Guess which state has the highest poverty rate in the country? Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia, but California, where nearly one out of five residents is poor. That's according to the Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure, which factors in the cost of housing, food, utilities and clothing, and which includes noncash government assistance as a form of income.
Given robust job growth and the prosperity generated by several industries, it's worth asking why California has fallen behind, especially when the state's per-capita GDP increased approximately twice as much as the U.S. average over the five years ending in 2016 (12.5%, compared with 6.27%).
The South American country's securities regulator has prohibited local investment funds from buying digital cash, Reuters reports. Cryptocurrencies cannot be considered financial assets, the regulator ruled.China is contemplating a complete ban:
Earlier in December, Brazilian authorities published a warning about the risks associated with digital currencies. Brazil has had seven public hearings on bitcoin before finally cracking down on it.
"According to a study by Credit Suisse, Brazil's productivity has not risen since 1981, and it's not going to rise if the government keeps banning everything that can make us more productive," Brazilian media commentator and popular YouTube blogger Raphaël Lima said, criticizing the decision. "And with an official 12.4 percent unemployment rate, anything that can generate a job should be welcomed with wide-open arms."
According to an internal memo from a government meeting seen by Reuters, Beijing will continue to apply pressure to the virtual currency trade and prevent the growth of risks in that market.
National and local authorities should ban venues that provide centralized trading of digital currencies, including bitcoin as the biggest one, Vice Governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) Pan Gongsheng said.
Regulators need to ban individuals or institutions that provide market-making activities, guarantees, or settlement services for centralized trading of the currencies, such as online "wallet" service providers, he said.
"The financial work conference clearly called for limiting 'innovations' that deviate from the need of the real economy and escape regulation," Pan said, referring to last week's meeting.
He added that the authorities should block domestic and foreign websites, close mobile apps that provide centralized virtual currency trading services to Chinese users, and sanction platforms that provide cryptocurrency payment services. He also called for local authorities to investigate services that help people move funds overseas.
Once a global hub for bitcoin trading and mining, China accounted for more than two-thirds of the world's bitcoin-mining operations. Recently, however, Chinese regulators started cracking down on virtual currencies, explaining it as a fight with capital outflow. They claimed the trade in cryptocurrencies was being used by Chinese citizens to move cash abroad.
Last year, regulators banned initial coin offerings, shut down local cryptocurrency trading exchanges, and limited bitcoin mining.
Comment: Although the motive for the attack is unclear, considering the current political climate of hysteria and the not so subtle hints condoning violence from the media and politicians, it's not that far-fetched to assume the attack was political.