DBS to launch full-service digital exchange - providing tokenisation, trading and custody ecosystem

DBS is setting up DBS Digital Exchange (From L to R) - Loh Boon Chye, CEO of Singapore Exchange; Michael Syn, Head of Equities at Singapore Exchange; Eng-Kwok Seat Moey, Group Head of Capital Markets at DBS; and Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS

 

Singapore, 10 Dec 2020 — DBS today announced that it will set up a digital exchange, enabling Institutional Investors and Accredited Investors to tap into a fully integrated tokenisation, trading and custody ecosystem for digital assets.

With the DBS Digital Exchange, DBS will leverage blockchain technology to provide an ecosystem for fund raising through asset tokenisation and secondary trading of digital assets including cryptocurrencies.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network Proposes Rule Aimed at Closing Anti-Money Laundering Regulatory Gaps for Certain Convertible Virtual Currency and Digital Asset Transactions

Under the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking submitted to the Federal Register today, banks and money services businesses would be required to submit reports, keep records, and verify the identity of customers in relation to transactions above certain thresholds involving CVC/LTDA wallets not hosted by a financial institution or CVC/LTDA wallets hosted by a financial institution in certain jurisdictions identified by FinCEN. The United States welcomes responsible innovation, including new technologies that may improve the efficiency of the financial system and expand access to financial services. Pursuant to the proposed rule, banks and MSBs will have 15 days from the date on which a reportable transaction occurs to file a report with FinCEN. Further, this proposed rule would require banks and MSBs to keep records of a customer’s CVC or LTDA transactions and counterparties, including verifying the identity of their customers, if a counterparty uses an unhosted or otherwise covered wallet and the transaction is greater than $3,000.

Rethinking Lockdowns: A cost benefit analysis by Dr. Ari Joffe

 

Ari Joffe, a specialist in pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases, examines both the efficacy and cost of lockdown measures employed in Canada and globally in early 2020. «I was an initial proponent of lockdowns,» explains Dr. Joffe. The resurgence of cases throughout much of the world, and the return to lockdowns in various jurisdictions, points to some of the drawbacks associated with an overreliance of such nonpharmaceutical interventions. Lockdowns have also resulted in a wide-range of unintended ramifications.

Rupa Subramanya: Trudeau’s India comments put Liberal electoral calculus ahead of Canada’s interests

Farmers dance along a blocked highway during a demonstration against the central government's recent agricultural reforms at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh state border in Ghazipur, India, on Dec. 18. PHOTO BY MONEY SHARMA/AFP

 

The federal Liberals are not the only party that plays this game, but they have taken it to a dangerous new level

While Sikh-Canadians amount to only about one per cent of Canada’s population, they are heavily concentrated in key ridings in the Toronto and Vancouver areas, and thus are more politically consequential than their numbers suggest. Trudeau’s remarks evoked a sharp reaction from the Indian government, which has left no doubt that this intervention in domestic Indian affairs will prove damaging to its relationship with Canada. Not only is India the world’s largest democracy, the Asian nation is a crucial counterweight to an increasingly aggressive and assertive China, and an important emerging economy that continues to be one of the largest recipients of Canadian institutional investment funds, including from the Canada Pension Plan. You would think a mature democracy like Canada, with its historical success as a consequential «middle power,» would resist contorting foreign policy into placating one parochial constituency after another.

Patricia Adams: Western greens are China’s useful idiots

Soldiers of the People's Liberation Army's Honour Guard Battalion wear protective masks as they stand at attention in front of photo of China's president Xi Jinping at their barracks outside the Forbidden City, near Tiananmen Square, in Beijing. PHOTO BY KEVIN FRAYER/GETTY IMAGES

 

Environmentalists have become the highest-profile cheerleaders for the CCP, helping divert attention from the regime’s worrisome pursuits

The big exceptions to those who have had their eyes opened are Western environmentalists and their funders who, rather than becoming more cautious about China’s role in the world, continue to lavish its environmental efforts with superlatives such as «herculean» and «momentous. The environmental gushing for China is reciprocated by the regime, with Communist Party media organs such as the China Daily dedicating full-page articles to extolling the environmental movement for its positive role in partnering with China. Western environmental organizations enjoy a privileged position in China. While foreign advocacy organizations of almost all stripes, from human rights groups such as Amnesty International to legal aid groups such as Chinese Urgent Action Working Group, are extremely restricted, if not effectively banned in China, the environmental groups are sponsored by a designated state agency or department of the CCP government, as all acceptable NGOs now must be under a 2017 law governing foreign NGOs.

Commerzbank: Gold Bull Run to Continue into 2021

Even if the vaccine proves effective and governments ease off the draconian policies they have implemented in response to the pandemic, governments and central banks will have to continue stimulus programs and loose monetary policies. That’s good for gold. Commerzbank sees things the same way, projecting gold’s bull run will continue through 2021 with the yellow metal rising to $2,300 by Q4. «Commerzbank analysts agree that the extraordinary monetary policy isn’t going to end any time soon.

Either governments, central banks, or both, will continue to pump liquidity into the financial system. If the necessary fiscal stimulus measures are not adopted in time due to resistance in the legislative process, pressure on central banks to step into the breach with further easing measures would increase». With QE and stimulus continuing, Commerzbank expects gold to push above August’s all-time highs in the coming year. Gold has struggled over the last several months despite significant dollar weakness.

The Perilous State of America’s Republic

The Perilous State of America’s Republic

If the United States cannot, in Lincoln’s words, «bind up the nation’s wounds,» and re-emerge as a strong democracy, the end of Western Civilization is in sight. Americans should know how perilous their democracy has become. The majority of Donald Trump’s voters already believe the presidential election was rigged, and there is no doubt that suspect voting changes, attributed to the requirements of voting in a pandemic, have created large anomalies in five states that made a great many such votes impossible to authenticate. The numbers of votes involved in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are undoubtedly adequately numerous to have influenced the election.

RINNER: Canada's current pandemic response isn't supported by the facts

Store shop closed due to COVID-19 lockdown. PHOTO BY STOCK PHOTO /Getty Images

A few weeks ago, British philosophers Ian James Kidd and Matthew Ratcliffe wrote about «Covidworld, our new altered reality where accepted norms do not apply.» They note how the entire planet is captivated by COVID-19 as the one and only issue of importance. And they describe the «enormous and wide-ranging collateral damage caused by lockdowns and other measures.» Like many critics of the ongoing tunnel vision on SARS-CoV-2, I am concerned about the lack of proportion in our collective response and allege that this response is not backed by the facts about the pandemic. Responding to questions raised in a Toronto Sun column, Ontario Minister of Long-Term Care Merrilee Fullerton confirmed in October that the COVID-19 death toll in LTC homes was comparable to that of the 2017/18 flu season. We also do not know, or are not told, how many hospitalizations occur due to serious cases of COVID-19 rather than other unrelated illness, where the patient just tests positive upon admission or gets infected in hospital.

Gold Price Forecast 2021: On a Bullish Track

 

Gold should, in the fullness of time, continue to roughly keep up with that pace. Gold’s local peak in August corresponded with the low in real yields, at -1.08%.

If Treasury bonds keep pace with inflation, it can keep gold from overheating too much, but gold should, over a 3–5 year period, do rather well regardless.

The Endgame Gold Spike

Tyranny During Its Reign Is Unrecognized by Its Victims

 

How does tyranny arrive and survive?

Tyranny is unalloyed evil that is pressed down mercilessly upon the unfortunate masses. In the minds of us enlightened denizens of 21st-century democracies, tyranny is the Reign of Terror in revolutionary France. To those of us who conduct real and regular elections, tyranny seems to be confined to such regimes — regimes distant in time or place and, hence, culturally remote from us.

Rex Murphy: Santa Justin puts a lump of coal in every Canadian's Christmas stocking

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is flanked by Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault, left, and Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Jonathan Wilkinson at a news conference in Ottawa on Dec. 11, 2020. PHOTO BY BLAIR GABLE/REUTERS

To try to sell the hiked carbon tax as an answer to the economic devastation of the past year is a breathless audacity

Deliberately appropriating the emotions and character of the pandemic and rhetorically slapping them on «the fight against climate change.» It is political cynicism with a smiley face. All that was missing from Justin Trudeau’s announcement of a $170-per-tonne carbon tax by 2030 was, «By the ghost of John A.»

Rex Murphy: Media treatment of potentially Watergate-sized Hunter Biden saga reeks of hypocrisy

Hunter Biden, the son of president-elect Joe Biden, speaks by video feed during the Democratic National Convention, on Aug. 20, 2020. Hunter Biden is the subject of a federal tax probe, it was revealed this week. PHOTO BY DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION/POOL VIA REUTERS

The news and media establishment declared the Hunter Biden story off-limits

They blocked a Watergate-sized story. They saw their “duty” as journalists as being to “not” report, not investigate, not relate a story that might pivot the election of a president. Well done, truth-to-power knights. Now we know Hunter Biden is under investigation.

And was under investigation during the period the great American press went full ostrich, asked no questions, and mightily slammed the few real journalists who did.

Psychedelics replace pot as the new favourite edgy and 'get-rich-quick' investment

Psilocybin mushrooms in the Netherlands. PHOTO BY ROGER CREMERS/BLOOMBERG NEWS

But there’s a fear the market could see a bubble just like cannabis did

Cannabis is only on the cusp of many investors’ comfort zones, but the family offices and high-net-worth individuals hungry for early stage, edgy investments have already moved on to psychedelics. «People see this potentially as a get-rich-quick mechanism, just like you saw in the early stages of cannabis,» said Sa’ad Shah, who runs Grey House Partners GP Inc. ’s Noetic Fund, which has invested in more than a dozen psychedelics companies. While Shah’s background is in asset management, he said lots of VCs in the psychedelics space have recently come from marijuana. «They feel they don’t want to have another FOMO situation here,» he said, referring to a «fear of missing out,» like they did with early-stage cannabis plays.

How a Homeless High School Dropout Became CEO of a $1 Billion Company

Taihei Kobayashi in Tokyo. Photographer: Shoko Takayasu/Bloomberg

Taihei Kobayashi has gone from sleeping on the streets of Tokyo to heading a technology startup whose market value topped $1 billion. His rags-to-riches story is among the most remarkable to emerge from a small-cap stock boom that’s minting fortunes in Japan. Kobayashi’s company, which helps startups and other firms to design and create new businesses and products, went public in July and its shares have since more than tripled. As Kobayashi tells it, his parents kicked him out at 17 when he quit a prestigious high school to focus on his band.

Missed Out on Marijuana Stocks? Psychedelic Stocks Could Be the Next Big Thing

It was only a little over five years ago that Canopy Growth, the biggest pot stock based on market cap, was valued at close to $60 million. Today, Canopy’s market cap tops $9 billion. There are at least half a dozen other pure-play cannabis stocks with market caps of $1 billion or more.

A big opportunity

Psychedelic drugs have long been used recreationally and, for the most part, illegally. Today, the focus is on psilocybin, a psychoactive chemical found in certain types of mushrooms. Like cannabis, psilocybin is currently a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act. Data Bridge Market Research projects that the psychedelic drug market will reach $6.85 billion by 2027.

A $7 trillion climate change warning to the stock market from its biggest shareholder

An abandoned oil rig in the U.K. during Covid-19. “We’ve been talking about this for 20 years and some of the changes we saw this week were unlike anything we’ve seen before,” said Mindy Lubber, CEO and president of sustainability nonprofit Ceres, speaking about action from investors on climate change. Jason Alden | Bloomberg via Getty Images

So is investment pressure on corporations. In the past week, Exxon Mobil was targeted by activist investors, as well as CalSTRS, one of the nation’s largest pension funds. «We’ve been talking about this for 20 years and some of the changes we saw this week were unlike anything we’ve seen before,» said Mindy Lubber, CEO and president of Ceres, a sustainability nonprofit that works with investors on climate change. Ceres announced this week a consortium of investors managing $9 trillion in assets that have committed to investing along net zero carbon goals.

GOLDSTEIN: UN climate report reveals goals of Trudeau's 'Great Reset'

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau listens while wearing a mask at a news conference held to discuss the country's coronavirus response in Ottawa November 6, 2020. PHOTO BY PATRICK DOYLE /REUTERS

It’s not a plot for global dictatorship. It’s a globalist plan to convince people living in democracies in the developed world to accept a lower standard of living to, we’re told, save the planet from catastrophic global warming. Under that plan, according to the UN, Trudeau’s announcement Friday that he’ll raise his carbon tax to $170 per tonne of emissions by 2030 is already obsolete. Trudeau says it will help Canada exceed his 2015 Paris climate agreement target of reducing Canada’s emissions to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030.

Posthaste: Expect your grocery bill to rise by nearly $700 in 2021 — the biggest annual increase in a decade

Food prices will rise 5 per cent next year, and vegetables will be among the most expensive. PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES

Canadians’ average grocery bill is forecast to rise as much as 5 per cent in 2021, as COVID-19 takes a toll on supply chains, according to Canada’s Food Price Report, an annual forecast published by Dalhousie University and the University of Guelph. Based on a family of four, average food bills for the year are predicted to reach $13,907 in 2021, an increase of $695 compared to 2020, excluding food service. «In dollars, that is the highest predicted increase by Canada’s Food Price Report,» the forecast noted. The food inflation index has outpaced general inflation over the past 20 years, with the typical grocery bill having risen around 170 per cent over the past two decades, the report notes.