On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the bailout of Cyprus, the government’s choice to seize money from the bank accounts of its citizens and if this may lead to the collapse of the Euro Zone.
Read More »Basically, it goes like this: the EU bails out Cypriot banks to the tune of 10 billion euros, in partial exchange for a 6.75% to 9.9% raid on Cypriot personal accounts (which is supposed to net about 5.8 billion euros in revenue), collectable probably now Tuesday*. See also here, here, and here. Naturally, the subjects of Cyprus (I can’t in either good conscience or grammar | Read More »
Remember the Google Wi-Spy Street View scandal? A seemingly-harmless survey of the country turned into a massive snooping operation, and the FTC smacked them for over 20 million dollars. Well, not only is FCC now wasting money with a survey of Internet speeds, but it turns out that the FCC program runs the risk of warrantless snooping of its own!
We need strong, reformist regulators to be appointed in the next administration to stop stuff like this.
Read More »Well, here we are. The reason CISPA was getting all the attention was allegedly that it was coming to a vote first. Well, now Lieberman-Collins is next to a vote, as Democrats scramble to find a way to make cloture. Where’s the outrage? I’ll tell you where it is: non-existent, because CISPA opposition was solely designed to give cover for Lieberman-Collins. We do need the | Read More »
Promoted from the diaries Decades ago, when British Prime Minister Harold Macmillen was asked by a journalist what would decide an upcoming election, he replied: “Events, my dear boy, events.” As we take stock of where we are – and what’s likely to happen between now and the first Tuesday of November – it’s clear that one of the greatest “events” facing us today – | Read More »
There’s a lot of fear going around about ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a plurilateral agreement under the WTO between the US, the EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and Morocco. Some of the fears look real, some don’t. For example, even though it was negotiated in secret, the text is easily available. Another false complaint is that it’s another SOPA, when | Read More »
Remember when I seemed to write about Net Neutrality four times a week, which was really something when I was only posting three times? Well, the AT&T/T-Mobile deal is probably going to get that much discussion for now. Of course there’s nothing new yet. Discussion is all there is until government actually starts acting. My job is to find the interesting discussion, I suppose. So | Read More »
So the top story this week is going to be the AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile USA. There’s a lot being said about it, about unions, about competition, but the story I’m seeing emerging is that this deal is about spectrum. AT&T sees in T-Mobile a way to get the spectrum it needs going forward. In fact, even power grabbing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said to | Read More »
Foreign politics are a tricky subject. While the broad strokes of politics can generally be understood the world over, when traditionalists battle leftists, and small government folk take on both, every country has its own exceptions, its own cultural taboos, and other factors that make it unique. Our politics for example completely baffle your typical European. Our conservative movement has few like it in the | Read More »
Good evening. Apologies again for missing two of three Tech at Night episodes last week. I can only plead an overabundance of desire for the weekend causing me to be forgetful on Friday. But that just means we have more to look at tonight, so let’s go. Yes, the forces of Net Neutrality Internet regulation were beaten badly last week. How badly? We already knew | Read More »
So, while Google may have seen the light on Net Neutrality (which is actually, amusingly enough, making the far left sound like me), they still have other issues going on. The WiSpy Street View spying issue is still ongoing, with South Korea raiding their offices and Germany pressuring the firm to be more transparent and responsive to privacy complaints about the program. Because as I | Read More »
At a time when Americans are speaking out against government bailouts and wasteful spending, President Obama is committing at least $50 billion of U.S. tax dollars to help bailout Greece and the European Union. Just today, the Financial Times reported that the IMF is seeking to boost its lending resources by another $250 billion. If the IMF is successful, the U.S. contribution to the E.U. | Read More »
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