Liberty Reserve closed down? Permanently?

[z3r0aCc3Ss]

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22680297

Freak man... I had money on it. Lost $300...
Are there any chances of getting it back online so that I can withdraw my money or spend lavishly online?

I liked and trusted LibertReserve because it offered great security than PayPal and MoneyBookers (skrill now). Also, it had many good services and it was quick.
I always felt secured while doing transaction with LibertyReserve than with PayPal and MoneyBookers.

[ayu]

Yeah read about that on Slashdot.
The chances of it coming back are slim.
Not impossible, but slim.

[bad_brain]

yeah, IF it will come back then NOT with the same form of business model, and also not under the same name (that one is burned, nobody would trust it anymore). and also no way of getting money back, because the accounts have surely been frozen now because they are under investigation...

[intern3t]

i was lucky. I withdraw 1020 dollars leaving only 1 dollar. I would have been crying by now

[bad_brain]

I luckily never used it. for business I use Paypal, never had any problems with it, they just demanded a proof of identity (for money laundering reasons) once when I exceeded a specific yearly transfer limit.
for private purposes I am using Bitcoins.

[z3r0aCc3Ss]

I luckily never used it. for business I use Paypal, never had any problems with it, they just demanded a proof of identity (for money laundering reasons) once when I exceeded a specific yearly transfer limit.
for private purposes I am using Bitcoins.

But in my opinion, LR was 100% secured than PayPal... It was my most trusted source of payment.

[pseudo_opcode]

I luckily never used it. for business I use Paypal, never had any problems with it, they just demanded a proof of identity (for money laundering reasons) once when I exceeded a specific yearly transfer limit.
for private purposes I am using Bitcoins.

But in my opinion, LR was 100% secured than PayPal... It was my most trusted source of payment.

nothing is 100% secure

[z3r0aCc3Ss]

I luckily never used it. for business I use Paypal, never had any problems with it, they just demanded a proof of identity (for money laundering reasons) once when I exceeded a specific yearly transfer limit.
for private purposes I am using Bitcoins.

But in my opinion, LR was 100% secured than PayPal... It was my most trusted source of payment.

nothing is 100% secure

Yea, I mean to say, LR was the most secured than any of the reputed online payment gateways/banks.

[Stavros]

This shouldn't really surprise anyone. Central Banks don't like competition. This should be obvious after the Liberty Dollar and now Bitcoin debacle.

[bad_brain]

hm, I wouldn't call it a debacle for the Bitcoin currency....actually the exchange rate is pretty stable since a couple of weeks already around 110 USD, which is of course only half of the rate of the weeks when it inflated like a weird balloon but still about 4 times the rate of about 6 months ago. the downfall of Liberty Reserve might even have the opposite effect and gives BTC a better reputation in the long run.

[Stavros]

Welp, solid proof that the US Treasury Department has been trying to take down Bitcoin:

http://www.fincen.gov/news_room/speech/pdf/20130613.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Director tries to link Bitcoin and terrorism not once but twice.

Oh and keep an eye on Japan. Particularly JGBs and the institutions that hold them on behalf of the elderly. If Abe is successful and the institutions that sell off JGBs this would probably cause another 2007 style recession.

[pseudo_opcode]

Stavros.. looks like you're enjoying economics these days

[Stavros]

I'll admit I've become an econ junkie. I am by no means an expert, but even paying attention and trying to deduce what has happened and where we're going puts anyone ahead of who's not paying attention. I remember where I was sitting when I got interested. I was sitting at my car at a stoplight coming home from a class in 2008 and the Dow Jones index dropped the better part of a 1000 points in a day. Before I knew things weren't good in a general. So I started reading more not a lot at first, but over time it's become a daily habit to read reddit's economics and economy subreddits in addition to blogs that run counter to mainstream economic opinions such as ZeroHedge (a personal favorite).

What really made me pay attention was about 6 months ago or so I watched an hour long video by Kyle Bass that did a lot of explaining about why he believes (and as far as I can tell has been right) that japan is setting themselves up for failue. I'll try to explain at least how I understand it and link to the video that really got me into paying attention.

So Japan. Last year Shinzō Abe was elected Prime Minister of Japan on a platform to boost the economy by raising the inflation rate to 2%, devaluing the Yen and suppressing the Japanese Government Bond yield rate in an attempt to get people to invest in the stock market. Initially everything was going great. The Nikkei 225 was making daily gains, the Yen broke 100 USDJPY topping out around 103.

Nikkei previous 6 months (since Abe came to power):


US Dollar-Japanese Yen exchange rate (since Abe came to power):


Now, Japan has some massive, massive demographic problems. Adult diapers outsold baby diapers in November 2012. On top of that they've had twenty years of trying to do quantitative easing. The mainstream economists will tell you that they did it without targeting, they did it half-hearted, etc. but this misses a key point. As much as Japan has borrowed (currently sitting about 250 time Japan's total GDP) they are paying roughly one quarter of their revenue to service the interest alone. If they ever actually achieve an inflationary bias and hit their 2% goal (and that assumes they don't go over and can hold at 2%) then they'll spend the majority of their revenue on inerest, the swaps curve moves and there will be a massive sell off by holders (large banks and fiduciaries on behalf of retirees). No one will want to hold onto JGBs when they yield 1% when inflation eats half the yield. That capital will move elsewhere maybe the stock market but more likely abroad. Not only that but then the swaps curves move and the yield goes up that means that the government will owe more to retirees. So where are they going to get the money? Likely through borrowing which will, guess what, affect the interest the government will have to pay back. Luckily for the retiree (and unluckily for Abe and the economy as a whole) Abe has not been able to generate 2% inflation so far. That means that the retiree's money is safe (again for now). For Abe that's damaged his credibility and to a slightly lesser extent the credibility of the Bank of Japan and the economy has officially fallen into bear market territory starting May 23.

Here's the video that really made me start watching Japan (I wish they released the slides). It's kind of dense, but with the help of investopedia it'll help you understand what he's talking about.
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Here's an even more recent video from KB and it has some slides:
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