Stan Roberts on LinkedIn: MSN | Outlook, Office, Skype, Bing, Breaking News, and Latest Videos (2024)

Will be out of town for 5 days, returning Wednesday. Pay attention.

Russia Legalizes Cryptocurrency MiningNew law governing the sector has been signed by President Vladimir Putin - The President of Russia Vladimir Putin has signed a law that legalizes cryptocurrency mining in the country. A relevant document was published on Thursday on the official portal of legal information. - The new law introduced several key concepts, including digital currency mining, mining pools, and mining infrastructure operators, and defined the rights and liabilities of the crypto mining market’s participants. - Сryptocurrency mining will now be recognized as part of turnover rather than the issuance of digital currency. - The new legislation specifies that only Russian legal entities and individual entrepreneurs registered with the government will be allowed to engage in cryptocurrency mining. However, individual miners can participate without registration, provided their energy consumption remains within government-set limits.https://lnkd.in/gH4KxqVf

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China Responds to U.S. and Allied Drills in Contested Waters - Tensions remained high in the South China Sea this week as China organized military maneuvers near a disputed island in response to U.S. and allied drills in the same waters on the same day. - China's Southern Theater Command, which is responsible for military operations in the contested South China Sea, announced on Wednesday that it held a joint air and sea patrol near Huangyan Island, better known as Scarborough Shoal, or Bajo de Masinloc in the Philippines. - Scarborough Shoal is located 124 miles from thePhilippinesand sits inside its exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, granting it exclusive use of underwater resources up to 200 nautical miles from its coast. China seized the atoll 12 years ago during a naval standoff with the U.S. treaty ally. - In a Hague-based arbitral panel's landmark ruling in 2016, China was adjudged to have violated international law by blocking Philippine fishing access to the atoll. The body also dismissed Beijing's sweeping maritime claims in theSouth China Seawithin the so-called "nine-dash line," which includes Scarborough Shoal.https://lnkd.in/gSwFExUV

Delta says it’ll take $380 million ‘direct’ revenue hit from CrowdStrike outageAirline expects total costs of at least $500 millionDeltasaid in a filing that it will see a “direct” revenue impact of around $380 million in the third quarter due to the incident, mostly related to refunds for cancelled flights and to providing customer compensation in cash and miles. Its fuel expenses were lowered by some $50 million as a result of those canceled flights, Delta said.Delta had to cancel about 7,000 flights as it ran into problems with reservations and crew scheduling.The airline chalked up another $170 million in non-fuel costs, mostly related to customer-expense reimbursem*nts and crew-related expenses, it said.https://lnkd.in/g5iWCFM4

The Fed’s Powell said his 2% inflation target was non-negotiable. Jamie Dimon is skeptical it’s even possible.... - One year ago Jerome Powell explicitly laid out his task and that of his committee peers: "It is theFed's job to bring inflationdown to our 2% goal, and we will do so,"he said. - While inflation has come down, it has yet to reach this benchmark. Moreover, the lesser-considered half of the Fed's dual mandate—unemployment—isbeginning to cause some trouble. - This factor has ledJPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to question whether the Fed's task is even achievable. - Speaking toCNBCin an interview published yesterday, 68-year-old Dimon said: "There's a lot of uncertainty out there. I've always pointed to the geopolitics, I always think the deficits, the spending, the quantitive tightening, the elections—all these things cause some consternation in the markets so we'll have to wait and see."https://lnkd.in/gJ-z8yw7

Beware of this new Android malware that empties your bank account, clears your device completely - There's been a spike in malware hittingAndroid phones, and the latest one, called BingoMod, might be the scariest yet. - This malware can steal money from your accounts and then wipe your phone clean. Using on-devicefraud techniques, it can swipe up to $16,000 in one go. - And the worst part? This isn’t even the final version. Researchers say the creators are working on adding more features to make sure it doesn’t get detected. - According to researchersat Cleafy, the malware is a remote access trojan (RAT), meaning an attacker uses it to gain full remote access to your Android phone. The malware enters your phone as an app, which is distributed through smishing (SMS phishing) campaigns. - The malicious app often masquerades as alegitimate antivirus applicationwith names like APP Protection, Antivirus Cleanup, Chrome Update, InfoWeb, SicurezzaWeb, WebSecurity, WebsInfo, WebInfo, and APKAppScudo. The Cleafy report noted that, in one instance, it also imitated the free AVG AntiVirus & Security tool available on Google Play. We reached out to Google, and a spokesperson provided the following statement.https://lnkd.in/gD_xyz5Y

Bank of America, Wells Fargo are Under Investigation for Handling of Customers Funds on Zelle - The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is investigating major U.S. banks for their handling of customer funds on the peer-to-peer payments platform Zelle Network, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. - The probe focuses on JPMorgan(JPM.N), opens new tab, Bank of America(BAC.N), opens new taband Wells Fargo(WFC.N), opens new tabamong other large banks, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. - JPMorgan last week had disclosed in a filing that it was responding to the CFPB's inquiries regarding Zelle and was considering whether to sue a U.S. consumer watchdog over the agency's inquiries. - Wells Fargo also has previously disclosed in public filings that government authorities have been probing the handling of customer disputes via Zelle. - The proliferation of fraud and scams on Zelle, which is owned by seven major banks including JPMorgan and Bank of America, has drawn attention from U.S. lawmakers including Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and regulators concerned about consumer protection.

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Fed rate-cut fervor is gripping Wall Street again. That could set markets up for another trap.‘Everyone thinks rate cuts are a magic elixir,’ notes Northwestern Mutual’s Brent SchutteWall Street’s desire for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts heated up again this week as extreme volatility shook markets, stoking fears of contagion and recession.As the dust has begun to settle, another worry has been emerging: Investors positioning for the Fed to take an ax to interest rates could be setting markets up for another trap.“I don’t think they want to be seen as the ‘hot gun.’ That’s not what the Fed wants to do,” Diane Jaffee, a senior portfolio manager at TCW, told MarketWatch on Thursday.Wall Street was occupied earlier this week with thepossibility of an interim rate cutbefore the Fed’s Sept. 17-18 policy meeting. Jaffee said Thursday’s jobless-claims data makes such a dramatic move look less likely, given thatfewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits in the past week than anticipated.https://lnkd.in/gHVn75Bv

FT: How a $16bn tax stand-off stays unseen in Coca-Cola’s earnings - A long dispute between Coca-Cola and the US tax authorities has escalated to the point that the company could owe $16bn in back taxes, enough to wipe out a year and a half of profits, with the figure rising by more than $1bn a year. - Coca-Cola has been hiding “astronomical levels” of profit in low-tax countries including Ireland to shield it from the US Internal Revenue Service, according to a withering court judgment, which the company is planning to appeal against later this year. The mounting stakes have been visible only in the fine print of co*ke’s regulatory filings in recent years, thanks to a quirk of accounting rules.https://lnkd.in/gFmrFd2f