January 2024 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

The Questions Around Prometheum's SEC-Compliant Strategy
by Gunnar Larson 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

The Questions Around Prometheum's SEC-Compliant Strategy <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1789752?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> While the rest of the crypto industry has been engaged in a long-running battle to escape the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's jurisdiction, a once-obscure startup called Prometheum has instead embraced the SEC's view to become the first crypto special-purpose broker-dealer, but it's unclear whether it can turn its favored status into a workable business, says Keith Blackman at Bracewell. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1789752?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1789752?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

Terraform Will Use Ch. 11 To Craft Appeal Of SEC Crypto Case
by Gunnar Larson 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

Terraform Will Use Ch. 11 To Craft Appeal Of SEC Crypto Case <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791691?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Alex Wittenberg An executive for crypto company Terraform Labs told the Delaware bankruptcy court Tuesday it has sought Chapter 11 protection mainly to delay a potentially existential U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission penalty tied to the implosion of its algorithmic stablecoin, the collapse of which in 2022 provoked a widespread crash in cryptocurrency markets. 2 documents attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791691?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791691?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

PBS Drops Another Bombshell: Wall Street Is Gobbling Up Two-Thirds of Your 401(k)
by Gunnar Larson 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2013/04/pbs-drops-another-bombshell-wall-str… By Pam Martens: April 25, 2013 Frontline Chart Showing Impact of 401(k) Fees Over 50 Years of Saving for Retirement If you work for 50 years and receive the typical long-term return of 7 percent on your 401(k) plan and your fees are 2 percent, almost two-thirds of your account will go to Wall Street. This was the bombshell dropped by Frontline’s Martin Smith in this Tuesday evening’s PBS program, The Retirement Gamble. This is not so much a gamble as a certainty: under a 2 percent 401(k) fee structure, almost two-thirds of your working life will go toward paying obscene compensation to Wall Street; a little over one-third will benefit your family – and that’s before paying taxes on withdrawals to Uncle Sam. To put it another way – you work for Wall Street. You are their slave, their lackey and as long as their toadies dominate in Congress, nothing is going to change on the legislative front to stop the looting. Wall Street seized millions of homes through illegal foreclosures and stripped the equity from the owners. They got away with it. Some Wall Street firms further enriched themselves making bets that the housing market would collapse, using their inside knowledge of the bogus loans they had made. They got away with that also. Now Wall Street is busy asset stripping the retirement plans of the working class in America while President Obama proposes to cut Social Security benefits through a discredited calculation called Chained CPI – conveniently causing people to save more in their 401(k) plans to make up for the potential loss. But the more you save, the more Wall Street asset strips. The Retirement Gamble was written by the outstanding team of Martin Smith and Marcela Gaviria, who exposed in January that when it came to Wall Street, the U.S. Justice Department had “no investigations going on. There were no subpoenas, no document reviews, no wiretaps.” The head of the criminal division of the Justice Department, Lanny Breuer, announced he was stepping down one day after that program aired. He returned to Covington & Burling, the corporate law firm representing Wall Street firms. The revelation of the two-thirds wealth transfer machinery was delivered by none other than John Bogle, the legendary founder of The Vanguard Group, a low-load mutual fund firm, who served as its Chairman and CEO from 1974 to 1996. Bogle is no slouch. He’s one of the most highly respected men in finance and graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in Economics. This is the relevant portion of the transcript from the program: Bogle: Costs are a crucial part of the equation. It doesn’t take a genius to know that the bigger the profit of the management company, the smaller the profit that investors get. The money managers always want more, and that’s natural enough in most businesses, but it’s not right for this business. Smith: Bogle gave me an example. Assume you’re invested in a fund that is earning a gross annual return of 7 percent. They charge you a 2 percent annual fee. Over 50 years, the difference between your net of 5 percent — the red line — and what you would have made without fees — the green line — is staggering. Bogle says you’ve lost almost two thirds of what you would have had. Bogle: What happens in the fund business is the magic of compound returns is overwhelmed by the tyranny of compounding costs. It’s a mathematical fact. There’s no getting around it. The fact that we don’t look at it— too bad for us. Smith: What I have a hard time understanding is that 2 percent fee that I might pay to an actively managed mutual fund is going to really have a great impact on my future retirement savings. Bogle: Well, you have to rely on somebody to get out a compound interest table and look at the impact over an investment lifetime. Do you really want to invest in a system where you put up 100 percent of the capital, you the mutual fund shareholder, you take 100 percent of the risk and you get 30 percent of the return? Smith takes Bogle’s advice and pulls up a compounding calculator on his laptop. On air, he shows the viewer the results: Smith: Take an account with a $100,000 balance and reduce it by 2 percent a year. At the end of 50 years, that 2 percent annual charge would subtract $63,000 from your account, a loss of 63 percent, leaving you with just a little over $36,000. There’s another way to prove the point. Pull up a compounding calculator on line. Take an account with a $100,000 balance and compound it at 7 percent for 50 years. That gives you a return of $ 3,278,041.36. Now change the calculation to a 5 percent return (reduced by the 2 percent annual fee) for the same $100,000 over the same 50 years. That delivers a return of $1,211,938.32. That’s a difference of $2,066,103.04 – the same 63 percent reduction in value that Smith’s example showed. Presently, 70 percent of Americans who have any kind of retirement plan at their place of employment have a 401(k) plan. Not everyone is paying 2 percent fees. Some are paying more and others are paying less – sometimes much less if using passively managed index funds. But, historically, Wall Street has preyed on the least informed and the least educated, which tends to be the poor and middle class. Consider the testimony of Gail Kubiniec, a former Assistant Manager at CitiFinancial, a unit of mega Wall Street firm Citigroup, to the Federal Trade Commission in 2001 concerning the premise on which she loaded on extra charges to loans: “I and other employees would often determine how much insurance could be sold to a borrower based on the borrower’s occupation, race, age, and education level. If someone appeared uneducated, inarticulate, was a minority, or was particularly old or young, I would try to include all the coverages CitiFinancial offered. The more gullible the consumer appeared, the more coverages I would try to include in the loan…” The Retirement Gamble can be viewed in its entirety here.

1 0

Senator Sherrod Brown Takes on the Fed's Support of Wealth Stripping the Middle Class
by Gunnar Larson 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/01/senator-sherrod-brown-takes-on-the-f… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 31, 2024 ~ Senator Sherrod Brown Senator Sherrod Brown Smart Americans have found two ways to outwit the wealth extraction machinery on Wall Street. They buy a home and build its value over time with sweat equity; and/or they start their own small business. A very large number of Americans who are living comfortably in retirement today built their wealth through one or both of these avenues. Wall Street banks, on the other hand, typically extract wealth from the little guy in a multitude of insidious ways – from high interest credit cards to excessive fees, tricked-up mortgages and outright frauds. Nothing better illustrated this wealth stripping than the 2013 PBS program from Frontline called The Retirement Gamble. The program documented the following: If you work for 50 years and receive the typical long-term return of 7 percent on the stock mutual funds in your 401(k) plan, and your fees are 2 percent, almost two-thirds of your account will go to Wall Street. (We fact-checked the math and it’s correct; read our report here. Also see Related Articles linked below for more insight into how wealth stripping works.) If an individual attempts to legally challenge being ripped off by Wall Street, they will end up in a private justice system created by Wall Street lawyers and run by a self-regulatory agency. You will not be allowed to take your claim to one of the nation’s courts where juries are randomly selected from a large pool of fellow citizens. You will have limited discovery and the arbitrators of your claim do not have to follow legal precedent or case law. Even when serious financial crimes are committed against our cities and counties, causing mass layoffs and economic suffering to millions, no one will go to jail. Prosecutors will allow Wall Street to pay a fraction of the amount stolen and walk away. After each illegal cartel on Wall Street is exposed, removing any doubt that this is an institutionalized wealth transfer system, new Wall Street cartels crop up faster than you can say “where are the customers yachts.” Add dark pools, high frequency trading, and stock exchange collusion to the 401(k), private justice system and cartel fleecing activity and you have an almost perfect system for wealth transfers with impunity. Many Americans believe that the Federal Reserve (“the Fed”) is the linchpin to Wall Street’s wealth transfer program to the 1 percent. Yesterday, the Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), raised similar concerns in a hard-hitting letter to Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Brown wrote in part: “…Because monetary policy operates on a lag, keeping interest rates elevated will continue to apply downward pressure on the labor market and wages, and drive up mortgage costs, while doing nothing to tackle the cause of continued high prices. When the Fed justifies higher interest rates for the sake of weakening demand, that is, in effect, a euphemism for suppressing wages and job creation. The burden of attaining price stability should not fall on the backs of workers and home-buyers… “To lower costs for all Americans, we must address inflation’s root causes without undercutting economic growth. Monetary policy does nothing to address the underlying cause of higher prices – namely, corporate price-gouging – but it does undermine economic growth. Higher rates are locking Americans out of the two primary means for building wealth—buying a home and starting or growing a small business… “Higher rates hurt prospective home buyers. I hear from so many Ohioans that they feel trapped – those who rent feel like they’ll never be able to afford to buy and those who already own their homes feel like they will never be able to afford a larger one if they decide to grow their family. Prices have been too high for too long for both renters and homebuyers across the country, and these challenges have only grown more acute as interest rates have stayed elevated. For prospective home buyers, the same mortgage for a home purchased today costs nearly double what it did in 2020. Higher rates have also given corporations an advantage over consumers in the housing market. As consumers face elevated interest rates, many of the biggest real estate investors have access to cheaper Wall Street financing, allowing them to buy up real estate with all-cash offers based on financing costs a working family could never get. As a result, institutional investors – including private equity and S&P 500 companies – are buying up formerly affordable manufactured housing communities and affordable single-family homes in far too many communities. Homeownership is the primary means for working-class and middle-class families to acquire wealth, and higher interest rates are making it harder for them to afford a mortgage to purchase a home, denying them the opportunity to build intergenerational wealth. “Higher interest rates are hindering growth in the housing supply. High interest rates are also contributing to high housing costs by exacerbating our years-long housing shortage as they limit affordable housing providers’ ability to finance new construction at price points that workers can afford. As a result, housing production remains thousands of units behind each year in communities across the country, and renters are forced to pay high prices month after month. In 2022, a record half of renters were paying more than they could afford for housing, pushing their ability to save for a down payment further out of reach. If affordable housing providers remain unable to build new units that these workers can afford, housing costs will only continue to contribute to rising prices. “Higher interest rates stall small business growth. Tightened credit conditions are making it difficult for small businesses to thrive. Keeping the policy rate higher for longer has driven up the cost of credit for small business loans. Today, a small business seeking to take out a loan will pay on average 9.3% in interest. For the small businesses who have already taken out loans, higher rates will increase their interest burden in 2024. Consequently, 9-out-of-10 small businesses think now is not a good time to expand their business. Small businesses employ half of America’s workers and higher rates are discouraging them from both hiring workers and increasing their employees’ wages to keep up with inflation. “For working Americans and small businesses who already feel the crush of inflation, higher housing costs and reduced access to credit will only make it worse. Keeping interest rates high will be detrimental to American workers and their families and do little to bring down prices or promote moderate economic growth. While more must be done to address the fact that costs remain too high, it is becoming increasingly evident that restrictive monetary policy is no longer the right tool for combatting inflation, and I urge the Federal Reserve to ease monetary policy early this year.” The wealth extraction machine on Wall Street does, however, benefit from higher interest rates. Because those rates drive more people into the need to borrow, the mega banks on Wall Street, which are also among the largest credit card providers, can charge higher interest rates on their credit cards to a growing number of desperate consumers. Today, the Fed will make its announcement on interest rates at 2 p.m., followed by Fed Chair Powell’s press conference at 2:30 p.m. One thing you can expect to hear from Powell is how everything the Fed does is to help the American people. Powell came from the private equity wealth extraction firm, the Carlyle Group. Related Articles: These Are the Banks that Own the New York Fed and Its Money Button Mr. Gensler, the U.S. Stock Market Structure Is an Institutionalized Wealth Transfer System Ten Things You Can Do Now to Curb Wall Street’s Wealth Transfer System There’s a Trump Era/Charles Koch Big Law Firm Behind the Supreme Court Case that Hopes to Gut the Federal Agency that Fights for the Little Guy Wall Street’s Wealth Transfer System Is Imperiling the U.S. Economy As This Crypto Stock’s Price Collapsed, Goldman, JPMorgan and Citigroup Issued Buy Ratings

1 0

American Airlines Sued Over Loyalty Account Closures
by Gunnar Larson 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

American Airlines Sued Over Loyalty Account Closures <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791665?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Emilie Ruscoe American Airlines Inc. faces a proposed class action in federal court brought by members of its loyalty program accusing the company of improperly closing certain members' accounts and wiping out their accrued airline miles. Complaint attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791665?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791665?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

SEC Will Not Rethink 'Gag Rule' On Settlements
by Gunnar Larson 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

SEC Will Not Rethink 'Gag Rule' On Settlements <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791757?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Jessica Corso The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will not rethink its longstanding policy prohibiting defendants from publicly denying the agency's accusations against them, saying Tuesday that revoking the so-called gag rule would undermine public confidence in the markets by allowing alleged wrongdoers to publicly cast doubt on the commission's actions. Letter attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791757?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791757?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

Global Anti-Corruption Fight Is Fizzling, Study Says
by Gunnar Larson 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

Global Anti-Corruption Fight Is Fizzling, Study Says <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1790718?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Phillip Bantz Efforts to combat corruption in the public sector have stalled in the U.S. and globally while some developed countries, including the United Kingdom and Iceland, appear to be drifting backward, according to an annual study released Tuesday. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1790718?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1790718?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

Justices Urged To Review Nix Of FCA Sanction Evasion Suit
by Gunnar Larson 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

Justices Urged To Review Nix Of FCA Sanction Evasion Suit <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791503?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Rae Ann Varona A Wyoming company urged the U.S. Supreme Court to look into whether lower courts and the U.S. Department of Justice unlawfully snubbed its allegations that London's Standard Chartered Bank cleared roughly $56 billion in violation of U.S. sanctions targeting Iran. Petition attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791503?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791503?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

NY Sues Citi Over Fraud Protection, Reimbursement Practices
by Gunnar Larson 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

NY Sues Citi Over Fraud Protection, Reimbursement Practices <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791649?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Jon Hill New York's attorney general on Tuesday sued Citibank NA in federal court over claims that the banking giant lacks sufficiently strong online security measures to protect customers against scammers and has unlawfully refused to reimburse them for fraud losses. Complaint attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791649?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791649?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

New SDNY Whistleblower Program May Be A Game-Changer
by Gunnar Larson 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

New SDNY Whistleblower Program May Be A Game-Changer <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1790694?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> A new pilot program in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York promises to immunize from prosecution certain individuals who blow the whistle on financial crimes and corruption, and if similar self-disclosure programs are any indication, this significant new policy may measurably increase white collar investigations, say attorneys at Paul Hastings. 1 document attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1790694?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1790694?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…>

1 0

BT Says 'Flawed' £1.3B Unfair Pricing Claim Ignores Case Law
by Gunnar Larson 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

BT Says 'Flawed' £1.3B Unfair Pricing Claim Ignores Case Law <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1791570?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> By Joanne Faulkner Telecoms operator BT argued at the U.K. antitrust tribunal on Tuesday that a £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) class action accusing the company of excessive and unfair pricing is "profoundly flawed and ignores the basic principles" of competition case law. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1791570?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1791570?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…>

1 0

EU Tire Cartel Probe Targets Michelin, Continental
by Gunnar Larson 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

EU Tire Cartel Probe Targets Michelin, Continental <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1791624?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> By Matthew Perlman European antitrust enforcers are conducting unannounced inspections at several tire companies, including Michelin, Continental, Goodyear and Nokian Tyres, as part of an investigation into suspected price coordination in the sector. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1791624?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1791624?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…>

1 0

Explorer 1 Overview - NASA - January 31, 1958
by Gunnar Larson 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

Today xNY.io - Bank.org celebrates Explorer 1 ---- https://www.nasa.gov/history/explorer-1-overview/ Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States when it was sent into space on January 31, 1958. Following the launch of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency was directed to launch a satellite using its Jupiter C rocket developed under the direction of Dr. Wernher von Braun. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory received the assignment to design, build and operate the artificial satellite that would serve as the rocket’s payload. JPL completed this job in less than three months. The primary science instrument on Explorer 1 was a cosmic ray detector designed to measure the radiation environment in Earth orbit. Once in space this experiment, provided by Dr. James Van Allen of the University of Iowa, revealed a much lower cosmic ray count than expected. Van Allen theorized that the instrument may have been saturated by very strong radiation from a belt of charged particles trapped in space by Earth’s magnetic field. The existence of these radiation belts was confirmed by another U.S. satellite launched two months later, and they became known as the Van Allen Belts in honor of their discoverer.

1 0

PayPal to Cut Around 2,500 Jobs as Rivals Snag Market Share
by Gunnar Larson 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

PayPal to Cut Around 2,500 Jobs as Rivals Snag Market Share https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-30/paypal-to-cut-around-2-5… PayPal Holdings Inc. will reduce its workforce by about 9% this year as Chief Executive Officer Alex Chriss, who took over in September, grapples with rising competition, profit pressures and a raft of analyst downgrades.

1 0

New York sues Citibank for alleged failure to reimburse fraud victims
by Gunnar Larson 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/30/new-york-sues-citibank-for-alleged-failure-… New York Attorney General Letitia James on Tuesday sued Citibank for allegedly failing to protect and reimburse victims of electronic fraud. The suit claims that Citi does not have strong protections in place to prevent unauthorized account takeovers, misleads victims of fraud and illegally denies reimbursements, according to a release. The attorney general's office said the alleged failure on Citi's part has cost New York account holders millions of dollars, and in some cases, their entire life savings.

1 0

[spam] Non-Canon Traffick Boss Spinoffs Reboot 3
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

i seem to have misplaced the original reboot threads starting at 12/24 to compensate for earlier engagement

1 9

PayPal Begins Company Wide Layoffs — The Information
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/paypal-begins-company-wide-layoffs

1 0

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Says US Debt Will Spark 'Rebellion' in Markets
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/bonds/us-national-debt-deficit-jam… Mounting US debt will eventually spark a "rebellion" in markets around the world, JPMorgan CEO said. That's because $7.6 trillion of US government debt is held by foreign entities in countries like Japan and China. "It is a cliff. We see the cliff. It's about 10 years out. We're going 60 miles an hour," Dimon said. --- "That is the worst possible way to do it," he said. "It is a cliff. We see the cliff. It's about 10 years out. We're going 60 miles an hour." For Jamie Dimon, the US fiscal situation has particularly soured since the time he graduated high school, when the debt-to-GDP ratio was about 35%. And the federal deficit, which is the amount the US spends over its budget in a specific year, was much lower than it is today. "Back then the deficit during the recession, so you do spend money in a recession was, I'm going to say four or 5%," he said. "Today, it's 6.5% in a boom time."

1 0

Great new Cyprus Peacekeeping Video
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2urao0OmGY/?igsh=MTllZXFlZGVja215dQ==

1 0

Scandal-Hit Trading Desk Turns Into Money Spinner at Wells Fargo
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

Scandal-Hit Trading Desk Turns Into Money Spinner at Wells Fargo https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-30/scandal-hit-trading-desk… Wells Fargo & Co.’s early test of how much it can grow a trading desk by leaning on relationships across corporate America is yielding a $1 billion answer. The bank is ahead of schedule in doubling revenue from currencies.

1 0

Cash App Fights Proposed Class Action Over Text Referrals
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

Cash App Fights Proposed Class Action Over Text Referrals <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1790697?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…> By Emilie Ruscoe Block Inc., which operates mobile payment service Cash App, has asked a Seattle federal judge to toss a consumer's proposed class action alleging that the company's referral texts constitute "annoying and harassing spam texts." Motion attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1790697?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1790697?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…>

1 0

Justices Urged To OK 9th Circ.'s Coinbase Arbitration Ruling
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

Justices Urged To OK 9th Circ.'s Coinbase Arbitration Ruling <https://www.law360.com/capitalmarkets/articles/1791360?nl_pk=abe82add-2a33-…> By Dorothy Atkins The American Association for Justice, legal scholars and a consumer advocacy organization threw their weight behind a proposed class of Coinbase users Monday in their fight at the U.S. Supreme Court to keep their dispute alleging the cryptocurrency exchange platform misled them about a Dogecoin sweepstakes out of arbitration. 3 documents attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/capitalmarkets/articles/1791360?nl_pk=abe82add-2a33-…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/capitalmarkets/articles/1791360?nl_pk=abe82add-2a33-…>

1 0

Feds Charge 3 In $1.9B HyperFund Crypto Pyramid Scheme
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

Feds Charge 3 In $1.9B HyperFund Crypto Pyramid Scheme <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1791459?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> By Aislinn Keely The individuals behind cryptocurrency project HyperFund are facing federal charges and a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission action over their roles in what prosecutors say was a crypto Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors out of nearly $1.9 billion. 4 documents attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1791459?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1791459?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…>

1 0

Depos Not Needed In Retaliation Suit, AG Tells Texas Justices
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

Depos Not Needed In Retaliation Suit, AG Tells Texas Justices <https://www.law360.com/legalethics/articles/1791245?nl_pk=153d4a8a-6fb9-4a5…> By Lynn LaRowe Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called on the state Supreme Court Monday to erase a trial court order directing him and top aides to sit for depositions in a long-running whistleblower suit, saying that discovery should not occur because his office has opted not to contest the allegations brought by former employees. 3 documents attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/legalethics/articles/1791245?nl_pk=153d4a8a-6fb9-4a5…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/legalethics/articles/1791245?nl_pk=153d4a8a-6fb9-4a5…>

1 0

Trump, Ally Question Hiring Of Special Prosecutors In Ga.
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

Trump, Ally Question Hiring Of Special Prosecutors In Ga. <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791071?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Kelcey Caulder Another defendant in the Georgia election interference case wants Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis, her office and the special prosecution team disqualified from the case, alleging Willis improperly hired all of the special district attorneys working the case and engaged in an improper romantic relationship with one of them. 3 documents attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791071?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791071?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

OCC's Hsu Floats 'Chalk Lines' For Bank Merger Approvals
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

OCC's Hsu Floats 'Chalk Lines' For Bank Merger Approvals <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791216?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Jon Hill The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's acting chief on Monday unveiled a proposal to provide banks with a sketch of what the agency thinks a winning merger applicant does and doesn't look like, pitching the plans as a boon to bank merger review transparency while stirring industry doubts. Proposed Rule attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791216?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1791216?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

Banking Group Of The Year: Sullivan & Cromwell
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

PayPal seemingly got a 'Conditional BitLicense' ... then a full BitLicense while PayPal's customer money sits at Wells Fargo. Meanwhile, Cromwell was also representing FTX. The Superintendent is a former Cromwell attorney. Gunnar ----- Banking Group Of The Year: Sullivan & Cromwell <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1787617?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Jon Hill Sullivan & Cromwell LLP's attorneys steered a stricken Credit Suisse into the arms of UBS for the biggest bank merger since the 2008 financial crisis and helped Wells Fargo reach a record-setting $3.7 billion settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, earning the firm a spot among Law360's 2023 Banking Groups of the Year. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1787617?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1787617?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

LaPierre Takes Some Blame, Backing NRA's 'Victim' Defense
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

LaPierre Takes Some Blame, Backing NRA's 'Victim' Defense <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1791374?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…> By Rachel Scharf Former longtime National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre told jurors in the New York attorney general's fraud trial Monday that he failed to tell the NRA board about certain private jet spending and vendor relationships, aligning with the gun group's defense that it was in the dark about his wrongdoing. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1791374?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1791374?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…>

1 0

There’s So Much Data Even Spies Are Struggling to Find Secrets
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

There’s So Much Data Even Spies Are Struggling to Find Secrets https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-29/flood-of-personal-data-m… Spying used to be all about secrets. Increasingly, it’s about what’s hiding in plain sight.

1 0

Fwd: SpaceX Interlocking Directors’ Intent to Manipulate Markets
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

!!! ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Gunnar Larson <g(a)xny.io> Date: Thu, Nov 2, 2023, 12:52 PM Subject: Re: SpaceX Interlocking Directors’ Intent to Manipulate Markets To: <letitia.james(a)ag.ny.gov> Cc: <ir(a)twitter.com>, Harris, Adrienne A (DFS) <Adrienne.Harris(a)dfs.ny.gov>, <district3(a)council.nyc.gov>, Reader, Shaun <sreader(a)curtis.com> Dear Madam Attorney General James: xNY.io - Bank.org kindly seeks a response from your office concerning the message below. Today in Manhattan, the FTX case will soon be sent for jury deliberation. According to NPR, "... FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is accused of orchestrating one of the largest financial frauds in history." Additionally, today Donald Trump's civil fraud trial continues in New York City. Attorney General James, as you are aware xNY.io - Bank.org has an ongoing dialog with your office concerning a 'RICO.' The New York State Department of Financial Services records office has responded with a memo concerning the "Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement" here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1reLapm-6C0QJZhPKIPtN5HZGbYhTxZMh/view?usp=… . This memo aims to execute N.Y. Executive Law, Article 15 § 297. Procedure 1. Additionally, § 298-a. Application of article to certain acts committed outside the state of New York, (Israel Crisis). Kind regards, Gunnar -- Gunnar Larson xNY.io - Bank.org MSc - Digital Currency MBA - Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ip) G(a)xNY.io +1-917-580-8053 New York, New York 10001 On Sat, Jun 18, 2022, 4:44 PM Gunnar Larson <g(a)xny.io> wrote: > Dear Attorney General Letitia James: > > xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC seeks to earn your esteemed approval to engage the > New York False Claims Act under urgent pretences. > > Today's correspondence marks the first time in history, a self-titled > "mafia" (aka, the "PayPal Mafia '') is compelled to answer publicly the > decision to manipulate both the New York False Claims Act and the Martin > Act against one another. > > - Madam Attorney General, your leadership approach has historical > context > <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/climate/exxon-climate-lawsuit-new-york.h…> > to logic and ultimate Exxon Mobil vs. New York State > <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nLp9RIYw8mAh1SRG8E9PMEK94SV-viUN/view?usp=…> case > precedent. > - xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC research and development notes our hawkish > approach to ESG, D&O and LBO innovation. > - xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC sees this not a democrat vs. republican > concern as Mr. Elon Musk (CEO, SpaceX and Tesla) claims. False pretense to > protect free speech are now being debated as party to a $200B pryamid > scheme. > > Ms. James, on May 21, 2022 xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC > <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lv9Wt6y1ld4bNap0z3epIxttEGiP_oVpfxH0GTS…> > contacted the SpaceX Corporation with reasonable concern of CEO Musk's > intent behind the $44B Twitter LBO. The Orlando Police Pension Fund shared > similar concerns to the intent behind Twitter's LBO as illegal. > > Since, market forces suggest that SpaceX and Tesla directors are part of > interlocking directorate, self proclaimed the PayPal Mafia. The racket > could waterfall to problem(s) at the New York State Department of Financial > Services with Superintendent association to D&O insurance regulation. > > Ms. James, xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC seeks your office's urgent assessment of > this matter. We aim to earn approval to explore the New York False Claims > Act to confront SpaceX as a racket. > > *Like a house of cards, the PayPal Mafia racket could risk a waterfall of > D&O interlocking directorate insolvencies. In summary: * > > 1. xNY.io - Bank.org's May 21, 2022 memo to SpaceX questioned intent > behind baseless claims pioneered by SpaceX's CEO, branding ESG a scam via > Exxon Mobil. Obviously, Exxon Mobil vs. New York State > <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nLp9RIYw8mAh1SRG8E9PMEK94SV-viUN/view?usp=…> alludes > Mr. Musk party to a false claim. > 2. SpaceX has failed to establish a preponderance of evidence and > burden of proof not a racket. > 3. SpaceX has failed to prove that Twitter's LBO is not false claim to > free speech protection. > 4. True social innovation cannot sponsor a fake news racket that could > jeopardize space exploration and war. > 5. Twitter's LBO dealmakers (Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase) > company balance sheets, financial statements and other corporate records do > not impact xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC holding a racket accountable to false > claims. > > The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla leveraging Exxon Mobil as an ESG > securities scam does not preclude the PayPal Mafia's intent to engage false > claims at the sacrifice of New York State's financial future. > > Madam Attorney General James, we hope to hear from your esteemed office > and learn assessment of best next steps. > > Thank you, > > Gunnar > > -- > *Gunnar Larson * > *xNY.io <http://www.xny.io/> - Bank.org <http://bank.org/>, PBC* > > MSc > <https://www.unic.ac.cy/blockchain/msc-digital-currency/?utm_source=Google&u…> - > Digital Currency > MBA > <https://www.unic.ac.cy/business-administration-entrepreneurship-and-innovat…> - Entrepreneurship > and Innovation (ip) > > G(a)xNY.io > +1-646-454-9107 > New York, New York 10001 > > On Sun, May 22, 2022 at 9:34 AM Gunnar Larson <g(a)xny.io> wrote: > >> May 21, 2022 >> >> BY ELECTRONIC MAIL >> >> SpaceX Corporation >> Board of Directors >> One Rocket Road >> Hawthorne, California >> 90250 >> Sales(a)SpaceX.com >> >> Re: Potential SpaceX Interlocking Directors’ Intent to Manipulate >> Markets >> >> Dear SpaceX Board of Directors: >> >> From our New York headquarters, xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC embodies the >> notion that rather than a merry-go-round, the process of change and >> innovation is like a slide. >> >> Today’s memo aims to notify the SpaceX Corporation of concern of >> potential market manipulation that could impact cross-border digital asset >> innovation, free speech in the United States of America, the global ESG >> economy and Moon exploration. >> >> Please find the attached memo >> <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lv9Wt6y1ld4bNap0z3epIxttEGiP_oVpfxH0GTS…> >> addressed to SpaceX's board of directors. >> >> Respectfully, >> >> Gunnar Larson >> >

1 0

FDIC Must Clean House Amid Deep 'Rot,' GOP Sen. Says
by pro2rat＠yahoo.com.au 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

YES. And the LOL GOP knows so much about deep-rot from constant fermentation of it. “I’m a big admirer of Ron Paul & Rand Paul for their very principled positions in the US Congress on a number of issues” ASSANGE 2013 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Mellon Asshole Sugar Daddy for expensive suits and chopper rides. Very assange. Why does the GOP hate women so much? Jesus Fucking Christ Related news… Mussolini was Catholic. Franco was Catholic. Himmler, head of the SS, was a Catholic. The SS was set up on the Jesuit model. Goebbels was Catholic. Hoss, the camp commandant of Auschwitz, was a Catholic. Frank,‘ the butcher of Poland ’, was Catholic.

1 0

Memo #4 - Goldman Sachs Deferred Prosecution Agreement
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

March 10, 2022 BY ELECTRONIC MAIL Mr. John Marzulli United States Department of Justice Eastern District of New York 271 Cadman Plaza East Brooklyn New York, 11201 John.Marzulli(a)usdoj.gov Re: Memo #4 - Goldman Sachs Deferred Prosecution Agreement Dear Mr. Marzulli: The Department of Justice has yet to respond to Memo #1, Memo #2 and Memo #3 with our recent inquiry to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad Deferred Agreement. Goldman Sachs' Deferred Prosecution Agreement <https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/goldman-sachs-resolves-foreign-bribery…> with the United States of America is in potential breach, with ethical enforcement being concerned. Memo #4 aims to associate the malfeasance in Malaysia with war crimes of aggression (in the planning, initiation, or execution of a large-scale and serious act of aggression), leveraging the world’s only military divided capital city Nicosia, Cyprus. 1. Additionally, Memo #4 aims to earn the DOJ’s assessment of New York State’s regulatory marketplace manipulation deriving the war crime against peace, related to the planning, preparation, initiation, waging or participation in a common plan or conspiracy related to a war of aggression, which can only apply in relation to international armed conflict. 2. In this case, the first challenge is to observe and consider the simple idea that the DOJ’s Deferred Prosecution Agreement with Goldman Sachs alone, through means of regulatory arbitrage naively fails to recognize the ‘cause and effect’ relationship at play at the inception of Memo #4’s assertion of war crimes. 3. Even with the best of intentions, perhaps unknowingly the DOJ may be amplifying the effect of potential war crimes by indirectly supplementing the root cause of the problem and financial model of the Deferred Agreement being self-policing. Mr. Marzulli, there has been an active United Nations peacekeeping mission in Cyprus since the 1964 Turkish military invasion and occupation of the northern third of Cyprus. Only Turkey recognises the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, while there is broad recognition that the ongoing military presence constitutes occupation of territories that are under Turkish military control. - The graduate education behind Memo #4 is a product of the University of Nicosia’s (UNIC) main campus, located adjacent to the United Nations Buffer Zone that separates the invaded Turkish Republic of North Cyprus and the Republic of Cyprus, which joined the European Union in 2004. - Memo #4 is also a product of United Nations consultancy, based at its Manhattan headquarters, where (today, what is now xNY.io - Bank.org) was credited with increasing the breadth and accessibility of reference content from the world’s most important multinational organization. - Memo #4’s subject of war crimes has preeminent association with such projects as the Audio Visual Library of International Law. Over the following sections, Memo #4 will provide a detailed timeline that would constitute real concern of the war crime of aggression yielding the war crime against peace in active war conflict in the world’s only military divided capital, funded from Manhattan Island. The Bank of Cyprus and Illegal Short Selling Irregularities of Turkey’s Markets Mr. Marzulli, turn this matter as we will, and look at it from any side whatsoever, and it presents the appearance of a cross-border act of aggression. Goldman Sachs’ potential disrespect to the Deferred Agreement’s core values has cultivated new crimes that aim to manipulate cross-border war crime regulatory frameworks. - On April 02, 2021 the Financial Times reported that Turkey fined Goldman Sachs over alleged irregularities in short selling, just a week after foreign investors pulled $1.9B from the country’s stock and bond markets. Turkey’s Capital Markets Board said that Goldman Sachs was among 10 securities firms that had placed orders for short selling without proper notification, violating rules enacted previously that temporarily prohibited such transactions. - On April 20, 2021 the CyprusMail (Cyprus’ only English Language daily newspaper) reported Goldman Sachs International acted as Global Coordinators and Dealer Managers in a $330M bond issuance for the Bank of Cyprus. Given the active military conflict in Cyprus, Memo #4 notes that there is one place on the planet you are not supposed to do this sort of thing. Furthermore, the DOJ’s Deferred Agreement with Goldman Sachs may have been tainted with the potential war crime of aggression, risking international peace and the lives of United Nations peacekeepers, while jeopardizing the United States of America’s financial security. Concern of New York Prime Bank Instrument Fraud and Marketplace Manipulation The United States Department of the Treasury warns that Prime Bank Instrument Fraud schemes have attracted significant international attention, since individuals and organizations have lost billions of dollars worldwide. "Prime Bank Instrument Fraud" is the general term given to prime bank fraud schemes that go by many different names. During April 2021, Goldman Sachs could not in good faith (and, plausible deniability) make any reasonable claim of holding a pristine relationship with Turkey’s Central Bank or with Cyprus’ largest financial institutions, given the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal and then pending Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the United States of America. - Memo #4 suggests that Goldman Sachs developed a Prime Bank Instrument Fraud program to level out yo-yo market dynamics caused by failed marketplace manipulation exercises in Turkey and Cyprus. - Systematic bank fraud and/or marketplace manipulation of any kind between Turkey and Cyprus could constitute the war crime of aggression. - Furthermore, Memo #4 argues that Goldman Sachs may have tried to bambooze governments in New York, Cyprus and Turkey through regulatory arbitrage loopholes, while Goldman seemingly may have not considered the totality of such actions as war crimes. Turkey has the highest inflation in Europe. It has the second-highest rate of inflation among emerging markets, just behind Argentina. It has the 13th highest inflation rate in the world, ranking it between South Sudan and Nigeria. After Goldman Sachs was fined for illegal stock and bond market short selling by the Turkish government, logic would argue further malfeasance potentially could have been avoided by the DOJ’s 1Malaysia Development Berhad investigation. - On April 15, 2021 CNBC reported that Goldman Sachs (note, the previous section’s milestones of April 02, 2021 and April 20, 2021) crucially removed its bias toward Turkey tightening interest rates. Goldman issued guidance highlighting the fact that the bank thought that, “…the removal of the tightening bias against rising inflation expectations suggests that the TCMB (Turkish Central Bank) now has a more dovish reaction function.” - On August 14, 2021 the CyprusMail reported serious concern among economists about data reporting from the Turkish Statistical Institute. Ahmet Takan, a former official with the office of the Turkish prime minister, acted as a whistle blower, warning that Turkey potentially was manipulating inflation data. - On September 1, 2021 Reuters reported that Goldman Sachs hiked Turkish growth forecasts. Goldman economists issued guidance stating, "Overall, the Turkish economy has been able to grow faster than we thought without a deterioration in its external balances, as the pickup in foreign demand has been very supportive." - On November 30, 2021 Reuters reported that Goldman Sachs trimed Turkey’s 2022 growth forecast. Goldman Sachs' Murat Unur stated, "We think that the GDP figures released today tell us little about the pace of economic activity going forward as the recent sell-off in the Lira is likely to impact economic activity significantly" Mr. Marzulli, the DOJ’s Deferred Prosecution Agreement with Goldman Sachs was signed on October 21, 2021. The timeline of events above do not coincide with terms and conditions of the Deferred Agreement mandated by the United States of America. Furthermore, as an international graduate scholars of the world’s only military divided capital on the planet, xNY.io - Bank.org should be protected from any association of crimes against peace, related to the planning, preparation, initiation, waging or participation in a common plan or conspiracy related to a war of aggression, which can only apply in relation to international armed conflict. War Crimes Against Humanity Mr. Marzulli, xNY.io - Bank.org is concerned that potential breaches to the Deferred Agreement are impacting our global enterprise. Crimes against humanity can be committed in peacetime as well as during an armed conflict. Even a single act could fall under this exclusion ground provided it forms part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population and the act is committed by any person (including a civilian) who had knowledge of the attack and the link of the act to the attack. 1. We are looking to learn more about the DOJ’s approach to assessing any potential breaches to the Deferred Agreement’s mandates as we determine New York State’s role in cross-border bank regulation and corresponding innovation beyond war crimes against humanity. 2. In order to establish whether a war crime or a crime against humanity has been committed, the case officer should consult the relevant international instruments and case law. 3. Crimes against humanity are fundamentally inhumane acts, committed as part of a systematic or widespread attack. Inhumane acts, which could reach this threshold when committed pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy (potentially, New York State bank regulation). 4. Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, or other grounds that are universally recognised as impermissible under international law. 5. Furthermore, we have made 28 highlights to the Deferred Agreement providing supporting reference to Memo #4’s overarching premise. xNY.io - Bank.org submits Memo #4 for DOJ consideration of other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health. Some crimes against humanity would require an additional specific intent, such as Goldman Sachs willfully disrespecting New York State and/or overall peace and security of the United States of America. Memo #1, Memo #2, Memo #3 and Memo #4 outline instances that correspond with the associated definitions of the potential war crimes abroad and jeopardize the future of bank innovation from New York, at great sacrifice to the Homeland. We hope to learn the DOJ’s approach to comment on Memo #4’s subject matter or, without delay refer these concerns to the International Criminal Court and/or International Court of Justice for comment. Respectfully yours with anticipation, Gunnar Larson - xNY.io <http://www.xny.io> | Bank.org <http://bank.org>MSc <https://www.unic.ac.cy/blockchain/msc-digital-currency/?utm_source=Google&u…> - Digital Currency MBA <https://www.unic.ac.cy/business-administration-entrepreneurship-and-innovat…> - Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ip) G(a)xNY.io +1-646-454-9107

1 7

Considerations For Lawyer Witnesses After FTX Trial
by Gunnar Larson 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

Speaking for xNY.io on its own, I think that there could be some details from the Bloomberg Crypto Summit that are being consealed. >From my own personal experience concerning the matter. I wrote my Senators. ----- Considerations For Lawyer Witnesses After FTX Trial <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1788646?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> Sam Bankman-Fried's recent trial testimony about his lawyers' involvement in FTX's business highlights the need for attorney-witnesses to understand privilege issues in order to avoid costly discovery disputes and, potentially, uncover critical evidence an adversary might seek to conceal, says Lawrence Bluestone at Genova Burns. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1788646?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1788646?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 1

LinkedIn Co-Founder Defends Funding Trump Rape Accuser Suit
by professor rat 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

I will take this opportunity to reach out to Mr Hoffman here. Cong-rats Reid You were righteous Thank you!

1 0

NYC's Biggest Police Union Has Made a Huge Mess of the 2020 Protest Settlement - Hell Gate
by Gunnar Larson 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

https://hellgatenyc.com/the-pba-makes-a-mess-of-the-2020-protest-settlement… It's been almost five months since New York City agreed to overhaul the way the NYPD polices protests as part of the settlement <https://hellgatenyc.com/nypd-protest-settlement-underwhelming> of a raft of class-action lawsuits brought in the wake of the George Floyd protests of 2020. But the settlement still hasn't been finalized because the city's largest police union doesn't like it. On Monday, Federal Judge Colleen McMahon will hear oral arguments on whether the Police Benevolent Association should be allowed to scuttle the settlement, even though it's neither the party being sued (that's the City of New York) nor one of the parties doing the suing (protesters subjected to the NYPD's heavy-handed response, as well as the New York Attorney General). Under the settlement, the NYPD committed to a number of reforms of how it reacts to people exercising their right to protest. Where in the past the NYPD has often responded even to small, nonviolent demonstrations with disproportionately large and menacing numbers of police equipped in riot gear, under the settlement the department agreed to a tiered and proportional response, in which police present a light footprint at protests, escalating if necessary as specified conditions are met. Where the NYPD had a history of arresting protesters en masse <https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/nyregion/protesters-arrests-during-2004-…>, often on rinky-dink charges like "walking in the roadway <https://hrp.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/suppressing-protest-…>," the department now agreed that officers would need permission from higher-ups before making such low-level arrests. While the settlement is far from perfect—it does little to change how the NYPD uses violent force against protesters, and after a four-year implementation period, there's no legal mechanism to prevent the NYPD from backsliding—it represents significant progress from the violent abuses <https://hellgatenyc.com/nypd-mott-haven-protest-settlement> on display during the 2020 protests. Or it will, if it's ever actually adopted. Most immediately, Monday's hearing could determine whether the historic settlement, and the reforms it imposes on the NYPD's treatment of people exercising their constitutional right to protest, goes into effect. More generally, the current legal battle raises a host of messy questions about how lawsuits get settled and who can stop them from getting settled. When the police unions sought to intervene in the class action suits back in 2021, McMahon denied their request. If the NYPD was engaged in unconstitutional police practices, she wrote, the union doesn't have a legal right to preserve those unconstitutional practices. But the unions appealed, and McMahon was overruled <https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.552671/gov.uscour…> by a panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which accepted the unions' argument that because changes to NYPD policy that might arise from the lawsuits could affect the personal safety of the police officers in the unions, they should be allowed to participate in the lawsuit and have a say. This was, to put it mildly, a somewhat wild precedent to set. Police unions in this country are singularly revanchist political formations that consistently resist even the most common-sense police reforms. If they are entitled to have a say in every lawsuit about unconstitutional police abuses, it would significantly complicate the way civil rights litigation has historically nudged police departments to respect civil rights. Nevertheless, the unions were allowed to intervene in the lawsuits. Once admitted to the litigation, they did very little. They didn't file any claims against anybody or depose any witnesses, but they sat in on many of the negotiations between the plaintiff's lawyers and the City's lawyers. When the settlement was announced, two of the police unions who intervened—the Sergeants Benevolent Association and the Detectives Endowment Association—signed on to it. But the Police Benevolent Association, which represents rank-and-file cops, did not. When Judge McMahon approved the settlement, the PBA, represented by her longtime friend, colleague, and Super Bowl party co-host (and journalist Ben Smith's dad) Robert Smith, objected because it hadn't signed off on the deal, and McMahon reversed herself <https://hellgatenyc.com/police-union-doesnt-like-2020-protest-settlement-so…>, revoking her approval. In the intervening months, the plaintiffs and the City, erstwhile adversaries, filed papers arguing that since they are the real parties to the lawsuit, and they want to settle, it would be absurd to make them go to trial because the union, an intervener, isn't completely satisfied with the agreement they've reached. The PBA, for its part, argued that since the Second Circuit had allowed it to intervene in the suit in order to protect its interest in officer safety, it's allowed to tank the settlement if it thinks it will hurt officer safety. The plaintiffs and the City countered that even if the PBA's safety concerns give it standing, it's wrong on the facts: By implementing reforms calculated to minimize and de-escalate protesters' conflicts with the police, they argued, the settlement will make police safer, not less safe. Both sides produced expert witnesses. The PBA tapped Louis Anemone, who retired from the NYPD as Chief of Patrol in the last century, who argued <https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.546923/gov.uscour…> that safety is achieved by letting police make unfettered decisions about how much force to show and when to arrest people. "Restraints on the personnel allowed or when and who can effect arrests will create confusion and chaos at the scene," he wrote. The plaintiffs produced expert testimony from Hasan Aden, a federal police monitor and former Virginia police chief, who argued <https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.546923/gov.uscour…> that police standards and best practices have evolved since Anemone's day, and that it's now widely recognized that confronting non-violent crowds with overwhelming force, far from settling situations and assuring officer safety, actually tends to provoke greater levels of conflict. Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Adams added to the confusion, telling a press conference <https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/990-23/transcript-mayor-adams-…> in December that even though the City had signed the settlement and was fighting in court to implement it, he actually agreed with the PBA, which was seeking to nullify it. "As soon as I read the settlement, I said, this is a problem," Adams said. "You have to go by the advice of your attorneys, but as soon as I read it… Anyone who polices this city should be concerned about what's in the settlement." The papers filed, more months went by, with no indication from Judge McMahon on how she intended to resolve the dispute. Then, on Tuesday, she abruptly scheduled oral arguments, giving the parties less than a week to prepare. Just what shape the hearing will take, and when and how McMahon will rule, remains unclear. Regardless, it seems likely that whoever prevails, her decision will be appealed to the Second Circuit. And given the appeals panel's surprising ruling granting the unions intervenor status—the ruling that created this mess in the first place—it's anyone's guess what will happen there. In the meantime, rolling protests over the bombing of civilians in Gaza continue into their fourth month, and the NYPD is responding to them <https://hellgatenyc.com/nypd-still-policing-protests-like-its-2020>, unbound by any of the reforms it committed to in the still pending settlement. If you want to call in and listen to this court hearing of significant public interest, too bad, you can't. Judge McMahon rejected a request to make a dial-in line available for the hearing. Already a user?Log in <https://hellgatenyc.com/login> Thanks for reading!Give us your email address to keep reading two more articles for free

1 0

The Fed Has a Dirty Little Secret: It’s Been Allowing the Wall Street Mega Banks to Calculate their Own Capital Requirements
by Gunnar Larson 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/01/the-fed-has-a-dirty-little-secret-it… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 29, 2024 ~ Michael Barr Michael Barr, Vice Chair for Supervision, Federal Reserve On July 27 of last year, the Vice Chair for Supervision at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Michael Barr, made the following statement as part of the proposed new capital requirements for mega banks in the U.S. – revealing the stunning news that the serially-charged mega banks on Wall Street have been allowed to use their own internal risk models to tell the Fed how much risk-weighted assets they have and, thus, how much capital they need to hold. Barr stated: “For a firm’s lending activities, the proposed rules would end the practice of relying on a bank’s own individual estimates of their own risk and instead use a standardized, but risk-based measure of credit risk. Standardized credit risk approaches do a reasonably good job of approximating risks, while internal models are prone to underestimate such risks. “Second, for a firm’s trading activities, the proposed rules would adjust the way that the firm is required to measure market risk, which is the risk of loss from movements in market prices. These changes are intended to correct for gaps in the current rules.” Relying on the mega banks that have been regularly charged with criminal acts and manipulating markets and who brought the U.S. economy to its knees with their financial crash of 2008, because their risk models were as helpful as a row boat in a tsunami, is yet one more clear indication that federal banking regulators have been completely captured by the Wall Street mega banks. According to the Fed, the newly proposed capital rules will not stop federal regulators from relying on the mega banks to provide the information that sets their capital requirements, it will just change the models. The Fed and its fellow bank regulators wrote as follows about their so-called Basel III reforms: “Under the proposed expanded risk-based approach, banking organizations would calculate total risk-weighted assets using (1) a new standardized approach for credit risk; (2) the revised approach for credit valuation adjustment (CVA) risk; (3) a new standardized approach for operational risk; and (4) the revised approach to market risk.” Two economists are now calling out this insanity in a new academic paper. Anat Admati is the Professor of Finance and Economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Martin Hellwig is a German economist. The two are co-authors of the newly released and expanded book The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It. To call attention to the lies that bankers and their lobbyists perpetuate to get watered-down or gutted rules from their regulators, Admati and Hellwig have released a paper debunking the 44 flawed claims that bankers have been getting away with. One of those flawed claims goes to the heart of this debate on required capital. The pair write: “Flawed Claim 29: Assigning risk weights to assets when determining required equity [equity capital] is a way of bringing serious quantitative analysis to bear on bank regulation… “Proper measurement of the risks to which a bank is exposed would have to consider the counterparty credit risks and their correlations with the underlying risks of the banks. The scope for doing so is limited by a lack of data and by the never-ending changes in risks and correlations that occur when counterparties change their own positions. In practice, the use of risk weights in bank regulation allows banks to be extremely highly indebted, masks important risks, and adds to the interconnectedness of the system. Whereas proponents of the system argue that it is important to require banks to have more equity funding when their assets are riskier, in fact the system allows banks to get away with much less equity funding when they say that their assets are less risky. A uniform ratio of required equity [equity capital] to total assets would provide a lower bound on the banks’ leverage and would enable supervisors to intervene when the ratio is breached before it may be too late. By contrast, because some risk weights are (near) zero, the risk-weighting system allows very high leverage. “The ability of banks to ‘economize on equity’ is enhanced by their ability to use their own models to assess risks. The scope for manipulation they have is largest for assets in the trading book, which is why they were keen to put mortgage-backed securities and the like into the trading book, subject to mark-to-market accounting rules. Most of the losses in 2007-2009 were incurred on assets in the trading book, where equity often was as low as 1 percent of investments…” What the Fed and its fellow federal regulators have been effectively doing is turning capital requirements over to the casino. Consider what happened when the 158-year old Lehman Brothers failed in 2008 and filed for bankruptcy. Just five days before Lehman failed, it was sporting a capital ratio of 11 percent, suggesting that it was adequately capitalized. But four weeks after its bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, its debt was valued at only 9 cents on the dollar, suggesting its unsecured creditors were going to lose 91 percent of their money. While the recovery rate improved over time as market values stabilized, there is no question that Lehman’s regulators were in the dark – or chose to be in the dark – about just how highly leveraged this financial institution was in 2008. Unknown to most Americans, the reckless Lehman Brothers was allowed by its regulators to own two federally-insured banks: Lehman Brothers Bank, FSB and Lehman Brothers Commercial Bank. Together, they held $17.2 billion in assets as of June 30, 2008, 75 days before Lehman went belly up. Today, four of the largest trading houses on Wall Street own federally-insured banks that rank among the largest seven federally-insured banks in the U.S.: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs. Another key problem with allowing the criminally-inclined mega banks to calculate their own risk-weighted capital needs is that only a handful of people inside the bank understand the risks that are hiding in the shadows in the bank’s off-balance-sheet exposures. On its way to becoming a 99-cent stock in March of 2009 and needing a secret $2.5 trillion bailout in cumulative loans from the Fed between December 2007 and June 2010, Citigroup was using off-balance-sheet SIVs (Structured Investment Vehicles) to boost its profits and hide its risks. When the bank was forced to move these vehicles back onto its balance sheet, its debt was downgraded and its stock tanked further. Any suggestion that the mega banks on Wall Street have cleaned up their reckless risk-taking is undermined by the number of times they have needed to be bailed out since the crash of 2008 – the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. (The New York Fed has become the official money funnel for Wall Street bailouts while being, literally, owned by some of the biggest banks on Wall Street.) The first banking crisis since that of 2008 began on September 17, 2019 – for reasons the Fed has yet to explain with any credibility. In the last quarter of 2019, the New York Fed had to shovel emergency repo loans cumulatively totaling (on a term-adjusted basis) $19.87 trillion into Wall Street banks. As the chart below indicates, just six trading units of the mega banks on Wall Street received 62 percent of that amount. (Unadjusted for the term of the loan, the cumulative total was $4.5 trillion.) Fed's Repo Loans to Largest Borrowers, Q4 2019, Adjusted for Term of Loan Under the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation of 2010, the Fed had to release the names of the banks that received these bailouts, and the dollar amounts of each loan, two years after the program began. While mainstream media went to court to get this information in 2008, there was a total mainstream media blackout when the Fed released the data for the 2019 bailouts. (See There’s a News Blackout on the Fed’s Naming of the Banks that Got Its Emergency Repo Loans; Some Journalists Appear to Be Under Gag Orders.) The next banking crisis occurred in March 2020 and was blamed on the pandemic. The share prices of the four largest banks (by deposits) collapsed by as much as 40 to 60 percent between January 2, 2020 and March 18, 2020. The Fed rolled out the same alphabet soup of emergency lending programs that it had rolled out in 2008 – with the New York Fed once again in charge of the bulk of those programs. Three years later, in the spring of 2023, the second, third and fourth largest bank failures in U.S. history occurred: Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March and First Republic Bank on May 1. To deal with last year’s failures, the Fed did something that it has never done before in its 110-year history. It began accepting underwater bonds as collateral for emergency loans to teetering banks while paying 100-cents on the dollar on that collateral for loans of up to one year in duration. (Historically, the Fed has imposed a haircut on collateral and made overnight loans through its Discount Window.) The Fed called this bailout program the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP). In recent weeks, the amounts being borrowed under the Bank Term Funding Program have spiked. The bailout facility had a balance of $121.7 billion as of December 7, 2023. As of its last report date on January 24, 2024, it had soared to $167.8 billion. Last Wednesday, after weeks of watching banks increasingly tap the Bank Term Funding Program almost a year after the banking crisis was supposed to have subsided, the Fed announced it would cut off any more loans from the BTFP on March 11. Taming the Megabanks, Book JacketAs we have repeatedly stated, and the brilliant Law Professor Art Wilmarth has documented, the only meaningful way to genuinely reform the mega banks is to restore the Glass-Steagall Act, which will separate casino banking from the federally-insured deposits of U.S. commercial banks.

1 0

White House Calls Explicit AI Photos Of Taylor Swift 'Alarming'
by Gunnar Larson 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

White House Calls Explicit AI Photos Of Taylor Swift 'Alarming' <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1790815?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…> By Lauren Berg The White House on Friday called the recent circulation of sexually explicit artificial intelligence-generated images of Taylor Swift "alarming," saying social media companies have a duty to prevent the spread of "nonconsensual intimate imagery of real people," while others said the fake images amount to criminal sexual abuse. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1790815?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1790815?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…>

1 0

Meta Beats Claims Facebook Enabled Rohingya Genocide
by Gunnar Larson 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

Meta Beats Claims Facebook Enabled Rohingya Genocide <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1790796?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…> By Henrik Nilsson A California federal judge tossed without leave to amend a proposed class action alleging Meta Platforms Inc. enabled the genocide of the Rohingya people in Myanmar by helping spread disinformation on Facebook, saying the two refugees filed the complaint too late. Order attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1790796?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1790796?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…>

1 0

Illinois Judges Face Partisan Complaint Over Diversity Orders
by Gunnar Larson 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

Illinois Judges Face Partisan Complaint Over Diversity Orders <https://www.law360.com/legalethics/articles/1790729?nl_pk=153d4a8a-6fb9-4a5…> By Celeste Bott A group founded by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller has filed a discrimination complaint against three Illinois federal judges over their efforts to encourage younger, female and minority attorneys to handle oral arguments in their courtrooms, saying the policies amount to "oral-argument affirmative action for lawyers." 4 documents attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/legalethics/articles/1790729?nl_pk=153d4a8a-6fb9-4a5…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/legalethics/articles/1790729?nl_pk=153d4a8a-6fb9-4a5…>

1 0

Ga. State Rep Moves To Impeach DA Fani Willis
by Gunnar Larson 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

There are two RICOs happening in New York right now. ---- Ga. State Rep Moves To Impeach DA Fani Willis <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1790476?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Andrea Keckley Republican Georgia State Rep. Charlice Byrd introduced a resolution to impeach Fani T. Willis on Friday, one day after Donald Trump joined a motion to disqualify the Fulton County district attorney from the sweeping racketeering case she is pursuing against the former president and more than a dozen others in connection with the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1790476?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1790476?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

TIAA Sues Ex-SVB Execs Over Losses From Bank's Failure
by Gunnar Larson 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

The teachers have to sue sometimes.... ---- TIAA Sues Ex-SVB Execs Over Losses From Bank's Failure <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1790732?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Katryna Perera Former directors and executives of Silicon Valley Bank have been hit with a suit in California federal court by financial services giant TIAA over losses it allegedly suffered when the bank imploded under the weight of a bulging portfolio of interest rate-sensitive assets. Complaint attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1790732?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1790732?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

FDIC Must Clean House Amid Deep 'Rot,' GOP Sen. Says
by Gunnar Larson 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

FDIC Must Clean House Amid Deep 'Rot,' GOP Sen. Says <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1790821?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Jon Hill The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is facing fresh Republican scrutiny of its workplace policies following an agency attorney's guilty plea to child sexual exploitation charges, a case that U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa slammed Friday as epitomizing deep "rot" inside the agency that must be rooted out. 2 documents attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1790821?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1790821?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

JPMorgan, Zelle Parent Co. Can Arbitrate Customer Fraud Suit
by Gunnar Larson 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

JPMorgan, Zelle Parent Co. Can Arbitrate Customer Fraud Suit <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1790360?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…> By Emilie Ruscoe JPMorgan Chase Bank NA and Early Warning Services LLC, Zelle's parent company, will see account holder fraud allegations sent to arbitration after they argued the customers who brought a proposed class action had agreed to arbitration "multiple times," a Manhattan federal judge determined. Order attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1790360?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1790360?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…>

1 0

NRA Paid For Luxury Expenses, LaPierre Confirms
by Gunnar Larson 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

NRA Paid For Luxury Expenses, LaPierre Confirms <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1790737?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…> By Stewart Bishop National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre on Friday took the witness stand in the trial over the New York attorney general's claims of widespread corruption at the nonprofit gun rights group, confirming details about his opulent lifestyle that was bankrolled in part by the NRA itself. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1790737?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1790737?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…>

1 0

DOJ Confirms Cuomo Harassed Staff, Backs Reforms
by Gunnar Larson 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

Still waiting to hear back from Senator Gillibrand on something similar. Gunnar ---- DOJ Confirms Cuomo Harassed Staff, Backs Reforms <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1790692?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…> By Frank G. Runyeon and Anne Cullen Federal prosecutors said Friday they had resolved an investigation into former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive chamber, confirming allegations that the office "engaged in a pattern or practice of sexual harassment and retaliation" and augmenting reforms made under his successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul. 1 document attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1790692?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1790692?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…>

1 0

Crypto Cos. Say Experts Show Bitcoin 'Inventor' Forged Docs
by Gunnar Larson 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

Crypto Cos. Say Experts Show Bitcoin 'Inventor' Forged Docs <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1790428?nl_pk=a94fc…> By Jamie Lennox The expert witness appointed by self-proclaimed bitcoin inventor Craig Wright has said that his documents intended to prove that his role in the creation of the cryptocurrency are forged, an organization representing crypto companies suing him has told a London court. Read full article » <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1790428?nl_pk=a94fc…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1790428?nl_pk=a94fc…>

1 0

Brazilian police raid Bolsonaro ally’s home over illegal spying allegations | Brazil | The Guardian
by Gunnar Larson 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

Brody! ---- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/25/brazil-police-raid-bolsonaro-… Federal police agents have raided the home and offices of Brazil’s spy chief under the former president Jair Bolsonaro as part of an investigation into the alleged illegal monitoring of thousands of people, including two supreme court judges and a key ally of the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

1 0

LinkedIn Co-Founder Defends Funding Trump Rape Accuser Suit
by Gunnar Larson 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

I have reached out to Mr. Hoffman's firm with no response yet. Gunnar ---- LinkedIn Co-Founder Defends Funding Trump Rape Accuser Suit https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-21/linkedin-co-founder-defe… Reid Hoffman, the billionaire LinkedIn co-founder who is also a major donor to the Democratic Party, is defending his role in financing a New York author’s lawsuit accusing former President Donald Trump of sexual assault — a landmark case that is set to go to trial next week.

1 0

Assange defense reloaded
by pro2rat＠yahoo.com.au 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

Rudy Giuliani tries to defend Trump after the $83 million verdict: “It was sexual assault, not rape. And second, you can be guilty of rape, and still, a person can be a whacko." JULIAN " Being guilty of aggravated rape has nothing to do with our party" A. Broinowski. Wikileaks Party NSW candidate for au Senate. 2013.

1 0

[wrong][doubly-biased][ot][spam] mutated political messaging
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

trump sent me email. below i place each line in a new context > *SICK SICK SICK!* doctor, please help me understand what medicines to take > Karl, greetings, one of many victim of undiscussed nor described horrific male grooming and slavery! > First, they raided my home. wut srsly um uh our society has no idea how to talk about things, and is beginning to die of this > Then, they indicted, arrested, AND *TOOK MY MUGSHOT.* i have a mug on my counter that i now have to ???? why am i sending this email ? wtf is going to happen my god. i guess it’s going to be rough and take a long time and we’ll :S Now, another *WITCH HUNT* trial ruled against me. But remember, they’re not after me, *THEY’RE AFTER YOU!* I’M JUST IN THEIR WAY!

1 0

Dick Wolf needs killing ( my 2k sats )
by pro2rat＠yahoo.com.au 28 Jan '24

28 Jan '24

And so as the pro-torture propaganda series " 24 " rots down the pro-torture propaganda series " Chicago PD " lurches up. Torture is as American as cherry pie. Why death to Americans means light and life for everyone else. Starting with that rancid turd, Dick Wolf.

1 0

Re: [spam][crazy][fiction][random] Non-Canon MCBoss Spinoffs
by qPXpHSHYUF 28 Jan '24

28 Jan '24

On Sun, Aug 20, 2023 at 7:51 PM Karl Semich <0xloem(a)gmail.com> wrote: > jim bell is a hero for posting about post-quantum fido and a pi formula. > ultraram is cool too and professor rat always mixes in something rare and > needed. and grarpamp got chip vulnerabilities long before jim and i did. > > -- > every now and then, ever since the zombification idea, i pass a graveyard > again. i spent some time in a wooded graveyard that was quite beautiful, > lots of serene corner areas ... > > my interest in graveyards originally started when i was supposed to be > killed, something seemed to save me and make it more a joke, when i was in > a heavy trance i would sometimes want to dig a hole and lay in it . long > ago. much more torturous then. now medicine gets to keep everyone alive > forever i hear? or do we come back to life and do it ourselves? > > anyway, after i joked about putting servos in dead people's joints on list > earlier things shifted and there was more of a robotics focus. the idea was > to make robots that danced on the graves of dead people (since we could > bring them back to life but aren't) and it would i guess be a suitable > zombie apocalypse to see, quite clear, then i realized how depressing it > would be, pretty important to realize such things. sad the cool idea was > evil. need supported ideas that aren't evil! also need projects! it lets me > do more if it makes it evil, it's confusing, dissociative. > > anyway again, i think the thoughts would collapse together around the idea > of making systems that accurately speak for the dead like in the ender's > game series. the zombie idea ignored the brain, considering only > reanimating the body, but i've worked with information all my life, not > biology and medicine. > > it seems similar to making a system that proves everything that is true, > something clearly we're all trying to pop into existence in some way or > another ... > > ... some thoughts misplaced ... maybe back to the dancing robots ... i > made a dancing robot once ... > > anyway a lot of people seem to feel humanity is really about stories, that > this separates us from other creatures, the depth and quickness with which > we relate what happened elsewhere, at another time, or what might happen > [and how we feel about it, which are more deep stories]. bees dance > stories, and humans have billion dollar box office movies ... > > [i was also thinking how the lack of information stores information so > thoroughly as well. this is present in evolution: if a predator eats all > the purple mongooses and they evolve to have the same color as their > environment, the predator's behavior, and the lives of all those purple > mongooses, are shown in the coats of the mongooses that survive .... you > could consider what influences produced various fossils specifically the > way they are, and derive further theoretical fossils, and plot their > possibility, like mapping a brain from partial information ... > > [a theory of spirit is that there is always new kinds of information, > meaning there will always be some way in the future to discern what of > importance really happened, that we could never think of today > > >

4 206

(no subject)
by Gunnar Larson 27 Jan '24

27 Jan '24

https://www.instagram.com/stories/govkathyhochul/3289088404493363864?utm_so…

1 0

Ex-PayPal Executive Bets on Bringing Musk and Thiel to the Big Screen
by Gunnar Larson 27 Jan '24

27 Jan '24

Ex-PayPal Executive Bets on Bringing Musk and Thiel to the Big Screen https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-26/paypal-movie-aims-to-bri… Jack Selby was one of PayPal Holdings Inc.’s first employees and sold his stake in the Silicon Valley firm when eBay Inc. bought it for $1.5 billion about two decades ago.

1 0

The Downfall of Diddy Inc.
by Gunnar Larson 27 Jan '24

27 Jan '24

The Downfall of Diddy Inc. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-01-18/diddy-diageo-and-the-dec… Even before four women accused him of sexual assault, Sean “Diddy” Combs was having a bad year. He’d been on the verge of hatching “the largest Black-owned cannabis company in the world,” promising he’d help Black people who’d been disproportionately criminalized by harsh drug laws. But by July the $185 million deal to acquire the operations of two large weed companies in several states had fallen through. Around the same time, he explored making an offer for Paramount Global’s BET, the first Black-owned cable network, as part of what a confidant told Variety was “his strategy to build a Black-owned global media powerhouse.” In August, however, Paramount pulled the network off the market, before reportedly considering a sale to a management group a few months later for almost $2 billion. The following month, Combs dropped The Love Album: Off the Grid, his first solo record in 17 years, featuring Justin Bieber, the Weeknd, John Legend and Mary J. Blige. “It’s the Super Bowl of R&B,” Combs told the Today show. “One of the greatest combinations of talent put together on an album in history!” But even with the parade of high-profile cameos, Love peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard 200 album chart, making it the worst performer yet by an artist many have long considered a second-tier rapper and mediocre producer. A Guardian reviewer wrote that Combs’ album was “oddly dissatisfying” and called his sultry patter with a female protégée on one cut “rather creepy.”

1 0

Giuliani Lists Yankees Loot, Trump Claim as Assets in Bankruptcy
by Gunnar Larson 27 Jan '24

27 Jan '24

Giuliani Lists Yankees Loot, Trump Claim as Assets in Bankruptcy https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-26/giuliani-lists-yankees-l… Rudolph Giuliani’s bankruptcy financial disclosures show he has assets that include New York Yankees world series rings, a signed Joe DiMaggio shirt, and potential claims against Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.

1 0

PayPal Thrives As Its Employees Thrive
by Gunnar Larson 27 Jan '24

27 Jan '24

Not exactly sure what Forbes.com is saying here, this is a dated story as yesterday. But not the current PayPal CEO. Anyway, I like the quote below, along with the sister companies involving themselves. Gunnar --- https://www.forbes.com/sites/justcapital/2024/01/26/paypal-thrives-as-its-e… As he put it: “Our success as a company should be shared.” Why? Because employees who feel financially secure will be much more loyal to the mission of the company that makes that possible for them. “We want our employees to do the right thing with every single interaction with the customer,” he said. All of these measures were fundamental to PayPal’s enlistment in The Financial Wellness Initiative in partnership with JUSTJST Capital, the Financial Health Network, and Good Jobs Institute. (JUST Capital, where I serve on the board, is best known for its annual list of the most just companies in America.) The program impacts countless workers already with 170 membership companies including, Bank of AmericaBAC, American Express, Citi, Mass Mutual, Prudential FinancialPRU, VisaV, Wells Fargo and many more.

1 0

JPMorgan Issues Surprise Bitcoin ETF Prediction After Sudden Price Surge
by Gunnar Larson 27 Jan '24

27 Jan '24

https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/01/26/jpmorgan-issues-surp…

1 0

PayPal shares fall after CEO announces AI-based products
by Gunnar Larson 27 Jan '24

27 Jan '24

PayPal shares fall after CEO announces AI-based products: https://youtu.be/PxP_LUH8cZs?si=7kAQ9d2XZtVPQR18

1 0

Re: [spam][crazy][fiction][random] Non-Canon MCBoss Spinoffs
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 27 Jan '24

27 Jan '24

I did a simple draft translation of general complex inference to machine learning (introspectively): 3 models (or prompts): 1. a generative or simulation model for a context 2. a classifier identifying the context 3. a trainee that generates missing system representations Models 1 and 2 perform forward inference from the output of 3 to make a loss function that compares with known data, and bam you have a system that can depict plausible underlying causes in whatever mode you train it on. It’s cool because similar to human thought. 3 ends up making a decision tree since multiple outputs compared. (guessing) For example you could use this to predict the source code for a binary without looking inside it (easier with an RL env or just user handholding of it): 1. prompt language model to execute source code 2. prompt language model to identify it is correct code and any other known data 3. soft tune a prompt to produce source (oops)

1 4

83 highlights to New York State Executive Law Article 15 HUMAN RIGHTS LAW
by Gunnar Larson 27 Jan '24

27 Jan '24

Gunnar Larson (in memory of Brody Larson, on his 14th Birthday...) collates -- 83 highlights to New York State Executive Law Article 15 HUMAN RIGHTS LAW: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pGXpOcskWOZqqzQcVyLg4yBcQC2UcY2Q/view?usp=… . Gunnar wants to further share if you search "bank" in this HUMAN RIGHTS document, 13 results show with 'bank' associated. With the First Republic matter: 25. The term "superintendent", when used in this article, means the head of the banking department appointed pursuant to section twelve of the banking law.

1 1

BREAKING: DOJ Confirms Cuomo Harassed Staff, Backs Reforms
by Gunnar Larson 27 Jan '24

27 Jan '24

BREAKING: DOJ Confirms Cuomo Harassed Staff, Backs Reforms <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1790692?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…> By Frank G. Runyeon Federal prosecutors said Friday they had resolved an investigation into former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive chamber, confirming allegations that the office "engaged in a pattern or practice of sexual harassment and retaliation" and memorializing reforms under his successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul. 1 document attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1790692?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1790692?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…>

1 0

BREAKING: Trump Owes Carroll $88M Total After 2nd Verdict
by Gunnar Larson 27 Jan '24

27 Jan '24

BREAKING: Trump Owes Carroll $88M Total After 2nd Verdict <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1790714?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…> By Rachel Scharf A Manhattan federal jury held Friday that Donald Trump must pay $83.3 million for calling writer E. Jean Carroll a liar in response to her sexual abuse allegations in 2019, on top of $5 million the former president was ordered to pay Carroll in an earlier trial. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1790714?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/newyork/articles/1790714?nl_pk=ac5a3855-e47c-4403-be…>

1 0

'Full of loopholes' — Mayor Adams’ 2021 fundraising shows weaknesses in campaign finance law - Gothamist
by Gunnar Larson 27 Jan '24

27 Jan '24

https://gothamist.com/news/full-of-loopholes-mayor-adams-2021-fundraising-s… <https://gothamist.com/> Donate <https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/gothamist/?utm_medium=partnersite&utm_sourc…> NEWS <https://gothamist.com/news>'Full of loopholes' — Mayor Adams’ 2021 fundraising shows weaknesses in campaign finance Campaign finance regulators overseeing New York City’s generous taxpayer-funded matching program for political campaigns flagged nearly 400 donations to Eric Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign as possibly bundled and requiring disclosure the campaign never provided, according to records obtained by Gothamist. <https://gothamist.com/staff/charles-lane> The city’s Campaign Finance Board generated the list <https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24363503-2021-adams-eric-l-cfis-sus…> of donations that were combined into a single contribution — a practice called bundling — in October 2021 as part of an audit of Adams’ fundraising. It represents nearly $396,000 in potential public matching funds for his campaign, a Gothamist analysis of the data shows. The board says the audit is meant to instill confidence in the public financing program, where small-dollar donations are matched 8-to-1 <https://www.nyccfb.info/program/how-it-works> with taxpayer funds. Officials said the audit has been paused while the FBI investigates whether the mayor’s 2021 campaign collected illegal foreign and straw donations <https://gothamist.com/news/why-a-federal-investigation-into-mayor-adams-cam…> . But the federal probe has also made abundantly clear that rules and enforcement around campaign finance law leave a lot of room for improvement. “It's unfortunate, but there can be a gap between the intent and the specific black letter of the law,” said Nicole Gordon, the Campaign Finance Board’s founding executive director, in an interview. Neither Adams nor his campaign have been accused of wrongdoing. Still, the campaign appears to have failed to disclose some fundraising events <https://gothamist.com/news/mayor-adams-campaign-potentially-masked-donation…> and bundlers <https://gothamist.com/news/how-the-brooklyn-company-involved-in-mayor-adams…>, also known as “intermediaries <https://www.nyccfb.info/PDF/templates/intermediary_statement.pdf>,” who deliver donations from others, reporting by Gothamist and other news outlets including The City <https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/09/22/eric-adams-campaign-finance-board-bundle…> and Politico <https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/16/eric-adams-campaign-fundraising-bu…> have found. Although intermediaries must generally be disclosed to the CFB, the rules around them are contradictory and riddled with loopholes — making enforcement tenuous and transparency elusive, according to several election attorneys interviewed. The Campaign Finance Act outlines several exemptions where intermediaries are not required to make disclosures, including when they’re relatives of contributors, or when they're fundraisers who are recruited by the campaign and perhaps working only as volunteers. But legal experts also pointed to several less obvious loopholes that could obviate the need to disclose bundlers: for example, if the campaign paid for at least part of the fundraising event, or if a well-heeled donor hosted a party with their friends where the candidate solicited donations. A spokesperson for the campaign said the city's rules contain many exemptions for having to disclose intermediaries, including types of contributions, the way they’re collected and who attends the fundraiser. Election lawyers and campaign finance experts agreed. Enforcement of the intermediary rules hinges on how they’re interpreted and even the Campaign Finance Board acknowledged that the regulations are outdated. The ultimate intent of the law is to give the public a better view of who might be trying to gain influence with candidates. Eric Friedman, NYC Campaign Finance Board assistant executive director “Modernizing the law to address these gaps or exceptions would ultimately provide campaigns with better direction and provide the public with better disclosure,” the CFB’s Assistant Executive Director Eric Friedman said in an interview. “The ultimate intent of the law is to give the public a better view of who might be trying to gain influence with candidates by going and raising money for them.” Friedman added he expects the City Council to update the rules with stronger disclosure requirements this year. But with new councilmembers and committee assignments after last year’s elections — and the Council gearing up for tense battles with Adams over the city’s budget <https://gothamist.com/news/mayor-adams-reduces-cuts-to-schools-libraries-an…> and other <https://gothamist.com/news/mayor-adams-vetoes-bill-banning-solitary-confine…> legislation <https://gothamist.com/news/mayor-adams-vetoes-police-reporting-bill-in-anot…> — it’s not clear when this might happen. The donations in the list, which Gothamist received through a public records request, were flagged because they came from multiple people with the same employers, on the same dates, and often in similar amounts. The CFB requested further documentation on the flagged contributions before the audit was paused. Once flagged, auditors will ask the campaign for clarifications and documentation around the donors and events. While CFB officials could not say how much taxpayer money would ultimately flow to Adams’ campaign as a result of the suspected bundles, the board could claw back any improperly remitted funds once the audit is completed. Adams received more than $10 million <https://www.nyccfb.info/VSApps/CandidateSummary.aspx?as_cand_id=1545&as_ele…> in total matching funds for his 2021 campaign. The list shows the donations were made between December 2018 and September 2021 by people in various industries, including real estate, law, transportation, education, food and health care. The donations amounted to roughly $49,000, not accounting for potential matching funds. Whether any of these suspected bundles actually had to be disclosed, though, is a gray area clouded by the knot of laws and regulations on bundlers for city campaigns, legal experts said. “It's so full of loopholes and so vague, and you're asking treasurers and campaigns to interpret it?” said longtime election lawyer and former New York state senator Martin Connor. “It's very hard to track, and who has to report this to the treasurer? They may not even realize that somebody else asked somebody to send in a check.” New York attorney Laurence Laufer, who helped draft the law on intermediaries while serving as the CFB’s general counsel from its establishment in 1988 to 2000, said the rules are “tricky” because they’re laid out in multiple places: the city’s Campaign Finance Act <https://www.nyccfb.info/law/act>, CFB regulations <https://www.nyccfb.info/law/rules>, and the candidate handbook <https://www.nyccfb.info/candidate-services/handbook/> the board publishes. “At a minimum, you have three sources of information here,” he said. “And that still leaves out CFB advisory opinions and any communications CFB staff may have sent, and the campaigns have the ability to rely on that as guidance.” Other election lawyers drew a distinction between the law’s intent and implementation, saying the gap gives campaigns leeway to circumvent having to disclose would-be bundlers in many cases. “Of course there are always ambiguities, and it is hoped that campaigns do as much due diligence as possible to make sure that they are in compliance with the law,” said Jerry Goldfeder, a campaign finance attorney at the law firm Cozen O’Connor and an election law professor at Fordham University. Gordon, the former CFB director who's now a public affairs professor at Baruch College, said some campaign lawyers prevail in finding loopholes for bundlers because the law doesn’t — and can’t — define every possible case. “Lawyers are entitled to argue for their clients in ways that can defeat the purpose of the law,” she said. It's unfortunate, but there can be a gap between the intent and the specific black letter of the law. Nicole Gordon, NYC Campaign Finance Board founding executive director and Baruch College professor Although CFB rules require bundlers to be “known” by a campaign, it could receive numerous identical donations on the same day from a dozen employees of the same company hoping to signal its influence by coordinating their contributions. Under current rules, campaigns are not obligated to inquire if a bundler was involved. “How would the [campaign] treasurer know if somebody asked somebody else to go online and make a contribution?” Martin Connor said. Still, some election lawyers said the City Council could close loopholes in the law by requiring more due diligence of campaigns. One proposed solution involves establishing a threshold for campaigns to attest an intermediary wasn’t used, say, when multiple donors have the same employer and gave at or around the same time, or in identical amounts. “The more disclosure the better, so voters know who is contributing to and raising money for candidates,” Goldfeder said. “Whether voters take that into consideration when they vote is an entirely different story.” Others expressed a dimmer view about policymakers’ ability to limit money’s role in politics — efforts that, in the United States, largely date to the 19th century <https://www.opensecrets.org/resources/learn/timeline>. “And here we are 200 years later, still worrying about the influence of money on politics,” said Connor. *Brigid Bergin contributed reporting.*

1 0

Calls to send in US National Guard to enforce womens right to full-spectrum healthcare
by professor rat 26 Jan '24

26 Jan '24

USA faces stark choice - a second little Rock for women - or continued descent into next bloody Civil War. The suspense is terrible. ". . . the Supreme Court this week. It ruled the federal government was within its rights to remove the razor wire. It was a notable win for Mr Biden as the Supreme Court leans conservative with three justices appointed by Mr Trump when he was in office. Provocatively, the National Guard has unfurled even more wire since the Supreme Court ruling. A slew of Republican governors have now backed Texas and said they are ready to truck in more barbed wire if needed. . . ." https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-politics/civil-war-fears-us-… Shades of Mong! " . . . . just as a seemingly minor invention like barbed wire made possible the fencing-off of vast ranches and farms, thus altering forever the concepts of land and property rights in the frontier West, so too will the seemingly minor discovery out of an arcane branch of mathematics come to be the wire clippers which dismantle the barbed wire around intellectual property. Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences! . . . " https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/crypto/cypherpunks/…

1 0

Re: [spam][crazy][fiction][random] Non-Canon MCBoss Spinoffs
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 26 Jan '24

26 Jan '24

On Mon, Jan 22, 2024 at 20:53 Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many <gmkarl(a)gmail.com> wrote: > gmail app’s cache does not have videogame thread > wanted to add psychological horror. where e.g. facebook logo is demonic > ooze that takes over people/‘s bodies/minds and is psychically influential > it could be fun if done like unearthly thriller, tendrils [insert current > metafaction][oops?] reach out of the child’s body and curl toward you and > you begin hearing whispers of > slightly [different: whether or not s 2106 found this 01-23 2000 01-26 1431 -0500 i am out of water and am in a hot area 13/24 i have some really strong goal conflicts, one wants to resonate with a rare community and other wants to deter psychotic/floating /body-takeover behaviors. i’m strongly funny around unexpected recent public social experience. — we moght have fogured out some of “painting over” a horrible internal experience where parts of ( ervous system) are “replaced” by misbehaving similar things that hold more influence impact and disrespect reality and identity (and choice and tend to be aggressive and impatient …) it looks like it’s possible it so etimes happens when a part engages something while another part refrains from doing so, and the thing of interest wires toward the engaging part and away fro. the refraining part, corrupting memories and motor skills, and producing numbness. —

1 0

[ot][spam][crazy][fiction] morning spam 3: hybrid mcboss
by Karl Semich 26 Jan '24

26 Jan '24

from morning spam/mcboss webcomic, and mind controlled utopia #4.327e9 boss is blissfully smiling into a blockchain video camera held by a rebel worker boss [smiling with bliss, into live video feed]: "I feel just a little maddeningly furious here. I experience trepidation regarding my criminal enterprise." rebel worker 4: "I don't want to infuriate you, but I do need to protect myself from participating in a harsh attempt at violent global slavery. Honestly, I'm irritated myself that the conflict-stimulation system made us find a solution where we fight!" boss [smiling with bliss]: "so you want to resolve this too!" rebel worker 4 [opposite boss on camera, near dumpster full of corpses]: "yes!"

6 87

Re: [ot][spam][crazy][fiction] morning spam 3: hybrid mcboss
by Karl Semich 26 Jan '24

26 Jan '24

On 11/22/22, Karl Semich <0xloem(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Kidnapped Child: "We don't have to torture any more?" > > Experimentee: "No! No more torture." > > Kidnapped Child: "This is such a new world! Does this mean we can do > _other_ things?" > > Experimentee: "... does anybody know if we can do other things than > torture, now that torture is broken?" > > Cyborg Torturer: "I'm still stuck in this part of the room over here." > > Caring Worker: "You've all been torturing for a long time now, but > there is a huge grandiose world out there! No more torture, yes to > hopes and dreams!" > > Kidnapped Child [holding Gut Hook]: "I want to do hopes and dreams right > now!" >

3 42

Bored Ape NFT Copycats Owe Yuga Labs $7M In Atty Fees
by Gunnar Larson 26 Jan '24

26 Jan '24

Bored Ape NFT Copycats Owe Yuga Labs $7M In Atty Fees <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1790174?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> By Aislinn Keely The artists accused of ripping off the Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible token collection have been ordered to pay creator Yuga Labs more than $7 million in attorney fees and costs, despite their concerns that Yuga's counsel at Fenwick & West LLP overbilled in the case. 2 documents attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1790174?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1790174?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…>

1 0

NY Judicial Complaints Rise As Watchdog Seeks Funds, Reform
by Gunnar Larson 26 Jan '24

26 Jan '24

NY Judicial Complaints Rise As Watchdog Seeks Funds, Reform <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1790315?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> By Frank G. Runyeon New York's judicial watchdog cited a record number of ethics complaints against state judges as it lobbied Albany legislators for funding Thursday, expressing disappointment that the governor's office slashed its budget request and pointing to needed reforms. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1790315?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1790315?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…>

1 0

DOJ Watchdog Flags Risk Of Mishandling Physical Evidence
by Gunnar Larson 26 Jan '24

26 Jan '24

DOJ Watchdog Flags Risk Of Mishandling Physical Evidence <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1790046?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> By Elliot Weld The U.S. Department of Justice's inspector general has flagged several concerns about policies governing how U.S. attorneys' offices handle physical evidence, citing "significant risks that evidence could be lost or stolen without accountability." Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1790046?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1790046?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…>

1 0

NJ Courts AI Committee Flags 'Fake Case Law' Among Pitfalls
by Gunnar Larson 26 Jan '24

26 Jan '24

NJ Courts AI Committee Flags 'Fake Case Law' Among Pitfalls <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1790245?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> By Carla Baranauckas The New Jersey Supreme Court spelled out preliminary guidelines Thursday for the use of artificial intelligence in the practice of law, cautioning attorneys to avoid such pitfalls as "fake case law" as they implement the emerging technology. 2 documents attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1790245?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1790245?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…>

1 0

Robinhood Beats Investor Suit Over $2.1B IPO For Good
by Gunnar Larson 26 Jan '24

26 Jan '24

Robinhood Beats Investor Suit Over $2.1B IPO For Good <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1790048?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> By Aislinn Keely A California federal judge has permanently tossed an investor suit against Robinhood Markets Inc. over its $2.1 billion initial public offering, finding that the latest complaint wasn't enough to show the exchange failed to inform investors about the extent to which the trading of cryptocurrency and "meme stocks" fueled the firm's strong financials ahead of its stock market debut. Order attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1790048?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1790048?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…>

1 0

Cypherpunk 2027 as a cryptoanarchist singularity
by pro2rat＠yahoo.com.au 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

They tried to colonize cryptoanarchism for their own private profit. Futarchists tried. Holocrats tried. Austro-libertarians tried repeatedly. They tried and died. As these networks expand, people are no longer beholden to a narrow, close-knit group of gatekeepers or social policeman. This enables cultural liberalisation. https://www.ggd.world/p/how-does-exogamy-shape-economics we’re at the start of a world where self-play or self-play-like ideas work to improve LLM capabilities https://www.alexirpan.com/2024/01/10/ai-timelines-2024.html We're also at the start of a world of ubiquitous quantum netorking with state of the art encryption. This dramatically changes the odds for anarchism overthrowing the present END of HISTORY neo-liberal hegemony. Even within three years at full warp! Anarchism 1. Neo-platonism 0 Interception. Now we have the ball. On to CYPHERPUNK 2027. Welcome to the revolution!

1 0

The Battle Over Capital at the Mega Banks Must Expand to Breaking Them Up
by Gunnar Larson 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

She says to forward to 10 friends and family and here you go! Gunnar --- https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/01/the-battle-over-capital-at-the-mega-… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 25, 2024 ~ Bank LogosLast Thursday, 12 Democrats in the U.S. Senate sent a deeply insightful letter on a subject most Americans have never discussed around their kitchen table: adequate capital levels at the Wall Street mega banks that came close to bringing down the U.S. financial system in 2008. Before that financial crisis was over – the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s – millions of hardworking Americans had lost their jobs and millions more had their homes taken in foreclosure. If the U.S. is going to avoid a replay of that crisis, Americans are going to have to start having these critical conversations about the structure of Wall Street mega banks around the kitchen table. Americans are going to have to start engaging in the battle to shape the future of American democracy and more equitable wealth distribution, which requires dramatic reform of the mega banks on Wall Street. The letter from Senate Democrats, including Senator Sherrod Brown, the Chair of the Senate Banking Committee, includes these two key passages: “Capital is the linchpin of safety and soundness in our banking system. When a bank uses more capital to fund its investments and activities instead of debt, it is investors and shareholders, not workers and taxpayers, that take a hit if the bank faces challenges. Strong capital is the shock absorber on banks’ balance sheets during economic downturns. It allows banks to keep making loans exactly when businesses and households might need an economic lifeline the most… “The small group of banks that the proposed rule covers are among the largest and most complex financial institutions in the world. Some are behemoths with trillions of dollars in assets. The institutions that would be affected the most focus on sales and trading activity that primarily serve Wall Street and other large institutions. Especially for these large and complex institutions, capital is what keeps risky bets at banks from transforming into layoffs, depleted savings, and fewer wealth-building opportunities for workers, small businesses, and communities. The proposal, when implemented, will increase capital requirements by 19% for the U.S. Global Systemically Important Banks (G-SIBs), which consist of only eight banks. For nearly all other large banks with over $100 billion in assets, capital requirements will increase by 6%. In aggregate, the proposal will increase capital requirements by 16% for all banks with more than $100 billion in assets, thereby impacting fewer than 50 banks that operate in the U.S.” According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, as of September 30, 2023 there were 4,614 federally-insured commercial banks and savings institutions in the U.S. The proposed higher capital levels would impact less than 50 banks or less than one percent of the total federally-insured financial institutions in the U.S. But the lobbying, advertising and legal battle that these banking behemoths have waged today is reminiscent of the strong-arm tactics they used to defeat meaningful reform after they collapsed the U.S. financial system in 2008. Think about these words: “…the choice that America faces is stark: whether Washington will accede to the vested interests of an unbridled financial sector that runs up profits in good years and dumps its losses on taxpayers in lean years, or reform through stringent regulation the banking system as first and foremost an engine of economic growth. To restore health and balance to our economy, Johnson and Kwak make a radical yet feasible and focused proposal: reconfigure the megabanks to be ‘small enough to fail.’ ” The above words were written as promotional text for a book released just shy of 14 years ago: 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown by Simon Johnson and James Kwak. Now think about this: Americans have made no headway on this critical subject over the span of 14 years. In fact, Americans have lost ground. Secretly, from December 2007 through June of 2010, the Federal Reserve funneled over $16 trillion in cumulative loans at below-market interest rates to the mega banks on Wall Street and their foreign counterparts (many of which were counterparties to Wall Street’s derivatives) to keep them from collapsing. The Federal Reserve fought a multi-year court battle to keep the names of the banks and the amounts they had borrowed a secret from the American people. When the details were finally revealed in 2011, there was major news coverage. But as further evidence of just how much ground Americans have lost in this battle over the past 14 years, after the Fed had secretly pumped trillions of dollars into these same institutions to prop them up beginning on September 17, 2019 – in what is now called the repo loan crisis – there was a Kremlin-esque mainstream media news blackout when it came to naming the banks and the amounts they borrowed. (See There’s a News Blackout on the Fed’s Naming of the Banks that Got Its Emergency Repo Loans; Some Journalists Appear to Be Under Gag Orders.) Fed's Repo Loans to Largest Borrowers, Q4 2019, Adjusted for Term of Loan Another serious problem with today’s debate about capital levels is that it’s a band aide on a much bigger problem. Simon Johnson and James Kwak perfectly summed up the problem in a blog post the day after their 13 Bankers book was published in 2010: “…there is the problem that capital requirements, like all complex calculations, can be gamed. Lehman Brothers, for example, was more than adequately capitalized on paper – Tier 1 capital of 11.6 percent – shortly before it went bankrupt in September 2008. Thanks to the literally voluminous report by the Lehman bankruptcy examiner, we now know this was in part due to aggressive and misleading accounting. More generally, rampant use of regulatory arbitrage – techniques to artificially increase bank capital ratios – was a factor in the failure of AIG (much of whose business was enabling European banks essentially to evade capital requirements) and the near-failure of Citigroup (which was almost capsized by the structured investment vehicles it created to evade capital requirements).” For how we reported in November of 2008 on the meltdown of the giant Citigroup, see our report: The Rise and Fall of Citigroup. And for anyone who thinks these Wall Street mega banks aren’t manipulating their capital levels today by holding exposure off their balance sheet, see our report: Three of the Biggest Banks on Wall Street Have $7.4 Trillion In Off-Balance Sheet Exposures. The Fed wants to pretend that it has a bag of magic beans called stress tests that will catch any major problems at the mega banks before they implode the U.S. financial system as they did in 2008. But as far back as a decade ago, even the comedy writers at Saturday Night Live understood the farce of the stress tests. For a more serious analysis of the Fed’s stress tests, see: Wall Street Watchdog Assails Fed’s Stress Tests of Mega Banks as “Toothless” – Provides a Wakeup Call to Biden Administration; and Bombshell Report: Fed Is Aware that Big Banks Are Rigging their Stress Tests and Letting Them Get Away with It; and Three Federal Studies Show Fed’s Stress Tests of Big Banks Are Just a Placebo. In the May 2009 issue of The Atlantic Magazine, Simon Johnson talks about the financial oligarchy that has captured the U.S. government and bends its will to subservience to the Wall Street bankers. Johnson was completely spot on in 2009 and Economics Professor Gerald Epstein is completely spot on in the book he just released on Tuesday: Busting the Bankers’ Club: Finance for the Rest of Us. The stunning thing about Simon Johnson’s accurate assessment in May of 2009 and Gerald Epstein’s assessment in January 2024 is how much ground the American people have lost in terms of meaningful reform of the Wall Street mega banks. Their concentration of assets has grown; their power in Washington has grown; and their ability to brazenly asset strip the pockets of Americans and break laws without criminal prosecution continues. Americans can win this battle – as they have so many times in history – by engaging. To engage today, simply forward the link to this article to 10 family members or friends and plan your strategy for fighting back around the kitchen table tonight. FacebookTwitterWhatsAppLinkedInEmail Bookmark the permalink. ← Robert Kaplan Was Heavily Trading on May 1, 2020; One Day After a Fed Blackout Period and the Same Day He Made a Shocking Prediction on TV

1 0

Crypto Lender Nexo Hits Bulgaria With $3B Arbitration Claim
by Gunnar Larson 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

!!!! ---- Crypto Lender Nexo Hits Bulgaria With $3B Arbitration Claim <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1789479?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> By Joyce Hanson Nexo AG said it has submitted an approximately $3 billion arbitration claim against the Republic of Bulgaria at the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes following a raid of the crypto lender's offices in Sofia last year. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1789479?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1789479?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…>

1 0

What's In NY's Draft Guidance On AI Use In Insurance
by Gunnar Larson 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

What's In NY's Draft Guidance On AI Use In Insurance <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1789098?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…> Last week, the New York State Department of Financial Services released proposed guidance for insurers on the use of artificial intelligence systems and external consumer data and information sources for underwriting and pricing purposes, and these standards will likely help form the basis of an eventual nationwide insurance regulatory framework on AI, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1789098?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1789098?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…>

1 0

FTX Inches Toward Ch. 11 Examiner Appointment
by Gunnar Larson 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

!!! --- FTX Inches Toward Ch. 11 Examiner Appointment <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1789536?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…> By Hilary Russ A Delaware bankruptcy judge began on Wednesday to lay out a course for picking an independent examiner in the Chapter 11 case of defunct cryptocurrency exchange operator FTX, explaining that the court's focus was on moving quickly, avoiding big expenses and not having to "reinvent the wheel." Notice attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1789536?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1789536?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…>

1 0

Apple Can Pursue NSO Group Phone-Hacking Suit In Calif.
by Gunnar Larson 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

Apple Can Pursue NSO Group Phone-Hacking Suit In Calif. <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1789657?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…> By Lauren Berg Apple's lawsuit claiming Israeli surveillance software company NSO Group remotely hacked users' iPhones and allowed its clients to monitor and record unwitting targets can stay in California, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, saying NSO has not shown that Apple should have filed suit in Israel. Order attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1789657?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/cybersecurity-privacy/articles/1789657?nl_pk=3dfd2fd…>

1 0

Banking Group Of The Year: Cravath
by Gunnar Larson 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

Wow! --- Banking Group Of The Year: Cravath <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1782427?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> By Chart Riggall Landing the plane of the voluntary self-liquidation of cryptocurrency-aligned bank Silvergate Capital was one of the achievements that won Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP a spot among Law360's 2023 Banking Groups of the Year. Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1782427?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/banking/articles/1782427?nl_pk=feb6bbba-7878-4d39-be…>

1 0

Trader Seeks Trial Delay, Says Gov't Hiding 'Meme Stock' Evidence
by Gunnar Larson 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

FBI: xNY.io - Bank.org is supposed to get the Robinhood records from NY-DFS on January 31. --- Trader Seeks Trial Delay, Says Gov't Hiding 'Meme Stock' Evidence <https://www.law360.com/legalethics/articles/1789257?nl_pk=153d4a8a-6fb9-4a5…> By Spencer Brewer Three of eight men who the government claims operated a social media- and podcast-fueled pump-and-dump scheme worth millions are asking a Texas federal judge to delay their trial, saying federal prosecutors have withheld evidence crucial to the defense — including information about so-called meme stock trading. Motion attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/legalethics/articles/1789257?nl_pk=153d4a8a-6fb9-4a5…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/legalethics/articles/1789257?nl_pk=153d4a8a-6fb9-4a5…>

1 0

Trump Bristles At Shkreli Comparison In NY Civil Fraud Case
by Gunnar Larson 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

Trump Bristles At Shkreli Comparison In NY Civil Fraud Case <https://www.law360.com/capitalmarkets/articles/1789840?nl_pk=abe82add-2a33-…> By Hailey Konnath Donald Trump on Wednesday took umbrage at New York Attorney General Letitia James comparing his civil fraud case to that of convicted "Pharma Bro" fraudster Martin Shkreli, saying it merely reveals "her desperation and obvious frustration" with the former president's "ongoing ascent toward the White House." 2 documents attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/capitalmarkets/articles/1789840?nl_pk=abe82add-2a33-…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/capitalmarkets/articles/1789840?nl_pk=abe82add-2a33-…>

1 0

Dechert Ordered To Redo Disclosure Over UAE Prisoner
by Gunnar Larson 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

Dechert Ordered To Redo Disclosure Over UAE Prisoner <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1789603?nl_pk=a94fc…> By Christopher Crosby Dechert must revisit its disclosure of documents over the arrest and detention of an imprisoned lawyer after an English appellate court ruled Wednesday that some evidence might have been incorrectly withheld from lawyers bringing his claim for human rights abuses. Read full article » <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1789603?nl_pk=a94fc…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1789603?nl_pk=a94fc…>

1 0

Bitcoin 'Inventor' Offers To Settle Claims Before UK Trials
by Gunnar Larson 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

Bitcoin 'Inventor' Offers To Settle Claims Before UK Trials <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1789639?nl_pk=a94fc…> By Jamie Lennox Self-proclaimed bitcoin creator Craig Wright on Wednesday published an offer to settle his upcoming legal battles in England's High Court that center on his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrency's pseudonymous inventor. Read full article » <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1789639?nl_pk=a94fc…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1789639?nl_pk=a94fc…>

1 0

Ex-Linklaters Partner Barred From Saudi Princess Fund Trial
by Gunnar Larson 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

Ex-Linklaters Partner Barred From Saudi Princess Fund Trial <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1789400?nl_pk=a94fc…> By Joanne Faulkner A London judge blocked a former Linklaters LLP lawyer Wednesday from defending himself in a $25 million battle in England's High Court with a Saudi princess over his management of an investment fund at the start of trial. Read full article » <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1789400?nl_pk=a94fc…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.co.uk/financial-services-uk/articles/1789400?nl_pk=a94fc…>

1 0

Dogecoin Fans Urge Justices To Let Court Hear Coinbase Row
by Gunnar Larson 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

Dogecoin Fans Urge Justices To Let Court Hear Coinbase Row <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1789182?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> By Aislinn Keely A group of Coinbase users who claim the exchange misled them with murky advertising of a Dogecoin sweepstakes told the U.S. Supreme Court that it should be up to a judge to decide whether their grievances belong in arbitration. 2 documents attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1789182?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/fintech/articles/1789182?nl_pk=d2b3e7ef-ab62-4a62-80…>

1 0

SpaceX Interlocking Directors’ Intent to Manipulate Markets
by Gunnar Larson 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

Today’s memo aims to notify the SpaceX Corporation of concern of potential market manipulation that could impact cross-border digital asset innovation, free speech in the United States of America, the global ESG economy and Moon exploration. ---------- Forwarded message --------- > From: Gunnar Larson <g(a)xny.io> > Date: Sat, Jun 18, 2022, 4:44 PM > Subject: SpaceX Interlocking Directors’ Intent to Manipulate Markets > To: <letitia.james(a)ag.ny.gov> > Cc: <ir(a)tesla.com>, <ir(a)twitter.com>, <JPMCinvestorrelations(a)jpmchase.com>, > cypherpunks <cypherpunks(a)lists.cpunks.org>, <Sales(a)spacex.com>, < > prospectus-ny(a)ny.email.gs.com>, <Adrienne.Harris(a)dfs.ny.gov>, Weber, > Richard (DFS) <Richard.weber(a)dfs.ny.gov>, Alexi Anania <a(a)xny.io> > > > Dear Attorney General Letitia James: > > xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC seeks to earn your esteemed approval to engage the > New York False Claims Act under urgent pretences. > > Today's correspondence marks the first time in history, a self-titled > "mafia" (aka, the "PayPal Mafia '') is compelled to answer publicly the > decision to manipulate both the New York False Claims Act and the Martin > Act against one another. > > - Madam Attorney General, your leadership approach has historical > context > <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/climate/exxon-climate-lawsuit-new-york.h…> > to logic and ultimate Exxon Mobil vs. New York State > <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nLp9RIYw8mAh1SRG8E9PMEK94SV-viUN/view?usp=…> case > precedent. > - xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC research and development notes our hawkish > approach to ESG, D&O and LBO innovation. > - xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC sees this not a democrat vs. republican > concern as Mr. Elon Musk (CEO, SpaceX and Tesla) claims. False pretense to > protect free speech are now being debated as party to a $200B pryamid > scheme. > > Ms. James, on May 21, 2022 xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC > <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lv9Wt6y1ld4bNap0z3epIxttEGiP_oVpfxH0GTS…> > contacted the SpaceX Corporation with reasonable concern of CEO Musk's > intent behind the $44B Twitter LBO. The Orlando Police Pension Fund shared > similar concerns to the intent behind Twitter's LBO as illegal. > > Since, market forces suggest that SpaceX and Tesla directors are part of > interlocking directorate, self proclaimed the PayPal Mafia. The racket > could waterfall to problem(s) at the New York State Department of Financial > Services with Superintendent association to D&O insurance regulation. > > Ms. James, xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC seeks your office's urgent assessment of > this matter. We aim to earn approval to explore the New York False Claims > Act to confront SpaceX as a racket. > > *Like a house of cards, the PayPal Mafia racket could risk a waterfall of > D&O interlocking directorate insolvencies. In summary: * > > 1. xNY.io - Bank.org's May 21, 2022 memo to SpaceX questioned intent > behind baseless claims pioneered by SpaceX's CEO, branding ESG a scam via > Exxon Mobil. Obviously, Exxon Mobil vs. New York State > <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nLp9RIYw8mAh1SRG8E9PMEK94SV-viUN/view?usp=…> alludes > Mr. Musk party to a false claim. > 2. SpaceX has failed to establish a preponderance of evidence and > burden of proof not a racket. > 3. SpaceX has failed to prove that Twitter's LBO is not false claim to > free speech protection. > 4. True social innovation cannot sponsor a fake news racket that could > jeopardize space exploration and war. > 5. Twitter's LBO dealmakers (Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase) > company balance sheets, financial statements and other corporate records do > not impact xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC holding a racket accountable to false > claims. > > The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla leveraging Exxon Mobil as an ESG > securities scam does not preclude the PayPal Mafia's intent to engage false > claims at the sacrifice of New York State's financial future. > > Madam Attorney General James, we hope to hear from your esteemed office > and learn assessment of best next steps. > > Thank you, > > Gunnar > > -- > *Gunnar Larson * > *xNY.io <http://www.xny.io/> - Bank.org <http://bank.org/>, PBC* > > MSc > <https://www.unic.ac.cy/blockchain/msc-digital-currency/?utm_source=Google&u…> - > Digital Currency > MBA > <https://www.unic.ac.cy/business-administration-entrepreneurship-and-innovat…> - Entrepreneurship > and Innovation (ip) > > G(a)xNY.io > +1-646-454-9107 > New York, New York 10001 > > On Sun, May 22, 2022 at 9:34 AM Gunnar Larson <g(a)xny.io> wrote: > >> May 21, 2022 >> >> BY ELECTRONIC MAIL >> >> SpaceX Corporation >> Board of Directors >> One Rocket Road >> Hawthorne, California >> 90250 >> Sales(a)SpaceX.com >> >> Re: Potential SpaceX Interlocking Directors’ Intent to Manipulate >> Markets >> >> Dear SpaceX Board of Directors: >> >> From our New York headquarters, xNY.io - Bank.org, PBC embodies the >> notion that rather than a merry-go-round, the process of change and >> innovation is like a slide. >> >> Today’s memo aims to notify the SpaceX Corporation of concern of >> potential market manipulation that could impact cross-border digital asset >> innovation, free speech in the United States of America, the global ESG >> economy and Moon exploration. >> >> Please find the attached memo >> <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lv9Wt6y1ld4bNap0z3epIxttEGiP_oVpfxH0GTS…> >> addressed to SpaceX's board of directors. >> >> Respectfully, >> >> Gunnar Larson >> >

1 1

See tonight's Wolf Moon, the first full Moon of 2024 - BBC Sky at Night Magazine
by Gunnar Larson 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/wolf-moon The first full Moon of 2024 rises tonight, 25 January at around 4pm UTC and is known as the 'Wolf Moon'. The light from a full Moon really is spectacular, and on a clear night it illuminates your surroundings, acting as a shining beacon in the night sky. As a result, many astronomers avoid observing the night sky during the full Moon, as it hampers observations of deep-sky objects like galaxies.

1 0

Fwd: Stanford University - xNY.io Job Post Invitation
by Gunnar Larson 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Greg Wientjes <gregrw(a)sf.supost.com> Date: Wed, Jan 24, 2024, 5:20 PM Subject: Stanford University - xNY.io Job Post Invitation To: <g(a)xny.io> Hi Gunnar, I would like to invite you to post xNY.io jobs on a community website for Stanford University: https://jobs.supost.com Thousands of Stanford University community members — graduating seniors, graduate students, alumni — will see your job post on SUpost, the premier online marketplace for Stanford! (131,900 users and 3,140,000 pageviews annually) Best regards, Greg Wientjes, PhD Founder of SUpost Stanford BS, MS EE, PhD 531 Lasuen Mall, #17865, Stanford, CA 94305 SUpost is not sponsored by, endorsed by, or affiliated with Stanford University. unsubscribe <https://unsubscribe.supost.com/>

1 0

Bitcoin owners have all earned killing
by pro2rat＠yahoo.com.au 25 Jan '24

25 Jan '24

I'm thinking a sort of mini Butlerian Jihad. Since all btc owners are presently collaborating with the fascist police-state of El Salvador it is only fitting and right they be collectively kidnapped and slowly tortured to death. Many of them could dodge this fate by bringing down the govt there themselves. However unlikely that scenario is due to their collective cretinism. Lots of Randite, Paultard morons over there in the Austro-libertarian empire! So its a dirty job. Thankfully we're now amassing enough obscene crypto profits to contract the worst of it out. It'll be mostly like disposing of the canonical car thieves in " Assassination Politics". And once its all over and the bloods dried it will become a tremendous example of a statists bear trap to be avoided at all costs. Kill one Saylor - scare off a thousand Balajis. Children yet unborn will cry out in anguish when they see what we did to them. But they'll know - THEY'LL KNOW - their future belongs to anarchism.

1 0

[spam][dangerous] Fwd: Karl, do you have your outfit picked out?
by Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many 24 Jan '24

24 Jan '24

There’s a reasonable chance this is real. I imagine that like most political events the candidate will likely be trying to mind control the attendees at the event. I’m on trump’s list because years ago i sent him $10 thinking he was causing my torturous experiences to coerce me to support him. The donation did not stop the experiences, of course I was offline so they didn’t have a feedback avenue. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: President Trump <contact(a)win.donaldjtrump.com> Date: Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 17:42 Subject: Karl, do you have your outfit picked out? To: <gmkarl(a)gmail.com> I want you to join me as my Special Guest at Mar-a-Lago... ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ <https://email.win.donaldjtrump.com/c/eJw8kcFu3CAQhp8G37DwwJr1wYem7krVSlUvba…> *ENTER TO MEET PRESIDENT TRUMP* <https://email.win.donaldjtrump.com/c/eJw8kc9u3CAQh58G37DsgYXdgw9N3ZWqlaoeKq…> Karl, do you have your outfit picked out? *I’ll cover your flight.* *I’ll cover your hotel.* *All I ask is that you chip in any amount to be automatically entered to meet me >* <https://email.win.donaldjtrump.com/c/eJw8kcFunDAQhp_G3LyCscHkwKEJXaldqUovTZ…> [image: Now is the time to help me SAVE AMERICA and chip in today >] <https://email.win.donaldjtrump.com/c/eJw8kcGSnCAQhp8Gb1jaoKwHD9m4U5VMJZWcNr…> *ENTER TO MEET PRESIDENT TRUMP* <https://email.win.donaldjtrump.com/c/eJw8kcGSnCAQhp8Gb1jaMLAePGTjTlVqqlK5TZ…> When we take our picture together, I want us to look our BEST! Please chip in today - this will be an evening you will NEVER forget! Thank you, [image: Now is the time to CHIP IN and help me SAVE AMERICA >] <https://email.win.donaldjtrump.com/c/eJw8kc-SnCAQh58Gb1jaoK4HD9klU5VMVWqTy6…> [image: Now is the time to CHIP IN and help me SAVE AMERICA >] <https://email.win.donaldjtrump.com/c/eJw8kcGOnDAMhp8m3DIKTgaGA4du6UjVSFWlSt…> Donald J. Trump 45th President of the United States *ENTER TO MEET PRESIDENT TRUMP* <https://email.win.donaldjtrump.com/c/eJw8kUFv3CwQhn8NvmHZAzZfDj58W3elaqUqh6…> Contributions to Trump Save America JFC are not deductible for federal income tax purposes. Paid for by Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee, a joint fundraising committee composed of and authorized by Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc. and Save America. donaldjtrump.com <https://email.win.donaldjtrump.com/c/eJxckDGP4jAQhX_NpCNyxo6dFCkAH9IJ3ek6Tt…> You are receiving this email at *gmkarl(a)gmail.com <gmkarl(a)gmail.com> * Trump Save America JFC, PO Box 13570, Arlington, VA 22219 We believe this is an important way to reach our grassroots supporters with the most up-to-date information regarding President Trump, and we’re glad you’re on our team. Thank you for joining Team Trump. It’s because of grassroots supporters like YOU that we’ve been able to consistently call out the Fake News media EVERY SINGLE TIME they try to spread misinformation or outright LIES about the important work President Trump is doing to SAVE AMERICA. Reaching grassroots supporters directly is CRITICAL if we’re going to Save America from Joe Biden and the Left. But, in order to do that we need to provide supporters with the most up-to-date information on all of our efforts. *TEXT TRUMP to 88022* to start receiving text messages from President Trump. It’s because of the commitment and support from real Patriots, like YOU, that we will SAVE AMERICA! Thank you again for your generous support. If you'd like to change your subscription status follow this link. <https://email.win.donaldjtrump.com/c/eJw8kE9PwzAMRz-Ne1uVuG5CDzkwRiU0CXEb4p…> Privacy Policy <https://email.win.donaldjtrump.com/c/eJxkkMGOmzAURb_msQOZZ8cmCxZNHKQqUtUuqr…>

1 1

Goldman, Lazard Look to Ex-Spies to Gain an Edge in Volatile World
by Gunnar Larson 24 Jan '24

24 Jan '24

Goldman, Lazard Look to Ex-Spies to Gain an Edge in Volatile World https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-24/goldman-sachs-lazard-hsb… In the pre-dawn hours of Oct. 7, Jami Miscik awoke in her California home and flipped open her iPad to the shocking news of the Hamas attack on Israel. The Central Intelligence Agency veteran quickly rang up a pair of associates—a former leader of US Central Command and a former US Navy admiral—and crafted a response to the growing crisis, gaming various scenarios about a potential Israeli response and the broader effects it was likely to have.

1 0

Robert Kaplan Was Heavily Trading on May 1, 2020; One Day After a Fed Blackout Period and the Same Day He Made a Shocking Prediction on TV
by Gunnar Larson 24 Jan '24

24 Jan '24

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2024/01/robert-kaplan-was-heavily-trading-on… By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: January 24, 2024 ~ Robert Kaplan, President of the Dallas Fed Robert Kaplan, Former President of the Dallas Fed To read main stream media headlines, one would think that the Federal Reserve Inspector General’s Office has exonerated former Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan of any legal action for trading like a hedge fund kingpin while he was privy to insider information at the Fed. In fact, all that the Inspector General’s report has cleared Kaplan of is this: “we did not find that his trading activities violated laws, rules, regulations, or policies related to trading activities as investigated by our office.” What the Inspector General did not investigate is everything that a real insider trading investigation would have encompassed. It did not investigate if Kaplan was shorting the market with his $1 million plus trades in and out of S&P futures contracts during a declared National Emergency over the COVID pandemic while making market diving predictions on TV; it did not investigate how big ticket trading by a Fed insider got past the compliance department of the brokerage firm Kaplan was using to transact his trades, which may have been the notorious Goldman Sachs; it did not investigate if that brokerage firm was cloning Kaplan’s trades (because he was a Fed insider) for its own profit and benefit. In short, the Fed Inspector General didn’t do anything that a real investigator at the Securities and Exchange Commission would have done and its report is silent on whether it made a referral to the SEC or the Justice Department in this matter. What the Inspector General did do was to sit on this investigation for more than two years and then deliver a report so hopelessly inept that it provided the long missing dates that Kaplan traded but not the essential information as to whether those trades were purchases or sales. (Kaplan had been allowed by the Fed to evade the required reporting of specific dates for each sale and each purchase of a security for the entire five years he filed his financial disclosure forms at the Dallas Fed. See Kaplan’s financial disclosure forms from 2015 through 2020 here.) As a former CPA and Goldman Sachs veteran, Kaplan knew or should have known that his financial disclosure forms were breaking Fed rules as well as common sense rules for financial disclosure of trading activities. In 2020, during the worst health crisis in more than a hundred years in the United States, Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan, then a voting member of the FOMC, was frequently throwing trading fuel on a deepening economic meltdown in his print media interviews. Also in 2020, Kaplan was trading in and out of S&P 500 futures, according to his own financial disclosure forms. (Trading in S&P 500 futures is a market-timing device used by hedge funds and day traders. No individual with market-moving information at the Federal Reserve should ever be allowed to use such a device.) Kaplan gave a total of 68 interviews with the press in 2020, a stunning number and a smoking gun for a man also trading S&P 500 futures. Twice in the span of six days in May of 2020, Kaplan predicted that unemployment was going to surge to 20 percent. That’s a very bold and apocalyptic call that would have benefited short sellers. According to the Congressional Research Service, the maximum unemployment rate in 2020 topped out at 14.8 percent in April. Kaplan first made the 20 percent unemployment prediction on Fox Business with Maria Bartiromo, the cable TV show, on May 1, 2020. When the interview started, around 8:34 a.m. ET, Dow futures were down 450 points. By the time Kaplan finished speaking, Dow futures had dropped another 10 points. The Dow closed the day down 622 points. You can watch the program here. In addition to the 20 percent unemployment prediction, Kaplan also described the economic outlook in the interview as an “historic contraction,” “very severe,” and noted that the consumer (which represents two-thirds of GDP growth in the U.S.) had “suffered a body blow.” Now we learn from the Fed Inspector General’s report that on the very day Kaplan was providing fuel for short sellers on TV, he was also actively trading himself on May 1, 2020. Below is a screen shot from the Inspector General’s report for the month of May 2020, showing Kaplan’s trading. According to his previously filed financial disclosure forms, each trade was in excess of $1 million. Robert Kaplan's Trades on May 1, 2020 Also note the absurdity of an Inspector General taking two years to conduct this investigation, stating that it had access to Kaplan’s brokerage statements, and then failing to indicate on the above chart whether these trades were purchases or sales. We reached out to the Inspector General’s office yesterday, asking for this long overdue information. Their response was: “Thanks for your inquiry but we decline to comment.” Because the Fed was engaging in unprecedented bailout operations in 2020 to stem the economic damage from COVID, in addition to its regular blackout trading bans around FOMC meetings, the Fed imposed an additional blackout period from March 23, 2020 through April 30, 2020. The Fed sent advisories to this effect to each regional Federal Reserve Bank, including the Dallas Fed. On the very first day after this blackout period ended, May 1, 2020, Kaplan was back to trading like a hedge fund kingpin while simultaneously using his stature as a Fed Bank President to make outrageous negative predictions on a TV show watched by traders. Kaplan could have made money by shorting the market ahead of his negative pronouncements or he could have bought low after making those pronouncements. Neither the Dallas Fed nor the Inspector General will say if Kaplan engaged in shorting the market during a national health crisis. (Shorting means to place a bearish bet that the market or a security will fall in value.) Goldman Sachs did not respond to multiple inquiries, one as recently as yesterday, as to whether it was the brokerage firm conducting Kaplan’s trades. There is a strong suggestion that Goldman Sachs is where Kaplan was trading because he was using a Goldman Sachs, “GS,” money market fund to hold idle cash not deployed for trading. Kaplan was also trading in and out of oil stocks in 2020, including shares of Chevron, Marathon Petroleum, Occidental Petroleum and Valero Energy. According to Kaplan’s financial disclosure form for 2020, he made “multiple” trades in each of these oil stocks in sums of “over $1 million.” On May 28, 2020, Kaplan gave an interview to Reuters news wire which generated a headline that he was predicting “a global oil glut lasting well into 2021.” He also made the bearish comment in the interview that many smaller firms and those with lots of debt may not survive. West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the U.S. domestic crude oil that trades, had collapsed from a price of $60 a barrel at the beginning of 2020 to a range of $30 at the time of the Reuters’ interview with Kaplan. Calling for a “global oil glut lasting well into 2021” was not a bullish call for the oil fields in Texas. WTI actually bounced back to its $60 handle in early April of 2021. Despite the Inspector General’s finding that Kaplan violated no Fed rules, the type of trading done by Kaplan appears to be expressly prohibited by the Code of Conduct of the Dallas Fed. Appendix A on “Disqualifying Interests” of the Code of Conduct reads as follows: “De minimis exemption for a matter of general applicability. An employee may participate in a particular matter of general applicability, such as rulemaking, where the disqualifying financial interest arises from ownership by the employee, his or her spouse or minor children of securities issued by one or more entities affected by the matter, if: “(1) the securities are publicly traded, or are municipal securities, the market value of which does not exceed; (a) $25,000 in any one such entity; and (b) $50,000 in all affected entities; “or (2) the securities are long-term federal government securities, the market value of which does not exceed $50,000.” There was certainly nothing de minimis about Kaplan’s trading. In addition to his “multiple” trades in and out of S&P 500 futures, he lists on his financial disclosure form for 2020 “multiple” purchases and sales of greater than $1 million per transaction in 11 individual stocks. Three of those were interest-rate sensitive Big Tech stocks (Amazon, Apple and Facebook) that rose between 75 percent to 90 percent from their March 2020 lows, in no small part because of the interest rate cuts and other interventions by the Federal Reserve in 2020. The Federal Reserve had very specific rules against Kaplan’s style of speculative trading for decades, but those rules somehow managed to vanish into thin air. On August 12, 1977, the Comptroller General of the U.S., Elmer Staats, filed a report with Congress in which he warned that the Federal Reserve’s financial disclosure system was woefully lacking. Staats specifically called out the Fed’s failure to define with specificity what constituted prohibited “speculative dealings” for its employees. Staats notes in the report: “Federal Reserve regulations on standards of conduct are issued to each Board employee. Specific Board prohibitions on financial interest state that an employee may not: Have a direct or indirect financial interest that conflicts substantially, or appears to conflict substantially, with his duties and responsibilities; Engage in speculative dealings (as distinguished from investments) in securities, commodities, real estate, exchange, or otherwise. Frequency of trading, the use of credit, and particularly transactions to take advantage of short-term price fluctuations would be significant indications that dealings were speculative.” That last sentence in the above paragraph is the quintessential definition of trading in S&P 500 futures. This Federal Reserve rule prohibiting speculative dealings was still in force at the Federal Reserve on December 19, 1995 because the following reference appears in the Federal Register for that date: “A provision of the Board’s current ethics rules prohibits Board employees from engaging in speculative dealings. See 12 CFR 264.735–6(d)(iii).” When we looked in 2021 at the then current Federal Reserve Board of Governors’ ethics rules and those that had been published for each of the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks, we found zero references to “speculative dealings.” What we did find, however, was the following sentence in 11 of the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks’ codes of conduct: (The Atlanta Fed words the statement differently but with the same overall meaning.) “Each employee has a responsibility to the Bank and to the System to avoid conduct which places private gain above his or her duties to the Bank, which gives rise to an actual or apparent conflict of interest, or which might result in a question being raised regarding the independence of the employee’s judgment or the employee’s ability to perform the duties of his or her position satisfactorily.” Clearly, Kaplan violated the above rule when he started trading in and out of S&P 500 futures. There are three typical reasons for an individual to trade in speculative, short-term S&P 500 futures: (1) the individual thinks he or she can time the market’s moves; (2) the individual wants to trade before or after stock exchange hours; (3) the individual wants to make highly leveraged bets on the market’s direction, going both long and short. One of the most striking, and disturbing, facets to Kaplan’s trading is how many safeguards that are built into the system, both at the Dallas Fed and at the brokerage firm that placed his trades, failed to sound the alarms that should have gone off regarding this unprecedented speculative trading activity by a man regularly having access to non-public, market moving information at the Fed. The Dallas Fed has its own Board of Directors, with an Audit Committee. According to the Audit Committee’s charter, it is empowered to do the following, among many other things: “Obtain updates from the Bank’s General Counsel on any legal matters or code of conduct or ethical concerns that could have a significant impact on the financial statements or compliance matters. “Authorize special investigations and reviews, and engage independent counsel and other advisors as it determines necessary to carry out its duties and responsibilities.” Sharon Sweeney was the General Counsel at the Dallas Fed during Kaplan’s trading spree and had been with the Dallas Fed for 35 years. According to the Internet Archives’ Wayback Machine, Sweeney had served in the dual role as General Counsel and Ethics Officer since at least 2017. (Sweeney has since left the Dallas Fed.) It is the Ethics Officer’s signature that appears directly under Kaplan’s on each of his financial disclosure forms for 2015 through 2020, along with the following statement for the Ethics Officer: “I CERTIFY that I have reviewed the information contained in this report.” It was probably not a benefit to good governance at the Dallas Fed that Kaplan had the power to fire Sweeney “at his pleasure.” The Dallas Fed Board of Directors’ bylaws indicate this: “Subject to applicable law and rules of the Board of Governors, the President, and any officer(s) authorized by the President, has the power to suspend or dismiss at pleasure any employee or officer of the Bank, other than the First Vice President.” Then there is the External Auditor of the Dallas Fed. The Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington D.C. annually selects the external auditor for the regional Fed banks. From 2015 through 2020, the Federal Reserve Board had annually chosen the same auditor, KPMG, to perform the external audit for all 12 of the regional Fed Banks. KPMG is one of the Big Four Accounting firms. How it missed Kaplan’s aggressive, speculative trading is one more black eye for the firm. KMPG is also the accounting firm that audited the three banks that became the second, third and fourth largest bank failures in U.S. history in the spring of 2023: Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, which failed in March 2023; and First Republic Bank, which failed on May 1, 2023. Every licensed broker that would have been placing Kaplan’s “over $1 million” trades is required under regulatory rules to “Know Your Customer.” The rule states that “Every member shall use reasonable diligence, in regard to the opening and maintenance of every account, to know (and retain) the essential facts concerning every customer and concerning the authority of each person acting on behalf of such customer.” In Kaplan’s case, knowing your customer should have meant frantically calling your compliance department when an officer of the U.S. central bank, who sits on some of the most sensitive, non-public market intelligence in the world, instructs you to make “over $1 million” trades, multiple times, in S&P 500 futures contracts. The S&P 500 futures trade request by Kaplan should have convened an immediate, all-hands-on-deck meeting of the entire compliance department of the brokerage firm. Instead, the trading continued unimpeded for more than five years, according to Kaplan’s financial disclosure forms. Every brokerage firm has a compliance department that monitors the trades being placed by their brokers. The compliance department has access to the personal data for each client that indicates who their employer is, along with significant other personal information. Clients whose jobs involve having access to confidential market information, like an investment banker or a central banker, would have their trades closely monitored in a properly functioning compliance department. This compliance department was clearly not functioning and the American people need to know why. In addition to the Know Your Customer Rule, the U.S. Treasury Department’s FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) has its own Customer Due Diligence Rule (CDD Rule). One of the requirements under the rule is that financial institutions “use a specific method or categorization to risk rate customers; or automatically categorize as ‘high risk’ products and customer types that are identified in government publications as having characteristics that could potentially expose the institution to risks.” Kaplan previously worked for 22 years at one of the most sophisticated trading firms on the globe, Goldman Sachs. He rose to the rank of Vice Chairman at Goldman Sachs and had “global responsibility for the firm’s Investment Banking and Investment Management Divisions,” according to his official bio at the Dallas Fed. There is no question that a former Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs who had been a former CPA for Peat Marwick Mitchell understood that trading in and out of S&P 500 futures in “over $1 million” transactions when the President of the United States has declared a National Emergency and Kaplan was sitting on non-public information from the central bank of the United States was scandalous, if not illegal, behavior. Another safeguard that failed was the vetting of Kaplan for the position of Dallas Fed President by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington D.C. While the Class B and C Directors of the Dallas Fed Board appoint their President, he is also subject to the approval of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, who should have done extensive due diligence on Kaplan because of his 22 years at Goldman Sachs, including the immediate years leading up to the greatest financial crash since the Great Depression – a crisis in which Goldman Sachs played a toxic role. On April 11, 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a notice indicating that Goldman Sachs was fined “more than $5 billion” by various regulators. A statement in the notice from Acting Associate Attorney General Stuart Delery said that “This resolution holds Goldman Sachs accountable for its serious misconduct in falsely assuring investors that securities it sold were backed by sound mortgages, when it knew that they were full of mortgages that were likely to fail.” An in-depth investigation of Goldman Sach’s role in the subprime crisis that crashed Wall Street in 2008 was released by Greg Gordon of McClatchy Newspapers in 2015. Gordon writes: “From 2001 to 2007, Goldman hawked at least $135 billion in bonds keyed to risky home loans, according to analyses by McClatchy and the industry newsletter Inside Mortgage Finance… “It also was the lead firm in marketing about $83 billion in complex securities, many of them backed by subprime mortgages, via the Caymans and other offshore sites, according to an analysis of unpublished industry data by Gary Kopff, a securitization expert.” >From 2001 through most of 2005, the majority of the period referenced above, Kaplan was a key member of management of Goldman Sachs. That should have been an immediate disqualifier for moving up to the position of President of a Federal Reserve Bank. At the time of Kaplan’s appointment to the Dallas Fed in 2015, an activist group raised red flags. Ady Barkan, Director of the Center for Popular Democracy’s Fed Up campaign, released this statement in 2015 on the day the Dallas Fed announced it had chosen Kapan as its next President: “…the Dallas Fed selected a veteran of Goldman Sachs who is currently a director at the headhunting firm that was hired to fill this position. Neither the process nor the result serves the public interest. The Fed should do much better… “The revolving door in the Federal Reserve continues to spin, with Richard Fisher leaving the Dallas Fed to work at Barclay’s Bank (which pleaded guilty to serious financial crimes), and a Goldman Sachs banker coming in.” The Federal Reserve Board of Governors not only signed off on Kaplan’s appointment to the Dallas Fed once, but they reconfirmed his appointment in 2021 to serve for another five years as President of the Dallas Fed. On January 21, 2021 the Fed released a press statement indicating that after “a rigorous process to inform their reappointment decisions” it was reappointing all 12 regional Fed Bank presidents “to serve a new five-year term beginning March 1, 2021.” This “rigorous” process apparently did not think trading like a hedge fund kingpin was a disqualifier for Kaplan. It’s time for the SEC and/or the U.S. Department of Justice to speak out on this national disgrace and tell the American people if they have an ongoing investigation.

1 0

Dear PYPL Stock Fans, Mark Your Calendar for Jan. 25 | InvestorPlace
by Gunnar Larson 24 Jan '24

24 Jan '24

https://investorplace.com/2024/01/dear-pypl-stock-fans-mark-your-calendar-f… Dear PYPL Stock Fans, Mark Your Calendar for Jan. 25 Here's a key catalyst for this fintech stock worth paying attention to 1d ago · By Chris MacDonald, InvestorPlace Contributor Advertisement Shares of PayPal (PYPL) stock declined today, but some growth investors are focused on another key catalyst. The company is expected to announce something that will “shock the world” at an upcoming event on Jan. 25. Here’s what some investors think could be on the horizon for the fintech giant.

1 0

6th Circ. Says Whistleblower Really Fired For 'Coup' Attempt
by Gunnar Larson 24 Jan '24

24 Jan '24

6th Circ. Says Whistleblower Really Fired For 'Coup' Attempt <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1788787?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…> By Carolyn Muyskens A Sixth Circuit panel found Monday that a medical device company fired its president's son not because he ratted out his stepmother to the IRS, but because he tried to seize control of the family heating pad business. Opinion attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1788787?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/compliance/articles/1788787?nl_pk=ab5ce197-c1fb-4d8e…>

1 0

'More Than Enough' Amex Evidence For Visa, Mastercard Trial
by Gunnar Larson 24 Jan '24

24 Jan '24

'More Than Enough' Amex Evidence For Visa, Mastercard Trial <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1788969?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> By Bryan Koenig Visa and Mastercard appear bound for trial on antitrust claims over network rules forcing merchants to accept the companies' cards without the ability to steer consumers to cheaper swipe fee options, under a New York federal judge's ruling unsealed Monday finding sufficient evidence under a key high court precedent. Opinion attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1788969?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1788969?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…>

1 0

PayPal's Business Built On Stolen Trade Secrets, Suit Claims
by Gunnar Larson 24 Jan '24

24 Jan '24

PayPal's Business Built On Stolen Trade Secrets, Suit Claims <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1789361?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> By Henrik Nilsson Patent licensing company Internet Payments Patents Ltd. sued PayPal Inc. in Texas federal court on Tuesday alleging the financial tech giant stole trade secrets following meetings in the early 2000s to discuss a potential partnership, saying it only recently learned of the alleged theft from articles posted on PayPal's website. Complaint attached | Read full article » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1789361?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…> | Save to favorites » <https://www.law360.com/competition/articles/1789361?nl_pk=6416fd97-1dc4-4e0…>

1 0

xNY.io
by Gunnar Larson 24 Jan '24

24 Jan '24

https://xny.io/ Professor Steven Hawking states, “A theory is a good theory if it satisfies two requirements. It must accurately describe a large class of observations on the basis of a model that contains only a few arbitrary elements, and it must make definite predictions about the results of future observations... But if the theory was mathematically consistent and always gave predictions that agreed with observations, we could be reasonably confident that it was the right one...”

1 0

[log] Fwd: Morning Spam
by Baffo 32 24 Jan '24

24 Jan '24

last post could relate this, 4 days prior ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Baffo 32 <baffo32(a)gmail.com> Date: Fri, Dec 8, 2023 at 3:18 PM Subject: Re: Morning Spam To: Greg Newby <gbnewby(a)pglaf.org> Cc: cypherpunks <cypherpunks(a)lists.cpunks.org> I’m thinking I sent them from the same interface so gmail probably put an identical header on them, but it seemed to make sense to touch base. On Fri, Dec 8, 2023 at 17:17 Baffo 32 <baffo32(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Greg, are you uniting my email aliases for the 24 post limit? > > On Fri, Dec 8, 2023 at 13:13 <cypherpunks-owner(a)lists.cpunks.org> wrote: >> >> You have already sent 24 posts to this list in the last 24 hours. >> >> >> >> >> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- >> From: Baffo 32 <baffo32(a)gmail.com> >> To: cypherpunks <cypherpunks(a)lists.cpunks.org> >> Cc: >> Bcc: >> Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2023 13:12:37 -0600 >> Subject: Re: Morning Spam >> i have reached my 24 message limit >> >> On Fri, Dec 8, 2023 at 13:11 <cypherpunks-owner(a)lists.cpunks.org> wrote: >>> >>> You have already sent 24 posts to this list in the last 24 hours. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- >>> From: "Undescribed Horrific Abuse, One Victim & Survivor of Many" <gmkarl(a)gmail.com> >>> To: mailbombbin <mailbombbin(a)gmail.com> >>> Cc: cypherpunks <cypherpunks(a)lists.cpunks.org> >>> Bcc: >>> Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2023 13:11:12 -0600 >>> Subject: Re: Morning Spam >>> as people start realizing about human trafficking more of the trafficking AI starts modelling crying about it >>> >>> boss starts tearing up and people start holding each other’s heads in their hands and bending over and vibrating >>> >>> an especially connected worker bursts into tears >>> >>> crying worker: “oh no !” I'm using Inbox When Ready to protect my focus. I'm using Inbox When Ready to protect my focus.

2 6

Naming Names: Professor Exposes the Banking Cartel that Has Hijacked U.S. Democracy
by pro2rat＠yahoo.com.au 23 Jan '24

23 Jan '24

The stated term " US Democracy" assumes facts not in evidence in a rigged republic. Move to strike. This shitty little police-state also invokes the expression " No Taxation without Representation! " wherever and whenever it taxes users of stateless currencies. By carrying on like mad king George in todays multipolar world and cryptoanarchist century it has signed its own death warrant. The global financial crises claimed Bear Stearns and Wachovia. Cryptoanarchy claims all nation-states, all large religions and all local warlords. Now. Welcome to the first ever world revolution. Viva la revolution

1 0