Blythe Masters’ Ex-Husband Launches Bitcoin Hedge Fund from the Island of Jersey

Screen Shot 2014-07-11 at 2.11.01 PMBlythe Masters is perhaps the most maligned human being on earth by silver investors due to suspicions of JP Morgan’s manipulation in the silver market. Well she’s back in the news, but it has nothing to do with silver. Rather, the news relates to the fact that her ex-husband and commodities traders, Daniel Masters, has just launched a Bitcoin hedge fund from the island of Jersey, a British Crown dependency.

We learn from Newsweek that:

Daniel Masters, a 50-year-old veteran commodities trader, started working for some of the largest companies in the world right out of university, trading in London, New York and Zug, Switzerland, for JPMorgan Chase and Phibro before moving on to the New York Mercantile Exchange, a short walk from Wall Street. By all appearances, it was your standard Wall Street career.

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Wall Street Gets Bitcoin Fever – Wedbush Securities to Accept BTC for Research

In what is probably the single most important positive headline since Overstock’s announcement that it would accept Bitcoin, Wedbush Securities has just announced it has become the first U.S institutional brokerage to accept bitcoin as payment for its research coverage. They will be partnering with Coinbase. So while JP Morgan has its head up its ass writing … Read more

Has Chase Begun a Covert War on Bitcoin?

The past several days have seen considerable weakness in the price of bitcoin. The selling was sparked by the revelation that the Chinese government had essentially instructed its financial system to avoid it. Then yesterday it was revealed that China had banned third-party payment companies from doing business with bitcoin exchanges. As far as price is concerned, I have stated repeatedly via Twitter that I think the China news caps the upside in the near-term (baring other material news of course) and that we are in a new range of $650-$1050 per BTC. At roughly $700 where we are now, I think at least 75% of the “China premium” is now out of the price. This sets up a solid risk/reward profile. However, there is one thing in the U.S. that people should be aware of and represents some headline risk if true.

Recently, a friend of mine noted that Chase has threatened to shutdown his business account due to his use of Coinbase (remember Coinbase recently received the largest VC investment in Bitcoin to-date). Apparently, the problem hasn’t been when money moves out of U.S. banking deposits and into the Bitcoin ecosystem, but rather when the currency is converted back to dollars and then deposited back into the Chase accounts. With this already being in my mind, I read the following Reddit post this morning:

Hi everyone,

A few weeks ago, I posted that Chase decided to terminate my account, and they never notified me as to why they would do this. However, I believed it to be Bitcoin-related.

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Video of the Day: Interview with Matt Taibbi About JP Morgan and the CNBC “Presstitutes”

The top definition of presstitute according to Urban Dictionary is: 1. presstitute A member of the media who will alter their story and reporting based on financial interests or other ties with usually partisan individuals or groups. It has become abundantly clear in recent years that the mainstream media can not be identified as anything … Read more

American Dependency: A Food Stamp Micro-Doc

My friend Dan at Future Money Trends has just put together a fantastic micro-documentary on the rise of our food stamp nation and the far reaching consequences to society. From the art of selling excess food stamp dollars at the end of each month, to JP Morgan profiting from the program as a line of … Read more

GATA Meets CNBC: Host Calls Gold Market a “Matrix”

First off, fantastic job by Chris Powell in this interview.  The host cracked me up when he describes the gold market as “almost like the matrix.”  My favorite line from Chris is when he says “the banks are bigger than the government.”  Those two lines sum up a lot of what’s wrong with the world … Read more

TBTF Banks Enter Payday Loan Business with 500% Interest Rates

If you thought the TBTF banks couldn’t stoop any lower, think again.  If this doesn’t prove without a shadow of a doubt that the more you coddle and bailout the big banks, the more brazen, criminal and out of control they become.  I guess entering the slumlord business and running the food stamp program just wasn’t good enough. In their latest scheme, we find that JP Morgan (of course), Bank of America and Wells Fargo (Uncle Warren’s pet) are at the center of what can only be called a global loan-sharking business that prays on destitute American citizens.  Basically, the way the scam works is payday lenders set up shop overseas in locations such as Granada, Belize or the Isle of Man in order to avoid various state laws against payday loans.  The key link in the chain are the TBTF crony banks who process the loans and facilitate the interest charges, which can be well over 500%.  So what’s in it for the banks?  Huge fees of course.  Absolutely disgusting, but par for the course for these guys.  From the New York Times:

Major banks have quickly become behind-the-scenes allies of Internet-based payday lenders that offer short-term loans with interest rates sometimes exceeding 500 percent.

With 15 states banning payday loans, a growing number of the lenders have set up online operations in more hospitable states or far-flung locales like Belize, Malta and the West Indies to more easily evade statewide caps on interest rates.

While the banks, which include giants like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, do not make the loans, they are a critical link for the lenders, enabling the lenders to withdraw payments automatically from borrowers’ bank accounts, even in states where the loans are banned entirely. In some cases, the banks allow lenders to tap checking accounts even after the customers have begged them to stop the withdrawals.

For the banks, it can be a lucrative partnership. At first blush, processing automatic withdrawals hardly seems like a source of profit. But many customers are already on shaky financial footing. The withdrawals often set off a cascade of fees from problems like overdrafts.

Some state and federal authorities say the banks’ role in enabling the lenders has frustrated government efforts to shield people from predatory loans — an issue that gained urgency after reckless mortgage lending helped precipitate the 2008 financial crisis.

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Big American Banks Particularly Enjoy Ripping off Active Duty U.S. Soldiers

The following article from the Houston Press titled “Country Club Sopranos” is the most comprehensive rundown I have seen of all the various frauds committed by large banks since we bailed them out.  What I find particularly infuriating is that the banks seem to really like ripping off members of the armed forces.  Veterans pay … Read more

Tim Pawlenty to Head U.S. Bank Lobbying Group

We always ultimately see where their loyalty lies when it comes to these guys.  Can’t win the Presidency?  No problem!  Become a whore for the banksters that blew up the economy and now continue to parasitically suck the lifeblood out of it each and every day.  I’ve said it before and I will say it … Read more

JP Morgan Spews “Cashless Society” Propaganda in TV Ad

Look how cutesy JP Morgan is in their ad talking up the benefits of a cashless society, which is one of the key goals of TPTB.  Why is the war on cash a key goal?  Well if all your wealth is digital and they don’t like you…sorry we don’t know how your account got deleted … Read more