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[This post on Bitcoin: Fake Asset or Security? was originally published on The Institutional Risk Analyst from R. Christopher Whalen.]
“I came of age on Wall Street when the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board—he was William McChesney Martin — condemned even trace amounts of inflation as an economic and moral evil. In the interval of 1960-65, there was not one year in which the CPI registered a year over year rise of as much as 2%.”
—Grant’s Interest Rate Observer
Below is my latest commentary on housing finance reform in American Banker, “Fannie, Freddie are irrelevant to a government-backed mortgage system.” I’ll be participating at the CoreLogic Risk Summit next week in Dana Point, California. Come say hello!
We’ve all heard of fake news, but consider the growing possibility of fake or at least virtual assets. Investors face a deliberately orchestrated shortage of real investments c/o global central banks in markets such as stocks and real estate.
Is there any wonder that the financial engineers of Wall Street have again begun to manufacture new derivatives leveraging the real world?
Case in point, bitcoin. The most recognized “digital currency,” bitcoin is a form of high-tech gaming instrument that fulfills just one of the traditional roles of money, but is among the world’s fastest appreciating – and most volatile– “asset” classes.
Adherents call the limited supply of bitcoin the ultimate expression of Milton Friedman style monetarist discipline. They view the digital medium as a rational response to the fiscal and monetary chaos visible in most of the industrial nations.
But despite the huge gains seen in bitcoin vs conventional currencies, Jim Rickards says he’s sticking with his preferred investments: gold, cash and silver. “I don’t own any bitcoin, but for those who have a preference for bitcoin, good luck,” he told Kitco News.
Bitcoin has been blessed by a federal regulatory agency in Washington. “On Monday, a bitcoin options exchange called LedgerX won approval from the U.S Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to clear bitcoin options, making it the first U.S. federally regulated platform of its kind,” reports The Wall Street Journal.
LedgerX’s chief executive Paul Chou is on the CFTC’s Technology Advisory Committee. Not surprisingly, a CFTC spokeswoman said “no committee, including the Technology Advisory Committee, plays any role in any registration decision.” OK.
Regardless of whether you view bitcoin as an investment or the electronic version of tulip bulbs, the fact of a traded options contract is intriguing. It allows speculators to take a flutter on bitcoin without actually touching the ersatz currency or the varied folk who are said to traffic in this ethereal world.
To be fair, drug dealers, terrorists and members of organized crime organizations in nations like China, Russia and North Korea are not ideal counterparties for a US bank or fund. But a US traded option contract may allow you to play the bitcoin game, …read more
Source:: Daily Reckoning feed
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