Cross-posting from a recent thread I started about credit card -> Bitcoin ecommerce... make sure you view the scanned image of the SEC letter below!
smooth in your estimation is the addition of payment methods Dwolla (assuming I pass their KYC) and integration with Bitinsanity via the blockchain.info free service too small of a diminishing return relative to me needing to get on an airplane to return the land of "no fly lists" to renew my driver's license (and other residency status matters) so I can qualify for Paypal's KYC?
I don't know. Frankly Paypal's merchant integration isn't entirely wonderful either. There are extra steps of logging into paypal's site, selecting a payment method, being annoyed by paypal's advertisements, etc. On the positive side, Paypal does support subscriptions with automatic renewal, and pull methods for upsells. I don't know what added compliance burden those carry if any.
This is all about what is going to work for the customer base you have in mind. As you say, once you attract a lot of customers (or at least enough to attract investment) you can negotiate with the payments
industry cartel bloodsuckers for something better.
Again in addition to your quoted point that Paypal may not being entirely immune to attrition of prospective customers (in addition to your point about attrition in their GUI, some of them such as myself refuse or are incapable of jumping through Paypal's KYC hoops) one of my points is that when you warn about becoming dependent on a provider and being shut down, I have that phobia about using Paypal. I also compound the "kafkaesque KYC theater" shut down risk with the risk of capital controls on merchants given my belief in Armstrong's 2015.75 Sovereign Debt BIG BANG model, and given that the KYC crap accelerated with the Patriot Act after the 9/11 terrorism ("
you are either for us, or against us")
9/11 false flag
[1] Twilight Zone.
So I am looking at benefits of multiple payment options not being only the incremental increase in sales due to lower the attribution rate over only a single payment processing option, not being only the social good will of accepting Bitcoin, but also building in the resiliency against everyday anti-fraud booby traps and moreover the SHTF shift in the Western world ETA just some months from now.
For me this all about a process of the world morphing away from the KYC abyss over time and towards a new world of freedom. It is absolutely
necessary to avoid a Dark Age.
Or to put it more simply and less conspiratorially, multiple payment options insure against Murphy's Law.
Does that make any sense or am I am just a kook outside the mainstream?
http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/26/nsa-destroying-american-technology/...
...
The problem with consensus is that it is a "winner take all" paradigm, i.e. by definition there is no way for a minority opinion to be heard. Thus the minority can not act on its wisdom and must instead follow the ("Too Big To Fail") herd. So for example, if a minority sees that the consensus is being gamed some how, and wants to break away (vote with their feet) they can not. Rather they have to try to prove to the majority what is happening and get the majority motivated to act. Doesn't that sound a lot like what we do now trying to convince our relatives of the problems with malfeasance in central banking, politics, etc and instead they either ignore us or they adopt Marxist objectives which further the concentration of wealth, e.g. "blame it all on the 1%, while we demand a government that gives us everything for free because we are poor and redistribution is justified!".
Whereas when there are competing choices, this is truly decentralization because the minority can autonomously break away to a choice that performs better, and the minority becomes more profitable ("smaller things grow faster, saplings grow to trees but trees don't grow to the moon")...
Today, more Americans Believe World Trade Center 7 Was Demolished On 9/11 than believe the Government’s Explanation about it simply fell by itself in the attack without ever being hit by anything. It was that building WTC7 where they took the Artificial Intelligence computers they stole from Princeton Economics that self-destructed. While claiming the contempt was for assets, behind the scenes Tancred Schiavoni and Alan Cohen in writing demanded the source code to the computer models or everyone would be fired.
All the tapes that would have been enough to jail the heads of the NYC Money Center Banks for market manipulations that they are routinely fined for countless times, were also destroyed in building 7 according to the SEC. There is written proof that Cohen and Schiavoni demanded the source code to the model or they would fire everyone.
There is an admixture here. There were really terrorists involved. That does not negate the fact that WTC7 and the Pentagon were clearly targets that helped get rid of evidence and stop the investigation into $2 trillion in missing money. It is not an either or deal. What I am saying is I believe they KNEW in advance and used it to extend their power and clean up affairs just as they knew about Pearl Harbor and made up the attack at Tonkin Gulf and let us not forget the Weapons of Mass Destruction they couldn’t find.
All I can say is I do know what happened in MCC. That does not negate the government involvement any more than pretending they didn’t know about Pearl Harbor. The planes that were used could be also controlled from the ground. So I do not believe it was simply terrorist all on their own. I “believe” they used the terrorists as a decoy to achieve other goals. Can I prove that no! This is my OPINION.
What I can state is what happened in MCC. That is NOT speculation, theory, conjecture, or anything else. However, that does NOT say it was purely a terrorist act either. WTC7 fell by itself without anything hitting it and all government employees were evacuated prior to. It appears to be a professional demolition job. As for the “plane” that hit the pentagon (or missile) directly in the room where ALL the evidence was on the missing $2 trillion, is just too coincidental to be believable. I know people who were there and they say no plane debris. That was not the WTC where you could fly into that no problem. This was at ground level. Much more difficult to accomplish.
http://www.themartinarmstrongcase.com/?page_id=83In the longest running civil contempt in the history of federal jurisprudence in the Untied States, Armstrong was held at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre (“MCC”) in New York from January 2000 until April 2007. Judge Owen had determined that Armstrong failed to comply with the asset freeze and turnover order by failing to deliver alleged corporate assets, including a bust, antique coins and gold bars. Even though the contempt statute authorizes no more than an 18-month period of confinement, Judge Owen ruled that, as a federal district court judge, he had unlimited equitable powers to hold a civil contemnor for life, if need be.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/10/12/the-secret-cyclePrison was not kind to him. At one point, a fellow-inmate beat him in his cell. (Armstrong suspects that it may have been an assassination attempt.) In 2006, he was put into solitary confinement, for allegedly damaging a vent. Soon afterward, he decided, in an agreement with the prosecutors, to plea to just one count in the indictment, conspiracy to commit fraud. The twenty-three other charges were dismissed. He did so in part, he says, because he believed that he might get credit for time served. The criminal-court judge, however, gave him the maximum sentence—five years.
Armstrong was still stuck in the M.C.C., for civil contempt. A U.S. Court of Appeals rejected yet another appeal, although a concurring opinion, written by Sonia Sotomayor, noted that “the district court’s finding that Armstrong is motivated solely by greed is not enough to justify disregard for due process.” Judge Owen was eventually replaced and the contempt order abandoned. In April, 2007, Armstrong was moved to a low-security federal prison camp at Fort Dix, in southern New Jersey, to begin serving his sentence.
http://armstrongeconomics.com/2013/09/22/14636/I think Armstrong is just speaking matter-of-factly when he says the direction will be the one-world digital reserve currency:
REPLY: I really think all of this conspiracy nonsense is absurd. YES there are groups that get together like G20 and Bilderberg meetings. I have even been the keynote speaker at such elite banking meetings. However, wanting to do something and actually being able to do it is another thing all together.
I have the fortune of knowing some very talented people...
We had “Uncle Ed” Rothschild implant his nephew into our company. I began getting calls from clients asking what was going on because he had gone through my roledex calling clients saying to buy a horrible Canadian mining company so Uncle Ed could sell his position. So if you think these people “know” and are in absolute control of everything, you are buying into bullshit.
They hated my guts and they put the words in the mouth of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission who never met a banker it did not kneel to. These people tried to manipulate markets – not the world. They were all jumping into Russia after they bailed out and sold Southeast Asia. They invited me to the IMF dinner Edmond Safra paid for to try to get me to join them. I told them Russia would fail. When it did, they argued it was me who manipulated the world economy because I had more influence than they did.
Let’s put this straight. If such groups were all powerful, then why do they go bust with each crash and run to government for bailouts? I do not disagree that there are groups who “try” to control things, but there is no way they can stop anything from happening.
I do not speak of these things off the cuff. I have had FIRST HAND up front experience. All the conversations I ever had about the markets and manipulations were on tapes. There was also a group of us who monitored what these people were up to next. All of that evidence that in a REAL government would have sent them to jail, magically vanished in the collapse of World Trade Center 7 – the building that magically fell by itself in less than 7 seconds and was not hit by anything. CONVENIENT?
http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/09/05/are-markets-manipulated-all-the-time/Are Markets Manipulated All the Time?
QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; Some people say you will not admit markets are manipulated all the time. Yet you stood up and had all the evidence that would have damned the whole lot of the New York bankers for manipulating markets. This is very confusing how you can be against them in public yet people claim you refuse to admit the markets are manipulated all the time between the central banks and the New York bankers. Can you shed any light on this paradox?
ANSWER: I am a student of markets. I do not make up bullshit. I am of the school of Adam Smith – assume nothing – prove everything. Claiming markets are manipulated all the time is impossible. Marx tried that with communism and the free markets still won. This claim is merely a cop-out for admitting someone does not understand how markets function. Sure the banks manipulate markets individually. They cannot and do not do this systemically. Even in LIBOR they rig the game to make consistent profits but that does not mean they are capable of manipulating the entire trend. Even the central banks can control short-term rates within a trend but not long-term. This is why they then buy in long-term paper trying to INFLUENCE the long-term – they cannot dictate the price or trend. They have no direct power over markets. They can suppress the short-term like communism but the free markets will blow them out of the water when the Sovereign Debt Crisis hits. Why people put out this bullshit is amazing for if it was true then why buy gold at all for the system cannot ever collapse if it is all perfectly manipulated. This is just total gibberish from people who have ZERO experience inside the markets or behind the curtain. I had more than half the equivalent of the US National Debt under contract for advisory. I think I saw things no analysts has ever dreamed of no less understood. These people make up stuff to hide their inexperience – plain and simple. The banks told the government I manipulated the world economy BECAUSE they lost every time from Orange County, Solomon’s manipulation of US Treasury Auctions to the DOT.COM bubble and the 2007 Real Estate crisis. They ALWAYS blow up every time and run to government to get bailed out. How is this someone who manipulates the markets everyday? They should never fail if true.
You get mislead people swearing gold will rally to $10,000-$30,000 any day and when it falls out of bed they blame manipulation for being wrong. If the markets are manipulated ever day, then why trade against the trend using theories that purport the world will collapse any day? This is the real paradox to me. How can you say buy gold and when you are wrong you do not admit the mistake but blame manipulation? If it is manipulated then why tell people to buy something that can never rise?
We always tracked manipulations. I knew ABSOLUTELY every single one they did. We monitored the manipulations very carefully. The various manipulators hated my guts just like the goldbugs who will not listen. They tried to get me to join them figuring that when they lost it was because I had more followers than they did and therein started the allegation of manipulating the world economy that I had to defend against a subpoena from the CFTC demanding I turn over all names of clients worldwide so they could prove I was more powerful that the banks they protect. I defeated them in court. My lawyer at the time Chris Lovel stood up and told the judge even if I did manipulate the world, where was the law that said I could not no less how was it the domain of the CFTC?
I have written that written publicly that first PhiBro silver manipulation took place in 1993. The client was Warren Buffet. The CFTC went to PhiBro demanding to know who they were buying silver for. PhiBro refused to give up Buffet’s name. The CFTC would have thrown anyone else in jail and out of business. The CFTC is owned by the big players and is corrupt as hell right to the core. The CFTC simply said ok, no name, then exist the trade. No fines – jail – sanctions for that manipulations.
PhiBro and the “club” desperately tried to get me to join the second silver manipulation with Buffet. I have written about this stating publicly that PhiBro’s brokers walked across the COMEX pit and showed my floor brokers (Emerald Trading) Buffet’s orders and told me to join. They knew I would never trust these people for how would I know I was not the patsy to buy and they would use a another seller. I would never join them. Hence, PhiBro showed me the orders to convince me to join.
I then reported to our clients “they are back” knowing it was Buffet and PhiBro for a second time. They all got pissed-off at me even though I never mentioned names. The buying of silver was done in London. Therefore, they moved silver out of COMEX warehouses in USA and shipped the supply to London to pretend there was a shortage to justify the manipulation. The Wall Street Journal assisted in the rally.
The manipulators were steering the Buffet buying to London to avoid the 1993 problem with the CFTC. This is why AIG trading arm also set up in London. Buying silver in London justified moving it from the NY COMEX and this allowed them to get the manipulation going. COMEX supplies were reported in isolation. Moving the silver to London created the false image of a shortage to justify the higher prices. The Wall Street Journal was used to plant the story. On September 30th 1997 the stories appeared in headlines – “Silver Prices Hit Six-Month High On Steadily Declining Reserves, By PALLAVI GOGOI AP-Dow Jones News Service Updated Sept. 30, 1997 12:01 a.m. ET NEW YORK — Silver futures surged to a six-month high at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, a move analysts said was triggered by steadily declining warehouse stocks. The rally was boosted by preplaced purchase orders around the $5-per-ounce level…” This was the news created for the manipulation that was constantly played out in the newspapers. The Wall Street Journal again reported on November 17, 1997, “Silver Futures Prices Leap On Hints of Tight Supplies”, and again on December 4, 1997 the Wall Street Journal from London reported “Silver Surges on Strength In Supply-Demand Status By NEIL BEHRMANN Special to The Wall Street Journal Updated Dec. 5, 1997 12:01 a.m. ET LONDON — Gold may be in the doghouse, but silver is soaring like a bird”. The reporting of shortages continued to fuel the rally. The Wall Street Journal reported again December 24, 1997 for the manipulators “Silver Futures Advance As Inventories Plunge”
The interesting point is the manipulators know that if they rally the metals, the retail goldbugs rush in and buy proclaiming its the bull market every time. The manipulators then routinely turn around and sell to goldbugs at the top and the markets crash. This has become standard procedure protected by the CFTC and the goldbugs buy the high every single time without fail.
The “cluib” was pissed-off that I would not join and I warned my clients they were back manipulating silver. A pretend analyst on the payroll I believe of PhiBro got a journalist from the Wall Street Journal to try to discredit me. The fake analyst told the WSJ I was short silver and trying to talk it down. The journalist accused me of this nonsense and we argued on the phone. It got quite heated and frankly I was not retail so could care less what they printed. My clients were the real deal who all knew the truth about journalism and how it was just a pawn of the “club”. In fact, my clients did not ever want me to give interviews about market forecasting to the press for their view was hey – we pay for that info.
Nevertheless, the WSJ journalist kept arrogantly taunting me and said if silver was being manipulated, then give him the name so I said fine, go ahead, let me see you print it, knowing he never would print Warren Buffet the saint of Wall Street – thanks to the press. The name I gave him was Warren Buffet. He laughed. Told me everyone knew Buffet did not trade commodities I told him that was how much he knew.
The Wall Street Journal published the article. The London newspapers were fed stories by the “Club” that I was now the largest silver trader in the world. This became all a joke to me. It demonstrated how bad the press really was. They were the pawns of the manipulators and probably didn’t even know it.
The mistake made by the “Club” by turning out the press against me, was they actually created such a worldwide story that silver was being manipulated the CFTC was forced to call me – it was public now and they had no choice. They knew I was not the source of the manipulation. Even the CFTC could look at positions and knew I was not the biggest player in silver. The CFTC then asked me, where was the manipulation taking place? I told them it was in London, out of their jurisdiction. The CFTC told me that they could pick up the phone and investigate London. I told them that they had to make that clear decision. I hung up. Never did I expect that they would really do anything. Yet, they never asked me who because the question was jurisdiction.
A few hours later, my phone rang. It was a good source in London who also was helping to monitor the “Club” actions. He told me that the Bank of England had called an immediate meeting of all silver brokers in London in the morning. I was shocked. The CFTC had made the call. But then again, I had given them no names so perhaps in their mind, this was fair game.
Within the hour, Warren Buffet made a press announcement. He admitted he had purchased $1 billion worth of silver, in London . He denied he was “manipulating” the market. Claimed the silver was a long – term investment. Everyone was shocked that Buffet was suddenly exposed as a commodity trader after all. The very next day the Wall Street Journal called me. The writer asked – “How did you know?” I told him it was my job to know! Silver thereafter declined and made new lows going into 1999. So much for Buffet’s long-term investment since he sold out.
When one trader from New York joined our firm, he called Goldman Sachs to ask about us. He has publicly stated on the record that their response was they had butted heads with me many times but I usually won.
Exposing the silver manipulation trying to turn the press against me was a huge mistake. The CFTC would have never called the Bank of England just because I reported the manipulation to our clients. That was private. Exposing the issue in the press forced them to respond. My brokers on the floor were Emerald Trading. I routinely traded AGAINST the manipulators and defeated them many times. Just as the goldbugs do not like me, neither do the manipulators and it far too often seemed to coincide when they were trying to goose the metals markets UP – not down. Contrary to the bullshit, they need people to BUY the metals to create a pool of longs to bury. They are NOT interested in forcing a metal down to compel people to sell for goldbugs are notoriously stubborn. That is not very profitable for they want the emotional traders who buy highs. Of course the goldbugs will say I am wrong but have never been in the same circles and some of them I question if they are not the people paid on the side by the manipulators.
There have been major manipulations of markets such as rhodium and then there was the manipulation of Platinum. I had recorded tapes and tons of documents on every manipulation. This was all seized by the court and I stood up instructing the court that these tapes Alan Cohen was demanding involved criminal activity on the part of the banks. I had it all for years. Alan Cohen then was made a board member of Goldman Sachs yet still remained as the court appointed person to run Princeton Economics. That is totally illegal and a conflict of interest. Law does not matter in New York City. (see Transcripts below).
To say I will not admit markets are manipulated is absurd. To claim they are always manipulated is impossible. Yet the real paradox is when the metals rally, they never seem to be manipulated – those are always “real” bull markets and the failures are the manipulations. Great propaganda! Amazingly, the metals are unique, They become manipulated only when they decline.
Not even the central banks can manipulate everything. Sure people try. But not everything. They target one market and go after that. The central banks have been trying to manage the economy to eliminate recessions. They have never succeeded even once. The central bankers know this is a confidence game just as the market manipulators. You NEED the public to move a trend. They cannot do it alone. If they were all-powerful, then Bretton Woods would never have collapsed.
There is a huge difference from a short-term manipulation within the trend, like the Buffet silver move, and a systemic every day manipulation that produces no big windfalls. Where is the PROOF of systemic manipulation? I have never seen any evidence of that – EVER. It is just nonsense.
Supreme Court Justice WVa Found in Questionable Circumstances
...
ABC News exposed Supreme Court Justice of West Virginia Robin Davis who refused to recuse herself when the lawyer she handed $17 million in fees bought a PRIVATE JET from her husband for $1 million.
In my own case, the lawyers were talking how the receiver Alan Cohen was talking with Judge Richard Owen as was his subordinate Tancred Schiavoni on a regular basis off the record. I was in the Chrysler Building at the offices of Tenzer Greenblat when they were all talking about the case saying there was no way to win for this was being rigged as Judge Owen was communicating on the side with the government. When I told the lawyer to move for recusal, he responded his firm in New York City would NEVER move against any judge. From that moment on, I knew this was a hopeless cause to actually expect justice. The press in New York is also afraid to ever report the truth about judges so that leaves the country as a whole up to their throat burried in a pile of shit.
It became abundantly clear that lawyers from the same district were hopeless. Their business comes first before any client. So all the pretending of ethics is just that – one giant facade. Nothing is safe in America from your privacy to your liberty no less your property for judges are just not judges with very few exceptions today.
When I moved to go pro se with no choice when paid lawyers will not defend you before their own business, things really got out of hand. Getting rid of lawyers who would not defend me, I then moved for recusal of Judge Owen. He illegally closed the court and threw the press out – something which was totally unconstitutional since EVERY citizen is entitled to a OPEN COURT proceeding so that the people know justice is being done – another ethical fraud since they will close a court and change transcripts to remove whatever there is in your favor. Judge Owen ordered the court reporter to not record the events. Typically, every court transcript begins “in open court” except my transcript of April 24th, 2000.
Judge Owen had the Associated Press thrown out of court. The journalist reported that it was “In a closed hearing”. That was the only evidence I had to prove what he had done was entirely illegal for no lawyer would back me up against a judge. I appealed his refusal to recuse showing he even illegally altered the transcript to hide the fact he unconstitutionally threw out the press and closed the courtroom. You just can’t make up this stuff. The Second Circuit Court of appeals refused to even dock my appeal. This is the REAL America and we do not stand a prayer in hell of saving our country without profound change and reform. We have become the oppressed by a government that has transformed itself into the very same government we revolted against. The wheel of fortune has completed its revolution. We are now right back where it all began – corrupt judges who protect the kings agents, and writs of assistance to eliminate all rights to privacy. Nothing remains and this is what we are leaving our children.
http://armstrongeconomics.com/2015/02/21/bernstein-of-watergate-on-cia-control-of-media/Bernstein of Watergate on CIA Control of Media
For the younger generation, in the 1970s, there was the Watergate scandal of the Republicans getting caught in the break-in of Democratic office located in the Watergate Office building. There was always some question about whether Nixon was truly set-up for he was distrustful of the CIA and had actually taken the same posture as JFK against Vietnam. Nixon promised to bring the troops home and it has been long suspected that the assassination of JFK was a coup by US CIA/Military to keep expanding worldwide. It was the Third Nixon-Kennedy Debate of 1960 that set off the first Gold Panic of 1960. However, you have to read between the lines. Kennedy clearly states the fiscal mismanagement problem that eventually undermined Bretton Woods. It was the American military wanting to expand worldwide. Kennedy said:
“Now on the question of gold. The difficulty, of course, is that we do have heavy obligations abroad, that we therefore have to maintain not only a favorable balance of trade but also send a good deal of our dollars overseas to pay our troops, maintain our bases, and sustain other economies. In other words, if we’re going to continue to maintain our position in the sixties, we have to maintain a sound monetary and fiscal policy.”
Nixon saw the same problem and was forced to close the Gold Window in 1971. He wanted to curtail the military as well and bring the troops home. There is some question about Watergate because Nixon was so far ahead in the polls it really made no sense to break-in to the Democratic office. So was he removed from office for the same problem and the same motive?
Carl Bernstein of Woodward and Bernstein who were at the Washington Post broke the story. Why did the government not stop the Washington Post from exposing Watergate when they have the ability to stop the mainstream press in the USA at any moment? Perhaps they wanted the scandal to remove Nixon. This is what Bernstein wrote in 1977 himself about the CIA controlling the press. It is worth the read.
Read the following linked blog post, as it is very long and detailed:
http://armstrongeconomics.com/research/rule-of-law/goldman-sachs-v-armstrong/ 
). Their response was defiant. Filipinos never met a rule they couldn't bend (or use as a way to gain privilege and do corruption).
