alexmat

That's like, your opinion, man.

Just because you don't know why something is going on, doesn't mean it's arbitrary.

In this case it's because of a path to mass adoption: http://coinivore.com/2017/11/26/bitcoin-reaches-time-high-95...

Listen to your enemies, they have more to teach you than your allies.

"It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor." -Neil Gaiman

In order to "hold onto the assets" the FED actually has to buy US Treasuries when its current treasury holdings mature. The way the FED sells assets is to simply allow the treasuries to mature without buying any to replace it. The implication is that by choosing to buy or not buy treasuries, the FED can help control the US treasury interest rates which either help boost or slow down the economy as needed. The issue with holding and never selling is perpetually low interest rates which encourages people to borrow more since it is cheaper to do so (in theory stimulating growth, but in reality inflating asset prices when it goes on too long). If the FED doesn't unload its treasury holdings, interest rates stay low and capital will continue to take bigger risks to find higher yield, plus an unsustainable asset price inflation as it remains cheap to borrow money to buy assets like houses which then go up in value which creates even more demand through more cheap credit.

I'm already over simplifying, but here is a less abstract illustration: Imagine you lose your job and you need some money to get back on your feet. You borrow against a line of credit to cover living expenses. You find another job but it doesn't pay enough to cover your standard of living, so you keep the line of credit open and just make the minimum payments. You are the US economy and the line of credit is the FED right now. If the line of credit is not paid off, if you lose your job again, there will be nothing to borrow against or even make the minimum payments. The smart thing to do is pay off the credit card balance so you can use it again if you're in trouble. The problem is you can't do that unless you cut back on spending... and this is why the FED always points out that the control of the situation is not with the FED but with congress, they need to cut spending... <insert laugh track>

And I didn't even address your exact point. This is just the "non-toxic treasuries". The toxic stuff is non performing home loans. Imagine trying to sell those back to someone! Are you willing to buy them?

More info here: https://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/mbs_faq.html

"Distilled to its roots, the Fed has been manufacturing “savings” from thin air for the better part of a decade. When the financial crisis hit in 2008, American savings were depleted, so the Fed had to step in to produce savings (to finance huge government deficits). Now the Fed is attempting to remove that “savings” at a time when:

1) The private sector is experiencing falling savings. 2) The government is likely on the precipice of expanding its dis-saving in the form of greater deficits.

...

Not to state the obvious, but all else equal, if the Fed started shedding assets at $30 billion a month (or $360 billion a year), it would exhaust the entire stock of private savings. This doesn’t allow for larger government deficits. Given the current savings level, it is mathematically impossible for the Fed to shed assets at $50 billion/month. By 2019, as we are farther out from peak net savings rates set in 2015, it is likely the stock of private savings is smaller still, and hence the ability for the Fed to shed assets at a rate of $50 billion/month is utterly impossible. Net savings have fallen in the last 2 years from a peak of just over $700 billion to the current $355 billion. Will savings halve again in the next two years? If so, there is no mathematical way in the world the Fed can shed assets at the rate it outlined yesterday."

Source: http://blog.knowledgeleaderscapital.com/?p=13520

I tend to side with the uneducated who think the FED prints money out of thin air because it is closer to the truth of the matter of where real economic value exists moreso than the anachronistic mechanics of FED policy three card monte. When all is said and done, the FED took on toxic assets it will not be able to unload into a weak economy. The only hope it has is to sell the assets at face value in exchange for inflated dollars or hope the economy booms beyond everyone's expectations in the next two years. Sure hope the latter happens because otherwise the FED has done nothing but defer the pain of 2007 into the catastrophe of 2020.

I think it will be big for virtual gaming assets: https://spellsofgenesis.com/ and https://www.ageofrust.games/

What is the issue with federation? It seems to be working for me between different domains and servers.

What happened to XMPP? Not trying to be snarky, I still use it. Is there an issue I should be aware of?

Cautiously optimistic about this dual boot Android/Linux device:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gemini-pda-android-linux-...

You don't have to trade for dollars. You can use one or more intermediaries such as gift cards and high resale value goods, just like using proxies to distance yourself. The more hops, the harder it is to connect.

Stores have cameras and Visa cards have unique numbers. Not too hard to put the two together.

Bitcoin let's you transact without having to interact in physical space to acquire or spend them.

You can add this list to get around admiral domains: https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/admiral-domains.txt

This can be said about so many tech innovations, not just Bitcoin.

That was my first assumption, and none taken :)

Everything is debatable. Even this.

So everything is black and white now and we've lost all room for nuance and grey areas? Seems like that kind of environment would stifle the exploration of difficult subject matter.

If I quote Hitler in a debate about world war 2, am I normalizing the Holocaust?

My Dad was a smartphone holdout until last year. I deeply regret getting him one. He is now nose deep in it whenever I see him and much less interesting to be around since his conversations are now about what's popular online and not the original thoughts he once used to have.

This has made me more reflective of my tech absorption and how hard it is to see until you see it happen to someone else.

His point about hiking is spot on for me. And it's not just a means to get away from the internet, it's also great for removing all social noise and enabling a long stretch of contiguous thinking. Running also works well but it needs to be at least an hour or more before my brain switches into "thoughtful mode".

Even though I make an effort, it's amazing to think how little time I actually spend alone with my thoughts compared to even a decade ago when this was written.

The article suggests that racist jokes are a problem to be solved, but racist jokes serve a noble purpose according to Slavoj Zizek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IISMr5OMceg

I use passwords.google.com

It works well with chromium on linux and on my android phone. It's free, has all the security of a google account including u2f, chromium integration is flawless on linux, and works well with chrome on Android.

"(of a fluctuation or trend) occurring or persisting over an indefinitely long period. "there is evidence that the slump is not cyclical but secular""

Synthetic USD/CNY/JPY bonds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XehDfHTa8Sg

This stuff is brilliant.

How does this work with same sex roommates in states that allow same sex marriage? Or even simpler, what if a male and female live together as roommates?

Couldn't that be simulated to fool people into thinking the same thing about autonomous vehicles?

To be fair, BTC transfers cost a couple cents at most. If we're going to compare apples to apples.

If you do an international wire and change currencies you'll pay much more than $35.

Taken in the broadest sense of the term, insurance could be long term food reserves or a contract with a neighboring village for assistance in times of need in exchange for premiums.

The new cast feature in recent builds of chromium is not working for me. It fails to find any devices. Looking at the debug output it says: "media router not defined."

After a bit of googling I found you can revert back to using the old cast extension by following these instructions: https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/6349849?hl=en