Posts tagged U.S.
Spam – Filters and Eventual Prosecution
Nov 24th
A spam kingpin was recently sentenced heavily for his actions. This is excellent. Everyone hates spam. Most people have some sort of spam filter to deal with it. I myself have dealt with is to the maximum, which I have discussed to a great extent in previous posts. Here is a good post about sendmail and how it integrates with spamassassin:
http://www.bgevolution.com/blog/ubuntu-debian-spamassassin-integrate-into-sendmail/
Ultimately you can practically eliminate spam but further introducing blackhole lists to sendmail:
http://www.bgevolution.com/blog/sendmail-blackhole-list-eliminate-most-spam/
http://www.bgevolution.com/blog/sendmail-more-domain-blacklisting-to-prevent-spam/
Some progress has been made on the other end of the spectrum.
One of the most notorious U.S.-based spammers was sentenced to more than four years in jail on Monday for a scheme that used spam to manipulate stock prices in order to make a profit.[Source]
Oil Prices and Environmental Effects
Nov 9th
Time and time again we see oil prices changed proportionally to upcoming environmental events. Current:
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Crude futures rose above $79 a barrel Monday on concerns about the threat Tropical Storm Ida poses to U.S. oil and gas production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. A weakening in the dollar also supported prices.[Source]
That’s a relatively big number considering the amount of oil reserves that are available. Also, another interesting fact is that prices are relatively high because production levels are as lost as post hurricane conditions. This is partially because of the high oil reserves and the demand of oil in the marketplace. The low production level, the upcoming hurricane, and the amount of reserves all contribute to the price of oil. Production can be increased, but where is the product stored? The current situation is that the high supply is actually causing high prices, which is completely counterintuitive to the supply and demand model as it pertains to product price.
CIT Enters Organized Bankrupsy – Chapter 11
Nov 3rd
The Chapter 11 filing is one of the biggest in U.S. corporate history, following Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, WorldCom and General Motors. CIT’s bankruptcy filing shows $71 billion in finance and leasing assets against total debt of $64.9 billion.[Source]
The topic is so startling I opened the post with a quote. One of the largest bankrupsies in history just occured, and it wasn’t a bank that lends to corporations and government. CIT is a bank that lends to small and medium sized business, contributing to the growth of the backbone of the country. Without small to medium sized business this nation would be a fascist corporatocracy.
“CIT is the 600-pound gorilla in the industry,”[Source]
The US has bailed AIG and the entire American car industry, they let Lehman Brothers fall, and now CIT. There choices of who to bailout are quite questionable. While AIG may have had more assets, the fact that CIT lent to the backbone of America, and was allowed to fail lead to a question of rationality used in determining who should be bailed out. Ultimately the US chose to bailout corporate lenders, rather that small scale lenders.