Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Total U.S. Household Debt Soars to Record Above $13 Trillion
February 13th, 2018Via: CNBC: The American consumer is loading up on debt. Total household debt rose by $193 billion to an all-time high of $13.15 trillion at year-end 2017 from the previous quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data report released Tuesday.
German Court Rules Facebook Use of Personal Data Illegal
February 12th, 2018Via: Reuters: A German consumer rights group said on Monday that a court had found Facebook’s use of personal data to be illegal because the U.S. social media platform did not adequately secure the informed consent of its users. The verdict, from a Berlin regional court, comes as Big Tech faces increasing scrutiny in Germany […]
The Economist: It Appears Market Conspiracy Theorists Were Right
February 12th, 2018I wasn’t going to post this. It might have been newsworthy 20 years ago, but since people are submitting it, here you go. Via: ZeroHedge: Three new recently published scientific papers seem to confirm what many have claimed for years: the “efficient markets” are not only inefficient – from an informational standpoint – they are […]
Foxconn Unit to Cut Over 10,000 Jobs as Robotics Take Over
February 10th, 2018Via: Nikkei: Foxconn’s panel arm Innolux is planning to slash more than 10,000 jobs this year as part of the company’s aggressive efforts to increase the use of automation in manufacturing, said Honorary Chairman Tuan Hsing-Chien on Tuesday. “We will reduce our total workforce to less than 50,000 people by the end of this year, […]
Russian Nuclear Scientists Connect Airgapped Supercomputer to Internet to Mine Cryptocurrencies
February 9th, 2018*har* Via: BBC: Russian security officers have arrested several scientists working at a top-secret Russian nuclear warhead facility for allegedly mining crypto-currencies. The suspects had tried to use one of Russia’s most powerful supercomputers to mine Bitcoins, media reports say. The Federal Nuclear Centre in Sarov, western Russia, is a restricted area. The centre’s press […]
Stimulus Puts U.S. Debt On An Upward Trajectory
February 9th, 2018Via: AFP: As part of a pledge to “Make America Great Again,” President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers are pursuing aggressive economic stimulus while slashing taxes at the same time. The result, budget analysts say, is likely to be swelling debts and deficits for the world’s largest borrower. America’s budget deficit was already on an […]
People Fleeing Bay Area
February 9th, 2018Via: CBS: The number of people packing up and moving out of the Bay Area just hit its highest level in more than a decade. Carole Dabak spent 40 years living in San Jose and now she’s part of the mass exodus that is showing no signs of slowing down. The retired engineer’s packing up […]
Mad Max Violence Stalks Venezuela’s Lawless Roads
February 9th, 2018Via: Reuters: It’s midnight on one of the most dangerous roads in Latin America and Venezuelan trucker Humberto Aguilar hurtles through the darkness with 20 tons of vegetables freshly harvested from the Andes for sale in the capital Caracas. When he set off at sunset from the town of La Grita in western Venezuela on […]
U.S. Treasury Set to Borrow Nearly $1 Trillion This Year
February 5th, 2018Via: CNBC: Don’t look now, but the U.S. government needs to borrow more money at exactly the wrong moment — when interest rates are spiking. Last week, in a development first reported by The Washington Post, the Treasury Department quietly released data estimating its 2018 borrowing needs would check in at $955 billion, then top […]
The Breakneck Rise of China’s Colossus of Electric-Car Batteries
February 3rd, 2018Via: Bloomberg: The next global powerhouse in the auto industry comes from a small city in a tea-growing province of southeast China, where an unheralded maker of electric-vehicle batteries is planning a $1.3 billion factory with enough capacity to surpass the output of Tesla and dwarf the suppliers for battery-powered cars by GM, Nissan and […]
