Business

Exactly three months ago, in mid-June, Citigroup CFO John Gerspach warned investors at a Morgan Stanley investment conference that Citi's second quarter trading revenues would be down 12-13%, mostly due to declining market volatility. A few weeks later, he was proven right when US banks - and especially Goldman Sachs - posted some of the worst trading revenues in over a year.

Bitcoin is often promoted as the antidote to the madness of fiat irredeemable currencies. It is also promoted as the replacement. Bitcoin is promoted not only as money, but the future money, and our monetary future.

In fact, it is not.

Why not? To answer, let us start with a look at the incentives offered by bitcoin. We saw a comment this week, which is apropos:

In a somewhat quieter week for economic news, this week's focus is on BoE and SNB policy meetings as well as on inflation releases in US, UK, China and others. Other releases of note include retail sales in the US, UK and China along with industrial production in US, Eurozone & China.

Key events:

• U.S. Index Futures Rise as Irma Weakens, Korea Tensions Ease (BBG)
• Irma Weakens as It Heads Past Tampa, Cutting Damage Forecast (BBG)
• As Hurricane Irma heads toward Florida, U.S. military launches amphibious relief efforts in the Caribbean (WaPo)
• Oil weakens on fears Irma could dent U.S. demand (Reuters)
• ‘People are roaming like zombies.’ Virgin Islands stagger after storm passes (WaPo)
• Republicans could lose U.S. House in 2018 over immigration fight: Bannon (Reuters)

And we're back at all time highs.