Free Republic

Signs of a potential market peak are emerging as the technology sector, which peaked in July, shows renewed vulnerability. This week, marked by the largest shooting star for Tech since July, is seen as a significant indicator. JPMorgan Chase & Co. quant strategists are raising concerns about the concentration of the market, drawing parallels with the dot-com bubble and emphasizing the risk of a substantial selloff. The dominance of the 10 largest stocks in U.S. equity markets is a focal point of concern. The strategists note that highly concentrated markets pose a clear and present risk to equity markets in...

The Human Rights Tribunal has ruled that the Attorney-General broke the law by withholding information from Kim Dotcom, which he says means his extradition case is "over". In July 2015, Mr Dotcom sent an urgent information privacy request to all 28 Ministers of the Crown as well as almost all Government departments, asking for personal information they had on him, including under his previous names. Nearly all the requests were transferred to the Attorney-General Chris Finlayson, who declined the Megaupload founder's requests on the grounds that they were "vexatious" and trivial. The Solicitor-General also said Mr Dotcom had not provided...

Let me start out by saying I hate market comparisons.While history certainly does “rhyme,” they are never the same. This is especially the case when it comes to the financial markets. Chart patterns may align from time to time, but such is more a function of pattern-fitting than anything else.However, when it comes to fundamentals, standard-deviations, extensions, etc., it is a different story. A recent article by Ryan Vlastelica brought this to mind. “While the strategy of investing in internet-related companies will likely always be first associated with the dot-com era, the long-lived bull market has proved to be just...

On Thursday at approximately 9:15 p.m. EDT, internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, who claims to have evidence that murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich communicated with WikiLeaks, tweeted that he was blocked “from following all of you who signed the #SethRich petition.” Addressing Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Dotcom added, “Dear @jack, please remove the follow limitation. Thank you.”

Kim Dotcom, a famous internet entrepreneur and hacker, admitted today he was part of the operation along with Seth Rich to get stolen DNC emails to Wikileaks. It wasn’t Russia! ... Moments ago Kim Dotcom dropped this bomb— “I knew Seth Rich. I know he was the @Wikileaks source. I was involved.” ... UPDATE— KIM DOTCOM WILL MAKE A STATEMENT ON TUESDAY… I'm meeting my legal team on Monday. I will issue a statement about #SethRich on Tuesday. Please be patient. This needs to be done properly. — Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 20, 2017

A comparison of the tenures is a battle of bad vs. worse. It’s well known by now that GOP presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina has never held political office and is running on her business record. As many commentators have pointed out, that’s a dicey proposition since her highest-profile job as CEO of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005 was sort of a disaster.But in an interview with Fortune contributor and Yale School of Management professor Jeffery Sonnenfeld, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump—who has made a habit of criticizing Fiorina—took aim at a different stage of her career.When asked about what he thought...

Kafka & Keynes Mania in financial markets has raged so far out of control as to place them outside the realm of rationality, says former White House budget director David Stockman. “There are no markets left in any meaningful sense of the word, just a raging casino infected with the madness of the crowds and the central bank pied pipers who mesmerize them,” he writes on his blog. That madness is illustrated in the months-long rise of Chinese stocks and the rebound of McDonald’s shares last week, Stockman says. As for China, the Shanghai Composite Index has soared 121...

The technology sector has been a hot topic for both bulls and bears, with the former seeing the sky as the limit for company valuations and the latter seeing a bubble set for a 2000-like bust. Following the infamous dot-com crash, the Nasdaq composite index fell from a peak of just over 5,000 to nearly 1,000 in about two years. It never exceeded 3,000 during the time leading up to the Great Recession. In early 2009, the Nasdaq began a relatively steady run to today, when it is again testing 5,000. So, whoÂ’s right, the bulls or the bears?...

Health information provider WebMD Health Corp. is expected to cut nearly a third of its workforce, Atlanta Business Chronicle has learned. The layoffs, which will be announced Tuesday, are expected to be "massive” and “across every aspect of the company,” according to a source. An WebMD (NASDAQ: WBMD) insider said the cuts could involve half the Atlanta workforce, according to a source. The company employs about 250 in Colony Square 400 building in Midtown Atlanta. The cuts, which include software development, Information Technology, editorial, video production and sales employees, will affect Atlanta and other offices. New York-based WebMD was founded...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Facebook's stock opened at an all-time low, after its first earnings report failed to ease worries over slowing sales growth and its plan for mobile advertising. Shares of Facebook (FB) tumbled nearly 15% to below $23 on Friday, 40% below the company's initial offering price from May. Facebook earnings matched analysts' expectations when it reported its earnings after the bell on Thursday. The company also delivered a 32% gain in second-quarter revenue, to $1.18 billion. That slightly topped forecasts. But investors are not sure how the company will bring in more revenue from its 955 million...

Once upon a time ('08) there came a presidential candidate...his name: Barak Hussein Obama. Little was known about him but(funny?), most of the establishment media curiously weren’t very curious about him... it was such a GREAT story, the first African-American with a good chance to be elected president, (no matter he had no birth certificate)! Big media were enthusiastic players/salespersons in this political scenario, soon casting aside the normal questions as to qualifications and background and also tossing aside the assumed Democrat front runner, Hillary Clinton... for this "clean articulate" new guy! Wild speculations ensued, tingles went up/down media pundit's...

2012 Republican Presidential Candidates Latest Polls Gallup PPP CNN NBC/WSJ Donald Trump 16% 26% 19% 17% Mike Huckabee 16% 17% 19% 17% Mitt Romney 13% 15% 11% 21% Sarah Palin 10% 8% 12% 10% Newt Gingrich 6% 11% 11% 11% Ron Paul 6% 5% 7% Michele Bachmann 4% 5% 5% Tim Pawlenty 3% 4% 2% 6% Mitch Daniels 3% 3% Rick Santorum 2% 2% 3% Haley Barbour 2% 1% Jon Hunstman 1% Herman Cain Chris Christie Gary Johnson

Once upon a time (in 2008) there came a presidential candidate... his name: Barak Hussein Obama. Little was known about him but(funny?), most of the establishment media curiously weren’t very curious about him... it was such a GREAT story, the first African-American (aka: black) with a good chance to be elected president, (no matter he had no birth certificate)! The big media were enthusiastic players (and salespersons)in this political scenario, soon casting aside the normal questions as to qualifications and background and also tossing aside the assumed Democrat front runner, Hillary Clinton... for this "clean articulate" new guy! Wild speculations...

Excerpt - The organization that oversees Internet addresses is expected Thursday to approve a proposal to create an unlimited number of so-called top-level domains -- the familiar suffixes like ".com" at the end of Web addresses. Under the plan, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will allow organizations to apply for any top-level domain. Businesses, for example, could use brand names such as ".ibm" or ".ebay" in their Web addresses. Cities could sign up for names like ".nyc" or ".berlin." It will also be possible to apply to use more general terms, such as ".news" or ".sports," to...

Microsoft is weighing up taking a stake in Facebook in a move that could value the social networking site at $10 billion (£5 billion) and trigger a bidding war. It is understood that the world’s largest software developer is considering paying between $300 million (£149 million) and $500 million for a 5 per cent stake in Facebook. A move by Microsoft would almost certainly trigger counter interest from a clutch of rivals including Google, the leader in search advertising, and Viacom, the media giant. Talks between Microsoft and Facebook are thought to be at an early stage and Facebook is...

MENLO PARK, Calif. —Today's New York Times has an article about people who are worth millions and are still complaining:Silicon Valley is thick with those who might be called working-class millionaires — nose-to-the-grindstone people like Mr. Steger who, much to their surprise, are still working as hard as ever even as they find themselves among the fortunate few. Their lives are rich with opportunity; they generally enjoy their jobs. They are amply cushioned against the anxieties and jolts that worry most people living paycheck to paycheck.But many such accomplished and ambitious members of the digital elite still do not think...

Excerpt - SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- Google Inc. (GOOG) is in talks to acquire online video company YouTube Inc. for roughly $1.6 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. The discussions are still at a sensitive stage and could well break off, this person says. Rumors of such talks were reported on the TechCrunch blog. (This report and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal's Web site, WSJ.com.) ~ snip ~

Silicon Valley employment expanded in July, the first month since the dot-com bust that more people were earning paychecks than a year earlier. According to a state report released Friday, Santa Clara and San Benito county employers tallied 871,300 positions on their payrolls last month -- 600 more jobs than in July 2004. It represented a barely-there increase of 0.1 percent. ``It's just crossed that number by a hair's breadth, but you could say it's a landmark in that it's positive for the first time,'' said Steven Cochrane, senior economist at Economy.com. He cautioned it's still too early to celebrate...

It may surprise some people, but I agree with Parsons on this one. And I would go even further. I am a Conservative who believes that we should both welcome and fight FOR the .XXX domain designations. What? Yes, you heard me right. Now hear me out. I believe we should use the tactics of the Liberals – who always love to tax and regulate everything – and make ALL porn sites drop their current .COM domains and go to the .XXX url exclusively.

By Gene J. Koprowski UPI Technology News Published 12/8/2004 3:20 PM CHICAGO, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- During the late 1990s, an area called Silicon Alley emerged in New York City as an East Coast alternative to California's Silicon Valley. More recently, the Silicon Prairie emerged in Iowa as home to many Internet start-ups. As the World Wide Web continues to mature as a medium, other cities are desperately vying for dot-com businesses, offering economic incentives, building out fiber-optic infrastructure and high-speed digital subscriber lines, even in rural regions, far from metro areas, hoping to capture some of the job growth...