Business

Echoing his predecessor Greenspan's shift to the 'dark side' (fully supportive of a gold standard after leaving office), former Fed Chair Bernanke now appears to be full-heartedly supportive of cryptocurrencies having warned in 2015 of "serious problems" with bitcoin due to its "instability" and "anonymity."

As CoinTelegraph reports, in an interesting turn of events, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, will be the keynote speaker at a Blockchain and banking conference in October hosted by Ripple.

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

The auto boom, one of the key components propping up consumer spending, has come to an end.

Dealers are wildly overweight SUVs just as the market turned.

As auto-industry growth stalls and family sedans go the way of the flip phone, one silver lining had been the trusty “crossover” SUV. Sales in the category boomed amid lower gasoline prices and higher demand for spacious wagons with all-wheel drive.

 

The 2017 edition of the  Jackson Hole symposium is officially over, and while central bankers disappointed markets by not providing any insight into their views on monetary policy (assuming they have any) they instead focused on market stability, and patted themselves on the back for creating a fake "risk-free environment" (which they justify by the record low VIX, even if ignoring the record high cost of crash insurance).

While the financial industry remains divided over what precisely is the cause of the malaise that affects modern markets, characterized by plunging volumes and trading activity, record low volatility and dispersion, a relentless ascent disconnected from fundamentals, and generally a sense of foreboding doom, manifested by an all time high OMT skew - or record high price for crash insurance - as discussed previously...

In what we believe to be a first for the global fast-food industry, Burger King Russia has reportedly created a virtual currency called the “Whoppercoin.”

The company has reportedly issued one billion of the tokens using the Waves blockchain platform. According to Fortune, the coin was launched alongside a new loyalty program: For every Whopper purchased, customers will receive one Whoppercoin. However, it’s unclear if the company will accept the digital tokens as payment.