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Friday 06th of November 2020
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Vitaly Butyrin. Eternal Call, Young World, Requiem in Memoriam of V, 1980's. @Paolo1264
Misc.
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Rolf Florschuetz. Infinite wide. @Paolo1264
Misc.
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A decade of "semiotic arousal" when everything, it seemed, was a sign, a harbinger of some future radical disjuncture or cataclysmic upheaval.
Misc.
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Max Ernst – Clouds, Sun and Sea, 1952. @Paolo1264
Misc.
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A Luminous and Fairy Tale feel
Misc.
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''You felt the land taking you back to what was there a hundred years ago, to what had been there always.” ― V.S. Naipaul
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"There are no passengers on the spaceship earth. We are all crew." Marshall McLuhan
Misc.
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Lao Tzu put it "Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death"
Misc.
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“Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.”
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"The first step to living the life you want is leaving the life you don’t want." @Chahali
Misc.
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Tu ne seras jamais heureux si tu cherches continuellement de quoi est fait le bonheur. Tu ne vivras jamais si tu cherches toujours un sens à la Vie. Albert Camus @Camille_Jeann
Misc.
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"Thus each of us had to be content to live only for the day, alone under the vast indifference of the sky." - Albert Camus, The Plague
Misc.
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"Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time." - Albert Camus
Misc.
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"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." - Albert Camus
Misc.
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The Winter of Our Discontent
World Of Finance
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Political Reflections
Law & Politics
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Or are we actually watching a democracy working? with background ''Shakespeare level ''drama of a Reality TV Star who finally understands he cannot bend reality to his will anymore? @wmiddelkoop @Kasparov63
Law & Politics
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Political decision-making is now driven by often weaponized babble. @FukuyamaFrancis
Law & Politics
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Trump isn’t disciplined enough to be a strongman. Even his most ardent followers must be disgusted by this self-centered whining. @Kasparov63
Law & Politics
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A reality TV star botched the response to a global pandemic and now we are all imprisoned in our homes and forced to watch him daily. @JenaFriedman #COVID19
Law & Politics
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Trump’s speech could have been written by Putin. Lying, baselessly attacking the integrity of the US democratic process, inciting violence, sowing doubt and chaos, undermining the concept of free and fair elections. @Kasparov63
Law & Politics
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Whoever Controls The Narrative Controls The World
World Of Finance
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And it all left me wondering Who exactly is controlling the Console?
I thought to myself This all has the Imprimatur of the "political technologist of all of Rus." And non linear War Specialist Vladislav Surkov.
Putin's system was also ripe for export, Mr Surkov added. Foreign governments were already paying close attention, since the Russian "political algorithm" had long predicted the volatility now seen in western democracies.
With a flourish he sponsored lavish arts festivals for the most provocative modern artists in Moscow, then supported Orthodox fundamentalists, dressed all in black and carrying crosses, who in turn attacked the modern-art exhibitions. @TheAtlantic
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How it started. How it's going. @NorthmanTrader
Law & Politics
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4-NOV-2019 :: Pollice verso or verso pollice is a Latin phrase, meaning "with a turned thumb", that is used in the context of gladiatorial combat.
Law & Politics
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STOP THE COUNT! realDonaldTrump
Law & Politics
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The Hollow Men Mistah Kurtz - he dead
Law & Politics
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This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
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It will be a @realDonaldTrump Virucide. He is already behind the Curve and the curve is parabolic exponential and non linear. It's over.
Law & Politics
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Three PLA aircraft (Y-9 EW, Y-8 EW, and Y-8 ASW) entered #Taiwan’s southwest ADIZ in the afternoon of Nov. 5, the flight paths as illustrated. @MoNDefense
Law & Politics
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#ROCAF deployed patrolling aircraft and air defense missile systems to monitor the activities.
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19-OCT-2020 :: WILL XI ROLL THE DICE OVER TAIWAN?
Law & Politics
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I doubt the CCP really knew how well its lockdown psyop would work, but everything about its response suggests the lockdowns were part of a larger plan. @MichaelPSenger
Law & Politics
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This was Xi’s plan to make the world China, and what the world would look like if he had his way.
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The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. Sun Tzu #COVID19 Xi Jinping
Law & Politics
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The CCP appears to have modeled its lockdown fraud on Event 201, so Gates, Hopkins, and the WEF would play into their hands. @MichaelPSenger
Law & Politics
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6/ In Oct 2019, Gates Foundation, Johns Hopkins, and the WEF hosted an international pandemic simulation in which China took part.
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Year of the Virus
World Of Finance
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There’s dark humor in the CCP’s use of a common coronavirus for its lockdown fraud. Perhaps in Xi’s mind, if the West was so spineless as to destroy itself over a common cold, was it really worth saving? @MichaelPSenger
Law & Politics
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‘’Zoonotic’’ origin was one that was accelerated in the Laboratory.
Misc.
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There is also a non negligible possibility that #COVID19 was deliberately released
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1-MAR-2020 :: The Origin of the #CoronaVirus #COVID19
Misc.
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It is impossible to ignore the introduction of a PRRA insert between S1 and S2: it sticks out like a splinter. This insert creates the furin cleavage site
Misc.
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Forcing professionals into their homes forced them into the CCP’s controlled information environment. Isolating intelligent people in the digital realm allowed the CCP to control public opinion through its army of bots and stakes in most media source
Law & Politics
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Also 和谐 hexie over the eyes means "harmony" (from former Pres Hu catchphrase). In China if you've been censored you've been "harmonised".
Law & Politics
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They now turn to rule over the people by means of what could be dubbed “big data totalitarianism” and “WeChat terror.” @ChinaFile #COVID19 Xu Zhangrun
Law & Politics
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That‘s right, we, We the People, for [as I have previously said] how can we let ourselves ―survive no better than swine; fawn upon the power-holders like curs; and live in vile filth like maggots‖?
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You will all be no better than fields of garlic chives, giving yourselves up to being harvested by the blade of power, time and time again. @ChinaFile #COVID19
Law & Politics
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[ “garlic chives,” Allium tuberosum, often used as a metaphor to describe an endlessly renewable resource.]
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What is thriving, however, is all that ridiculous ―Red Culture‖ and the nauseating adulation that the system heaps on itself via shameless pro-Party hacks who chirrup hosannahs at every turn @ChinaFile #COVID19
Law & Politics
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A polity that is blatantly incapable of treating its own people properly can hardly be expected to treat rest of the world well Such places will only be able to find their assumed pulchritude reflected back at them in mirror of their imperial self-regard
Law & Politics
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Xi Jinping and his Algorithmic Control.
Law & Politics
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It’s no coincidence that “Zoom meetings” suddenly became the staple of professional work. Zoom is the CCP’s personal panopticon @MichaelPSenger
Misc.
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It’s no coincidence that “Zoom meetings” suddenly became the staple of professional work. Zoom is the CCP’s personal panopticon—the CCP can and does tune into Zoom calls anytime they want. What better way to monitor dissenting opinions.
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The CCP’s financial ties with social media companies and nonprofits tasked with policing “misinformation” would facilitate the censorship necessary to prevent leaders from easing the public’s COVID hysteria. @MichaelPSenger
Law & Politics
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The Infodemic as per the preeminent Exponent @DrTedros
Law & Politics
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“We call on all countries to implement decisions that are evidence-based and consistent,” said Tedros. Roger that.
There‟s just one problem.
The “evidence” here – taken without adjustment or question from the CCP – was a baldfaced lie. And everyone at WHO knew it.
Fake news is now defined as anything that disputes WHO data, which means that fake news is now defined as anything that disputes the official China party line.
Where possible, China wants to criminalize any speech ... any social media ... that does not follow the official party line. Where it‟s not possible to criminalize that speech, China wants to ban it through the cooperative censorship of global tech and media platforms.
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#Coronavirus how the @WHO is leading the social media fight against misinformation @DrTedros @SCMPNews
Law & Politics
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Salvation through vaccination would be dangled like a cat toy in front of fearful populations, each vaccine proving futile—but a great excuse to bill national governments for mandatory vaccine programs, another milestone in the end of human rights.
Law & Politics
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THE VACCINE STORY IS ANOTHER MYTH
Misc.
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No-one has ever produced a safe and effective vaccine against a coronavirus. Birger Sørensen, Angus Dalgleish & Andres Susrud
THE VACCINE STORY IS ANOTHER MYTH
What if, as I fear, there will never be a vaccine. I was involved in the early stages of identifying the HIV virus as the cause of Aids. I remember drugs companies back then saying there would be a vaccine within around 18 months. Some 37 years on, we are still waiting. Prof ANGUS DALGLEISH @MailOnline
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There is something Karmic in this #COVID19
Misc.
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Arundhati Roy: ‘The pandemic is a portal’ – The Open Question is a Portal to whence.
Misc.
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What we know is that #COVID19 [is] unlike the flow of capital [and that] this virus seeks proliferation, not profit, and has, therefore, inadvertently, to some extent, reversed the direction of the flow.
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685,278 Global #COVID19 cases yesterday grew world total 1.43% to 48,082,263; inline with macro growth trend. 11,465 deaths yesterday above 7,318/day week average. @jmlukens
Misc.
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Death exponential growth rate average increased to 0.61% past two weeks and is accelerating faster than cases.
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27-JUL-2020 :: Drinking the Kool-Aid The exponential moment is still in front of us. #COVID19
World Of Finance
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Once upon a time in America. @CT_Bergstrom
Misc.
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FUNDSTRAT: Daily COVID cases “are now becoming parabolic. Total USA cases surged past 100,000 for the first time. @fundstrat @carlquintanilla
Misc.
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FUNDSTRAT: Daily COVID cases “are now becoming parabolic. Total USA cases surged past 100,000 for the first time. For the foreseeable future, daily cases will keep rising. .. And 3 of the 4 wave 2 states, FL, CA, TX .. are in the top 10 again.” @fundstrat
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27-JAN-2020 :: “But it is a curve each of them feels, unmistakably. It is the parabola.''
Misc.
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“But it is a curve each of them feels, unmistakably. It is the parabola. They must have guessed, once or twice -guessed and refused to believe -that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return.’’
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A reality TV star botched the response to a global pandemic #COVID19
Law & Politics
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U.S. reports 116,255 new coronavirus cases, biggest one-day increase on record @BNODesk
Misc.
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On average 7,232 people died from COVID-19 every day over the last week. @MaxCRoser
Misc.
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With cases rising rapidly the world is set to reach a higher death rate than in the spring wave within a few days now.
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19-OCT-2020 :: Now Is The Winter Of Our Discontent
World Of Finance
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Europe 279,007 per day avg #COVID19 cases increased 63% past two weeks. 3,343 deaths per day up 132% past two weeks @jmlukens
Misc.
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Europe 279,007 per day avg #COVID19 cases increased 63% past two weeks. 11,555,962 total cases growing on average 2.61% per day. 3,343 deaths per day up 132% past two weeks with 286,579 total deaths exponentially increasing 1.21% per day.
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24-FEB-2020 :: "The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." - Professor Allen Bartlett
Misc.
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A virulent plague that “travelled through the air as if on wings, it burned through cities like fire”.
Misc.
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Delhi can soon become "corona capital of the country", AAP govt has gone completely 'haywire' on pandemic: HC. #COVID19 @PTI_News
Misc.
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Asia Today: India’s coronavirus outbreak has risen by more than 50,000 cases amid a surging third wave of infections in the capital. More than 6,800 of those newly confirmed cases were in New Delhi.
Misc.
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16-FEB-2020 :: ''viruses exhibit non-linear and exponential characteristics' #COVID19
Misc.
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19-OCT-2020 :: Whether it is in the First, second, third or fourth wave is an academic Question.
Misc.
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The virus may be the most dangerous adversary America has ever faced. It's like the US was invaded. Tweeted @balajis #COVID19
Misc.
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International Markets
World Of Finance
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19-OCT-2020 :: ALL G7 CURVES 0-10 WILL BE NEGATIVE IN 2021
World Of Finance
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Currency Markets at a Glance WSJ
World Currencies
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27-JUL-2020 :: Drinking the Kool-Aid Conclusions $DXY < 90.00
World Currencies
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Dollar Index Chart 92.609
World Currencies
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Bloomberg Dollar Index drops to lowest since May 2018 on bets for Biden win. @Schuldensuehner
World Currencies
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We are keeping interest rates low @bankofengland
World Currencies
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19-OCT-2020 :: Now Is The Winter Of Our Discontent BUY SHORT STERLING
World Currencies
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27-JUL-2020 :: Drinking the Kool-Aid Conclusions Euro 1.25
World Currencies
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Euro versus the Dollar Chart 1.18377
World Currencies
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Bitcoin rises above $15,000 @markets
World Currencies
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$BTC 15,725 @golazzo3
World Currencies
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27 NOV 17 :: Bitcoin "Wow! What a Ride!"
World Currencies
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The supermassive black hole is going to suck in everything. @RaoulGMI
World Currencies
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08-JAN-2018 :: The Crypto Avocado Millenial Economy.
World Currencies
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The ‘’Zeitgeist’’ of a time is its defining spirit or its mood. Capturing the ‘’zeitgeist’’ of the Now is not an easy thing because we are living in a dizzyingly fluid moment.
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High tech, millenial, crypto, avocado economy exhibits viral, wildfire and exponential and even non-linear characteristics not unlike Ebola.
World Currencies
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Chinese government summoned Ma and other @antgroup executives to a meeting to discuss the IPO on Monday. This meeting clearly did not go well. @NikkeiAsia
World Of Finance
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In a surprise move, Ant Group announced that it was suspending its dual initial public offering on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges late on Tuesday night.
The move was a dramatic step down from what was to be the world's largest IPO, where the company was poised to raise $34.4 billion.
The massively over-subscribed IPO was likely to value Ant Group at $313 billion. This would have made it the fourth largest financial company in the world, after Berkshire Hathaway, Visa and Mastercard.
Details around the move are sketchy, but it seems likely that the Chinese government became frustrated at what it regards as Jack Ma's cavalier attitude toward financial regulations.
It summoned Ma and other Ant Group executives to a meeting to discuss the IPO on Monday. This meeting clearly did not go well.
Frustration between Ma and Chinese regulators has been mounting for several years, the flames of which have been fanned by Ma himself in frequent complaints about the bureaucratic nature of financial regulation in China.
Regulators have responded with their own criticisms of Ma's support of risky initiatives that could harm customers and investors.
Ma's business success and positive reputation as an iconoclast and humble leader had, until this point, largely protected him from overt scrutiny, but it seems like the regulators have finally had enough. Problems had been brewing for some time.
Ant Group started life as Alipay, a simple escrow service to secure transactions between independent buyers and sellers on Alibaba's business-to-consumer, or B2C, marketplace, Taobao.
In an early challenge to Chinese financial regulation, Jack Ma insisted that Alipay proceed without the appropriate licenses, pushing into a gray zone of legality, believing that e-commerce in China depended on it. Chinese regulators played along.
This move was tolerated since the mostly state-owned Chinese banks were archaic and bureaucratic, and online banking was still very basic.
With the tacit approval of regulators, Alipay built a new infrastructure from scratch in collaboration with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Sun Microsystems.
As Alipay grew, regulation once again became a hot topic. China precluded foreign-owned companies from operating banks, which technically included Alibaba, since Yahoo and SoftBank controlled over 50% of the company.
The company was getting too large for regulators to continue casting a blind eye on the transgression.
So, in a controversial move, Jack Ma and Xie Shihuang, another Alibaba co-founder, purchased back the majority of Alipay stock to create a Chinese-controlled entity that could operate legally.
Alipay long understood that payments alone were never going to be enough. Thus, the company built on its two main resources -- access to funds and customer data -- to branch into other financial services.
Ant Financial was established in 2014 as a vehicle for this expansion, fueled by a private fundraising round that resulted in Ma owning about 50%, Alibaba 33%, and the rest with early investors. Ant Financial was rebranded as Ant Group in 2020.
Today, Ant Group offers services across five domains -- payments, wealth management, lending, credit scoring, and insurance.
Yu'E Bao, which means "leftover treasure," was launched in 2013 to allow even the smallest customers to invest leftover funds at attractive rates.
Zhima Credit was launched to leverage Ant's access to personal data to create credit score profiles for borrowers.
MYbank was launched to use big data and AI to lend to small and medium-sized companies that were underserved by larger banks.
Xiang Hu Bao, a mutual insurance platform, was created to address the lack of affordable health care for lower-wage workers.
The company cross-sells these financial services extremely well. As many as 80% of customers use three or more services, and 40% use all five.
By taking a platform approach, direct competition with traditional financial institutions has been reduced.
The ambition does not end at financial services, as evidenced by the Alibaba acquisition of online food delivery group Ele.me in 2018.
As a company spokesperson put it, "The idea is that people are living their lives through this platform."
The thought of people living their lives through the Ant Group platform may have caused concern within the Chinese government.
Ant Group's highly intertwined and complex financial picture becomes more risky as it becomes powerful.
The company works on the assumption that 1-2% of its massive loan portfolio is non-performing, but if it turns out to be much higher, in the case of an economic slowdown for instance, the whole business model could be compromised.
Chinese regulators are probably concerned about how a large-scale shock could impact Ant Group's financial viability, and, by extension, the hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers that use one or more of the company's services.
They had been willing to go along with Jack Ma's bold "Five New" strategy, which included "New Finance" along with the better known "New Retail."
However, they have clearly reached the limit of their patience with his flaunting of authority, and have decided to clip his wings.
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There is frequently a "coming to Jesus" meeting in Beijing where any number of things can happen
China
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And there is frequently a “coming to Jesus” meeting in Beijing where any number of things can happen to a trustee – from forcing him to sell off non-policy debt-inducing assets, to accepting “retirement” to charges of corruption and a life sentence in prison….and no more access to the CCP’s official black hair dye #6.
Indeed, CCTV showing court proceeding clips where the former celebrity tycoon now has white hair is the greatest indignity that can be levied on a person in political China. The citizenry knows justice (such as it is) has been served.
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Here comes Ma Yun aka Jack Ma founder of Alibaba and Tai Chi Master. @TheStarKenya
China
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The Platform Economy
World Of Finance
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On the right Burger King... on the left the entrance to the Córdoba mosque @AlejandroLudert
Misc.
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Commodity Markets at a Glance WSJ
Commodities
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Fat-tailedness in commodities, here are they. ALL of them are fat tailed. Electricity the most. @nntaleb
Commodities
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The Viral Moment
World Of Finance
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Nasim Taleb @nntaleb said
They are born, put in a box; they go home to live in a box; they study by ticking boxes; they go to what is called “work” in a box, where they sit in their cubicle box; they drive to the grocery store in a box to buy food in a box they talk about thinking “outside the box”; and when they die they are put in a box.
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24-FEB-2020 I would venture Gold is correlated to the #Coronavirus which is set to turn parabolic and is already non linear and exponential ~ or as that great French Thinker Paul Virilio described it ~ has “escape velocity”
Commodities
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That gold move gathering momentum @EdVanDerWalt 1945.00
Commodities
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27-JUL-2020 :: Drinking the Kool-Aid Conclusions Gold $2,200+
Commodities
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Election isn't over, but $GOLD so far defended gains well, and now its sitting right below resistance of its massive bull wedge building since August at $1920 @AdamMancini4
Commodities
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Its looking primed for a breakout attempt which targets $1990. $1880 must hold though, or more correction needed first
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Crude Oil 6 Chart
Minerals, Oil & Energy
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A ball of money rolling to emerging markets w/ iShares Core MSCI EM ETF saw the biggest inflow since Dec on the prospect of a Biden presidency. (via BBG) @Schuldensuehner
Emerging Markets
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Cases in Africa have been fairly constant over the last month, but Kenya is seeing a significant increase. Some of the harder-hit countries are either leveling (South Africa), or decreasing (Ethiopia). @yaneerbaryam
Africa
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Evolution of cases in Botswana, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Eswatini, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, since 100th confirmed case.
Africa
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Algeria 642 #COVID19 cases yesterday above 405/day avg up 80% past two weeks. @jmlukens
Africa
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COVID-19 avg case per day
#Morocco: 4,130
#Tunisia: 1,722
#SouthAfrica: 1,521
#Kenya: 998
#Libya: 826
#Ethiopia: 441
#Algeria: 405
#Angola: 262
#Uganda: 195
#Botswana: 170
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Is Ethiopia Headed for Civil War? @ForeignPolicy
Law & Politics
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ADDIS ABABA—In a major escalation of a bitter feud with his rivals in the northern region of Tigray, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered military action after what he said was an attack on a federal army camp in the early hours of Nov. 4.
The announcement, which came after weeks of escalating tensions, may mark a dangerous tipping point for a country whose stability has been repeatedly tested since Abiy came to power in 2018.
The sharp deterioration did not come as surprise to close observers of Ethiopia’s once-promising transition to democracy—a shift that has largely been ushered in by Abiy, who also won a Nobel peace prize for his role in ending a 20-year cold war with neighboring Eritrea.
For months, many observers had sensed a showdown brewing between him and Tigray’s rulers, the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), who dominated the country’s ruling coalition from 1991—when they overthrew the previous military dictatorship—until 2018.
On Oct. 30, the International Crisis Group warned the standoff risked triggering a “damaging conflict that may even rip the Ethiopian state asunder.”
The roots of enmity run deep. The TPLF refused to join Abiy’s new ruling party, the Prosperity Party, when it was formed late last year; it views the new party as an attempt to dismantle the constitution.
And earlier this year the Tigrayan leaders accused him of laying the groundwork for dictatorship by postponing elections due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In September, in defiance of the federal government, the Tigray region held its own elections, prompting parliament to vote to sever all ties with the regional leadership last month.
The TPLF also claims Abiy’s government has overseen the persecution of ethnic Tigrayans, who make up about 6 percent of the population, and a selective purging of Tigrayan officials and security service leaders in government.
As a condition for dialogue, it demands Abiy step down as prime minister and allow for the establishment of a caretaker government.
The Prosperity Party, for its part, claims TPLF leaders are masterminding Ethiopia’s myriad troubles—which include political assassinations, protests, armed rebellions, and massacres of minorities—in order to derail the political transition and reclaim the power they’ve lost by force.
Both sides have been building up their military capacity—Tigray, as one of Ethiopia’s 10 semi-autonomous ethnically based regional states, has its own police and militia—and trading increasingly bellicose rhetoric.
The federal government recently halted its monthly grant to Tigray, the latest in a volley of punitive fiscal and administrative measures designed to put pressure on its leaders.
It was not immediately clear who really fired the first gunshots.
According to the federal government, the TPLF attempted to “loot” equipment from the federal military’s Northern Command, which is stationed in Tigray near the border with Eritrea and is said to comprise most of Ethiopia’s armed personnel and mechanized divisions.
The TPLF has long believed this command’s officer corps—many of whom, insiders say, are Tigrayan—will not obey Abiy’s orders.
Last month, it said it would not accept any changes to the regiment’s leadership or structure, and then it refused to allow new commanders appointed by Abiy to take up their postings.
It is plausible, as Abiy claims, that the TPLF tried to seize assets belonging to the command. But it is not certain whether this took place before or after federal troops were deployed.
A former Tigrayan general in Mekelle, the region’s capital, told me last week that taking such equipment “out of the equation” might be necessary should tensions boil over.
A politburo meeting this weekend resulted in “historic decisions” taken to bolster the region’s preparedness, said Getachew Reda, a senior TPLF official, on Twitter.
On Sunday the regional president, Debretsion Gebremichael, declared that “if war is imminent, we are prepared not just to resist but to win.”
But it is also apparent that there were significant movements of federal troops in the days preceding Nov. 4.
According to a United Nations diplomat, units had been withdrawn from several parts of southern Ethiopia, including the areas of Hararghe and Somali in the southeast, and from the Welega zone in western Oromia region.
“[The federal government] will have difficulty convincing anyone worth their salt that this wasn’t pre-planned,” the source said.
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A fiendishly complicated task fending off the centripetal forces which are tearing Ethiopia apart
Law & Politics
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02-JUL-2018 :: He said “The ppl of Tigray are still begging for a drop of water; TPLF (the party) is not the people of Tigray”.
Africa
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Ethiopia’s army said Thursday the country has been forced into an “unexpected and aimless war” with its powerful Tigray region, while Tigray asserted that fighter jets had bombed areas around its capital @AP
Africa
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Tigray region’s president, Debretsion Gebremichael, told reporters that “we are in position to defend ourselves from enemies that waged war on the Tigray region. ... We are ready to be martyrs.”
The Tigray leader asserted that the Ethiopian army’s northern command is siding with the Tigray people, and he confirmed that fighting is also taking place in an area bordering the Amhara region, far from where the original clash was reported. “They are surrounding us with their forces,” he said.
“Certainly there is fighting, but I don’t think anyone can credibly assert who attacked who first,” former U.S. diplomat Payton Knopf, a senior advisor with the United States Institute of Peace, told the AP on Wednesday night. He wondered why the well-armed Tigray region’s forces would start by raiding a command post: “They’re not lacking for weaponry.”
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Tanzania’s President @MagufuliJP has been sworn in for a second term following his victory in last week's disputed election. @BBCAfrica
Law & Politics
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The African @jairbolsonaro is of course @MagufuliJP
Africa
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Departure to Tanzania for the swearing-in ceremony of @MagufuliJP. @KagutaMuseveni
Africa
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South Africa All Share Bloomberg
Africa
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What I have learned over the years is that You must never convene a meeting with turkeys and ask them to vote for a Christmas Day!! They won’t! Why? @tito_mboweni
Africa
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Dollar versus Rand Chart INO 15.7087
Africa
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Ghana Stock Exchange Composite Index Bloomberg
Africa
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In Africa, US$6billion in weaves, extensions and wigs were sold in Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa alone last year, reports market research firm Euromonitor International, and US$1.1billion worth of shampoos, relaxers and hair lotions. @hallaboutafric
Africa
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“Unfortunately, Kenyan government voluntarily declined to use possibility of $900 million on the DSSI when economies which are in a much healthier and stronger positions than Kenya are running at that.” @UNCTAD @DrMukhisaKituyi @BD_Africa
Africa
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United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) secretary-general Mukhisa Kituyi said the G20 debt moratorium would have helped Nairobi to free up about $900 million (Sh97.98 billion) in deferred bilateral debt servicing costs.
The cash could have been rechanneled to other pressing needs related to alleviation of Covid-19 that has battered the Kenyan economy.
The G20 in April agreed to suspend payment obligations on bilateral debt owed by their least developed counterparts through the end of the year under pressure from global organisations such as the Geneva-based UNCTAD.
“We have been driving international campaigns for such facilities, not just the debt service suspension initiative (DSSI) of G20 but also mobilisation of extra liquidity through the special drawing rights at the IMF. When such instruments come on board, I look forward that my own country can also be a beneficiary, but for reasons that are still difficult to understand, it excludes itself,” Dr Kituyi said in an interview in Nairobi.
“Unfortunately, the Kenyan government voluntarily declined to use the possibility of $900 million on the DSSI when economies which are in a much healthier and stronger positions than Kenya are running at that.”
Kenya turned down the G20 initiative, saying the terms of the deal were too restrictive and it also fretted the impact that debt relief might have on Kenya’s credit rating.
Nairobi, for instance, was concerned that terms of the deal limiting countries’ access to international capital markets during the standstill could hinder Kenya’s ability to finance its deficit later in the year.
“The rejection of the DSSI has not in any way slowed down the negative impression of Kenya’s credit rating,” Dr Kituyi said, citing Standards and Poor’s (S&P) downgrade of Kenya’s debt outlook from stable to negative in July over high debt and interest burden.
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Covid-19: The virus is spreading across Kenya @NationAfrica
Africa
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Malcolm Gladwell „‟Tipping Point‟‟ moment in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass. It‟s the boiling point. It‟s the moment on the graph when the line starts to shoot straight upwards. #nCoV2019
Africa
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#Kenya DD=5/11/2020: #COVID19 accelerating. NC(T)=1494 a new high! @CovidTrajectory
Africa
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R(T)=1.09>1 (R(0)=4); r(T)=1.24%/day; TC=58587; (NC^=1494); NC(1)=1; NC(T)=1494; E(NC(T+1))=961 (50%CI: 590-1332).
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68 students, 5 teachers test positive for COVID-19 at Bahati Girls Secondary School in Nakuru; 115 other students quarantined @citizentvkenya
Africa
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NSE and property investments have condemned many insurers into unstable returns.
N.S.E Equities - Finance & Investment
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YOU CARRIED OUT A SH10.8 BILLION STRATEGIC DEAL WITH ALLIANZ SE. WHY SELL OUT A STAKE YET YOU LOOK VERY STABLE?
We have been talking with Allianz for the last four years but keeping it very quiet. So many major companies have come asking for a piece of Jubilee but we turned them down because the only thing they were offering was money.
Our balance sheet shows that the last thing we needed out of a strategic transaction was money. We found in Allianz a strategic partner that can take our general insurance to the next level. And so we accepted.
WHERE DO YOU WANT ALLIANZ TO TAKE YOUR GENERAL INSURANCE BUSINESS?
Allianz is the largest general insurer in the world and that means there is so much more than just the money. Our general insurance business has been growing gradually but that is not the pace we want. We want something that takes us up there so quickly through the state-of-the-art IT systems.
We are looking at how, as quickly as possible, we can go into new areas, including artificial intelligence and robotics.
We also want our current products to catch up with what is offered in markets such as Europe and North America. We think Allianz will give us all the support.
WHAT IS JUBILEE GIVING AWAY IN THIS DEAL?
We are only taking the best from each other and forming a new outfit called Jubilee Allianz General Insurance. Allianz Kenya will be taken over by this new company. Allianz will own eight percent of Jubilee Holdings for which they paid Sh10.8 billion. We believe we got a very good price because we are a premium company.
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.@JubileeInsKE Jubilee Insurance Company Ltd. share price data
N.S.E Equities - Finance & Investment
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Price: 268.50 Market Capitalization: $178.604m EPS: 49.07 PE: 5.472
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Jubilee Insurance Chairman: People are either stopping contributing life insurance or they want part of their funds back to survive economic difficulties. Our team is making 15,000 to 20,000 calls per month asking policyholders not to cancel covers. @BD
N.S.E Equities - Finance & Investment
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On NSE: “ We are buying practically no stocks in the stock market. We stopped buying new shares three years ago, where possible we are ditching stocks. We have taken a similar stance on property investments” @BD_Africa @moneyacademyKE
N.S.E General
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.@KenyaAirways mulls suspending London, France flights as lockdown hits travel @BD_Africa
N.S.E Equities - Commercial & Services
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10-MAY-2020 For example Tourism – I believe it is stopped out through Q4 2021
Tourism, Travel & Transport
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Kenya Shilling versus The Dollar Live ForexPros 109.00
World Currencies
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Nairobi All Share Bloomberg
N.S.E General
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Nairobi ^NSE20 Bloomberg
N.S.E General
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Every Listed Share can be interrogated here
N.S.E General
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