Data Privacy
- Many in Media Claim Bradley Manning’s Leaks Had Little Value?Here’s Why They’re So Wrong | The Nation stks.co/jZXy Who knew? $$
- Congress grills intelligence officials on data-gathering practices stks.co/qGqB Issue doesn’t divide neatly by political party $$
- Noonan: Privacy Isn’t All We’re Losing stks.co/hZsF “…you can’t give up your own liberty and your own freedom.” $$
- US Agencies Said to Swap Data With Thousands of Firms stks.co/gZcv Not paranoid? That doesn’t mean they aren’t coming 2get u $$
- How Rand Paul Can Take On the NSA stks.co/pGjI We need to rethink the conditions under which the govt may do surveillance on us $$
- Pardon Edward Snowden wh.gov/liZnR I support this petition at whitehouse.gov $$
- US Relies on Spies for Hire to Sift Deluge of Intelligence stks.co/aXgm I have many friends involved in this; they keep quiet $$
- Booz Allen Grew Rich on Government Contracts stks.co/qGMz Thus all the radio advertisements you hear if you live near DC $$
- Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations stks.co/pGCi Rare person who put US ahead of self $$
Rest of the World
- Korean Tiger Moms Scrimp for Tutors in Blow to Spending stks.co/bY3b The solution is home schooling, should it b legal in SK $$
- Italian showdown with Germany over euro looms closer stks.co/bXwF A halt2fiscal & monetary contraction, or full-blown reflation $$
- Southern Europeans Flee to Germany: OECD stks.co/tGdg If the jobs won’t come to the people, the people will go to the jobs $$
- On Iran?s Inflation Bogey stks.co/gZQP Iran’s inflation rate may be over 100%/year $$
- What Abenomics tells us about the great bond market asset bubble stks.co/jZFc Japan is a bug in search of a windshield $$
- Consumer Price Inflation Slows in China stks.co/gYzR & so does the rest of China’s economy, rebalancing will b painful $$
- Denmark Seeks to Pass Too-Big-to-Fail Bank Laws in Parts stks.co/jYj7 SIx large financial companies will require more capital $$
?
Companies & Industries
- Surge in US oil-by-rail suffers first slowdown as spreads slim stks.co/qGqK Start of a new trend, or just a blip? $$ #blip #trend
- Lampert Uses $393M in AutoNation for Redemptions stks.co/gZcw Future historians will wonder why Lampert received attention $$
- Comcast Is Turning Homes Into Public Wi-Fi Hotspots stks.co/sGaQ Gateway transmits 2signals; separate SSIDs 1 public, 1 private $$
- Berkshire to Provide More Insurance Cost Details stks.co/bXuO All of this data is already freely available, ask4statutory files $$
- Cisco plans to double the speed of the Internet stks.co/iZXI | FD:+ $CSCO Fascinating new technology will increase net capacity $$
- Freeport Declares Force Majeure on Grasberg Copper Shipments stks.co/gZTc Rare 2c Force Majeure invoked; reveals supply issues $$
- Insurers Inflating Books, New York Regulator Says stks.co/iZTl My response: stks.co/fZQE How do I contact DealBook? $$
- Insurers Inflating Books, New York Regulator Says stks.co/sGPY Life insurers do this 2 strip out extra conservatism in reserves $$
- A Rising Star Emerges at Berkshire stks.co/pGYd Bright lady Tract Britt takes over David Sokol’s old role @ Berky $$ FD: + $BRK.B
- Anglo American Miner Slogs Ahead in Brazil stks.co/rG6r Rare people walk away from bad sunk costs; no walking away here $$ $AAUKY
- Google to buy Waze for $1.3B stks.co/aXV7 Improves $GOOG ‘s maps capability, while denying the same asset to $AAPL & $FB $$
Market Impact
- Price Benchmarks Said to Be Rigged in the Foreign Exchange Market stks.co/sGjl Should not b surprised; humans try2rig markets $$
- Regulators Question Banks on Business Lending Risks stks.co/fZV2 Perhaps regulators r being more active this credit cycle $$
- US Banks Margin Under Tremendous Pressure stks.co/rGeA Few safe places to lend at any significant spread over funding costs $$
- Banks Get Reprieve on New Swaps Rule stks.co/jZPA Get 2 more years 2 place derivatives in special subsidiary 4 close regulation $$
- The trick to bank profits stks.co/tGZB Sadly, reserves r not forward-looking but suffer from driving via the rearview mirror $$
- Wrong: Interest Rates are Headed Higher. Are You Ready? stks.co/eXy4 This is a consensus view; global economy is weakening $$
- Earnings Roundup: Second-quarter Earnings Guidance Among the Most Negative on Record stks.co/jZFb Could mean positive surprises $$
- Fear of Missing Out Sparks Covenant Light Lending; ‘Return of the Silly Season’ stks.co/pGYc Credit cycle boom is getting late $$
- These CDO Names Don’t Cry ‘Wolf’ stks.co/hZCu Doesn’t matter *what* you call them, CDOs lever up credit risk til next bear mkt $$
- Intelligent Investor: What?s Eating Munis? stks.co/iYsP @jasonzweigwsj tells us 2 beware getting gouged on muni bond trading $$
- Hulbert on Investing: Why ‘Boring’ Stocks Beat ‘Exciting’ Ones stks.co/dXCa Long-term, low vol has been a winner. Short-term?? $$
Monetary Policy
- Fed Likely to Push Back on Market Expectations of Rate Increase stks.co/tGmK Gives the Fed 2much credit; they don’t have a clue $$
- The Fed’s other trillion dollar problem stks.co/pGjZ Will b challenging 2 lower the amount of excess deposits @ the Fed $$
- The Trapdoors at the Fed?s Exit by Nouriel Roubini stks.co/cXNh Will b difficult 4 Fed 2 remove policy accommodation $$
US Politics & Policy
- White House Aims to Loosen Grip on Government-Held Wireless Spectrum stks.co/hZsO As it should b, govt has 2much spectrum $$
- Camp Warns Against Cap on Charitable Break in Tax Rewrite stks.co/cXsG Private charity can do things govt can’t &more effective $$
- FCC hopes to avoid ‘end of world’ for cell phones stks.co/cXrm Allocation of more bandwidth 2 mobile data would help $$
- Urgency on debt issue fades, but underlying danger remains stks.co/qGAq W/deficit declining, the need to agree declines as well $$
Other
- Larry Ellison’s Fantasy Island stks.co/iZhG Lanai benefits from the benevolent dictatorship of Larry Ellison $$
- Blimps Morph Into Cargo Haulers as Maker Sees Revolution stks.co/fZdT Engineered concept of variable buoyancy; goes up/down $$
- Hire Economics: Why Applying to Jobs Is a Waste of Time stks.co/aXwB Networking is more important than job boards, etc. $$
- Drinking Water Runs Low as Drought Drags On stks.co/gYoc Weather isn’t fully random; correlated in short-run, thus droughts $$
Comments, Replies & Retweets
?
- @dpinsen Pipelines – high fixed, low variable costs. Railcars – high variable, low fixed costs. Getting pipelines over mountains is tough
- @Undertherock3 I’m a skeptic on $GNW. I don’t trust their reserving, underwriting, etc. Low ROE justifies the low P/B.
- @Undertherock3 Are you talking about Genworth? $GNW
- @AlephBlog The best is “there is no way to get rich quick (eg Kyosaki). Snake oil salesman will always exist, learn to identify them & avoid
- “This deal will get done after it is sweetened a little” ? Merkel disq.us/8die83 $$ $DOLE DeJa Vu: Murdock Wants to Go Private Again
?
US officials have been caught lying to Congress … well, DNI Clapper claims he was being “too cute by half”, telling a half truth instead of the whole truth.
But even if one accepts the official spin, we are supposed to believe that Snowden stole all sorts of documents using a USB drive? Every company I know has USB drives disabled and some have put super-glue in the USB slots as further protection. But the “elite” (at least in their own eyes) NSA doesn’t have security procedures that are standard practice at the local Best Buy store? Dumber than Best Buy is Uncle Sam’s idea of “elite”?
FISA courts, staffed with VERY expensive judges and bureaucrats, have rejected a mere 14 applications out of 33,900 since 1979. Third world dictators get more dissenting votes in uncontested elections! FISA is an insult to taxpayers.
And then we are assured that the geriatric center known as Congress is being kept “fully briefed” about the domestic spying. Lets ignore the number of times in the last month that intelligence officials told half truths or outright lies to Congress.
The average member of Congress is 60 years old — double the age of the alleged NSA leaker Snowden. Most members of Congress were well into their 30s when the first personal computers were invented, while the Apple II computer was already five years old when Snowden was born.
How many members of Congress actually read their own e-mails or run their own Google searches? (if they have staff do it for them, it doesn’t count). How many members write their own facebook or twitter posts? (again, having college interns doing it for them does not count)
How many members of Congress can explain computer programming concepts well enough to pass an undergraduate computer course? How many can explain the Map-Reduce algorythm or IP spoofing or how to root-kit a smartphone?
How many idiot members of Congress are going to tell us that a guy with system administrator access does not have full access to all files?
How can a bunch of technology challenged people like Congress provide an effective check and balance on the NSA — even if we make a dubious assumption that NSA officials are not telling “half truths”?
Most important of all, why is our government spying on us? We are supposedly on the same team? If the NSA does not trust US citizens (also known as US taxpayers) — then why the $*%& are we keeping these insubordinate employees on our payroll?
Sorry employee Clapper, “We the People” decide policy, and you the public employee do what we tell you to do. That is the law.
If *WE* are going to defeat terrorism (or any other foe), then *WE* all have to be involved. We have to play as a team, instead of having a bunch of prima donnas in Washington peacocking for one another.
Teams that play together always defeat teams that fight against themselves —
NSA policy is that they don’t trust their own teammates (and employers by the way). That is why the Boston marathon bombing happened. That is why Benghazi happened. And while we are mentioning it: failure to share information among US entities (aka “work together”) is why 9/11 happened.
Lets try to learn from this; yet another intelligence screw up. Team USA has to learn to play as a team, not have a bunch of “elite” prima donnas in Washington DC playing against the rest of the country.