I've just tried to access the North Pole website of the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration for my 5-year-old son to be told that the U.S. government has shutdown! The U.S. has gone over the fiscal cliff. Due to a lapse of funding, the U.S. federal government has shutdown - click here. Will anyone notice apart from a 5-year-old boy who is obsessed with the North Pole?
According to Robert Shiller , speaking at Davos, Bitcoin is a perfect example of a bubble - story here . Shiller sees Bitcoin as a backwards step in the evolution of money. George Selgin , a free banker, takes an opposing view - click here . Although he doesn't believe that Bitcoin is money, he sees its development as a fascinating turn in the evolution of money. In particular, he lauds the fact that Bitcoin production is constrained and cannot be infinite. There is a short video below where Bitcoin explain how it works.