Thanks a bunch for the detailed reply.
Mining LTC is definitely profitable, I know that. I was referring to Bitcoin.. Anything I'm missing there?
increase in difficulty in Jan + Feb combined with shipping dates = sucks to be btc miners?
I am not exactly sure that the ASIC production is at the point where the difficulty will continue going up 40%+ much longer.
Difficulty gains of 40%+ are very rare, but they just happened twice in October. In November they went back down to 16-25% and if they stay in this range, then it actually doesn't suck to be a BTC miner depending on what the $/GH cost is... no idea what the golden ratio would be right now, but I am going to be doing some research on this when I have more free time after Christmas.
Just wait to see how rare the 40% jumps are going to be after february...