Archive for the 'Economy' Category
Chart of the Day, HFT Edition
August 8th, 2012Via: Reuters: This astonishing GIF comes from Nanex, and shows the amount of high-frequency trading in the stock market from January 2007 to January 2012. (Which means that the Knightmare craziness of last week is not included.) More: Nanex
France: Hollande Wants 75 Percent Tax on Income Over $1.24 Million Per Year
August 8th, 2012Via: New York Times: The call to Vincent Grandil’s Paris law firm began like many others that have rolled in recently. On the line was the well-paid chief executive of one of France’s most profitable companies, and he was feeling nervous. President François Hollande is vowing to impose a 75 percent tax on the portion […]
Huawei: The Company that Spooked the World
August 6th, 2012Via: The Economist: BANBURY, a little English town best known for a walk-on part in a nursery rhyme and as the eponymous origin of a fruitcake, is an unlikely fulcrum for the balance of power in the world of telecoms. But the “Cyber Security Evaluation Centre” set up there by Huawei, a Chinese telecoms giant, […]
Facebook Bears Garner 500% Profit From Structured Product Bets
August 6th, 2012Via: Bloomberg: Facebook Inc. (FB)’s 45 percent drop since its initial public offering generated returns of more than 500 percent for European investors that bought structured products benefiting from the stock’s decline. A put warrant, a security for speculating on the future direction of a company’s share price, which predicted Facebook would be at $22 […]
Chemotherapy Can Boost Cancer Growth
August 6th, 2012Now with more, “Completely unexpected.” Via: AFP: Cancer-busting chemotherapy can cause damage to healthy cells which triggers them to secrete a protein that sustains tumour growth and resistance to further treatment, a study said Sunday. Researchers in the United States made the “completely unexpected” finding while seeking to explain why cancer cells are so resilient […]
Bailout Funds Recipient Goldman Sachs Invests in New York City Jails Program
August 5th, 2012Via: Reuters: Goldman Sachs will invest nearly $10 million in a New York City jails program, using an innovative financial instrument in which private investments fund public social services, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Thursday. Goldman will create one of the nation’s first “social service bonds” to help fund a New York City program that […]
Knight Capital Group Down 60% Intraday
August 2nd, 2012Via: Los Angeles Times: Knight Capital Group, a major brokerage, said it lost $440 million in a trading glitch that rattled the stock market and renewed concerns over computerized trading on Wall Street. The Jersey City, N.J.-based firm said the pre-tax loss left its capital base “severely impacted.” Knight pinned the technology malfunction on newly […]
The Unemployment Rate Is a Farce
August 2nd, 2012Via: Breakout: It is widely regarded as the most important barometer of them all, and fittingly, the monthly jobs report gets more attention and more coverage than almost all other economic data combined. Unfortunately, it is also broken. That’s right. For all its stature, the payroll report (which will be released Friday) has a major […]
Congressional Probe Reveals Cover-Up of “Auschwitz-Like” Conditions at U.S.-Funded Afghan Hospital
August 2nd, 2012Via: Democracy Now: A congressional investigation has revealed a top U.S. general in Afghanistan sought to stall an investigation into abuse at a U.S.-funded hospital in Kabul that kept patients in “Auschwitz-like” conditions. Army whistleblowers revealed photographs taken in 2010, which show severely neglected, starving patients at Dawood Hospital, considered the crown jewel of the […]
Body Blow to New Zealand: Pacific Fibre Dead
August 2nd, 2012I honestly thought we were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It turned out to be the train. Telecom wins again, the rest of New Zealand loses. Via: interest.co.nz: A Kiwi project to lay another undersea internet cable between New Zealand, Australia and the United States was scuppered by American concerns about […]
