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Incredible chart shows the No. 1 reason Bitcoin could soar

From Economic Policy Journal:

The charts below show one important point of Bitcoin beauty. The supply of bitcoins are capped, unlike government fiat money. That's one of the reasons governments hate it so.

If Bitcoin becomes adopted on a broad scale, it will increase in value near globally against fiat currencies whose supplies are regularly inflated.

This is why governments may attempt to try and shutdown Bitcoin in its entirety. Bitcoin (and other crypto currencies) provide an alternative to fiat currencies which can be printed up by governments without limit and used by governments for their own purposes. It will be a cat and mouse game between...

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More on currencies:

Legendary investor Jim Rogers: A currency collapse is happening right now

A second state is about to legalize gold and silver as money

Unusual new ATMs could help Americans escape a dollar crisis

There has been a huge shift in the precious-metals market

From Jeff Clark, Senior Precious Metals Analyst, Casey Research:

Platinum is a precious metal, as is palladium, though to a lesser degree. However, like silver, both are also industrial metals. Unlike silver, it's their industrial use that is the primary price driver for both platinum and palladium – and that use is undergoing a fundamental shift.

The largest source of demand for platinum and palladium is the automotive industry, for use in autocatalysts. In turn, the fortunes of the auto industry are sensitive to the health of the world's major economies.

We've been bearish on platinum-group metals for years, primarily because we weren't convinced a healthy – much less roaring – world economy could be sustained when so many governments continue spending beyond their means.

We reconsidered the market last year, when strikes in South Africa – home to 75% of global platinum production and 95% of known reserves – threatened supplies. But as we wrote last December, the strikes ended without great impact on long-term supply.

Since then, however, the fundamentals of this market have changed...

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More on precious metals:

Casey Research: It's time to buy gold now

Porter Stansberry: A new warning on gold

Top resource CEO: Four fundamental facts to remember about gold

The three powerful ways quality dividend stocks can compound your wealth

From Dividend Growth Stock Investing:

"The most powerful force in the Universe is compound interest" – Albert Einstein

Einstein was amazed at the effect compounding interest could have on an individuals wealth. Had Einstein come across dividend growth stocks, the super compounders of investing, he would have truly been blown away.

Dividend growth stocks offer investors a compounding effect beyond any other type of investment. There are not just one, not just two but in fact there are THREE ways a dividend growth stock can work at compounding wise investors wealth over time.

The Three Ways Dividend Growth Stocks Compound

1. Stocks of any kind have a compounding effect through stock market returns. An X% return this year builds upon the returns of last year, the year before that and many many years before that. Each year the market increases it is compounding on prior years gains.

2. The growth of the dividend rate has a compounding effect on our income. An X% dividend growth rate this year builds upon the growth from all prior years.

3. By...

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More on dividend stocks:

Six powerful traits shared by the world's best dividend growers

Another World Dominating Dividend Grower could be on the verge of a major breakout

Six super-cheap dividend growers to consider today

New technology could make this science-fiction "fantasy" a reality

From Azizonomics:

NASA is funding the development of a printer for food:

Of course, its immediate application is as an experimental technology to feed hungry astronauts in space.

This is getting interestingly close to the fantasies of a Star Trek-style food replicator. Consumers go to the store, buy cartridges of nutrients and flavourings, load them into their printer, download some recipes from the internet, print, and eat.

It may be early to hypothesise about costs, but I hypothesise that 3D printing foodstuffs may massively lower the costs – both in material inputs and in monetary inputs – of producing food.

For instance, today 70% of water usage is for food-related irrigation. Today it takes...

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More on technology:

Update: A big list of tiny biotech stocks with "explosive" potential catalysts

The world's first 100% 3D-printed firearm is now a reality

Three little-known technology companies that could revolutionize the energy sector

Five ways you could be throwing money away... and not even realize it

From Financial Highway:

Ever since I got new place and did an inventory of my necessities and niceties, I figured out I was overspending at my old pad. Common things I realized I didn't need, use, or even want were eating up an eighth of my paycheck. Read on to see what they were, how much it used to cost, and how to replace it with something cheaper.

1. Having a Landline

Landlines are antiquated. Comcast charges $29.95 a month for unlimited talk and text on their landline phones for six months, and then shoots it back up to $39.95 -$44.95 a month. I was also surprised to see accessible voicemail listed a premium service.

There's no reason to pay for a landline anymore, if you have an Internet connection and a cellphone. You can use free services like Skype, Google Hangout, and Google Voice to connect via video or phone chat for conversations.

If you find that you spend lots of time on your landline, consider upgrading your cellphone bill to unlimited talk – I'm confident it won't add an extra $50 to your bill like a landline does.

2. Buying...

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More on saving money:

The two big reasons you'll lose money this year

Five lesser-known ways to save big money on driving

Three cheap vitamins could work better than prescription drugs for Alzheimer's and dementia

Today's entertainment: This is Japan's official advice to bondholders

From Zero Hedge:

Six months ago, Japan's message to the Kyle Bassians of the world - was simple:

Q. If Japan has a financial collapse, what will happen to its government bonds?

A. Please do not worry.

Uhm, OK.

The somewhat vague, if very reassuring, warning above has since been revised to provide some additional "information"...

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More on Japan:

Legendary investor Jim Rogers: A currency collapse is happening right now

Controversial post: Why a Japanese currency crisis could be just around the corner

Unbelievable chart shows Japan is taking QE to a "whole new level"

Must-see chart shows the shale oil boom is spreading rapidly across the U.S.

From Carpe Diem:

We hear a lot about the well-publicized increases in oil production in America's top two oil-producing states: Texas (2.295 million barrels per day/bpd in February) and North Dakota (783,000 bpd in March).

But the recent breakthroughs in advanced drilling technologies have also brought large increases in shale oil output over the last three years to the five states of: Oklahoma (51%), Utah (46%), Colorado (64%), Wyoming (22%), and New Mexico (46%).

The chart [below] shows the combined daily oil output in those five states (data here), which has increased by 44.6% over the last three years, from 650,000 bpd in February 2010 to 940,000 bpd in February 2013.

Recent increases in oil production in those states have brought combined production to the highest level since...

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More on the shale boom:

"Saudi America": The U.S. oil boom hit another incredible record last week

Energy BOOM: The U.S. has quietly set a new all-time record

New research declares the "death of peak oil"

Why the peak oil alarmists are "dead wrong"

From The Energy Report:

Is this a great time to be an energy investor? It definitely is, according to Matt Badiali, editor of the S&A Resource Report. "You can make a lot of money, unless you're Bill Powers," he says in this interview with The Energy Report. Badiali discusses the true potential for U.S. natural gas, as well as what type of energy really gets him excited.

The Energy Report: Are we truly facing peak cheap oil with all the easy stuff already out of the ground? Why is oil still at $95 per barrel ($95/bbl)?

Matt Badiali: The main reason we're still at $95/bbl, with demand falling and production rising is exports. It's been illegal to export crude oil from the U.S. since the '70s. However, refiners have gotten around this rule by exporting "finished products" like gasoline diesel fuel, for example.

Remember, Europe and Asia are paying a lot more per barrel than we are. Our refined goods can be economically put on a ship and sold competitively in those markets for a lot more money than they can get here. One of the reasons that this is big business is that we've dramatically increased the amount of oil that we're producing at home. The secret is about half of that oil isn't what we consider crude oil—it's natural gas liquids. It can legally be sent out to other markets because it's not crude oil.

Let me give you an example. Mexico has consistently been one of the U.S.' major sources of oil and gas imports. In 2005, we were getting about 1.4 million barrels per day. However, as our demand has fallen off, exports have been growing. Now the U.S. only takes about 400,000 b/d from Mexico. Imports fell off 41%, but our exports to Mexico grew by 200%. The U.S. is now the world leader in exporting finished product, which I don't think many people understand. That, in a nutshell, is why we're still paying $90–100/bbl.

TER: Does exporting these resources help or hinder our energy independence? Do you think that unconventional drilling will turn us into "Saudi America" or are we overestimating well lives and underestimating the cost of fracking?

MB: On the one hand, there are the "Saudi America" folks who are really optimistic about both the technology and the ultimate supply of oil and gas in the U.S. On the other hand, you have energy investor Bill Powers, who has got his arms folded across his chest and his chin out, just saying "No." That's his answer to everything.

I don't know if we'll ever be energy independent. Honestly, to me, that's a non-argument. It's going to be market forces that drive whether we're importing oil from somewhere else or if we're using our own and exporting. That's not as big a concern to me as the argument that Powers made, which is we don't have enough. I think he's wrong. I don't think that he understands the context of our success.

The peak oil theory never ever considered the idea that we would...

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More on energy:

The biggest hurdle to U.S. energy independence may have nothing to do with oil

Porter Stansberry: One time it's OK to break this sacred investment rule

Five "no brainer" ways the government could save billions of wasted dollars each year

Risk OFF: What you should know about the crash in Japanese stocks

From RiskReversal:

The overnight headlines are dominated by Japan's equity markets' massive reversal. Here is the 30-day chart of the Nikkei for a sense of the saying, "escalator up, elevator down":

I drew the red line to mark where the Nikkei closed, since it's hard to tell because it fell so hard near the close. Amazingly, the Nikkei's move higher has been so strong that it closed right at its 20-day moving average, despite a 10% intraday reversal. So though the move overnight felt big, most buyers in the last three months are still comfortably in the green.

Two things are most notable to me about this price action. First, it's very, very rare that you see such a large reversal from a multiyear high in a large equity index (in single stocks, they can happen all the time). Almost always, moves of this magnitude only occur after a topping process of several weeks or months. The unprecedented nature of current market positioning is worth noting.

Second, Japan mostly matters because...

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More on Japan:

Legendary investor Jim Rogers: A currency collapse is happening right now

Controversial post: Why a Japanese currency crisis could be just around the corner

Currency WAR: Japan's "super-QE" sends currency plummeting to 4-year lows

Beware the "Bronze Swan": The next crisis could start here

From Zero Hedge:

In all the hoopla over Japan's stock market crash and China's PMI miss last night, the biggest news of the day was largely ignored: copper, and the fact that copper's ubiquitous arbitrage and rehypothecation role in China's economy through the use of Chinese Copper Financing Deals (CCFD) is coming to an end.

Copper, as China pundits may know, is the key shadow interest rate arbitrage tool, through the use of financing deals that use commodities with high value-to-density ratios such as gold, copper, nickel, which in turn are used as collateral against which USD-denominated China-domestic Letters of Credit are pledged, in what can often result in a seemingly infinite rehypothecation loop (see explanation below) between related onshore and offshore entities, allowing loop participants to pick up virtually risk-free arbitrage (i.e., profits), which however boosts China's FX lending and leads to upward pressure on the CNY.

Since the end result of this arbitrage hits China's current account directly, and is the reason for the recent aberrations in Chinese export data that have made a mockery of China's economic data reporting, China's State Administration on Foreign Exchange (SAFE) on May 5 finally passed new regulations which will effectively end such financing deals.

The impact of this development can not be overstated: according to independent observers, as well as firms like Goldman, this will not only impact the copper market, as copper will suddenly go from a positive return/carry asset to a negative carry asset leading to wholesale dumping from bonded warehouses, but will likely take out a substantial chunk of synthetic shadow leverage...

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More on China:

An amazing interview from China you may have missed

This unprecedented development could be a huge red flag for China

Powerful chart shows a massive financial crisis is headed for this country