Gold collapsing. Bitcoin UP.

[molecular]

wow, more smartphone innovation on the horizon.  mobile is the bomb:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNTObCr4gnM&feature=youtu.be

This gives me tingles in my toes. Every cell phone can now be a hardware wallet that uses encrypted sms to broadcast. BitSim is my new favourite thing.

It's pretty awesome...

On the downside: what about privacy?

[lebing]

wow, more smartphone innovation on the horizon.  mobile is the bomb:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNTObCr4gnM&feature=youtu.be

This gives me tingles in my toes. Every cell phone can now be a hardware wallet that uses encrypted sms to broadcast. BitSim is my new favourite thing.

It's pretty awesome...

On the downside: what about privacy?

Seeing as everything is encrypted it should be private even in contract phones. for the paranoid there are always pre paid phones.
In any case I dont see that need being terribly relavent for this market.

This is the beginning of the killer app era for bitcoin.

[stereotype]

wow, more smartphone innovation on the horizon.  mobile is the bomb:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNTObCr4gnM&feature=youtu.be

This gives me tingles in my toes. Every cell phone can now be a hardware wallet that uses encrypted sms to broadcast. BitSim is my new favourite thing.

It's pretty awesome...

On the downside: what about privacy?

Seeing as everything is encrypted it should be private even in contract phones. for the paranoid there are always pre paid phones.
In any case I dont see that need being terribly relavent for this market.

This is the beginning of the killer app era for bitcoin.

Thats what initially came to my mind. Interesting that the/a killer app would be based on technology, of a pre app era. Amazing rewind. 

I now want to see this actually working.

[cbeast]

When folks realize they can control their money and keep it absolutely secure, they will come.

[tabnloz]

wow, more smartphone innovation on the horizon.  mobile is the bomb:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNTObCr4gnM&feature=youtu.be

This gives me tingles in my toes. Every cell phone can now be a hardware wallet that uses encrypted sms to broadcast. BitSim is my new favourite thing.

It's pretty awesome...

On the downside: what about privacy?

Seeing as everything is encrypted it should be private even in contract phones. for the paranoid there are always pre paid phones.
In any case I dont see that need being terribly relavent for this market.

This is the beginning of the killer app era for bitcoin.

Feels very positive lately, the inevitability of momentum. With every announcement like this I care less about the bear market.

[cypherdoc]

Greece is escalating once again:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-20/did-greece-just-launch-capital-controls-mandatory-cash-transfer-decreed

[Pruden]

Grexit seems almost inevitable these days.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/16/greece-moves-step-closer-to-grexit-after-imf-snub

After that all eyes will be on Spain and Podemos.

Spain won't vote anything radical. Although Podemos will be part of many governments in the next few years, it won't win any relevant election. Part of it is due to the fact that it won't gain support from the right now that TPTB are very obviously backing the "new" right-wing party Ciudadanos (Citizens). With the People's Party (PP) dead, with every treasurer in its history facing court, and employment recovery not yet clear, they were surely going to pull something out of the hat.

Be careful not to drop into the mainstream by what you hear in the media.

(oh, look, the stocks are bouncing and transports refuse to break down even with oil rallying for days, who would have thunk it?)

[hdbuck]

Grexit seems almost inevitable these days.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/16/greece-moves-step-closer-to-grexit-after-imf-snub

After that all eyes will be on Spain and Podemos.

Spain won't vote anything radical. Although Podemos will be part of many governments in the next few years, it won't win any relevant election. Part of it is due to the fact that it won't gain support from the right now that TPTB are very obviously backing the "new" right-wing party Ciudadanos (Citizens). With the People's Party (PP) dead, with every treasurer in its history facing court, and employment recovery not yet clear, they were surely going to pull something out of the hat.

Be careful not to drop into the mainstream by what you hear in the media.

(oh, look, the stocks are bouncing and transports refuse to break down even with oil rallying for days, who would have thunk it?)

ORLY? euphemism much?

1 spanish out of 4 is unemployed: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/spain/unemployment-rate
youth unemployement rate over 50% since 2012: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/spain/youth-unemployment-rate
(and these are just "official" numbers.. )

Spain is drowning and TPTB is doing everything to maintain the status quo whilst enjoying canapés et petits fours over at Bruxelles.
Pretty much the same with all the governments in Europe.

[rocks]

Grexit seems almost inevitable these days.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/16/greece-moves-step-closer-to-grexit-after-imf-snub

After that all eyes will be on Spain and Podemos.

Spain won't vote anything radical. Although Podemos will be part of many governments in the next few years, it won't win any relevant election. Part of it is due to the fact that it won't gain support from the right now that TPTB are very obviously backing the "new" right-wing party Ciudadanos (Citizens). With the People's Party (PP) dead, with every treasurer in its history facing court, and employment recovery not yet clear, they were surely going to pull something out of the hat.

Be careful not to drop into the mainstream by what you hear in the media.

(oh, look, the stocks are bouncing and transports refuse to break down even with oil rallying for days, who would have thunk it?)

ORLY? euphemism much?

1 spanish out of 4 is unemployed: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/spain/unemployment-rate
youth unemployement rate over 50% since 2012: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/spain/youth-unemployment-rate
(and these are just "official" numbers.. )

Spain is drowning and TPTB is doing everything to maintain the status quo whilst enjoying canapés et petits fours over at Bruxelles.
Pretty much the same with all the governments in Europe.

If the US calculated unemployment the same way as Spain does, the US would be well above 25% unemployment today.

The US unemployment calculation has been modified and manipulated to show good numbers over the past 50 years. The headline number today is the U3 rate, but we used to show the U6 number which included underemployed as well. On top of this none of these numbers include people who dropped out of the workforce and are now on entitlements (which is unemployed). You add this all up and we are well past 25%. If the government ever runs out of entitlement money people are going to see just how bad the employment situation really is.

But we live in the era of twitter politics that generate headlines such as "Unemployment dropped to 5.6% under Obama", never mind the fact that Obama changed the calculation a bit to hit that number, and the number is complete bullshit.

[rocks]

...

Thanks for this great Austrian-style analysis.

Yeah, you 2 have made my job alot easier these days. Thanks for that.

Thanks for maintaining a great thread. I used to be quite active at ZH '09-'13 and took solace there, but the ZH comment section significantly degenerated and all the decent original posters abandoned it which is a shame. This thread helps to fill that void....

[lunarboy]

Grexit seems almost inevitable these days.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/apr/16/greece-moves-step-closer-to-grexit-after-imf-snub

After that all eyes will be on Spain and Podemos.

Spain won't vote anything radical. Although Podemos will be part of many governments in the next few years, it won't win any relevant election. Part of it is due to the fact that it won't gain support from the right now that TPTB are very obviously backing the "new" right-wing party Ciudadanos (Citizens). With the People's Party (PP) dead, with every treasurer in its history facing court, and employment recovery not yet clear, they were surely going to pull something out of the hat.

Be careful not to drop into the mainstream by what you hear in the media.

(oh, look, the stocks are bouncing and transports refuse to break down even with oil rallying for days, who would have thunk it?)

I wouldn't be so sure about that, many people said the same of Syriza. Besides I wasn't really insinuating they would win los Generales. More that there is serious discontent in spain you only have to look at how many under 30's are leaving for South America, or the levels of youth unemployment to see that. With this strength they can apply some heavy political influence on whoever does win. I suspect a hung parliament with PP.

mainstream-media is a dirty word 

[rocks]

Kansas Activist Could Face Felony Charges Because Her 11-Year-Old Son Challenged Anti-Pot Propaganda
http://reason.com/blog/2015/04/20/kansas-activist-could-face-felony-charge#.ofyk1n:vjid

and

Kansas Police Shutdown Cannabis Oil Activist's Facebook to Prevent her from raising money for her legal defense
http://kansasexposed.org/2015/04/17/kansas-police-shutdown-cannabis-oil-activists-facebook-to-prevent-her-from-raising-money-for-her-legal-defense/

If only we had some mechanism to transmit money without state control....

[solex]

If the US calculated unemployment the same way as Spain does, the US would be well above 25% unemployment today.

The US unemployment calculation has been modified and manipulated to show good numbers over the past 50 years. The headline number today is the U3 rate, but we used to show the U6 number which included underemployed as well. On top of this none of these numbers include people who dropped out of the workforce and are now on entitlements (which is unemployed). You add this all up and we are well past 25%. If the government ever runs out of entitlement money people are going to see just how bad the employment situation really is.

But we live in the era of twitter politics that generate headlines such as "Unemployment dropped to 5.6% under Obama", never mind the fact that Obama changed the calculation a bit to hit that number, and the number is complete bullshit.

Yes, the numbers are so distorted they have lost historical significance. 100 years ago government workers were counted as unemployed as they were funded from taxation, not the productive economy. Not only does the debt-based financial system need a reset button, so do economic statistics.

[rocks]

If the US calculated unemployment the same way as Spain does, the US would be well above 25% unemployment today.

The US unemployment calculation has been modified and manipulated to show good numbers over the past 50 years. The headline number today is the U3 rate, but we used to show the U6 number which included underemployed as well. On top of this none of these numbers include people who dropped out of the workforce and are now on entitlements (which is unemployed). You add this all up and we are well past 25%. If the government ever runs out of entitlement money people are going to see just how bad the employment situation really is.

But we live in the era of twitter politics that generate headlines such as "Unemployment dropped to 5.6% under Obama", never mind the fact that Obama changed the calculation a bit to hit that number, and the number is complete bullshit.

Yes, the numbers are so distorted they have lost historical significance. 100 years ago government workers were counted as unemployed as they were funded from taxation, not the productive economy. Not only does the debt-based financial system need a reset button, so do economic statistics.

Really? That's awesome, I didn't know that. Any references? Not that it mattered to the calculation anyway since government workers only comprised an insignificant fraction of the working population.

[Spaceman_Spiff]

If the US calculated unemployment the same way as Spain does, the US would be well above 25% unemployment today.

The US unemployment calculation has been modified and manipulated to show good numbers over the past 50 years. The headline number today is the U3 rate, but we used to show the U6 number which included underemployed as well. On top of this none of these numbers include people who dropped out of the workforce and are now on entitlements (which is unemployed). You add this all up and we are well past 25%. If the government ever runs out of entitlement money people are going to see just how bad the employment situation really is.

But we live in the era of twitter politics that generate headlines such as "Unemployment dropped to 5.6% under Obama", never mind the fact that Obama changed the calculation a bit to hit that number, and the number is complete bullshit.

Yes, the numbers are so distorted they have lost historical significance. 100 years ago government workers were counted as unemployed as they were funded from taxation, not the productive economy. Not only does the debt-based financial system need a reset button, so do economic statistics.

I know we are in liberterian territory on this forum, but that's a bit much.  Whether a service is provided by a private firm or the government doesn't really matter as long as the service is being provided (and at the same or a similar cost).  Obviously, it can be argued that the private sector allocates capital more efficiently, and that government structure leads to squandering, but considering every job that is paid by the government as non-existent is a clear error (inb4 every government job does harm).

[sidhujag]

another alttime high for stocks comin up

[rocks]

If the US calculated unemployment the same way as Spain does, the US would be well above 25% unemployment today.

The US unemployment calculation has been modified and manipulated to show good numbers over the past 50 years. The headline number today is the U3 rate, but we used to show the U6 number which included underemployed as well. On top of this none of these numbers include people who dropped out of the workforce and are now on entitlements (which is unemployed). You add this all up and we are well past 25%. If the government ever runs out of entitlement money people are going to see just how bad the employment situation really is.

But we live in the era of twitter politics that generate headlines such as "Unemployment dropped to 5.6% under Obama", never mind the fact that Obama changed the calculation a bit to hit that number, and the number is complete bullshit.

Yes, the numbers are so distorted they have lost historical significance. 100 years ago government workers were counted as unemployed as they were funded from taxation, not the productive economy. Not only does the debt-based financial system need a reset button, so do economic statistics.

I know we are in liberterian territory on this forum, but that's a bit much.  Whether a service is provided by a private firm or the government doesn't really matter as long as the service is being provided (and at the same or a similar cost).  Obviously, it can be argued that the private sector allocates capital more efficiently, and that government structure leads to squandering, but considering every job that is paid by the government as non-existent is a clear error (inb4 every government job does harm).

Government jobs are not representative of production, they are representative of consumption.

That is not a statement that there should be no government jobs, there are of course a whole set of services that are required for a functioning society (courts, education, etc). But again, there are services for the well-being of a society, not production.

In viewing these services as production, we have allowed them to grow and grow and grow, to the point that the US consumes many more services than it produces. This works great as long as the US has a printing press combined with being the global reserve asset. But this over consumption of services is a misallocation of resources, services that are no longer supported by production.

Case in point, the decline of manufacturing and other blue collar jobs in the US, and the hollowing out of all opportunities for advancement for anyone not in the professional class. (with the exception of government jobs)

[solex]

If the US calculated unemployment the same way as Spain does, the US would be well above 25% unemployment today.

The US unemployment calculation has been modified and manipulated to show good numbers over the past 50 years. The headline number today is the U3 rate, but we used to show the U6 number which included underemployed as well. On top of this none of these numbers include people who dropped out of the workforce and are now on entitlements (which is unemployed). You add this all up and we are well past 25%. If the government ever runs out of entitlement money people are going to see just how bad the employment situation really is.

But we live in the era of twitter politics that generate headlines such as "Unemployment dropped to 5.6% under Obama", never mind the fact that Obama changed the calculation a bit to hit that number, and the number is complete bullshit.

Yes, the numbers are so distorted they have lost historical significance. 100 years ago government workers were counted as unemployed as they were funded from taxation, not the productive economy. Not only does the debt-based financial system need a reset button, so do economic statistics.

I know we are in liberterian territory on this forum, but that's a bit much.  Whether a service is provided by a private firm or the government doesn't really matter as long as the service is being provided (and at the same or a similar cost).  Obviously, it can be argued that the private sector allocates capital more efficiently, and that government structure leads to squandering, but considering every job that is paid by the government as non-existent is a clear error (inb4 every government job does harm).

Absolutely. I certainly don't think that government jobs "don't matter", and agree that some/many are essential to a stable society. It is a matter of how the employment statistics are increasingly tortured to make the case that unemployment is under control, and part of this is the millions of extra non-jobs created in the government sector in recent decades. Which then has the twin downsides of being unaffordable (perpetual deficits) and interventionist (cradle-to-grave nanny-state).

Really? That's awesome, I didn't know that. Any references? Not that it mattered to the calculation anyway since government workers only comprised an insignificant fraction of the working population.

No direct references to hand, I just recall reading it a few times. Probably more of an interpretation from data, such as the census below, when GW was indeed a smaller percentage of the total.

Example: the US 1940 census

The instructions to enumerators for column 30 give five codes for "Class of Worker":
PW—a person who worked for a wage under the direction of an employer
E—an employer, who employed one or more helpers
GW—government worker
OA—own account, such as a lawyer with no hired help
NP—unpaid family member whose work contributed to the family income, such as in a family store

The census clearly separates GW from other types of employment, then it is up to the user of the stats to interpret what is full or productive employment.

[hdbuck]

If the US calculated unemployment the same way as Spain does, the US would be well above 25% unemployment today.

The US unemployment calculation has been modified and manipulated to show good numbers over the past 50 years. The headline number today is the U3 rate, but we used to show the U6 number which included underemployed as well. On top of this none of these numbers include people who dropped out of the workforce and are now on entitlements (which is unemployed). You add this all up and we are well past 25%. If the government ever runs out of entitlement money people are going to see just how bad the employment situation really is.

But we live in the era of twitter politics that generate headlines such as "Unemployment dropped to 5.6% under Obama", never mind the fact that Obama changed the calculation a bit to hit that number, and the number is complete bullshit.

Yes, the numbers are so distorted they have lost historical significance. 100 years ago government workers were counted as unemployed as they were funded from taxation, not the productive economy. Not only does the debt-based financial system need a reset button, so do economic statistics.

I know we are in liberterian territory on this forum, but that's a bit much.  Whether a service is provided by a private firm or the government doesn't really matter as long as the service is being provided (and at the same or a similar cost).  Obviously, it can be argued that the private sector allocates capital more efficiently, and that government structure leads to squandering, but considering every job that is paid by the government as non-existent is a clear error (inb4 every government job does harm).

Government jobs are not representative of production, they are representative of consumption.

That is not a statement that there should be no government jobs, there are of course a whole set of services that are required for a functioning society (courts, education, etc). But again, there are services for the well-being of a society, not production.

In viewing these services as production, we have allowed them to grow and grow and grow, to the point that the US consumes many more services than it produces. This works great as long as the US has a printing press combined with being the global reserve asset. But this over consumption of services is a misallocation of resources, services that are no longer supported by production.

Case in point, the decline of manufacturing and other blue collar jobs in the US, and the hollowing out of all opportunities for advancement for anyone not in the professional class. (with the exception of government jobs)

Those are just "services", not like if the governments are doing a helluva job "teaching" the poor kids anyway.. Still, taxes are increasing, one way or another.

Governments will ultimately go too far on the cash cow.. Corporacy lurking good. Google is more influent than USG already. ^^

[farting_shot]

Agreed 1000%, fuck gov't!