What We Read Today 01 April 2014

Econintersect: Every day our editors collect the most interesting things they find from around the internet and present a summary “reading list” which will include very brief summaries of why each item has gotten our attention. Suggestions from readers for “reading list” items are gratefully reviewed, although sometimes space limits the number included.

• Healthcare.gov stumbles twice on deadline day (Amy Goldstein, The Washington Post) It may not have been as bad as opening day, but Healthcare.gov kept a consistency at the end day with the opening days: It didn’t work as designed. First, it closed for “software problems” for three hours early in the am due and was down again at midday due to “large numbers of customers”.

• Frozen’ Is the Highest Grossing Animated Film Ever, But Will Pixar Fix That? (Mark Knapp, Wall Street Cheat Sheet) It is even in the top ten all time if you don’t correct for inflation.

• Jim Cramer’s ‘Mad Money’ Recap: Out With a Bang (Scott Ruff, TheStreet.com) Cramer says the only thing shocking about Michael Lewis’ new book Flashboys: A Wall Street Revolt is that “people find it shocking at all“. Don’t miss our latest GEI News article about HFT (high frequency trading) by new GEI associate William R. Rusk.

• Bitcoin Scam – MTGox Finds 200,000 Behind Sofa, How Many More Hidden in old Socks, Coat, Shoes? (Nadeen Walayat, Market Oracle) Hat tip to Rob Carter. This source claims that the “Mt. Gox theft” was an inside job, not by hackers breaking in:

MtGox latest revelations follows an analysis of the block chain by researchers at the University of Zurich that failed to identify such mass theft of bitcoins by means of transaction malleability where the estimate is put at less than 500 rather than the 800,000 suggested by MtGox and therefore as I have alluded to several times since the MtGox debacle began that most of the ‘lost’ bitcoins or their fiat currency conversion remain with those behind MtGox rather than to have been stolen by outside hackers.

• NSA Blows Its Own Top Secret Program in Order to Propagandize (Glenn Greenwald, The // Intercept) Hat tip to Roger Erickson. Why does the hyperbole not surprise and at the same time be so disturbing?

• Could the PPACA plans enroll 10 million? (Allison Bell, Health Life Pro) It is not out of the question, even before the next open enrollment period starts in November, and especially if the date of measurement is 31 December. GEI News reported estimates of up to 9 million total enrollment with added special enrollments between now and 15 November 2014 when the next open enrollment period starts. See Doubts Remain as Deadline Approaches for the Affordable Care Act (Christian Stellakis).

Today there are 13 articles discussed ‘beyond the wall’.