http://kotaku.com/…

In addition to its ongoing crackdown on Internet porn, the Chinese government has declared that virtual currency cannot be traded for real goods or services.

Virtual currency, as defined by Chinese authorities, includes “prepaid cards of cyber-games,” according to a joint release issued by China’s Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Commerce on Friday.

“The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services,” the Ministries said.

The Chinese government estimates that trade in virtual currency exceeded several billion yuan last year, a figure that it claims has been growing at a rate of 20% annually. One billion yuan is currently equal to about $146 million.

The ruling is likely to affect many of the more than 300 million Internet users in China, as well as those in other countries involved in virtual currency trading. In the context of online role playing games like World of Warcraft, virtual currency trading is often called gold farming.

The most popular form of virtual currency in China is called “QQ coins,” a form of virtual credit issued by Tencent.com.

Tencent.com, which has about 220 million registered users — about as many as Facebook — is quoted in the Chinese government news release as “resolutely” supporting the new rule. The government justifies its ban on virtual currency trading as a way to curtail gambling and other illegal online activities.

The Chinese government, however, appears to be uninterested in regulating sales of in-game items for real cash. A report in the English-language China Daily says that in-game gear is not considered virtual currency, so selling virtual items can be expected to continue.

The trading of virtual currency for real cash employs hundreds of thousands of people worldwide and generates between $200 million and $1 billion annually, according to a 2008 survey conducted by Richard Heeks at the University of Manchester.

He estimates that between 80% and 85% of gold farmers are based in China.

“[M]any online games have a virtual economy and an in-game currency,” he states in his survey. “Gold farmers can play in-game to make some currency. They then sell that for real money — typically via a Web site and using the PayPal payment system — to other players of the game.”

Game companies typically forbid gold farming but committed virtual currency traders find ways around such rules. Some game companies have recognized the futility of trying to ban the practice and have built virtual commerce into their game infrastructure.

Lots of people are against gold farming and the trading of virtual for real goods yet these nearly half a million Chinese gold farmers and virtual traders are doing it because it pays better then any local, real job. If you want to improve the conditions of those individuals… allow open and free trade, enforce private property rights and contracts.

As real, legal tender, fiat currencies fall governments attack voluntarily used virtual ones.

http://www.wmtw.com/…

BUXTON, Maine — Buxton police raided a building where people were trying to raise money to give free food to the needy.

It happened at the Narragansett Pythian Sisters Temple on Route 22 where people were playing the card game Texas Hold’em to benefit the Buxton Community Food Co-op.

But state police said the game was illegal.

That’s because whenever a gambling tournament is held to raise money for a group and takes place at its headquarters, a permit is needed and the co-op didn’t have one.

So, state police seized cards, poker chips and $500 in cash — money the food co-op desperately needed.

A member of the co-op, Joann Groder, said she is very, very sad about what happened.

“We’ve had a lot of people who come here — people who are out of work, people who have cancer. We have a lot of people,” said Groder.

But state police are standing by what was done.

“In this particular case they weren’t licensed, and they knew they weren’t and they knew they needed one,” said Lt. David Bowler of the Maine State Police.

The money from the co-op’s card game is currently being held as evidence while the investigation continues.

Groder now plans to hold a pot roast dinner to raise money for the co-op.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/…

Writes Katie:

So–my high school had a conference call today with the PA governor, Ed Rendell. Now, I already knew this guy was a true-blue thuggish socialist, and what’s more, he was holding this conference call to whip up support for his new state/taxpayer/theft-funded “tuition relief” program. Our journalism teacher told us to create a list of questions to ask about the new program. Most people asked if accepting this money would lessen their debt, how much would they receive, the whole “where’s my handout” spiel. A lot of kids did want to know where the heck this money was coming from, since our state has a budget deficit of over ONE BILLION DOLLARS.

Well, the conference call was at four o’clock, and I was the only student able to stay, so I got to ask the governor any question on the sheet. Now, since the questions were pre-reviewed, my teacher and I weren’t sure if he’d even let us ask any of them. We waited through many skim-the-surface kind of questions from other students about how much they would owe after the new program “helped” them and their families, how the state government would pay with it (they would tax video poker in bars–Fast Eddy loves to condemn gambling, then legalize it and tax it to death), and to ask if out-of-state residents could enjoy the same benefits.

My teacher and I were getting ready to pack up and hang up the phone when the moderator said, “Well, we have time for one more question, and this one’s from Katie…” We both leapt for the phone, and after pressing the speaker button, the moderator said that Rendell wanted to address the first question. I said, “Actually, governor, I want to talk about how government aid inflates college prices. Colleges can keep raising their prices because they know that the government will pick up the tab, and they’ll keep their same profit margins. But no responsible business would raise its proces above what its consumer base could afford! I think we should stop all government aid to make them lower their prices.”

“Cutting aid programs would be disastrous,” Rendell growled. “And colleges depend on the endowments the state gives them…”

“So they’re not profitable? They’re losing money? Every year?” I asked incredulously.

“Yes, they are,” Rendell said. He mentioned public AND private colleges not making any profit whatsoever. “None of the colleges in Pennsylvania are profitable. None.”

Even if he’s wrong and some are profitable it’s only because of the State and it’s subsidies.

The lack of basic economics or human nature is amazing. It makes one wonder if they are actually ignorant of fascists.

http://www.keenesentinel.com/…

If the marijuana protest and guerilla gardening in downtown Keene failed to raise many eyebrows, the sight of a handful of handcuffed Free Staters being taken out of the city’s District Court earlier this week surely had plenty of residents scratching their heads.

The reader comments piled up under online coverage of Monday’s protest at the District Court on The Sentinel’s Web site, where some people ridiculed and criticized the Free Staters for wasting taxpayer dollars and the time of city police officers.

“Time and again, the Free Staters come off as insolent children who stomp their feet and hold their breath until their faces turn blue because they don’t like being told what to do,” commenter Arch wrote.

The Free Staters hit back, outnumbering the opposition with post after post, saying that District Court Judge Edward J. Burke had blatantly stomped on their personal freedoms when he banned the use of video cameras in the District Court lobby.

“What many commenters here are showing is how slavery is enforced. Slavery was enforced by the slaves themselves. It isn’t the government that keeps people down — it is the people,” wrote commenter Frake.

The District Court blowup unfolded during the arraignment of Manchester videographer Dave Ridley, who was arrested in March because he refused to turn off his video camera in the court lobby. Ridley and others showed up to cover the arraignment of Free Stater and marijuana activist Andrew Carroll.

Carroll was arrested in January when he stood in Keene’s Railroad Square carrying a small amount of marijuana while surrounded by Free Staters and curious onlookers.

Though state law allows media representatives to record public court proceedings in most cases, lobbies and hallways are gray areas. Police officials say there is a fear that rape victims and juveniles could be captured on film while in these areas, which are generally off-limits for videotaping and photography, according to state judicial branch spokeswoman Laura A. Kiernan.

“We’ve talked about this at length and the Free Staters know that,” Kiernan said in a previous interview. She did not return a phone message seeking additional clarification on the law.
Read More…

Find more on the bill here.

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN0952458820080511?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

A California man who has defaulted on nine homes and expects banks to foreclose on all of them, forcing him into bankruptcy, says he now considers it a mistake to have invested in the real estate market.

Shawn Forgaard, a 37-year-old software company project manager, bought one home for his family to live in and nine more as investments. He stands to lose all the investment houses in the mortgage meltdown but says he has come away wiser from the experience.

“Everyone stumbles. I’m not going to hide or run or live in denial, or with regrets,” Forgaard told Reuters in an interview. “On the surface it looks like total devastation but it’s just the opposite. I’m confident our lives will be much, much richer as a result.”

Forgaard bought a house in Santa Cruz, about 60 miles (100 km) south of San Francisco, in 2000. Four years later, using $800,000 in stock options, he began snapping up investment properties, putting 10 percent to 40 percent down on negative amortization loans — in which payments do not cover the interest so that a borrower’s balance grows over time.

It was those “neg-am” loans, which include triggers causing payments to balloon if the debt reaches a certain percentage of the original balance, that would come back to haunt him.

“I knew I was sitting on time bombs,” Forgaard said. “I knew the market was going to go soft and I knew that property values would decline. But I figured that I had enough equity to survive the storm and sell or take the loss and refinance.

“I didn’t anticipate a downturn of epic proportions such that home values are 40 percent less than they were,” he said.

That’s because you’re a fucking idiot.

While this type of scenario is very rare… having one or more investment homes was not and just as many primary homes are foreclosed so too are many many of these investment homes. They will all be counted in those numbers you see on TV when they report how many homes are in foreclosure. I’ve never seen them seperate it down into primary and secondary homes.