New evidence shows that the Boeing Co. 737 MAX which crashed in Ethiopia on Sunday may have experienced similar technical difficulties as the 737 MAX that crashed off Indonesia last year. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) cited similarities with in-flight …
The post Cancellation Chaos: $600 Billion in Boeing 737 Max Orders at Risk appeared first on Global Research.
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(Natural News) As Democrats in blue states expand their majorities into super-majorities, they are becoming even more hostile to gun rights, as evidenced by a spate of new anti-Second Amendment laws that are now being challenged by the formation of “gun sanctuaries.” But the reality is, Democrats won’t be phased by those. They will continue… |
from Humans Are Free: The United Nations has officially designated October 31st, 2011 as “7 Billion Day”. On that day, the United Nations estimates that the population of the Earth hit 7 billion for the very first time. But instead of celebrating what a milestone 7 billion people represents, the UNPF focused instead on using […]
The post From 7 Billion to 500 Million People – The Sick Population Control Agenda of the Global Elite appeared first on SGT Report.
from Humans Are Free: The United Nations has officially designated October 31st, 2011 as “7 Billion Day”. On that day, the United Nations estimates that the population of the Earth hit 7 billion for the very first time. But instead of celebrating what a milestone 7 billion people represents, the UNPF focused instead on using […]
The post From 7 Billion to 500 Million People – The Sick Population Control Agenda of the Global Elite appeared first on SGT Report.
Back in April 2015, when Venezuela still had a somewhat functioning economy and hyperinflation was not yet rampant, the cash-strapped country quietly conducted a little-noticed gold-for-cash swap with Citigroup as part of which president Nicolas Maduro converted part of his …
The post Citi May Liquidate over $1 Billion in Venezuela Gold within Weeks appeared first on Global Research.
“Will be getting almost $23 BILLION for Border Security. Regardless of Wall money, it is being built as we speak!”
Source: Martin Walsh
Could El Chapo’s seized drug money be used to build the border wall?
That’s one of the questions many are asking on Tuesday following news of the former drug kingpin being found guilty on all counts.
Mexico’s most notorious drug kingpin, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, will spend the rest of his life in prison after a jury found him guilty on all 10 counts following a three month trial.
According to Breitbart, the United States has seized $14 billion from the former drug lord, which gave Sen. Ted Cruz a brilliant idea.
The Texas Republican introduced the Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order (EL CHAPO) Act in April 2017, which calls for the use of the $14 billion seized from the cartel drug lord to be used to pay for the wall.
The Venezuelan government has confirmed the existence of “significant” coltan deposits south of the Orinoco River, as well as proven gold reserves valued at $100 billion.
Basic Industries and Mining Minister Rodolfo Sanz told a press conference that only seven …
The post Venezuela Confirms Coltan Deposits, $100 Billion in Gold Reserves appeared first on Global Research.
Banking is an amazing business.It collects interest by loaning money created out of nothing, when it hits hard times it is bailed out with tax dollars, and when it is riding high, it enjoys incredible tax breaks. It loans money to governments, but it’s the taxpayers who guarantee repayment and pay the interest.
The parade of weak bank earnings continued on Tuesday when UBS, one of the first major European banks to report, announced that it had missed analysts’ profit estimates (though it did record a rise in full-year profits) due to outflows from its key global wealth management division.
Here’s a summary of its earnings report courtesy of Bloomberg:
The bank’s net profit attributable to shareholders for 2018 was $4.897 billion, compared with $969 million in 2017. That’s compared with a Reuters estimate of $4.906 billion. The bank warned about further weakness in its wealth management unit as it expects investors will continue to pull money out due to rising protectionism, increased market volatility and geopolitical tensions. Withdrawals at the bank’s global wealth management unit totaled almost $8 billion in Q4, while another $5 billion flowed out of it asset-management business.
UBS shares (-4.7%) led a drop in European bank shares…
…after its earnings report, which Citigroup analysts described as “very poor.”
“These are very poor results, and come as somewhat of a negative surprise so soon after the upbeat investor day,” analysts including Andrew Coombs at Citigroup wrote in a note to investors. In wealth management “the fourth quarter is usually seasonally weak, but this is disappointing.”
UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti, who is expected to face questions on succession planning on Tuesday, said the “normalization” in markets in early 2019 could benefit the bank’s bottom line for Q1.
“We have seen sine normalization in markets early in 2019, we will stay focused on balancing efficiency and investments for growth, in order to keep delivering our capital return objectives while creating sustainable long-term value for shareholders,” Sergio Ermotti, UBS chief executive officer, said in a statement Tuesday.
In an attempt to boost its sagging share price, the bank also announced its plans to purchase $1 billion of its shares in 2019, above the $751 million purchased in 2018.
Just about three months ago, the California tech-giant was enjoying a smooth ride with profits coming in, constantly; considering the fact that it was also the most valued company on the planet, last year. But since October 2018, the freefall of its revenues has generated a lot of ‘negative buzz’ among the analysts, the investors, the consumers, and also those who are the admirers of Apple Inc. in one or the other ways.
Apple has so far lost $450 billion of revenue since October, which is more than even the ‘overall value of social networking giant Facebook’. The total value of Facebook is about $383.76 billion. Well, FB’s total worth is also more than the total GDP of some countries like Iran, Norway, and Austria!
Now, you can imagine how big the loss is for Apple, even taking into account that it’s still got a lot of money and will probably make up for the losses very soon.
On Thursday, the iPhone maker’s stocks fell by 9.96%.
Way back, three months ago, on October 3rd, 2018, when Apple hit a peak of $232.07 per share, it gained a market cap of $1.16 trillion. But now, it just dropped to a low of about $142.19 per share (new results may vary from the article’s figures), clearing out a massive amount of $450 billion from its revenue. And on Thursday, January 3rd, Apple’s market cap was standing at $710.97 billion, as per the reports of Macrotrends.
And now Apple has also lost its position as world’s third most valuable company to Google’s Alphabet.
Apple has been struggling to maintain its aura for a while now and many experts are saying that to boost the revenues further and by a large number, Apple should also try to enter the budget-flagship or budget range of smartphones, as per the current trend. But that, for now, seems unlikely since Apple is a luxury phone making brand and always keeps the priority very high for the value of its products.
But it needs to understand the changing scenario in the markets currently, across the globe. If it keeps going like this then brands like OnePlus and Xiaomi will eventually end up becoming the true ‘smartphone profit makers’.
It looks like a state of a ‘slight’ emergency for Tim Cook and his team to sustain the company’s growth, just like it was moving three months ago.
Even the famous tech YouTube channel Unbox Therapy also came up with a video recently, discussing how Apple should move ahead if it has to live up to the fast-growing trends. Lewis Hilsenteger, who runs the channel, also talked about Apple’s recent decision to make the iPhones in India, in 2019.
Jeff Bezos’ revelation on Wednesday that he and MacKenzie Bezos, his wife of roughly 25 years, would be filing for divorce set off a chain reaction of speculation as readers wondered whether the soon-to-be-former Mrs. Bezos would walk away with half her husband’s fortune (presently valued at a tidy $70 billion) and – more importantly – whether another woman was involved in the separation.
And as is often the case with the world’s wealthiest, the answer to both questions appears to be yes. According to Page Six, Bezos has been carrying on a secret relationship with Lauren Sanchez, a former TV anchor and wife of Hollywood talent mogul Patrick Whitesell – considered one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, whose clients include Christian Bale, Matt Damon and Hugh Jackman.
The two first got to know each other through Sanchez’s husband (the two couples socialized together because they both owned homes in the same wealthy enclave of Seattle).
Sources said that Bezos, 54, and Sanchez, 49, – who also works as a helicopter pilot – got to know each other through her WME/IMG husband Whitesell, one of Hollywood’s most powerful men and agent to stars including Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Kevin Costner, Hugh Jackman, plus a host of other A-listers.
[…]
An exclusive source told Page Six “Patrick and Lauren have socialized with Jeff Bezos and his wife for a few years, because both (now former) couples have houses in Seattle.”
Sanchez, her husband and Bezos were even photographed together at the premier of “Manchester By the Sea”…
…an award-winning film which featured one of Whitesell’s clients, Michelle Williams.
Patrick, Lauren and Jeff were even pictured together at a 2016 event for the movie “Manchester By The Sea,” which starred another of Patrick’s clients, Michelle Williams. But sources say Lauren became closer to Bezos after she separated with Whitesell in the fall. Meanwhile Bezos revealed on Wednesday that he and his wife have been going through a “trial separation.”
But the relationship presumably began to blossom after Bezos hired Sanchez – who also works as a helicopter pilot – to work for his “Blue Origin” space exploration company.
Lest readers conclude that the pair had been carrying on a clandestine affair behind their partners’ back, the Post noted that Sanchez had been separated from her husband – and presumably Bezos had been separated from his wife – by the time the two had started seeing one another romantically.
“Patrick and Lauren Sanchez have been separated for a while. Their marriage has been off and on for a while, and they tried hard to fix things, but in the fall they officially separated. She had told Patrick that she has been recently seeing Jeff Bezos.”
Sanchez has hosted several TV shows, and also runs her own aviation company.
Lauren, a former co-host on Fox 11’s “Good Day LA,” has been a guest host on ABC’s “The View” and “Extra.” She was also the original host of Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance.” She also runs a company called Black Ops Aviation, which specializes in shooting aerial shots for TV shows, movies and commercials.
But although Bezos and his wife have reportedly been separated for some time – with Page Six noting that the couple hadn’t been seen in public together for a long time – the gossip page suspects that Bezos decided to make his announcement on Wednesday to get out ahead of reports about his relationship with Sanchez.
But if MacKenzie has any lingering anger about the breakup, the simple fact that she could soon become the world’s wealthiest woman should help soothe her anxieties.
As Bloomberg reports, walking away with half of the Bezos fortune would put MacKenzie Bezos ahead of Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the granddaughter of the founder of cosmetics manufacturer L’Oreal SA (Bettencourt is worth some $45 billion).
MacKenzie would be in good company among the wealthiest women. Because as it turns out, most of the 66 women on the Bloomberg’s list came into their wealth through death or divorce. Out of the 66 women, only six are self-made, compared with 313 self-made men.
But it’s still unclear whether the Bezos will evenly divide Jeff’s 16% stake in the e-commerce giant he founded, we can’t help but wonder: Was his relationship with Sanchez really worth $70 billion?
The Rockefeller Foundation is facing a $1 billion lawsuit for deliberately infecting hundreds of Guatemalans with syphilis in a secret experiment.
A federal judge in Maryland allowed the lawsuit against The Johns Hopkins University, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N) and the Rockefeller Foundation to proceed after it was discovered they helped the U.S. government conducts illegal experiments on unsuspecting citizens in the 1940s.
Reuters.com reports: In a decision on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang rejected the defendants’ argument that a recent Supreme Court decision shielding foreign corporations from lawsuits in U.S. courts over human rights abuses abroad also applied to domestic corporations absent Congressional authorization.
Chuang’s decision is a victory for 444 victims and relatives of victims suing over the experiment, which was aimed at testing the then-new drug penicillin and stopping the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases.
The experiment echoed the government’s Tuskegee study on black American men who were deliberately left untreated for syphilis even after penicillin was discovered.
It was kept under wraps until a professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts discovered it in 2010. U.S. officials apologized for the experiment, and President Barack Obama called Guatemala’s president to offer a personal apology.
Chuang said lawsuits against U.S. corporations under the federal Alien Tort Statute were not “categorically foreclosed” by the Supreme Court decision last April 24 in Jesner v Arab Bank Plc covering foreign corporations.
He said the “need for judicial caution” was “markedly reduced” where U.S. corporations were defendants because there was no threat of diplomatic tensions or objections from foreign governments.
The judge also said letting the Guatemala case proceed would “promote harmony” by giving foreign plaintiffs a chance at a remedy in U.S. courts.
According to the complaint, several Hopkins and Rockefeller Foundation doctors were involved with the experiment, as were four executives from Bristol-Myers predecessors, Bristol Laboratories and the Squibb Institute.
“Johns Hopkins expresses profound sympathy for individuals and families impacted by the deplorable 1940s syphilis study funded and conducted by the U.S. government in Guatemala,” the university said in a statement. “We respect the legal process, and we will continue to vigorously defend the lawsuit.”
A Rockefeller Foundation spokesman said that the lawsuit had no merit, and that the nonprofit did not know about, design, fund or manage the experiment. Bristol-Myers spokesman Brian Castelli declined to comment.
Paul Bekman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said his clients will proceed with discovery, including the exchange of decades-old documents. An earlier ruling found no statute of limitations issues if the plaintiffs could not have learned about the experiment before 2010.
“This experiment began 72 years ago. It’s hard to believe,” Bekman said.
The case is Estate of Arturo Giron Alvarez et al v The Johns Hopkins University et al, U.S. District Court, District of Maryland, No. 15-00950.
Slashing rules, red tape saves workers millions of hours of paperwork annually
On December 13, the United States Senate made history with a vote invoking the 1973 War Powers Act to stop America’s military participation in, and support of, the unauthorized and immoral war against the desperate people in Yemen.
Never before …
The post $100 Billion in Weapons to the Saudis Buys a World Full of Hurt appeared first on Global Research.
Apple set a record that will take a long time to beat. The first $ trillion company lost nearly half that in 3 months.
TheLastAmericanVagabond.com
As Americans debate domestic gun control following the mass shooting at a Florida high school last week, funding for military arms has evaded public scrutiny. The United States Department of Defense recently released its summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS) with little fanfare. The first thing to note is how little media coverage the NDS […]
The post As Nation Debates Gun Control, US Military Wants $ 716 Billion For Next Year appeared first on The Last American Vagabond.
March 22, 2013
MEDIA ROOTS — “Both parties have conspired to bring us disaster,” says Professor William K. Black, a leading white collar criminologist, who also teaches economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. “This has strangled the recovery and may even put the economy back into recession.” Professor Black gives a crucial recap of Obama’s (and both Democrats’ and Republicans’) recent history of assaults against the working-class, also known as austerity.
This “act of austerity is insane, self-destructive, [and] might well cause another recession,” says Prof. Black. “Neither party is getting behind a clean bill. It would be, literally, one sentence: The sequestration provisions are repealed.”
With the fast-paced 24-hour soundbite news cycle dominating attention spans, it’s beneficial to take a step back and scope the bigger picture. Professor Black masterfully articulates the truth behind the two-party budget cuts at home coupled with war spending abroad.
Messina
***
Prof. Bill Black: Both parties have conspired to bring us a disaster; Obama’s sequestration plan gives cuts without blame
***
REAL NEWS NETWORK — “Welcome back to the Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay in Baltimore. And welcome to this week’s edition of The Bill Black Financial and Fraud Report. [Professor] Black now joins us from Kansas City, Missouri. Bill’s an Associate Professor of Economics & Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He’s a white-collar criminologist, a former financial regulator. He is the author of the book, The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One. Thanks for joining us, Bill.”
Professor Bill Black: “Thank you.”
Paul Jay (c. 0:33): “So, the sequestration cuts and drama, what do you make of it?”
Professor Bill Black: “So, both parties have conspired to bring us disaster. In this case, sequester is the fourth shoe to drop in austerity. And, collectively, this has strangled the recovery and may even put the U.S. economy back into recession.
“So, the first major act was in mid-2011 when they reached this budget deal, that created the sequestration. And the budget deal, in itself, caused over a billion dollars in spending cuts at the worst possible time.”
Paul Jay (c. 1:15): “So, just to remind everybody, the sequestration formula deal was a proposal by President Obama.”
Professor Black: “Well indeed, it was created by President Obama, now, under, of course, Republican pressure, where they’re threatening to not raise the debt ceiling. But it was an Obama idea. And the principal framer of it was Jacob Lew, the President’s selection to be Geithner’s replacement as disastrous Treasury Secretary.
“And then the President blocked a Republican effort to get rid of sequestration. And then the President went so far as to threaten a veto any bill, that got rid of sequestration when the Republicans tried to get rid of it again.
“Now, you shouldn’t think too well of the Republicans in all of this. What they were worried about, pretty much solely, was defence spending. And making sure there’d never be a drop in defence spending.
“In any event, what you see is neither party, even at this time of crisis, where all the supposedly serious people finally agree that this act of austerity is insane, self-destructive, might well cause a recession. Neither party is getting behind a clean bill. It would be, literally, one sentence: The sequestration provisions are repealed. Right? And we could be free of, at least, that aspect of the insanity. We’d still have the debt ceiling insanity. But the sequestration, we would no longer be shooting ourselves, not in the foot, but substantially farther up our anatomy.
“So, as I said, the sequestration is large, but it’s not the sequestration all by itself. It’s the fact that it is this fourth act austerity. I began to mention the mid-2011 pact knocked off a billion dollars in spending at the worst possible time.
“Then we raised taxes on the wealthy, which you may well support, but it is an act, that pushes you towards austerity.
“And then the far larger and vastly more destructive resuming the entire payroll tax on Social Security, which economists think—all by itself—knocked a half percentage point off of growth. And growth is really small, so that’s a massively important thing, that is gonna cost hundreds of thousands of people their jobs.
“And, now, the fourth shoe to drop of austerity, of course, is going to be the sequestration.
“And, meanwhile, this is happening while we see Europe forced back into a completely gratuitous recession. The entire Eurozone, on average, is back in recession. And the European Commissions have just come out with dreadful projections, saying things are going to get worse.
“Spain just announced today that a single bank that they were bailing out—which is really seven failed thrift-type entities—is going to cost them roughly $ 25 Billion dollars just this year. And Spain’s a large economy, but nowhere close to the United States.
“So, this is bigger, by far, than the most expensive US banking failure in history, all occurring in Spain, all being driven by the bubble and fraud and then this self-inflicted wound of austerity.
“And we can’t even get the President, who, you know, on day one will say, the sequestration disaster [is] insane.
“And on day two refuses to put forward a clean bill to stop it.
“And, on day three, says, hey, that Jake Lew, the guy, that created this disastrous scenario, that is going to, potentially, hurl us back into a recession. He should be our Treasury Secretary and create our financial policies.”
Paul Jay: “So, when you read the business press, some of the stories are about how blasé Wall Street is and corporate America is. And they’re not very concerned with $ 85 Billion dollars of cuts. And the stock market’s doing fine. It does not seem to be affected by it. Why is that, if the threat of recession is looming?”
Professor Black (c. 5:53): “Well, recession isn’t necessarily bad for the stock market. We’ve had a record recovery in stock market prices with extremely weak recovery from the Great Recession because it’s been strangled.
“So, they love the current system, in which wages have not simply plateaud, household wealth for the middle class is down to where it was 18 years ago. There’s over a 15% of loss of wealth of the middle class and working-class and a massive increase in corporate profitability where we get all these productivity gains, which is what allows you to pay workers higher wages without any inflationary risk. And virtually all of those productivity gains during the Great Recession have gone to the richest—not 1%—but the richest one-thousandth of 1%.”
Paul Jay (c. 6:54): “Thanks very much for joining us, Bill. And thank you for joining us on the Real News Network.”
***
Transcript by Felipe Messina for Media Roots, New Economic Perspectives, and Real News Network.
fm: Updated 23 MAR 2013 20:39 CST
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Tab for alternate Afghan supply route hits $ 2.1 billion 30 Jun 2012 Pakistan’s refusal to let NATO access its ports and roads into Afghanistan has cost the Pentagon more than $ 2.1 billion in extra transportation costs to move supplies and equipment in and out of the country. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the Senate Appropriations Committee in mid-June that the closure of the Pakistani routes was costing the U.S. military about an extra $ 100 million per month. These new costs were disclosed in a Pentagon budget document – called the omnibus reprogramming request – sent to Congress on Friday.
Military computer upgrades 30 years behind schedule, cost $ 7 billion 22 Jun 2012 Nine computer network upgrade projects across the Defense Department were collectively 30 years behind schedule and more than $ 7 billion over budget, government auditors have told Congress. The problems first identified in 2010 persist, the auditors told lawmakers in a report this month. The delayed programs include Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps projects, some of which were begun about a decade ago [under George W. Sociopath]. [Notice that we’ve only heard about ‘Solyndra’ because this corpora-terrorist blowjob was a Bush blowjob, and we never heard about those. –LRP]
US Senate blocks bid to restore $ 4.5 billion for food aid 20 Jun 2012 The US Senate has overwhelmingly rejected a bid to preserve some $ 4.5 billion in food stamps funding, as part of the massive farm bill. The request to keep that spending in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps, had been offered by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y). But her plea went down 33 to 66. Sixty votes were needed to pass. Gillibrand had warned that reduction in the SNAP would result in half-a-million US households losing an average $ 90 in monthly food benefits.
BP Owes $ 192 Billion for Gulf Oil Disaster, Not $ 15 Billion Settlement It’s Seeking 11 Jun 2012 On Friday, the Financial Times reported that BP is hoping to reach an agreement with U.S. authorities which would require it to pay under $ 15 billion to settle all criminal and civil penalties arising from the 2010 Gulf oil disaster. The Department of Justice is reportedly seeking $ 20 to $ 25 billion. Negotiations between the DOJ and BP are accelerating and “an agreement could be reached before the Democratic party’s convention in September,” the FT reported… A straightforward application of just the most pertinent U.S. laws yields a fine of $ 192 billion.
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In what is being billed as the first of its kind, a billion-dollar futuristic town is being built in New Mexico, but humans need not apply.
The new 15-square mile city will be built as a testing ground for new, cutting edge technologies. The Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation project will “help researchers test everything from intelligent traffic systems and next-generation wireless networks to automated washing machines and self-flushing toilets…
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