2019-04-06

Tech Review | Crypto & Blockchain Investing: 'Don't Buy Bitcoin, Do This'

graphic "Tech Review" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Tech Review (TR 2019-04-06)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) Crypto & Blockchain Investing: 'Don't Buy Bitcoin, Do This', 2)How Instagram And Facebook Make Money, 3) Investing: The Week & Investor Notes, 4) ICYMI Tech News: Amazon, Apple, Google, and more.

1) Crypto & Blockchain Investing: 'Don't Buy Bitcoin, Do This'

"Don't Buy Bitcoin. Do This Instead"--Peter Mallouk. "It's not a real investment," says certified financial planner Peter Mallouk. "It's speculation." CNBC.com video above published Apr 4, 2019.

2) How Instagram and Facebook Make Money

Everyday more than 2 billion people use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger, more than a quarter of the world's population. Despite a rising number of privacy scandals and public backlash — Facebook is still growing. Since its apps are free to use, Facebook sells advertising to make money. Here's how the company's advertising model works. CNBC.com video published Apr 2, 2019.

3) Investing
graphic: "INVESTING"  ©2017 DomainMondo.com
The Week: NASDAQ Composite +2.7% | S&P 500 Index +2.1% | DJIA +1.5%
The S&P 500 Index Now Up 15.4% YTD (as of 5 Apr 2019)
Investor Notes: U.S. Jobless Claims Fall to 49-Year Low, Below All Forecasts.

But "Synchronized Global Growth Has Collapsed"--Why Deutsche Just Downgraded Caterpillar.

EU: German Manufacturing Collapse: "Awful" Industrial Orders Plunge Most Since Financial Crisis.

Why Global Bond Market Investors Are Nervous: The European Central Bank has little margin to lower rates further, after the infusion of 2.6 trillion euros ($2.9 trillion) into the euro-zone economy through its bond-buying program, driving yields in Germany and the other most credit-worthy members below zero, in what some call a Japanification of the fixed-income market. Also: speculating against “the most distorted asset class in the world” caused Hugh Hendry to close his Eclectica hedge fund in September 2017, after the German two-year note confounded his expectations. Since then, that short-dated yield has averaged minus 0.6 percent, about where it was when Hendry decided to shut up shop, and near where it rests today.

Brexit: The value of the customs union to the UK is overrated--The customs union works well for German carmakers and French farmers, who have had a captive market for their products, but has not delivered anything like that for the UK.--theguardian.com.

US 'Tax Avoidance' Schemes: Wall Street’s “Dirty Little Secret” the ETF Tax Dodge--Banks pumping billions of dollars into and out of funds with “heartbeat” trades.--bloomberg.com.

4) ICYMI Tech News:
graphic: "ICYMI Tech News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Amazon at Scale: the Enormous Numbers Behind Amazon’s Market Reach. $AMZN Post-Marital Bliss: Jeff Bezos's ex-wife, MacKenzie Bezos, tweeted details of their divorce settlement that gives Jeff 75% of their Amazon stock and all of their shares' voting power (at least for now, further details not provided).

Apple: services group could add an additional $25 billion in gross profit by 2023. Also Apple pulls plug on its wireless charging mat.

Google made $6.5 billion from sources other than ads in Q4 2018, an increase of 30% year-over-year, while Google's ad business is growing at 20% year-over-year. New revenue sources include Google Cloud, hardware, and Google's Play store--seekingalpha.com.

MIT is the latest top U.S. education institution to cuts ties with Chinese tech firms Huawei and ZTE, while UK's Oxford University has also stopped accepting funding from Huawei..

WeWork's $1.9 Billion Loss Is A Typical Tech Bubble 2.0 Story--zerohedge.com.

Germany's Daimler has filed a complaint with EU antitrust regulators about Nokia patents essential to car communications.

Personal Tech: 
1. Why Can't I Get a Decent Stock Android Smartphone With No Apps Pre-Installed?
"Android ecosystem of pre-installed apps is a privacy and security mess"--extensive academic study finds data-harvesting and malware-laced pre-installed apps.--zdnet.com and An Analysis of Pre-installed Android Software (pdf). 
See also Android Security & Privacy Year 2018 in Review (pdf) and blog.google.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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