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Talk about a Huge boost to Crypto if the US Govt starts accepting Crypto Payments for Tax Debts

US Congressman Matt Gaetz proposes bill to allow federal tax payments in Bitcoin​


US Congressman Matt Gaetz has proposed a bill to allow federal income tax payments in Bitcoin. If passed, this would change the government’s use of cryptocurrencies.

The proposal needs to pass some legislative red tape before becoming law. It comes as crypto is increasingly becoming a tool in US politics, with President Joe Biden rehiring his crypto guru and Donald Trump making his campaign pro-crypto.

Gaetz is instructing the Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, to create a plan for accepting Bitcoin. Yellen is known for her being vehemently anti-crypto.

“By enabling taxpayers to use Bitcoin for federal tax payments, we can promote innovation, increase efficiency, and offer more flexibility to American citizens. This is a bold step toward a future where digital currencies play a vital role in our financial system, ensuring that the U.S. remains at the forefront of technological advancement.”
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Gaetz recently visited El Salvador to attend Bitcoin-loving President Nayib Bukele’s second inauguration. The bill mentions the Congressman’s support for Donald Trump.


Provisions in the bill require regulations to specify when payment by Bitcoin will be considered received and demand the immediate conversion of any Bitcoin received to its dollar equivalent at the end of each transaction.

The bill also requires rules to identify nontax matters related to Bitcoin payments that must be resolved by the payer and financial intermediaries without Yellen’s involvement.



Additionally, the bill seeks to ensure that Yellen resolves tax matters without involving financial intermediaries. Other sections address contracts related to receiving payments in Bitcoin, fees, and liability. The revised language would apply to payments made one year after the bill’s enactment.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) already requires individuals to report cryptocurrency transactions and pay taxes on income or gains from crypto.

Several states, including New Jersey and Kentucky, have started implementing their own crypto tax regulations. Colorado has even approved the use of cryptocurrency for tax payments.
 
How does crypto hurt our dollar as the global currency? Seems like we’re inviting trouble. I don’t know. Maybe one of you can enlighten.
 
Seems like a way to pitch something that sounds good and innovative as a way to start regulating it which will devalue it......I would also like to see more on how they are going to convert it to it's dollar equivalency immediately without impacting value if this is used on any scale.

Also it comes from Gaetz......a broken clock is right twice a day so maybe he has a good idea every once in awhile but if he says it I'm immediately skeptical.
 
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Donnyboy said:
Seems like a way to pitch something that sounds good and innovative as a way to start regulating it which will devalue it......I would also like to see more on how they are going to convert it to it's dollar equivalency immediately without impacting value if this is used on any scale.

Also it comes from Gaetz......a broken clock is right twice a day so maybe he has a good idea every once in awhile but if he says it I'm immediately skeptical.
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Ahh..seems .its just a Campaign Stunt For Trump

I wouldn't trust anything from Trump or Gaetz in terms of promises for Crypto that comes out of this. Trump is just fishing for votes and will promise them anything and everything under the moon to get it


Trump courts cryptocurrency advocates with reported talks to speak at Bitcoin convention​

Former President Donald Trump is reportedly in talks to speak at the largest Bitcoin convention of the year.

Two sources familiar with the matter told Axios about his planned attendance. Trump has sought to court libertarians in recent months, most prominently by speaking at the Libertarian Party Convention in an effort to earn their nomination. The conference is set to take place July 25 through July 27 in Nashville, Tennessee, one week after the Republican National Convention.

The former president would be joining other notable names at the event, such as presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has previously spoken at the event.

Trump has sought to contrast himself with President Joe Biden by embracing cryptocurrency as a viable currency, in contrast to Biden's skepticism. The move for the former president is a major reversal from his first term.

"I will end Joe Biden's war on crypto," the former president said at a recent rally in Wisconsin. "We will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in America."

According to crypto.news, cryptocurrency investors have donated millions to Trump's campaign in both cryptocurrency and United States dollars.


Last week, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, major cryptocurrency investors, endorsed Trump and donated the equivalent of one million each in cryptocurrency to his campaign.

A campaign official later told Bloomberg that the amount exceeded the maximum sum allowed by an individual, so the twins were partially refunded.


In a lengthy endorsement, Tyler Winklevoss said the Biden administration had "openly declared war against crypto."

"President Donald J. Trump is the pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto, and pro-business choice," he said. "This is not even remotely open for debate. Anyone who tells you otherwise is severely misinformed, delusional, or not telling the truth. It’s time to take our country back. It’s time for the crypto army to send a message to Washington. That attacking us is political suicide. This is why I will be casting my vote for President Trump in November, and I hope you will too. Onward!"
 
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Inflation Eased More Than Expected in June, to 3%​


U.S. inflation eased in June even more than economists had expected, further extending a recent slowdown in price increases.

The consumer-price index rose 3.0% from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Thursday. Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy items, climbed 3.3% over the previous 12 months and 0.1% since May.


Stock futures rose after the release.

Treasury yields, which decline when bond prices rise, fell sharply, a sign that investors thought the data would increase the chances that the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates soon.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was recently 4.198%, according to Tradeweb, down from 4.280% Wednesday.

Heading into Thursday, there have been strong signs that the economy has cooled—not enough to stir major fears of a recession but sufficient to spur a change of tone from Federal Reserve officials, who have increasingly talked about the risks of the economy slowing down too much even as inflation remains above their 2% target.

Recent data on household consumption, construction spending and activity in the services sector have all come in below economists’ expectations. That has dragged down estimates for the pace of economic growth in the three months that ended in June.



On the bright side, employers have continued to add more than 200,000 jobs a month this year on average. But the unemployment rate has also ticked up to 4.1% in June from 3.7% in December. Taken together, that suggests that the size of the workforce is growing, partly due to increased immigration, but that demand for labor is easing.

In testimony on Capitol Hill this week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell hinted that further cooling in the labor market could be undesirable, stating that the labor market is “not a source of broad inflationary pressures for the economy now.”

Though Powell wouldn’t say when the Fed might cut interest rates, investors have recently focused on the central bank’s Sept. 17-18 meeting, betting officials could trim rates then and again in December.

For a while now, many economists have expressed cautious optimism that inflation is on a path back to the Fed’s target, even if the journey could be slow and bumpy. A string of hotter-than-expected data releases earlier in the year caught Fed officials off guard.


Stepped-up production and normalized supply chains have already led to a sharp decline in goods inflation. Prices of services have been going up more quickly, on average, but are expected to rise at a more moderate pace as a cooling labor market leads to slower wage growth.

Thursday’s report is just the first assessment of what prices did last month. A report on supplier-level prices will be released Friday. Data from both reports will then be incorporated into the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal-consumption expenditures price index, which will be released on July 26. As of May, that gauge showed inflation running at a 2.6% pace.
 
Self-managed part of my portfolio definitely liked the CPI report today. I need those interest rate cuts like the crops need a rain!
 
Big Huck said:
Self-managed part of my portfolio definitely liked the CPI report today. I need those interest rate cuts like the crops need a rain!
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Milder Inflation Opens Door Wider to September Rate Cut​


U.S. inflation eased substantially in June, extending a recent slowdown in price increases that opens a path for the Federal Reserve to cut rates by the end of the summer.

The consumer-price index, a measure of goods and services costs across the economy, fell slightly from May, dropping the year-over-year inflation rate to 3%, which was the lowest since June 2023.



Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy items and are seen as a better gauge of underlying inflation, rose just 0.1% since May, the mildest increase since January 2021, when swaths of the economy were still frozen by the pandemic.

Core inflation was 3.3% over the previous year, also the lowest since 2021.

Altogether, the report showed prices have cooled broadly in the second quarter and were below economists’ expectations—the reverse of what happened in the first three months of the year, when inflation was surprisingly brisk.

“We’ve definitely seen a pretty sharp slowing,” said Kevin Cummins, chief U.S. economist at NatWest Markets. “This is certainly a confidence booster for the Fed.”

Another month of very mild inflation keeps the door wide open to a September interest-rate cut, especially if Fed officials conclude the labor market is slowing in a way that either diminishes a potential source of ongoing inflation or risks further unwelcome weakness.



Investors don’t currently expect the Fed to lower interest rates at its next meeting, July 30-31. Officials haven’t publicly attempted to rally a consensus around such a move and, outside of extraordinary cases, resist taking markets by surprise.

A bigger question for that meeting is the degree to which officials lay the groundwork for a cut in September. Thursday’s report, together with two additional readings on June prices in the coming days, are important because they will be the last price data that officials have before the July meeting.

After the release of the report, investors dialed up bets that the Fed would cut rates twice this year, and the odds of a third cut climbed, implying the central bank could lower rates at its last three meetings of the year, in September, November, and December.

Thursday’s report could be especially comforting to policymakers because it showed housing costs are slowing after a mammoth run-up following the pandemic. Economists and Fed officials have long anticipated shelter inflation would ease because rents for new housing units have been cooling for 1½ years, and the latest report could provide welcome confirmation that official inflation gauges are now capturing those developments.


Price increases were generally subdued across a range of categories. The costs of air travel and staying at a hotel fell particularly sharply from the previous month. Car insurance remained a hot spot for inflation, reflecting in part the lingering impact of a previous increase in car prices—even though those have come down more recently, including in June.

Stocks were mixed following the report, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ticking higher and the S&P 500 slipping.

U.S. Treasurys staged a robust rally, driving their yields lower. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was recently 4.169%, according to Tradeweb, down from 4.280% Wednesday. Movements in yields tend to broadly reflect investors’ expectations for short-term interest rates set by the Fed.

Heading into Thursday, there had been strong signs that the economy has cooled—not enough to stir major fears of a recession but sufficient to spur a change of tone from Fed officials, who have increasingly talked about the risks of the economy slowing down too much even as inflation remains above their 2% target.


The White House cheered Thursday’s news. President Biden has spent the week attempting to stop a stream of Democratic defections after a devastating debate performance and public appearances that haven’t reassured voters who are concerned about his age.

“The report shows that households are getting some much-welcome breathing room in key areas of their family budget—not just lower inflation but price declines in gas, cars, airfares,” said Jared Bernstein, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, in an interview. “Our work is far from done, but this is a very solid move in the right direction.”

Thursday’s report is just the first assessment of what prices did last month. A report on supplier-level prices will be released Friday. Data from both reports will then be incorporated into the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal-consumption expenditures price index, which will be released on July 26. As of May, that gauge showed inflation running at a 2.6% pace.
 

Economic Growth Quickens, Rising at 2.8% Rate in Second Quarter​


The U.S. economy accelerated in the second quarter as consumers increased their spending, businesses invested more in equipment and stocked inventories, and inflation cooled.

Gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S., adjusted for inflation and seasonality—rose at an annual rate of 2.8% for April through June to $22.9 trillion, the Commerce Department said Thursday.


That was faster than the 1.4% pace in the first quarter, and well above the 2.1% rate economists had expected. Household spending, the main driver of the U.S. economy, increased at a quicker pace as Americans’ incomes continued to rise.

Stocks rose after the report, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average edging up about 250 points, or 0.6%. The S&P 500 was up 0.4%, after a big market selloff the day before.

The new data shouldn’t change the outlook for the Federal Reserve. Officials have signaled that they expect to hold interest rates steady at their meeting next week but could cut at their subsequent meeting, in September, if inflation continues to cool.

Thursday’s release is one of the last major readings of the economy’s temperature that Fed officials will see before their meeting. The report suggests that the economy remains on solid footing, even two years after soaring inflation prodded the Fed to start raising rates at the fastest pace in decades. But the report also looks at previous months rather than what’s coming up. Companies have been warning that customers are feeling squeezed, and that they expect that to continue.



“The U.S. consumer remains a source of strength in the overall economy,” Capital One Financial Corp. founder and CEO Richard Fairbank said during an earnings call Tuesday. Still, the effects of high inflation and borrowing costs “are almost certainly stretching some consumers financially,” he said.

Nestlé, the Swiss multinational maker of KitKat chocolate bars and Nescafé coffee, cut its full-year sales guidance Thursday, saying it had slowed the pace of price rises as shoppers grow more cost conscious.

“It’s a period right now where consumer mood is kind of muted,” Chief Executive Mark Schneider said on a call with reporters. The company is seeing “value-seeking behavior” from shoppers in the U.S., Europe and China, he added.

Airlines, for their part, are grappling with too many empty seats on U.S. flights and weaker fares. Southwest Airlines and American Airlines both reported a sharp drop in second-quarter earnings Thursday. Shares of Ford and Jeep-maker Stellantis fell sharply after disappointing earnings.



Some investors and economists described the report as an indication that the economy is chugging along solidly, but not in the same gangbusters way that defined the second half of last year.

A measure of consumer and business spending that gauges underlying demand in the economy rose at an annual rate of 2.6%, matching the rate in the first quarter. That metric strips out the volatile categories of trade, inventories and government spending.

That points to “a rock-solid economy that has not fallen off a cliff nor looks to any time soon,” said RSM US chief economist Joe Brusuelas.

A key category of business spending picked up, which analysts described as a positive signal for future productivity. Nonresidential fixed investment, reflecting spending on commercial construction, equipment and software, rose at a 5.2% rate. Capital expenditures were led by 11.6% growth in spending on equipment, while spending on structures declined.


Thursday’s report also showed that inflation, using the Fed’s preferred gauge, is slowing compared with the previous quarter. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, the personal-consumption expenditures price index rose 2.9% in the second quarter at an annualized rate, cooling from 3.7% in the first quarter.

The rise in consumer and business spending offset negative developments such as a decline in spending on residential investment.

While the U.S. by many measures is doing well even amid high rates, and the pace of inflation has cooled, many Americans are unhappy that prices for groceries, cars and homes are so much higher than they were a few years ago. Still-high borrowing costs are also holding back many consumers, and a red-hot jobs market is starting to slow. The spring home-buying season, usually the busiest time of year for the housing market, was a dud thanks to high prices and elevated mortgage rates.
 
Didn't know where to put this but thought it was interesting. Not really actionable investing material so I'm breaking my own rule.

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Big Huck said:
Holy schnikees Intel down another 20% on earnings miss. Back to 2014 prices.
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Be very careful with intel right now, this is probably not the bottom. Their 13th and 14th gen cpu's have a really high level of oxidation manufacturing issues, which will cause BSOD's, crashing and eventual failure. Based on several tech journalists and engineers that have looked into the issue, the error rate is estimated to be between 25 and 50% of all CPU's that pull over 65W for those two generations.

Intel has not acknowledged this issue, and are trying to blame this on a microcode issue, which existed, but is small and patchable. The oxidation issue is a manufacturing defect and cannot be addressed without replacing the processor with a new, non-defective one.

There is now a class action lawsuit going against them.
 
GratefulPoke said:
Be very careful with intel right now, this is probably not the bottom. Their 13th and 14th gen cpu's have a really high level of oxidation manufacturing issues, which will cause BSOD's, crashing and eventual failure. Based on several tech journalists and engineers that have looked into the issue, the error rate is estimated to be between 25 and 50% of all CPU's that pull over 65W for those two generations. Intel has not acknowledged this issue, and are trying to blame this on a microcode issue, which existed, but is small and patchable. The oxidation issue is a manufacturing defect and cannot be addressed.

There is now a class action lawsuit going against them.
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Oh I had no intention of buying. Just amazed at how inept they are when every other company within six degrees of semis is crushing it.
 
Big Huck said:
Oh I had no intention of buying. Just amazed at how inept they are when every other company within six degrees of semis is crushing it.
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They will bounce back. Arrow Lake looks good and may be a bargain for awhile until they get back into everyone's good graces.

I think there will be a good time to buy INTL in the not too distant future.
 
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