Category Archives: Finance

February 22, 2022 · 10:15

The speculative rage

Yes, there is speculation, there is rage, there is the play and there are the consequences. As I stated about a day ago in ‘The presumption is mine’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/21/the-presumption-is-mine/) where I stated “so all that space on what amounts to 0.03% of the entire amount. Just like the ICIJ, shortsighted and a waste of time. So we get repeated invitations to explain 0.03% of what is such a massive leak? Is anyone waking up yet?” A stage play and the Guardian is milking it for EVERYTHING it can, but in doing so it gives a larger play away, and this is not presumption, it is speculation. Yet to see this we need to look at more than one article.

The first one is seen (at https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/feb/21/revealed-king-jordan-used-swiss-accounts-hoard-massive-wealth) where we are told ‘Revealed: king of Jordan used Swiss accounts to hoard massive wealth’, all yada yada, bla bla and more emotion and the basic part of evidence is missing. What crimes did the King of Jordan commit? We get “According to a massive trove of data leaked from the bank that names both royals as account holders, one account would later be worth a remarkable 230m Swiss francs”, again and again the mention of leaked data, all whilst we need to consider there was no leak, but more about that soon. Now we see 0.28% of the total money mentioned. Then we go on with the next article (at https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/feb/21/tax-timeline-credit-suisse-scandals) where we are treated to ‘Crooks, kleptocrats and crises: a timeline of Credit Suisse scandals’, we see the list and I am not debating the list, yet how much ‘effort’ did the media do when it comes to investigating players like Price Waterhouse Cooper? You see, it is not about this, or about that, we see the larger play with ‘Switzerland at risk of EU blacklist after Credit Suisse leak’ (at https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/feb/21/switzerland-at-risk-of-eu-blacklist-after-credit-suisse-leak), and again the mention of leak. This is (a personal speculation) the EU and US needing to button down, but with a place like Switzerland, there is no stopping what they desperately need, they need revenue and they need their cup filled, the bankrupt are now desperate.

The leak never made sense. I have worked in several places where I get access to data, but never to this degree and that wasn’t even a bank, the bank laws in Switzerland are no fun for bankers. This, as I personally see it, was state orchestrated. 

To see this we need to take the quote “The fallout from a huge leak of Credit Suisse banking data threatened to damage Switzerland’s entire financial sector on Monday after the European parliament’s main political grouping raised the prospect of adding the country to a money-laundering blacklist.” We cannot get the EU to agree on anything. Consider the Politico quote on the EU and covid “The Council press office said the Nice summit took over 90 hours in a tweet Monday afternoon to rein in already spreading rumours claiming the ongoing summit could become the longest by midnight.” There has been a long standing issue on Switzerland and the EU, but times are dire and something will have to give. So when we see “A move to the blacklist would mean Switzerland would face the kind of enhanced due diligence applied to transactions linked to rogue nations including North Korea”, this is one setting, but the larger stage is that the people they want could move their fortunes to the UAE or the Bahama’s all zero tax nations. And in all this with all these articles we still have not seen any collection of data that sets the stage to 7.5%, you know why? Because that was the PWC oversight regarding Tesco, a mere $6,000,000,000 and we see less than that here. But the biggest failing is that we see no transgressions of Swiss Banking Laws. We are given “how a massive leak of Credit Suisse data had uncovered apparently widespread failures of due diligence by the bank”, it is not the leak (well that too), but it is ‘apparently widespread failures’, ONE BANK! Yet now we get “When Swiss banks fail to apply international anti-money-laundering standards properly, Switzerland itself becomes a high-risk jurisdiction”, a statement by Markus Ferber, the coordinator on economic affairs for the EPP, the EPP or sometimes referred to as the sanctimonious Christian fucks of the European Union. So we have one bank, the Credit Suisse Group AG is a global investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. And we optionally have ONE bank transgressing, but for this the entire nation is set on fire. And that is before some people realise that a leak of this nature is not possible under normal conditions. It requires a state player like the NSA, GCHQ or DGSE to get involved. So who was it? 

And in all this the Guardian is again and again all about emotion and less about evidence, why is that? 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

February 22, 2022 · 02:20

Paranoia helps

This is a case, you might be paranoid, that does not mean that people are not out to hack your life. We seem to forget that, and the second part we forget is that big corporations do not care, it is the cost of doing business and that is what insurance is for. But the stage is growing and with full national 5G insurance companies will not take that stance, they would want assurances and that is when the consumer gets to pay for it all. One small slip up, one error and the consumer pays. That is where we are heading. 

This all started when I saw ‘Walmart ships fraudulent order to hacker’s address then leaves customer to recoup cost’ (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/walmart-fraudulent-order-online-account-hacked-1.6353016). The story gives us all kinds of information and in some cases the consumer made the easy choice, the ‘this is so much easier’ path and hackers tend to rely on that. But it is not all bad news (well mostly it is), so let’s start.

Item one ‘fraudsters were using it and his credit card on file’. This is with the consumer. Yes it is easy and most e-commerce sites use the same good encryption. Yet as I see it there are two issues. It is easy to order when the credit card is on file, so DO NOT DO THIS! Consider what you are doing every time you use your credit card. More important, when it is on file anything can happen as this consumer found out. I have two instances where a credit card is on file. One is a monthly payment of less than $10 a month, the other is even less. I enter my credit card information with every purchase. Commerce like people with credit cards on file, it is easier to make them buy, but consider that your budget is limiting and when you still have a week to go at the end of your credit card, life gets worse really fast.

Item two are two items, and they are on WalMart. We see ‘Walmart had cancelled the first three orders on its own, but Tomlinson noticed the last one for an Apple TV had just been shipped.’ In the first part why did three stop and one did not? If they are based on the same data, there is a flaw in the system, there is close to no other option. In addition we are given ‘he was not able to access the address and Walmart wouldn’t provide details’, this is clearly on Walmart. In addition, it should be in these systems that there is a permanent record of the last 10 addresses that are not linked to the credit card that paid for it, 10 is an arbitrary number, but it happens that a family member pays for another members item, or something like that. 

Now we get to the rather nasty stuff, we are given “In 2021, e-commerce retailers surveyed said they prevented about 4,860 attacks, but failed to stop about 4,800 others. The survey also suggests online and mobile fraud attacks on retailers appear to be rising since the pandemic started, up 45 per cent in Canada from 2020 to 2021.” In a full 5G network this number can go up by a 600% to 19500%, consider that 93,600 fraud cases are not stopped under 5G, do you really think that the insurances are going to sit back and let the numbers rise from 4,800 to 93,600? You have got to be kidding me and those who do will do so at horrendous premiums and the consumer gets passed on that bill. A setting I have foretold for years and people are still not waking up to Common Cyber Sense. Not all of it is the consumer. Yet look in your own home, how many use passwords like ‘QWERTY’, or something that simple? I thought I was clever in the 80’s when my password was ‘password’ and I learned quickly that there is more to safety and security. Then there are those who use the SAME password in all places and those people also have all their passwords on file. How long until deeper machine learning can make the jump from where we are, to what we are and how lazy we are? The algorithm is already out there, with 5G it gets the speed to really rake in the dollars. So whilst some might ry for big business when they give us “While Walmart says Tomlinson’s problem was caused by compromised credentials — not a cyber attack — Sutherland says companies across the board are dealing with such attacks on a regular basis.” And when we hear the sob story of covid made it worse, we need to consider that I saw issues like this in 2015, a massive overhaul of the e-commerce system is becoming essential and most of them do not want the cost, but the issue of fraud is happily passed on to the consumer. We need to accept that this is not merely Walmart, it hits e-commerce in Europe, US, and Asia. This is a much larger problem and a better system is required. Consider that we blame the NSO group for many hacks, but the basic issue is not merely the NSO group, they merely ‘Exploit Security Flaws in Phones’ Operating Systems’, so when this gets to e-commerce in the same way, we get a flaw exploiting a flaw and our goose is cooked. Hundreds of hackers hope to find that ‘Zero-Click’ flaw that makes the hacker rich whilst the hacker is sleeping and in a 5G world that will happen more often. It is not paranoia when they are all out to get your money, and there are many who want to do just that.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

February 21, 2022 · 16:31

Complying idiocy

Yes, that is what we see, round after round of BS (very expensive BS) we are now, month after month of babbling. We are now (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/20/irans-parliament-sets-conditions-for-return-to-nuclear-deal) where we see ‘Iran’s parliament sets conditions for return to nuclear deal’, which Al Jazeera sees as “an agreement may be reached in Vienna with world powers within days”. ABC voices this (at https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-lawmakers-guarantees-us-leave-revamped-deal-83012473) as ‘Israeli PM: Iran nuke deal will bring ‘more violent’ Mideast’ with the byline of “Israel’s prime minister has criticised an emerging deal over Iran’s nuclear program”, personally I do not think the the Israeli PM is wrong, we could take notice of Arab News giving us ‘Tehran eyes prison swap if Washington offers help on nuclear deal’ (at https://www.arabnews.com/node/2028401/middle-east), yet it is weirdly enough FoxNews who shows us the farce of it all with ‘Iran could supply an ‘initial 1.3 million barrels a day’ to global market if nuclear deal reached, expert says’ (at https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/oil-gas-iran-nuclear-deal). It is a joke (a bad one) and the joke will be on us soon enough, not that much on Israel where its population will start to glow in the dark quite soon. Iran desperately needs the funds for Houthi activities (also against Saudi Arabia) to appease Hezbollah and Palestinians and to complete their nuclear arsenal, so the US who needs cheap oil will provide all of the above providing they get the 1.3 million barrels a day. Is anyone else willing to comply to this charade? You see, Al Jazeera gives us “parliamentarians also asserted all sanctions imposed under “false excuses” must be lifted”, so are we that stupid? Optionally several nations are, because they think that once they give in and Israel is no longer a chess-piece on the board, they are in the delusion that they can muzzle Iran, but they merely open the doors to a much larger field of violence. Houthi and Hezbollah will see it a a sign that terrorism is the way to go and it will topple stability in the Middle East and you think I was stupid to put my idea for melting down their reactors online? It has been clear since 1979 and that was no April fools joke. We have seen issue after issue and Iran has NEVER acted responsibly towards a global world. The evidence is all over the Middle East and worse. Perhaps the Americans need a little history lesson, it was given to them by the subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence of the committee on homeland security house of representatives in 2011.

“the Islamic state has used terrorism as an integral part of its foreign and military policies. It provides funding, weapons, training, and sanctuary to numerous terrorist groups, most notably those operating in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and other Middle Eastern countries. Iranian-backed political violence has killed more than a thousand people in over 200 terror attacks, including the 1983 suicide bombing of American and French military barracks in Beirut, killing 299 people”, perhaps the US wants to return to those years to cull the population a little. Let’s face it, for them 20 million Israeli’s mean nothing but the global stage is not merely them, it is a lot more people and the setting that Iran becomes nuclear is a big global problem. The age of inaction is over and if these setting continue, the Iranian proxy war with Saudi Arabia will become very real and we are all letting this happen. The problem isn’t merely Iran, it is their lack of credibility and in such a state no one in their right mind can allow Iran becoming nuclear. It will take only the next Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to really make a mess of everything, but perhaps these layers like their oil to glow in the dark (easier to clean oil spills at night), OK if people didn’t recognise it, the previous moment is an example of feigned sarcasm. So, as we are given by ABC “That “leaves Iran with a fast track to military-grade enrichment,” Bennett told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations. In the meantime, he said that lifting sanctions right away will deliver billions of dollars to Iran to spend on hostile proxy groups along Israel’s borders.” It is possible that this was the intent of America all along. Let’s face it. If they are broken down and bankrupt, the only way they can gain traction if the rest of the world is burning. It is not the best solution, but for them it might just work and there is the Atlantic river between the fallout and America, so they might just have a solution there (a bad one). Yes, there is a lot of speculation here, but the idea to appeasing Iran really appeals to no one, optionally Russia, but I do not think China will be happy about the Middle Eastern changes. Is it too soon for what I am saying? I honestly do not know, but the papers show a different stage, each to its own population as one might expect, but no one is setting the clear message that Iran should not allowed to become a nuclear player, they all seem to accept that near future event. Although in all fairness the Wall Street Journal gave us ‘Rushing to a Weaker Iran Deal’, a collection of idiots racing to get some ‘title’ of being able to get Iran to sign a deal is what we see and they are not realising that a toothless deal is toothless and therefor useless. In the situation we see now, at 1,300,000 barrels a day, Iran only needs to be nice for 5-10 days before resorting to its extremist side and the problems will stack up on all other sides for years to come, enough to finish their nuclear plan leaving Israel and Saudi Arabia as the piggy’s in the middle, so how will that ever be a good idea? 

Perhaps it is just me, it could be. Yet consider how much people are complying to idiocy, is that the way we want to go? Is it just me? The newspapers from America, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel imply it is not. I will let you make up your own mind. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 21, 2022 · 04:59

The presumption is mine

There is a setting that does not agree with me and I have seen this before. Yet before I do that there are two words we need to look at. The first one is speculation, it means ‘the activity of guessing possible answers to a question without having enough information to be certain’, then there is presumption ‘the ground, reason, or evidence lending probability to a belief’. So one is a guess, the other is an educated guess. It is always stronger than a guess, but it is till lacking certain levels of evidence and that is important to know.

This all started as I was just unwinding of several (too many) hours playing Horizons 2: Forbidden West. I started that second play-through without completing the first. I did this with the first game. You see, Eloy needs power and skill and running after the main quest (something I erroneously did in the first game) will not do it. You need skill points and the game is large, really really large and when you start finding adversaries that are (on land) a lot bigger than you think you will be either running for your life or running for cover. Those who go meet the challenge head on are shredded. Yet I digress (or do I)?

The Guardian gives us (at https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/feb/20/credit-suisse-secrets-leak-unmasks-criminals-fraudsters-corrupt-politicians) where we see ‘Credit Suisse leak unmasks criminals, fraudsters and corrupt politicians’. There Is one problem. You see I do not think that this is happening, the Guardian was a happy tool just to get the exclusive. So as we are given:

Massive leak reveals secret owners of £80bn held in Swiss bank
Whistleblower leaked bank’s data to expose ‘immoral’ secrecy laws
Clients included human trafficker and billionaire who ordered girlfriend’s murder
Vatican-owned account used to spend €350m in allegedly fraudulent investment
Scandal-hit Credit Suisse rejects allegations it may be ‘rogue bank’

You see, my issue is that just like the ICIJ Pandora papers farce, this is an orchestration. I cannot say by who, we can point towards the NSA or a likeminded player (GCHQ), but the setting is larger. The US and EU are close to bankrupt, they play a nice tune, but the musical instrument has not been tuned for too long. A debt surpassing $30,000,000,000,000 and the EU is set to be in debt for about €10,973,338,444,376. They need to do something and going after some specific people is a first need. You cannot overhaul finances until certain ‘progressive entrepreneurs’ (aka white collar criminals) are dealt with ad the courts take too long, the problem is two fold. In the first the ICIJ was all about tantrums and BS, not much real useful info. We saw the accusations here and there with added ‘No actual laws were broken’ additions and it was a farce from beginning to end. Basic intelligence gathering acts were ignored, basic dashboarding was cast aside, and after 304 messages I know it was a wash. It was all about the power towards a ‘tax the rich’ flame which was happily drowned in whatever they used. Now we see the scolding of Credit Suisse and there are two parts here: 

  1. In the first they are accusations, so there will be a time gap, not a short one either. But it will be a message to ALL other banks that certain people have had enough.
  2. We see “billionaire who ordered girlfriend’s murder”, which might be fine, but which of the 2,755 billionaires was it? Well, the article gives us “his Lebanese pop star girlfriend”, so it might not be that hard. 

The issue is not the article perse, it is “A massive leak from one of the world’s biggest private banks, Credit Suisse, has exposed the hidden wealth of clients involved in torture, drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and other serious crimes. Details of accounts linked to 30,000 Credit Suisse clients all over the world are contained in the leak, which unmasks the beneficiaries of more than 100bn Swiss francs (£80bn) held in one of Switzerland’s best-known financial institutions.”

Let me take you through the numbers. There is not one employee that has access to the 30,000 accounts, so it is the CEO, CTO, CFO, or something like that. Do you think that they are the whistleblower? Nope? Neither do I! Then there is the IT, but Credit Suisse is global, so it we get back to the CTO. One IT person does not have this kind of access without getting caught. This level of data has all kinds of security. It needs to have it. Then there is the inside part Who is the drug trafficker? Who is the corrupt? Who is the torturer? This is not set into an account, it requires data aggregation, something a way to large computer can do but leakers tend to now have that access, without getting caught. And the Swiss laws are strict, massively strict so there is doubt on the stage of “held in one of Switzerland’s best-known financial institutions” as well. The levels of security and insight cannot come from a leaker, just like with the Pandora papers. I stated that from the beginning. This was a state operator and the NSA is the most likely culprit. The USA is in too much debt, it needs to release pressures and they are out of options. So when the ICIJ strikes out, we get this. 

I have worked in data for decades and I have had less then 5 instances where I had national levels of data access, but I was monitored all the time (as one does), one protects the data it has. And I was able to do my job and aid the people involved. In an age of data being currency, do you think this is some leak? An £80bn leak no less? Then there is “leak reveals secret owners of £80bn held in Swiss bank”, a bullshit header if ever there was one. You see Swiss bank laws are strict, very strict and have been for a very long time but someone wants access and a leak would never reveal that. Such information can only come from state players, players with aggregated data on a very large level and there is every indication that the dat did not come from the bank but from other sources who transferred the funds from one to the other. The setting of ‘Credit Suisse leak unmasks criminals, fraudsters and corrupt politicians’ debunked in mere minutes. It took me at least 4 times longer to type this all. And when we get one example where the article is so ‘huge’, we get “the leaked Credit Suisse data shows his accounts were left open until at least well into the last decade. At one point after he left Siemens, one account was worth 54m CHF (£24m). Seidel’s lawyer declined to say whether the accounts were his. He said his client had addressed all outstanding matters relating to his bribery offences and wished to move on with his life”, as well as “The lawyer did not respond to repeated invitations to explain the source of the 54m CHF. Siemens said it did not know about the money and that its review of its own cashflows shed no light on the account”, so all that space on what amounts to 0.03% of the entire amount. Just like the ICIJ, shortsighted and a waste of time. So we get repeated invitations to explain 0.03% of what is such a massive leak? Is anyone waking up yet? 

This is about something else, it always was and in this the Guardian is allowing themselves (yet again) to be the tool in all this. It is not rocket science and it took me minutes to debunk a setting that is intentionally being misrepresented by 5 writers, I did this all alone in less then an hour (including the writing), so what fairy tale will the newspapers (via a state actor) serve up next?

Charging in full frontal will get some state players shredded, so they decided on the Eloy solution, illuminate from the tall grass and stay out of sight, plenty of players eager to take that limelight.

2 Comments

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

February 15, 2022 · 22:14

What did I say?

I have said it again and again. The US is in several dangers, financial being a large one and Al Jazeera gives us ‘UAE arms deals: What weapons is the Gulf state buying and why?’ (at https://aje.io/pn5gad), it is the second line that should concern people. The mention of “purchases from South Korea, Israel and France”, Israel makes sense, its Iron Dome is pretty essential in any defence setting, yet the US is not one of the mentioned, so no Northrop Grumman or Raytheon. It is South Korea and France. France needs the sales, but in the end, the US is overlooked (again). There is a setting that the US could still set itself on and that is to grow UAE defence growing, Manufacturing plants in the UAE (or Saudi Arabia), but there is no real information on where the GAMI is going at present, so when we see “has one of the most potent air defence systems in the region, relying mainly on American-made weapons like the older HAWK missile, the more capable Patriot PAC-3 missile and the THAAD air defence system which was used for the first time in combat this year, destroying a Houthi missile” we also see that out with the old and the new is increasingly likely not going to be American, so when one changes, where does that leave the sales pipeline of the US? When one falls over, where do the others go? Consider that the HAWK was not the latest solution when I left the army 20 years ago, so why are the American salespeople not all over that wreck from day one? It should have been a clear path for the US to cement a better stage with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and optionally Qatar. If they can keep one of these four it is close to a miracle. And at the edge is China, ready to sell whatever they can and when I initially stated that the US could lose hundreds of billions everyone was stating that I was nuts, that I was demented and I didn’t know what I was talking about. Over the last months we have seen activities that show that the US is in a sliding place and now Al Jazeera adds to that. People might laugh at the size of the UAE, but with the UAE the options for Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt will also grow and neglecting any options is folly and it could cost the American industry a lot more than anyone bargained for. It might be merely my view, but so far I have been spot on, something the others will yet have to prove. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Military, Politics, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 14, 2022 · 03:41

The arbitrary Echidna

Yes, we all have arbitrary moments, this is not mine. Yet something woke up in me when Reuters gave me ‘Google’s advertising tech targeted in European publishers’ complaint’ (at https://www.reuters.com/technology/googles-advertising-tech-targeted-european-publishers-complaint-2022-02-11/) and I took a look. So there were a few issues and the part of “alleging Google has an adtech stranglehold over press publishers” is merely window dressing. So as I went to a few of these sites, I saw German, Swedish and no English. Now, this is not a stranglehold for me, so I dug deeper. And I looked in a few publications, seeing that there advertisements were a mess, I could not even apply for advertisements in Die Welt, Das Bild and so on. I did not check them all, but the laughable setting is that they seemingly have no idea what they are doing. See the image below

I go to www.google.com and this is the first thing I get in the left lower corner. It was not rocket science, it was precise and clear. And the Advertising gives you:

Simple, precise and direct, NONE of the publications I saw offered anything like that. I got to a page on advertising with Das Bild (I needed Google search to find it), these players are hopelessly lost, they are conceited and running after the facts. Advertising should be a main option at the bottom of Das Bild and Die Welt and it is not there (or better stated, I never found it). The most basic of settings and two of Germans largest circulations are lost beyond hope. So as I personally see it, it is not ‘Google has an adtech stranglehold over press publishers’, as I personally see it, it has become ‘press publishers are hopelessly outdated in the digital environment’, the ‘information’ page I found had one mention of pricing and no relevant actual pricing information. How is that possible in this day and age? Google Ads gives you options, Price per click, price per impression, and many other options and you can select your preference and set how much you are willing to pay. And the Google system is unsurpassed. You might bid $20, yet in the end you ONLY pay one cent more than the previous bid winner. So if we see the following bids:

BidCharged
1$ 20$ 0.54
2$ 5$ 0.53
3$ 3$ 0.52
4$ 1$ 0.51
5$ 0.50$ 0.50

Before Google the advertiser was NEVER given this and it changed the game, the ‘exploiters’ suddenly lost all traffic, they lost their customers and they lost their revenue. This is not a stranglehold, this is giving the customer proper treatment, perhaps EPC Chairman Christian Van Thillo might take notice of that. If we publicly set the advertisement prices over the last six years from Axel Springer, News UK, Conde Nast, Bonnier News and Editorial Prensa Iberica, what will we see then? Even now I could not find precise advertising prices in Die Welt and Das Bild. I get a presentation who they work with, but a consumer wants to know what it will cost them. So when you all go cry at the desk of the European Commission consider that the consumer and the consumer advertiser is given a clear picture and a clear understanding and the stage of what comes next. In addition, when we take “When publishers choose to use our advertising services, they keep the majority of revenue and every year we pay out billions of dollars directly to the publishing partners in our ad network” and we set that against “Google has achieved end-to-end control of the ad tech value chain, boasting market shares as high as 90-100% in segments of the ad tech chain” it is because Google offered and showed value for money from the very beginning, something most advertising agencies have never done. In addition, Google Ads has driven technology that made the advertisers more clever in the way they advertised, something others have never done. 

And in all this, when we see the EPC make claims like: ‘Freedom to earn advertising revenue’ and ‘Freedom to innovate’ whilst two of the partner clearly are lost on innovation, they might embrace earn advertising revenue, but without innovation it becomes meaningless and in that, the advertisers that require visibility see that Google Ads delivers whilst keeping cost down, optionally setting a stage to a new path that is cheaper for the advertiser, so how did the EPC approach that? This is not stranglehold, this is as I see it the path of exploitation and many advertisers have had enough of that and they were willing to try Google Ads and those who did remained in Google Ads, clearly the EPC needs to look up the word innovation, let me help them out: “the introduction of something new”, so where is that innovation in Die Welt and Das Bild? 

Seems that it is another chihuahua crying that they no longer matter, a waste of my time as I see it, not the people that could ever qualify for my 5G solution, that is (as I personally see it) true advertising power, in the hands of the retailer. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 11, 2022 · 21:35

The headers of maximum data

Every now and then I keep my eyes on Zendesk. There is a reason for that, my origins are technical support and customer support. I am proud of my past, I went from nothing to a decent high ranking technical support person and I always fought for EVERY customer. I did not care whether they had one single license, or if it was an important customer who owned a site license (which drove sales insane). All were equal in my eyes and all deserved and received 100%. So when the article (at https://www.reuters.com/business/zendesk-rejects-16-bln-offer-private-equity-consortium-2022-02-10/) passed me by, I took notice. You see, the header is one ‘Zendesk rejects $16 bln offer from private equity consortium’, I remember that it started not too long ago (2007) and it grew fast. Well there is a reason for that. No matter whether you look at SCOPUS, SIEBEL or another CRM solution, they claim that they have a technical support part, it was meagre and all based on a sales foundation, which makes it (in my eyes) not a technical support solution. So beyond Zendesk there was nothing. It is a good place to be in, it allows for the growth they had. Yet the article sat with me and not entirely in a good way. The first one “facing calls from activist investors, including hedge fund Jana Partners LLC, to abandon its proposed acquisition of SurveyMonkey parent Momentive Global Inc , which it agreed in October”, is regarded (by me) as moronic, you are about to see why. The second one “Thoma Bravo had made a takeover approach to Zendesk” with the added “Thoma Bravo and Jana declined to comment.” As I personally see it, it is not about Zendesk, it is about the amount of data they wield via 17 offices in a lot more countries than 17. They are after the data. A Company with an operating income of $175,000,000 is not valued as a $16,000,000,000 on the value of its SAAS operations, that has to be about the data and that will be a scary thought. When my technical support skills, given to the customers will be used to bleed them dry of intelligence. It is a scary thought. Then there is the added. You see Marketwatch gives us “Jana Partners LLC, which is opposed to Zendesk’s deal to buy Momentive Global Inc., is planning a proxy fight, according to the WSJ report. Momentive shares were down 3%” me thinks that the acquisition implies that too many eyes will be on Zendesk for some time to come and that does not sit well with Barry Rosenstein. So for me the response becomes: “A reactive and impulsive decision? My ass!” I think that Rosenstein had similar plans as the other (unnamed) player and it seems that these management firms have data currency on the mind and Zendesk in its near unique position is one juicy steak (with sauce). So no matter how unique the placement is, as long as it has data these Investment management companies will see the long term gains and there is a larger stake (or is that steak) in play, it is not Schrems 2 (discusses yesterday), it is all those nations that lack that level of protection and it seems that these Investment management companies have an additional customer that needs no mention, no written agreement and that makes for a lot of coins and they will hand it over eagerly, especially in light of the escalation we globally see, in that setting data is everything. To add to that, I have to admit that there is another setting, which I still cannot see, it is because I know next to nothing on Orlando Bravo, the man behind Thoma Bravo. It might be that he is on the same track sharing the risk and revenue with Rosenstein, yet they are lonesome hunters (optionally predators), but because Orlando the software esquire also has Proofpoint, Sophos, Kofax, Motus and Aptus there is every consideration that Orlando Bravo has other considerations including solidifying fleet contracts to a larger and more complete approach and having a more substantial SAAS umbrella. So he is the larger unknown and there is a rather large expansion option for Zendesk, so I am not certain, but I feel certain that Orlando might have been better off without Barry, but that is just an initial vibe I am getting and that vibe is not evidence based.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 10, 2022 · 02:04

Oh darn, I am missing out

Now to be honest, there was never much of a chance to begin with, but who would not want 3.75% commission, especially as it is based on a number amounting to billions. And as I said in several articles, the US is about to lose out on these billions. And guess what, after all the name calling I was handed (some are blindly accepting US stories that it will blow over), the setting given to us by Asia Times is ‘Saudi Arabia has a plan to buy fewer US weapons’, a mere 5 hours ago. It is supported by “Kingdom has launched an inward-looking strategy to develop its own defence industries with the help of foreign partners” (at https://asiatimes.com/2022/02/saudi-arabia-has-a-plan-to-buy-fewer-us-weapons/) in all honesty, this was always going to happen, but that industrial move was initially going to be US settings, now there is every chance that China gets to do this and that would imply losses into the hundreds of billions. The article gives us “Saudi Arabia has signed several Memoranda of Understanding between GAMI, the Ministry of Investment and UK-based Cranfield University. GAMI also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Italian defence manufacturer Leonardo to create and develop investment opportunities in education and train specialised military industries”, yet I believe that this setting is one that China relishes, as such whatever the west is thinking, be careful what you do next. You se, Cranfield themselves give us “A number of Cranfield graduates also hold leading roles in Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) including the Head and the Chief Design Engineer of the China Gas Turbine division”, Is this where it will go? No, there is no data supporting this, it is based on the stages that we have seen all over the news and if Saudi Arabia decides to get their hardware from the BAE, I would be happy (as a Commonwealthian), I would still be a little sour missing out on the 3.75%, but that was never a given in the first place. And all this is not really news, the internal defence growth was at least 2 years old and it makes sense for Saudi Arabia to have its own military manufacturing complex. So we aren’t seeing anything news, other than the Italian involvement here. So whilst some will stare at “Cranfield is ranked 45th in the world for Aero, Mech, Manufacturing by QS rankings.” It seems to me that Saudi Arabia is making headway in this stage and that means that the US is in deeper trouble than it realises. The UK could avoid some issues if they can get a handles on the CAAT Tea grannies. 

You see, over the next decade all nations need whatever revenue they can get and the UK is not out of the race yet, the question becomes what can they offer over China and that is a hard nut to crack, China has all kinds of advantages after the UK and US dropped the ball, and they did so several times in a row, so they are catering to a client (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) that has had enough of the games that some governments have been playing (as well as catering to Iran at the same time). 

Saudi Arabia was always intent on growing its own defence solutions and I believe about 3-4 years ago mention of 50% by 2030 was stated and they are on track to do that. I believe that GAMI (General Authority for Military Industries) is roaring to get things going. And it seems that they are very serious to get it going, so it is up to the UK to find solutions that help them and not China. Personally I believe that the UK will have to sweeten the deal by a lot, but that is personal speculation. I do still believe that China has the inside track here, but that too is speculation on other sources, sources I never was able to vet. 

And there is a second path here, I do believe that the longer term planning for Saudi Arabia implies that Egypt is a growing connection here, so if China wins that path, they could optionally have the advantage with Egypt and its $2,000,000,000 for 2022/2023. A setting that should cause concern in Washington. You see, if China takes over the $ 1.3 billion annually support from the US, the factional setting for the Middle East will change pretty dramatically. Even as the US is seemingly out with the Saudi Government, it is merely that seemingly. The US has a massive disadvantage especially when they were all huffy and puffy on Saudi Arabia, reality bites and that presentable stage will have to be stopped at the earliest convenience (not for me, I am happy if the BAE takes over), yet these stages (also the one the CAAT forced) are all stages that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia took notice of and China will be happy to show that with every presentation they bring. So China might have the lead, but the UK is still in the race and that is good for the UK. The Asia Times is not bringing too much news, yet the fact that it is on the front of the media is always an optional sign that more will be coming soon enough. 

Time will tell, and I reckon it is sooner rather than later.

1 Comment

Filed under Finance, Military, Politics, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 7, 2022 · 08:10

The street we know

It is a different setting, we tend to relate to the streets we tend to know. Any technology is set upon a familiar setting. The benefit is that we know where we are and as such we get to where we think we want to go faster. The negative part is that this is a problem when it is true innovation, we cannot continue an iterative line if we want true innovation. 

So when I saw ‘Saudi Arabia announces $6.4 billion investments in future tech’ (at https://www.reuters.com/markets/funds/saudi-arabia-announces-64-billion-investments-future-tech-2022-02-01/) I took notice last week but merely that, it was to be expected. So when I looked at it again this morning, I noticed “include a $2 billion joint venture between eWTP Arabia Capital, a fund backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Alibaba, and China’s J&T Express Group, minister Abdullah Alswaha said”, I had overlooked that initially. But it makes sense, as ties with China grow, the Chinese IT sector would come in. It spells bad news for the US, for Amazon in particular. The options that were there are shrinking, they are not gone, but China is now in position to take the cream from the barrel and become the new fat cats. My IP still has options, but it might not go the highway I had hoped for (we all have that), still I do have the innovation advantage and when others fail I can step in. 

There is another side, a side that Amazon had in hands, you see with Neom and Vision2030 Amazon had a larger option if there was a data centre in Saudi Arabia, not a simple online store, but a real data centre, they would need one for a few reasons and even as the media gives us “showing its continued business interests there despite a public dispute between Riyadh and the company’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos”, we can see the hindrance there, we can see that there are issues (I am ignoring the FTI Consulting issues here), but in a larger stake worth billions, the need to find solutions are clear for Amazon. They could walk away and leave it all to AliBaba and the J&T Express Group yet who profits then? Not Amazon, not the US and it is another spark that goes into the direction of China. It is a problem for the US for two reasons. The first one is simple revenue, the US desperately needs that. The second one might not be that clear. You see Saudi Arabia has at present a full fletched 5G network, so those there can do all kinds of prototyping to a much larger extend and see the impact of congestion in a complete 5G network. You see at present we see assumptions via 4G LTE and other settings, this implies that other issues will not be captured when things go wrong. And with all the transgressions we have seen in 2020 and 2021 these systems need proper adjustment. Saudi Arabia has the advantage and now it seems so does China (outside of China), another step not to the advantage of the west (as expressions go), so how many steps do we all need to fall behind before people take this disadvantaged setting seriously?

Even now, the aftermath of Davos will be in favour of both Saudi Arabia and China. Al Jazeera reported “Observers see the high-profile conference as a way for the kingdom to redeem itself in the eyes of US President Joe Biden and the wider international community”, yet my question becomes ‘Why?’ You see, the EU and the US have shown themselves to be unreliable, all setting concepts to presentation in stead of evidence. Now that China is showing themselves to be a much larger player and a willing player could spell a massive loss in revenue. 3 billion here, 6.4 billion there, and several more billions left, right and hither. How much longer until we face the direction that we are losing out? Now this would not be a problem when we have alternatives, but there aren’t that many are there? And consider that one side gives us ‘Deficit shrinks in the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency’ (around $500,000,000,000 less loss), it is a joke when you consider that the deficit is still $2,500,000,000,000,000. And less than a months later the people are given ‘Biden’s $1.7trn social policy will send deficit soaring’, it is another setting of managing bd news and on top of that they lose revenue option after revenue option. So how does that look? The US debt has now surpassed $30,000,000,000,000,000, you have that kind of money? I do not and none of the others have it and an additional problem for the US is that the EU wants to dig into the Saudi revenue pie as well, yet at present China has the upper hand. A setting we ignore because we are lulled to sleep, and that time is gone, when the US debt comes crashing down the EU will join a massive loss and no amount of promise will aid anyone at that point. All because certain players underestimated the impact of innovation and innovation like some are marketing it is not innovation, it is a presentation nothing more. We all tend to keep to the street we know but when that street is on fire, will you merely stop the fire or see what resources are available in the next street? 

China did just that and now we see the fallout of political stupidity. Oh, and when Iran does not come across with promises that they made to some middle man, when the unfortunate adjustments come, the middle man will not care, he got his oil barrel bonus, he is just fine, but those who were behind it will get to say ‘Oops!’ Just as I expected them to do. At that point we will see another advantage to China, good going! And what happens in May/June when Iran has enough nuclear materials? What then?

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT, Media, Politics, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

February 6, 2022 · 20:38

Time on my side

Yes, this is what it seems to be and there are no rolling stones going my way. I saw the news yesterday, but I was busy with a few other parts. So when I recall ‘Early Christmas for China’ on January 10th and ‘Just like the moon’ on September 20th 2020 (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/09/20/just-like-the-moon/), there were even a few more mentions before that and people called me nuts, I was talking like Mr. Serious Hit. And now we see the continuation in the Business Insider with ‘As Biden struggles to define his relationship with Saudi Arabia, China is stepping in to fill the gap’ (at https://www.businessinsider.com/china-saudi-strengthen-ties-biden-struggles-define-mbs-relationship-2022-1). A stage that was out in the open, a setting where China is now ready to set the caper to take billions from the EU and the US and direct it towards China. I stated it before and now we see the mention of “In recent months, China and Saudi Arabia have grown closer, establishing new fronts of cooperation in defence and trade.” A setting that could cost the two dumb parties (EU and US) hundreds of billions. So where do you think they will get the heating relief for? How does it look when the BAE has a good system but these tea grannies protesting on behalf of the CAAT are now the cause of prolonging the UK hardship for another decade, well done ladies! A perfect setting where you had no clue what you were talking about in the first place. 

So whilst we take consideration of “Saudi Arabia has long been China’s biggest trade partner in the Middle East — Saudi goods accounted for 17% of Chinese imports in 2021”, yet that is not really the real deal, it is when Saudi Arabia extends towards 25% of Chinese imports to include defence materials and optionally consultation you will see a much larger change. You see, The UAE will be invited for a special tour, Oman and Bahrain perhaps too and someone from Egypt. That is the moment when the EU and the US needs to fear the impact of reduced revenue as well as losing a political ground. You see these people were listening because the US was bringing them stuff, when that falls away the political ground changes. It is the application of money talks, bullshit walks. Political people will call it ‘A complex situation that is being monitored and looked at in conjunction with the state department and others to see what we can achieve’, but the people around that setting will have their own version of applied stupidity in politics. It was always simple. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia needs to defend itself from future attacks from Iran and the politicians in Eu and US have done EVERYTHING to trivialise that and now another step (by China) is being made to approach Saudi Arabia. That implies that the ball is no longer on the US side, it is on the other side and is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia decides to lob it towards China the US will lose more than 3-5 years of decent revenue. They will have to sell to nations that do not have the cash, their credit cards are strapped as such larger discounts will be required. The UK is in no better setting, they will lose less, but they stand to lose a massive amount of cash that was meant for the British coffers that pays for all that can soon no longer be afforded. 

So whilst Chinese President Xi Jinping sings to the record of the Rolling Stones singing ‘Time is on my side’ in the halls of the Presidential Palace in Nanjing, the people who hear it will realise that the US is now in a stage where the debt surpassed $30,000,000,000,000 and the incoming revenue is decreasing. The EU might not be in such a setting yet, but both the EU and UK will see that life will become harder soon enough. All because alleged individuals decided to dance to the needs of Iran, well played, stupid, but well done. Perhaps you will get a Harrods Christmas hamper from China. 

Oh and the fact that I saw this months ago was not future prediction, it was the simple approach towards logic; there were always two alternatives and China got there faster and more convincingly.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Military, Politics

Tagged as , , , , , , ,