Latest Posts

  • Technology 0

    China suspected in massive breach of federal personnel data

    WASHINGTON (AP) – China-based hackers are suspected of breaking into the computer networks of the U.S. government personnel office and stealing identifying information of at least 4 million federal workers, American officials said Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that data from the Office of Personnel Management and the Interior Department had been compromised. “The FBI is conducting an investigation to identify how and why this occurred,” the statement said. The hackers were believed to be based in China, said Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican. Collins, a member of the Senate intelligen...
    On June 5, 2015 / By
  • Real Estate 0

    Woman fired for rejecting real estate big shot’s come-ons: suit

    The married owner of a powerhouse real estate firm that caters to Brooklyn hipsters tried to create his own harem using female staffers, a new lawsuit charges. Guy Hochman of MySpace NYC abruptly canned longtime worker Dena Kology after she refused to become one of his conquests, the woman said in her Brooklyn federal court suit. “There’s nobody more that I love than you,” Hochman allegedly simpered to Kology during one taped conversation between the pair. “And it goes even behind the business, emotionally to levels that you can’t even imagine,’’ Hochman insisted, according to the suit. “I don’t share half the things I think...
    On June 1, 2015 / By
  • Finance 0

    Auto Enrollment Has Solved Only Part of the Retirement Income Gap Issue

    NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Despite the advent of automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans, Gen X-ers and Baby Boomers are still not saving enough money for retirement. Companies need to adopt more aggressive enrollment default rates or mandate automatic increases. While automatic enrollment has accomplished its initial goal of getting employees to save for their future, this option has never become a game changer for 401(k) plans. What’s lacking is a stronger push to get people to increase the percentage of their salary that they contribute for retirement, said Jamie Hopkins, associate director of the New York Life Center for Retirement Incom...
    On May 27, 2015 / By
  • Health 0

    Go green at America’s best vegetable-forward restaurants

    On the day before the recent James Beard Awards ceremony (held in Chicago — its first foray outside New York since its 1990 inception — on May 4), a handful of talented chefs sat down at Kendall College for a chat with culinary éminence grise Rick Bayless and food journalist Steve Dolinsky (both multi-year JBF Award winners). Each of the panelists — Mark Ladner of Del Posto, Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen, Erik Bruner-Yang of Toki Underground, Beverly Kim of Parachute, Renee Erickson of The Whale Wins, and Ari Taymor of Alma — had been nominated for the prestigious honor, often called the Oscar of food. (Ladner and...
    On May 26, 2015 / By
  • Technology 0

    Your Boss Is Now Tracking You at Home

    Myrna Arias knew that her professional life was monitored by her boss. As part of her sales job at Intermex, a wire transfer service, she had to install an app called Xora that uses GPS to keep tabs on her whereabouts as she drove around California’s Central Valley. The tracking appears to have continued even when Arias was off the clock. A recently filed lawsuit alleges that her manager “admitted that employees would be monitored while off duty.” Arias claims her decision to uninstall the app resulted in her firing, and her wrongful-termination lawsuit seeks more than $500,000 in damages for lost wages and breach of privacy...
    On May 18, 2015 / By
  • Finance 0

    EC Perpetualization Of The Too Big To Fail Banks

    I am in the middle of the Atlantic on a cruise ship headed to Europe. Having spent 15 years of my life on the high seas and attending ship owner’s conferences, I always take a critical look at cruise ships. Since the birth of this industry almost 50 years ago, the number of passengers on each cruise ship has grown from a few hundred to many thousands. The ships now are too large large to fail. There is not a chance that all passengers can be evacuated in the event of a catastrophic event – so the design of the ships have evolved to both preventing and fighting any foreseen event to minimize the effect to the ship and the passenger...
    On May 16, 2015 / By
  • Finance 0

    Federal Reserve Balance Sheet Explodes To Within 0.5% Of All-Time High In Just One Week

    by Simon Black, Sovereign Man Remember all that talk about “taper” last year? After years of conjuring trillions of dollars out of thin air and rapidly expanding its balance sheet, the Federal Reserve promised to end its unprecedented ‘Quantitative Easing’ (QE) programs. In total the Fed’s balance sheet exploded from $800 billion to $4.5 trillion between 2008 and 2014. And this wasn’t good news. A huge balance sheet means that the Fed is overleveraged. It means that they have only a tiny margin of safety in reserve in case there are serious problems in the financial system. Back in 2008, major banks (like Lehman Brothers Holdings ...
    On May 16, 2015 / By
  • Finance 0

    Inmates Run The Asylum – Financial Review

    Podcast: Play in new window | Play in new window (Duration: 13:15 — 6.1MB) DOW + 20 = 18,272 SPX + 1 = 2122 NAS – 2 = 5048 10 YR YLD – .10 = 2.14% OIL – .01 = 59.87 GOLD – 2.20 = 1223.00 SILV + .06 = 17.53 The S&P 500 index hit a record high close for the second day in a row. The S&P added 0.3 percent this week for its first back-to-back weekly gain in more than a month. The Nasdaq posted a small gain for the week.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained about 0.4 percent for the week. The Dow is close to another record. The old record is 18,288 from March 2. So, to see if this little rally has legs, we can look at the Do...
    On May 16, 2015 / By
  • Finance 0

    Wyckoff Technical Strength And Weakness

    According to Wyckoff, a technically strong stock sees demand/buying power building; a technically weak stock sees supply/selling power building. Running length 00:08:26...
    On May 16, 2015 / By
  • Finance 0

    View From The Hill: May 15, 2015 – Market Commentary

    Equities: Although performance was not robust, stocks bounced off their lows and finished at the upper end of their weekly trading range. Weekly percent changes: SP-500 (SPY) +0.39%; Nasdaq-100 +0.82%; and Russell-2000 (IWM) +0.82%. Volatility: The VIX exchange traded fund has now declined 5 out of the last 7 trading weeks. After several previous weeks of support, Volatility (VIX) fell -2.67% for the week. Bonds: The 20+ Year Treasury (TLT) fell to a new 7-week low, but retraced most of its losses and closed down only -0.75% for the week. Currencies: Weekly performance for major currencies were as follows: U.S. Dollar (UUP) down -1.61% made...
    On May 15, 2015 / By