Welcome to Sott.net
Thu, 04 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Briefcase

Matt Levine on trading strategies, Lyft going public & why bankers should be allowed to steal deals on the train

Businessman using train on phone
Eurostar

If you are an investment banker, and you settle into your seat on a train after a long day of doing investment banking, and after a while you look up from your novel and notice that the person sitting next to you is also an investment banker, a competitor, and not only that but he is doing investment banking right now, and not only that but you can see his email and figure out what company he is working for and what deal he is working on, what should you do?

There is a correct answer, and you are not going to like it, but it is: You should get out your phone and, carefully and casually and without letting him see your screen, you should email the people back at your office and try to get them to pitch his client right now and take the deal away from him, or at least get a role in it. Then your colleagues will scramble to use the information you gather to put together, within the hour, a compelling pitch to the client, and they will call the client and present their credentials and make their pitch, and the client will say "wait how did you even know we were doing a deal, it is secret," and your colleagues will smugly reply "we are investment bankers, it is our business to know what deals are going on, and we are very good at our business, also by the way if I were you I'd have some questions for your current bankers about leaks," and the client will be impressed and hire your bank and fire the other guy's bank.

Biohazard

Fukushima contamination has drifted as far north as Alaska's Bering Strait

Fukushima reactor
© REUTERS/Issei Kato
The reactor units No.1 to 4 are seen over storage tanks for radioactive water at Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan February 18, 2019. Picture taken February 18, 2019.
Radioactive contamination from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant hit by a tsunami in 2011 has drifted as far north as waters off a remote Alaska island in the Bering Strait, scientists said on Wednesday.

Analysis of seawater collected last year near St. Lawrence Island revealed a slight elevation in levels of radioactive cesium-137 attributable to the Fukushima disaster, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Sea Grant program said.

"This is the northern edge of the plume," said Gay Sheffield, a Sea Grant marine advisory agent based in the Bering Sea town of Nome, Alaska.

Comment: Also see: What's occurring at Fukushima since the meltdown in 2011


Attention

Violence has returned to Somalia

Mogodishu somalia car bomb
In Mogadishu, last week, a series of car bombs, including a truck bomb chose four targets; a Government building, a high profile hotel and a popular restaurant including one of the main streets in Mogadishu, which represents a new offensive by Al-Shabab not seen since the massive vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) that injured and killed over 900 people nearly two years ago, in October 2017.

The bombings last week happened over consecutive days, causing last Saturday Mogadishu's Mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman to announce a new counter terrorism strategy to end the wave of attacks by Al-Shabaab sleeper cells thought to be hiding embedded among the local population.

"Since it's a massive operation targeting houses across the city, we ask the public at large to exercise more patience and cooperate with the security personnel in the line of duty," said Mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman.

Info

Militants dead in Kashmir after gun battle with Indian security forces

Indian soldiers
© REUTERS / Danish Ismail
Indian soldiers on patrol in the city of Srinagar, Kashmir, May 5, 2018
At least four suspected militants have been killed and four members of India's security forces injured, following a heated gun battle in the Pulwama district of Kashmir in the early hours of Monday morning.

The exchange of fire erupted as members of India's army, paramilitaries, and the special operations group of the Jammu & Kashmir police force conducted a cordon-and-search-operation following a tip-off, according to local media. The wounded were evacuated and taken to hospital, and are now in a stable condition.

As the cordon was tightened, the militants fired at the forces, triggering a fierce gunfight in which four ultras were neutralized," a police official said. He added that the dead militants were believed to be members of the Pakistan-based Islamist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and security personnel was working to identify the dead members.

Attention

Why not draw US crimes? Mussolini's granddaughter rips Jim Carrey over sketch of fascist dictator

Jim Carrey Alessandra Mussolini
© Jim Carrey REUTERS/Mike Blake; Alessandra Mussolini AFP / ANDREAS SOLARO
The granddaughter of Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini has lashed out at Jim Carrey after the actor shared a drawing of Mussolini's corpse. She suggested instead that Carrey's art should focus on America's dark past.

The e-feud began after Carrey, who regularly shares his provocative political art on Twitter, posted a sketch he made of Mussolini and his mistress hanging upside down from a beam - an image modeled on a famous photograph of the executed dictator.

"If you're wondering what fascism leads to, just ask Benito Mussolini and his mistress Claretta," Carrey captioned the drawing.

Comment: Say what you will about Benito Mussolini, Alessandra's assessment of Jim Carrey pretty much hits the mark. The actor-turned-artist has become more and more unhinged as time has gone on, putting out "artwork" akin to that of a cranky petulant child.

See also:


Stock Down

US retail layoffs up 92% in 2019 - Even Wal-Mart is "quietly closing stores"

walmarts closed migrants
Just like we witnessed during the last recession, major retailers are laying off tens of thousands of workers, and it looks like this will be the worst year for store closings in all of U.S. history. Many are referring to this as "the retail apocalypse", and without a doubt this is one of the toughest stretches for retailers that we have ever seen. But many believe that what we have witnessed so far is just the beginning. After all, if retailers are struggling this much now, how bad will things be once the next recession really gets rolling?

Of course the truth is that things have been rocky for the retail industry for quite a few years, but the numbers are telling us that this crisis is really starting to accelerate.

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, retail layoffs were up a whopping 92 percent in January and February compared to the same period a year ago. The following comes from NBC News...
More than 41,000 people have lost their jobs in the retail industry so far this year - a 92 percent spike in layoffs since the same time last year, according to a new report.

And the layoffs continue to mount, with JCPenney announcing this week it would be closing 18 stores in addition to three previously announced closures, as part of a "standard annual review."

Comment: Similar trends are occurring throughout the Western world, and citizens have been suffering the deteriorating economy ever since the financial collapse in 2008, it's only now that their savings are spent and they realize there really is no recovery in sight: Also check out SOTT radio's:


Eye 1

Lehigh University covered up prof's sex harassment to avoid appearing racist, claims lawsuit

james peterson
A Pennsylvania professor is suing her university, claiming that it covered up sexual harassment claims against a black faculty member for years to avoid appearing racially discriminatory.

The professor, Monica Miller claims in the lawsuit obtained by Campus Reform that she was promoted to head the Africana Studies department following the suspension of Dr. James Peterson after "years" of sexual harassment allegations, according to The Morning Call. Miller also accuses Peterson of harassing her.

Miller claimed that Peterson made multiple attempts to kiss Miller, called her high heels "sexy," asked and then attempted to pull Miller onto his lap, and rubbed her leg. Miller "felt compromised given the high stakes of the job process and the primary/formative role that Peterson [who headed the Africana Studies department at the time] played throughout," the lawsuit states.

Flashlight

'Woke' injustice: Jussie Smollett's politicized escape from responsibility

Jussie Smollett
© Getty images
Before actor Jussie Smollett’s whopper unraveled, it was wildly parroted by a media too eager to believe anything that confirms its conviction that America is boiling with hate, Finley says.
The expunging of the 16-count felony indictment against actor Jussie Smollett for faking a hate crime against himself is being treated as a manifestation of Chicago machine politics.

Feminist attorney Tina Tchen, the former chief of staff to first lady Michelle Obama, had contacted the Cook County prosecutor, Kim Foxx, about the case on behalf of a member of Smollett's family.

But the dismissal of a seemingly watertight case, based on the sworn confessions of Smollett's two co-conspirators and reams of physical evidence, represents more than celebrity justice. It is rather the latest example of the incursion of academic identity politics into the workings of government.

Had Smollett been a straight white male who had staged his own attack by fake Antifa Trump antagonists, he would most certainly still be facing a trial and the prospect of prison time.

Comment: See also:


TV

Brazen Jake Tapper claims CNN didn't get 'anything' wrong in Russiagate reporting

jake tapper
© CNN
Jake Tapper
The host of CNN's State of the Union, Jake Tapper, tried to defend the network's coverage of Russiagate, claiming it actually got nothing wrong. The bold claim, however, was challenged by other journalists.

Tapper made the controversial remark while talking to acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney on Sunday.

"I'm not sure what you're saying the media got wrong. The media reported the investigation was going on. Other than the people in the media on the left, not on this network, I don't know anybody that got anything wrong," Tapper stated.

Comment: CNN's ratings have been tanking over their humiliating championing of the Russiagate debacle. Market forces!

Fake news flops: CNN's February ratings down 19 percent


Heart - Black

Hundreds of women secretly filmed undressing for treatment at San Diego hospital

surgery
© Reuters / Carlos Garcia Rawlins
A San Diego hospital secretly filmed 1,800 women undressing, giving birth and undergoing gynecological procedures using hidden cameras, a lawsuit filed by 81 of the women claims.

Sharp Grossmont Hospital set up hidden cameras in three operating rooms in their women's health center in El Cajon between July 2012 and June 2013. The motion-activated cameras filmed women giving birth, undergoing hysterectomies, sterilizations and miscarriage procedures, with the cameras capturing the women's faces and "their most sensitive genital areas," the suit filed in the California Supreme Court on Friday reads.

The hospital said it was recording as part of an investigation into whether an employee was stealing the anesthesia drug propofol. The cameras were located on the drug carts in the operating rooms and continued to film after movement nearby had stopped.