Month: July 2014

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1jZjQIU williambanzai7

An Op-Ed piece penned by Veritaseum Chief Contracts Officer, Matt Bogosian

This past weekend (despite American Airlines’ best efforts), Reggie and I made it to the Second Annual North American Bitcoin Conference in Chicago. While there were some very creative (and very ambitious) ideas on how to try to realize the disruptive Bitcoin protocol, one of the predominant topics of discussion was New York Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky’s proposed Bitcoin regulations (the BitLicense proposal) – percieved by many participants at the event as an apparent attempt to regulate Bitcoin out of existence.

Even assuming that the entities sought to be regulated under the (seemingly draconian) BitLicens[ing] proposal qualify as “financial services institutions” (which I think is tenuous and highly debatable), to say that the proposal is in violation of New York’s statutory mandate, “[t]o encourage, promote and assist … other financial services institutions to effectively and productively locate, operate, employ, grow, remain, and expand in New York state … [and] … [t]o establish a modern system of regulation, rule making and adjudication that is responsive … to the needs of the state’s consumers and residents,” (NY Fin. Svcs. Law, § 102(a), emphasis mine), is not only an understatement, it’s probably totally irrelevant. Courts typically (and perhaps frustratingly) don’t second guess legislators and regulators on whether their laws have any correlation to any stated goals, even if those laws have the exact opposite effect of what was alleged as intended. Instead, courts leave that to the voters, effectively saying, “If you don’t like the law, change the legislator,” and we all know how effective that is.

In other words, Orwell was (still) right. The stated purpose of BitLicenses is not corollary to the apparent purpose – which is to maintain the status quo. Status quote doesn’t contemplate disruptive innovations like the blockchain. Unless and until a higher authority intervenes (with higher authority potentially defined as you – the reader, the consituency and particularly the avid and concerned social media user) Lawsky’s proposal, if achieved, will quite likely end (or at least drive underground) the most significant economic and technological breakthrough known to this century, not only in New York, but very likely the United States.

Imagine if Lawsky had been Superintendent in 1994. Imagine that (for whatever reason) Lawsky felt compelled to frustrate the dissemination of another set of disruptive innovations known as the Internet Protocols.

 

By analogy, imagine that he proposed a regulatory scheme known as “PacketLicense”, wherein anyone routing IP packets that arrived at or passed through devices located in or belonging to residents of New York had to acquire a PacketLicense (unless they were a New York bank, or a retailer incorporated in New York), which (in small part) involved fingerprinting everyone employed by the owner of the device, or any affiliate of that owner. In retrospect, we would laugh at its absurdity, and likely recoil in horror imagining the economic Armageddon such a regulation would cause.

But that is precisely what Lawsky is trying to do with the blockchain. Others have provided extensive treatment on various parts of the proposal. Over my next few posts, I will add my voice to that chorus by providing detailed analysis (and possible fixes) for some of the requirements that I find particularly bothersome. Stay tuned.

 

 

 

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1jZjQbP Reggie Middleton

You can be forgiven for thinking that the world is a pretty terrible place right now, exclaims JPMorgan’s Michael Cembalest. With 11.7% of the world’s population currently at war (and a considerably larger percentage seemingly on the verge), it seemed an appropriate time to summarize the main geopolitical risk points in the world.

Deutsche Bank warns Geopolitical Risks Remain High

 

As Cembalest notes, the list is long… and growing

The downing of a Malaysian jetliner in eastern Ukraine and escalating sanctions against Russia, the Israeli invasion of Gaza, renewed fighting in Libya, civil wars in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, Islamist insurgencies in Nigeria and Mali, ongoing post-election chaos in Kenya, violent conflicts in Pakistan, Sudan and Yemen, assorted mayhem in central Africa, and the situation in North Korea, described in a 2014 United Nations Human Rights report as having no parallel in the contemporary world. Only in Colombia does it look like a multi-decade conflict is finally staggering to its end.

 

 

For investors, strange as it might seem, such conflicts are not affecting the world’s largest equity markets very much (for now). Perhaps this reflects the small footprint of war zone countries within the global capital markets and global economy, other than through oil production.

*  *  *

While markets maybe ignorant of the risk flares, economies are not as today’s durable goods orders in the US show, even the cleanest dirty shirt is starting to get soiled.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1jZjNfX Tyler Durden

You can be forgiven for thinking that the world is a pretty terrible place right now, exclaims JPMorgan’s Michael Cembalest. With 11.7% of the world’s population currently at war (and a considerably larger percentage seemingly on the verge), it seemed an appropriate time to summarize the main geopolitical risk points in the world.

Deutsche Bank warns Geopolitical Risks Remain High

 

As Cembalest notes, the list is long… and growing

The downing of a Malaysian jetliner in eastern Ukraine and escalating sanctions against Russia, the Israeli invasion of Gaza, renewed fighting in Libya, civil wars in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, Islamist insurgencies in Nigeria and Mali, ongoing post-election chaos in Kenya, violent conflicts in Pakistan, Sudan and Yemen, assorted mayhem in central Africa, and the situation in North Korea, described in a 2014 United Nations Human Rights report as having no parallel in the contemporary world. Only in Colombia does it look like a multi-decade conflict is finally staggering to its end.

 

 

For investors, strange as it might seem, such conflicts are not affecting the world’s largest equity markets very much (for now). Perhaps this reflects the small footprint of war zone countries within the global capital markets and global economy, other than through oil production.

*  *  *

While markets maybe ignorant of the risk flares, economies are not as today’s durable goods orders in the US show, even the cleanest dirty shirt is starting to get soiled.

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1jZjNfX Tyler Durden

Shit! God Damn it! Fuck Asshole! In that order, please, from most favorite at the top. Most of us probably out there in the real world won’t be too surprised that those are the three favorite words that come out of everyone’s mouths when they need to let off steam somehow. It’s better and safer than punching the wall of the board room and getting yourself a fine. But, it can still cost and sometimes it can cost you a lot. A new study has revealed that cursing goes up proportionally as the crisis sets in and that means CEOs have been cursing their way to the top any which way they can for over five years now.

Bloomberg carried out a study and it has just been published. It covers conference calls from 2004 to 2014 and it analyzes how American CEOs speak and what words they use. By looking at the graph you will see that 2010 was the height of cursing for those at the top. Apparently the cursing has now waned since that peak year and the ‘economy is getting better’ (according to Bloomberg). Or rather, those companies that were analyzed are doing better because they are being kept alive and afloat by the buoyancy of the Federal Reserve and the loose money that they have had all these years. It would hardly seem that the economy is doing any better in general terms. But, they might be cutting back on their swearing because the flow of money has continued into the financial markets thanks to quantitative easing.

In the conference calls that were analyzed by Bloomberg, the overriding favorite word was ‘shit’, being used 197 times over that period. Next came ‘God damn it!’, used 34 times, followed by ‘Fuck!’ (17 times) and there were 6 ‘assholes’ that will go down somewhere in history.

Apparently, it was James Hagedorn, Chairman and CEO of Scotts Miracle-Gro (Ohio) that came out tops in the league table with 16 ‘shits’, and 3 ‘fucks’ plus 1 ‘god damn it’ in 10 years, making a total of 20. Hardly a lot by anyone’s daily standards and a lot of us could probably do better than that.

It’s a little bit like the study that was published in 2012 which showed the closer we got to the financial crisis the more the people at the Fed were telling jokes and laughing at the Fed meetings than actually doing anything else. According to the reports published with the transcripts of conversations, laughter was more common as things got more worrying. Take a look at the graph below and see for yourself. The closer the crisis the more they laughed. Was that nervous laughter or was that because they were blind as to what was coming? Just one example is the August 8th 2006 meeting in which the following was said: “As the comments indicate, this is probably the most challenging time that we have had before us in my long history at the FOMC [laughter]”. Still how many of us will be surprised to see that board meetings are for doing anything but work. We all know that things are decided before the meeting actually takes place. The table is just there for show, that’s all, isn’t it? But, laughter doesn’t beat cursing, does it?

Whether you choose scatology, profanity and blasphemy or downright straight-forward sexual references it’s a taboo word in society. Usually, taboo words are watered down in public and replaced by something that everyone gets but you don’t need to say. It’s only when you are feeling right at home that you let rip with what you want. Perhaps the study doesn’t so much reveal that the CEOs are under pressure and have been since 2008, but more that they are now fully at home in their environment and so they can say and do just as they like. Well, almost. Cursing is like honking the horn of your car. It lets you express yourself, whether that be happiness or downright anger and frustration.

Just take a moment and look around the office. Who’s at the top of your office league table?

via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1jZjLEV Pivotfarm