Moody’s cuts the United Kingdom

Very interesting video interview with Jim Rogers doing a question and answer session with Lew Rockwell and Ludwig von Mises Institute members in Alabama. The video is rather long but well worth your time. Here’s a chronological list of all the subjects Jim Rogers addressed:
Once the video starts playing change the settings to watch in HD quality. Enjoy!
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In a report released yesterday titled “Multipolarity: The New Global Economy“, that other “bailout” organization, the World Bank, says that due to the developing world’s pronounced greater growth curve through 2025 (expected to grow at 4.7% compared to 2.3% for the developed countries), the outcome will be that “The balance of global growth and investment will shift to developing or emerging economies.” More importantly, as the FT summarized, a “different international monetary system will gradually evolve, wiping out the US dollar’s position as the world’s main reserve currency.” As a result of these “inevitabilities” (which will be interested to see how they are attained considering according to a recent report, the world will need to double its debt to double it GDP, so where all this new debt will come from we don’t really know), there are three potential scenarios: i) A status quo centered on the US dollar, ii) A system with the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) as the main international currency, iii) A multicurrency system. And while this obviously covers every possible outcome so absolutely no value added there, the WB is focused on outcome iii and believes that the dollar will gradually shift away from its current position of reserve currency prominence. This is not surprising: after all it is none other than World Bank president Robert Zoellick who recently predicted a return to the gold standard and an end to USD hegemony. Our advice to Bob: stay away from penthouse suites at the Sofitel. (more…)
At the dawn of the online gambling industry in the 1990s, the U.S. dollar was the major currency accepted in online casinos, but those days are over. The euro has replaced USD and is now the most popular currency. According to the latest research by KeyToCasino, the euro is currently accepted in 79% of all existing online casinos.
The use of the U.S. dollar changed after the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), legislation regulating online gambling, was passed in the United States. The UIGEA has prohibited all gambling sites from accepting deposits online, forcing U.S.-oriented casinos out of business. At the same time, online gaming business in Europe has flourished, and many online casinos re-oriented their business towards European customers.
It has been 10 years since UIGEA, and many new online casinos have opened throughout this period. They have never considered targeting the U.S. market and never planned to include USD as a currency that is available for deposits. Players from countries with economically unstable currencies were forced to use the euro for their casino transactions.
American currency is not completely out of the gaming business however. It remains the second most popular currency in online casinos, followed by the British pound, which is accepted in 58% of online casinos. However, the overall popularity of Scandinavian currencies, which include the Norwegian krone, Swedish krona, and Danish krone, beats the pound because Norway, Sweden, and Denmark have the highest population ratio when it comes to casino popularity.
Among the other currencies that have become prevalent on online gaming market, there are the South African rand, South Korean won, and Russian ruble. The least popular are the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan. The Australian dollar beats the Canadian dollar in popularity because unlike in Australia, the legality of online casinos in Canada is uncertain, which results in the Canadian dollar not being widely accepted at online casinos.