Rich Families Hoarding Cash
November 5th, 2013Via: CNBC:
A new survey of family offices by Citi finds that the wealthy are cash heavy—meaning they may fall short of the investment returns they’re expecting.
Wealthy families have about 39 percent of their assets in cash, according to a recent poll of more than 50 large family office representatives from 20 countries conducted by Citi Private Bank.
Stocks represented about 25 percent of portfolios on average. Bonds were about 17 percent of the asset mix and various classes of less liquid and alternative investments amounted to 19 percent.
“Using these weightings, our own return expectation for the portfolio … comes to just 4.4 percent. This matches what we at Citi Private Bank observe generally among high end investors: very high cash holdings, with a current asset allocation unlikely to achieve return targets,” Steven Wieting, the bank’s global chief investment strategist, wrote in a recent client note.
Scientists Estimate 4.4 Billion Earth-Like Planets in Milky Way Galaxy
November 5th, 2013Via: Bloomberg:
About 4.4 billion planets are similar to Earth in size and temperature, suggesting they may be able to host life, according to a survey of the galaxy using telescopes operating in space and on the ground.
The number is an estimate based on information taken from 42,000 stars similar to the Earth’s sun and their surrounding planets by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Kepler Space Telescope, as well as telescopes in Hawaii. Ideal planet climate — not too hot or too cold — was determined by how far they were away from their stars, according to the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Apple Opening Arizona Plant With 2,000 Workers
November 5th, 2013Via: Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. (AAPL) said it’s opening a new plant in Mesa, Arizona, that will create 2,000 jobs to make components for its products, part of a push by the world’s most valuable company to boost manufacturing in the U.S.
Apple struck a deal to pay $578 million to GT Advanced Technologies Inc. (GTAT) to supply equipment for the facility, GT Advanced said in a statement yesterday. The machines make materials out of sapphire, which is increasingly used in smartphones to cover camera lenses and home buttons.
After years of outsourcing much of its manufacturing to Asian suppliers such as Foxconn Technology Group and facing criticism from labor groups and politicians for the practice, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has made adding jobs in the U.S. a priority. The Cupertino, California-based company will next month release a new Mac Pro that is being assembled in the U.S.
“We are proud to expand our domestic manufacturing initiative with a new facility in Arizona, creating more than 2,000 jobs in engineering, manufacturing and construction,” said Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Apple. “This new plant will make components for Apple products and it will run on 100 percent renewable energy from day one.”
Apple didn’t specify what products will be made at the plant.
Security Check Now Starts Long Before You Fly
November 4th, 2013Via: New York Times:
The Transportation Security Administration is expanding its screening of passengers before they arrive at the airport by searching a wide array of government and private databases that can include records like car registrations and employment information.
While the agency says that the goal is to streamline the security procedures for millions of passengers who pose no risk, the new measures give the government greater authority to use travelers’ data for domestic airport screenings. Previously that level of scrutiny applied only to individuals entering the United States.
The prescreening, some of which is already taking place, is described in documents the T.S.A. released to comply with government regulations about the collection and use of individuals’ data, but the details of the program have not been publicly announced.
It is unclear precisely what information the agency is relying upon to make these risk assessments, given the extensive range of records it can access, including tax identification number, past travel itineraries, property records, physical characteristics, and law enforcement or intelligence information.
The measures go beyond the background check the government has conducted for years, called Secure Flight, in which a passenger’s name, gender and date of birth are compared with terrorist watch lists. Now, the search includes using a traveler’s passport number, which is already used to screen people at the border, and other identifiers to access a system of databases maintained by the Department of Homeland Security.
U.S. Nuclear Upgrade Over the Next Decade: $350 Billion to $400 Billion
November 4th, 2013Via: Reuters:
The U.S. nuclear arsenal needs a multi-billion dollar overhaul in the coming decade to ensure the weapons’ safety and effectiveness, defense officials said on Tuesday, despite warnings from arms control groups that the effort is unaffordable and unnecessary.
Assistant Defense Secretary Madelyn Creedon told a panel in the U.S. House of Representatives that modernization work on the aging weapons was needed to give policymakers the confidence they need to pursue President Barack Obama’s goal of deeper cuts to the nuclear stockpile.
“Modernization work of this kind is expensive, but there is no doubt that the investment … is necessary,” Creedon told lawmakers examining a program to reduce the number of warhead types for U.S. nuclear bombs and to put guidance systems on the weapons.
“There is not a cost-effective alternative that meets the military requirements and policy objectives,” she said, adding that the B61 gravity bomb, which is deployed in Europe, is a “cornerstone” of the U.S. nuclear deterrence commitment to NATO.
The United States is currently at the start of what Air Force General Robert Kehler, the head of U.S. Strategic Command, told the panel was a “multi-decade effort to recapitalize our nuclear deterrent force and its supporting infrastructure.”
In addition to modernizing 1970s-era weapons, in some cases replacing 1960s-model vacuum tubes with current-day electronics, the Pentagon plans to upgrade much of its so-called triad of delivery systems, including a new class of ballistic missile submarines and a new type of long-range bomber.
The non-partisan Stimson Center think-tank last year estimated the total cost of the nuclear upgrade over the next decade, including weapons, infrastructure and delivery systems, at between $350 billion and $400 billion.
It’s All E-Commerce Now
November 4th, 2013Via: MIT Technology Review:
“Omnichannel” is a buzzword that describes a survival strategy. Threatened by the growth of low-cost online merchants, traditional retailers are reacting by following customers onto the Internet. Macy’s does it as well as any. On its website, it installs 24 different tracking cookies on a visitor’s browser. On TV, it runs ads with Justin Bieber that urge millennials to download its mobile app, which tells them which of the chain’s stores is closest to their location. Once inside, they can use the app to scan QR codes on a pillowcase or a pair of shoes. Online orders now ship from the backrooms of 500 Macy’s stores that this year began acting as mini distribution centers.
Obamacare Open Thread
November 4th, 2013Do we need an Obamacare open thread? Here it is, just in case.
Three Guys Built a Better Healthcare.gov
November 3rd, 2013Via: The Atlantic Wire:
The Affordable Health Care act rollout was an unmitigated disaster thanks in large part to a cluttered website that both didn’t work and was offensively ugly. Maybe things would not have gone so poorly if HealthCare.gov looked something like this.
No one knows the resources that went into building HealthCare.gov, but the government quickly realized it wasn’t enough after that terrible first day, so they decided to bring in a crew of leading tech experts to fix the website’s many, many problems. But the job was already at least partially completed by three unknown coders living in San Francisco.
Meet the Health Sherpa, the website HealthCare.gov probably should have been. George Kalogeropoulos, Ning Liang and Michael Wasser saw the troubled launch and decided they could do a better health care enrolment website better than the government and, by golly, they succeeded.
Related: ObamaCare Cancelled Your Health Insurance. Now, Send us your Letter. [h/t] pookie
Last Year President Obama Reportedly Told His Aides That He’s ‘Really Good At Killing People’
November 3rd, 2013Via: Business Insider:
This will not go over well for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
According to the new book “Double Down,” in which journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann chronicle the 2012 presidential election, President Barack Obama told his aides that he’s “really good at killing people” while discussing drone strikes.
Peter Hamby of The Washington Post reported the nugget in his review of the book.
Autodesk’s Idea to Knit the Hyperloop Out of Carbon Fiber
November 3rd, 2013Via: Bloomberg:
The tube in Musk’s plan is made out of prefabricated steel sections that must be welded together. Critics have pointed out that could leave the Hyperloop prone to air leaks, which would undermine the internal low-pressure system it needs to run. Brandt, who studied building technology at Harvard University and holds the title of technology futurist at Autodesk, proposes making the tube out of one very long stretch of braided carbon fiber infused with an epoxy resin. The strong, lightweight material is used to make everything from jumbo jets to race cars.
There are machines that can churn out limited qualities of the braided carbon fiber. Brandt envisions building a supersize version and mounting it onto a rig loaded with reels of carbon fiber so it could roll along the Hyperloop’s route. Working at a rate of 1 meter per minute, this factory on wheels could weave a Hyperloop tube from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than two years, and, says Brandt, require fewer support pylons. “Elon’s estimate calls for about $2.6 billion for concrete, but we’d get that down to more like $1.5 billion,” he says.
