Mainstream News

Bank of Japan vows ‘all means available’ to smash deflation

"The new team is much closer to the Fed and the Bank of England, but critics say the bank risks becoming a mere branch of the finance mininstry -- where Mr Kuroda spent much of his careers. The great fear is that Japan will lurch from stable deflation to an unstable price spiral that suddenly causes investors to question the integrity of the country's 23 trillion public debt, the world's largest. The IMF says Japan's gross debt will reach 245pc of GDP this year. It has been possible so far because banks have gobbled up government bonds worth 100pc of GDP but this makes the banking system ever more vulnerable to a sudden rise in rates." Continue reading →

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Underground Economy Helps Account for Discrepencies in Economic Data

"Kalmes is among the 4.8 million unemployed Americans -- 40 percent of all those jobless -- who have been out of work for more than 27 weeks, even as the economy has been growing since June 2009 and the job market shows recent signs of healing. As her unemployment benefits have run out, she has entered the informal economy to make ends meet. America's shadow economy includes activities that are actually illicit -- prostitution and drug dealing -- and more benign jobs like working construction for a day for cash, or even the $2 per child that Kalmes gets for walking neighborhood students to the bus. Economists estimate $2 trillion could be involved." Continue reading →

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Scotland will vote on referendum for independence in 2014

"Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond said on Thursday that Scots will vote in a referendum on whether the country should become independent on September 18, 2014. Announcing the long-awaited date for the ballot, Salmond said it would be the 'historic day when the people will decide Scotland’s future'." Continue reading →

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Tarrant lawmaker seeks to create Texas Bullion Depository

"Call it the Rick Perry gold rush: The governor wants to bring the state's gold reserves back from a New York vault to Texas. And he may have legislative support to do it. Freshman Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, is carrying a bill that would establish the Texas Bullion Depository, a secure state-based bank to house $1 billion worth of gold bars owned by the University of Texas Investment Management Co., or UTIMCO, and stored by the Federal Reserve. Capriglione said the bill is not about putting Texas on its own gold standard. Rather, a depository would give the state a reputation as being more financially secure in the event of a financial crisis." Continue reading →

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Cyprus risks euro exit after EU bailout ultimatum

"The European Union gave Cyprus till Monday to raise the billions of euros it needs to secure an international bailout or face a collapse of its financial system that could push it out of the euro currency zone. Trying to placate its lenders, the government proposed to parliament a 'solidarity fund' that would bundle state assets, including future gas revenues, as the basis for an emergency bond issue, likened by JP Morgan to 'a national fire sale'. It also sought the power to impose capital controls on banks, a type of measure unseen since before the country joined the single currency bloc five years ago." Continue reading →

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Supreme Court rules ‘first sale doctrine’ applies to lawful copies of a copyrighted work

"The US Supreme Court sided Tuesday with a former Thai student who made $90,000 reselling text books bought abroad and sparked a copyright row with a publisher. Supap Kirtsaeng, who arrived in the United States in 1997 to study math at the University of Southern California on a scholarship, had asked his friends and family to buy the books, published by John Wiley & Sons, which were cheaper back home. John Wiley & Sons filed a complaint in 2008 alleging illegal importation and resale without the payment of exclusive distribution rights protected by copyright. Lower courts had sided with the publisher, imposing a $600,000 fine on Kirtsaeng." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSupreme Court rules ‘first sale doctrine’ applies to lawful copies of a copyrighted work

Federal judge: ‘Clipping’ news articles violates copyright law

"A US federal judge has ruled that the online news 'clipping' service Meltwater violates copyright law by using excerpts from Associated Press articles, the parties said Thursday. 'Investigating and writing about newsworthy events occurring around the globe is an expensive undertaking and enforcement of the copyright laws permits AP to earn the revenue that underwrites that work,' the judge said in a 91-page opinion. 'Permitting Meltwater to take the fruit of AP’s labor for its own profit, without compensating AP, injures AP’s ability to perform this essential function of democracy.'" Continue reading →

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New York man released after being wrongly imprisoned for 23 years

"A New Yorker was freed Thursday after serving more than 20 years in prison for the murder of a rabbi that the authorities now say he did not commit. David Ranta was sentenced to 37 years behind bars after being convicted in 1991 of killing an Orthodox Jewish rabbi during a botched robbery. He always maintained his innocence. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office announced an internal probe had found evidence unavailable during the trial that cleared the imprisoned man." Continue reading →

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‘Poet climber’ sidesteps security and scales U.S. embassy in Paris

"A self-styled 'poet climber' on Thursday managed to sidestep security and climb on to the roof of the US Embassy building in Paris. Herve Couasnon, whose previous stunts have included sneaking into France’s National Assembly and a nuclear power station, told AFP by phone from the roof that he wanted to meet Barack Obama, give the president his CV and talk peace — a reference to Obama’s ongoing Middle East trip." Continue reading →

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Smart Drones

"IF you find the use of remotely piloted warrior drones troubling, imagine that the decision to kill a suspected enemy is not made by an operator in a distant control room, but by the machine itself. Imagine that an aerial robot studies the landscape below, recognizes hostile activity, calculates that there is minimal risk of collateral damage, and then, with no human in the loop, pulls the trigger. Welcome to the future of warfare. While Americans are debating the president’s power to order assassination by drone, powerful momentum — scientific, military and commercial — is propelling us toward the day when we cede the same lethal authority to software." Continue reading →

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