IMF official questions Fed's global role in next crisis

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - A senior International Monetary Fund official publicly questioned on Thursday whether the U.S. Federal Reserve might feel constrained from lending a hand to other nations in the event of another global financial crisis. IMF First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton made the comment at the World Economic Forum during a panel discussion about how to prevent another crisis, noting that a new crisis might make it politically hard for the Fed to act next time. During the 2008 crisis, the Fed stepped in to help other nations’ central banks, extending large currency swap lines that effectively extended U.S. dollar liquidity to them.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-davos-meeting-imf-fed/imf-official-questions-feds-global-role-in-next-crisis-idUSKCN1PI2JX?il=0

Cryptocurrency firm Robinhood wins New York trading license

(Reuters) - New York on Thursday gave approval to commission-free startup Robinhood to trade in seven cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash and litecoin, on its online platform. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company had announced its plans to launch commission-free cryptocurrency trading services almost a year ago, in response to increasing customer demand. Robinhood Crypto is already available in more than 30 states, and it will allow customers to buy, sell and store cryptocurrencies in New York over the coming months, the company said.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) also approved a money transmission license for Robinhood. Robinhood is an online brokerage platform that allows retail investors to trade U.S. stocks and exchange traded funds, without paying any commissions. It competes with established brokerage houses such as TD Ameritrade and E*Trade Financial Corp. The $5.6 billion company, which has also been pushing into providing financial technology services, in December launched U.S. checking and savings accounts, which come with a debit card and do not require a minimum balance. The DFS said it has approved 16 licenses so far for companies in the virtual currency marketplace.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cryptocurrencies-robinhood/cryptocurrency-firm-robinhood-wins-new-york-trading-license-idUSKCN1PI2L4?il=0

Hedge fund prepares proxy fight to oust embattled PG&E's board

(Reuters) - PG&E Corp (PCG.N) shareholder BlueMountain Capital Management LLC said on Thursday it is preparing a challenge to the embattled utility owner’s board, arguing its plan to file for bankruptcy in the wake of catastrophic wildfires in California is harming investors. The hedge fund, which owns about 2 percent of PG&E, said it is trying to rally support from other shareholders to replace all of the company’s ten board members at this year’s annual meeting expected in May. BlueMountain’s chances of success are remote, given that PG&E has said its bankruptcy filing may come as early Jan. 29. However, the maneuvering could end up giving BlueMountain a bigger role in any bankruptcy negotiations.

The hedge fund and other shareholders could potentially be in line to sit on a so-called equity committee that a bankruptcy judge would be empowered to appoint as part of PG&E’s court proceedings. Such a committee would have the ability to litigate during PG&E’s bankruptcy case and gain leverage to improve financial recoveries as the company develops a reorganization plan. "We expect to announce the new slate no later than February, 21, 2019," BlueMountain said in an open letter here to PG&E shareholders on Thursday. “In order to rebuild essential relationships and restore trust, the company needs an entirely new board,” the letter said. This is the second time the hedge fund has run a proxy contest and it did not identify its intended nominees in the letter.

PG&E is reeling from potentially crushing liabilities associated with deadly wildfires in 2017 and 2018 that ripped through California communities, killing dozens of people and destroying homes. The company forecasts its liabilities from the blazes could exceed $30 billion. The utility owner is facing scrutiny over the role of its equipment in the fires. With a new board and fresh oversight, the hedge fund forecast that the company’s share price could trade at $50 in the future. PG&E shares were down 1 percent at $7.91 in morning trading in New York on Thursday, giving the company a market capitalization of $4.2 billion. “When sound governance is restored, and structural issues addressed, the company will resolve its financial issues,” the hedge fund wrote.

BlueMountain’s move, while a potential distraction for PG&E during its expected debt restructuring, would need additional support from other shareholders, like hedge funds Baupost Group, D.E. Shaw and Hound Partners, among others, to succeed. PG&E, the biggest U.S. power utility by customers, provides electricity and natural gas to 16 million customers in northern and central California.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pg-e-us-hedgefund-exclusive/hedge-fund-prepares-proxy-fight-to-oust-embattled-pges-board-idUSKCN1PI1GD

Indeed it does, this was particularly of interest, because NY state has a Robinhood Foundation..interesting..I believe.

Facebook Slides After Report Claims 50% Of Its Users Are Fake

As bad as things have been for Facebook since the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke one year ago, one team of researchers, led by a former peer of Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard who created one of the original Facebook prototypes, thinks the reality of the company's circumstances is even more dire than investors realize. In a report published Thursday by PlainSite, an independent research shop led by Aaron Greenspan, analysts calculated that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been regularly lying to investors and the public about the company's user metrics, and that the company could be overestimating the number of users by as much as 50%. The team detailed their findings in a 70-page report published on their website.

''Facebook has been lying to the public about the scale of its problem with fake accounts, which likely exceed 50% of its network. Its official metrics—many of which it has stopped reporting quarterly—are self-contradictory and even farcical. The company has lost control of its own product.''

Ultimately, this is just the latest sign that Facebook - formerly one of the world's most successful companies - is doomed to go the way of CompuServe and AOL.

PlainSite is a project launched by the Think Computer Corporation and Think Computer Foundation which aims to make "data accessible to the public free of charge” and "lets ordinary citizens impact the law- making process," according to Bloomberg. Aaron Greenspan recently told his story about how he fit into the history of Facebook's founding at Harvard on a podcast.

Facebook's fraudulent numbers hurt its customers (advertisers) by overstating the effectiveness of Facebook's product, the company said. Fake accounts affect Facebook at its core in numerous ways:

Its customers purchase advertising on Facebook based on the fact that it can supposedly target advertisements at more than 2 billion real human beings. To the extent that users aren’t real, companies are throwing their money down the drain.

Fake accounts click on advertising at random, or “like” pages, to throw off antifraud algorithms. Fake accounts look real if they do not follow a clear pattern. This kind of activity defrauds advertisers, but rewards Facebook with revenue.

Fake accounts often defraud other users on Facebook, through scams, fake news, extortion, and other forms of deception. Often, they can involve governments

FB shares reversed earlier gains after the report started making the rounds; shares were down 1.2% on the day in recent trade.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-24/facebook-slides-after-report-claims-50-its-users-are-fake

>>4889065

Forgot the pdf report here:

https://www.plainsite.org/realitycheck/fb.pdf

John Kelly Joins Establishment Push for Trump to Quit Fight for Border Wall

President Donald Trump’s former chief of staff joined four establishment figures — all former secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security — to urge the President to effectively give up his push for a border wall. John Kelly added his signature to the letter, which was signed by four former DHS secretaries who have backed various wage-cutting amnesty plans in 2006, 2007, 2013, 2014 and 2015. None of the former DHS secretaries favor a border wall. The January 23 letter ignores the immigration impact of a Trump surrender in the budget fight, it ignores the national dispute over the federal policy of cheap-labor migration, and it ignores the President’s campaign commitment to build a border wall. Instead, it just urges the President to focus on national security threats and the loss of pay for DHS employees.

The letter leaked to NBC mentions Trump and “Members of Congress” — but does not name the two top Democrats in Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — who are trying to block Trump’s border wall.

The other four signers include Tom Ridge, who was nominated to head the new DHS by President George W. Bush.In 2016, Ridge endorsed Hillary Clinton and opposed Donald Trump and his pro-American immigration policies. In 2013, he advocated for passage of the “Gang of Eight” cheap-labor amnesty. In 2003, Ridge supported Bush as the President pushed for a program which would allow employers to freely hire cheap foreigners instead of Americans. The goal was an “immigration policy that helps match any willing employer with any willing employee,” Bush said.

Another signer is Michael Chertoff, who ran the agency from 2005 to 2009. Chertoff pushed the 2006 and 2007 amnesties, including the Probationary Z Visa that would have given foreigners two years to apply for a work visa — and also would have forced the DHS to 24 hours to prove the claim was invalid. Chertoff also invented the Optional Practical Training program, which each year allows hundreds of thousands of foreign graduates of American universities to take white-collar jobs in the United States. The influx of white-collar workers reduces salaries for American graduates. Chertoff now runs a consulting and advocacy group in Washington D.C. One of the “principals” at Hayden group is Never Trump advocate Michael Hayden.

Another signer is Jeh Johnson, who ran the DHS agency from 2013 to 2017. Johnson tried to push the 213 “Gang of Eight” amnesty through the House during 2014. If it had passed, the amnesty would have shifted more wealth from ordinary Americans to investors, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO report said that “the rate of return on capital would be higher [than on labor] under the legislation than under current law throughout the next two decades.” Johnson also worked with former President Barack Obama to implement the “Deferred Action for Parents of Americans” amnesty for the illegal-migrant parents of U.S-born children. The huge Oval Office amnesty was subsequently struck down the courts.

The letter was also signed by Janet Napolitano, who ran the department from 2009 to 2013. In 2013, she also promoted the Democrats’ “Gang of Eight” cheap-labor amnesty. The 2013 amnesty would have inflicted huge economic pain on middle-class Americans because it allowed universities to provide green cards to an unlimited number of foreigners, providing they pay fees to U.S. universities and earn masters’ degree in technology fields. Napolitano is now the President of the University of California system, where she disregarded public opposition to her use of the H-1B visa program to outsource U.S. jobs to Indian guest-workers.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/01/24/john-kelly-joins-establishment-push-for-trump-to-quit-border-wall-fight/