Month: January 2019

“Pay The F*ck Up”: Hackers Threaten To Dump Secret 9/11 Attack Files If Bitcoin Ransom Not Met

A hacking collective known as The Dark Overlord announced on New Year’s Eve that it had broken into the computer systems of a law firm and obtained files related to the September 11 attacks – threatening to publicly release a large cache of internal files unless a hefty ransom was paid, according to Motherboard. 

Dark Overlord’s demands targeted several insurers and legal firms, including Lloyds of London, Silverstein Properties and Hiscox Syndicates. It is unclear what exact files were stolen by the group, however the hacking collective tweeted “We’ll be providing many answers about 9.11 conspiracies through our 18.000 secret documents leak from @HiscoxComms and others.” 

“Hiscox Syndicates Ltd and Lloyds of London are some of the biggest insurers on the planet insuring everything from the smallest policies to some of the largest policies on the planet, and who even insured structures such as the World Trade Centers,” the group’s announcement reads.  

According to a spokesperson for the Hiscox Group, the hackers had breached a law firm which advised the company and had likely stolen files linked to litigation tied to the 9/11 attacks. 

“The law firm’s systems are not connected to Hiscox’s IT infrastructure and Hiscox’s own systems were unaffected by this incident. One of the cases the law firm handled for Hiscox and other insurers related to litigation arising from the events of 9/11, and we believe that information relating to this was stolen during that breach,” the spokesperson told Motherboard in an email. 

“Once Hiscox was informed of the law firm’s data breach, it took action and informed policyholders as required. We will continue to work with law enforcement in both the UK and US on this matter,” they added. 

The hacking group published a small set of letters, emails and other documents that mention various law firms, as well as the Transport Security Administration (TSA) and Federal Aviation Administration (The TSA could not provide a statement in time for publication, and the FAA told Motherboard in an email it was investigating.) Those documents themselves appear to be fairly innocuous, but the group says it may release more.

In its extortion note, The Dark Overlord included a link for a 10GB archive of files it allegedly stole. The group also provided a link to this archive to Motherboard before publishing its announcement. The cache is encrypted, but the hackers are threatening to release the relevant decryption keys, unlocking different sets of files at a time, unless the victims pay the hackers an undisclosed ransom fee in Bitcoin. –Motherboard

“Pay the fuck up, or we’re going to bury you with this. If you continue to fail us, we’ll escalate these releases by releasing the keys, each time a Layer is opened, a new wave of liability will fall upon you,” reads the demand letter. 

The hacking collective is also offering to sell the data on the dark web hacking forum, and has reportedly attempted to blackmail individuals mentioned in the documents themselves. 

“If you’re one of the dozens of solicitor firms who was involved in the litigation, a politician who was involved in the case, a law enforcement agency who was involved in the investigations, a property management firm, an investment bank, a client of a client, a reference of a reference, a global insurer, or whoever else, you’re welcome to contact our e-mail below and make a request to formally have your documents and materials withdrawn from any eventual public release of the materials. However, you’ll be paying us,” reads the post. 

The breach was first alluded to by the Hiscox group, which announced in April that they may have been exposed during a hack on an “unnamed US law firm.”

“Hiscox recently learned of an information security incident affecting a specialist law firm in the US that provided advice to Hiscox or its policyholders on some of its US commercial liability insurance claims. The incident involved illegal access to information stored on the law firm’s server, which may have included information relating to up to 1,500 of Hiscox’s US-based commercial insurance policyholders,” reads the April announcement. 

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2019 Investing Resolutions

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

When the “bull is running” we believe we are smarter and better than we actually are. We take on substantially more risk than we realize as we continue to chase market returns and allow “greed” to displace our rational logic. Just as with gambling, success breeds overconfidence as the rising tide disguises our investment mistakes. 

Unfortunately, it is during the subsequent completion of the full-market cycle that our errors are revealed. Always too painfully and tragically as the loss of capital exceeds our capability to “hold on for the long-term.” 

As 2018 comes to an end, it is time to review my “New Year’s Investor Resolutions.”

These are the same resolutions I attempt to follow every year. There is no shortcut to being a successful investor. There are only the basic rules, discipline and focus that is required to succeed long-term.

Investor Resolutions For 2019

Here are my annual resolutions for the coming year to be a better investor/portfolio manager:

  • I will do more of what is working and less of what isn’t. 

  • I will remember that the “Trend Is My Friend.”

  • I will be either bullish or bearish, but not “piggish.” (Pigs get slaughtered)

  • I will remember it is “Okay” to pay taxes.

  • I will maximize profits by staging my buys, working my orders and getting the best price.

  • I will look to buy damaged opportunities, not damaged investments.

  • I will diversify to control my risk.

  • I will control my risk by always having pre-determined sell levels and stop-losses.

  • I will do my homework. I will do my homework. I will do my homework.

  • I will not allow panic to influence my buy/sell decisions.

  • I will remember that “cash” is for winners.

  • I will expect, but not fear, corrections.

  • I will expect to be wrong and I will correct errors quickly. 

  • I will check “hope” at the door.

  • I will be flexible.

  • I will have the patience to allow my discipline and strategy to work.

  • I will turn off the television, put down the newspaper, and focus on my own analysis.

But hey, if you don’t like mine, my friend Doug Kass sent me his always brilliant and insightful resolutions as well.

“I plan to use the New Year to let go of what doesn’t serve me or make me happy and to focus on the great things the future holds.”

  • I will remember, throughout 2019, that it is the rate of change in data — not the absolute level of data — that counts.

  • I will read more and “watch” less.

  • I will grow even more skeptical of “groupstink,” consensus and “first-level thinking.”

  • I will think more in terms of probabilities and less in terms of specific price targets in the new regime of volatility.

  • I will add some additional factors to my multi-variable calculation of “fair market” or “intrinsic” value.

  • I will do more “channel checks” next year.

  • I will remind myself not to listen to company management’s forecasts; they are like ministers of finance on the eve of devaluation, rarely admitting to problems or challenges.

  • I will do more college and business school teaching because it makes me more connected with young, smart people and keeps me alert and more relevant.

  • I will respect the lessons of the great investors of our time more as their knowledge provides a roadway to delivering better investment returns.

  • I will more aggressively short the “next shiny object” and I will hold on to those shorts for a lengthier period of time.

  • I will incorporate more technical analysis into my trading process, particularly with regard to establishing entry and exit points.

  • I will laugh at myself more.

  • I will try to be more precise (and less wordy) in my writings, condensing my views/conclusions into shorter bullet points.

  • I will say/write “I don’t know” and “I was wrong” with more frequency.

  • In my writings I will use the words “maybe,” “might,” “could” and “possibly” more often (again, in the new regime of greater uncertainty).

  • I will continue to try to navigate the noise better and not be distracted by baseless and valueless (yet self-confident) input from those who have no documented and historic record of sustained investment success.

  • I no longer will be critical of the business media; it takes too much of my time, it doesn’t help my investment/trading process, and the practitioners are mostly merchants of attention, their ideas and views generally ordinary/consensus, and they are too easy a group to target.

  • I no longer will watch business shows that are trading-oriented as their opinions are no better than flipping a coin. Explaining what the market did or didn’t do on a daily basis is a fool’s errand and takes up too much time as I can be far more productive elsewhere.

In order to be better managers for our clients, it is important to always review what has worked, and what didn’t, realize mistakes that were made and what needs to be corrected in the future.

How you choose to manage your money, and the inherent risks, is entirely up to you.

However, given the length of the current bull market run from 2009 to present, the risks are mounting the current bull market cycle will end sooner rather than later. That ending will also most likely coincide with the onset of a recession. Such fundamental realities suggest a more conservative approach to investment allocations as we head into the New Year.

While the majority of the financial media and blogosphere suggest that investors should only “buy and hold” for the long-term, the reality of capital destruction during major market declines is a far more pernicious issue.

It is ALWAYS okay to miss out on an opportunity, as opportunities come along as often as a taxi-cab in New YorkCity. However, it is IMPOSSIBLE to make up losses as you can never regain the time lost getting back to even.

It only took six years for the markets to get back to where they were prior to the financial crisis. It took just about as long to get back to even following the “Dot.com” crash in 2000.

Ladies and gentlemen – getting back to ‘even’ is NOT an investment strategy. It is a game that has been played out since the turn of the century and investors have lost out to both time and inflation.

The problem for investors is the time to grow and compound your money for retirement is GONE. You can never regain that time. While the financial press is full of hope, optimism, and advice that staying fully invested is the only way to win the long-term investing game; the reality is that most won’t live long enough to see that play out.

With market valuations elevated, leverage high, economic weakness pervasive, and profit margins deteriorating, investors should be watching the month of January carefully for clues. The weight of evidence suggests that despite ongoing “bullish calls” for the markets in the year ahead, this could be a year of disappointment.

Pay attention, things are beginning to get interesting.

“I mean, I’m not smarter than the market, but I can recognize a good tape and a bad tape. I recognize when it’s right and when it’s wrong and that’s what my strength is.” -Jim Cramer

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The IMF’s Five Charts That “Explain The Global Economy In 2018”

With everyone publishing commemorative charts to summarize what in almost every way was the most turbulent year since the financial crisis (appropriately, right after the least volatile year on record), the IMF decided to join the party and on the monetary fund’s blog has published the following 5 charts that “explain” the global economy in 2018.

Here are the trends which, according to the IMF, drove the world economy in the past year.

1. The global economy started 2018 on an upbeat note, buoyed by a pickup in global manufacturing and trade through 2017. As investors’ confidence in the global economic outlook lost steam, so did the upswing.

2. One reason behind this loss in momentum is the implementation of tariffs by major economies—especially the United States—and retaliatory measures taken by others, including China. The increasingly protectionist rhetoric on trade has meant higher uncertainty about trade policy, which weighs on future investment decisions.

3. Despite these actions, the US economy expanded at a fast pace in 2018, as tax cuts and spending increases stimulated demand. The US Federal Reserve has continued to raise the policy interest rate as a result. Interest rates on US long-term bonds have increased less, as investors see risks to future growth and value the safety of US Treasury securities.

4. As growth and interest rates in the United States have outpaced those in other major economies, the US dollar has appreciated against most other currencies in 2018.

5. Some vulnerable emerging market economies have come under strain as the US dollar gained value and the level of risk that global financial investors were prepared to accept dropped. Most of these countries have seen increases in their external borrowing costs, but the extent of these increases varied widely.

What happens in 2019? For the answer, tune in on January 21, when the IMF’s World Economic Outlook Update will present the IMF’s view on where the global economy is headed next.

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North Korea Threatens To Abandon US Talks If No Sanctions Relief Offered

Following what was a landmark 2018 for isolated North Korea – a year when leader Kim Jong Un held three historic meetings with his South Korean counterpart and a captivating summit with “imperialist” President Donald Trump – Kim used a New Year’s Eve address to try and browbeat the US into offering some sanctions relief.

In a veiled threat to break off talks, Kim threatened to take a “new path” on nuclear talks if the US doesn’t acquiesce to the Hermit Kingdom’s demands. 

While Kim affirmed his willingness to meet with Trump (the leaders have agreed to a second summit, but the details have not been set), he didn’t offer any concessions to help advance negotiations, which have stalled over the US’s insistence that the North finish the process of denuclearlization before economic sanctions are lifted. Meanwhile, the North has demanded that the US gradually lift sanctions as the North hits certain benchmarks.

Kim

The North has continued to flout sanctions by arranging ship-to-ship transfers of oil and other energy products. These have often been facilitated by China, Russia and Iran – a sign that the North has continued to cozy up to Moscow, Tehran and Beijing even as it pursues warmer relations with Washington and Seoul. Some intelligence analysts cite this – as well as satellite images revealing more secret missile bases – as evidence that the North is merely toying with the US to try and wrangle some relief from stifling sanctions, and that Kim has no intention of following through on his denuclearization promises. 

According to Bloomberg, Kim said he’d be willing to work out a compromise that would be “welcomed by the international community.”

“I am willing to sit with the U.S. president any time in the future and will strive to produce outcomes that would be welcomed by the international community,” Kim said, wearing a suit and tie and seated in a plush leather chair overlooked by paintings of his father and grandfather at work.

“However, if the United States does not deliver its promise and misjudge our people’s patience, making unilateral demands to continue sanctions and put pressure on us, we will have no choice but to seek a new path to protect the country’s independence, interests and peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Kim said.

The speech was well received by the North’s neighbors, with South Korea heralding Kim’s decision to publicly reference “complete denuclearization for the first time.

Kim’s remarks also appeared intended to appeal to neighbors such as China and South Korea, who the U.S. needs to help maintain sanctions pressure. Kim touted his meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and China’s Xi Jinping in his speech, expressing a desire to expand ties in 2019.

South Korea praised the speech, noting it was the first time Kim had uttered the term “complete denuclearization” in public. “Chairman Kim’s strong determination will be positive for smoothly resolving the Korean issue in the new year,” Moon spokesman Kim Eui-keum said.

Kim also demanded that any deal between the US and the North include a permanent halt to military exercises on the Korean peninsula. Exercises were temporarily halted this year as the US pursued its talks with the North. Bloomberg also reported that Kim sent a personal letter to Trump ahead of the New Year’s holiday.

However, while Kim demonstrated a measured tone during his speech, analysts said the US and the North were no closer to a breakthrough.

“North Korea has again restated its position, which remains unchanged,” said Go Myong-hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. “The prospect of the second U.S.-DPRK summit taking place soon is not any better than yesterday,” Go said, referring to North Korea’s formal name.

We now await a response from President Trump, or perhaps another affirmation from the US that the two sides are nearing an agreement on when the second summit will be held.

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Trump Invites Congressional Leaders For Meeting, Says “Let’s Make A Deal”

President Trump, who has been busy launching off the new year in style with a barrage of tweets following his Happy New Year urge to “JUST CALM DOWN AND ENJOY THE RIDE“…

… has invited a bipartisan group of congressional leaders to the White House on Wednesday, now that the House is officially in democrat hands, in a bid to negotiate an end to a partial government shutdown that is now in its second week and rapidly approaching the longest shutdown ever of 21 days, and suggested he wants to “make a deal.”

In the first sign of a possible opening for negotiations, the invitation went to the top eight Republican and Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate, and the meeting is expected to include a briefing on border security from the Department of Homeland Security, a congressional aide told the WSJ.

However, with Democrats – now with a House majority – feeling emboldened in their negotiations with the president, it was unclear if Democrats planned to attend the meeting. Since the shutdown began in late December, Trump and congressional Democrats have largely avoided direct negotiations; the two sides remain at odds over spending for a Southern border wall, with Trump insisting on funding for the wall and Democrats staunchly opposed.

Meanwhile, Trump has remained steadfast in his demand to obtain funds for the wall, and on New Year’s Eve tweeted that “throughout the ages some things NEVER get better and NEVER change. You have Walls and you have Wheels. It was ALWAYS that way and it will ALWAYS be that way! Please explain to the Democrats that there can NEVER be a replacement for a good old fashioned WALL!”

In recent tweets, Trump has further sought to coax Democrats to negotiate while also portraying their opposition to wall funding as an irresponsible acceptance of what he called “open borders.”

Meanwhile, Congress returns to work later this week when it opens a new session Thursday, with Nancy Pelosi taking over the speakership after Democrats won control of the House in the midterm elections. In light of that, and the upcoming conclusion of Robert Mueller’s investigation which is expected to wrap up in February, Trump’s impeachment odds on PredictIt recently hit 50% for the first time.

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U.S. Shale Challenges OPEC’s Oil Dominance In Asia

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via Oilprice.com,

The explosive growth of U.S. shale production has capped gains of international and U.S. oil prices, offsetting OPEC’s production cuts in the first half of the year and contributing to an emerging oil glut in the latter half in 2018.  

OPEC has now forged a new pact with its Russia-led non-OPEC allies to contain the oil price decline to $50 a barrel Brent—a price that is not enough to balance any budget of a Middle Eastern oil producer.

But the consequences of rising U.S. light oil production from the shale fields have also rippled through international oil flows and trade, making OPEC’s heavyweights such as Saudi Arabia fight for keeping market share in their most prized market and the world’s fastest-growing oil consumption region, Asia.

Thanks to the booming shale production, U.S. light oil exports have increased, taking market shares out of the lighter grades that Saudi Arabia and its fellow OPEC members are exporting to Asia.

Moreover, increased crude oil production in the U.S. has also resulted in higher oil product exports which, combined with higher Chinese refined product exports, have created an oversupply of products in Asia, crashing refining margins earlier in December.

U.S. crude oil production has been breaking records in recent months, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Total U.S. petroleum exports have also been setting records over the past year, EIA data shows.

U.S. light crude oil exports to Asia have also grown and even with China shunning American crude, U.S. sales to OPEC’s key market Asia have held relatively steady since August this year, according to data from Kpler compiled by Bloomberg.

As OPEC is getting ready for another round of production cuts beginning January, Saudi Arabia for example is hell-bent on keeping its market share in Asia and has recently slashed the January prices of all its grades going to Asia, while it raised the prices for all grades bound for the U.S., Northwest Europe, and the Mediterranean. Saudi Aramco’s deepest cuts in Asian pricing were for the Super Light and Extra Light grades, slashed by US$2 and $1.50 a barrel from December’s prices, respectively. The official selling prices (OSPs) of Arab Light, Medium, and Heavy were also cut, by between $0.40 and $1.00 a barrel.

The deepest cuts in the lighter grades reflect Saudi Arabia’s effort to keep its market share in Asia as competition from U.S. light oil intensifies, according to analysts.

“Lights are [cut] very aggressively,” a sour crude oil trader told S&P Global Platts in early December, commenting on the Saudi pricing for Asia for January.

“Guess they are trying to prevent too much US arb inflow,” the trader said.

Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members also have to contend with increased refined product exports out of the U.S., as well as China, which are creating a glut of gasoline and naphtha, depressing refining margins in Asia.

In early December, the gasoline refining margin at the Singapore hub, viewed as a benchmark for Asia, slumped to a loss and to the lowest level against Brent prices since November 2011. Loss-making gasoline margins weighed on Asia’s overall refining profits, which hit in early December their lowest since August 2016, despite crumbling crude oil prices, according to data from Refinitiv Eikon, as carried by Reuters.

China is reportedly raising its fuel export quota for 2019 by 13 percent, which could additionally weigh on product oversupply.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, this year average monthly U.S. exports to Asia of light distillates—including gasoline and naphtha—have been nearly triple the export levels over the past two years. 

The gasoline and other oil products glut comes just as OPEC and allies start the new production cuts of 1.2 million bpd. Faced with U.S. competition of lighter grades in Asia, OPEC and its largest producer Saudi Arabia are fighting hard for their market share in their prized export destination.

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This $1 Strip Might Curb The Opioid Crisis 

More than 700,000 Americans died from drug overdoses from 1999 to 2017, about 10% of them in 2017 alone. In total, there were a staggering 70,237 drug overdose deaths last year. Opioids were involved in 67.8%, or 47,600 of those deaths. Of those opioid-related overdose deaths, 59.8% of them, or 28,466, were due to synthetic opioids, in a story we covered several days ago.

With more drug overdose deaths last year than all US military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War, communities around the country are searching for solutions to prevent a further escalation in the crisis.

The Wall Street Journal has found a new $1 tool that might curb the overdose crisis that works like a pregnancy test to detect fentanyl.

The two-inch fentanyl test strip, initially designed for the medical profession to test urine, can also be used by heroin and cocaine addicts who fear their drugs have been cut with fentanyl.

When the strips are dipped into a drug, the strip reveals—if the drug contains fentanyl.

A new report in the International Journal of Drug Policy, researchers from RTI International and the University of California, San Francisco, examined 125 heroin users in Greensboro, North Carolina, to see if the drug strips, which were distributed to local methadone clinics, would alter the way the addicts used their drugs. Researchers found 81% of the users used the strips, and 63% got a definite hit for fentanyl. Those who saw a positive read altered their intake to avoid overdosing. 

Another study by Johns Hopkins University also showed that drug users were interested in knowing whether their drugs contained fentanyl before using, which would allow them to modify their dose.

Overdose-prevention organizations across the US started distributing the fentanyl test strips in 2016. Now, states like California and Rhode Island and cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia and Columbus, Ohio, are distributing them at a rapid pace to counter the overdose crisis. 

“This is an effective way to have people thinking about risks,” said Louise Vincent, executive director of the Greensboro, N.C., chapter of the advocacy group Urban Survivors Union, which has been distributing strips since early 2017. “It’s so important to give people as many tools as we can.”

The Journal says Canadian biotechnology company BTNX Inc. manufactures the fentanyl test strips, and their sales have exploded in the US, reaching 766,000 strips so far this year, compared with 117,000 in 2017, said Chief Executive Iqbal Sunderani. The cost: $1 per strip. 

The biotech company first began selling the strips in 2013 to clinics in Canada, who needed to ensure that patients who were prescribed fentanyl to treat severe pain were taking the medication, said the Journal. 

Now, supervised drug-injection facilities across Vancouver are using the strips to test illicit drugs.

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t approve the strips. While they could fall under state drug-paraphernalia laws that usually ban the use of testing equipment, there isn’t settled case law on the issue,” said Lindsay LaSalle, director of public health law and policy at the Drug Policy Alliance. Some states, including Maryland and Rhode Island, have passed laws making the strips legal. 

Another obstacle is the cost, which can quickly add up, considering the average heroin user injects four times a day. 

Early adopters of fentanyl test strips in the US have been methadone clinics, which provide services like counseling and needle exchanges.

With no signs of stopping, the overdose crisis in the US is expected to get worse into 2020. Perhaps, $1 drug test strips could be an intermediate fix, but not a long-term solution.

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2018-2019 Is Not The Same As 2008-2009

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

The story of the 21st century is debt is soaring while earned income is stagnating for the bottom 95%.

Best wishes to all my readers and correspondents for a safe, healthy and productive 2019. Thank you, longstanding supporters, for renewing your financial support at the new year without any pathetic begging on my part. (The pathetic begging will commence shortly.)

While I don’t have any predictions for 2019 (why look any dumber than I have to?), I do have a couple of thoughts on the economy, markets, globalization, etc. Here are a few of the key issues confronting humanity:

1. The war being waged by Corporate Power (Globalization / Open Borders) to eradicate democracy and the power of nation-states to control their own destiny. Democracy ceases to exist in a corporate-controlled globalized system of governance; the sole structure that enables a citizen to have political and economic agency is the nation-state.

Try voting for a U.N. resolution or E.U. regulation. Sorry, pal, there are no elections or representation of the rabble in globalized governance. Globalization destroys democracy and the agency of the citizenry. That’s its goal.

Global corporations seek to destroy any and all barriers to their power and profits, and globalization / tax havens / Open Borders are the means to co-opt, marginalize and neuter nation-states and the political and economic agency of the citizenry. The net result of Corporate Power controlling the machinery of governance is neofeudalism.

2. Energy and capital flows. The status quo holds that energy flows don’t matter very much because energy represents a shrinking percentage of economic activity. In other words, capital is what matters, not energy, because capital can always buy whatever it wants.

Try pushing your car or truck uphill for a mile. How many humans would you need to push your 3,000 pound “compact” vehicle up a slight incline for a mile or two? How about 20 miles, or 100 miles?

Take away liquid fuels and the global economy grinds to a halt, and capital loses its scarcity and value. So-called renewable energy is around 3% of total global energy consumption.

3. Volatility, liquidity and price discovery. Central banks have labored diligently for the past decade to eradicate volatility and price discovery while providing almost unlimited liquidity.

For a variety of reasons (including the political blowback of the 90% who have been stripmined by central bank policies, corporate cartels, taxation and globalization), central banks are now attempting to “normalize” by reducing or withdrawing their distorting, perverse-incentives policies.

As a result, what they’ve suppressed–price discovery and volatility–have erupted. What they’ve pimped–liquidity–is sagging.

As I explained last month, capital gets skittish when certainty evaporates. When big blocks of assets hit the market, liquidity dries up due to the mismatch between sellers trying to unload hundreds of billions of dollars of assets and the few buyers willing to nibble on a couple of billion dollars of these assets.

Central banks can fill the mismatch by becoming buyers of last resort, but the political leeway to engage in this sort of manipulation is evaporating along with liquidity.

4. 2018-19 is not a repeat of 2008-09. While many have observed the similarity of the stock market meltdown in 2008 and 2018, the fundamentals are not as close a match. There is no analog to subprime mortgages this time around. That doesn’t mean there won’t be turmoil and asymmetries, but it does suggest we shouldn’t put too much weight on expectations that 2019 will follow the template of 2009. I’ll have more to say on this soon.

5. The predictably outsized returns on capital have ended. There’s more on this in The Crisis of Capital.

6. Debt and stagnant income. Rising debt is supposed to be matched by rising income to service the debt, but the story of the 21st century is debt is soaring while earned income is stagnating for the bottom 95%. That asymmetry eventually matters, for example, when zombie corporations finally default and marginal household borrowers default. The losses can’t be socialized this time around; the stripmined masses have finally awakened to the skims and scams of central states and banks.

7. The much-desired de-dollarization of the global economy has yet to materialize. Personally, I believe a profusion of competing currencies in a transparent, open market is the ideal arrangement, but here’s the current arrangement: the USD and euro are dominant.

8. Global harvests of grain and other essential food commodities have been good. Our luck may run out in the years ahead.

9. Cultural Revolutions are becoming more extreme and divisive. I’ll have more to say on this soon.

10. The topics covered here in December are key issues in 2019: in case you missed these:

How Many of Your Local Taxes and Fees Are Rocketing Higher?

When Certainty Frays, Capital Gets Skittish

Why Everything That Needs to Be Fixed Remains Permanently Broken

“Yellow Vests” and the Downward Mobility of the Middle Class

Neofeudalism Isn’t a Flaw of the System–It’s the System Working Perfectly

France in a Nutshell: “The Government Stopped Listening to the People 20 Years Ago”

The Conflicting Forces of Modernism

Are We in a Recession Already?

The View from the Trenches of the Alternative Media

Truth Is What We Hide, Self-Serving Cover Stories Are What We Sell

*  *  *

My new book Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic is discounted ($5.95 ebook, $10.95 print): Read the first section for free in PDF format. My new mystery The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake is a ridiculously affordable $1.29 (Kindle) or $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free (PDF). My book Money and Work Unchained is now $6.95 for the Kindle ebook and $15 for the print edition. Read the first section for free in PDF format.

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Zuckerberg Funds Wireless Mind Control Using “Game-Changing” Brain Implant

When Mark Zuckerberg isn’t smoking meat or cooking up excuses for data harvesting scandals, the 34-year-old Facebook CEO and his wife Priscilla Chan are high-fiving over their investments in the mind-control game, according to Business Insider.

Funded by their for-profit biomedical research company, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the Silicon Valley power couple is helping to fund research that could vastly improve the lives of people suffering from neuromotor disorders – or create an army of compliant cyborgs trained to take Mark seriously. 

Mark Zuckerberg and his paediatrician wife Priscilla Chan have sold close to 30 million shares of Facebook to fund an ambitious biomedical research project, called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), with a goal of curing all disease within a generation.

A less publicised component of that US$5 billion programme includes work on brain-machine interfaces, devices that essentially translate thoughts into commands. One recent project is a wireless brain implant that can record, stimulate and disrupt the movement of a monkey in real time. –Business Insider

In a new paper published in Nature on Monday, the ZCI-funded researchers outline a wireless brain device implanted in primates that can record, stimulate and modify brain activity in real time – at least in primates. The device can sense a normal movement and immediately stop it, according to researchers at the Chan Zuckerberg BIohub, a non-profit medical research group within the CZI. 

If the technology translates to humans, it could be used therapeutically for those suffering from diseases like Parkinson’s or epilepsy by stopping involuntary muscle movements just as they start. 

“Our device is able to monitor the primate’s brain while it’s providing the therapy so you know exactly what’s happening,” said study co-author Rikky Muller – a professor of computer science and engineering at UC Berkeley, and a Biohub investigator. 

The applications of brain-machine interfaces are far-reaching: while some researchers focus on using them to help assist people with spinal cord injuries or other illnesses that affect movement, others aim to see them transform how everyone interacts with laptops and smartphones. Both a division at Facebook formerly called Building 8 as well as an Elon Musk-founded company called Neuralink have said they are working on the latter.

Muller said her research at the Biohub is walled off from the other work on brain-computer interfaces being done at Facebook. –Business Insider

Developed within the CZI’s notoriously secretive “Building 8” program (now renamed), Mueller describes in her paper how she and a team of Berkeley researchers collaborated with medical device start-up Cortera to use a wireless implantable brain device called the “Wand” to prevent monkeys from doing a trained behavior. 

Placed on the monkey’s head, the palm-sized wireless Wand was able to tap into the primate’s brain and “record, stimulate and modify the monkey’s behavior in real time.” The device did so by “sensing” when the money was about to move a joystick, at which point it immediately shoots a “targeted electric signal” to the right part of its brain. Since the machine was wireless, the monkey didn’t have to be restrained during the process. Lucky monkey!

To do so, it uses 128 electrodes, or conductors, placed directly into the primate’s brain – roughly 31 times more electrodes than today’s human-grade brain-computer devices, which are limited to 4-8 electrodes.

That is a big departure from current devices, which typically require multiple pieces of bulky equipment and can only either sense movement or disrupt it at one time. Muller’s device does both at once. To do so, it uses 128 electrodes, or conductors, placed directly into the primate’s brain – roughly 31 times more electrodes than today’s human-grade brain-computer devices, which are limited to 4-8 electrodes. –Business Insider

“I believe this device opens up possibilities for new types of treatments,” said Muller, whose work on the brain-machine interface is just one part of a larger set of projects under the CZ Biohub program. 

Biohub co-president Joe DeRisi said the goal of the initiative is to help bolster the research being conducted by local scientists, and “push boundaries” when it comes to building important medical devices which would not otherwise exist. 

“We want people to do the thing that’s crazy, the thing that other people wouldn’t try,” says DeRisi. 

Have they tried giving monkeys instant, remote control erections?

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Iraqi Jets Strike Terrorists In Syria At Assad’s Request As US “Slowing” Troop Pullout

As the United States is reportedly “slowing things down” on Trump’s announced full troop withdrawal, Syria’s President Assad is apparently speeding things up in terms of reasserting sovereign control over all parts of the country, as he’s long promised to “liberate every inch” of natural Syria. 

On Sunday Assad took the controversial step of authorizing Iraqi forces to attack terror targets inside Syria at will, according to state-run SANA “without waiting for permission from authorities in Damascus” while the two allies coordinate action against remaining ISIS pockets in the country’s east. 

Quickly on the heels of that decision, Iraqi fighters jets bombed ISIS positions across the Syrian border on Monday. According to official reports, “Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said F-16s struck a two-storey house in Souseh, close to the border, that was being used as a meeting place for ISIS leaders.”

Unconfirmed reports say up to two dozen or more ISIS commanders were taken out in the air strikes as a high level meeting had been taking place at one of the locations targeted. 

Since Trump’s Syria pullout announcement, Pentagon leaders have expressed concern over who will fill the remaining power vacuum in Syria’s north and east, and have especially feared Iranian entrenchment as a result, as well as the potential of Iraqi Shia pro-Iran militias to fill the gap.

Indeed Monday’s Iraqi air strikes suggest it is precisely Baghdad  — which is ironically an ally of both Iran and the United States, and increasingly of Damascus — which is already stepping up operations while the US is set to move out. 

According to the Dubai-based The National, Iraqi leaders hope for even closer cooperation with the Assad government in counter-terror efforts, something sure to trigger alarm bells in Washington and Tel Aviv: 

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said Iraq is seeking to move beyond its current arrangement with Damascus — under which it launches air strikes against ISIS militants in the neighbouring country after getting approval — but did not offer further details.

“There are groups operating in Syria, and Iraq is the best way to deal with this,” he told reporters in reference to ISIS remnants.

Thus Baghdad is eyeing a larger role in the neighboring war-torn country even beyond having been given carte blanche for cross border air strikes. 

This will be met with a desire for active and extreme push back in Washington, resulting in further tensions with Baghdad, as the entirety of America’s Syria policy throughout the war has been driven by fears of the so-called “Shia crescent” or Iranian land bridge which would conceivably connect Tehran with the Mediterranean in a continuous arch of influence via Baghdad, Damascus, and Lebanon, where Iran-backed Hezbollah exercises unrivaled power and influence. 

Indeed with the Iraqi Air Force now fully operational over eastern Syria, this feared “land bridge” is already a reality, and will give greater impetus to neocons like Senator Lindsey Graham currently trying to persuade President Trump to walk back or at least greatly slow down the planned US troop withdrawal. 

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