Lowe Down As you rise through the ranks of the civil service (or anywhere really) it becomes less and less about talent and more and more about politics. In the case of Australian Reserve Bank governor, Philip Lowe, his time has come. His contract coincides with a difficult economic situation, rising rates, rising prices and

Big enough to control “Instead of investing in gold as a hedge against inflation, a hedge against the onerous problems of any one country, or the devaluation of your currency whatever country you’re in – let’s be clear, bitcoin is an international asset, it’s not based on any one currency and so it can represent

Oops Towards the end of 2022 there was a particular shift in the sentiment towards this sector. Choke Point 2, as it became known, targeted the banking relationships of crypto businesses and ultimately took out Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank as well as a few others along the way. While that was intentional, the knock

Fink so Is it curious that in the week following the virtual take-down of Binance in the US, a flurry of major US operators submit ETF applications? First we had BlackRock, followed 48 hours later by Fidelity (Cathie Wood’s ARK re-submitted their original application last month).  In an environment so clearly hostile to the sector,

I’ll call him I’m reliably advised that it’s been a “terrible week for bitcoin”. I believe the contrary to be true. In the wash up of the SEC movement against Binance, Coinbase and others, several coins have been absolutely crushed having been specifically called out by the SEC as securities. In many cases there simply

Enforcement time Finally! The SEC brought its action against Binance, which has obviously been coming for a while. It immediately caused the BNB token to fall by 10% and the whole market fell on the news. The SEC went as far as posting this on their social media platforms, which might be considered somewhat prejudicial

Excellent reading material I urge you to read this. You will need at least half an hour but it will be worth your time. Written in 2015, its forecasts about the speed of human development are absolutely excellent. Among other things, it predicts that right about now we will have artificial intelligence that is about

You no longer bank here … and just like that. The largest digital currency exchange in the country lost its banking facilities. The decision is no doubt related to perceptions on KYC undertaken by Binance. I have to say though, having used that platform, it’s at least as rigorous as anything you encounter at a

You were right You were right when you said “bitcoin will never overtake the USD and can’t cope with large transaction volume”. You were right when you told everyone not to invest in it because it will ‘crash’ and ‘it’s a bubble’ and stay safe and buy Westpac shares. It hasn’t overtaken the USD, it

The four horse persons There was an AFR sponsored talkathon last week. Four fund managers were asked if they were 25 years old today, where they would invest in for the next 10 years.1 Interesting how prominent the bond talk is. I’d hardly call it a stock-pickers market at these valuations either and under no