The Solarwinds Hack Looks Increasingly Like an Act of War
Dec 22, 2020 | News
The Solarwinds hack that broke into U.S. government agencies, along with hundreds of Fortune 500 companies, is increasingly looking like an “act of war” per various sources in the U.S. government and Congress. “It’s pretty hard to distinguish this from an act of aggression that rises to the level of an attack that qualifies as war,” Sen. Chris Coons of…
A Super-Contagious New COVID-19 Strain Overshadows Stimulus Success
Dec 21, 2020 | News
Republicans and Democrats finally got their act together and came to agreement on a $900 billion stimulus effort for struggling Americans and small businesses. Congress is rushing to finalize the bill alongside a last-minute effort to fund the U.S. government for the remainder of the fiscal year. There were compromises galore, and many were disappointed with various aspects of the…
One of the Biggest Hacks in History Puts the U.S. and Russia on a Collision Course
Dec 15, 2020 | News
Russian government hackers broke America’s cybersecurity defenses. They got into high-level departments like the U.S. Treasury and the Department of Commerce. They may have infiltrated hundreds of Fortune 500 companies, along with other sensitive areas both public and private. They may have accessed email accounts and who knows what else. Worse yet, the breach may have gone undetected for nine…
The Federal Trade Commission and 46 States Threw the Book at Facebook (and Missed)
Dec 11, 2020 | News
On Wednesday, Dec. 9, another tech juggernaut weathered a firestorm in the form of two major lawsuits. In October, as we explained on Oct. 22, the Department of Justice (DOJ) went after Google in one of the biggest trust-busting actions in decades. But the case appeared weak, and the share price of Alphabet, Google’s parent, shrugged off the news and…
The Week the Pandemic Started to End — as the Depths of Covid Winter Begin
Dec 10, 2020 | News
“But soft, what vaccine through yonder needle jabs?” The second person in the U.K. to officially receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was an 81-year-old man named William Shakespeare. He didn’t say those words, but he should have. There is a long way to go, and darkness dead ahead. For the United States, the worst is yet to come in terms…
Uber is Giving Up Self-Driving Cars (and Flying Ones, Too)
Dec 09, 2020 | News
For Travis Kalanick, the prior CEO of Uber, self-driving cars were an inevitable destiny. For Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s current CEO, they are an expensive distraction to get rid of. Uber has a five-year-old self-driving car unit known as Advanced Technologies Group (ATG). The unit has roughly 1,200 employees, many of them in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (a self-driving mecca due to the…
Hydrogen is Finally Getting Past the Hindenburg
Dec 07, 2020 | News
Is hydrogen the fuel of the future? There are deep-pocketed players who believe so, and national governments are providing the carrot-and-stick incentives to potentially make it happen. For hydrogen to take off in the 2020s, it will have to overcome a dark past. The Hindenburg disaster of 1937 was one of the most famous aviation accidents of all time, and…
What is Section 230, and Why is it Stirring Up Drama on Capitol Hill?
Dec 03, 2020 | News
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is an annual bill, passed by Congress, that authorizes the U.S. defense budget. It is the primary means by which America funds its military. For fiscal year 2021, the NDAA laid out a defense budget of just over $740 billion. That money is used for everything from paying soldiers to running military bases to…
Electric Vehicle Sales Trends in Europe Show the Insanity of Tesla’s Valuation
Dec 02, 2020 | News
Tesla’s valuation is spectacular nonsense. Tesla is in a bubble — one of the biggest bubbles of all time — and when the bubble pops, overleveraged bulls are going to get killed. We have seen this over and over throughout history. Later this week, we will revisit the Great British Bicycle Bubble of 1896. To give you a sneak preview,…
Under Janet Yellen, the U.S. Treasury Will Usher in a New Era of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT)
Dec 01, 2020 | News
On Nov. 20 we said the next U.S. Treasury Secretary would be pro-MMT, meaning, they would be a de facto believer in, and wielder of, Modern Monetary Theory. And so it comes to pass. Janet Yellen, the incoming Biden administration’s pick for U.S. Treasury Secretary, is probably the most technocratically skilled and ideologically suited person on the planet for bringing…