Meet the City Money Men Who Want the U.K. to Leave the EU
London’s top financiers and executives warn that a British vote to leave the European Union will have dire consequences: economic chaos, diminished trade opportunities and a decline in the City of London’s role as a premier hub for global business and finance.
"The biggest risk is staying in something that, frankly, is flat-lining and not helping its citizens," Tice, chief executive officer of property-investment firm Quidnet Capital Partners, said over an early-morning cappuccino across from his office in London’s gilded Mayfair district.
A slim 51-year-old from England’s industrial Midlands whose firm manages about 500 million pounds ($756 million) worth of real estate, Tice is backing a campaign in favor of exit. A two-year stint in Paris in the 1990s convinced him Britain and continental Europe have fundamentally different cultures -- and that his country has nothing to lose from going its own way.
Tice is among a small group of prominent financial-sector figures publicly backing a U.K. departure from the EU. Others say they’ll endorse leaving if Prime Minister David Cameron doesn’t negotiate fundamental changes to the U.K’s relationship with the rest of Europe -- more fundamental than those Cameron favors.
Cameron Tuesday laid out his demands, which include changes to welfare rules for immigrants, cutting the regulatory burden on business and giving the U.K. an opt-out from the EU’s official goal to be an "ever-closer union." Nonetheless, the premier said he believes staying in a reformed EU "will be unambiguously in our national interest." The EU Commission immediately criticized his proposals on migrants.
That Britain should leave the EU is very much a minority view in the boardroom, especially at big companies. An April-May poll of 1,259 members of the Institute of Directors business group found that two-thirds agreed that the benefits of membership outweighed the negatives. Among large companies only, 71 percent were positive.
by M Campbell & D Griffin
London’s top financiers and executives warn that a British vote to leave the European Union will have dire consequences: economic chaos, diminished trade opportunities and a decline in the City of London’s role as a premier hub for global business and finance.
"The biggest risk is staying in something that, frankly, is flat-lining and not helping its citizens," Tice, chief executive officer of property-investment firm Quidnet Capital Partners, said over an early-morning cappuccino across from his office in London’s gilded Mayfair district.
A slim 51-year-old from England’s industrial Midlands whose firm manages about 500 million pounds ($756 million) worth of real estate, Tice is backing a campaign in favor of exit. A two-year stint in Paris in the 1990s convinced him Britain and continental Europe have fundamentally different cultures -- and that his country has nothing to lose from going its own way.
Tice is among a small group of prominent financial-sector figures publicly backing a U.K. departure from the EU. Others say they’ll endorse leaving if Prime Minister David Cameron doesn’t negotiate fundamental changes to the U.K’s relationship with the rest of Europe -- more fundamental than those Cameron favors.
Cameron Tuesday laid out his demands, which include changes to welfare rules for immigrants, cutting the regulatory burden on business and giving the U.K. an opt-out from the EU’s official goal to be an "ever-closer union." Nonetheless, the premier said he believes staying in a reformed EU "will be unambiguously in our national interest." The EU Commission immediately criticized his proposals on migrants.
That Britain should leave the EU is very much a minority view in the boardroom, especially at big companies. An April-May poll of 1,259 members of the Institute of Directors business group found that two-thirds agreed that the benefits of membership outweighed the negatives. Among large companies only, 71 percent were positive.
Nonetheless, the divisions show Cameron can’t count on unanimous support from the business community in his push to win voter endorsement of the reforms he’s seeking. He and Chancellor George Osborne say they will campaign for an "in" vote if they can negotiate devolving power to London from Brussels.
"Cameron must be worried that he has this group of very, very well-funded opponents," said Richard Whitman, a professor of politics at the University of Kent. "Not only do they have pockets that are quite difficult to get to the bottom of, but also because they’re very driven.”
Wealthy or not, exit backers are swimming against a tide of business leaders urging the country to stay in, including top executives such as Stuart Rose, the former chairman of Marks & Spencer Plc, and BAE Systems Plc chairman Roger Carr. Many global financial institutions, including Citigroup Inc. and Germany’s Deutsche Bank AG, also have indicated support for continued British membership.
Those willing to contemplate an exit, by contrast, tend to work at smaller, less internationally-oriented firms. They argue their views are more representative of public opinion, and of the bulk of the British economy.
Howard Shore, executive chairman of broker and asset manager Shore Capital, says departure could allow the U.K. to rebuild what he sees as the freewheeling, entrepreneurial atmosphere of the 1980s, when then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was deregulating financial services. With about 150 employees and 800 million pounds under management, his company is by no means tiny, but it’s still small enough to feel the pinch of time-consuming regulations, said Shore, 55.
by M Campbell & D Griffin
Survey Results
To bolster his point, Shore this year funded a survey of 601 leaders of small and medium-sized firms that found 41 percent say the EU hinders their business. Significant majorities were in favor of large-scale repatriations of powers from Brussels. About 40 percent also supported transforming the EU into a "less integrated free trade area" -- which would almost certainly be unacceptable to France and Germany -- and another 14 percent favored an exit altogether.
Shore has company in Crispin Odey. The Harrow- and Oxford-educated hedge fund manager, a longtime Conservative Party donor, says the question is if "we want to be part of a Europe that keeps mangling us." He says he also favors transforming the wide-ranging EU into a much narrower trade pact, bringing power over political matters back to London. Like Shore, Odey, whose Odey Asset Management manages over $11 billion, misses what was, in his telling, a golden period of light financial regulation and attendant success.
It’s not yet clear how long Odey’s fellow citizens will have to consider the pros and cons of staying in. Cameron has promised a referendum by the end of 2017, though some business groups have called for it to be held as early as possible to reduce the period of pre-vote uncertainty.
In the meantime, both sides are organizing. The pro-EU camp is coalescing behind a group dubbed Britain Stronger in Europe, while those favoring departure are backing two separate groups: Vote Leave and Leave.EU. Business for Britain, a lobby group that supports Vote Leave, counts a passel of prominent City figures among its advisers, including Numis Securities CEO Oliver Hemsley and Roger Bootle, the founder of consulting firm Capital Economics.
Even on the "in" side, there’s strong support for tweaking Britain’s relationship with the EU. Among both Britons and other Europeans, "there is collective recognition Europe needs to be more flexible, more competitive, more fleet of foot," said Carr, the BAE Systems chairman, citing slow-moving EU efforts to lower trade barriers for services and build the region’s digital economy.
Negotiations Needed
Britain would face significant uncertainties were it to vote to leave a body that’s shaped much of its economic and political landscape for 40 years. Millions of European citizens who now live visa-free in the U.K. would have to be integrated into a new immigration system, and a comprehensive trade deal would have to be struck with the EU’s 27 other members. Perhaps most importantly, foreign investors would need to be convinced that the U.K. and London, the urban dynamo at the heart of its economy, would remain as attractive if they were outside the world’s largest economic bloc.
"London didn’t just appear by magic. It’s part of that big international capital market with 500 million rich consumers," said Alan Houmann, the head of government affairs for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Citigroup in London. "We invest here for a good reason and we’re very in favor of what we have."
Tice, for his part, says the transition can be pulled off without upending the economy. The former head of CLS Holdings Plc, a major property-investment firm, calls leaving a "very simple process" in which the EU would negotiate a new accord with a separate Britain in one to two years. "I don’t think there’d be any disruption at all," he said. "This is not cataclysmic."
He’s doing his best to make departure a reality. He’s co-chair of Leave.EU and says he has given the organization substantial financial support. But he’s given up on finding allies at big banks to back his crusade. "We’ve tried," he says. "They just can’t go there."
Europe's Plan to Deport More Migrants Meets African Resistance
European Union plans to clamp down on migration met resistance from African leaders, who called on the EU to open more channels for their people to live and work legally in Europe.
At a summit in Valletta, Malta, the EU offered more development aid in exchange for an African pledge to take back -- or “re-admit” -- more people who cross the Mediterranean Sea and settle in European cities without job or residence rights.
“Readmission is a difficult subject, we can’t just have this discussion from the European perspective,” Macky Sall, president of Senegal, told reporters Wednesday before the summit. He called for a “frank discussion” of legalizing the status of Africans already in Europe.
by J G Neuger & K S Navarra
The clash over deportation or legalization echoed debates over immigration in the U.S. presidential campaign, and showed how hard it is for Europe to get to grips with the continent’s biggest wave of migrants and refugees since the end of World War II.
‘Demands and Expectations’
Europe’s open societies and porous land and sea borders make deportation difficult. Fewer than 40 percent of “irregular” migrants who were ordered out of European territory in 2014 actually left, EU data show. Some throw away their passports to make them hard to identify and trace.
“We have to be firmer about readmissions,” French President Francois Hollande said.
The 28-nation bloc’s main offer at the summit with representatives of more than 30 African countries was a 1.8 billion-euro ($1.9 billion) trust fund that will be used to promote economic growth to keep people at home and to fight the traffickers who exploit those who want to leave.
by J G Neuger & K S Navarra
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said extra financing comes attached to “clear demands and expectations” directed toward the African side.
EU leaders scheduled the Africa meeting in April, when most migrants were coming through strife-torn Libya across the central Mediterranean Sea. Now most are fleeing Syria or Iraq -- not represented at the Malta summit -- and passing through Turkey before reaching the European shore in Greece.
The EU-Africa meeting runs until Thursday afternoon, followed by an EU-only summit to review the refugee-control efforts.
German Probe Found Indications of Elevated Diesel Pollution
Germany has found signs of elevated pollutants in diesel cars in initial results of tests performed in the wake of the Volkswagen AG cheating scandal.
by C Rauwald & B Jennen
The Federal Motor Transport Authority, or KBA, is in talks with carmakers about “partly elevated levels of nitrogen oxides” found in raw data on some of the 50 cars being examined, the regulator said in a statement Wednesday. The authority didn’t release the make or model names of the cars that had elevated pollution levels. The testing included the VW nameplate as well as the carmaker’s Porsche and Audi units. BMW, Mercedes and General Motors Co.’s Opel were also among the two dozen brands tested.
German authorities are about two-thirds finished with the review they started in late September, when the Volkswagen scandal prompted a deeper look at real-world diesel emissions. Volkswagen admitted to rigging the engines of about 11 million cars with software that could cheat regulations by turning on full pollution controls only in testing labs, not on the road. The scandal has since spread to include carbon-dioxide emissions in another 800,000 vehicles, including one type of gasoline engine.
Street Tests
Other major automakers, including BMW AG and Daimler AG, have said they didn’t manipulate emissions tests. BMW isn’t among the companies in talks with the KBA over this probe and therefore doesn’t expect any negative findings, a company spokesman said by phone. An Opel spokesman said the company is constantly in contact with the KBA but declined to comment on this specific probe.
by C Rauwald & B Jennen
“We welcome these tests,” Mercedes parent Daimler said in an e-mailed statement. “We’ve got nothing to hide.”
Vehicles ranging from the tiny Smart ForTwo to the VW Crafter van were chosen for testing based on new-car registration data as well as “verified indications” from third parties. The vehicles were evaluated on test beds as well as on the streets.
After talks with carmakers, KBA plans to evaluate the data further. Only then will the agency have sufficient results for any legal action, it said. The KBA didn’t provide a time frame and declined to say which models had shown signs of elevated NOx pollution.
Apple’s iPad Pro is the Mercedes-Benz G550 of tablets.
The G550 is Mercedes’ uber-SÜV, one of the most sure-footed four-wheel-drive cars sold today. It has fully lockable front, center, and rear differentials for maximum traction over most any surface. If I were driving across, say, Chad, it is the vehicle I would want to be in.
I like cars, and I admire the G550. I can appreciate the engineering that went into making a car so capable. I also live in suburban New Jersey, and therefore have absolutely no need for a G550, even if I had the money to buy one.
Apple’s iPad Pro ($799-$1,079) is the best large-screen tablet with an attachable keyboard and optional stylus you can possibly buy today. If you’re in the market for a nearly 13-inch touchscreen, I truly, non-sarcastically think you will find the iPad Pro perfect for your needs.
There’s a lot to recommend about the Pro. The 12.9-inch display is one of the biggest, baddest, highest-resolution things you can hold in your hands. The four speakers are louder and fuller than on any other tablet you’ve encountered. The A9X processor moves things along quickly and smoothly.
by S Grobart
Developers are lining up to create and adapt software for all this new real estate. Apps like 53’s Paper have been customized for the Pro, as has a suite of design programs from Adobe. There are business-dashboard apps, medical apps, and other highly specialized applications for different professions.
To extend the Pro’s utility, you can buy two accessories: the Smart Keyboard ($169) and the Apple Pencil ($99).
The Smart Keyboard is a cover that also contains a thin, full-size qwerty keyboard. It attaches to the iPad Pro magnetically and doesn’t require any extra battery or charging—it’s cleverly powered by the Pro itself. To use the keyboard, you fold it around until it becomes a stand for the Pro’s touchscreen. The keys are shallow but effective. I don’t know if this is because of Apple’s engineering excellence or because we’ve all gotten used to slimmer keyboards over the years.
In that keyboard configuration, the Pro is a sort of hybrid. You can still use the touchscreen, if you want, but Apple has enabled iOS on the Pro with plenty of traditional keyboard functions, just as on a Mac. Want to switch between apps? Just command-tab, like in the old days.
In addition to the keyboard, Apple will sell you a stylus called the Apple Pencil. It’s a very nicely weighted implement that feels great in your hand. Working in concert with an amped-up, hyper-precise touchscreen, the Pencil can mimic pens, pencils, markers—you name it. Adjust the angle of the Pencil, and the width of your stroke changes. Press harder, and a darker line is drawn. Use a watercolor, and you can watch the color bleed into the “paper” after you’ve taken your brush off the page. And, unlike with a lot of other stylus/tablet combos, the screen reacts instantly, with no lag or any interference to ruin the illusion you’re putting pen to paper. It’s uncanny.
by S Grobart
So all this is great stuff.
But a bigger screen, attachable keyboard, and stylus do not add things I want or need to a tablet, nor do they evolve the iPad into credible competition for my still-perfect MacBook Air. The Smart Keyboard is clever but a little clumsy. You can’t really use it on your lap, much less perched on your legs while sitting in bed. The stylus is maybe the best stylus ever, but I can’t draw, and don’t see that changing soon. (Also, Apple: Add a holder or something to the cover so I can keep the stylus with my iPad.)
Now, you might think, “Fine, Grobart. But maybe not everyone’s like you. Dial back the solipsism a bit."
And it’s true: Not everyone uses computers and tablets the way I do. My colleagues in Bloomberg Businessweek’s art department may find ways to take advantage of all those Adobe apps. Doctors may benefit from 3D4Medical’s Complete Anatomy app. People who run businesses may well take to the dashboards available in Cynapse’s Numerics app.
But I would venture to say that, while not everyone uses tech the way I do, many—maybe even most—people do. We read things on the Web, we check e-mail, we write things. For those kinds of activities, a laptop is still the most elegant answer to the questions we have. The iPad Pro has a bit of feature creep around it. It’s a tablet! With an attachable keyboard! And a stylus! It’s extremely good at all those things—I’m just not that interested in the things it’s good at.
So I’m not the customer for the iPad Pro. But I think I know who is: Vic Abate.
Vic Abate is the chief technology officer of General Electric. He heads up, among other things, 50,000 scientists and engineers at the industrial conglomerate. Could Vic see a way that the iPad Pro, armed with, say, some hardcore analytics software, might be a useful tool for all those people building power plants, locomotives, and aircraft engines? If he does, Vic’s not buying an iPad Pro. He’s buying 50,000 of them.
Spread that across companies and industries, and all of a sudden Apple’s got a nice business in business. It may be more niche than the iPhone market, and it may take time, but Apple’s certainly rich enough to be patient.
Robots are already killing humans. Here's how one scientist is keeping people safe.
A German scientist has tied Pastor Stephan Bernstein to a metal structure. Bernstein is wearing a blindfold and earphones to ensure he doesn't see or hear the machine that's about to punch him.
Don't worry — Bernstein, a 54-year old with a thick moustache and a warm smile, is going to be fine. He's one of 15 volunteers working with researchers at the Fraunhofer IFF Institute in Magdeburg, Germany, to find out what needs to be done to ensure robots don't crush their human colleagues when working alongside each other in a factory.
Collaborative robots — or cobots — need to be configured so they're aware of their fleshy colleagues and slow or stop after an unexpected collision to avoid stabbing skin or slicing limbs. But how hard can a robot hit a human before causing damage? And how does that change when the robot has a sharper attachment on its arm or makes contact with a sensitive part of the body? Those are questions Roland Behrens, a scientist working with volunteers including Bernstein, wants answered.
by S Nicola & O Solon
"The best way is to avoid contact in the first place," he said after untying Bernstein from the structure. "If contact occurs, the consequences must be so low that the person can come into work the next day, at most with a bruise but not with an injury or open wound."
There were 158 work accidents involving humans and robots last year in Germany, the highest number since at least 2005, according to DGUV, a German group that's insuring workplace accidents. In June, a robot usually kept in a cage killed a worker at a Volkswagen plant by grabbing and pushing him against a metal plate. More industrial robots, made by companies such as Germany's Kuka or Japan's Fanuc, were sold last year than ever before, according to the International Federation of Robotics.
Germany, Europe's biggest economy with state-of-the-art factories run by the likes of engineering giant Siemens and carmaker Daimler, has a special interest in robot-human safety. The country is identified by the United Nations as "super-aged," with one fifth of the population older than 65. Working-age adults will shrink to as few as 34 million by 2060 from the current 50 million, according to latest government estimates. Robots may be the best way to keep productivity up and people hammering away until they retire, Behrens says. "Robots supporting humans in their work is a great idea, but it has to be safe."
There already exists an industrial robot safety standard that stipulates a threshold of 150 newton of contact force – but it's only a guideline. "There is no information about shape or body parts. With a needle in the eye 150 newton is very different from having a large sphere bumping into your leg," says Behrens, who works with the German Institute for Occupational Safety to come up with standards. (Generally, 150 newton feels like a very faint slap at most — heavyweight boxers can hit with about 5,000 newton.)
by S Nicola & O Solon
For testing purposes the team designed a machine to hit people and record the impact. It's essentially a mechanic pendulum that mimics a robotic limb. For every volunteer, the pendulum is swung at the lowest velocity and the highest mass — against the hand, lower arm, upper arm and shoulder. The volunteers articulate their pain on a scale from 1 to 10 (Behrens stops the tests at 5), with the skin then scanned with ultrasound to check for bruises or swelling.
While some studies have used pig cadavers, Behrens and colleagues decided to recruit live human volunteers like Bernstein, the pastor, who said he's taking part because he's intrinsically curious.
"It wasn't bad at all," Bernstein said after a 500-newton hit on his upper arm. "The back of the hand is the worst, because the pain stays longest."
Once the research on the human arm is completed, the team plans to look at collisions with other body parts. The researchers hope their work will influence the next generation of robots that work safely with humans.
One of them is Annie, a 300,000-euro prototype that looks a bit like Wall-E on steroids. With her six cameras, Annie can safely and autonomously whizz between human workers and, with her three-finger hand, can handle tools including a screwdriver. Other ways to make robots safer include padded robot joints, machines that stop working when touched, or — for bigger robots that weigh thousands of pounds — tactile factory floors that tell workers visually (think green, yellow and red) where it's safe and unsafe to go.
"This is especially important as robots get more sophisticated," Behrens says. "It's an important step toward having robots at home."
Carney Vows to Fix Finance Fault Lines and Build Global Markets
Mark Carney said reform of the financial sector isn’t finished and the Bank of England will continually revisit regulation of banks.
by S Hamilton
“We want not only to profile progress made, but also to spur a continual process of review and reform,” the Bank of England Governor said. “This isn’t just about fixing the fault lines that caused the last crisis, but also about seizing new opportunities from fintech and market-based finance. It’s about building truly global markets, in the U.K. and elsewhere, and the cross-border governance and cooperation they need to function well.”
Carney was speaking at the central bank’s Open Forum in London on Wednesday, a conference on the role of markets in society that’s being attended by officials, academics, religious leaders and members of the public. It’s part of Carney’s continued effort to overhaul U.K. markets that have been rocked by their roles in the financial crisis and rigging scandals.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is due to make remarks at 1:15 p.m. local time. Carney is due to speak again at 5 p.m. to close proceedings.
by S Hamilton
Apple Meeting
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne also spoke at the event and said he wanted the U.K. to be the home of the world’s largest financial center. Osborne said officials had to weigh legislation to reform markets against financial firms’ need to take risks, innovate and create jobs.
He also said he recently met with Tim Cook, Apple Inc. chief executive officer and they spent “a lot of time talking about Apple pay.” The U.K. has the technological and financial expertise to become a leader in financial technology, Osborne said.
“Our challenge is to bring the two together,” he said. “We’ve got to create the space where this innovation can happen.”
Carney said the bank was four times oversubscribed for places at the conference. Other speakers include BOE deputy governors Minouche Shafik, Jon Cunliffe, and Andrew Bailey, as well as London Stock Exchange Chief Executive Officer Xavier Rolet and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc Chairman Howard Davies.
The conference takes place as U.K. policy makers weigh domestic strength and a strong pound against foreign weakness. The unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent in the third quarter, the lowest in more than seven years, and the number in work rose to a record 31.2 million, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday in London. Economists in a Bloomberg News survey forecast the jobless rate would be unchanged at 5.4 percent.
Hackers Accessed Global Banking With Phony Pet Stores, Lies
Criminals hoodwinked banks, credit-card networks and a payment-security firm while moving hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the U.S. government. It won’t be easy to stop it from happening again.
As U.S. prosecutors announced indictments Tuesday against a hacking ring linked to stock manipulation, gambling and fake pharmaceuticals, details emerged that made payments specialists wince. To move money through the global banking system, conspirators allegedly disguised recipients as pet-supply and dress stores. When financial firms raised alarms, the group feigned shock, paid fines and opened new accounts. And in a twist that turned heads, it even hacked a security company that was supposed to detect its ruse.
"Wow," said Julie Conroy, a security specialist at payments researcher Aite Group. "Shame on this firm for being a victim, because if you’re in that position you know the bad guys are coming after you."
by E Dexheimer
The allegations illustrate the challenge facing banks and credit-card processors already under heightened pressure to detect suspicious transactions and thwart money laundering. Big banks around the world have pledged to step up their efforts, in some cases while paying billions of dollars in fines for past failings. Tuesday’s indictments show how quickly criminals are evolving to stay ahead.
Copying Tactics
“This is going to become much more common," said Al Pascual, director of fraud and security at Javelin Strategy & Research. “The level of complexity and sophistication here is very unique. But that being said, it’s not as though others aren’t trying to replicate it or are actively replicating these very steps."
The tactics for moving money were just one aspect of a larger crackdown Tuesday on cybersecurity breaches, including last year’s massive theft of JPMorgan Chase & Co. customer data. At the center of the indictments is Gery Shalon -- a 31-year-old Israeli from the Republic of Georgia. Prosecutors said he used hacking as the backbone of a criminal conglomerate that ran illegal Internet casinos and elaborate pump-and-dump stock schemes. After a July arrest, the U.S. is seeking his extradition to New York for trial. He couldn’t be reached Tuesday for comment.
Prosecutors didn’t identify any financial firms that unwittingly helped handle payments. Nor did they name the “merchant risk intelligence firm,” based in Bellevue, Washington, that was tasked with identifying whether recipients were sketchy. One Bellevue company fitting the description didn’t respond to phone calls and e-mails seeking comment.
Financial firms are supposed to be a bulwark against crime. Banks are required to know their customers and flag suspicious transactions to authorities. In this case, criminals wanted to accept money from credit and debit cards, then move the funds to accounts within their reach. But using cards requires clearance from a network such as Visa Inc. or MasterCard Inc. and the customer’s bank.
by E Dexheimer
‘Squeezing a Balloon’
Prosecutors said Shalon and conspirators offered a solution. They allegedly set up a system that handled money for criminals while charging a fee on each transaction -- more than $18 million total. The group worked with "corrupt international bank officials," and developed other strategies that relied on dogged creativity, according to the indictment. No officials were identified.
For example, to collect money from U.S. gamblers, Shalon and conspirators coded transactions so that it looked like payments went to online stores selling pet supplies and wedding dresses, according to prosecutors. When card networks spotted illicit payments, they imposed millions of dollars in penalties on banks that let transactions slip through. Shalon and conspirators allegedly pretended they were unaware or surprised, reimbursed the banks, then set up more accounts.
“It’s like squeezing a balloon,” said Aite’s Conroy. “You squeeze them out of one part of the system but they will go and find opportunity somewhere else.”
The Bellevue security firm was supposed to flag merchants accepting payments for “unlawful goods or services," according to the indictment. Prosecutors said the defendants hacked into the company’s computer network to read e-mails and keep tabs on its efforts. The hackers figured out which credit and debit cards the company used to detect bogus merchants, then blacklisted those card numbers from Shalon’s network.
Knowing Customers
Security analysts said the case shows financial firms need to learn even more about their customers, including the merchants that accept their cards, and that regulators ought to consider changing rules to make it easier for firms to share information with each other about potential threats.
“You have to know who you’re doing business with," said Avivah Litan, a cybersecurity analyst at Gartner Inc. “Everyone is subject to sophisticated data breaches, none of us are immune. From the best banks to the worst to the watchdogs. Good criminals can break in anywhere."
Here’s a happy reminder if you're someone who finds escape by perusing real estate listings for unobtainable homes: A mortgage that strains your budget now will be a lighter burden a few years, and a couple of job promotions, down the line.
Young professionals willing to stretch their budgets now should consider Boston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., among other cities, according to a new report from Trulia. In New Haven, Conn., the typical millennial (defined by Trulia as an adult between ages 25 and 34) can expect to spend 37 percent of her income on housing in the first year of her mortgage. Three years later, though, the same homebuyer’s monthly payments will fall below 31 percent of her income, according to Trulia’s estimates. By the last year of her 30-year mortgage, she’ll be spending 11 percent of her income on housing.
"There's a sweet spot of metros where a mortgage looks obtainable but unaffordable, but where it doesn't take long to become affordable," said Ralph McLaughlin, a housing economist at Trulia.
Trulia built its model on the rough assumption that in three decades, today’s 25-year-olds will earn the same as today’s 55-year-olds. (It also baked in some inflation.) That seems like a reasonable basis for comparing local housing markets, but an overly broad one for making financial decisions.
Here are some other caveats: It wasn’t very long ago that U.S. homebuyers helped wreck the world economy by stretching their budgets to buy homes they couldn’t afford. Don’t do that. And even if you want to, it will be harder to find an enabling mortgage lender this time around. The average debt-to-income ratio that a borrower needs to close a loan has hovered around 25 percent in recent years, according to mortgage software company Ellie Mae, indicating that many buyers would struggle to convince a lender to let them stretch.
The other thing that stands out in the Trulia report is the low likelihood that young workers will ever be able to afford homes in California. In San Francisco, the typical millennial will still be spending 48 percent of her income on housing in the last year of her mortgage. In San Jose, the figure is 38 percent. In other words, the median home will still be unaffordable to the median millennial when that group is approaching retirement. It’s a grim picture up and down the coast.
California, to judge from the above, looks destined to become the land of the elderly.
FIFA’s Sepp Blatter Taken to Hospital After Suffering Breakdown
Suspended FIFA President Joseph “Sepp” Blatter is recovering in the hospital after suffering a “small breakdown,” his spokesman said.
by T Panja
Blatter, will probably remain in the hospital until Tuesday, Klaus Stoehlker said by phone on Wednesday.
“He’s laughing and his whole charm is back,” Stoehlker said. “He’s a little bit weak so that’s why he will stay until he’s fully recovered.”
The Swiss attorney general in September opened a criminal investigation into allegations that Blatter, the head of global soccer’s governing body, was involved in an illicit payment to European soccer chief Michel Platini.
Blatter is confident of appealing the suspension, Stoehlker said. The 79-year-old has delivered “meters and meters” of documents to prove his innocence.
While the virtual currency is still about 20 percent higher than it was a month ago, it has fallen sharply in recent days.
by J Verhage
Bitcoin's recent rally has reversed in a major way.
While the virtual currency is still about 20 percent higher than it was a month ago, it has fallen sharply in recent days.
Searching for reasons behind bitcoin's price movements often feels like an exercise in futility, but two things did dominate recent conversations concerning the cryptocurrency's rise; those were a questionable Russian scheme as well as a surge in Chinese demand. Now it seems the two may be inextricably linked.
User registrations and transactions on bitcoin exchanges like BTCC – one of China's largest – have surged since mid September, around the same time the Russian scheme took off. According to BTCC, transaction volume in bitcoins went from 540,324 in September to 1,152,889 in October. "We saw a hockey stick change in daily registrations," Bobby Lee, CEO of the exchange, said in an interview last week. "The last few days have been crazy and customer service is around the clock, working overtime."
Some argue that Chinese demand may have surged as investors attempted to bypass the country's capital controls or looked for a way to avoid volatility in the stock market. But others say that doesn't make much sense since – as evidenced by this week's price movement – bitcoin itself is extremely unpredictable.
Investors who piled into the currency at its recent peak are now experiencing that volatility first hand.
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