China

The past two weeks were characterized predominantly by discussions over the hacking of Bitcoin exchange BitFinex. Other noteworthy news streamed mainly from Zimbabwe, the U.S., Isle of Man, China, and customarily from Russia.

The main spark of the thrill was the result of the Brexit referendum, with the Leave vote prevailing over its counterpart. In spite of Brexit not occurring in the foreseeable future, the confusion it generated on financial markets was evident, boosting the cause of cryptocurrencies.

During the past few weeks nothing really new occurred in cryptocurrency’s world. The last two weeks, however, have already brought a change. The discussion related to Mike Hearns’s exit about the future of Bitcoin lead by important developers from the community is contributing to this change.

Security is the biggest challenge for our economy. To counteract a similar challenge, Israel, for example, is entirely militarized, regardless of the fact that numerous international lobbyist groups assist it, including financially. A country facing such security challenges might have armed forces three or four times stronger than Georgia and a defense budget 10 times larger.

On July 23, The Guardian published the results of a report by the “Tax Justice Network” (TJN). The title – “Wealth doesn’t trickle down – it just floods offshore” – cannot remain unnoticed by the reading public.

Hong Kong and Switzerland top the rankings of a new index released today that presents the state of human freedom in the world. The U.S. performance is worrisome and shows that the United States can no longer claim to be the leading bastion of liberty in the world. The Human Freedom Index (HFI) is the most comprehensive measure of freedom ever created for a large number of countries around the globe.

Earlier this week, the world witnessed two deals sealed by international powers: on Greece’s future in the European Union and on Iran’s future in the world. Both deals will have their political and social costs and profits, winners and losers.

The irony specific to the Kremlin’s new paranoia is that Russia still attributes some mythical power to the United States, a power which has all but dissipated over the past two decades.

Are all markets rigged by HFT? The SEC and FBI are going to try to find an answer to this question.

Nomura believes that this real estate bubble, followed by potential property market correction, could lead to a systemic crisis, and is the biggest risk which China faces in 2014.