Credit Default Swaps Indicating Market Crash Might Be Weeks Away
August 26th, 2011Via: Telegraph:
A more severe crash than the one triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers could be on the way, according to alarm signals in the credit markets.
Insurance on the debt of several major European banks has now hit historic levels, higher even than those recorded during financial crisis caused by the US financial group’s implosion nearly three years ago.
Credit default swaps on the bonds of Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Intesa Sanpaolo, among others, flashed warning signals on Wednesday. Credit default swaps (CDS) on RBS were trading at 343.54 basis points, meaning the annual cost to insure £10m of the state-backed lender’s bonds against default is now £343,540.
The cost of insuring RBS bonds is now higher than before the taxpayer was forced to step in and rescue the bank in October 2008, and shows the recent dramatic downturn in sentiment among credit investors towards banks.
People Who Doodle Learn Faster
August 25th, 2011I really enjoy Vi Hart’s videos and other work. My head was pretty much wrecked for math by sK0oL. Vi reminds me that it didn’t have to be that way. Check out her latest video, What Is Up with the Noises?:
And, oh yeah…
Via: io9:
New research published today shows that doodling helps you learn. In fact, say scientists, students should be encouraged to doodle while they take notes in class.
Mexican Terrorists Target Nanotech Researchers with Package Bombs
August 25th, 2011Via: Times Union:
A Mexican terrorist group is targeting nanotechnology researchers around the world.
The group, which is influenced by the Unabomber, has sent package bombs to universities and research facilities in South America and Europe. A number of victims, including professors, were injured after they opened mail that exploded.
Research Credit: lagavulin
Germany: Facebook Data Collection Under Fire Again
August 25th, 2011I use a custom filter in AdBlock+ to block all Facebook nonsense. I haven’t seen one of those ‘Like’ buttons in years. (Not on my computer, anyway.)
If you don’t know what this ‘Like’ button garbage is all about, it’s a little widget that site operators put all over the place that lets Facebook users indicate when they like something on the Internet. These bits of Facebook code are like a plague that have spread over most of the Internet.
Via: Computer World:
A German privacy protection authority is calling on organizations there to close their Facebook fan pages and remove the social networking site’s “Like” button from their websites, arguing that Facebook harvests data in violation of German and European Union law.
The Independent Centre for Privacy Protection (ULD), the privacy protection agency for the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, issued a news release on Friday saying Facebook builds a broad, individualized profile for people who view Facebook content on third-party websites.
Data is sent back to Facebook’s servers in the U.S., which the agency alleges violates the German Telemedia Act, the German Federal Data Protection Act and the Data Protection Act of Schleswig-Holstein. The agency alleges the data is held by Facebook for two years, and wants website owners in the state to remove links to Facebook by the end of next month or possibly face a fine.
Cisco and Abuses of Human Rights in China
August 25th, 2011Via: Electronic Frontier Foundation:
What responsibility do corporations have to consider human rights when making business deals? Are companies that build and market equipment for the purpose of surveilling and censoring pro-democracy activists in authoritarian regimes culpable when those activists are imprisoned or tortured? Do companies bear a special responsibility if they customize products to improve the efficacy of tracking dissidents and choking free speech? What if the companies train government agents in using the technology to ferret out activists?
Two cases — one in the United States District Court of Maryland and another in the Northern District of California — are attempting to create legal precedent around these issues of corporate social responsibility. In Du v. Cisco, three named plaintiffs – Chinese citizens Du Daobin, Zhou Yuanzhi, and Liu Xianbin – are joining 10 unnamed “John Doe” plaintiffs in suing the American company Cisco Systems for their role in assisting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in violating human rights. The complaint against Cisco alleges that the plaintiffs in the case:
Have been and are being subjected to grave violations of some of the most universally recognized standards of international law, including prohibitions against torture, cruel, inhuman or other degrading treatment or punishment, arbitrary arrest and prolonged detention, and forced labor, for exercising their rights of freedom of speech, association, and assembly, at the hands of the Defendants through Chinese officials.
Britain Will Take in Billions of Pounds from Taxes on Swiss Bank Accounts
August 25th, 2011Via: BBC:
A UK government minister has defended a deal with the Swiss that could capture tax of up to £5bn but keep bank account holders’ identities secret.
Undeclared money held by UK taxpayers in Swiss accounts will be taxed for the first time, at up to 34% of the total.
Treasury minister David Gauke said the deal was historic, with no chance of the Swiss abandoning tax secrecy altogether.
Research Credit: Neo
Cheney Says He Urged Bush to Bomb Syria in ’07
August 25th, 2011Ahh, so that’s who Obombya is channeling…
Via: New York Times:
Former Vice President Dick Cheney says in a new memoir that he urged President George W. Bush to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site in June 2007. But, he wrote, Mr. Bush opted for a diplomatic approach after other advisers — still stinging over “the bad intelligence we had received about Iraq’s stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction” — expressed misgivings.
“I again made the case for U.S. military action against the reactor,” Mr. Cheney wrote about a meeting on the issue. “But I was a lone voice. After I finished, the president asked, ‘Does anyone here agree with the vice president?’ Not a single hand went up around the room.”
Warren Buffett to Invest $5 Billion in Bank of America
August 25th, 2011Via: Reuters:
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway will invest $5 billion in Bank of America, stepping in to shore up the company in the same way he helped prop up Goldman Sachs during the financial crisis.
Bank of America shares rose 24 percent to $8.65 in early trading, erasing a large part of the stock’s August losses.
…
Bank of America will sell Berkshire 50,000 shares of cumulative perpetual preferred stock with a 6 percent annual dividend, it said in a statement on Thursday. Bank of America can buy back the investment at any time by paying Buffett a 5 percent premium.
British Government Discusses Riots with Social Media Firms
August 25th, 2011Via: CBC:
Executives from Facebook, Twitter and Canadian BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. are meeting the British government and police Thursday in the wake of the riots to discuss how to prevent social networks from being used to plot violence.
Police and politicians claim young criminals used Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry’s simple and largely cost-free messaging service to co-ordinate looting sprees during riots in England this month, and Prime Minister David Cameron has said police and intelligence services are looking at whether there should be limits on the use of social media sites or services like BlackBerry Messenger in times of disorder.
IKEA Founder Ingvar Kamprad Was Nazi Recruiter
August 25th, 2011Via: news.com.au:
IKEA’S founder Ingvar Kamprad is many things. He’s a billionaire. He’s a frugal shopper. And according to a new book, he’s also in denial about his Nazi past.
Author Elisabeth Asbrink says Mr Kamprad was such an enthusiastic supporter of the Swedish Nazi party that he recruited new members and “missed no opportunity to work for the movement”.
She claims the 85-year-old’s youthful ties with Nazi groups extended beyond what he has admitted, saying Sweden’s intelligence agency even set up a file on him.
She says the secret service file, from 1943, proves for the first time that Mr Kamprad was an active member of Svensk Socialistisk Samling, and has called on him to come clean about his past.
Research Credit: db
