Saturday, January 26, 2008

Bank failures, currency mystery

Small Bank Failure is First of 2008

Regulators closed the first bank of 2008 late Friday, shutting $58 million-asset Douglass National Bank in Kansas City, Mo.

http://watchingamerica.com/frankfurterallgemeine000009.shtml
For the international police authority Interpol , the case is of the highest priority. For nearly 20 years and in great quantities, counterfeit 100-Dollar-Notes of impeccable quality have been in circulation. Interpol has been looking to find the source of the notes, but so far has been unable to identify it.

In March 2005, Interpol issued a so-called "orange notice." With an "orange notice," Interpol member countries are notified of a special threat situation. At the end of July 2006, Interpol hosted a crisis conference for central banks, police investigators and members of the high security printing industry over the Supernotes.

http://www.kba-giori.com/
ORGANISATION GIORI

Gualtiero Giori was a direct descendant from a long line of Italian security printers established in Milan in the 19th century. He pioneered multi-colour intaglio printing by developing the revolutionary 6-colour intaglio printing press in 1947. Following this success and recognising the global need for the highest quality machines to produce the most secure banknotes he formed "Organisation Giori " in 1952.

KOENIG & BAUER Koenig & Bauer was founded in 1817 and enjoys a rich and colourful history as the oldest manufacturer of printing machines in the world. Based in Würzburg, Germany the company has evolved to become a world leader in print technology and innovation.
In 1952, Organisation Giori signed a co-operation agreement with Koenig & Bauer entrusting them with the production of the security printing machines.
What started as a simple alliance between a strong industrial power and a man with an incredible vision has changed the world of banknotes and security printing forever.
Today we can see the results of this historic partnership standing as a symbol of integrity, security and excellence in every corner of the world…a living testimony to the genius behind the dream.

KBA-GIORI S.A.
Following many years of successful partnership with the De La Rue Group, our company was acquired by Koenig & Bauer in June 2001.
This logical development and new structure will simplify our business operations and consolidate our technical and market activity under one strategy.
The new company, KBA-GIORI remains focused on the core activity of serving and protecting the global security print market by offering a full range of services, systems and machines to economically produce more secure banknotes and security documents.
Today's banknotes are more complex, more secure and carry more features than ever before. We are at the forefront of this evolution with our partners and customers around the world. The threats and opportunities created by new technology will continue to grow.
KBA-GIORI is uniquely positioned to positively channel this technology to make tomorrow's banknotes even better. This will enable nations around the world to guarantee the integrity of their currency and security documents and to protect them as symbols of national pride and identity.


 

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Artificial Intelligence: Pac Man Reinforcement Learning RL

http://www.robotworldnews.com/100389.php In the latest feat of artificial intelligence (AI), researchers have taught AI agents to play Ms. Pac-Man - and sometimes do it better than humans. The study, performed by Istvan Szita and Andras Lorincz from the Department of Information Systems at Eotvos University in Hungary, showed that AI agents can successfully be taught how to strategize through reinforcement learning. The researchers hope that teaching Ms. Pac-Man will be an ideal means to explore what artificial intelligence is still missing.

http://slashdot.org/tags/ai Slashdot AI

Poker Driving Artificial Intelligence Research

Most Impressive Game AI?

Marvin Minsky On AI

Recognizing Scenes Like the Brain Does

What Would You Like to See from Game AI?

Robots Test "Embodied Intelligence"

Wikipedia Used for Artificial Intelligence

Automatic Image Tagging

Robots Learn To Lie

Next Gen Beautiful But Brainless?

Compress Wikipedia and Win AI Prize

Has Productivity Peaked?

Robots Coming to Intro Computer Science Classes

Another Step Towards the Driverless Car

Computer Program Learns Baby Talk in Any Language

Making Science Machine Readable

Babybot Learns Like You Did

Robot Dogs Evolve Their Own Language

An AI Coach for Bad Gamers?

2006 Chatterbox Challenge In Full Swing

George the Next Generation AI?

Airbus Plans to Expand Cockpit Automation

Mouse Brain Simulated Via Computer

Spam Detection Using an Artificial Immune System

Virtual Robots Fooled By Visual Illusions

Using AI to Monitor Kids Online

Challenging the Ideas Behind the Semantic Web

$25,000 question: Is this Turing machine universal

CmdrTaco becomes An Old(er) Man

DoJ Following Porn Blocker Advances?

Funny Genetic Algorithms Intro

Has the internet killed game AI?

Human and Machine Readable Handwritten Language?

Mini-Grand Challenge Organized by UK University

The real secret of Mechanical Turk

A Peek Inside DARPA's Current Projects

Intelligent Satellite Notices Volcanic Activity

Robots Could Some Day Demand Legal Rights

VW Raises the Bar for Self-Driving Vehicles

Unpiloted Passenger Jet Tests

10th Annual RoboCup

Wikipedia Used for Artificial Intelligence

Algorithmic Investors on Wallstreet

Building Brainlike Computers

First Hutter Prize Awarded

AI Cited for Unlicensed Practice of Law | Threat Level from Wired.com

First Digital Simulation of an Entire Life Form

Indian AI unmasked using second order turing test

The First Robotic Musician

When an Algorithm Takes the Wheel

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Forex Trading Channel #9


Gabcast! Forex Trading Channel #9

The End of a Powerful Week in Finance

The End of a Powerful Week in Finance Author: Jim Sinclair Posted On: Friday, January 18, 2008, 6:29:00 PM EST

 


 


Thursday the Chairman of the Federal Reserve expressed his support for a significant fiscal and monetary stimulus as a preemptive strike against a U.S. recession. The market answered by dropping over 300 points. Today  the President of the U.S. broadly outlined a non-specific plan for economic stimulation. After the Administration's plan for $150 billion of economic stimulation was made public, the DOW closed almost 60 points lower. The result of the Bernanke/Adminstration fiscal and monetary stimulus is a total Dow decline of 479 points, according to my calculations.

Nothing said by either luminary addresses the problem, including those that developed this afternoon by the downgrade of the debt of Ambac, one of the four major bond insurers, MBIA, MGIC and similar companies dealing in OTC Default Derivatives. Should S&P and Moody take similar action, which is expected,  two trillion in debt should also be downgraded. The downgrade of the debt of the guarantor must impact the debt they have guaranteed. So the two trillion is debt that may well and should be downgraded now is another domino of titanic size.

This afternoon's problems are new and their size says both Kings Are Wearing No Clothes" with respect to their presentations of Thursday and today.

The general equities market must be calmed. Should the Dow crater, another major domino falls. Let's see how the PPT (Price Protection Team) brings the Dow in Tuesday morning in pre U.S. trading and then how Tuesday closes. The DOW better be higher each day than the indices are before U.S. trading or as the last two days demonstrated, the PPT has lost its tight control of the equities markets.  Watch the pre-open indices and closing Dow very closely.

If the equity markets cannot be calmed then:

  •    Recognize this is the Formula happening like everything else much sooner and much bigger in its implications than anticipated.
  • Gold will rise to $1650 as an almost immediate effect of what will be done to attempt to fend off a total panic starting to take place in general equities, therein threatening to be followed by all credit markets of all kinds.
  • The funds and hotshot short term traders in gold shares will be killed by the upward explosion of the gold price about to occur.
  • The PPT and the Fed will step out of gold's way because gold is one of the tools used in 1930 by Roosevelt and in 2000 by Bush. It will be used again now on the upside.
  • Gold is the only insurance there is against what all this means because a panic in equities will blow the financial system, already coming apart, to smithereens.
  • All country funds would shut down on any further investments in "at the wall" financial institutions.
  • The rollover in credit and default derivatives would exceed the entire foreign debt of the USA.
  • The rest of the $450 trillion dollar mountain of derivatives would start a disintegration like nothing you have every seen in your lifetime.
  • Consumer demand would slam shut.
  • The auto industry might as well go into liquidation this coming Monday, avoiding the June 2008 rush.
  • The US dollar would burn a hole in the floor going directly to .5200 or lower.
  • As the dollar disintegrates gold would rocket to and through $1650 in days.
  • The markets for general equities would all have to institute total trading halts every 100 points on the downside for 30 minutes each.
  • All commercial call loans would be called.
  • All debtors one day late on any payment, lacking grace period, would be liquidated. All debtors over one day of the grace period would be liquidated.
  • It is clearly visible to anyone with eyes or a mind to think that the PPT has lost all semblance of control in the equity markets and will soon in all remaining markets.
  • The commercial paper credit market which is almost dead will die totally.
  • Should no emergency action take place soon, you will see an old fashioned panic of the 1929 variety.
  • Just as emotional fools sell gold and gold shares, be assured that more emotional general equity fools will unload and bring the averages down more than ever in history in one day.
  • Recognize this is the Formula happening like everything else much sooner and much bigger in its implications than anticipated.
  • Emergency action will be all splash and theatrics but truthfully the cat is out of the bag. It buys some time but corrects nothing. It makes the Formula 100% correct.
  • There now must be EMERGENCY ACTION because the Chairman of the Fed has BOMBED OUT PUBLICLY and a PANIC is about to occur. Expect EMERGENCY ACTION in days, not weeks.

If you have not protected yourself, you may only have days to do so. Protection amounts to a simple act: As much as possible eliminate financial agents between you and your assets. Own gold or equivalents equal to one half of your liquid net worth. Then you insure your entire net worth. Do not have margin debt. If you have debt you must own gold fully paid equal to that debt to insure it.

http://www.jsmineset.com/

http://www.jsmineset.com/cwsimages/Miscfiles/5704_Dan18-01-08Fin.pdf Excellent charts from Trader Dan Norcini

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Wall St. in trouble as dollar reaches all time lows

Citigroup & Merrill Lynch At Risk Of Bankruptcy?

Major Wall St. Banks LOSSES Exceed ASSETS

Merrill Lynch Under SEC Investigation

Citigroup and Merrill Lynch take drastic steps over subprime fallout

Tears on Wall Street

Examining the nature of the assets being written down suggests that we are not close to the end of Wall Street's bad news. Subprime mortgages and the asset-backed derivatives thereof form a large part of the write-offs, but even in this area we do not appear to be approaching the bottom of the cycle. If, as seems likely, my own August 2006 forecast of a 15-20% decline in house prices and a $1 trillion write-off from the $11 trillion in mortgage debt is close to accurate, Wall Street should still have several hundred billion to go, even in that area - total write-offs so far, including the new Citigroup and Merrill Lynch announcements, only just top $100 billion.

Merrill Lynch targetted in share investigation

We've run out of bubbles

Forex Trading Channel #8


Gabcast! Forex Trading Channel #8

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Revealed: a new bank rip-off

Some of Britain's biggest banks have unscrupulously exploited last month's base rate cut by failing to pass on the benefits to mortgage holders, yet at the same time imposing even bigger cuts on interest accruing to savings accounts.

http://money.independent.co.uk/personal_finance/invest_save/article3318006.ece

Customers may be able to win payouts of hundreds of millions of pounds from banks again this year.

http://money.independent.co.uk/personal_finance/loans_credit/article3318008.ece

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

New Years News

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSL3013544320071230
Bin Laden remarks make Gulf dollar peg likelier

The NSA-Crypto AG Sting

The home page of the company Web site says, "Crypto AG is the preferred top-security partner for civilian and military authorities worldwide. Security is our business and will always remain our business."


http://www.recombinomics.com/News/01010805/H5N1_Egypt_Spike.html Last season there was a spike in cases in March, but those cases were mild and there were no reported fatalities. In contrast, the current outbreak has a high frequency of reported cases couple with a high case fatality rate.