MPs launch inquiry into cryptocurrencies - Reuters

FEBRUARY 22, 2018 / 11:07 AM / UPDATED 14 HOURS AGO

MPs launch inquiry into cryptocurrencies

Lawrence White

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s cross-party Treasury Select Committee of lawmakers on Thursday said it is launching an inquiry into digital currencies, as well as the underlying distributed ledger technology.

Representations of the Ripple, Bitcoin, Etherum and Litecoin virtual currencies are seen on a PC motherboard in this illustration picture, February 13, 2018. Picture is taken February 13, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

The probe will focus on the opportunities and risks posed to consumers, businesses and the government by the rising popularity of so-called cryptocurrencies, the committee said in a statement.

A global investment craze over bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the last year has seen wild gyrations in their valuations, making fortunes for some investors, while others have lost heavily.

Bitcoin, the best known virtual currency, lost over half its value earlier this year after surging more than 1,300 percent.

“People are becoming increasingly aware of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, but they may not be aware that they are currently unregulated in the UK, and that there is no protection for individual investors,” Nicky Morgan, chair of the Treasury Committee, said.

The British committee of politicians will take written and verbal evidence from a range of experts on the digital currencies, which will then inform a report it submits to the government containing recommendations on what to do.

The inquiry will consider whether the government is striking the right balance between protecting customers and businesses without stifling innovation.

Governments and regulators worldwide have in recent months shown themselves divided on what to do about cryptocurrencies, which have already spawned investment scams promising returns of over 1,000 percent and hacks on the exchanges that store the virtual funds.

The finance ministers and central bank governors of France and Germany earlier this month called for the policy and monetary implications of cryptocurrencies to be placed on the agenda of the upcoming G20 meeting of the largest advanced and developing economies.

The Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney meanwhile on Monday said that bitcoin has “pretty much failed” as a currency measured by standard benchmarks, and is neither a store of value nor a useful way to buy things.

But the BoE is one of a number of central banks and governments around the world that are looking into the underlying blockchain technology as a potential way of issuing digital-only currency, for making settlement more efficient, or for distributing and tracking money in the public sector.

Saudi Arabia’s central bank last week signed a deal with U.S. based digital currency firm Ripple to help banks in the kingdom settle payments using the technology.

Reporting by Lawrence White, additional reporting by Jemima Kelly, editing by Louise Heavens

A Cryptocurrency Pioneer Just Issued a Huge Word of Caution for Investors - TIME Business

A Cryptocurrency Pioneer Just Issued a Huge Word of Caution for Investors

Posted: 20 Feb 2018 07:13 AM PST

The wild swings in the value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies lately should reinforce the idea that they are not sound long-term investments—and that investors should only buy as much as they can afford to lose.
If this sounds overly cautious, consider the recent insights of someone who you might otherwise assume is a true believer in cryptocurrencies: Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of the cryptocurrency Ethereum. Over the weekend, Buterin sent out a Tweet reminding everyone that “cryptocurrencies are still a new and hyper-volatile asset class.”
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and other cryptocurrencies “could drop to near-zero at any time,” Buterin said. Therefore, “Don’t put in more money than you can afford to lose. If you’re trying to figure out where to store your life savings, traditional assets are still your safest bet.”

Reminder: cryptocurrencies are still a new and hyper-volatile asset class, and could drop to near-zero at any time. Don't put in more money than you can afford to lose. If you're trying to figure out where to store your life savings, traditional assets are still your safest bet.

— Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) February 17, 2018

Over the past 12 months, the value of Bitcoin has skyrocketed from $1,000 to nearly $20,000, before plunging below $6,000 in early 2018. Cryptocurrencies like Litecoin, Ripple, and Ethereum dipped more than 25% in a single day recently.
Essentially, Buterin’s message urging caution isn’t all that different from those issued by cryptocurrency skeptics such as Yale economist Robert Shiller, who has frequently spoken about how unpredictable the cryptocurrency markets are. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin “might totally collapse and be forgotten and I think that’s a good likely outcome” Shiller said on CNBC earlier this year. “But it could linger on for a good long time, it could be here in 100 years,” he added.
As for a prudent strategy to investing in cryptocurrencies, Buterin’s approach is similar to that of Mark Cuban, the billionaire star of Shark Tank and owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.
“It’s still very much a gamble,” Cuban told MONEY last December, when asked specifically about Bitcoin. “It could go to $15,000 or zero and maybe both on the same day.”
Like Buterin, Cuban said that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are very risky—and that no one should gambling their life savings on them. “If it’s money you need to depend on and can’t afford to lose, don’t do it,” Cuban said. “If you have money you can gamble with, then it’s worth taking a shot.”

Albertsons to Buy Rite Aid in Move to Compete With Amazon - TIME Business

Albertsons to Buy Rite Aid in Move to Compete With Amazon Posted: 20 Feb 2018 12:17 PM PST Grocer Albertsons Cos. will buy drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp. in a deal that would accelerate the remaking of the U.S. retail and health-care industries. The takeover serves several purposes. Rite Aid will get a buyer after a failed merger with another chain last year. Albertsons will add new locations and size amid increasing pressure from online competitors. And the grocer’s private-equity owners will exit their 2013 investment without having to go through an initial public offering in a turbulent market. The combined companies will have about 4,900 stores, including 4,350 pharmacy locations, in 38 states, they said in a statement. The Albertsons pharmacies will be rebranded under the Rite Aid name. Retailers have been under growing pressure from online competitors like Amazon.com Inc., and the corner drugstore has been no exception. While the prescription drug businesses at pharmacies has been relatively stable, front-of-the-store sales have been in decline. Giant retailers like Walmart Inc. are also looking to play a bigger role. The result has been consolidation. CVS Health Corp. agreed last year to pay about $68 billion for health insurer Aetna Inc., while the Wall Street Journal recently reported that Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. is in early talks to buy drug distributor AmerisourceBergen Corp. after its takeover of Rite Aid was scaled back last year for antitrust reasons. Online Threat The deals “demonstrate some of the threats (declining reimbursement, Amazon, etc.) that drug retailers have found themselves under and each of the large public players appears to be trying to solve this issue in a different way,” said Ross Muken, an analyst with Evercore ISI. Rite Aid shares gained 7.3 percent to $2.29 at 9:33 a.m. in New York. The companies said the deal is expected to close in the second half of the year.Rite Aid shareholders will have a choice whether to take all stock or a combination of stock and cash. After it closes, Albertsons shareholders will own 70.4 percent to 72 percent of the business, the companies said. The companies have a combined value of around $24 billion, including debt, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported on the transaction earlier Tuesday. Leftovers The deal also comes after Rite Aid’s failed attempt to sell itself to Walgreens. That merger fell apart amid scrutiny by U.S. antitrust authorities. Walgreens eventually won approval to buy 1,932 stores, three distribution centers and related asset for $4.4 billion in September. Rite Aid CEO John Standley will serve as chief executive officer of the new company, the companies said, while his counterpart at Albertsons, Bob Miller, will be the chairman. The companies haven’t decided on a name for the new company Albertsons, which is backed by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, last year put plans for an initial public offering on hold after Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market Inc., according to people familiar with the situation. Cerberus acquired Albertson’s in 2006, and then acquired more of the brand’s stores in a $3.3 billion deal with Supervalu Inc. in 2013. It later merged the business with Safeway Inc., creating a grocery chain of 2,000 stores and 250,000 employees across the U.S. It now has about 2,323 stores and 280,000 workers.

Florida shooting: Trump's 'I hear you' notes revealed in photo of meeting with school survivors - Independent

22/2/2018

Florida shooting: Trump's 'I hear you' notes revealed in photo of meeting with school survivors

'What can we do to help you feel safe?' President's crib sheet says

Jon Sharman

President Donald Trump holds his notes while hosting a listening session with students survivors of mass shootings, their parents and teachers in the State Dining Room at the White House Getty Images North America

Donald Trump took notes into a meeting with survivors of the Florida school shooting and parents of children killed in the massacre, including one which reminded him to tell them: “I hear you”.

Cameras caught the US President holding his crib sheet containing five points, as he joined the grieving students in the White House state dining room.

“I hear you” was the fifth point.

Others included: ”What would you most want me to know about your experience?”; “Resources? Ideas?”; and “What can we do to help you feel safe?”

During the session Mr Trump heard from Samuel Zeif, a student who survived the massacre at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the city of Parkland, which claimed the lives of 17 students and staff.

Trump says he is considering arming teachers after shooting tragedy

They were killed when a gunman opened fire with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Nikolas Cruz, 19, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Mr Zeif told the president: “I don’t understand why I can still go in a store and buy a weapon of war. An AR. How is it that easy to buy this type of weapon? How do we not stop this after Columbine? After Sandy Hook?”

He was referring to the 1999 massacre in Colorado, when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and one teacher and the 2012 tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, when Adam Lanza gunned down 20 young children and six staff members.

Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was killed last week, also noted previous school massacres.

Clearly angry, he said the moment was not about gun laws but about fixing the schools.

“It should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it and I’m pissed. Because my daughter, I’m not going to see again,” Mr Pollack said. “King David Cemetery, that is where I go to see my kid now.”

Julia Cordover, student body president at the Stoneman Douglas school, tearfully told Mr Trump that she “was lucky enough to come home from school”.

She added: “I am confident you will do the right thing.”

Mr Trump later tweeted that he would “always remember” the meeting. “So much love in the midst of so much pain. We must not let them down. We must keep our children safe!!”

He promised action on background checks and mental health provision, and said he would go “very strongly into age, age of purchasee”

The President also suggested he supported the arming of teachers and other school employees and allowing them to carry concealed weapons.

@realDonaldTrump

I will always remember the time I spent today with courageous students, teachers and families. So much love in the midst of so much pain. We must not let them down. We must keep our children safe!!

12:40 PM - Feb 22, 2018

He said that if football coach Aaron Feis, a victim who was praised for shielding students from flying bullets, had been armed “he would have shot and that would have been the end of it”.

Mr Trump spoke about how armed teachers and security guards could frighten off potential shooters and prevent more deaths.

“If you had a teacher ... who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly”, he said

It put him at odds with his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, who last week refused to be drawn on whether she personally believed arming teachers was a good idea.

She told a conservative radio host it was an issue for states and local communities to “wrestle” with.

Mr Trump has also said he wants to ban so-called “bump stocks”, the devices that can be used to make semi-automatic weapons fire faster.

EU leaders prepare life without Britain, mull future ties -Fox News ( source : Associated Press )

21/2/2018

EU leaders prepare life without Britain, mull future ties

By LORNE COOK | Associated Press

BRUSSELS – European Union leaders meet without Britain Friday looking to plug a major budget hole after Brexit and endorse a plan to streamline the European Parliament by sharing out the country's seats.

In an implicit warning to Britain, EU Council President Donald Tusk, who chairs the summit, says he will inform leaders how he plans to draw up the guidelines for future relations with their departing partner.

Britain is set to leave the EU — the first country to exit the world's biggest trading bloc — in late March 2019. But Brexit talks must be finalized by this fall so parliaments can ratify any withdrawal agreement.

EU leaders have appealed for Britain to explain its vision of their future ties, but few details have emerged. Tusk is ramping up the pressure, saying he wants things made clear by the next EU summit on March 22-23, just a month away.

Ahead of Friday's meeting, set to run for only around five hours in Brussels, EU lawmakers said they want to slim down their assembly from 751 seats to 705. About 14 countries would get a few extra seats.

A senior EU official and an EU diplomat, who declined to be named because deliberations are not yet complete, said the leaders are almost certain to endorse the proposal.

The budget talks will be infinitely more complex. The current long-term budget — which ends on December 31, 2020, when the EU wants Britain definitively transitioned out — was only agreed after several months of acrimonious debate

"We must not repeat the errors of the past," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned last week, as he urged the 27 remaining EU countries not to slash the next budget package.

Several countries agree in principle to boosting to the seven-year spending plan, to finance the EU's growing ambitions in areas like migration, security and defense, but as Europe slowly makes its way out of the economic crisis some strongly object to paying more.

Friday's summit could be a litmus test of how ambitious a Europe of 27 countries plans to be.

Trump Steers Right-Wing Summit on Populist Path Blazed in Europe - Bloomberg

Trump Steers Right-Wing Summit on Populist Path Blazed in Europe

By

February 22, 2018, 8:00 PM GMT+11

Stars of U.K., French nationalist movements to address CPAC

Annual gathering of conservatives often signals GOP direction

Trump: Time to Reform Immigration Rules

President Donald Trump has pushed the Republican Party toward a European-style populism that is amply evident in the line-up at an annual conference in Washington that long has reflected the pulse of the American right.

The list of speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference that opens Thursday includes two European nativists, Marion Marechal-Le Pen and Nigel Farage, who will address the gathering between panels and events on the dangers of immigration, Sharia law and “lawless” government agencies.

Marion Marechal-Le PenPhotographer: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The presence of Marechal-Le Pen and Farage is an indicator of how Trump’s “America First” agenda parallels traditional European nationalism, said Benjamin Haddad, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute who studies European populism and transatlantic affairs.

“You do see a convergence with the Trump movement -- when it comes to closed borders, protectionism, the nativism and anti-immigration discourse, the focus on Islam,” Haddad said. “It’s what we’ve seen in European movements for years."

Over the three-day run of the conference, which often reflects the direction of the GOP, audiences will hear from Trump, who’s promised to appear every year he is president; Vice President Mike Pence, the kick-off speaker on Thursday; and a cross section of Trump administration officials popular with conservatives.

Addressing Critics

Most of the other scheduled speakers are regulars on the conservative media circuit. But the decision by CPAC to invite Marechal-Le Pen, the far-right French politician and niece of National Front leader Marine Le Pen, has generated some blowback.

CPAC organizer Matt Schlapp addressed critics who said Marechal-Le Pen defies core precepts of American conservatism, writing on Twitter: "Part of @CPAC is hearing people out. Debate is good for democracy and we are honored to have her address our activists."

Jamie Weinstein, a conservative commentator based in Washington, responded to Schlapp’s message with a tweet saying he’s all for a healthy debate, but "I’m afraid what @CPAC is doing w/ Le Pen is allowing her to steal mantle of conservatism for an ideology that is anything but, at least as defined in America."

Political Dynasty

The 28-year-old Marechal-Le Pen is a scion of the nativist political dynasty that began with her grandfather Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the National Front in 1972. She has championed a harder line on immigration and national identity than her aunt, who was defeated by Emmanuel Macron for the French presidency last year. Shortly after the election, Marechal-Le Pen said she was retiring from political life, though she didn’t close the door on a return.

"She’s young, she’s a firebrand speaker, she’s clearly a good spokesperson for this," Haddad said, adding that her philosophy is closer to her grandfather’s than that of her aunt, who tried to steer the party away from some of its most racially-charged elements and toward populist economic issues like trade protectionism and minimum wage increases.

Marechal-Le Pen speaks on Thursday, about an hour after Pence. Farage, the British politician who was a force behind the successful Brexit referendum, will take the stage on Friday.

Trump Ally

The former U.K. Independence Party leader has aligned himself with Trump, who has returned the embrace. Shortly after the American presidential election, Trump suggested Farage should be Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. That was rejected by Prime Minister Theresa May, who has had a sometimes frosty relationship with the president.

Thomas Wright, the director of the Brookings Institution’s Center on the United States and Europe said Marechal-Le Pen and Farage are "birds of a feather" and "not friends of the U.S. and Europe." He said the participation of Marechal-Le Pen in particular "raises questions" as to whether CPAC is "aware of the various anti-American things she’s said."

"Everyone should be very clear-eyed about what it is they stand for, which is a very anti-American view and a pro-Russian view of politics, and of the United States role in Europe," Wright said. "It’s a worrying gesture. It raises significant concerns."

Trump on Tuesday praised Schlapp for organizing what he said would be an "exciting event."

Converging

The presence of nativist sentiments aren’t new in American politics, but until recent years they’ve largely been relegated to the fringes. Previous Republican Party leaders have instead emphasized pluralism over identity, alongside free markets and limited government. The rise of Trump appears to be a reflection of the potency of populism in a country that has been dominated by European immigrants and now is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse.

"It does send a message that the Republican Party seems to be converging more with Trump,” Wright said.

Numerous panels and other events are focused on the nuts and bolts of political activism, including using data and social media in campaigns, as well as issues that long have animated conservatives, such as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and freeing markets from government interference.

But many sessions have a flavor of current debates about immigration, the inquiries into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether conservative opinions are suppressed on college campuses. Several are centered on Trump’s policies.

Trump had appeared numerous times at CPAC since 2011 as he considered running for office. In 2016, when Trump canceled his appearance, the group criticized him and said his move "sends a clear message to conservatives."

A rival for the Republican nomination, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, was the winner of that year’s CPAC straw poll, which had been won by Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Mitt Romney before their successful runs for the Republican nomination.

Some traditional conservatives feared then that Trump would push the Republican Party in a nativist direction. It was “one of the top concerns #NeverTrump-ers had about Trump,” Weinstein said.