Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Fake-Branded Gold Bars Slip Into World Markets
August 28th, 2019Via: Reuters: A forgery crisis is quietly roiling the world’s gold industry. Gold bars fraudulently stamped with the logos of major refineries are being inserted into the global market to launder smuggled or illegal gold, refining and banking executives tell Reuters. The fakes are hard to detect, making them an ideal fund-runner for narcotics dealers […]
Silicon Valley Firms Building Chinese-Style Social Credit Systems
August 26th, 2019Via: Fast Company: Many Westerners are disturbed by what they read about China’s social credit system. But such systems, it turns out, are not unique to China. A parallel system is developing in the United States, in part as the result of Silicon Valley and technology-industry user policies, and in part by surveillance of social […]
Trump on U.S.-China Trade War: ‘I Could Declare a National Emergency’
August 25th, 2019HA! Add it to the list. Via: CNBC: President Donald Trump said Sunday he could declare the escalating U.S.-China trade war as a national emergency if he wanted to. “In many ways this is an emergency,” Trump said at the G-7 leaders meeting of the ongoing trade battle between the world’s top two economies. “I […]
Oil Down Nearly 2%
August 25th, 2019Via: Reuters: Oil prices fell on Monday, pushing U.S. crude to its lowest in more than two weeks, as a ratcheting up of tensions in the U.S.-China war knocked confidence in the global economy.
Policing For Profit: How Civil Asset Forfeiture Has Perverted American Law Enforcement
August 25th, 2019Via: ammo.com: The current state of civil asset forfeiture in the United States is one of almost naked tyranny.
China Announces Tariff Hike on $75 Billion of U.S. Products
August 23rd, 2019Via: AP: China has announced it will raise tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. products in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s planned Sept. 1 duty increase in a war over trade and technology policy. The official Xinhua News Agency said Friday the tariffs of 10% and 5% take effect on two batches of goods Sept. […]
Brazil: Bolsonaro Admitted Farmers Could be Setting Rainforest Fires, Tells Foreign Powers Not to Interfere
August 23rd, 2019Via: Reuters: Amid growing international criticism over the wildfires raging through the Amazon, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday admitted farmers could be illegally setting the rainforest ablaze but told foreign powers not to interfere. French President Emmanuel Macron and United Nations Secretary General António Guterres both took to Twitter to express concern about the […]
How Amazon and Silicon Valley Seduced the Pentagon
August 22nd, 2019Insidious. Via: ProPublica: Tech moguls like Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt have gotten unprecedented access to the Pentagon. And one whistleblower who raised flags has paid the price.
U.S. Budget Deficit Will Grow to $1 Trillion in 2020
August 22nd, 2019Via: Bloomberg: The U.S. budget deficit is growing faster than expected and President Donald Trump’s trade war is weighing on the economy, according to a new Congressional Budget Office forecast that highlights key challenges ahead of the 2020 elections. The shortfall is set to widen to $1 trillion by fiscal year 2020, two years earlier […]
How the Plastics Industry Is Fighting to Keep Polluting the World
August 21st, 2019I’ve been seeing the bales of plastic piling up at my local dump and I thought, “Why not make building materials out of all this stuff?” It turns out that there are some small moves being made in that direction. Here are a few examples: Of course, these efforts are noise level in the scheme […]
