointalk's Veldt Gold, they might have palladium in stock as well: https://veldtgold.com/product-category/palladium/(I have bought twice from Veldt, both times delivered as promised) |
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rpietila and vokain
My understanding of the Scriptures is still at a beginning level, but is one of my main foci now. Thank you for your interesting takes on work and Jesus. I need to study what you have written some more.
I would agree that the amount of "work" that most of us actually do is quite low. And working for others (a "job") is not on my radar. Guys like TPTB who actually are working very hard (and producing) are an anomaly now.
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... CoinCube I would also note that Rand Paul is now under heavy fire from other members of the R-Team for his (probably) correct comments on the conservatives being partly responsible for creating ISIS. At this point, Rand is at least showing the other 18 "R contenders" that he thinks for himself. He is at least somewhat carrying on the libertarian example of his father. Disclosure: I actually believe that there IS a dime's worth of difference (but not much more) between Rand Paul and Hillary. Doubt me? Well, get back to me if/when President H. Clinton takes the reigns. Or six months after... TPTB I also accept the likely fact (TPTB) that a dime's worth of difference is not very meaningful. But, a small difference can sometimes lead to big differences in outcome, reference: Why Nations Fail (Acemoglu and Robinson) 2012 Sometimes small differences make all the difference... EDIT: Nice quotation of Linus Torvalds! Meritocracy on display. Perhaps people will one day utter your name with similar reverence... |
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trollercoaster
Both of your links are excellent and very much pertinent to Economic Totalitarianism.
1) Re ELB and the possibility of banning CA$H, I have seen this covered a lot, perhaps this means TPTB are softening us up before they try to ban cash. There is some hope for us who like cash: that quiet payments to officials (read: corruption) might only BEST be made with cash or some other anonymous mechanism. I do not know how much that would stand up (cash-4-corruption) vs. the banks and .gov hating cash...
2) Re cryptography, what is happening to free speech here?! Banning it seems to be a hard proposition, even for a .gov. Even if high-level cryptography is only to be studied at military (and related) institutes, word of new research breakthroughs (etc.) would leak...
* * *
The fact that BOTH of these terrible ideas are running near simultaneously is ominous.
Their grip tightens...
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Waving a red flag in front of the Big Rhino (US Government) is never a good idea.
In 1930s after Roosevelt made gold illegal, only ONE person was ever prosecuted, even though I have seen an estimate that they only got about 10% - 20% of the gold... The guy they DID arrest was making a lot of noise, waving red flags...
And, keep in mind that they are looking out for THEIR interests much more than they are looking out for us.
* * *
But, Erdogan is right that the probability of getting arrested for minor crimes (buying black market goods) is rather low. Also note that in the USSR, the Communists deliberately made many laws contradictory so they could pick you up at any time for any reason.
The USA has not arrived at that point yet.
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3000 tonnes of worldwide gold production for 2015 is about right. But, the production does not matter that much! There are about 180,000 tonnes in stock around the world. The stock:flow ratio is about 60:1! The flow is what matters!
There are very few traded materials with a stock to flow of more than about two or three (that is, inventories of two - three years vs. annual production).
This is one of many reasons why gold is unique, and has been the Store of Value of choice for over 5000 years!
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... Thanks for your reply, I went to take a look at my address, they paid me too. |
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locopao
Not yet, but bitmixer worked with me just fine in a problem I once had.
When they did not HAVE TO.
My guess: patience will reward us!
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I don't know what is going to happen re Bitcoin nor the government's actions...
Based in what I think I know(!), it looks like BTC is not a .gov set-up for a digital-only currency to be levied upon us. I hope I am correct on this, it seems to be the prevailing opinion here that BTC is not some NSA/IRS conspiracy...
Assuming the above is true (but be careful re ass-u-me), the question then becomes what will .gov do about it? There are already some IRS statements on BTC as an asset, but I have yet to figure out what and how they (IRS) will handle BTC.
* * *
Are there any tax lawyers in the house here?
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