Yesterday, I received an email from a friend with a plaintive questions: what is Bitcoin? She is hearing about it and is intrigued! Bitcoin makes an appearance in Day Trading For Dummies, I’ve done work on it for some clients, and I even have blog posts on it. The fact that all of a sudden… [Read More]
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Tag: bitcoin
Nominal prices, real prices, and the minimum wage
Recently, a friend asked me for an explanation of inflation. Her children were asking about the minimum wage, and they wanted to know why prices had to go up, and she was stumped. Here’s an explanation; you can decide if it is simple enough. First, economists talk about “real” prices and “real” wages, which would… [Read More]
Bitcoin, Zimbabwe, and full faith and credit
I was thinking about Zimbabwe because of the news about Mel Reynolds, and I have been doing work on bitcoin for various clients. And here’s what I don’t get about bitcoin: what backs it? I understand that nothing backs US currency other than the full faith and credit of the US government, but if the… [Read More]
On Gold, Guns, and Dried Food
People always ask me if they should buy gold. I always tell them it’s overvalued, but I’ve been saying that for years. Gold keeps going up in price for no good reason. That’s how bubbles are. It may be obvious that an asset (Beanie Babies, tech stocks, residential real estate) is overvalued, but the price… [Read More]
