CLibertyC

British inventor of the World Wide Web scolds ‘insidious’ Western governments over spying

"The British inventor of the World Wide Web accused Western governments of hypocrisy in spying on the Internet while lecturing repressive leaders across the world for doing exactly the same. Tim Berners-Lee, a London-born computer scientist who invented the Web in 1989 as the Berlin Wall crumbled, said the West was involved in 'insidious' online spying that could change the way normal people use their computers. Berners-Lee said the revelations about U.S. and British spying could alter the way people use the internet, especially for younger generations who can use it in intimate ways. He also questioned whether the governments could safeguard sensitive data once collected." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBritish inventor of the World Wide Web scolds ‘insidious’ Western governments over spying

Is Your Retirement Planning as Bad as Most Americans’ Planning? Find Out Here.

"Approximately 38,000,000 working households in the United States do not own any retirement assets. This is about 45% of all the working households in the United States. They do not have an IRA. They do not have a 401(k). They do not have anything. In other words, they have made no plans whatsoever to fund their retirements. If we take into consideration all households in America, the median retirement account balance is $3,000. Got that? $3,000. The utter impossibility of this situation should be obvious. This is not a slight shortfall. This is a guaranteed head-on collision inside the American social order. That is because the Social Security system is going bankrupt." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIs Your Retirement Planning as Bad as Most Americans’ Planning? Find Out Here.

Oklahoma tornado victims denied permits to rebuild their homes

"Rhonda Northcutt said she is unable to get a building permit from the city because of where her home was located before it was destroyed. Northcutt and her neighbor Jennifer Wisooker live in a neighborhood near May and SW 149th street. Their homes were destroyed by the May 20th tornado. According to the city, there are homes in the neighborhood that are located in an area designated as a flood way. The city said it is unable to give permits to build new homes in these types of areas because of FEMA requirements. Even though their homes were there before the storm, Wisooker and Northcutt might not be able to re-build." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOklahoma tornado victims denied permits to rebuild their homes

Supreme Court rules in favor of Florida property owner over denied development permit

"The Supreme Court said a Florida property owner may be owed compensation from a government agency that refused to award him a development permit for his land. The legal issue was whether the agency’s action constituted a 'taking' subject to compensation, under the so-called takings clause of the Fifth Amendment, in a more than 18-year battle by Koontz and his late father over their nearly 15-acre parcel of land. After Florida designated much of the parcel as protected wetlands, Koontz proposed to develop about a quarter of it and dedicate the rest for conservation, only to have local officials insist that he pay money to protect wetlands elsewhere." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSupreme Court rules in favor of Florida property owner over denied development permit

Texas Governor Rick Perry Signs a Pair of Bills Upholding Fourth Amendment

"With Governor Perry’s signature on HB 912, Texas now joins Idaho, Virginia, Florida, Montana, and Tennessee on the list of states that have enacted laws regulating the use of drones in their sovereign skies. Meanwhile, on June 14, Governor Perry signed into another important bill. As explained prior to Governor Perry’s signing of the bill by the blog Law360, HB 2268 'would establish the strongest email privacy protections in the U.S. by becoming the first measure to override a provision in the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act that allows law enforcement to access emails that are open or more than 180 days old using only a subpoena.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTexas Governor Rick Perry Signs a Pair of Bills Upholding Fourth Amendment

Government considers using search engines as source of cheap info on citizens’ lives

"It takes a lot to make the prospect of filling in a 52-page census form appealing. But the suggestion that Google’s vast stores of data could soon help replace it probably does the trick. Internet search engines could be used as a source of cheap information on citizens’ lives, interests and movements, a government paper has suggested. It could spell the end of the national census, which was first conducted in 1801 and has been carried out every ten years since, apart from during the Second World War. It aims to cover every home in the country but the last census – the 52-page giant in 2011 – missed out three-and-a-half million people." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGovernment considers using search engines as source of cheap info on citizens’ lives

The Secret to Picking Winners in ‘Submerging Markets’

"With investors already on edge as global markets came unglued last week, China picked a fine time to engineer a credit crunch. Drowned out in the noise about Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s tapering talk last week was the fact that half a world away, China’s banking system was caught up in a cash squeeze. Short-term lending rates tripled as the financial system essentially froze. It was frighteningly reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis in the U.S. Hedge fund managers and economists have long warned of a potential bursting of China’s debt-fueled real estate bubble, a replay of our own subprime crisis. Could this be the beginning?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Secret to Picking Winners in ‘Submerging Markets’

Who Says the Market Cannot Supply Its Own Money?

"I just arrived back from lecturing at the week-long Free State Project’s Tenth Annual Porcupine Freedom Festival, a huge gathering of libertarians of all stripes from all over the U.S. in the beautiful White Mountains of New Hampshire. Many of the vendors accepted an array of payments media. I was particularly struck by the sign on one stall which read: 'Bitcoin, silver coins, Shire Silver, ammo and even Federal Reserve notes accepted.' I was also delighted to discover that privately minted gold and silver money were circulating at the festival in the form of the aforementioned Shire Silver. These were widely accepted as media of exchange by vendors and paid out in change." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWho Says the Market Cannot Supply Its Own Money?

Private Fee-For-Service Medical Practice Now Accepts Bitcoin

"Whether coming to us for treatment of a new sore throat, for immunizations before a business trip to India, for the complex care of a parent who’s homebound with a stroke, or for something more sensitive like addiction to opiates, we offer a highly confidential and discreet experience at our offices in the heart of downtown San Francisco. But one important part of the confidentiality puzzle is payment. So My Doctor Medical Group is now pleased to announce that we accept payment for medical services in Bitcoin, the virtual currency that offers heightened security and enhanced privacy." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPrivate Fee-For-Service Medical Practice Now Accepts Bitcoin

EMC raises $5.5bn via corporate bonds to fund share buybacks

"The sharp shift in Treasury yield rates over the past few weeks means time is of the essence for those companies looking to undertake a capital return program and fund it with bonds. The rate rise increases the cost of funding and limits the ability to take advantage of an arbitrage between the current lower cost of issuing debt versus paying dividends on shares they could otherwise buy back with the fund raising. 'There is the obvious arbitrage there,' said one head of debt capital markets at a Wall Street bank. 'Why pay a dividend in the 3% to 5% range, when you can issue bonds at 2% or less and buy back those shares?'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEMC raises $5.5bn via corporate bonds to fund share buybacks