Senior editor Ash Bennington hosts managing editor Ed Harrison to discuss how the roiling civil unrest in the U.S. could affect businesses and financial markets. They look at the correlation of the Citi Surprise index and bond yields, and Ed introduces three historical parallels to compare to the current moment. Ed and Ash reaffirm that Real Vision’s core remit is to analyze markets. In the intro, Jack Farley gives an overview of global PMI data and Goldman Sachs’ revised forecast for the S&P 500.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2Mm97d6 Tyler Durden
Trump Reportedly Mulls Domestic Deployment Of US Troops Tyler Durden
Mon, 06/01/2020 – 17:48
As more and more US cities announce curfews in an attempt to regain control of their citizenry, and following his reported rage-filled call with “weak” governors, NBC News reports that President Donald Trump is considering invoking a 213-year-old federal law that would allow him to deploy active-duty U.S. troops in an effort to control the riots spreading across the nation faster than COVID.
“You have to dominate,” Trump said Monday in a video conference with governors and law enforcement.
“If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time. They’re going to run over you, you’re going to look like a bunch of jerks.”
According to four persons familiar with the internal White House discussions, NBC News says Trump has warmed to the idea of using the Insurrection Act, adopted in 1807, which was last invoked during the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles.
At a briefing with reporters Monday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany left open the possibility that the president could invoke the act.
“The Insurrection Act, it’s one of the tools available, whether the president decides to pursue that, that’s his prerogative.”
Critically, while governors can ask for federal assistance (sending active-duty troops to deal with civil unrest) and more often prefer to manage with National Guard forces as a repellent (though prohibited from carrying out law enforcement duties on US soil), the president could invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty troops without a request from a governor.
Those troops would be allowed to conduct law enforcement missions.
To invoke the act, NBC News says that Trump would first have to issue a proclamation to “immediately order the insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their abodes within a limited time,” according to the law.
Senator Tom Cotton tweeted earlier:
“Anarchy, rioting, and looting needs to end tonight. If local law enforcement is overwhelmed and needs backup, let’s see how tough these Antifa terrorists are when they’re facing off with the 101st Airborne Division. We need to have zero tolerance for this destruction. “
And reportedly urged Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act “if necessary” so U.S. troops can “support our local law enforcement and ensure that this violence ends tonight.”
Of course, while the state of the nation may require such a move by the president, we can only imagine the ‘Resistance’ response as Trump moves in the “Hitlerian” direction “they” had warned the nation of, and one step closer to martial law (and tyrannical lockdowns not based on shitty epidemiologist models of virus spread and aging bureaucrats).
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2U0YNLD Tyler Durden
Six hundred physicians recently signed a letter to President Trump calling for an end to the coronavirus lockdowns.
The physicians wrote that, far from protecting public health, the lockdowns are causing “exponentially growing negative health consequences” for millions of Americans.
Since the lockdowns began, there have been increases in alcoholism, drug abuse, and domestic violence. There has also been an increase in calls to suicide hotlines. This is a direct result of the mass unemployment and limitations on people’s activities resulting from the lockdowns. As long as millions of Americans are sitting at home wondering how to survive until the government says they can go back to work — assuming the lockdowns did not drive their employers out of business, there will be more substance abuse and suicides.
At the start of the lockdowns, Americans were told to stay away from emergency rooms and doctors’ offices to avoid exposure to coronavirus. This has led Americans to neglect their health. US hospitals have seen a 40 percent decline in the number of patients admitted for severe heart attacks since March. Does anyone believe that the coronavirus panic just happened to coincide with a miraculous decline in heart attacks?
Physicians have also become unable to help many stroke victims who coronavirus lockdowns have kept from seeking medical assistance.
Early in the coronavirus panic, hospitals were told to cancel elective procedures to ensure space was available for an expected wave of coronavirus patients. But hospitals were not overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. Beds and other resources were unused.
According to the American Hospital Association, this has cost healthcare providers tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue. Inner-city and rural hospitals that already operate on slim profit margins are especially hard hit by the financial impact of the lockdowns. These hospitals may have to cut back on services. Some may even close. This will make it even more difficult for rural and inner-city Americans to obtain quality, affordable healthcare.
Postponing needed surgeries will have serious consequences. Many patients whose surgeries have been delayed will find that their once easily treatable conditions now require intensive and expensive care.
Some people are forgoing disease management and checkups that could keep them from developing more serious problems. The coronavirus lockdowns have even caused the canceling of chemotherapy treatments.
According to the physicians’ letter to President Trump, the coronavirus lockdowns are preventing 150,000 Americans a month from finding out they have cancer. Skipped routine cancer screenings mean cancer is not detected in an early stage, when it is most easily treated.
The coronavirus lockdowns have upended the lives of Americans to “protect” them from a virus with a 0.2 percent fatality rate, with the majority of those fatalities occurring in nursing homes and among people with chronic health conditions. Instead, the rational response would be to protect the vulnerable, and let the rest of the people live their lives. But politicians and government-anointed “experts” do not respond rationally to a “crisis,” especially when a panicked reaction can increase their power and prestige.
The lesson of the unnecessary lockdowns is clear: Government bureaucrats and politicians, even the media’s beloved Dr. Fauci, must be stripped of the ability to infringe on our liberty and prosperity.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3ckW7it Tyler Durden
Pandering Biden Stumbles Again; Says Cops Could Shoot ‘Unarmed People With Knives’ In Leg Instead Of Heart Tyler Durden
Mon, 06/01/2020 – 17:10
Joe Biden showed up at a black church on Monday to pander for votes, in what Bloomberg descriebd as a “subdued and sometimes meandering speech” as violent protests over the death of George Floyd grip the nation.
Speaking to an audience at the Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Delaware, the former Vice President said he would establish a police oversight board in his first 100 days as president, while promising that his coronavirus relief efforts would “deal with institutional racism.”
Biden, who told black voters last month that if they don’t vote for him “you ain’t black,” said “I’ve never taken for granted” the black vote, adding “I’ve never ever done that. It has to be earned, earned every single time.”
He also stumbled at times during his “sometimes meandering” speech, offering the following suggestion on police training:
“Instead of standing there and teaching a cop when there’s an unarmed person comin’ at ’em with a knife or something to shoot ’em in the leg instead of the heart is a very different thing.”
Biden today on police training: “Instead of standing there and teaching a cop when there’s an unarmed person comin’ at ’em with a knife or something to shoot ’em in the leg instead of the heart is a very different thing.” pic.twitter.com/2xgqvlQtJ2
When it came to criticizing Trump’s response to COVID-19, he said “45-60,000 people would be alive instead of dead” because “he didn’t listen to guys like me back in January.”
That said, Biden notably called Trump ‘xenophobic‘ one day after his January 31 travel ban which blocked foreign nationals who had been in China over the preceding two weeks from entering the US.
After President Trump implemented his travel ban from China on January 31, Joe Biden said in Iowa “this is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysterical xenophobia and fear-mongering.” pic.twitter.com/gru4jsiCVf
Meanwhile, Delaware State Senator Darius Brown said that the protests were about deeper, longstanding issues of injustice.
“What African Americans are expressing over the past few days are the need for economic opportunity,” he said, adding “The African American community wants you to bring home the bacon for us.”
Brown noted that blacks did not share equally in the country’s recovery from the 2008-2009 economic crisis overseen by Biden as President Barack Obama’s vice president.
“The African American community did not experience the same economic opportunity as they did during the 90s,” he said.
Biden met with the leaders as cities around the country have endured days of protests, vandalism and looting.
“The Band-Aid has been ripped off by this pandemic and this president,” he said. “It’s been minorities. It’s been blacks. It’s been Hispanics” who have kept working, and getting ill during lockdowns.
“They are the ones out there making sure the grocery stores are open,” he said. –Bloomberg
Later in the speech, Reverend Shanika Perry suggested that Biden should address his previous support for the 1994 Crime Bill signed by former President Bill Clinton which has been credited with sending a flood of black men to prison.
“They have issues with the participation in that,” said Perry. “They want to know how you plan to undo the impacts of the mass incarceration.”
“We have qualified black women who are capable of helping you lead this country,” she added.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2yXGQqa Tyler Durden
With cities across the United States facing raging unrest in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police Department, law enforcement agencies have had their hands full trying to control the massive backlash on all fronts.
And now, things may have gotten much more complicated after the long-dormant hacktivist group Anonymous has made a sudden reappearance to support those who are fighting against police across the country.
On Saturday night as major cities like Los Angeles, New York, Minneapolis and Chicago were awash in battles between police and civilians, the hacker collective made its first set of moves to kick off its return to the scene.
One of the first actions the group took was hijacking the police radio scanners belonging to the Chicago PD and using it to play NWA’s 1988 hip-hop classic “Fuck Tha Police,” the protest song against police harassment and brutality that became the unofficial anthem of the Los Angeles Uprising of 1992.
While the group controlled Chicago police scanners, they also played polka music – a fitting choice considering that the Windy City is the unofficial U.S. capital of the European musical genre.
Anonymous apparently now been hacking Chicago PD radios all night and playing polka music and Fuck The Police so the cops can’t communicate about protests lmfao pic.twitter.com/cAGPRRcROX
By early Sunday, visitors to the site continued to notice issues, including being forced to enter “captchas” proving they weren’t bots in the front-end interface hosted by security firm Cloudflare – a common sign that the sites were facing distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks meant to disable the site by flooding it with traffic, Variety reports.
The disruptions to Chicago PD scanners and Minneapolis municipal sites came right after social media accounts claiming to be affiliated with Anonymousreleased a video on May 28 putting Minneapolis PD on notice that the group “will be exposing your many crimes to the world,” adding that last Monday’s “brutal killing of George Floyd… is merely the tip of the iceberg in a long list of high-profile cases of wrongful death at the hands of officers in your state.”
“After the events of the past few years, many people are beginning to learn that you are not here to save us but rather you are here to oppress us and carry out the will of the criminal ruling class. You are here to keep order for the people in control, not to provide safety for the people who are controlled.
“In fact, you are the very mechanism that elites use to continue their global system of oppression.”
The video, which has been viewed millions of times all over the world, featured the iconic Guy Fawkes mask made famous by Alan Moore’s graphic novel V for Vendetta, as well as its trademark electronically-distorted voiceover.
The day so far: #Anonymous have taken down and exposed
The mysterious group generally takes aim at those it accuses of misusing and abusing power. However, it is very hard to pin down the group’s ideology or its size – beyond its tagline that “we are legion.” The group also lacks central leadership, membership criteria, or a public face.
However, beyond the somewhat menacing tone adopted by those who affiliate with the group, it is largely a nonviolent protest group using online attacks to go after its targets.
The group first appeared on the scene in 2008 after it released a controversial, copyrighted Church of Scientology video featuring Tom Cruise. After the Scientologists demanded its removal, the group launched a number of DDoS attacks on the sect.
Since then, the group has taken aim at groups ranging from the Islamic State group (ISIS) and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) to corporations like PayPal, Sony, and Visa.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2XTmmHh Tyler Durden
Here Are The Best And Worst Performing Assets In May And 2020 Tyler Durden
Mon, 06/01/2020 – 16:35
After a catastrophic March and an euphoric April, in May risk assets posted another strong performance, as the global growth rate of Covid-19 cases continued to slow, offering hope that the worst of the pandemic may have passed according to the monthly DB review of the best and worst performing assets of the prior month. Furthermore, as countries throughout the developed world moved to ease their lockdown restrictions, data showed that economic activity might be starting to gradually pick up again, which further helped to boost investor sentiment.
Looking at the overall sample of assets tracked by the German bank, a total of 33/38 of the noncurrency assets had a positive return over the month, meaning that 12/38 are now positive on a YTD basis too.
Oil was the big story once again in May, though it marked a reversal of fortunes for WTI as it gained +88.4% over the month, bringing an end to a run of 4 successive monthly declines. The moves came as global oil demand started to pick up again, thus moving WTI from the worst performer in the April sample to the best in May, even if this still leaves it down -41.9% on a YTD basis. Brent crude saw a similar move higher, though not as extreme, climbing +39.8% in May to leave it “only” -46.5% lower on a YTD basis.
Commodities more broadly had a good month as well: silver was one of the best performers in May, up +19.3% in its biggest move higher since April 2011. Meanwhile gold cemented its existing lead as the top YTD performer in our sample with a further +2.6% rise in May, which means it’s now up +14.0% on a YTD basis.
Equities for the most part had a strong performance, with the majority of indexes seeing solid increases in May. Brazil’s Bovespa led the way with a +8.6% increase, while the NASDAQ’s +6.9% move higher means the index is now solidly positive on a YTD basis. The worst performance overall was the Hang Seng, however, which fell -6.3% in May amidst further political unrest in Hong Kong.
In fixed income, sovereign bonds in southern Europe made gains as President Macron and Chancellor Merkel unveiled a proposal for a new EU recovery fund that was met positively by investors. BTPs and Spanish bonds were up +1.7% and +1.6% in May, outperforming bunds which fell -1.3%. Though the proposal would need to be decided unanimously among the EU member states, investors were cheered by the prospects of progress, and the spread of Italian and Spanish ten-year yields over bunds fell by -43bps and -30bps, respectively. Reflecting this renewed risk appetite in fixed income, US HY saw the strongest performance among our credit sample, with a +4.2% gain in May.
Finally in FX, the pound sterling was one of the worst performing currencies, falling -2.0% against the US dollar and -3.3% against the euro. It comes as little progress has been made in negotiations with the EU on the UK’s future relationship, and ahead of an important high-level meeting between the two sides taking place later this month. It also covers a month where negative rates were debated in the UK. Emerging markets were among the stronger FX performers however, with the EM FX index up +1.9%, paring back some of their YTD losses.
Here are the best and worst performing assets in May in local currency and USD terms…
… and here are the top and bottom assets of 2020 to date:
Source: Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3eK41DD Tyler Durden
It’s with an extremely heavy heart that I sit down to write today’s post. Although widespread civil unrest was easy to predict, it doesn’t make the situation any less sad and dangerous. We’re in the thick of it now, and how we respond will likely determine the direction of the country for decades to come.
If the combination of peaceful protesting, looting and violence witnessed across American cities over the past few days completely caught you off guard, you’re likely to come to the worst possible conclusion about what to do next. The knee-jerk response I’m already seeing from many is to crush the dissent by all means necessary, but that’s exactly how you give the imperial state and oligarchy more power. Power it will never relinquish.
As the situation deteriorates all across the nation, we need to stop and ask how we got here
Racial politics in America are a simmering pot waiting to boil over, they have been for decades. This is only exacerbated as the poverty created by the (totally unnecessary) lockdown starts to hit home.
As the weather gets hot, and jobs dry up and prices skyrocket and the small businesses close…people will get tense. They will get angry.
This is dry tinder which can burst into flames at any moment.
All it took was a spark.
Now the protesters swarm cities all across America, as windows are smashed, shops looted and public buildings set afire. Civilians are being maced and tasered and the rubber bullets are flying.
1. How did we get here?
It started when a video of a police officer (later identified as Derek Chauvin) kneeling on the neck of a black man (later identified as George Floyd) went viral.
And this is the first thing we need to interrogate. Though, of course, most of us won’t.
“Going viral” is a term that has smoothly worked itself into our collective lexicon over the last decade and a half. Everyone thinks of it as an organic process that lacks impetus or agency. This is not so, as a moment’s reflection will tell you. Things don’t just “go viral”, things are made to go viral.
Videos need to be made, edited, uploaded and shared by the right people at the right time in the right way in order to ‘go viral’. Backstories need to be written up. Narratives created.
2. Why is George Floyd’s tragic end now a viral vid?
Police brutality is an unfortunate fact of life in over-militarized America. It happens every day, to poor and disenfranchised people, black and white. Some even get caught on a phone vid (just search “police brutality compilation” on YouTube). And almost no one sees, and no one much cares.
3. Why is this death different?
4. Why did this video suddenly get noticed, and not the dozens of other videos of police being brutally violent?
6. Why is an allegedly grass-roots social revolution enjoying sponsorship as if they were a sports team?
7. And why has the deification of violence become a central theme?
It’s important to note that not all of these protests have been violent:
Incredible scene at Colorado’s Capitol right now. Thousands of protesters are lying face down with their hands behind their backs chanting “I can’t breathe.” They’re doing this for 9 mins. #copolitics#denverprotest#GeorgeFloydpic.twitter.com/PaABvp8ZoM
— Colorado Times Recorder (@COTimesRecorder) May 30, 2020
…but you would never know that from the mainstream media coverage. The liberal Left press have, in fact, been focusing almost fetishistically on the violence. But not to condemn it.
Quite the contrary.
For years the “liberal” press has clutched its pearls over even the hint of aggression (often associated with ‘toxic masculinity’). Even virtual aggression. Even harsh language.
Twitter and Facebook shut down accounts based on people using ‘hate’. People are “traumatised” by “cyber bullying”. The “aggressive language” and “bullying tactics” of Corbyn’s “hard left” supporters were constantly complained about throughout the pages of The Guardian.
10. Why are we being sold this new meme that violence is now, it merely acceptable, but inevitable, even good.
And let’s recall (though it seems we’re not supposed to) that for months now we’ve been told only “covidiots” would dare go outside without permission. That only the irredeemably selfish would go out without wearing a mask. That lives were at stake. Last month, Khalek herself even called anti-lockdown protestors members of a “death cult” for simply doing exactly what the rioters are now doing – sans most of the violence.
11. So, what does Khalek think has changed exactly?
Actually let’s ask the same about the UK police who are now, suddenly and without explanation just fine with large numbers of people mingling in Trafalgar Square.
Support for the U.S. protests against racism and police violence is spreading abroad.
On Sunday, hundreds of people rallied outside the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. And hundreds more marched from Trafalgar Square to the U.S. Embassy in London: https://t.co/KGXfxGzMt9pic.twitter.com/N9A89r0DvC
16. Other police across the country are ramming protestors with their cars and pepper-spraying little girls. Why?
17. Why are police currently going of their way to make themselves look as bad as possible and to further incentivise this multi focal promotion of violence? Because they are entirely corrupt and almost cartoonishly evil? Well, maybe. Or is it because in this narrative they have been cast as the Heel?
18. Lastly, what do the rioters want? Sure, the people themselves, the ones in the streets, are angry, about a lot of things, and rightly so. But what do the new supporters of this violence – the people telling us sometimes it’s the only way – actually want?
The only way to what?
19. What is the goal that, when achieved, will signal everyone can go home?
Is there one?
Or is the importance of violence to the ones advocating it from the safety of their middle class workstations, that is has no clear aim and can therefore – much like the one apparently superseded covid19 crisis, be turned on and off at will?
Violence, looting and riots won’t solve any of the political problems in America, but will cause more. So why are they being encouraged?
As this gets published, curfews are being introduced all across the country, national guard units are on high alert, and the media continue to pump out alarmist stories stoking the conflict.
20. Who will benefit from this chaos?
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2XTHg9t Tyler Durden
Small-Cap Stocks & Silver Soar As Social Unrest Rages, Nation Burns Tyler Durden
Mon, 06/01/2020 – 16:01
Nothing says buy domestically-focused small cap US stocks like a nation under curfew due to widespread looting, images of police precincts on fire on every media outlet, many cities suffering “the worst social unrest since the 60s”, and still facing pandemic-crisis economic lockdowns and fears (oh, and PMI/ISM Manufacturing missing expectations and ongoing US-China trade and politial tensions)…
Futures show the malarkey best as Sunday’s open was met with significant selling (riots) only to be magically bid back up and then again on reports that China cut some US imports, only to magically bid once again. The cash open saw weakness, but that was again magically bid higher…
‘Investors’ appear to “love the smell” of burnt-out-businesses in the morning…
Shorts were squeezed once again…
Source: Bloomberg
S&P glued around the 3050 level…
FANG Stocks rallied…
Source: Bloomberg
Virus-affected sectors soared at the open (most notably Cruise Lines and Airlines)…
Source: Bloomberg
Bank stocks surged out of the gate but faded late on…
Source: Bloomberg
But before you get too excited about the rally today, Bloomberg’s Cameron Crise notes that in every month since last November the direction of the S&P 500’s return on the first trading day has been reversed over the rest of the month. And in many cases, the reversal has been spectacular. So a 0.375% gain today bodes poorly for the month if history repeats…
Oh and this happened… at around 0938ET – as stocks were being puked after the cash close – Schwab and Robinhood started suffering outages; these were not completely resolved until around 1250ET…
The dollar fell for the fifth day in the last six, back at near 3-month lows…
Source: Bloomberg
Pushing the dollar back near 3-month lows…
Source: Bloomberg
Bonds were sold today, especially the long-end, not helped by AMZN’s huge offering…
Source: Bloomberg
Corporate bonds were dumped at the open but HY rallied comfortably into the green (paging The Fed?) as IG bond prices drifted lower…
Source: Bloomberg
Short-term Fed Funds Futures shifted dovishly today, with Jan 2021 back close to implying negative rates…
Source: Bloomberg
Cryptos are all higher since Friday with Ethereum the biggest gainer…
Source: Bloomberg
All major commodities (even crude today) managed gains amid the weaker dollar…
Source: Bloomberg
And silver continued its outperformance of gold…
Source: Bloomberg
Finally, one wonders just how long this disconnect can last?
Source: Bloomberg
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/36Q1LYF Tyler Durden
When the first massive coronavirus aid package was passed in Congress it included substantial benefits for workers who lost their jobs because of the government-mandated shutdown. One of the biggest was the federal enhancement of state unemployment benefits, increasing weekly payments by up to six hundred dollars. As we quickly learned, Senate Republicans’ concerns over not having a cap on those benefits to prevent the payments from exceeding the employee’s previous salary were fully justified.
That didn’t wind up being the only problem with the plan, however. We’re now learning that the hastily rushed through bill and the flood of people applying for benefits left the door open for scammers and identity thieves to tap into the system and falsely claim benefits to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. The first epicenter of this massive scheme was detected in Washington State, but it quickly spread to others. (Associated Press)
It turned out that, like thousands of Washington state residents, [Dayna] Lurie’s identity was used by criminals seeking to capitalize on a flood of legitimate unemployment claims by sneaking in fraudulent ones.
Washington’s race to help newly laid-off residents as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the economy left it vulnerable to such scams, and last week officials hinted at the scope of the damage done: hundreds of millions of dollars paid out in fake claims. Much of it apparently went to a West African fraud ring using identities stolen in prior data breaches, such as the massive 2017 Equifax breach.
State and federal authorities have tried to claw back as much money as possible and say they have blocked hundreds of millions more from being paid out, but Washington’s experience is nevertheless a cautionary tale.
At first glance, it may seem like a difficult scheme to pull off. How could someone file for unemployment under another person’s name if they are alive and working? As it turns out, all of those massive data breaches we’ve heard about over the years are probably coming back to haunt us. If scammers have enough of your personal data, they can file a claim in your name in the overloaded state online benefits systems. They can elect to have their payments made to prepaid debit cards associated with your account which they’ve already gained access to.
Denizens of a Telegram chat channel newly rededicated to stealing state unemployment funds discussing cashout methods; source: KrebsOnSecurity.com
After that, it’s simply a matter of using the debit card to immediately transfer any payments that arrive to overseas accounts or convert the funds to bitcoin, gift cards or other financial devices. By the time the identity theft victim and their employer realize that the fraud is taking place, the scammers could have secured thousands of dollars in illicit payments. And if the hackers are from Africa, Europe or Asia, any hopes of recovering the money and bringing them to justice are slim.
This isn’t just happening in Washington. Hackers have been found running the same scam in at least nine other states including Ohio and Hawaii. This opportunity for the criminals only arose because both the states and the federal government were in such a rush to make sure it looked like they were doing something (anything) to help that the system was quickly overwhelmed.
In Washington, for example, they had been processing an average of 6,000 unemployment claims per week prior to the shutdown. Suddenly they were hit with more than 100,000 claims at a time. The choices were to tell all of the workers that they would have to wait weeks or even months for their checks while they vetted the claims, or simply approve them and start sending out the money. In order to avoid looking heartless, they went with the latter.
A still shot from a video a fraudster posted to a Telegram channel overrun with people engaged in unemployment insurance fraud shows multiple $800+ payments in one day from Massachusetts’ Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA). Source: KrebsOnSecurity
Some of these problems – like ensuring payments didn’t exceed wages – were foreseeable and could have been mitigated. Others, such as these fraudulent claims, were probably unavoidable because the state unemployment systems are outdated and incapable of handling a massive surge in demand on short notice.
But if nothing else, this should be a cautionary tale and all of the states will need to invest in making their systems more responsive and secure.
