May 2023 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

[crazy][joke][wrong][old] ssl
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 09 May '23

09 May '23

a: "i'm low on space, maybe i can run without openssl. i'll remove it" b: "uhhhh" a: "look! all my binaries are simpler!" a: "hmmm i can't go to any websites or run any programs" a: "it seems like this is used in everything!" a: "such a ubiquitous, security-oriented system must be incredibly simple, well-organized, easy and quick to understand and review, i imagine" b: "uhhhhh" a: "everything is compromised."

1 1

NuGenesis Seeks Litigation Funding for Claim Against FTX
by Gunnar Larson 09 May '23

09 May '23

Check out my new article: https://litigationfinancejournal.com/nugenesis-seeks-litigation-funding-for… -- NuGenesis Seeks Litigation Funding for Claim Against FTX NuGenesis (the purveyor of NuCoin), is reported to be exploring AI and litigation finance as investment tools in claims against FTX and Alameda Research’s alleged fraud. Cointelegraph characterizes <https://cointelegraph.com/press-releases/the-fall-of-ftx-and-rebirth-of-nug…> NuGenesis as a well respected source for quality innovation in the digital asset ecosystem. After NuCoin was attacked by FTX, executives at NuGenesis began to employ AI technology to digest what could be happening behind the scenes at Alameda and the Japanese arm of FTX. Touted as ‘groundbreaking’ by Cointelegraph, NuGenesis’ crypto fraud detection software has been instrumental in uncovering alleged inconsistencies of fiduciary duty across FTX’s global enterprise. NuCoin is said to have tallied almost $55B in potential damages associated with potential FTX scams against the token. The FTX saga could yield new opportunities for litigation financiers in the crypto litigation space. As an added bonus, we have included 185 highlights <https://drive.google.com/file/d/11tbgHgDg8qagomO-NBffvIFpxXKmBC3g/view?usp=…> to the Office of Legal Education’s “Prosecuting Computer Crimes” handbook for reference.

1 0

Academic Study Finds that One of the Four Largest U.S. Banks Could Be at Risk of a Bank Run
by Gunnar Larson 09 May '23

09 May '23

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2023/05/academic-study-finds-that-one-of-the… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 9, 2023 ~ The systemic threats to the U.S. financial system were not remedied when Congress passed the watered-down Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation in 2010. While that has been evident with each Federal Reserve bailout of the mega banks and their derivative counterparties, the threat has now gained increased urgency for Congress to confront as a result of a new academic study. A team of four highly-credentialed academics at four separate universities present compelling evidence that one of the four largest U.S. banks, with “assets above $1 trillion,” could be at risk of a bank run. The study is titled: “Monetary Tightening and U.S. Bank Fragility in 2023: Mark-to-Market Losses and Uninsured Depositor Runs?” Its authors are Erica Jiang, Assistant Professor of Finance and Business Economics at USC Marshall School of Business; Gregor Matvos, Chair in Finance at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, and Research Associate in the Corporate Finance group at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Tomasz Piskorski, Professor of Real Estate in the Finance Division at Columbia Business School and Research Associate at NBER; and Amit Seru, Professor of Finance at Stanford Graduate School of Business, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Research Associate at NBER. The study focuses on unrealized losses on assets on the books of U.S. banks in a category called “held to maturity,” which under current accounting rules does not have to be marked to market, as well as unrealized losses on debt securities that also have not been marked to market, unless they are sold, for example, to raise cash to pay fleeing depositors. The professors find that “The U.S. banking system’s market value of those assets is $2.2 trillion lower than suggested by their book value of assets accounting for loan portfolios held to maturity.” They then couple that finding with the threat posed to banks that hold large quantities of uninsured deposits – sums exceeding the federal deposit insurance cap of $250,000 per depositor, per bank. They then conduct various scenarios to see how different categories of banks would perform. The most disturbing scenario is the following, which raises the issue of a bank with “assets above $1 trillion” potentially experiencing a bank run. (There are only four U.S. chartered banks that have assets above $1 trillion. According to the December 31, 2022 data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, those are: JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. with assets of $3.2 trillion; Bank of America N.A. with $2.4 trillion in assets; Citigroup’s Citibank N.A. with assets of $1.77 trillion; and Wells Fargo Bank N.A. with $1.71 trillion in assets.) The scenario is explained as follows by the authors: “To further assess the vulnerability of the US banking system to uninsured depositors run, we plot the 10 largest banks at the risk of a run, which we define as a negative insured deposit coverage ratio if all uninsured depositors run…Because of the caveats in our analysis as well as the potential of exacerbating their situation, we anonymize their names, but we also plot SVB [Silicon Valley Bank which failed on March 10] as comparison. We plot their mark-to-market asset losses (Y axis) against their uninsured deposits as a share of marked to market assets. Some of these banks have low uninsured deposits, but large losses, but the majority of these banks have over 50% of their assets funding with uninsured deposits. SVB stands out towards the top right corner, with both large losses, as well as large uninsured deposits funding. As Figure 5 shows [see below], the risk of run does not only apply to smaller banks. Out of the 10 largest insolvent banks, 1 has assets above $1 Trillion, 3 have assets between $200 Billion and $1 Trillion, 3 have assets between $100 Billion and $200 Billion and the remaining 3 have assets between $50 Billion and $100 Billion.” We do not know which of the four mega banks the authors are referring to. We asked via email if they would identify the bank but they declined. Short sellers will, undoubtedly, drill down in the regulatory data filed by the four banks to determine the name of the bank in the study, so federal regulators and Congress need to move this issue immediately to the top of their banking crisis priority list. Just 15 years ago, Citigroup/Citibank received the largest bailouts in U.S. banking history during and after the financial crisis of 2008. Its stock traded at 99 cents in early 2009. Sheila Bair, then the Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), said this about Citigroup in her book, Bull by the Horns: “By November, the supposedly solvent Citi was back on the ropes, in need of another government handout. The market didn’t buy the OCC’s and NY Fed’s strategy of making it look as though Citi was as healthy as the other commercial banks. Citi had not had a profitable quarter since the second quarter of 2007. Its losses were not attributable to uncontrollable ‘market conditions’; they were attributable to weak management, high levels of leverage, and excessive risk taking. It had major losses driven by their exposures to a virtual hit list of high-risk lending; subprime mortgages, ‘Alt-A’ mortgages, ‘designer’ credit cards, leveraged loans, and poorly underwritten commercial real estate. It had loaded up on exotic CDOs and auction-rate securities. It was taking losses on credit default swaps entered into with weak counterparties, and it had relied on unstable volatile funding – a lot of short-term loans and foreign deposits. If you wanted to make a definitive list of all the bad practices that had led to the crisis, all you had to do was look at Citi’s financial strategies…What’s more, virtually no meaningful supervisory measures had been taken against the bank by either the OCC or the NY Fed…Instead, the OCC and the NY Fed stood by as that sick bank continued to pay major dividends and pretended that it was healthy.” Until Congress gets serious about breaking up these too-big-to-fail mega banks and restoring the banking system protections of the Glass-Steagall Act, which were repealed in 1999, every American is at risk of an unstable financial system. Editor’s Note: The third paragraph has been updated to indicate that debt securities on the books of the banks were also included in the study.

1 0

Goldman to Pay $215 Million to End Case on Underpaying Women
by Gunnar Larson 09 May '23

09 May '23

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) has agreed to pay $215 million to put an end to a long-running class-action lawsuit that accused the Wall Street giant of systemically underpaying women. Goldman to Pay $215 Million to End Case on Underpaying Women https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-08/goldman-shells-out-215-m…

1 0

Chase Algonquin
by professor rat 08 May '23

08 May '23

" . . . when the bankers pushed back against his demand for gold. If the Associated Banks refused his terms, he declared, “I will go back to Washington, and issue notes for circulation; for it is certain that the war must go on until the rebellion is put down, if we have to put out paper until it takes a thousand dollars to buy a breakfast.” https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/05/25/blues-grays-greenbacks-ways-and… Reposts not firewalled capitals later cached and carried

1 0

No Dogs or Chinese
by professor rat 08 May '23

08 May '23

A free worldcoin UBI* could blow Big Dog ( and that Chinese state shitcoin ) out of the water https://cointelegraph.com/news/human-id-project-worldcoin-launches-gas-free… NO DOGS or CHINESE *Universal Basic Income

1 0

The Road to a UN Tax Convention (Financing for Development Forum 2023 Side Event)
by Gunnar Larson 08 May '23

08 May '23

They don't have a set of books at the United Nations. Meanwhile, UNICEF is trying to dabble in Crypto: https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-launches-cryptocurrency-fund AND then (!), the General Assembly is trying to pretend they are not wasting US Dollars on a pipe dream tax plan. The only thing worse than the BitLicense is the United Nations in New York. ---- A recent U.N. resolution on international tax cooperation could signify a transition to a more inclusive international tax order traditionally governed by the OECD. Coexisting tax regimes could lead to forum-shopping with three possible scenarios. https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1f/k1ftqe3tqh Summary At a time where increased efforts to combat illicit financial flows and strengthen domestic resource mobilization have never been more urgent, the UN General Assembly has adopted a landmark Resolution on Strengthening International Tax Cooperation. Description With this, all UN Member States have committed to begin an intergovernmental tax process at the UN to evaluate options for further action, including an international tax cooperation "framework or instrument". The side-event will discuss these developments with a focus on the option of developing a new UN Convention on Tax, which has been proposed by a broad range of actors, including the Africa Group.

1 0

Deposits at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo Shrank by $465 Billion Y-O-Y; More than Twice the Total of 4,000 Small Banks
by Gunnar Larson 08 May '23

08 May '23

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2023/05/deposits-at-jpmorgan-chase-bank-of-a… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 8, 2023 ~ Since the banking crisis began making headlines at expensive media real estate, the narrative has been that deposits are fleeing the small commercial banks and flooding into the biggest banks that are perceived as too-big-to-fail and thus offer a safer venue for deposits. Because these mega banks are the same ones that the Fed has been bailing out since the financial crisis of 2008, that narrative requires believing that our fellow Americans are dumber than a stump. We decided to check out that narrative for ourselves. Not only is that scenario wrong, but it is so decidedly wrong, and it’s so easy to get the accurate figures, that from where we sit it looks like there might have been an agenda by someone to harm smaller banks. (Since it’s short sellers who have benefited to the tune of more than $7 billion from this misinformation, the Securities and Exchange Commission should find out who the public relations firms are who placed this erroneous information, and who paid them.) Each Friday, at approximately 4:15 p.m., the Federal Reserve (“the Fed”) releases its H.8 report showing the assets and liabilities of commercial banks in the United States. Monthly deposit data is included going back one year, as well as deposit data for each of the last four weeks. Data is also broken down by the 25 largest banks and the approximate 4,000 small banks. Equally helpful, the folks at the St. Louis Fed make it possible to chart much of that H.8 data via its FRED charting tools. (See charts above and below.) The 25 largest banks in the U.S. lost a total of $644 billion in deposits between April 27, 2022 and April 26, 2023. The three largest banks in the U.S., as measured by deposits, are JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Between April 27, 2022 and April 26, 2023, JPMorgan Chase lost $184 billion in deposits; Bank of America lost $162 billion; and Wells Fargo lost $118.7 billion, for a combined loss in deposits of $464.7 billion — representing 72 percent of the decline in deposits at the 25 largest banks. (That’s a crystal clear indication of just how dangerously concentrated banking has become in the U.S.) The deposit losses at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are more than twice what the 4,000 small banks lost in total during the same period. Their combined loss in deposits was just $210 billion. (See chart below.) Bank of America and Wells Fargo not only lost those large deposit sums on a year-over-year basis, but both banks saw deposits fall during the past five quarters, including the quarter ending March 31, 2023 when headlines were declaring that they were seeing big inflows of deposits as a result of the banking crisis. JPMorgan Chase lost deposits in each of the quarters in 2022 and then saw a small increase in deposits in the first quarter of this year – likely from all of those misleading headlines. (This information is easily obtained from the financial statements the firms file publicly with the SEC.) To give you an idea of just how pervasive this false narrative has been about the big banks sloshing around in all those deposits fleeing the small banks, as recently as April 28 the Bloomberg columnist, John Authers, wrote a column that was syndicated to the Washington Post – likely to be read by a large number of members of Congress. In the article, Authers included this nugget: “This summary from the Canadian firm Palos Management explains neatly why the bigger banks are still OK: “The first quarter’s performance of the big four was consistent with a broad consensus that the big banks have capitalized on massive depositor inflows, clearly related to the well-documented liquidity stresses facing their smaller, regionally based brethren. This should come as no surprise. The panic-fueled depositor exodus from the smaller banks to the larger ‘too big to fail’ banks is simply a rational decision. Protection of capital rules.” Why would a journalist rely on unverified deposit data from a Canadian firm when the deposit data is readily available from the banks’ own filings with the SEC as well as in the Fed’s H.8 weekly releases?

1 0

Brilliant and idiosyncratic cryptographers, including Ern Malley
by professor rat 08 May '23

08 May '23

At the height of World War II in the Pacific, two secret organisations existed in Australia to break Japan's military codes. They were peopled by brilliant and idiosyncratic cryptographers, including some with achievements in mathematics and the Classics and others who had lived or grown up in Japan https://www.amazon.com.au/Code-Breakers-Intelligence-Australias-Bletchley/d… Reposts not crazed poetics splitting the infinite

1 0

Create new money - ambition should be made of Stirner stuff
by professor rat 08 May '23

08 May '23

MAX ’ But why shouldn’t you create new money? Do you abolish the product by taking away its hereditary stamp? Now, money is a product, and an essential means or capability, because it protects against the ossification of wealth,[338] keeps it in flux, and brings about its turnover. If you know a better medium of exchange, well, all right; but it will again be a “money.” It’s not the money that does you harm, but your inability to take it." STIRNER https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/max-stirner-the-unique-and-its-prop… Take power when its given you by a dying BIG DOG

1 0