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US Hacking, Spyware Targets Include Mass Media, Phone, and Energy Companies

US Hacking, Spyware Targets Include Mass Media, Phone, and Energy Companies

US corporate government wants to control and drain as much of the world as possible.  ReutersThe Register, and others summarize some of its methods:

“The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives …. giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world’s computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives.

That long-sought and closely guarded ability was part of a cluster of spying programs discovered by Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based security software maker that has exposed a series of Western cyberespionage operations.

Kaspersky said it found personal computers in 30 countries infected with one or more of the spying programs, with the most infections seen in Iran [a US corporate target since 1953], followed by Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen and Algeria. The targets included government and military institutions, telecommunication companies, banks, energy companies, nuclear researchers, media, and Islamic activists, Kaspersky said.”

These hacking and spyware operations date back “at least 14 years and possibly up to two decades”.

Other outlets note:

NSA Hackers Infected Hard Drives with Impossible-to-Remove Spyware

Spyware Linked To NSA Discovered In Hard Drives Across The World

The Only Way You Can Delete This NSA Malware Is to Smash Your Hard Drive to Bits

There’s no way of knowing if the NSA’s spyware is on your hard drive

If The Economy Is Fine, Why Are So Many Hedge Funds, Energy Companies And Large Retailers Imploding?

If The Economy Is Fine, Why Are So Many Hedge Funds, Energy Companies And Large Retailers Imploding?

Demolition - Public DomainIf the U.S. economy really is in “great shape”, then why do all of the numbers keep telling us that we are in a recession?  The manufacturing numbers say that we are in a recession, the trade numbers say that we are in a recession, and as you will see below the retail numbers say that we are in a recession.  But just like in 2008, the Federal Reserve and our top politicians will continue to deny that a major economic downturn is happening for as long as they possibly can.  In this article, I want to look at more signs that a dramatic shift is happening in our economy right now.

First of all, let’s consider what is happening to hedge funds.  For many years, hedge funds had been doing extremely well, but now they are closing up shop at a pace that we haven’t seen since the last financial crisis.  The following is an excerpt from a Business Insider article entitled “Hedge funds keep on imploding” that was posted on Wednesday…

BlackRock is winding down its Global Ascent Fund, a global macro hedge fund that once contained $4.6 billion in assets, according to Bloomberg’s Sabrina Willmer.

“We believe that redeeming the Global Ascent Fund was the right thing to do for our clients, given the headwinds that macro funds have faced,” a BlackRock spokeswoman told Business Insider.

The winding down of the Ascent fund is the second high-profile hedge fund closing in 24 hours. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Achievement Asset Management, a Chicago-based hedge fund, was closing.

And those are just two examples.  Quite a few other prominent hedge funds have shut down recently, and many are wondering if this is just the beginning of a major “bloodbath” on Wall Street.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Energy companies on the ropes as investors look for deals

Energy companies on the ropes as investors look for deals

Behind the scenes of the oil shock

So far 2015 has not been a banner year for the energy sector. Budgets have been slashed, earnings are down and jobs are being cut.

The mood in Alberta is tense.

Behind the scenes though, it’s a different story. Opportunities are being sensed, calls are being made, flights are being booked to Calgary.

Bruce Edgelow. vice-president of energy with ATB Financial, says his phone has been ringing off the hook with investors both inside and outside Canada looking to take advantage of the current downturn in the oilpatch.

 

ATB is a provincially-owned financial institution that lends heavily to Alberta businesses, including many in the oil and gas sector.

Edgelow says the calls have been coming from investors that would like to relieve ATB of some of the riskier loans it has made to the oilpatch.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Junk-Bond Bubble Implodes Beyond Energy, Deals Scuttled, Yields Soar, Suddenly “Insufficient Demand”

Junk-Bond Bubble Implodes Beyond Energy, Deals Scuttled, Yields Soar, Suddenly “Insufficient Demand”

The year 2015 has just started, and already there have been two junk-bond casualties: the first on Thursday, and the second one today. They weren’t energy companies. Energy companies don’t even try anymore. They’ve been locked out. Both deals had to be scuttled because, even at the high yields they offered, there were suddenly no buyers. 2014 had been a harbinger: 17 junk-bond deals for $5.8 billion in total were shelved, most of them during the last four months.

Ever since the Fed unleashed its waves of QE, institutional investors, driven to near insanity by the relentless interest rate repression, have been chasing yields ever lower in a desperate effort to get some kind of return. In the process, junk bonds and leveraged loans boomed and spiraled to such heights that the Fed – which is never able to see any bubbles – and other bank regulators began fretting over a year ago about the risks they posed to “financial stability.” And in December, it was the Treasury that hit the alarm button about leveraged loans [read… Treasury Warns Congress (and Investors): This Financial Creature Could Sink the System].

Now QE Infinity is gone, interest-rate hikes are vaguely shaping up on the horizon, and institutional investors – bond mutual funds, for example – are getting second thoughts.

Junk bond issuance, at $13.4 billion so far this year, is down 32% from the same period in 2014, according to S&P Capital IQ/LCD’s HighYieldBond.com. Lower-rated companies are “forced to pay-up significantly,” explained LCD’s Joy Ferguson. And some of them, like the Presidio Holdings deal today, are having trouble finding any buyers – despite offering a yield of 11% or higher.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

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