Technology

Shortly after the close today, Apple will report its much watched earnings which will be closely watched for several reasons. The biggest one is that since Q1 2014 AAPL has contributed 25% of the S&P’s 4.2% growth rate (excluding the EPS benefit of the company's massive buyback program). Furthermore, roughly 40% of the nearly 9% jump in Tech margins since 2009 is attributable to Apple alone.

However, that was all in the past: this quarter Apple is actually forecast to subtract 0.7% from the S&P's bottom line.

Swift, the vital global financial network that western financial services companies, institutions and banks use for all payments and transfer billions of dollars every day, warned its customers yesterday evening that it was aware of cyber fraud and a number of recent "cyber incidents” where attackers had sent fraudulent messages over its system and $81 million was apparently stolen from a central bank.

SWIFT (Wikipedia)

Submitted by Andrew Zeitlin of Moneyball Economics

Semiconductors Tell the Real Story of Global GDP

The industrial slowdown predicted by semiconductors is coming true.

Growing numbers of people from around the world have begun reporting numerous health problems associated with an increased amount of wireless radiation from devices, including smart meters.  According to the EMF Safety Network, the digitized electric meters are causing mysterious health issues amongst huge numbers of people, and have recommended reducing exposure to them as much as possible. The EMF website states, “Utilities claim smart meters are safe, and compare them to cell phones. However, cell phones, cell towers, wi-fi and other wireless devices can also affect your health.

Remember when "someone" used the Stuxnet virus in an Iranian nuclear plant several years ago to freeze Iranian nuclear production, leading to a major diplomatic scandal involving the spy agencies of both the US and Israel, as the world learned that in the present day industrial sabotage only needed a flash drive and a computer virus to render even the most sophisticated piece of industrial machinery obsolete? Well, a few minutes ago, Bloomberg reported that a computer virus was discovered in a German nuclear power plant.