Free Republic

Everyone's talking about Michael Lewis' latest book Flash Boys and HFT (high-frequency trading) and whether the markets are rigged. What they're not talking about is how the markets have been set up for institutionalized rigging. I'm not kidding. The markets are rigged. You're going to have to get over it and deal with it. The rigging is in the system and that's just the way it is... As to HFT, I'll get to that... But you can't pass judgment on HFT until you understand how cascading technology and unintended consequences landed us in the deep end of the dark pool...

Prices are storehouses of knowledge.​ One person whose grammar is impeccable except on the rare occasions when it isn’t is Kevin Williamson. He had a great piece the other day on the mystery of prices. I loved his opening sentence: “Prices are a mystery, and why that is is a mystery.” This reminded me of a great line from this wonderful video essay on Hayek’s “On the Use of Knowledge in Society” over at the Marginal Revolution University. It’s arguably Hayek’s most important contribution — which is saying a lot. It’s like saying Michael Jordan’s best slam dunk or Bill...

Cutting right to the chase: we don't think going short is a good idea yet. Just when you would think the situation with Mt. Gox couldn't get any stranger, it has. Apparently, the exchange "found" almost BTC 200,000 in one of its old wallets this month. The coins would be currently worth approximately $115 million. A statement published yesterday on the exchanges website reads: MtGox Co., Ltd. had certain old-format wallets which were used in the past and which, MtGox thought, no longer held any bitcoins. Following the application for commencement of a civil rehabilitation proceeding, these wallets were rescanned...

Commentary: Black-swan crisis warning for now through mid-April. SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Global risks are accelerating. This is our fourth major poll update of industry leaders: A critical review of their warnings from early last year when we first predicted a 87% risk of a crash: Bernanke’s Fed saw an “unsustainable bubble” ... Gross: “credit supernova” ... Gundlach: “kaboom ahead” ... Ellis: “Don’t own bonds” ... Shilling: “shocker” ... Roubini: “Prepare for perfect storm” ... Shiller: “Irrational exuberance is back” ... Schiff: “Doubling down” on “doomsday” prediction ... InvestmentNews’ warning 90,000 advisers: “tick, tick ... boom!”

BEIJING – One person was shot dead after a knife attack that left at least three people dead in a Chinese market Friday, state media said, in the second such attack in two weeks. Another person was injured in the attack in the southern city of Changsha, according to local radio station Hunan Jiaotong.

Mar 08 2014 The WealthCycles Staff Once virtually abandoned by the mainstream, many ideas associated with Austrian School economics have been increasingly in the spotlight, and in the public consciousness, in recent years. Some of the attention resulted from the popularity of Congressman Ron Paul, who, particularly during his third presidential run in 2012, captured the attention of the millennials, the last generation born in the 20th century. The appeal of Paul’s anti-establishment economic theories is understandable: raised on expectations of upward mobility instilled in their baby boom parents, today’s young people have emerged into adulthood to face the sad...

Russian markets plunged Monday morning as investors reacted to the prospect of Western-led economic sanctions aimed at punishing president Vladimir Putin for Russian actions in Crimea. The selloff prompted the Russian central bank to take aggressive action to try to stabilize the markets. As the ruble sank to new lows against the euro and the dollar, the bank raised interest rate by 150 basis points (1.5 percentage points), lifting it to 7 per cent.

(Reuters) - The price of the digital currency bitcoin slid to its lowest level in nearly two months on Monday after bitcoin digital marketplace Mt. Gox said a halt on withdrawals it announced on Friday would continue indefinitely after it detected "unusual activity." The bitcoin price varied dramatically from one exchange to another, with Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, the best known operator of a bitcoin digital marketplace, recording one of the biggest drops for the day. On the Mt. Gox platform the currency plunged to as low as $500 early on Monday, down more than 27 percent from Friday's final price...

MADRID (MarketWatch) -- Bitcoin prices fell on Friday after exchange Mt. Gox said it was halting withdrawals temporarily. The company said an increase in flow of withdrawals requests "has hindered our efforts on a technical level. To understand the issue thoroughly, the system needs to be in a static state," said Mt. Gox officials in a note on the website Friday. To resolve the issue, it said a temporarily pause on all withdrawal requests was needed. Its tech team was working on its system, Mt. Gox added, and an update will be provided by Monday.

February is looking an awful lot like January for investors. Emphasis on awful. The Dow tumbled more than 300 points Monday afternoon, or almost 2%, after a much worse-than-expected reading on manufacturing activity. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down more than 2%. CNNMoney's Tech 30 index was also down sharply. Investors were disappointed after the Institute for Supply Management's monthly index showed that manufacturing activity last month expanded at its weakest pace since May. The bad news comes as investors are still reeling from a rough January. Disappointing earnings and volatility in emerging markets sent stocks sharply lower during...

My augmentation is "purely" spirit led and guided every step of the way FOR MY WORD IS IN YOU , nothing lacking or missing FOR I AM THE WORD AND THE SPIRIT so do not be anxious that something is missing FOR I AM WITH YOU and will "never" forsake you and this is why I AM your Yes and Amen to all you do in and through Me! Acts 17:27-29 Amplified Bible (AMP) 27 So that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him, although He is not far from each...

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — Members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors have taken aim at anti-abortion banners placed on busy Market Street. Supervisor David Campos and six other supervisors are supporting a resolution opposing the banners and questioning their legality. The banners were put up by Walk for Life West Coast, a San Francisco based anti-abortion group that holds an annual rally in the city, scheduled for January 25th in Civic Center Plaza. --SNIP-- Eva Muntean of Walk for Life said her group obtained a permit and met all the criteria for their banners. --SNIP-- Muntean said the resolution...

The price of bitcoin has, once again, reached $1,000 on popular bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. The first time the price of bitcoin reached this level was on 27th November after interest in the cryptocurrency spiked across the world, but primarily in China. A few weeks later, the price started to tumble after China’s central bank imposed restrictions on the involvement of the country’s banks and third-party payment processors in bitcoin. On 5th December, the central bank said Chinese financial institutions were no longer permitted to work with bitcoin exchanges or other bitcoin companies. That same day, the price fell from...

Ever since President Nixon broke the US dollar's last link to gold, the world has been set adrift on a sea of fiat currencies that have been increasingly debased, serving the interests of governments and financial elites. For the last five years, central banks have imposed near-zero rates of interest that have helped push up stock, bond, and real estate prices, but have made it nearly impossible for savers to receive meaningful returns on bank deposits. To make matters worse, the apparatus of national security has turned financial transactions into a massive exercise in government surveillance. Under the camouflage of...

The stock market's torrid rally has left it vastly overvalued and vulnerable to a horrific plunge, says Henry Blodget, editor-in-chief of Business Insider. "Every valid valuation measure I look at suggests that stocks are at least 40 percent overvalued," he writes on the service. Among examples Blodget cites is that the cyclically adjusted price-earnings ratio, based on 10 years of profits, stands at 25, compared with a long-term average of 15. In addition, the current ratio of stock market capitalization to revenue is 1.6, compared with a long-term average of 1.0, he notes. And the ratio of stock market capitalization...

They say those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. As a student of market history, I’ve seen that maxim made true time and again. The cycle swings fear back to greed. The overcautious become the overzealous. And at the top, the story is always the same: Too much credit, too much speculation, the suspension of disbelief, and the spread of the idea that this time is different. It doesn’t matter whether it was the expansion of railroads heading into the crash of 1893 or the excitement over the consolidation of the steel industry in 1901...

What would be the incentive for increased consumer demand for purchase of an Obamacare Insurance Policy instead of purchasing a policy from a private insurance company? After one year of competition on an open insurance market, how would Obamacare rate in terms of new policies, customer satisfaction, customer privacy, customer recommendations to others, and profit margins? After five years of insurance sales, would Obamacare still be operating at a net financial loss? Could a non-mandatory Obamacare be packaged for sale to a private Insurance Company? What would the the Fair Market Value of the privatization sale of Obamacare?

Morgan Stanley lowered its industry view on internet stocks to "in-line" from "attractive," saying growth in the sector needs to accelerate to justify current valuations. Shares of Facebook Inc and LinkedIn Corp have more than doubled in the last one year, and trade 44 and 97 times forward earnings, according to Thomson Reuters data. Google Inc's shares have risen 56 percent in the same period and trade almost 20 times earnings, data showed. Morgan Stanley analysts said the rise in the valuation of internet stocks has been due to investors looking at the total addressable market (TAM) opportunity with minimal...

Dow futures down -105 at this time. Were -95 a little earlier.

Political Director of ABC News, Rick Klein pleaded with investors today to tank the stock market in order to “shake things loose” in the GOP ranks. In his ABC’s The Note piece today, Klein seriously proposed a stock sell-off designed for the express purpose of breaking the will of Republicans. When does Wall Street cast its vote? Bipartisan meetings are nice, and new plans that depend on the other side budging certainly can’t hurt at this stage of a standoff. But there may be only one way to jolt the system: SELL. Klein’s rationale: recent talks with beltway strategists suggest the GOP is...