Archive - Nov 3, 2015

iPhone maker Apple claimed last month that their latest iteration of the wildly popular handheld device was unhackable. But as we already know from recent hacks of Department of Defense computers, essential domestic grid infrastructure computers, and even NASA’s in-orbit spacecraft, in the digital age nothing is ever really secure. After offering a $1 million bounty, cyber security firm Zerodium confirms a hacker group has successfully compromised Apple's iOS 9. Here’s the kicker: the exploit is remote, so it can be launched on your phone without you even knowing about it.

If it smells like a rat it probably is a rat, and so it is with respect to these deals by collusion between China and Western governments, and their chosen corporate protégés, whether on currency or trade or investment matters. This is all an exercise in some combination of crony capitalism (with cronies on both sides!) and diplomacy by stealth. The gains and gainers are deliberately kept opaque. The losers are much less evident than the gainers, on whichever side of the fence, but principle and practice tells us that the total losses are much larger than the gains.

...what would "we, the people" do without the banks?

8 months later, the US Treasury finally provided an update to the latest US debt number, and here it is: as of this moment, official US public debt is $18,492,091,120,833.99, or 102.5% of GDP.

By now most have heard of the infamous gas station in Sheberghan, northern Afghanistan which "cost" the U.S. Department of Defense nearly $43 million to "build."As it turns out this was nothing.  As the IG notes, somehow the Department of Defense lost all track and knowledge of a "reconstruction" program that amounted to a whopping $800 million...

The fundamental problem facing today’s economy is the flagrant contempt by governments the world over for the free exchange of goods and services and private stewardship of property. Perhaps it is power and control governments are after. Maybe they believe they are improving the economy and making the world a better place for all. No one really knows for sure. But what is lucidly clear is the muddled disorder modern day economic policies have wrought upon us.

For the sixth week in a row, API reports a larger than expected 2.8mm inventory build (though that is lower than the last few week's build). Cushing stocks, however, saw a 508k draw, easing some storage concerns. Crude oil prices remain confused for now having pumped and dumped to unch.

America's T.I.N.A. Economy...

Remember Skopos Financial, the US subprime auto lender run by Santander Consumer veterans? Well, in a testament to just how desperate America is to perpetuate the US auto market "renaissance," the company just sold $154 millon worth of paper to investors partially backed by loans to borrowers with no credit score.

"A large number of body parts may indicate that a powerful explosion took place aboard the plane before it hit the ground."

Well this is awkward. Just a month after former Aussie PM Tony Abbott openly questioned global warming data (and was 'replaced'), a new NASA study finds another inconvenient truth - Antarctica has been adding more ice than it's been losing, challenging other research, including that of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that concludes that Earth’s southern continent is losing land ice overall. Perhaps it is time to burn just a little more fossil fuel? And maybe VW was doing a global good with its defeat device? Paging Al Gore.

Will we never learn?