Since the beginning of the Cyprus debacle (followed by Russia's call for repatriation of all offshore capital and then Japan's willful debasement of their currency), which appears to have awoken many to the fact that banks and politicians can't be trusted , the 'price' of the virtual currency Bitcoin has quadrupled - touching an incredible $162 this morning. While most people believe the only way to 'spend' this currency is on drugs or blogging sites, Liberty Blitzkrieg's Mike Krieger points out there are in fact hundreds of places [3] (growing daily) where this as-yet unregulated store of wealth can be spent [4]. However, what is really driving this surge in demand for a different kind of 'money' is the wholesale loss of faith in the status quo - nowhere is this clearer than in the words and actions of the people of Cyprus and this devastating clip capturing the thoughts and feelings of ordinary Cypriots after their bank accounts were frozen. "Nothing has started yet... everything is going to fall down like dominoes because people don't trust the banks."
and perhaps this last bump is due to Portugal's latest attempt at herding cats... [5]
[6]
And the following insightful brief documentary is how real people - not the mouthpieces projected on TV - feel in the streets of Cyprus about the confiscation of their savings...
And Brandon Smith's rather more direct take on the Bitcoin phenomena specifically - "Ignore It..."