Showing posts with label Election 2016. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Election 2016. Show all posts

2016-12-19

MacroView: OECD & Trump: Fiscal Initiatives to Escape Low-growth Trap

MacroView |  ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly review of  macro economic and investing news: 1. OECD & Trump; 2. Confidence higher since Trump election; 3. FOMC rate increase; 4. Dollar strengthens, gold falls; 5. Trump talked, Fed listened; 6. Caveat from Jeff Gundlach; 7. Trump Summit with Tech Leaders; 8. Did Russia Hack the DNC and Clinton campaign? Who cares? 9. Student loans, which lie did they believe? 10. Good investing is boring.
 
MacroView Feature •  OECD and Trump Agree: Use Fiscal Initiatives to Escape Low-growth Trap

Jamie Dimon: Blame Bad Public Policy for Slow Growth

Video above published Dec. 15, 2016: JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon discussed Detroit’s economic recovery and whether the techniques they are using could be replicated elsewhere with Bloomberg’s Megan Murphy.

Make better use of fiscal initiatives to escape low-growth trap, OECD says in latest Global Economic Outlook (OECD.org Nov 28, 2016):
"Among the major advanced economies, activity is expected to accelerate in the United States, due to an assumed easing of fiscal policy, with the economy projected to grow by 2.3% in 2017 and 3% in 2018. The euro area will grow at a 1.6% rate in 2017 and by 1.7% in 2018. In Japan, growth is projected at 1% in 2017 and 0.8% in 2018. The 35-country OECD area is projected to grow by 2% in 2017 and 2.3% in 2018, according to the Outlook.
"With rebalancing continuing in China, growth is expected to continue drifting lower, to 6.4% in 2017 and 6.1% in 2018. India’s growth rates are expected to hover above 7.5% over the 2017-18 period, but many emerging market economies will continue to grow at a more sluggish pace. The deep recession in Brazil is expected to end in 2017, after which the economy will grow at a 1.2% rate in 2018.
"The Outlook draws attention to conditions that create a “window of opportunity” for new fiscal initiatives, as extraordinarily accommodative monetary policy has led to very low interest rates and created fiscal space. A targeted annual increase in public spending of ½ percent of GDP could be financed for several years in most countries without increasing the debt-to-GDP ratio in the medium term. Combining this initiative with structural reforms, and acting collectively across countries, would boost the impact, according to the Outlook.
"“This is not a blank cheque for governments,” Mr Gurría said. “The OECD is calling for fiscal policy to be used more wisely, with spending targeted at areas that boost growth, like high-quality infrastructure investment, innovation, education and skills, which also make growth more inclusive.” Read the full speech.
The mission of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, France, is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. The OECD's goal is "to build a stronger, cleaner and fairer world." Members and partners of the OECDFor more see:

2.  Consumer, business, CEO confidence higher since Trump election"Americans from all corners of the economy seem to be enjoying the conditions a lot more since the election of Donald Trump. Nearly every measure of consumer, business, or executive confidence has gained in the month since the election, according to Michelle Meyer, chief US economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch."--BusinessInsider.com (P.S. Someone ought to tell Michelle Obama.)

3.  U.S. Federal Reserve FOMC Press Conference LIVE Video Replay 12/14/16The end of a flatline monetary policy?
source: Statista
4.  Dollar Climbs to Strongest Since 2003 on Fed Path; Bonds Drop | Bloomberg.com Dec 15, 2016: "The dollar climbed to the highest level since 2003 against the euro and gold plunged as the prospect of a steeper path for U.S. interest rates filtered through markets."

5. Trump Talked, the Fed Listened: Let’s Shrink the Balance Sheet, Bullard Says | WolfStreet.com

6. Caveat from Jeff Gundlach, December 13, 2016, webcast"... stocks typically rise in the days after an election, just as they have. But they drop after the president is sworn in, as investors realize that he does not have a magic wand to implement everything they are hopeful for ..."

7. Trump Summit with Tech LeadersTechReview: Silicon Valley's Pilgrimage to Trump Tower to Meet Trump.

8. Did Russia Hack the DNC and Clinton campaign? Who cares? If so, was it a good thing Wikileaks.org exposed Clinton & DNC corruption and collusion, including collusion with so-called mainstream media (MSM), the "rigged" Democratic primary against Bernie Sanders, all the conflicts of interest and "pay-to-play" schemes, and foreign government funding of the Clinton Foundation while Hillary was Secretary of State, $200-800,000 per speech fees, and all the other things the Clintons, the Clinton campaign, the Washington establishment, and mainstream media did not want us to know? I think you know the answer.
"Here are two of political history’s great constants: first, countries meddling in the internal affairs of others (both enemies and “friends”); and, second, bogus charges from a faction in one country that foreigners are meddling in its internal affairs to help another faction. Both are poison for any country that wishes to rule itself."--Jeremy Scahill, Jon Schwarz, TheIntercept.com
The WaPo-NYTimes-MSM narrative of Russian election hacking has become so incessant and emphatic that it’s easy to forget that no one has proven the claim. TheIntercept.com's Sam Biddle "sifted the public evidence, most of which comes from private security firms with a vested interest in the outcome, and found questionable assumptions, guesswork, and speculation." See Here’s the Public Evidence Russia Hacked the DNC — It’s Not Enough | TheIntercept.com December 14, 2016:
"It’s very hard to buy the argument that the Democrats were hacked by one of the most sophisticated, diabolical foreign intelligence services in history, and that we know this because they screwed up over and over again."
On the other hand, if you truly want to understand how and why Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election, read How Clinton lost Michigan — and blew the election | POLITICO.com.

"People believe the news they want to ... The establishment is up for grabs."
--Lefsetz.com

9.  Which lie did they believe?--"Free government money, just sign here" or "With all the money you'll be making after college, the student loans won't be a problem"--Home ownership for those under 30 shrinks while student debt keeps growing:
Millennial (under age of 30) Home Ownership Shrinks as Student Loan Debt Grows

•  One More Thing: Good investing is boring
"If investing is entertaining, if you're having fun, you're probably not making any money. Good investing is boring."--George Soros
“Good investing is usually quite boring.”--Adam Nash, CEO of Wealthfront

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER

2016-12-09

Election Night 2016 Redux, Donald Trump's Triumph via Twitter

Just one month ago, Donald Trump shocked the elites and establishment media by winning the 2016 election to become the 45th President of the United States, garnering a total of 306 electoral votes (only 270 electoral votes are needed to win) to Hillary Clinton's 232 electoral votes:
"... Hillary and her Clinton campaign organization, and Clinton supporters, were in such shock and disbelief on election night. Hillary couldn't even emotionally handle showing up to concede at the Javits Center election night, but instead, sent John Podesta who told everybody to 'go home.'"--Why Hillary Lost | DomainMondo.com.
Email received in early December by the Editor of Domain Mondo from a Manhattanite who holds a senior position at a major Wall Street firm:
"Like many others, I was surprised by the results of the election.  I guess I was persuaded by the polls that indicated that Hillary Clinton would win ... She also had a significant advantage in the Electoral College [according to the pundits and pollsters' projections] ...  On election night, I attended two parties given by major donors to the Democratic Party.  When I arrived at each the mood was upbeat (one was black tie–preferred in anticipation of a celebratory occasion). By nine o’clock the crowd was becoming despondent and by eleven most had left.  I thought I would try to get some sleep around midnight and called a Washington contact whom I knew was staying up all night. I asked him to call me when the outcome was certain.  He didn't call, but sent me an email at 1:42am saying that Pennsylvania had gone for Donald Trump and it was over.  Pennsylvania!"
Twitter.com May Have Predicted the Election | technologyreview.com"The votes for Brexit and Donald Trump contradicted pollsters, but some researchers say Twitter was sending accurate signals all along ..."

Election 2016 via Twitter.com:


The #TrumpTrain tracks run through Pennsylvania














feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER

2016-11-16

The "News Media" Got the Election WRONG, What Else Are They Missing?

The Biggest LOSER of Election 2016? The "News Media"-- Infographic: Trust in Mass Media Erodes | Statista
source: Statista

Reporting the news "fully, accurately and fairly” used to be one of the most basic requirements for any news outlet that wanted to be taken seriously. But Gallup reports more and more Americans share the impression that the mass media (a/k/a mainstream media or MSM), including TV, radio, newspapers, and MSM websites online, fail to do just that. According to Gallup, Americans’ trust in mass media has dropped to a new low recently, with only 32 percent of U.S. adults expressing at least a fair amount of confidence in mass media to serve as an unbiased chronicler of current affairs. Drill down into the Gallup report and you discover only 14% of Republicans, 30% of independents, and just 26% of Americans 18-49 years old, express trust in the media. Many felt Donald Trump received an unfair amount of negative press, and even Democrats' trust in the news media is declining (though less so than other demographic groups):
"I can’t read the newspaper. Never mind watch television. Donald Trump ran for President in plain sight and these people missed it, all of them. What else are they missing? ... I used to trust the institutions, now I no longer do ... I was at lunch Friday with a heavy hitter, the toppermost of the entertainment world, and I asked him if reporters ever called him … He said ALL THE TIME! Did they know anything? NOTHING! And was the article ever right? NEVER! This happens to me on a regular basis. Some of the most trusted news outlets extant will call me for a quote. The reporter knows nothing about the subject, I take half an hour to explain it and they still get it wrong. Even worse, some of these ignoramuses argue with me because what I’m saying doesn’t fit their narrative."--Bob Lefsetz, Lefsetz.com (disclosure: Bob is a Democrat and voted for Hillary) (emphasis added)
New York Times election forecast:
Bob's suggested remedy? "Someone needs to lose their job over this. Not only Billy Bush, but the person in charge of the polling for the “New York Times,” that person has got to go, the whole team has to go. Actions have consequences ... Judith Miller got us into Iraq, she got booted. Boot a few more!" (emphasis and link added)

Yes, actions have consequences. Want to know about the Presidential race next time, and who's leading? The lesson from Election 2016 is don't trust anything you read, see or hear via the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, et al, especially their polling results. It's most likely just fake news and false narratives.

Contrary to what the mostly biased-left mainstream media (MSM) believe, they are no longer a "trusted source of news" for most Americans. Those who are still watching, reading, listening, and trusting  them, are an increasingly diminishing audience ... hardly anyone cares what MSM says or does anymore because they are increasingly irrelevant. The news media have little credibility left after Election 2016 and that was hardly the beginning of the decline:

2012:
Infographic: Newspapers Lose Relevance as a News Source | Statista
source: Statista

2013: Infographic: Not Every Social Network Doubles as a News Source | Statista
source: Statista


feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER

2016-08-21

News Review: IANA Stewardship Transition, Vint Cerf Retrospective (video)

"The U.S. government was the origin of this project [the internet], it started in the Defense Department, and I am very proud, not only of the Defense Department but other parts of the U.S. government including the National Science Foundation, and now NTIA, for persistently stepping away from control over this system and turning it over to a multistakeholder operation … this [the IANA transition] is the last step--Vint Cerf, August 17, 2016, see this week's FEATURE below.

Domain Mondo's review and look ahead [pdf], starting first with the macro view, the big picture, after cutting through all the noise:

•  Soros Doubles Down on Bet Against the S&P 500: According to WSJ.com, famed billionaire investor George Soros is shifting his fund’s focus back to the "big-picture economic global view that earned him recognition as he steadfastly continues to warn of a coming financial crisis, much as he did leading to the 2007 crash."  He continues to unwind his exposure to China "which he’s placed at the center of the next financial storm" along with commodities. He has a large derivative position on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, the most widely traded fund that tracks the broad S&P 500 stock index. See also "Legendary Trader" Paul Tudor Jones Emerges As Latest Mega Bear With Record Surge In S&P Puts | ZeroHedge.com (Aug 19, 2016). NYSEARCA: SPY chart below:
NYSEARCA: SPY
•  Tencent (tencent.com) is now China's most valuable tech company, passing Alibaba (alibabagroup.com). Tencent's total revenue for Q2 2016, including its apps QQ (QQ.com) and WeChat (WeChat.com), came in at $5.38 billion. Read more: Tencent Surges; Becomes China's Most Valuable Tech Company | TheStreet.com. and Tencent Performance Highlights in Q2 2016 | ChinaInternetWatch.com: "WeChat monthly active users reached 806 million in Q2 2016." Note:
"China’s internet is fundamentally different from the one used in much of the rest of the world ...'It’s a closed environment, and you have to be quite different to compete in that market.' Two decades after Beijing began walling off its homegrown internet from the rest of the planet, the digital world has split between China and everybody else."--NYTimes.com (emphasis added)
•  2016 Olympics end August 21 but Brazil already knows Hosting The Olympics Is A Terrible Investment | FiveThirtyEight.com"Research has repeatedly shown that in most cases the Olympics are a money loser for cities, particularly those in developing nations where the cost-benefit proposition tends to skew even worse."

•  U.S. Market:

•  Election 2016 Update: As usual in U.S. politics, things don't get serious until after Labor Day (September 5). Best to avoid the media "noise" until then. Jeffrey Gundlach predicted in January that Trump would win the Presidency, and hasn't backed off that prediction despite recent polling numbers and a pro-Clinton, anti-Trump, establishment media onslaught for weeks now. In fact, Gundlach now says:
"The centerpiece of my thesis on Trump remains that Hillary Clinton is an incredibly bad candidate. She will have plenty of stumbles in the stretch run and, at the end of the day, WikiLeaks is going to take her down. Julian Assange wants to time the releases of these horrific emails to coincide with maximum damage and I think there is plenty more to come. Say what you want about Trump, about his volatility and his inconsistency, Hillary will be deemed to be the unacceptable candidate. All Trump has to do is be as steady as possible and she will fall by the wayside."
Trump's biggest challenge? "Convince the country, as he had almost done by Cleveland, that he is an acceptable, indeed, a preferable alternative"--Don't Count Yer Clintons Yet - It Ain't Over Till It's Over | ZeroHedge.com. Trump doesn't have to match Clinton in fundraising, he has enough funding (Mercer, Adelson et al) to be competitive. He doesn't have to match the Clinton political operation, he has enough political operatives via the RNC, and Kellyanne Conway et al, to be competitive. Trump's biggest challenge (other than biased media* coverage) may be Trump. Read more here. [UPDATE August 21, 2016: Trump (45%) now leads Clinton (43%) in the Presidential Race according to the USC Dornsife / Los Angeles Times poll | latimes.com.]
*Media bias update August 21, 2016: American journalism is collapsing before our eyes | NYPost.com: "The largest broadcast networks — CBS, NBC and ABC — and major newspapers like The New York Times and Washington Post have jettisoned all pretense of fair play. Their fierce determination to keep Trump out of the Oval Office has no precedent."  See also Glenn Greenwald on Donald Trump, the DNC hack, and a new McCarthyism | slate.com:"The U.S. media is essentially 100 percent united, vehemently, against Trump, and preventing him from being elected president."

• FEATURE: IANA Stewardship Transition - Full Speed Ahead!
The Obama administration (NTIA) made it crystal clear this week that the IANA functions contract will expire effective October 1, 2016, notwithstanding dissenting voices in Congress and elsewhere (see below). Read more at NTIA Tells ICANN: IANA Functions Contract Will Expire October 1, 2016. Vint Cerf gave a retrospective on ICANN and the IANA transition in a Bloomberg West interview this week:


Video above starting at 12:10: Vint Cerf Talks the Future of the Internet on 'Bloomberg West'--Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf, often referred to as the "father of the Internet," on Bloomberg West, August 17, 2016, to discuss ICANN and the IANA Stewardship Transition, including the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) decision to allow the IANA functions contract expire October 1, 2016. 

•  Last Call for the Open Internet | WSJ.com by L. Gordon Crovitz: "... The administration naively thought crafting an alternative to U.S. oversight, which it dismissed as “largely clerical,” would be easy. By now it’s clear Mr. Obama’s solution to the nonproblem of U.S. protection is too half-baked for anyone who cares about the free and open internet." See also NTIA Violates Federal Law with IANA Transition | TechPolicyCorner.org.

•  ICANN the Machine… | CircleID.com by Shaul Jolles, Dot Registry CEO"ICANN's new gTLD expansion is really quite an ingenious ploy to grow the once small California non-profit into an unstoppable machine, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, which soon plans to finally be free from any external oversight. I have no doubt that ICANN pats itself on the back for pulling the wool over so many eyes, including stakeholders, new gTLD applicants, politicians, and the global general public ..." (emphasis added)

•  Dot Registry IRP Declaration: Of the 18 Independent Review Process (IRP) proceedings brought to date to hold ICANN accountable for its actions, only three claimants have succeeded: ICM Registry (.XXX), DCA Trust (.AFRICA), and Dot Registry (.LLC, .INC and .LLP). All three were represented by Dechert LLP (dechert.com) lawyers, who recently wrote: Accountability and Transition in ICANN’s New gTLD Program | Lexology.com"... the importance of the Dot Registry Panel's decision lies in its recognition that ICANN, as the regulator of the Internet, a global resource, must be held accountable for its actions. Today, ICANN is pressing for the privilege to oversee Internet governance without oversight by the U.S. or any government. This privilege comes with immense responsibility and requires accountability. As ICANN enters into the next phase of its transition away from U.S. government oversight, the global internet community will be watching to see whether ICANN undertakes much needed reforms." (emphasis added)

•  A Lasting Legacy of Fadi's Follies: 1) Why does ICANN need 3 HubsL.A. is a large multi-ethnic 24x7 world-class metro, more than capable of staffing (even remotely) a 24-hour support center for the global internet community; 2) Why is one of those "hubs" located in Istanbul, Turkey, of all places?
Turkey to Release Tens of Thousands of Prisoners to Make Room for Coup Suspects | NYTimes.com"Turkey said on Wednesday that it would empty its prisons of tens of thousands of criminals to make room for the wave of journalists, teachers, lawyers and judges rounded up in connection with last month’s failed coup."  Economist.com reports Turkey’s drift away from the West is accelerating as the government and most Turks believe Europe and the U.S. had something to do with the Turkish coup attempt. See also: A Parallel State | n+1 | nplusonemag.com: "Over the past ten years, the prospect of a coup has been the [Turkish] government’s pretext for suppressing every conceivable opposition."
Brick-and-mortar "hubs" for organizations like ICANN are inefficient relics of the twentieth century, indicative of a hierarchical organization or the narcissistic empire-builder mentality of its leadership, rather than the needs of a streamlined, flat organization, connected globally through the cloud, empowering its stakeholders and workers to engage and work remotely throughout the world, without need for edifices or facades.

•  Cannell Capital Sells 19,881 Shares in new gTLD registry operator Rightside Group Ltd.  An amended 13D filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated August 12, 2016, shows J. Carlo Cannell‘s Cannell Capital has lowered its stake in Rightside Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: NAME) to 1.21 million shares which account for 6.29% of the company’s outstanding stock. The fund previously held 1.23 million common shares, according to its latest 13F filing for the reporting period of June 30. Cannell Capital stated in the 13D filing:
"Mr. Cannell reserves the right to discuss various views and opinions with respect to the Company [Rightside] and its business plans with the Company or the members of its senior management. The discussion of such views and opinions may extend from ordinary day-to-day business operations to matters such as nominees for representation on the Company’s board of directors, senior management decisions and extraordinary business transactions. Mr. Cannell reserves the right to take such action as he may deem necessary from time to time to seek to maximize the value of the Shares. Such actions may include, but may not necessarily be limited to, pursuit of strategic initiatives to enhance shareholder value."
Remember Carlo Cannell's letter to Rightside ($NAME) earlier this year? It's a classic:
"While I am a believer in new gTLDs, it is going to be many years before their revenue in any way materially approaches the revenue potential of our registrar operations. In my view, NAME’s registrar has become like a crazy aunt kept in the basement, one that you refuse to adequately clothe or feed, but who steadfastly spins straw into gold used to subsidize a stable of largely substandard new gTLDs such as .democrat, .dance, .army, .navy, and .airforce. Most of these new gTLDs are irrelevant and will never be sold in material volumes. NAME is holding back the growth potential of your registrar by pushing garbage extensions to a user base that quietly knows better."--J. Carlo Cannell, Cannell Capital LLC, February 19, 2016 (emphasis and link added)
Rightside (NASDAQ: NAME) shares are down -9.66% since August 11, closing Friday at $10.85.

•  ICANN's Competition, Consumer Trust, and Consumer Choice Review Team (CCT-RT) will be meeting in Vienna, Austria, on 29-30 August 2016. The CCT-RT face-to-face meeting agenda includes an Analysis Group economic study that is examining pricing trends and competition indicators in the Global Domain Name market, the Nielsen registrant survey that is studying consumers' perceived trust and choice in the Domain Name System, and AM Global's interviews conducted with applicants. Join in-person to observe the meeting or online via Adobe Connect. More info here and on the wiki.

•  No comments close this coming week at ICANN.

•  Tech News:
  1. The Twilight of China’s Online Consumer Paradise | Bloomberg.com: "... Consumer loyalty means nothing in China ... volume of private equity and venture capital flowing into China’s tech sector, as well as investments in the country as a whole, peaked last fall ... “The slowdown is a global phenomenon, and it’s still ongoing: we’re in the middle of the winter,” says Kai-fu Lee, founder of prominent VC firm Sinovation Ventures in Beijing. “The Chinese market has a tendency to accelerate uptrends as well as downtrends: When things are trendy, they will double or triple quickly – and then when they’re out of favor, they will drop like a brick.”"
  2. Google’s High-Speed Web Plans Hit Snags | WSJ.com"After initial rollouts prove costly, Google Fiber rethinks how to deliver connections in metro areas ... Now the company is hoping to use wireless technology to connect homes, rather than cables, in about a dozen new metro areas, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas, according to people familiar with the company’s plans. As a result Alphabet has suspended projects in San Jose, Calif., and Portland, Ore."
  3. Uber and Lyft Replace Public Transportation in Florida and Colorado: "... the Uber partnership and partial ride subsidization proved significantly cheaper than maintaining a bus system. In its pilot program, the town pays for 50 percent of the cost of a ride (up to $3 per rider) and estimates the program will cost $40,000 a year--a quarter of what it cost to run two bus lines that were replaced by the arrangement. Lyft is set to launch a similar partnership in Centennial, Colorado, later this month."--POLITICO.com
  4. Chrome starts retiring Flash in favor of HTML5 | ArsTechnica.com"Non-visible Flash content blocked in September; Flash fully deprecated by December."
  5. Back to the Future: Nokia Android phones are comingsee BusinessInsider.com and Meet the man charged with reviving Nokia's phone brand | CNET.com.
Five most popular posts (# of pageviews Sun-Sat) this week on DomainMondo.com:
  1. News Review: ICANN Says It Is Ready for the IANA Transition, Is It Really?
  2. NTIA Tells ICANN: IANA Functions Contract Will Expire October 1, 2016
  3. Afilias Challenges New gTLD WEB Auction Results in Letter to ICANN
  4. Jet.com Deal: A $3 Billion Acquihire Botox Shot For Walmart? (videos)
  5. Facebook At War With Ad Blockers, But Ad Blocking Trend Increasing
10 Other Reading Recommendations:
  1. Market Manipulation? A $35 Billion Stock, an SEC Halt and Suspicions of Manipulation | Bloomberg.com: "Neuromama ... began to draw more scrutiny this year after its paper value more than quadrupled to $35 billion on scant volume. Before its suspension, the market cap of Neuromama, which was based in southwest Siberia before moving to a beach community near Tijuana, Mexico, was greater than even Tesla Motors Inc."
  2. Growth Hacking? How Lending Club’s Biggest Fanboy Uncovered Shady Loans | Bloomberg.com: "... Silicon Valley tends to venerate mildly deceptive tactics when they’re used in service of a scrappy upstart—it’s known as “growth hacking” ...  loans containing seemingly misleading information, tied to SEC-registered securities. Maybe it wasn’t fraud, but it wasn’t exactly transparent ..."
  3. I Hire Engineers At Google--Here's What I Look For (And Why) | FastCompany.com"... Yes, engineers need to be able to code ... on your resume, instead of listing your GPA (which we no longer use to determine candidacy), give us details about your experience at hackathons, coding competitions, or programming assignments at work. Just because it isn't an academic credential doesn't make it any less relevant. Not only does this create a more textured portrait of your abilities, it’s a great way to prove your engineering chops if you majored in sociology, for instance ..."
  4. Obama Administration Wants to Give You Money to Learn to Code. Here's Why That's a Problem | Bloomberg.com"Let me get this straight: They're going to partner untested for-profit entities with institutions with a proven track record of doing poorly by their students, and the Department of Education is expecting excellent outcomes?" said Alexander Holt, policy analyst at Washington-based think tank New America."
  5. Dinosaur Watch: Broadcast & Cable TV - TV Ratings: Rio [Olympics] Hits Competition Low on Friday | HollywoodReporter.com"... numbers are still down from London four years ago, but NBC Sports continues to see record returns from [online] streaming ..."
  6. 'Walmart destroyed retail' | BusinessInsider.com"The root of the problem, according to Kniffen, is that there are simply too many physical retail stores in the US. Kniffen isn't alone. Last week, Macy's CFO, Karen Hoguet, said in an earnings call that 'this country is over-stored, given evolving customer shopping habits.'" See also Walmart’s Out-of-Control Crime Problem Is Driving Police Crazy | Bloomberg.com.
  7. Bill Gross Warns "Central Bankers Are Destroying The Engine Of The Real Economy" | ZeroHedge.com
  8. Dollar Vans: The Economist.com"In parts of New York City, if you know what to look for, you will find a vast and quasi-legal transport network operating in plain sight. It is made up of “dollar vans”, private 15-passenger vehicles that serve neighbourhoods lacking robust public transport ..."
  9. UK’s Nuclear Future Threatened by Chinese Espionage, Brexit | WolfStreet.com: "The cancellation of Hinkley Point could crush EDF and the French nuclear industry – or is Britain’s move a Brexit negotiating ploy?"
  10. Virtu Never Loses (Well, Almost Never) in Quest to Upend Markets | Bloomberg.com"Virtu and other relative newcomers, including Jump Trading, DRW Holdings, and Citadel Securities, as well as smaller, nimbler enterprises, are filling voids created by new regulations and technologies."
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER

2016-05-22

News Review: ICANN, IANA Transition, Capitol Hill Reality Check

DomainMondoShiningLight ©2013domainmondo.com All Rights Reserved
Domain Mondo's review of the past week and look ahead [pdf here]:

In the IANA stewardship transition:

May 16, 2016: "... NTIA received the stewardship transition proposal on March 10 and has set a target of 90 days to complete its review ... The ICANN Board is expected to vote on whether these draft Bylaws adequately represent the recommendations of the proposal on or around May 27. In addition, ICANN has stated that in the event of NTIA’s approval of the stewardship transition proposal, ICANN would produce an implementation report by August 15, certifying that it is prepared for contract expiry on September 30, 2016. NTIA maintains the flexibility to extend its contract with ICANN if necessary. NTIA recognizes that Congress has a strong interest in this proposal, and we expect Congress to closely monitor and review the proposal, as well as our evaluation of the plan. NTIA will continue to provide timely updates to Congress in addition to quarterly written reports ..." - Sixth Quarterly Report on the IANA Transition (pdf) from NTIA (emphasis added).

May 18, 2016: "U.S. Senator John Thune (R-S.D.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, has announced a full committee hearing titled “Examining the Multistakeholder Plan for Transitioning the Internet Assigned Number Authority” on Tuesday, May 24, 2016, at 10:00 a.m. ET in the Senate Russell Building 253, Washington, D.C." Read more here.

Section of the U.S. House Appropriations bill barring use of funds for IANA transition (pdf) (highlighting added)
May 18, 2016:  "A House Appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday advanced a funding bill for Commerce, Justice and Science that included a provision barring the government from using funds to make the [IANA] transition through 2017 [see graphic above] ... On the other side of the Capitol, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) appears to be circulating a letter to colleagues pressing the head of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA) to delay the handoff amid concerns." --TheHill.com (emphasis added)

• May 19, 2016: "... we respectfully request that you extend NTIA's IANA functions contract with ICANN." Letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and NTIA's Larry Strickling from U.S. Senators Cruz, Lankford and Lee (read more here) (emphasis added).

May 19, 2016: Former ICANN staff member, Kieren McCarthy, writing in theregister.co.uk:
"... the concern over whether the reforms to ICANN will prove sufficient are all too real. ICANN has been through no less than eight reviews into its lack of accountability and transparency in the past decade ... in every case, the same corporate culture has managed to re-impose itself and undermine the very changes that were designed to cause a turnaround in its behavior. If Marco Rubio is asking for a delay until this latest set of reforms can be seen to be working, he's not acting irrationally, he's simply noting history."
* * * * * * *
ICANN's Interlocutory Appeal of .AFRICA Preliminary Injunction
•  New gTLD .AFRICA: In the DotConnectAfrica Trust case (see above graphic), ICANN has filed an unopposed motion (pdf) for extension of time through June 29, 2016, to file its appellant's brief in view of the June 6th hearing in U.S. District Court on co-defendant ZACR's "motion to reconsider the preliminary injunction order from which this appeal is taken." More on .AFRICA.

•  More from ICANN FY15 Form 990: In FY15 (ending June 30, 2015) ICANN contributed over $200,000 to the World Economic Forum (WEF).  ICANN's President & CEO at that time, Fadi Chehade, is now senior advisor to the Executive Chairman of WEF (hat tip: @EyeOnICANN).

•  Comments close this coming week at ICANN on only one issue: Proposal for Khmer Script Root Zone‬ Label Generation Rules (LGR) - comments close 28 May 2016 23:59 UTC.

•  ICANN finally "Enhancing Openness and Transparency – Board Deliberations" and it only took 18 years! See also The ICANN Chairman's Blog: An Update From the May 2016 Board Workshop in Amsterdam. It's a start but every ICANN Board meeting should be open to observers via Adobe Connect (except executive sessions to discuss confidential matters such as personnel, litigation, etc.).

•  More of ICANN's 'shady' new gTLDs anyone?--Paul Vixie on the glibc bug, Internet crime and more | techtarget.com: "... [the internet] has, unfortunately, also put the world's wealth more at risk to criminals than it has ever been in the history of humanity." See also SEC warns cybersecurity is biggest threat to financial system | theregister.co.uk and The Internet Is Broken - MIT Technology Review | technologyreview.com.

•  A Culture of Hype and Spin - Silicon Valley is becoming like ICANN"I get lied to by entrepreneurs every day," says Bob Kocher, a venture capitalist who specializes in health IT ... "If you sell me a dreamyou’ll have to be stuck with this upset crazy person who doesn’t trust you for a decade," says Kocher. But far more concerning is when startups begin to believe their own hype and start making short-cuts to ramp up faster than the market typically allows ... We’re likely to see many more examples of companies like Theranos and Zenefits unless the startup world makes a big shift to a whole lot more honesty, transparency ...  Inside Silicon Valley's Culture of Spin | Fast Company.com.

•  This week in tech
  • The BIG news out of Google I/O 2016Google Home. Remember when Google used to copy Apple? Well, "Amazon is the new Apple" --My Echo | Lefsetz.com"Google Home not avail until later this yr. Meanwhile, Echo continues to add features & connect w/products. Is Amazon's head start too big?" asks @KatieBoehret; The BEST news was Google adding Android apps and Play Store to Chrome OS (Chromebooks).
  • FinTech Disaster--in spite of all the right "connections" and "funding"-- How Wall Street Led LendingClub.com Into Crisis | Bloomberg.com"“Many people expected the wheels to come off at some point,” said Robert Wardrop, executive director of the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, which studies funding systems that don’t depend on regulated banks and capital markets. “The big surprise, clearly, was that this was an event that happened at a top performer.”"
•  Q1 2016 Earnings Season postscript"... In Q1, according to FactSet.com, the companies in the DJIA that “adjusted” their earnings inflated them on average by 28.9% over their earnings under GAAP ... we doubt that the media and Wall Street analysts will “self-correct.” They’re the main perpetrators in the propagation of these fairy tales. If they’d wanted to, they could have stopped long ago featuring these fairy tales in their headlines and reports, but no way, that might have tripped up stock prices ..." - WolfStreet.com

•  Five most popular posts (# of pageviews Sun-Sat) this week on DomainMondo.com:
 Other Reading Recommendations (some with a tease of content or my commentary):
  1. Now Available Globally: Fast.com, a New Tool to Check Your Internet Speed | netflix.com: go to fast.com on any device and check your internet connection speed wherever you are.
  2. GoDaddy to buy FreedomVoice for up to $47M | SeekingAlpha.com (Tucows & Ting)
  3. Yahoo's Fire Sale - Deal Could Still Derail | SeekingAlpha.com"The core business is failing, the company's stake in Alibaba can be questioned ... and like everything else under her regime, we don't expect a shareholder friendly deal to get done with [Marissa] Mayer involved."
  4. Now you can embed Reddit posts on other websites | TechCrunch.com"If you’re an online writer or publisher, that means you can start including live Reddit content in your stories. If you’re a reader, that means you might start to see more Reddit posts on other sites, the same way you can see embedded tweets and YouTube videos."
  5. Stop Faxing | JDSupra.com"... In addition to the many reasons faxes are antiquated and annoying, the SEC has just provided us another reason to avoid them: they encourage violations of Reg. S-P ..."
  6. Do You Love Music? Silicon Valley Doesn’t | NYTimes.com"YouTube, which is owned by Google, is now the world’s dominant audio streaming platform, dwarfing Spotify and virtually every other service." Actually, the best music service right now, based solely on my own personal experience, is Amazon.com Prime Music.
  7. Russia Frets about Risk of “Recession” in China | WolfStreet.com"... a slowdown in China from super-hot growth to just-hot growth, which is the official story coming out of China ... risk of an actual contraction, the risk of a recession, which would slam China’s demand for oil and other commodities. And that sort of economic development would not only send shock waves through Russia but the global economy ... There are already repercussions ... Money from Chinese investors “has dried up,” a real-estate broker in San Francisco said ..."
  8. Election 2016 UPDATE: Trump Now Leads Clinton by 5 - RasmussenReports.com"Trump earns 42% support to Clinton’s 37% when 'Likely U.S. Voters' are asked whom they would vote for if the presidential election were held today. But Rasmussen Reports’ latest national telephone survey finds that 13% prefer some other candidate, while seven percent (7%) are undecided." Gender gap? "Clinton appears to have a bigger problem with men than Trump does with women. Trump leads by 22 points among men, compared to Clinton’s 11-point advantage among women." Watch out for Bernie: see How Bernie Sanders WILL Win the Democratic Nomination and Sanders delegates brace for Philadelphia convention fight (Hat tip: @UnderMyPalm | Election2016).
Have a great week!

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo




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