The big financial news of the week was the collapse of the Bitcoin trading giant, Mt. Gox.   This should not come as a real surprise, if you know anything about Bitcoins.   I also don't know why anyone would even trade with a company that sounds like Dr. Suess invented it.  The company lost millions of make believe coins that really don't exist other than in your computer.   I have lost lots of emails, not to mention draft blogs that disappeared.  I can't imagine feeling secure having my wealth in a virtual on line wallet.

Take for instance the guy who left his computer on all night, with his virtual wallet open, and while he was asleep dreaming about all of his Bitcoins a hacker snuck into his computer like a bear into an open refrigerator.  He woke up and it was all gone.  And it can't be traced, which is part of the attraction but which also means that once gone you can never get it back.  Half a million dollars, poof!

Bitcoins are issued according to a complex mathematical formula.   Some companies have sites where you can buy them.  Other people mine for them for which you need very powerful computers.  That is beyond me, I am still figuring out how to use my new iPhone.

But don't cast aside the Bitcoin yet.  The Winklevoss twins -- remember them, the ones who really invented Facebook -- have just started a company that tracks the value of Bitcoins in dollars and are apparently big supporters of Bitcoins.  Can two Harvard guys that handsome be wrong?

It all may be the wave of the future, but sounds too magical for me.  Watch the magician, his fingers never leave his hands.