Economic Crisis News 2015-05-01
Top stories this week: Bitcoin goes live and the Inevitable US Debt Default; will it happen by November?
GBTC is a ticker appearing on the OTC Markets but as of yet has not been trading. The official price for bitcoin according to the Winklevoss Index has been around $230 for the last 3 weeks and has been oscillating around here since the start of 2015. The Bitcoin Investment Trust was announced to launch on April 1st by CNBC. Apparently the shares were only offered privately and cannot be traded publicly for one year due to restrictions on the shares.
There appears to be buy orders in the millions of dollars already though with one that would result in a $125 premium per coin bringing the price up to $350 per bitcoin. GBTC shares will be eligible to be purchased in non-taxable accounts such as IRA’s. Brave New Coin reports we could see the first buy order filled soon. Sweden had a Bitcoin-based ETN just approved as well. The Bitcoin Tracker One, launched by Stockholm-based XBT Provider AB, which is owned by the KnC Group and is expected to launch on the 18th of May. With final New York regulations for Bitcoin to be released in May, expect a rally and increased volatility in bitcoin price by this summer.
It seems Wall Street is jumping more into Bitcoin. Goldman Sachs was part of a group that just invested 50 Million dollars into Circle, a bitcoin financial service startup from Boston. Will Bitcoin become a Wall Street currency?
As Bitcoin Rises Up, can We Expect the Dollar to Fade Away?
The last US Debt limit agreement expired March 15th this year. The Treasury department and CBO have said extraordinary measures can be taken to extend government funding to October or November before a US Government default. Our official national debt at $18.2 trillion is over double the amount we had at the end of 2007. Social Security Disability is set to run out of money by 2016 and general Social Security by 2030 if changes are not made.
With a culmination of conspiracy theories about an event happening in September and global monetary shifts like the IMF potentially adding the Chinese Yuan to the SDR basket, the next 12 months could spell big trouble for the United States and the Dollar.
We could be kicking the can down the road soon as the House and Senate just agreed on a combined budget for the first time since 2009. The proposal boosts military spending and continues deficit spending for another 10 years. Despite such flaws, Democrats want to cut less and raise revenue more. The budget is expected to be voted on today May 1st.
In the markets, the Dow fell nearly 200 points Thursday, losing 1% as did the S&P 500 but the Nasdaq slid even further at 1.6%.
With no hint that the Fed will raise rates anytime soon and 1st Quarter GDP reported growth at only zero point two percent, the economy continues to trudge along. Crude oil prices have not corrected down but have continued to rise because of weakness being shown in the US Dollar, which has lost 2.3% in one week.
A reversal of the current short term trend is now even more likely. WTI is $59 and Brent Crude is $65 per barrel. Gold is down for the week at 1185 vs last week’s 1195 and Silver is up to 16 dollars 12 cents over last week’s 15.90 per ounce.
Be sure to see an important video just released by Future Money Trends regarding the current rioting and race tensions in America. What has the media been lying to you about?