Mike Tyson

In Search of Lost Money

Last week we wrapped on the possibility that bitcoin (BTC) might be backed by gold or another asset class, although gold and BTC have a special affinity in that they are both "€œoutlier"€ asset classes. Meaning they"€™re good in an emergency, but they are traded on the periphery of the ...

The Golden Rule

"€œI believe in the Golden Rule"€”the man with the gold...rules."€ "€”Mr. T Precious-metals expert Ned Naylor-Leyland is an investment manager at Quilter Cheviot, London, who frequently comments on the subject via the international TV-news networks of the less mainstream variety. Ned's ...

Your Kids Will Not Know What Money Is

"€œYour kids will not know what money is,"€ Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, told U.K. broadsheet The Daily Telegraph in November 2015, predicting that cash itself will disappear within a generation. To be precise: when today's university students have children. About ten, twelve years? Apple Inc. ...

Beyond the Zero Bound

"€œWe live in strange times. No Western government gets to stay in power unless they spend more money than they receive."€ "€”Richard Hubbard Last week's column ended upon Europe's newfound taste for negative interest rates, and their potential as a precursor to an "€œend of cash"€ ...

Nowhereland: The Financial Now?

The announcement was printed with little fanfare. On Feb. 1, 2013, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) exceeded its precrisis high point of $13,903.01, hitting $14,054.49. The news didn"€™t excite many since it had been a long time coming (five years). More remarkable are the gains between ...

Tomorrowstan: New World Order?

You can"€™t miss the signs, despite our leaders"€™ reassuring statements, which would have us believe everything is just fine when it is not. The Fed's too spooked to move on interest rates, supertankers float in traffic jams in the Gulf of Mexico, and 487 million barrels of crude oil are ...

Bitcoin Goes Pro

It’s official. The filthy lucre is here to stay. I’m talking about the crypto-currency bitcoin (BTC), the story of whose rise has been a smoking volcano the last two months and which this week is hotter than lava. What’s going on? Two things. One: the currency value, having been ...

You Don”€™t Mess With the Tsar

He makes running the world look easy. I’ve been watching Russian President Putin’s merciless wielding of the rule of law, Moscow-style. The president"€”might as well call him the Tsar, considering Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s description"€”"€œPutinism is authoritarian state ...

Islamic Finance Comes West

There is an atmosphere of foreboding upon the world stage that may account for the bitcoin’s steady rise against the dollar. BTC closed at $213.5 on November 1, up from $130 exactly four weeks ago. And this week, the world’s first bitcoin ATM opened for business in Vancouver. And the ...

The Breakdown on Bitcoin

As predicted in recent weeks in this column, those holding the bitcoin currency have seen their coin rise in value to a high of $195.8 from around $130 early in the month. As of October 19, the closing price of bitcoin was $183.2"€”up 40% in a fortnight from the time of the closure of Silk Road, ...