Tag Archive: us

After an Israeli Strike on Iran

Filed under: Future Predictions, Middle East by futurepredictions — Leave a comment

June 26, 2012

Analysis confirms that the danger of Iranian nuclear weapons far exceeds the danger of eliminating those weapons before they come into existence.

Mr. Eisenstadt and Mr. Knights expect a short phase of high-intensity Iranian response, to be followed by a “protracted low-intensity conflict that could last for months or even years” – much as already exists between Iran and Israel, (Source: Washington Times).
Image Source: europesworld.org/

Seven Possible Responses

Missile strikes on Israel
Terrorist attacks on Israeli
Attacks on Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan
Kidnapping of U.S. citizens
Clashes with the U.S. Navy
Missile or terrorist attacks on neighboring states
Closing the Strait of Hormuz

Tags: 5th, Aircraft Carrier, AMERICA, ASSAD, australia, B2, B2 Stealt, Bomber, Canada, carrier, China, eu, European, Fifth, Fleet, germany, Gulf, Iran, IRNA, Israel, Middle East, nuclear, Oil, Persian, press, PressTV, program, RT, russia, sanction, sanctions, states, stealth, Strait of Hormu, syria, Tehra, tension, tv, U.S., UK, UNION, United, us, us aircraft, US Nav, usa, War, weapon, y U.S. Navy

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Water: Drought Blue Gold, Water Wars: Crisis of Global Proportions

Filed under: Climate, Future Predictions, Water by futurepredictions — Leave a comment

June 26, 2012

“Feeding some 9 billion people by mid-century in the face of a rapidly worsening climate may well be the greatest challenge the human race has ever faced.” By Joe Romm

In sub-Saharan Africa, “the prognosis for agriculture and food security in a 4C world is bleak”, according Philip Thornton, of Kenya’s International Livestock Research Institute, who led another research team. He notes there will be an extra billion people populating the continent by 2050. Source: menwithfoilhats.com

P1 of 4: Blue Gold, Water Wars: Crisis of Global Proportions

In every corner of the globe, we are polluting, diverting, pumping, and wasting our limited supply of fresh water at an expediential level as population and technology grows. The rampant overdevelopment of agriculture, housing and industry increase the demands for fresh water well beyond the finite supply, resulting in the desertification of the earth.

P2 of 4: Blue Gold, Water Wars: Crisis of Global Proportions

Corporate giants force developing countries to privatize their water supply for profit. Wall Street investors target desalination and mass bulk water export schemes. Corrupt governments use water for economic and political gain. Military control of water emerges and a new geo-political map and power structure forms, setting the stage for world water wars.

P3 of 4: Blue Gold, Water Wars: Crisis of Global Proportions

We follow numerous worldwide examples of people fighting for their basic right to water, from court cases to violent revolutions to U.N. conventions to revised constitutions to local protests at grade schools. As Maude Barlow proclaims, “This is our revolution, this is our war”. A line is crossed as water becomes a commodity. Will we survive?

P4 of 4: Blue Gold, Water Wars: Crisis of Global Proportions

Tags: Blue, blue gold, crisis, dessert, documentary, drinking, drought, dustbowl, economy, film, fresh, global, gold, green, lake, river, shortage, survival, survivalist, us, War, WARS, water, watershed, WORLD

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Future: Look Inside Hedge Funds as Boaz Weinstein of Saba Capital Management Takes Down the London Whale of JP Morgan for $9 Billion

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May 27, 2012

Update June 28, 2012 Marketwatch.com: The dramatic credit-derivative loss, initially estimated by J.P. Morgan Chase at $2 billion, may balloon to as much as $9 billion, report says.

Boaz Weinstein on Bloomberg of Saba Capital Management

Takes Down the London Whale of JP Morgan

What are Hedge Funds and How Do They Work?

Age: 38

Executive Post: Founder of Saba Capital Management

Why he’s young and fierce: He ranked 17th on this year’s Fortune “40 under 40″ list, and was also named a rising hedge fund star of 2010 by Institutional Investor Magazine. According to the magazine, Weinstein was the youngest global co-head in Deutsche Bank history at just 27-years-old.

In 2008, the “star derivatives trader”–as deemed by the New York Times–left the German bank to run his own hedge fund, Saba Capital Management.

Since then, loyal investors have put more than $1.5 billion into Saba, which has yet to have a down month, reports Fortune. And so far this year, Weinstein is beating the credit fund average with returns near 9 percent.

Image Source: Saba Capital

Meet the Man Who Took Down JPMorgan

“BOAZ WEINSTEIN IS AN AGGRESSIVE TRADER WHO ONCE LOST $2B, TOO”
“(NEWSER) – Credit (or blame) Boaz Weinstein—a 38-year-old hedge fund trader known as a “monster” for his aggressive, risky style—for the $2 billion takedown of JPMorgan, reports the New York Times. Weinstein, a chess master and big-time Las Vegas gambler, isn’t talking, but numerous other traders say he is the one who noticed something amiss in the credit derivatives market last November, spotting a particular index trading out of line in a market it was supposed to track. Weinstein and his team at Saba Capital Management did not know JPMorgan and the trader Bruno Iksil were on the other side; all Weinstein knew was that the other side kept selling, so he kept buying.”

“It was one whale versus another whale,” says a hedge fund manager. Iksil kept upping the sells, trying to scare off the other side, but Weinstein did not stop; soon the volume of trades was off the charts and all of London was buzzing. In February, Weinstein even named the JPMorgan fund as one to buy, further ramping up the pressure. Ironically, though, many think Weinstein learned from painful experience—he lost $1.8 billion for Deutsche Bank in 2008 at the height of the financial crisis. “If you hand me a list of the top-performing guys in the space, I’d expect to see his name on it,” says one bank exec. “If you hand me another list of hedge funds that might blow up, I’d expect his name to be on that, too.”
Quote Source: newser.com

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Predictions: Software Attacks Rise with Advanced Persistent Threats as CTO Stuart McClure of McAffee Shows us How We Can Secure the Unsecurable

Filed under: Future Predictions by futurepredictions — 2 Comments

March 10, 2012

Stuart McClure
Chief Technology Officer
McAfee an Intel Company

The threat environment has changed rapidly, and what we once thought of as theoretical is now a reality. Things we thought couldn’t be secured, or didn’t need to be secured, are now essential to a secure environment. We’ve seen a rise in Advanced Persistent Threats, which have been effective in targeting organizations worldwide. Critical infrastructures were not a major concern for most — until Stuxnet hit and left organizations scrambling. Now, with the explosion of embedded devices, we’re seeing an explosion of threat vectors. We must secure all of these, while the bad guys only need to find one way in. McAfee Chief Technology Officer Stuart McClure breaks the myth that certain things don’t need to be secured, and that certain things aren’t securable. He will discuss a new approach, which encompasses going into the hardware, ensuring real–time updates and strong, clear metrics for success.

Tags: 2012, Conference, francisco, hacker, information, McAfee, McClure, RSA, rsa conference, san, Security, SF, Stuart, us

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Future Predictions: If the U.S. Risk to Lenders Increased the Treasury Borrowing Rate May Rise by 10 Basis Points or by $130 Billion, Sticker Shock!

Filed under: Economics, Future Predictions, Prediction by futurepredictions — Leave a comment

November 5, 2011

CBO Director: How Likely Is a US Debt Default?

If the Risk to Lenders to the U.S. Treasury Caused in Increase in Borrowing Rate by Just 10 Basis Points the Result is $130 Billion

“Congressional Budget Office head Douglas Elmendorf says the US “can’t afford to take the views of its creditors lightly” as it considers the “dangerous gamble” of government default. “Leaders of both political parties have made clear that defaulting on government obligations is not acceptable, and will not be allowed to happen,” he says.

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Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf speaks with reporters at the Christian Science Monitor Breakfast. This program was recorded on June 14, 2011.

Douglas W. Elmendorf is the eighth Director of the Congressional Budget Office. His term began on January 22, 2009.

The Director of CBO oversees the agency’s work in providing objective, insightful, timely, and clearly presented information about budgetary and economic issues. The Director supervises the numerous analytical papers and cost estimates produced by the agency, and he testifies frequently before Congressional committees. In managing the agency, the Director is responsible for a staff of about 235 people and an annual budget of roughly $40 million.

Before he came to CBO, Doug Elmendorf was a senior fellow in the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution. As the Edward M. Bernstein Scholar, he served as coeditor of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity and the director of the Hamilton Project, an initiative to promote broadly shared economic growth.

Doug Elmendorf was previously an assistant professor at Harvard University, a principal analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, a senior economist at the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, a deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department, and an assistant director of the Division of Research and Statistics at the Federal Reserve Board. In those positions, he worked on budget policy, Social Security, Medicare, national health care reform, financial markets, macroeconomic analysis and forecasting, and other topics. He earned his Ph.D. and A.M. in economics from Harvard University, where he was a National Science Foundation graduate fellow, and his A.B. summa cum laude from Princeton University.”

[Via ForaTV]

Elmendorf may be the most important financial analyst in America: his client list is all 535 members of the U.S. Congress. His job is to “score” or provide a cost estimate of important legislation wending its way through the House and Senate. His cost analysis can often make or break a bill’s future.

Succeeding Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag, Elmendorf joined the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) as the struggling economy was at the top of the political agenda. Like Orszag, he hails from the liberal think-tank the Brookings Institution and was the former director of the Hamilton Project, a pro-free trade and anti-deficit centrist Democratic group led by Orzsag and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.

Elmendorf continued what Orszag began as CBO head, including contributing to the CBO “Director’s Blog” and evaluating health-care reform’s impact on the national budget. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) selected Elmendorf after getting recommendations from the House and Senate Budget Committees. The House and Senate alternate selects a new CBO director; Pelosi took the lead in selecting Elmendorf.(1)

Elmendorf has become a key player in the health-reform debate, as Republicans argue that it’s too costly and Orszag and the White House say not reforming the health system would actually cost more long-term.