Month: February 2018

A scheme by the publisher of Newsweek and the International Business Times to buy fraudulent traffic in order to help secure a major ad contract from a US government agency has come to light in a new report released by independent ad fraud researchers. 

According to the report, IBTimes.com won a major video and display advertising contract from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) – a federal oversight agency created six years ago as the brainchild of Senator Elizabeth Warren. Social Puncher, a consulting firm that investigates online ad fraud, notes in its report that “ads purchased by the CFPB were displayed to an audience that includes a significant amount of “cheap junk traffic with a share of bots“ – effectively defrauding the agency. 

When it comes to IBT’s fraudulent traffic practices, Social Puncher’s findings align with reporting from BuzzFeed News on IBT India, and with separate data gathered by Pixalate, an ad fraud detection company, and DoubleVerify, a digital media measurement company. (Social Puncher and BuzzFeed News previously collaborated on ad fraud investigations, but worked separately in this case.)

Based on what it described as a detailed investigation, DoubleVerify this week classified IBT’s US, UK, India, and Singapore sites as “as having fraud or sophisticated invalid traffic,” according COO Matt McLaughlin. DoubleVerify is now blocking all ad impressions on these sites on behalf of customers.

In response to questions from BuzzFeed News, Newsweek Media Group, the parent company of IBT, acknowledged it purchases audiences from ad networks that sell pop-up and pop-under traffic. It said this traffic represents a “small percentage of traffic on our sites” and denied any fraudulent activity. –Buzzfeed

“We use third-party platforms to verify and filter this traffic to ensure it is of the highest quality. This verification process prevents poor-quality traffic being redirected to our sites and we consistently score highly on various third-party ad verification platforms,” the company said. It declined to name the third-party verification partners it works with.

The CFPB, now headed by Trump appointee Mick Mulvaney, told BuzzFeed News that the bureau is looking into the allegations. 

“We take allegations of fraud very seriously. Acting Director Mulvaney is actively looking into the work done by GMMB, and these allegations [of ad fraud by IBTimes.com] will be investigated as part of that process,” the spokesperson said.

The CFPB has come under fire in recent months after it was discovered that the agency established a “secret slush fund” to funnel penalties collected from defendants to Democrat causes. 

A consultant who worked with the highly politicized Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) claims the organization funneled a large portion of over $5 billion in collected penalties to “community organizers aligned with Democrats” as part of a giant slush fund, the Post reported in early December. 

[The CFPB] Funneled a large portion of the more than $5 billion in penalties collected from defendants to community organizers aligned with Democrats — “a slush fund by another name,” said a consultant who worked with CFPB on its Civil Penalty Fund and requested anonymity.

Created six years ago as the brainchild of Senator Elizabeth Warren and slipped into the Dodd Frank bill before it was passed by Congressional Democrats, the CFPB became one of the most powerful agencies in D.C., with the ability to exercise enormous power over the U.S. economy while its budget remained unencumbered by congressional oversight. As one Hill writer put it:

The problem is that this agency and its director were set up to be free from the control of the Congress. Congress’s fundamental obligation to oversee and fund such bureaus or agencies is short-circuited when it comes to the CFPB. In structuring it in the manner written by now-Sen. Warren (D-Mass.), the law abrogated the idea of a government by the people, for the people and of the people.

Instead, it established an autocratic and unaccountable power center for people of Warren’s ideological persuasion — those who view our market economy as an enemy that must be managed by a chosen few. The creation of the CFPB as a rogue agency with a dictatorial leader is one of the most significant acts of malfeasance perpetrated on the American constitutional system since the Sedition Acts of 1798. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, has been a total disaster as run by the previous Administrations pick. Financial Institutions have been devastated and unable to properly serve the public. We will bring it back to life!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 25, 2017

With the reins of the CPFB handed over to Mick Mulvaney in December following the resignation of Obama-era Director Richard Cordray, it appears that IBTimes.com’s government-funed gravy train has just been derailed. 

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Authored by Walter Williams via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

President Donald Trump reportedly asked why the U.S. is “having all these people from shithole countries come here.” I think he could have used better language, but it’s a question that should be asked and answered.

 

I have a few questions for my fellow Americans to consider.

How many Norwegians have illegally entered our nation, committed crimes and burdened our prison and welfare systems? I might ask the same question about Finnish, Swedish, Welsh, Icelanders, Greenlanders and New Zealanders. The bulk of our immigration problem is with people who enter our country criminally from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East. It’s illegal immigrants from those countries who have committed crimes and burdened our criminal justice and welfare systems. A large number of immigrants who are here illegally — perhaps the majority are law-abiding in other respects — have fled oppressive, brutal and corrupt regimes to seek a better life in America.

In the debate about illegal immigration, there are questions that are not explicitly asked but can be answered with a straight “yes” or “no”: Does everyone in the world have a right to live in the U.S.? Do Americans have a right to decide who and under what conditions a person may enter our country? Should we permit foreigners landing at our airports to ignore U.S. border control laws just as some ignore our laws at our southern border? The reason those questions are not asked is that one would be deemed an idiot for saying that everyone in the world has a right to live in our country, that Americans don’t have a right to decide who lives in our country and that foreigners landing at our airports have a right to just ignore U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.

Immigration today, even when legal, is different from the immigration of yesteryear. People who came here in the 19th century and most of the 20th century came here to learn our language, learn our customs and become Americans. Years ago, there was a guarantee that immigrants came here to work, because there was no welfare system; they worked, begged or starved. Today, there is no such assurance. Because of our welfare state, immigrants can come here and live off taxpaying Americans.

There is another difference between today and yesteryear. Today, Americans are taught multiculturalism throughout their primary, secondary and college education. They are taught that one culture is no better or worse than another. To believe otherwise is criticized at best as Eurocentrism and at worst as racism. As a result, some immigrant groups seek to bring to our country the cultural values whose failures have led to the poverty, corruption and human rights violations in their home countries that caused them to flee. As the fallout from President Trump’s indelicate remarks demonstrates, too many Americans are afraid and unwilling to ask which immigrant groups have become a burden to our nation and which have made a contribution to the greatness of America.

Very unfortunate for our nation is that we have political groups that seek to use illegal immigration for their own benefit. They’ve created sanctuary cities and states that openly harbor criminals — people who have broken our laws. The whole concept of sanctuary cities is to give aid, comfort and sympathy to people who have broken our laws. Supporters want to prevent them from having to hide and live in fear of discovery. I’d ask whether, for the sake of equality before the law, we should apply the sanctuary concept to Americans who have broken other laws, such as robbers and tax evaders.

We should not fall prey to people who criticize our efforts to combat illegal immigration and who pompously say, “We’re a nation of immigrants!” The debate is not over immigration. The debate is over illegal immigration.

My sentiments on immigrants who are here legally and who want to become Americans are expressed by the sentiments in Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus,” which is on a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty and in part says, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

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Before the 1970s, the United States and other nuclear-armed countries conducted more than 500 atomic weapons tests in the atmosphere.

During these tests, radioactive debris and gases were flung up into the atmosphere and traveled around the world.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated that people around the world have had exposure to radioactive fallout from these nuclear tests. Even today, radioactive fallout is present in many parts of the world, but in small amounts.

In the early 2000s, the CDC released a global radioactive fallout report and found that any person living in the US since 1951 has been “exposed to some radioactive fallout, and all of a person’s organs and tissues have received some exposure.”

The costs associated with nuclear tests for any country have been quite devastating for surrounding communities. Take, for instance, the Enewetak Atoll, a large coral atoll of 40 islands in the Pacific Ocean, where the U.S. government detonated 30 megatons of weapons – equivalent to 2,000 Hiroshima blasts – between 1948 and 1958.

In total, sixty-seven nuclear bombs detonated on Enewetak Atoll and Bikini Atoll of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Beginning in 1977, more than 8,000 people worked to clean up the Marshall Islands, shifting 110,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and debris into a blast crater.

This thirty-foot-deep crater is called the Runit Dome, on Enewetak Atoll, also called “Cactus Dome” or locally “The Tomb.”

The dome of death spans 350-feet across with an 18-inch concrete cap covering radioactive debris from 12-years of U.S. government nuclear tests.

Despite the U.S. government’s resettlement efforts of radioactive debris in the 1970s, some parts of the Marshall Islands today, have elevated radiation levels deemed dangerous for human life.

The Daily Star reports that the death dome’s concrete structure is rapidly deteriorating. This is allowing the tides of the ocean to pump water into the dome and then pump radioactive water out.

Paul Griego, who was a specialist at the dome site blames the radiation for his health problems today.

“When I first arrived, the dome’s blast crater was open to the ocean – it continued to be full of sea water even after it was sealed off from the ocean.”

“During my 10-hour work day I witnessed the water level in the crater rise and lower as the tide came in and out.”

He continued:

“No attempt was made to drain the crater or line it before the radioactive waste was dumped into it.”

“The coral that created the island is porous and the shock from numerous nuclear weapon tests had also fractured the coral.”

“From the first day forward, the water has flowed out of the lagoon with the tide, creating a gigantic radioactive toilet that is flushed about twice each day into the Pacific Ocean.”

Griego then warned,

“The dome could be just one typhoon away from a breach.”

Rama Schneider, who transported radioactive waste from various islands in amphibious vehicles during the cleanup, said it is no surprise that the dome is failing.

“Standing on any island at that atoll is akin to standing inches above sea level – and that was in 1979,” he added.

“The sea level and ground level are becoming more and more to be the same, and it doesn’t matter if we’re talking sea level rise, land subsidence or both,” he said.

Girard Frank Bolton III, who worked as a draughtsman on the dome for 14 months, insisted the damage to the dome is minimal. He stated the dome was designed to slow the migration of radiation not to completely stop it.

And lastly, he warned, “Also, since concrete is porous, the wave action and tides are continuously pumping radioactive water in and out of the structure.”

The toxic legacy of the U.S. military-industrial complex has a radioactive secret in the Pacific paradise of Enewtak Atoll that you are not allowed to know about.

To keep America safe, the U.S. government has poisoned an entire region of the Pacific Ocean with nuclear weapons tests. In an attempt to cover their tracks, a massive crater was dug to dispose of the radioactive material, but decades later, a breach has been found poisoning the Pacific once more. At what point do Americans say “no more” to the military-industrial complex who runs around the world blowing things up in the name of keeping America safe, and at the same time poisoning planet earth.

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The 68-year-old son of late Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, Fidel Angel Castro Dmaz-Balart,  committed suicide on Thursday after suffering from depression, reports Cuban state-run media. 

Diaz-Balart, who had been attended by a group of doctors for several months due to a state of profound depression, committed suicide this morning, reported Cubadebate.cu.

Known as “Fidelito” due to his resemblance to his father, Castro Jr. had been hospitalized for depression after which he received outpatint follow-up treatment outside of the hospital. 

Castro, who held a Doctorate in Sciences, served as Scientific advisor to the Council of State, as well as the Vice President of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. 

Castro Dmaz – Balart’s bio at the Academy of Sciences reads: 

Scientific Advisor of the State Council of the Republic of Cuba. Degree in Physics, Master of Science in Physics, and Ph.D. in Physical- Mathematics Sciences. Expert in Nuclear Physics, formed in the Kurchatov Institute in the former Soviet Union. Principal leader and organizer in the creation and strengthening of capacities in nuclear science and technology, presiding over several years the Secretary for Nuclear Affairs in Cuba. Second-level PhD. Senior researcher. Member of the Cuban Physical Society. Member of the Scientific Council of the Iberian – Latin American Association on Technology Management (ALTEC). Author and editor of several books of great strategic importance in matters of progress and trends of contemporary science. He has taught many presentations, lectures and has represented Cuba in events, scientific and high level authorities meetings for Science and Technology in several countries, UNESCO, TWAS. Nanoscience promoter and manager/founder of a project for its promotion and development in Cuba, which is coming true.

Castro Jr. appears to have been well liked based on the comments section of  Cubadebate.cu:

Funeral arrangements have yet to be made. 

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With the January jobs report due at 830am ET on Friday morning, here is a quick recap of Wall Street expectations, via RanSquawk and Goldman:

PREVIEW: January Jobs Report

• Non-farm Payrolls: Est. 180k (98k to 230k), Prev. 148k
• Unemployment Rate: Est. 4.1% (4.1% to 4.2%), Prev. 4.1%
• Average Earnings Y/Y: Est. 2.6% (2.4% to 2.7%), Prev. 2.5%
• Average Earnings M/M: Est. 0.3% (0.1% to 0.4%), Prev. 0.3% • Average Work Week Hours: Est. 34.5hrs (34.4hrs to 34.5hrs), Prev. 34.5hrs

The US is expected to have created 180K job in December (range 98K-230K), a rebound from last month’s disappointing 148K and just higher than last year’s average of 171K (down from 186K in 2016). With labor market fundamentals seemingly solid, some banks such as Goldman believe January jobs will benefit from weather in the survey week which improved sequentially from that of December, despite the “bomb cyclone” in the first week of the month.

“Employment growth disappointed at the end of last year, but the 148k gain in nonfarm payrolls in December wasn’t far below the gradual downward trend over the last three years,” Capital Economics says. “That trend will probably continue in 2018, but with the labour force rising by only 70k per month on average over the last 12 months, it won’t prevent the unemployment rate from falling further.”

The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 4.1%, the lowest level since February 2001.

But nothing will get as much attention as the average hourly earnings print for renewed signs of wage inflation: it is expected to increase 0.3% (unch) month-over-month and 2.6% year-over-year (up from 2.5% in Dec.), as unfavorable calendar effects are partially offset by a modest expected boost from minimum wage hikes.

For now, an allegedly tightening labour market hasn’t put any significant upward pressure on average hourly earnings, and analysts at HSBC are expecting a softer showing in January on the back of pay period calendar quirks. However, core inflation has begun to tick up, and analysts are confident that wages will soon follow. In its latest statement (31/Jan), the FOMC noted that “market-based measures of inflation compensation have increased in recent months but remain low; survey-based measures of longer-term inflation expectations are little changed, on balance.”

The latest US CB Consumer Confidence data suggests that US consumers are ambivalent with regards to income prospects over the coming months, perhaps due to uncertainty around the impact of the US tax plan, the CB said. Though it did note that consumer’s short-term view of income prospects over the coming had eased slightly, with the percentage of consumers now expecting an improvement falling by 2.3ppts to 20.4% (despite the proportion expecting a decrease also declining to 7.7% from 9%).

* * *

Arguing for a stronger report:

Weather. Despite the first week of the month’s East Coast blizzards – aka “bomb cyclone” – NOAA weather-station data suggest that nationwide snowfall in January was only slightly above seasonal norms. More importantly, snowfall was elevated during the December payroll survey week and likely weighed on job growth in several states, including New York (-1k, mom sa), Texas (flat), and Maryland (-20k). As shown in Exhibit 1, our measure of population-weighted snowfall during the survey week actually declined in January (the right axis is inverted) and would suggest a boost to job growth relative to trend of around 15-30k. While the lingering effects of the bomb cyclone suggest potential downside risk to this estimate, outside of the Northeast, most of the associated snow accumulation in major population centers had melted away by Monday of the survey week.

Exhibit 1: Nationwide Snowfall Declined from Survey Week to Survey Week,
Despite “Bomb Cyclone” In Previous Week

ADP. The payroll processing firm ADP reported a 234k increase in January private payroll employment, 49k above consensus expectations of +185k. While the report likely received a boost from the financial and economic indicators used in the ADP model, the report nonetheless suggests that the underlying pace of job growth remains firm.

Jobless claims. Initial jobless claims rebounded from a cycle low during the four weeks between the payroll reference periods (244k vs. 236k for December), but the absolute level suggests a very low pace of layoffs. Additionally, continuing claims began to decline again in mid-December, and they declined by 8k from survey week to survey week.

Job cuts. Announced layoffs reported by Challenger, Gray & Christmas pulled back 3k to 35k, its second consecutive decline. On a year-over-year basis, announced job cuts declined by 1k.

* * *

Business Surveys

The January ISM manufacturing survey recorded the rate of employment growth easing (54.2 vs 58.1 previous), though has remained in expansion for the sixteenth consecutive month. ISM said “employment expansion remains strong, but difficulties across the supply chain continue to constrain production output.” The non-manufacturing ISM is to be released after the publication of the January Employment Situation Report.

IHS Markit’s purchasing manager surveys didn’t specify the exact level of the employment sub-index, though the data compiler noted that “favourable demand conditions encouraged another robust rise in the employment numbers, although the rate of job creation eased slightly from December’s 39-month peak.”

* * *

Arguing for a weaker report:

Manufacturing-sector surveys. Manufacturing sector surveys generally declined in January, and the ISM measure employment component in particular fell 3.9 pts to 54.2. While these surveys continue to suggest a firm pace of job gains in this sector, the pace of growth may slow in Friday’s report. Manufacturing payroll employment rose 25k in December and has increased by 20k on average over the last six months.

* * *

Neutral factors:

Service-sector surveys. While service-sector employment surveys declined on net in January – led by a drop in the Philly Fed and Dallas Fed measures – the non-manufacturing employment tracker (-0.7pt to 55.1) is only a point below its 3-year high. And encouragingly, the Conference Board labor market differential – the difference between the percent of respondents saying jobs are plentiful and those saying jobs are hard to get – rose to a new 16-year high (+0.9pt to +21.2). Service sector job growth slowed to +91k in December and has increased 123k on average over the last six months.

Job availability. The Conference Board’s Help Wanted Online (HWOL) report showed an unchanged level of online job postings (mom sa) following a 5.2% rebound in December. Analysts place limited weight on this indicator, in light of research by Fed economists that suggests the HWOL ad count has been depressed by higher prices for online job ads. The Conference Board is currently reviewing its methodology accordingly.

Post-Holiday transportation layoffs. Transportation and warehousing payrolls have decelerated or declined outright in recent Januaries, reflecting payback from strong job gains ahead of the holidays. However, it appears that the BLS seasonal factors may have finally evolved to anticipate these trends (see Exhibit 3). Relatedly, the trend-like gains in transportation jobs in November and December 2017 (+11k and +2k respectively, compared to the full-year average of +6k), suggest minimal scope for payback in tomorrow’s report.

Seasonal Factors Have Evolved to Anticipate Short-Term Holiday Employment in the Transportation Industry

d

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Authored by Hunter Lewis via The Mises Institute,

George Monbiot, popular Guardian columnist, beacon light of global environmentalism, is also the kind of progressive who insists on seeing the world as he wishes it were and not as it really is. Wearing these kind of blinders will not help us get a better environment or better world.

In his latest column, Monbiot states that:

“The forces that threaten to destroy our well-being are… the same everywhere: primarily the lobbying power of big business and big money, which perceive the administrative state as an impediment to their immediate interests.”

This is nonsense. Big business and big money, along with other special interests, such as Big labor and Big law and Big education, and all the other “ Bigs” absolutely love the “administrative state” because they have learned how to control it and use it for their own self-interest.

This is the “ progressive paradox” that Monbiot resolutely ignores: the more the state increases its powers over the economy, the more motivated special interests become to take control of the state in order to thwart genuine market competition. The resulting corruption just gets worse and worse.

Has Monbiot ever considered what persuaded enough voters to hold their noses and choose Trump? It was not that the administrative state provided honest government under the prior administration. Nor was the prior administration making any effort to hold back the power of special interests in Washington.

Two examples will suffice. In the “fiscal cliff” bill, President Obama achieved his long sought objective of increasing taxes on the rich. But in the same bill, passed at midnight, he snuck in subsidies for his own corporate supporters. These subsidies added up to more money than the additional taxes on the rich could possibly generate. In total, taxes on the rich did not really go up. It is just that some money was extracted from some rich people and more was given to others. The green energy subsidies in the Stimulus Bill were similar; they went largely to campaign donors.

Monbiot does not trouble himself with any of this. In his worldview, more government is always better and always better for the environment. What he does not consider is that if progressives had delivered honest government for the past few decades of economic and environmental bubble and bust, Trump would never have been elected, and the particular special interests cheering his dismantlement of environmental protections would never have seized control of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Monbiot even manages to work in a condemnation of Brexit in his article. In his view, Britain leaving the EU will make it more difficult to solve its environmental challenges. But, again, this ignores what led to Brexit. It was the dismantlement of European democratic control of government, along with the deep corruption of the bureaucrats in Brussels, who have for years been selling their flood of minute regulations to the highest special interest bidder, which led to a slight majority of the British people throwing up their hands in disgust and passing Brexit.

Progressives as a group cannot fix a problem they refuse to acknowledge. Monbiot is far from alone in his refusal to face facts.

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Michigan Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-MI) was busted playing Candy Crush during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address while President Trump was talking about revamping America’s international trade by pushing for deals that are fair and reciprocal for Americans.

Lawrence was pictured next to two other members of the Congressional Black Caucus who were also playing with their phones during the speech – Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) and Joyce Beatty (D-OH). 

Watson was pictured checking a response to a tweet she made, while Beatty was inspecting a proposed press release reacting to President Trump’s speech.

Beatty’s spokesman told DailyMail.com on Thursday that she had read the entire speech already, and wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. 

‘That State of the Union is put out an hour in advance so Democrats and Republicans can read along,’ the spokesman said.

‘And while the speech was going on, she was putting together a statement in response.’

The other two congresswomen’s offices, however, didn’t offer any explanation. –Daily Mail

David Martosko of the Daily Mail helpfully adds that “It’s unclear from the picture what level of Candy Crush she was on. Members of Congress are paid $174,000 per year.”

Aside from the three Democrat reps engaged with their phones, the Congressional Black Caucus declined to stand when Trump touted the lowest black unemployment rate ever recorded:

Shameful moment as Congressional Black Caucus members refuse to applaud President Trump touting lowest black unemployment rate ever recorded. #SOTU pic.twitter.com/urHXd1Yn0G

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) January 31, 2018

 

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Via Climateer Investing blog,

Do cows have faces?

From AgFunder:

Cainthus, an Irish startup focused on using computer vision and predictive imaging analysis to monitor the health and well-being of livestock has received an undisclosed investment from protein giant Cargill.

Cainthus uses various types of imaging equipment to monitor livestock operations while artificial intelligence and custom algorithms detect behavior in individual animals to monitor their health and alert the user when an action is required. The Cainthus system is able to detect food and water intake in individual animals as well as when the animals are in heat and more, says founder David Hunt.

Imagery can come from drones, satellites, CCTV, and smart devices, but the most common set-up in Cainthus trials is an installation of a few dozen CCTV cameras on dairy farms.

Within seconds Cainthus imaging technology can identify individual cows by their features, memorize their unique identity and record individual patterns and movements.

“If you boil down on a granular level we’re looking at rate of change of pixels. We train our AI to understand that a particular pixel pattern is a cow and when that pixel pattern exhibits a rate of change of movement that determines what the gesture is,” explained Hunt.

Cargill is also entering into a partnership with the startup and has already run several trials with Cainthus technology. So far, Cainthus has tested their system in commercial dairy farms in New York, California, Canada, Italy, and Spain.

An internal team at Cargill has been searching for strategies to use digital technologies to fundamentally improve livestock and aquaculture operations for around eight months, Sri Kantamneni, managing director of digital insights at Cargill, told AgFundernews. He said that one of the most attractive qualities of Cainthus technology was its potential to apply to all animal protein sectors…..

Read more here…

Bovine adversarial image teams around the world are working feverishly to beat the machines with ideas ranging from the (udderly) ridiculous:

To the…actually they’re all ridiculous.

Hiding from the cameras may be the only foolproof technique:

Has anyone considered the cow’s rights to privacy?

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Chinese stocks are down for the fifth day in a row (something that hasn’t happened since May 2017) with the tech-heavy Shenzhen Composite is now  down 5% YTD and the Shanghai Composite is tumbling back towards unchanged.

The decline is happening at the same time as Bitcoin is in freefall…

And chatter about bankers using WeChat to ask for Deposits.

In other words – a liquidity crisis.

And that anxiety is only increased by the latest report from Reuters that cash withdrawals at Hong Kong ATMs have surged, prompting scrutiny from monetary authorities, the banking industry, and police amid media reports that mainland Chinese are withdrawing hundreds of thousands of dollars using up to 50 cards at a time.

China has battled to curb capital outflows for years. A move that took effect on Jan. 1 caps overseas withdrawals using domestic Chinese bank cards.

The gambling hub of Macau last year introduced facial recognition technology at ATMs to target illicit outflows from mainland China, a move that Hong Kong’s central bank told Reuters could increase cash withdrawals in the financial center.

“The HKMA is aware of media reports about people using multiple mainland cards to withdraw cash at ATMs in Hong Kong,” the central bank said in a statement, adding that it was “monitoring the situation and is in discussion with the banking industry and the police about this issue”.

A local banker said some commercial banks have stepped up monitoring of cash withdrawals.

Hong Kong police said they were working closely with the HKMA and banking industry to respond to any changes in financial crime trends.

While this is as much to do with money-laundering and capital flight, the liquidation of stocks, cryptocurrencies, and now amss ATM withdrawals suggests more is going on that the usual pre-new-year liquidity hording.

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Submitted by Priceonomics

With the start of a new year, many of us have embarked on self-betterment resolutions. The vast majority of these are health-related: Eat healthier, get more exercise, sleep better, stay fit, lose weight.

We decided to analyze data to see where people in America were the most (and least) healthy. We analyzed anonymized data from Priceonomics customer Policygenius, a leading online insurance marketplace. Using this data set, we could how people applying for life insurance compare health-wise to the nation at large — and where in particular certain conditions, like tobacco use, heart disease or diabetes, are above or below the national average. Additionally, we looked at the financial costs associated with these conditions as compared to a healthy lifestyle.

We’ll explore these topics in depth. Here’s a summary of our findings.

• The least healthy states in our analysis are North Dakota, Alabama, and South Carolina. The most healthy are Montana, Wyoming, and Utah.

• Life insurance applicants in North Dakota (34.8%) have much higher rates of tobacco use than the national average (20.5%), while those in Utah (8.2%) have much lower rates.

• Life insurance applicants in South Carolina (17.3%) have much higher rates of high cholesterol than the national average (11.8%), while applicants in Montana (2.1%) have much lower rates.

• Smoking has the highest impact on life insurance premiums (342% increase), while high cholesterol has the lowest impact (31% more).

• Life insurance applicants overall have lower rates of high cholesterol, tobacco use, high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, asthma, and depression than the average American — but figures vary widely by state.

Now, let’s take a deeper look at the data.

Life insurance applicants are healthier than average

One might expect unhealthy people to apply for life insurance more than healthy people, since they’re at higher risk of no longer being there to support their families. Counterintuitively, the opposite is true: People applying for life insurance pursue healthier lifestyles than average.

We looked at two years worth of anonymized data (11/2015 to 11/2017) from life insurance applicants with various providers. To ensure the highest accuracy, we limited our data set to phone-verified applicants. For the national data, we used figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, National Institute of Mental Health and others. At 38 years old, the median age of our applicants matches the national average provided in 2015 census data.

Data source: Policygenius

Interestingly, the average life insurance applicant in our data set had lower percentages of ailments across the board.

Life insurance applicants, on average, have lower rates of high cholesterol (25% less than national average), tobacco use (22%), high blood pressure (14.4%), diabetes (7.1%), sleep apnea (4.2%), asthma (3.6%) and depression (0.7%).

Let’s take a look at how health varies geographically.

Health conditions vary widely cross America

Though life insurance applicants are healthier than the average American, it largely depends on where they’re from.

To get a bigger-picture sense of this, we broke down each health condition by state. Averaging out the percentages for all ailments across states, here are the top 10 healthiest (and least healthy) states:

Data source: Policygenius. Chart made using Priceonomics chart builder.

Overall, folks in Montana and Wyoming are tied for healthiest life insurance applicants. The western U.S. seems particularly healthy, claiming four of the five top states. On the flip side, the southern U.S. seems particularly unhealthy: though North Dakota claims the top spot (12.4% of insurance applicants have an ailment there), the South takes three of the top five positions.

Next, let’s get into more granular detail by breaking down each ailment on a state level. Starting with high cholesterol, we can see there’s a wide variance.

Data source: Policygenius. Chart made using Priceonomics chart builder.

Life insurance applicants in South Carolina (17.3%), West Virginia (16.7%) and Idaho (16.4%) have much higher rates of high cholesterol than the national average (11.8%). Meanwhile, applicants in Montana (2.1%), New Mexico (3.1%) and D.C. (5.6%) have much lower rates.

Data source: Policygenius. Chart made using Priceonomics chart builder.

Life insurance applicants in North Dakota (34.8%), Vermont (28.6%) and Kansas (27.2%) have much higher rates of tobacco use than the national average (20.5%), while applicants in Utah (8.2%), Idaho (8.2%) and Hawaii (8.9%) have much lower rates.

Data source: Policygenius. Chart made using Priceonomics chart builder.

Life insurance applicants in Alabama (23.2%), Louisiana (22.4%) and Mississippi (22.2%) have much higher rates of high blood pressure than the national average (14.6%), while applicants in Montana (2.1%), D.C. (6.8%) and Rhode Island (7.1%) have much lower rates.

Data source: Policygenius. Chart made using Priceonomics chart builder.

Life insurance applicants in Kansas (6.1%), Louisiana (4.8%) and North Dakota (4.3%) have much higher rates of diabetes than the national average (2.3%), while applicants in Missouri (0.4%), D.C. (0.6%) and Wisconsin (0.7%) have much lower rates.

Data source: Policygenius. Chart made using Priceonomics chart builder.

Life insurance applicants in Iowa (5.5%), Missouri (5.2%) and Indiana (4.8%) have much higher rates of sleep apnea than the national average (2.4%), while those in Oklahoma (0.8%), Michigan (1.1%) and D.C. (1.1%) have much lower rates.

Data source: Policygenius. Chart made using Priceonomics chart builder.

Life insurance applicants in Rhode Island (11.9%), D.C. (7.9%) and Hawaii (7.1%) have much higher rates of asthma than the national average (4.4%), while applicants in Maine (1.4%), New Mexico (1.5%) and Idaho (1.6%) have much lower rates.

Data source: Policygenius. Chart made using Priceonomics chart builder.

Life insurance applicants in North Dakota (17.4%), Iowa (12.7%) and Delaware (10.3%) have much higher rates of depression than the national average (6.3%), while applicants in Louisiana (2%), South Dakota (2.4%) and Alaska (3.1%) have much lower rates.

Keep in mind, these figures don’t speak to the overall averages of these conditions in each state, but rather the averages among life insurance applicants.

How does my health impact my finances?

Though life insurance applicants seem to be healthier than the average American, those who do have health ailments and/or certain habits end up paying significantly more money for their policies.

To find out exactly how much more, we used a profile of the average life insurance applicant — a 38 year-old male applying for a $500,000, 20-year term policy, which will cost $25.37 per month.

Data source: Policygenius

Far and away, smoking causes the highest increase in a policy’s monthly cost. Smokers pay $112.23 — or an astounding 342% more than average. Over 20 years, the smoker will pay about $21,000 more than the non-smoker for the same coverage.

This is likely because smoking increases death from all causes in both men and women, and is the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S.

Diabetes also ranks highly, at 210% more, as do (somewhat surprisingly) sleep apnea (190%) and asthma (152%). High cholesterol and high blood pressure, equally surprisingly, seem to have less of an effect on insurance costs.

To conclude, our report shows people applying for life insurance, on the whole, are healthier than the average American. Aside from certain regional outliers, this proves to be true across the board. Additionally, a healthy lifestyle comes with significant savings on financial protection.

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