Europeans Form "Drone Club," Looking To Compete With US, Israel

Two days before a
suspected U.S. drone strike killed a senior member of the
Taliban-linked Haqqani network in Pakistan, the
Associated Press reported that France, Germany, Greece, Italy,
the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain had formed what French Defense
Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has called a “club” to develop drones
to rival American and Israeli UAVs.

From the AP:

Some Europeans fear they are falling behind in an area that may
determine military aviation’s future. Many aerospace experts
believe the days of piloted fighter aircraft are numbered. In June,
three major European defense contractors — pan-European EADS,
Italy’s Finmeccanica and France’s Dassault — called for a concerted
effort by Europe to catch up.

It is not surprising that officials in Europe want to compete
with American and Israeli drones. UAVs are widely expected to be an
increasingly common feature of future warfare, and Europeans will
want to keep their militaries competitive with not only the
American and Israeli militaries, but also the militaries of
countries that have also been developing drones such as Iran and
China.

Israel is the world’s
largest exporter of drones. One of the most popular, the
Heron, a
drone developed by a division of Israel Aerospace
Industries, is used by militaries around the world, and has
logged over
15,000 hours in Afghanistan.

As well as selling drones abroad, Israel has used UAVs to carry
out targeted killings and conduct surveillance.

Likewise, the U.S. has used drones to carry out strikes against
Taliban and Al Qaeda suspects abroad, which may constitute
war crimes.

A few days ago, Iranian officials unveiled
what Tehran says is Iran’s biggest drone so far, the “Fotros,”
which reportedly has a range of 1,200 miles, meaning that it could
reach Israel.

Last year, the Chinese unveiled the Wing Loong
drone, which is capable of carrying missiles and looks a lot like
the U.S. Predator drone. A
recent report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review
Commission notes that the similarity has led some analysts “to
speculate Chinese espionage may have contributed to the Wing
Loong’s development,” citing
this article in a footnote.   

For more from Reason.com on drones click here.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/21/europeans-form-drone-club-looking-to-com
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Experts Warn Healthcare.gov So Big And So Riddled With Security Flaws It Should Be Shut Down, Rebuilt From Scratch

While the abysmal rollout of Obamacare hardly needs any additional debacles, a recent hearing by technology experts in Congress added yet another, quite major, wrinkle to an already insurmountable problem: healthcare.gov is so fraught with security flaws, and so bloated with code, that it may easily expose the personal data of millions (we are being generous here) of users – it collects user names, birth dates, social security numbers, email addresses and much more – to even the least experienced of hackers.

It gets worse: when asked “Do any of you think today that the site is secure?” the answer from the experts, which included two academics and two private sector technical researchers, was a unanimous “no.”

And worse when the experts were asked “would you recommend today that this site be shut down until it is?” three of the experts said “yes,” while a fourth said he did not have enough information to make the call.

But the worst news of the day the experts said the site needed to be completely rebuilt to run more efficiently, making it easier to protect. They said HealthCare.gov runs on 500 million lines of code, or 25 times the size of Facebook, one of the world’s busiest sites.

Well… “Obama built that”

More from Reuters:

David Kennedy, head of computer security consulting firm TrustedSec LLC and a former U.S. Marine Corps cyber-intelligence analyst, gave lawmakers a 17-page report that highlights the problems with the site and warned that some of them remain live.

 

The site lets people know invalid user names when logging in, allowing hackers to identify user IDs, according to the report, which also warns of other security bugs.

 

Avi Rubin, director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University and an expert on health and medical security, said he needed more data before calling for a shutdown of the site.

 

“Bringing down the site is a very drastic response,” he told Reuters after the hearing.

 

But he would not use it because he is concerned about security bugs that have been made public, he said.

The White House spin was prepared and ready to go:

“The privacy and security of consumers’ personal information are a top priority,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said after the hearing.

“When consumers fill out their online marketplace applications they can trust that the information that they are providing is protected by stringent security standards.”

Perhaps what he meant is that since the NSA already knows all the private information on every American there is no need to be concerned.

Finally, should Obama finally do the right thing and scrap the three year project and start from scratch, “in written testimony, Kennedy said it would take a minimum of seven to 12 months to fix the problems with the site shut down, given the site’s complexity and size.”

As a reminder, this is how “big” healthcare.gov is:

 

 

Perhaps it is not all bad news: it may be time to test the broken website falacy – just think of the GDP boost that would be created if Obama were to hire 1,000,000 inexperienced programmers coding randomly for three years (again).


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/sCLPe5oqjHY/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Senate Now Voting On “Nuclear Option”

As reported earlier, the Senate was set to vote on Harry Reid’s proposal to enact a “nuclear option” to eliminate the filibuster for Obama nominees (and potentially in toto). Watch the vote live on C-Span after the jump.


    

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/ULmfqPn1fmQ/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Senate Now Voting On "Nuclear Option"

As reported earlier, the Senate was set to vote on Harry Reid’s proposal to enact a “nuclear option” to eliminate the filibuster for Obama nominees (and potentially in toto). Watch the vote live on C-Span after the jump.


    

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/ULmfqPn1fmQ/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Bloomberg Group Wants You To Start Fights About Gun Control at Thanksgiving

Michael BloombergI don’t know what holiday
dinners are like at Michael Bloomberg’s house, but I suspect
there’s an awful lot of picking at food while the windbag at the
head of the table lectures the assembled guests about why he’s
right and they’re all idiots. That’s the message I get from his pet
Mayors Against Illegal Guns organization, which wants its loyal
minions, if there are any, to sit down to their Thanksgiving feasts
and immediately start fights with relatives they haven’t seen in a
year about gun control. All you need is a handy list of tendentious
talking points—and a shitload of patience from Cousin Bob, who
rebuilds old pistols for fun and just wrapped himself around half a
bottle of Jack Daniels.

On the Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ “Demand Action” site, the

tone for a holiday frolic is set by the Talking Turkey About Guns
page:

Everyone has friends and relatives with strong opinions and
shaky facts. You can help set the table straight — all you need is
this simple guide to Talking Turkey about guns!

The page adds:

This Thanksgiving, when talk around the table turns to politics
and current events, you can help set the record straight on some of
the most common myths about guns.

Cuz what everybody needs in the midst of what’s likely to be
family chatter, or maybe a heated argument about Obamacare for
those who delve into politics over the good china, is a chipper
grad student spouting five non sequitur factoids about firearms,
with no larger knowledge about the subject, or even links to other
information.

Seriously? You’re going to ask people to plunge into a fraught
topic, about which gun rights advocates tend to be extremely
well-informed, with acontextual tidbits like:

FACT: We know that gun background checks work.
Since it was created in 1998, the system has blocked more than 2
million sales to criminals and other dangerous people.

Talk TurkeyWhat happens when one of the gun owners at the
table takes time from the real conversation to point out that those

blocked sales almost never result in prosecutions because,
according to the Justice Department itself, “the prohibiting
factors are often minor or based on incidents that occurred many
years in the past”?

Background checks catch people busted for pot or a bar fight
decades ago. Real criminals don’t go to gun stores. But you won’t
know that from a blurb on the Internet.

Tuccille family gatherings are incomplete without howling
discussions about topics of great import, such as health care and
the time septuagenarian Uncle Tony beat the crap out of three
would-be muggers. While he was drunk. We like our arguments, a lot.
But, unlike at the Bloomberg residence, and like at a lot of other
homes, I suspect, nobody gets to lecture—it’s give and take, and
you need to come prepared. If all you have is a short list of
talking points, there’re gonna be two turkeys carved at
the table.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/21/bloomberg-group-wants-you-to-start-fight
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Afghanistan Political Leaders, Tribal Elders Debate Security Deal With US; Karzai Says “Trust With America Not Good,” Wants Agreement to Go Into Effect After Next Election

ufnJohn
Kerry said the US and Afghanistan had
reached an agreement for a security partnership after the 2014
withdrawal of combat troops, pending approval at a grand council of
local leaders. At that meeting, the term-limited Hamid Karzai
suggested the deal with the US not go into effect until after next
year’s presidential election.


From Reuters:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai told his countrymen on
Thursday a vital security pact with the United States should not
come into effect until after next year’s election and conceded
there was little trust between the two countries.

About 2,500 tribal elders and political leaders from all
around Afghanistan gathered in the capital, Kabul, for a
Loya Jirga, or grand council, to debate whether to allow U.S.
troops to stay after the 2014 drawdown of foreign
forces.

Karzai
told the council he didn’t trust the Americans, and that they
didn’t trust him. A delegation from Afghanistan, meanwhile, ha s

reportedly met in Pakistan with the former deputy leader of the
Taliban, according to anonymous officials from those two
countries.

Follow these stories and more at Reason 24/7 and don’t forget you
can e-mail stories to us at 24_7@reason.com and tweet us
at @reason247.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/21/afghanistan-political-leaders-tribal-eld
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The China Inflation Problem and Its Impact For Markets

Elsewhere in the world, China’s government continues to walk a very thin line. China’s GDP is largely created by funneling easy credit (total credit is now at 200% of GDP) into infrastructure projects (a record 49% of China’s GDP is in investment)… the cost of this money pumping and incessant investment is higher inflation:

 

In China, consumers pay nearly $1 more for a latte at Starbucks than their U.S. counterparts. A Cadillac Escalade Hybrid Base 6.0 costs $229,000 in China, compared to just over $73,000 in the U.S.

 

Welcome to China's modern retail world, where the price of many goods is far higher than in many other countries, a disparity that is all the more stark considering the income differences. A basic iPad 2 is priced at $488 in China, where average per capita income is around $7,500. The same tablet is $399 in the U.S., where average per capita personal income totals $42,693.

 

Clothing and other apparel is on average 70% more expensive for consumers in China than in the U.S., according to data from SmithStreet, which compared the prices of 500 items of 50 brands in both countries.

 

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323932604579052973988936230

 

However, the reality of higher inflation won’t show up in China’s inflation data (which clocks in at an absurdly low 3%). However, you can see clear signs of this in China’s civil unrest: you don’t get wage and labor strikes for nothing. Workers protest for higher wages because they cannot afford increased costs of living.

 

In the three months from June to August 2013, China’s Labor Board recorded a total of 183 incidents on our Strike Map, up seven percent from the previous three months, and more than double the 89 incidents recorded from June to August in 2012.* In July alone, we recorded 78 incidents, with another 67 in August…

 

In Guangdong, for example, police detained 14 workers from Xinrongxin Kitchen Appliance in Shunde district on 27 August after they took to the streets demanding a total of four million yuan in wage arrears…

 

One trend of particular note in the strike map data is the increasing number of disputes in larger enterprises, those with 100 to 1000 employees. The proportion jumped from 35 percent in the months of June, July and August 2012 to 60 percent in the same period this year. In addition we noted five strikes involving more than a thousand people. In the manufacturing hub of Dongguan, for example, more than a thousand women workers staged a strike against wage cuts on 14 June and blocked the roads outside Hop Lun, a Swedish-owned garment company.

 

http://www.clb.org.hk/en/content/china’s-workers-turn-heat-summer-protest

 

Thus we are in a world in which Chinese officials must manage expectations, trying to convince investors that they won’t let inflation get out of control… but won’t crash the financial system either.

 

China's central bank added fuel to fears on Thursday it was clamping down on inflation risks as it allowed cash to drain from the financial system for a second straight week, sparking a jump in short-term rates.

 

The move by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) happened as Beijing stepped up its efforts to counter surging property prices in the capital in an attempt to calm rising discontent over the city's record-high home prices.

 

China also widened the funding options for local governments and property companies by giving them access to the interbank bond market to finance affordable housing, a priority of Chinese leaders, sources told IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication.

 

Housing data this week has raised fresh concerns about property bubbles in some major cities, which could add to consumer inflation – already at a seven-month high – and add to criticism that home prices are increasingly out of reach of ordinary Chinese.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/24/us-china-economy-idUSBRE99N07P20131024

 

I was bearish on China before, but they appear to have successfully navigated their “liquidity crisis” from earlier this year. But inflation is becoming a real problem there. The key issue will be how a slowdown in China impacts the markets.

 

Mark this as a major theme for 2014.

 

For a FREE Special Report on how to beat the market both during bull market and bear market runs, visit us at:

http://phoenixcapitalmarketing.com/special-reports.html

 

Best Regards

 

Phoenix Capital Research

 

 


    



via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/w2TB4S0bgqI/story01.htm Phoenix Capital Research

Steve Chapman on John F. Kennedy and Overambitious Government

John F. KennedyExtravagance can be intoxicating, and those who
grow accustomed to extravagance, only to be deprived of it, can
miss it terribly. That accounts for much of the powerful hold John
F. Kennedy has on a generation of Americans even today. He led
people to imagine that their government had the boundless capacity
to improve the world, and on the day he died, they could still
believe that. His administration and that of his vice president and
successor Lyndon B. Johnson are significant in the same way: They
represent the pinnacle of ambitious, visionary government. But what
each president lacked, writes Steve Chapman, was a sober sense of
the limits of what it could do, at home or abroad.

View this article.

from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/21/steve-chapman-on-john-f-kennedy-and-over
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