Bits Bucket for May 4, 2013
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cUg_PMaIBs - 156k
Run For The Roses By Dan Fogelberg
“shelter-in-place” sounds so much nicer than Martial Law.
Child killing prompts order for “shelter-in-place”
http://www.modbee.com/2013/04/27/2690155/9-year-old-killed-i...
City of Philadelphia tells citizens to be prepared for spontaneous 3-day “shelter in place”
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/04/24/city-of-philadel...
You keep neglecting to mention that “shelter in place” was a recommendation, not a mandate. Folks on the other side of town were going about business as usual.
If there were a crazed gunman loose in my populous urban neighborhood, I’d be “sheltering in place” for the duration — if only to avoid the crossfire.
D’you read the funny story about the guy that got stuck at a chick’s place? worse things could happen I spose.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/lust-during-wartime
That is totally hysterically funny! The guy should get a journalism reward for coming up with that story to meet his deadline…
If someone moves on avg every 7 years do they ever pay toward the principal on their 30 yr sentence?
Characterized that way, you’d have to have rocks in your head to buy a house at these massively inflated prices these days. Rent for half the monthly cost of buying.
If someone moves on avg every 7 years do they ever pay toward the principal on their 30 yr sentence?
That would make sense if houses didn’t always go up. But you can get richer faster by getting a bigger house each time rather than paying down principal.
If someone moves on avg every 7 years ??
I have been in the same spot for 33 years…There are 11 residences in my neighborhood…8 of them have been here for 50 + years…
Mostly just renting from the bank…and doubly so if the seven years ends in foreclosure (i.e., 0% home equity gain)…
At 4% interest they would have paid about 14% of the original loan amount in principal. Thats for a 30 year loan.
With a 15 yr loan they would have paid off about 40%.
Housing Sales Collapsing In Bay Area
http://picpaste.com/pics/868029f6be374f92a82d2dd9e14dd2fc.1366217815.png
This is what happens when prices are massively inflated. Demand collapses.
The result of Jerry Brown’s tax hikes.
Your graph is for # of homes sold. The drop in sales reflects drop in inventory, which is well known here. Your graph says nothing about price or demand.
You’re a deceptive b@$tard and you know it.
And before you insult this blog again by asking, I paid $78/sq ft for my debt shack which in 22 years will not be a debt shack UNLIKE RENTING.
The graph reflect demand. Get over it.
And here’s some more reality for you. There massive excess housing inventory is in the 25 MILLION range and rising.
And before you deceive the readers here once again about your tragic error of paying a massively inflated price for a 20 year old depreciating house, how about you tell the truth about what you paid? How about you tell the truth about your ongoing ruse here?
And the fact that we’re profitable at building for $60 per square foot in all 48 states tells us much more about you than anything else.
And the fact that we’re profitable at building for $60 per square foot in all 48 states
Wait—your prices went up from $55/sq-ft to $60/sq-ft overnight??
That almost sounds like inflation!
8-/
The price of lumber is inflating. 2×8s up 25% in 4 months. OSB is up 42%. So yes, PW has to raise prices on his manufactured homes.
I do? Really? And other manufacturers do too? Why is that when div6-8 prices are lower today than they were in 2006?
You’re getting awfully emotional about your debt dump. Are you nervous that you overpaid?
“Maryland Realtor Charged With Burglary”
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/03/04/md-realtor-charged-with-burglary-of-virginia-home/
I think that this summer will turn out to be the hottest in California. The fire season has just started here.
I get notices from Zillow about houses close to my work, because I’m curious about the market there in case I move up there someday. Some of you guys here talk about updated versus old and that kind of thing. This cracked me up because it’s SO 70s. I’m totally fine with somebody bought it a long time ago and just lived in it and never updated it. That’s life. But it should be 100k, not 200k. If you want a laugh, you gotta look at this…it’s a time capsule.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/820-Kansas-Ave-Longmont-CO-80501/13207576_zpid/
Nice kitchen. If you want to throw them a lowball number, print this out and hand it in with your offer.
Asbestos In Linoleum | Asbestos Watch
http://www.asbestos-watch.com/articles/asbestos-in-linoleum - 32k - Cached - Similar pages
It is common to find asbestos in linoleum flooring that was manufactured throughout the 1960s, 70s, and early 80s. The high tensile strength of asbestos fibers …
Its not just in Linoleum…It was used in many, many building products…”Legal” Designating, containment & disposal has driven up the cost of demolition quite a bit…At least here in California…Much of it is still removed & diposed of illegally…
It would take a LOT less than $100K to update that house.
Really?
It costs MORE to build than to demo and remodel?
How many times are you going stick your foot in your mouth?
What is your experience at bidding and executing construction contracts?
What is your experience at estimating and writing bid docs?
When are you going to back up your flippant, errant comments regarding construction and contracts?
I have and like anything else, it all depends.
Me, I’d spend the money checking for asbestos, remediating it, then move to updating the mechanicals.
Cosmetics would be last.
It would take a LOT less than $100K to update that house.
I didn’t mean to make any implications on that. I’m just saying the house should cost a lot less than 200k, regardless of cost to update.
Loved the canopy over the dinning room table…
That’s an “older photo.” The more recent picture of the same room shows that the canopy and wallpaper are gone. Not that it matters. The flooring is appalling enough.
p.s. Saying that “it was the style” is no excuse. Even when I was a young pup in the 1970’s, it was still appalling.
“If you want a laugh, you gotta look at this…it’s a time capsule.”
I actually like that. Reminds me of my formative years. The price graph at the bottom for Longmont is interesting, vitrually no rise from 2003-2007, then a slight dip, now nearly back to where it was. Like many charts, this is one where I’d like to see what happened between ‘97 and ‘03.
Like many charts, this is one where I’d like to see what happened between ‘97 and ‘03.
Big jump from 97-00, then flat to 03. That’s how everything was around here. The tech boom was real for a little while, and incomes really did go up. Then it stopped.
Real Estate
HUD to sell 40,000 distressed loans in 2013
By Megan Hopkins
• May 3, 2013 • 11:07am
In an effort to address the country’s shadow inventory and relieve high-foreclosure areas, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will sell thousands of severely delinquent mortgage loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
Throughout the summer ahead, HUD will sell approximately 20,000 distressed loans via the Distressed Asset Stabilization Program in an attempt to increase recoveries to FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund from non-performing FHA-insured loans, while contributing to stabilization and recovery in communities that took the hardest hit during the housing recovery.
The offerings by HUD will be conducted via two auctions. The auction on June 26th will focus on selling approximately 15,000 notes through ‘national pools,’ while the one on June 10th will offer approximately 5,000 notes through Neighborhood Stabilization Outcome pools.
HUD is growing the use of single-family loan sales via a competitive bidding process in which loan pools are sold to the highest bidder. This includes nonprofit and community-based organizations.
“We’ve seen a tremendous response to our note sales which allow us to support particular areas of our country hard-hit by foreclosures while improving outcomes for FHA,” said FHA Commissioner Carol Galante.
Galante added, “These auctions allow us to continue stabilizing hard-hit housing markets and to improve FHA’s overall financial position at the same time.”
Severely delinquent FHA-insured loans in the program are sold competitively at a price determined by the market, which is generally below the outstanding principal balance.
After the purchasing of the loan, foreclosure is postponed for a minimum of six extra months. During this time, the new servicer can work with the borrower in a effort to find an affordable solution so foreclosure can be avoided.
By purchasing these loans at market rate — which is generally below the outstanding principal balance — investors are given the incentive to help the borrower steer clear of foreclosure.
HUD anticipates it will sell more than 40,000 distressed loans in 2013 through quarterly sales that reduce FHA’s total claims costs and raise recovery on losses to FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund.
In March 2012, HUD sold more than 16,000 seriously delinquent mortgages.
does this mean maybe those living rent free for 5 years may actually get kicked out and have to pay rent again?
any reports on what happens after these sales?
So could I buy a distressed loan then move to foreclosure to get the place for a song?
A commercial developer did that to my old landlords. They paid $7 mil, he got it for $3 mil.
“A commercial developer did that to my old landlords. They paid $7 mil, he got it for $3 mil.”
Your landlord NEVER paid $7 mil; he just got a loan for that amount( or more) which he never paid. BTW, the developer bought it with another loan which they may never pay. So the beat goes on.
And he’ll go t*ts up and another will borrow and pay $1.5 million until the price is down to what they’re worth. Just like the sea of rapidly depreciating houses.
A commercial developer did that to my old landlords. They paid $7 mil, he got it for $3 mil.
And _THAT_ is actually the sound of economic repair in action: the booking of losses and writing down of debts.
This is precisely what the economy needs—and the Fed is doing its best to avoid.
“HUD to sell 40,000 distressed loans in 2013″
Can the Fed bid on these and buy most or all of them?
If yes, why wouldn’t they?
If no, what is stopping them?
Why can’t the Fed be every business in this country’s best customer? Every single business should have a Fed button. Sales down? Push the Fed button and they will buy your overstock.
Wait. Did they just admit out loud that there IS, indeed, shadow inventory?
Maryland Housing Prices Down Year over Year And Falling
http://picpaste.com/pics/b615f6375f45900d4aa28721684f20c7.1367685200.png
0.6% year over year.
Bring me my fainting couch.
The trend is down and falling Junkie. Just like prices.
What did you pay for your debt-dump?
Anyone look at their portfolio recently? Equities have continued going up. Do you have an asset allocation limit for equities? Has that limit been overrun? Mine has gone up shockingly over my comfort level of percentage. Since February my tax witholding has gone up sky high, and I paid tens of thousands of dollars in taxes, draining my cash.
Did not want to realize gains and finally I pulled the plug last week. Sold some stock funds that have done very well the last few years. Now I have more gold-buying power for the next few months that will take me comfortably beyond September. That’s all I need, as I will adjust my company stock buying (downward) in September.
Precious metals - the movable, hidable money. Paper dollars, yen, yuan, Euros, rubles - I don’t anymore call that stuff money. To be called money, the currency must hold its value over time.
I dunno but remember that DODFX you recommended buying back in 2006? I just broke even on it yesterday. :smack:
LOL!
If it weren’t a D&C fund, I would have pulled the trigger and taken my loss years ago.
So you bought it at $40ish and never bought again? Sucker!
I buy once a year:
Below does not show my dividends which I reinvested.
12/24/2012 DODFX DODGE & COX INTL STOCK Buy 36.4220 $34.32 $1,270.00
03/26/2012 DODFX DODGE & COX INTL STOCK Buy 36.0140 $33.32 $1,220.00
12/23/2011 DODFX DODGE & COX INTL STOCK Buy 46.2490 $29.19 $1,370.00
03/16/2011 DODFX DODGE & COX INTL STOCK Buy 119.9190 $34.03 $4,100.83
12/27/2010 DODFX DODGE & COX INTL STOCK Buy 36.7860 $35.34 $1,320.00
11/17/2009 DODFX DODGE & COX INTL STOCK Buy 39.1920 $32.66 $1,315.00
12/23/2008 DODFX DODGE & COX INTL STOCK Buy 60.0670 $20.81 $1,285.00
03/31/2008 DODFX DODGE & COX INTL STOCK Buy 29.2260 $41.06 $1,235.00
12/31/2007 DODFX DODGE & COX INTL STOCK Buy 28.2490 $46.02 $1,335.00
12/29/2006 DODFX DODGE & COX INTL STOCK Buy 28.2870 $43.66 $1,270.00
06/26/2006 DODFX DODGE & COX INTL STOCK Buy 26.7740 $37.35 $1,035.00
04/24/2006 DODFX DODGE & COX INTL STOCK Buy 63.1710 $40.43 $2,589.00
Occasionally I get the “overcompensated employee” status and get a check back from my company 401k. When that happens I just buy more DODFX.
My favorite buys was in 2008 around $20. Bought 60 shares then. I cannot time the market. But I think it’s stupid to buy once and expect 200% gain in ten years. Try 20 years. Vanguard 500 index fund increased in value over 1200 percent in 38 years.
It was one of those bonuses that I had to either buy or pay taxes. I bought. I’ve been using PRITX to average in over the last 10 years.
You might as well do a Vanguard international fund with lower expenses than PRITX. Every few months I compare DODFX with different Vanguard international funds, including indexed. I cannot justify any of the Vanguard ones compared to DODFX…yet.
But it’s the one fund in my Vanguard brokerage account and I could dump it when I see Vanguard accelerating its performance.
I do not like socialist Europe and do not want to sanction it. However I do think it will get through its austerity before the U.S. finally gets into austerity. So it’s a good way to diversify out of the U.S.
I do like the Vanguard emerging markets fund. I have PRASX which I thought was great until I got into VEMAX. I’m up more than 300% in PRASX since I owned it for over sixteen years. It’s been converted to Roth in 2010. I’ll keep it. VEMAX is a great dollar cost average emerging market fund.
I’m happy, though slightly ashamed, that the large share of my portfolio I allocated to a REIT last year is up over 15% the first four months this year, for no good reason.
The saying “easy come, easy go” just popped into my head…
United States military nuclear incident terminology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Broken Arrow Pinnacle - Broken Arrow refers to an accidental event that involves nuclear weapons, warheads or components, but which does not create the risk of nuclear war. These include:
Accidental or unexplained nuclear detonation.
Non-nuclear detonation or burning of a nuclear weapon.
Radioactive contamination.
Loss in transit of nuclear asset with or without its carrying vehicle.
Jettisoning of a nuclear weapon or nuclear component.
Public hazard, actual or implied.
Everything is rosy in Vegas..
http://www.mynews3.com/mostpopular/story/Las-Vegas-housing-market-a-hot-one-for-investors/8oyefO5iTEOUHSFxnk-7oQ.cspx
“Buying homes to rent is the hot trend in Las Vegas.”
Problem is all these new renters are people who haven’t paid their mortgage in 4 or 5 years.
“Problem is all these new renters are people who haven’t paid their mortgage in 4 or 5 years.”
+1 Having to [pay] for shelter again? Total bummer!
RACIST!!!!!!!!
Christian Schneider
When anti-bias programs backfire
May 4, 2013 4:00 p.m.
The Yankee Review
Christian Schneider writes The Yankee Review blog as part of the Editorial Board’s Purple Wisconsin project.
“Racist,” said the late, great essayist Christopher Hitchens, “is an accusation that must be made good upon, or fully retracted.”
But in modern America, there appears to be a caveat: Even if there is no evidence of actual racism, the charge may remain in force as long as there’s a hefty payday at the end of the line.
Recent revelations about the Obama administration’s Justice and Agriculture departments confirm this unfortunate fact. So far, the two departments have committed $1.33 billion in awards to supposedly rectify past discrimination against African-American, Hispanic and female farmers - including thousands of individuals who never actually claimed racial bias in court.
In 1997, the federal government faced a complaint from 91 black farmers who claimed they had been denied loans from biased federal officers. In what is now known as the “Pigford” lawsuit, there was virtually no evidence of any discrimination, and the farmers were eventually rebuffed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet the litigants didn’t drop their cause, and in 2010, the Obama administration began handing out $50,000 awards to black farmers - a framework that eventually became a magnet for fraud.
When enterprising attorneys got wind of the cash awards, some began combing impoverished areas and rounding up potential claimants, including some who had never planted a single seed in the ground (these came to be known as “attempted farmers”). According to The New York Times, the program saw applicants who were 4 and 5 years old; in some cases, every single member of a family would apply. One woman told the paper she received an award in the name of her dead father. Thirty percent of all payments, or $290 million, went to urban counties where there are virtually no farms.
While there are only 18,000 black farmers in America, the awards eventually yielded 100,000 claimants. Attorneys for these individuals, whose claims total over $4.4 billion, stand to make more than $130 million in fees representing them.
The Pigford scandal would be shocking enough if there wasn’t ample precedent for taking fraudulent government programs and cloaking them as racialdo-gooderism.
In 1992, the Boston Federal Reserve released a report indicating that minority applicants were nearly three times as likely as whites to be denied home loans. Groups such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) took the study and began pushing for relaxed home lending requirements, despite many academics demonstrating that the Boston Fed report was wildly inaccurate.
Soon, quasi-governmental agencies such as Fannie Mae were buying up billions of dollars in questionable home loans, supposedly meant to help low-income, minority populations. The implied governmental backing and sweetheart terms Fannie Mae enjoyed helped increase the number of subprime mortgages from $40 billion in 1994 to $160 billion five years later. Of course, these loans trapped millions of people, many of them minorities, in loans they couldn’t afford.
Whenever Congress attempted to rein in Fannie Mae’s largesse, the company would call out its cadre of community organizers to paint the reformers as racists. Many of these minority leaders were beneficiaries of the company’s funds. For instance, Fannie Mae contributed millions to the Congressional Black and Hispanic caucuses, and its members routinely blocked actions to regulate the lender.
The history books tell us what eventually happened. Unscrupulous private lenders - many of whom only existed because they knew they could pawn their bad loan bundles off on Fannie and Freddie - started going under, as did the banks that underwrote their scams. With trillions of dollars of junk home loans going bad, the economy went bust in 2008.
Meanwhile, low-income and minority neighborhoods, including many in Milwaukee, were devastated by the collapse. In the end, minorities were laid low by the very fraudulent programs that were supposed to help them - while banks walked off with record profits before going belly-up.
…
Aware of the perils of averaging down. This article says it all. Staying the course and buying next week.
http://www.barchart.com/headlines/story/9895702/gold-and-silver-areyou-a-lion-or-a-gazelle-you-had-better-know
I’m neither lion nor gazelle — I’m an ursine.
Trivia: Stars Who Passed On Famous Roles
Question: Who passed on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s role in ‘The Terminator’?
Answer: O.J. Simpson
——————————————————————————–
Maybe that’s why, ah forget it.
DHS Seeks Millions More Rounds of Ammunition
Market survey asks companies if they can provide 2 million bullets within 30-60 day period
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
May 3, 2013
The Department of Homeland Security has released a market survey asking companies if they are able to provide 2 million rounds of ammunition within a short time period, increasing concerns that the federal agency is continuing its arms build up in preparation for domestic unrest.
With the DHS already having committed to purchasing over 1.6 billion bullets over the course of the last year, a “request for information” on “reduced hazard training ammunition” posted on the FedBizOpps website quizzes bullet manufacturers on how fast they can supply large quantities of ammo;
- Are you capable of producing large quantity orders of any training caliber specified with a short turnaround time of 30-60 days?
- What would your lead time be for an order of 2 million rounds of a single type listed above?
- If you were awarded a contract for some of the calibers listed above, submitted a production lot of one million rounds and that lot or portion of the lot was not accepted, would you be able to replace that order with an additional one million rounds within 60 days?
The DHS’s apparent urge to find companies that can supply them with millions of rounds of ammunition within a short time frame will do little to calm concerns that the federal agency is making contingency plans for riots or some form of social dislocation.
Related Articles
•DHS Purchases 200 Million More Rounds of Ammunition
•DHS Purchases 21.6 Million More Rounds of Ammunition
•Feds Buy 2 Billion Rounds of Ammunition
•DHS To Buy 360,000 More Rounds of Hollow Point Ammunition
•DHS Buys 200,000 More Rounds of Ammunition
http://www.infowars.com/dhs-seeks-millions-more-rounds-of-ammunition/ - 124k -
http://www.picpaste.com/Patriotic-VEwwqJvg.png
My colleague I regularly eat lunch with at work has a couple of lines: “In L.A. you are judged by what you drive.” And “it’s nice to have money.” So when we see some high priced car in the South Bay he says “It’s nice to have money.”
But then I was thinking today as I saw an odd-looking Lotus painted orange with black: What did the buyer have before getting that car? More money. Now the buyer has less. If that Lotus is one of those rare collector cars that don’t depreciate (are there really any Lotus cars that don’t depreciate?) then okay.
I think I will start saying “it’s nice to have money” when we talk about a Honda or Toyota next time! There are a lot of Toyota millionaires in this country. Somehow I don’t think these people attract gold diggers. A young “goddess” at work has jumped from wealthy man to wealthy man and was known to go out with white-haired white guys (with money). She finally found a guy closer to her age who is a bottom feeder (er, lawyer) and they are now engaged. I figure she will stick with him for twenty years and then use the lucrative no fault divorce / common property deal to take a lot of his loot.
“In L.A. you are judged by what you drive.”
Driving in L.A. is a bizarre concept from the get-go. I have never, ever experienced such hellish traffic anywhere else on the planet. I suppose if you are stuck in traffic, you may as well be driving a vintage Austin-Healy, to show off to all the other drivers who are moving at a three-inch-per-hour rate how cool you are.
Whatever floats your boat, I guess…
“I have never, ever experienced such hellish traffic anywhere else on the planet.”
NYC rush hour(actually 3 hours) might be a new experience for you. You won’t know whether to cry or throw yourself off a bridge.
I’ve visited NYC and dealt with their traffic (at least from the back seat of a cab), but unless it has worsened since I last visited, LA traffic trumps theirs hands-down.
In February of 2012 I was caught in the traffic jam from hell between Palm Springs and Beaumont. It took four hours to drive 12 miles. Some road construction closed off two of the lanes on I-10 westbound. I heard later the project supervisor was fired following that nightmare. It was a Saturday IIRC.
Driving a vintage squealy in LA traffic is a sure-fire way to asphyxiate yourself (nose-to-exhaust pipe level as you stop and go is decidedly NOT cool.)
Florida fights stucco-eating African snails
Apparently they heard you can get stucco.
By eating Chinese drywall?
Posted: 6:00 p.m. Saturday, May 4, 2013
FAU skeptic adds Boston bombings to events he questions
James Tracy, the tenured FAU communications professor who got national attention in January for questioning whether the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre really happened, has written on his personal blog that photos and videos from Boston don’t seem consistent with the “excessive carnage” described in official reports of three deaths and more than 260 injuries.
After witnessing the second Boston marathon bomb blast and rushing to aid some of its victims, John Cowin was stunned to hear a Florida Atlantic University professor’s suggestion that the event might have been a “mass-casualty drill” with “play actors” posing as victims.
James Tracy, the tenured FAU communications professor who got national attention in January for questioning whether the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre really happened, has written on his personal blog that photos and videos from Boston don’t seem consistent with the “excessive carnage” described in official reports of three deaths and more than 260 injuries.
Tracy has taught a course called “Culture of Conspiracy” and says it’s conceivable the government would choreograph events to justify curtailing civil liberties or protecting anti-terrorism budgets.
Tracy said the U.S. and other governments have a long history of lying and manipulating events and therefore the official version of the Boston bombings deserves questioning.
“It requires greater scrutiny, especially if it’s something that’s going to set precedent in terms of things like police procedure,” Tracy said. “We already have a militarized police force. Do we want to do away with posse comitatus (the federal law barring the use of the military for law enforcement) and essentially have them and military on the streets knocking on doors and going in and searching and things like that without any warrants or accusing people without due process? That’s what’s taking place here and that’s really what is rather frightening.”
Tracy acknowledged it would take a large, intricate conspiracy to carry out the things he says might have happened in Boston.
“You have a Department of Homeland Security, you have all these intelligence agencies that need to justify their existence, they need to justify the war on terror or else they’re out of work. And you know the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a record that’s solid of entrapping people,” Tracy said. “I realize it would have probably required coordination among a number of agencies, but I don’t think that that’s out of the question.”
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/ - 114k -
And you need a whole lot of actors desperate enough for a gig to have their legs blown off….
How porn links and Ben Bernanke snuck into Bitcoin’s code
By Steve Hargreaves and Stacy Cowley
@CNNMoney May 2, 2013: 7:11 PM ET
The code on the left records a bitcoin transaction from July 2011. Converted into text, it generates a portrait of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Here’s a little-known quirk of cyber currency Bitcoin: There are coded messages hidden in the ledger that track bitcoin transactions. Most are innocuous, but this week, the discovery of a malicious transmission filled with porn links set the Bitcoin community abuzz.
Bitcoin, a four-year-old digital currency developed by a hacker who still remains anonymous, is a favorite plaything of libertarians and cryptography geeks. It burst into the mainstream this year when investors took note of its wild price swings. One bitcoin is now worth around $112, down from a record high of $266 last month, but up from $5 a year ago.
…