First Blog

The Silicon Valley Bank crisis has given us some lessons. It’s the regional banks that support the people through loans for commercial and residential real estate and for small businesses and homeowners. Big banks are purely profit machines, dependent on very low interest rates, supporting highly risky adventures like start-ups. They are the lottery players in the banking world, and now the public, through larger banking fees, will pay for their misguidance, incompetence, and greed. Summary, now we, as in you and me, bail out incompetence and greed.  Our return will be higher interest and more difficulty making loans. Wonderful.

A big term these days is “Uncertainty.” This means people are not sure of what’s happening. Another big word is “Manipulation.” This means some quantity is altered on command. Adding one and one, we have “Manipulated Uncertainty.” And this means some agency is manipulating the uncertainty.   It applies to trade, to stock prices, to war, to politics, to materialism, and even to climate. Massive gains are available, as are massive losses. Causes: Too much money, too much polarization, too much hate, too much emotion, too much greed, too much profit, too much power, and too darn easy. Think it new?  Nope. Ancient.

Did you know that is a remote German valley, it was noted that four-thousand-year-old genomes show deep roots of social inequality?   Read the article. See, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03046-w You should not be surprised with this “scientific” discovery. In fact… Ever since there was not enough to go around, there was social inequity. “Not enough to go around” is the origin of greed.   Applies to all predator species – even today. Then came wealth, power, prestige, pride, and thus more inequity. However, it is not without value the discovery and validation of the obvious. Anyone pledging to eliminate social inequity is delusional – or lying. Anyone who believes the pitch is something close to stupid. Just a moment's thought reveals how important a family is to many.  It is a place where all are taken care of with some equity.  When it doesn't there arises the concept of patriarch or matriarch. 

Today’ topic. Manipulation by the Chinese. It is well known and proved the Chinese manipulate:  Their currency to avoid the problems of tariffs and other trade matters. Companies to steal their intellectual property. The management of other countries through loans. Internal communications of countries by Huawei.  It is NOT well known the Chinese may be manipulating stock markets by manipulating the trade talks, possibly by short selling. This signals that a few in China are amassing great fortunes as the trade talks lumber along - ineffectually. This implies that while fortunes are being made, there will be no clear resolution or agreements to even the simpler issues of trade. Simple plan for Chinese wealth*: They say “No go,” and the markets tumble. They say “Let’s talk,” and the markets rise. *When you know the when, you stand to make a fortune.  W hile all talk about uncertainty , the point is the Chinese may also manipulate uncertainty.   It

The latest news is that Facebook has been hacked again, this time for a mere 50 million users.  Is this cause for alarm?  Not for those that don’t use it.  But for others, organizations, politicos, and others it might be. Counting to Billions!! An old question asks for the identity of the world’s best con man.  The answer is the one(s) never detected. Yet the question is reflected from con men to hackers.  Who’s the best?   The answer is exactly the same. Note that Facebook has unlimited resources to protect their data as do other large-scale companies.  Most have also been hacked. What we do not know are those companies that have been hacked and haven’t reported it.  More significant are those hacked companies that don’t know it and maybe never will.  If the hacker is not greedy, and extracts data in a disciplined manner, it may never be detected even with competent IT people available. The other problem is that most IT people have not the skills of dedicated hackers. It

The USA – a Three-Party State We live in an age of greed .  From the right, it might be called a greed for money, disguised as self-determinism and free enterprise.  From the left, it might be called a greed for power, disguised as universal rights and justice.  This is old news. Nowadays we see a new force, the  greed for information .  Currently, it is merely a left-leaning political auxiliary making lots of money.  Mostly what it does is unknown except for information gathering.  The processing algorithms are complex and accurate. But they use can be modified to identify, to fractionate, to discriminate, and ultimately to censor.  All too easy.  But soon, the information moguls will come to a basic conclusion.  And that is... Why do we need either the right or left?  We control the flow of information, and we read it all. Therefore we control all.* They control, but what they want is not exactly known.  Who are the “they?” Simply put, they form an oligarchy of leade