Monthly Archives: July 2015

Movie studios keep mistakenly reporting their own servers for piracy

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“Scanning through the takedown notices posted to ChillingEffects.org, reporters at The Next Web noticed something strange and frankly sort of embarrassing. In a piracy takedown notice sent to Google last week, Universal Pictures France listed a local address (127.0.0.1:4001) as the illegal source for a copy of Jurassic World — ratting out their own computer for piracy and demanding Google delist it from public search rankings. Basically, they found their own movie on their own system and ran screaming to Google about film piracy.  It turns out, this happens all the time. TNW dug up more than a hundred other cases dating back years, using a simple ‘localhost’ search.”

http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/23/9025841/studio-piracy-scan-chililng-effects

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John Hussman: Memorize This, Earn a Dollar

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“This is no time to be on autopilot. Look at the data, and you’ll realize that our present concerns are not hyperbole or exaggeration. We simply have not observed the market conditions we observe today except in a handful of instances in market history, and they have typically ended quite badly. In my view, this is one of the most important moments in a generation to examine all of your risk exposures, the extent to which you believe historical evidence is informative, your tolerance for loss, your comfort or discomfort with missing out on potential rallies even in a wickedly overvalued market, and your true investment horizon.”

http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc150727.htm

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Distressed-Debt Market Upended Amid Deepening Commodities Rout

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“More than $7 billion of the distressed-debt market has been wiped out this month amid a renewal of a slide in commodities. The performance is a disappointment to investors who purchased about $40 billion of junk-rated bonds from energy companies this year, thinking that the worst of the slump was over. Speculative-grade borrowers are increasingly unable to pay their bills, with their default rate expected to rise to 3.1 percent next March from 2.02 percent last month, according to Moody’s Investors Service.  New Jersey’s pension system is planning a $300 million account with GoldenTree Asset Management to invest in stressed and distressed credits.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-22/distressed-debt-market-upended-amid-deepening-commodities-rout

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Someone built a meth lab inside a federal research facility, and it exploded

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“Somebody built a methamphetamine lab inside a federal research facility, and a security guard was injured when it exploded. Chemical & Engineering News reports that the explosion took place July 18th at the National Institute of Standards & Technology, and local police say evidence at the scene is ‘consistent with the production of’ meth. Congress is now investigating how this all happened, because they watched Breaking Bad and are not having it this close to our nation’s capital.  The suspected meth lab, which is located in Gaithersburg, Maryland, was built in NIST‘s special projects building, which was sitting empty after scientists concluded their most recent experiment there.”

http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/22/9018989/meth-lab-national-institute-standards-technology

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Health Insurance Companies Seek Big Rate Increases for 2016

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“Health insurance companies around the country are seeking rate increases of 20 percent to 40 percent or more, saying their new customers under the Affordable Care Act turned out to be sicker than expected. Federal officials say they are determined to see that the requests are scaled back.  Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans — market leaders in many states — are seeking rate increases that average 23 percent in Illinois, 25 percent in North Carolina, 31 percent in Oklahoma, 36 percent in Tennessee and 54 percent in Minnesota, according to documents posted online by the federal government and state insurance commissioners and interviews with insurance executives.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/04/us/health-insurance-companies-seek-big-rate-increases-for-2016.html

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U.S. Homeownership Rate Falls to 20-Year Low

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“The U.S. homeownership fell to its lowest level in 20 years at the end of 2014—levels last seen when national leaders embarked on a broad push to expand homeownership in the mid-1990s.  Over the past year, President Barack Obama and other administration officials have voiced alarm that lending has gone from one extreme during the bubble—too loose —to the other—too tight—in the aftermath of the bust.  Officials have walked a fine line in attempting to bar a return of the reckless products and practices that allowed the bubble to inflate 10 years ago while loosening some standards elsewhere to provide broader access to homeowners without perfect credit or big down payments.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/01/29/u-s-homeownership-rate-falls-to-20-year-low/

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Billionaire Greek Ship Owners Surface While Home Economy Sinks

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“Greece’s shipping magnates control 23 percent of the world bulk carrier fleet, according to the report, even as their home country accounts for less than 0.4 percent of the world economy.  As social pressures mount, the privileged tax status of the shipping industry has come under increasing scrutiny as successive Greek governments look to boost revenue. The industry pays no tax on international earnings brought into the country under rules incorporated in Greece’s constitution in 1967.  With limited demand from their domestic market, Greek ship owners have long looked beyond home shores for business.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-09/billionaire-greek-shippers-surface-on-tax-exempt-overseas-profit

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5 Chinese Ghost Cities That Came Alive

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“When a Chinese ‘ghost city’ does fill up with people and businesses it inconspicuously falls off the radar of the dominant international media. It becomes a regular city, mashed into China’s broader urban matrix — a success story that few seem interested in hearing about. We are amused by empty streets, vacant shopping malls, and barren financial districts in China, not budding new cities steadily coming to life. Ex-ghost cities are rarely news.  Though many places in China that have previously been heralded as ghost cities have by now been developed and populated. Below are five new cities in China that have advanced through the ghost city phase and have come to life.”

https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/koos-jansen/guest-post-5-chinese-ghost-cities-came-alive/

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“Green Banks” Will Drown in the Red

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“A state solvency report released by the Mercatus Center has each of these five states ranked in the bottom third of the country, with their solvency described as either ‘low’ or ‘poor.’  This all raises the question of whether these governments are able to find sound investment opportunities in the first place. Recently, though, there have been calls to extend the struggling green banking system to the federal level. Mark Muro and Reed Hundt at the Brookings Institute assert that demand for green banking institutions and the types of companies they finance is so strong that the existing state-based green banks cannot muster enough capital to meet demand.”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/green-banks-are-destined-to-drown-in-the-red

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Obama renewing call to reauthorize Export-Import Bank

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“President Barack Obama is ramping up pressure on Congress to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank.  The obscure federal agency’s charter expired last month after lawmakers refused to reauthorize it. The bank underwrites loans to foreign companies purchasing American products, but conservatives call it corporate welfare.  Obama on Wednesday plans to meet at the White House with owners of small- and medium-size businesses that have benefited from the bank. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has floated the possibility of attaching the bank’s reauthorization to a six-year highway and transit bill.”

http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/07/22/obama-renewing-call-to-reauthorize-export-import-bank

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