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Thursday, October 31, 2013
Future of state-backed UK lender RBS set to be cleared up
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[video] Forex Strategy Video: Will the EURUSD and Euro Crosses Tumble Continue? (Forex News by DailyFX)
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The Simple Solution for People Locked out of Obamacare
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Container Store Prices Offering at $18
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Psychology XV
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Porn Troll Lawyers Hit With Legal Fees For Bullying Defendant
Back in 2012, John Steele of Prenda Law — a firm that specializes in threatening to sue alleged porn file-sharers in order to force a settlement — was publicly bragging about his success, referring to himself in an interview as “the original copyright troll.” Recently, things haven’t gone so well, due in no small part to a disastrous attempt to sue Comcast and AT&T for phony claims of “hacking” one of their client’s websites.
For years, Prenda had been filing lawsuits on behalf of porn companies, naming thousand of “John Doe” defendants to be named later, then using subpoenas to get Internet providers to match customer names with IP addresses of alleged file-sharers. When AT&T and Comcast wouldn’t hand over the names of 6,600 such Doe defendants, the Prenda client amended the complaint in Aug. 2012 to include AT&T, Comcast, and someone named Alex Smith, alleging they were aiding and abetting hackers who had breached the client’s computers.
The claim was questionable from the start, appearing to be nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to compel AT&T and Comcast to hand over the sought-after customer information during the discovery period.
In a way, this tactic was much like the thousands of legal letters Prenda and other porn copyright trolls have sent out to accused file-sharers, never intending to sue anyone but knowing that the threat of a lawsuit — especially one that outed the defendant as an alleged porn-downloader — was enough to make people fork over millions to make it go away.
But a few moderately clever copyright trolls stood no chance against the legal titans at AT&T and Comcast, and the plaintiff, Lightspeed Media, dropped the lawsuit in March.
While the two ISPs are probably not worried about their legal expenditures for making that case go away, Smith, the sole private citizen named in the case, wasn’t terribly thrilled with having to pay for lawyers in a case that should never have been filed, by lawyers that have made a practice of doing so.
So last spring he filed a motion with the court seeking the payment of excess legal fees by Steele and two of his cohorts.
In that motion [PDF], Smith says that when the process server handed him the summons in Aug. 2012, the process server also gave him a card bearing Steele’s info and told Smith that Steele was an important attorney from D.C. who had no interest in the case but could make it go away.
But it wasn’t true that Steele had no interest in the case as he appeared on that very day in court of behalf of the plaintiff.
The motion for legal fees alleges not only that Smith’s inclusion in the suit was baseless, fraudulent, and frivolous, but that the lawyers’ behavior met the “objectively unreasonable and vexatious” standard for meriting they pay the defendant’s excess legal fees.
“Steele, Hansmeier and Duffy have orchestrated a nationwide campaign through Prenda Law and other related entities that several courts have found extends beyond vexatious litigation into fraud on the court,” reads the defendant’s motion, which cites examples of Prenda using “straw defendants” who agree to have their names included on a lawsuit “as a springboard to subpoena the names of alleged co-conspirators,” and other cases where the firm is alleged to use “sham plaintiffs so it could skip the middleman, settling claims without any need to split the proceeds with a client.”
This week, the judge finally responded to that motion and sided with Smith, who will now have to provide itemized legal fees in order to determine what the lawyers must pay. Ars Technica estimates that it will be around $70,000, which isn’t a ton of money for a firm that has made millions off of merely threatening legal action, but may set a precedent that will discourage it from continuing its questionable practices.
“The litigation smacked of bullying pretense,” wrote the judge in his order [PDF].
The hope is that these are the final days of porn troll lawyers like Prenda — which was recently accused of using its own computers to upload clients’ porn files on file-sharing sites so it could then easily track those who downloaded the videos.
We believe in respecting copyright and don’t condone illegal sharing of copyrighted material, but strongarming consumers — any number of whom are innocent — into settling allegations out of fear is an unacceptable abuse of the legal system.
Prenda Law’s “hacking” suit against ISPs ends in total loss [ArsTechnica]
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
Psychology XIII
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Eugene Fama Proves Economic Incompetence Prerequisite for Nobel Prize (SchiffReport)
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Buying A Home Near A Cemetery Will Cost You More Because Everyone Likes Quiet Neighbors
While we know it might be a waste of time and money to buy a famous haunted house, how about a home that just so happens to be situated near an area traditional linked to haunting? Snapping up a quiet property near a cemetery actually costs more per square foot than purchasing a home near rowdier neighbors than folks gone by.
Notwithstanding any kind of scenario where the dead might walk among the living — in which case a cemetery would become quite a grumbling, mumbling and shuffling nuisance — Redfin (via Quartz) crunched the numbers and found that houses within 50 feet of a cemetery sell for 13% more per square foot than those not so conveniently situated.
The average price per square foot for a view of graves was $162, compared to $142 to $150 for the same measurement more than 100 yards away.
It’s not just about having no fear of ghosts — graveyards and cemeteries are often located in some of the oldest parts of a town. That “the older the better” quality can be desirable, depending on the city.
“The gravestones are a part of history. They’re pockmarked and windblown and eroded,” says a Redfin agent in Philadelphia, noting that some of her clients love living near the historic Old Pine Church Cemetery.
If the house comes with a coupon for Scooby Doo and the gang to come by and solve any spooky mysteries, I could probably be convinced. Also? Today is Halloween, did you guys know that? Just checking.
Homes near cemeteries sell for 13% more than ones near the living [Quartz]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
How A $36 Parking Ticket Cost A Driver More Than $800
You get a parking ticket and pay it a little late, so the fine goes up $33. That happens. You send off a money order and assume that must be the end of the transaction. Isn’t it? Not for one man whose ordeal with a parking ticket in San Jose, California began in December 2006 and didn’t end until this week.
What started with one little parking ticket snowballed into the man having his tax refund and paycheck garnished.
The city of San Jose sent their account of the transactions to CBS Sacramento. It’s a little confusing, but still doesn’t explain how they could lose both payments.
Citation Issued on 12/07/06 on vehicle windshield
Courtesy Notification mailed 12/26/06 – $36 ($66 if paid after 1/09/07)
Final Notification mailed 1/18/07 – $66 ($69 if paid after 02/01/07)
$66 payment received on or before 6/25/08 – short $3
Notification mailed for $3 payment on 6/25/08
Received an additional $69 plus $3 money order on or before 7/25/08
Turbo mailed back the $3 money order on 7/25/08
Turbo mailed a $66 refund check on 8/28/08
Call Kurtis: How A $36 Parking Ticket Cost A Driver More Than $800 [CBS Sacramento]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
Safe Deposit Key Refund Zombifies Bank Of America Account
It’s the end of the day, so let’s all gather around the soft glow of our monitors and tell spooky stories. I’ll start. Not that long ago, an ordinary consumer had a terrifying experience. He laid his Bank of America account to rest last August, never imagining that it would rise from the dead to eat his
Ken had an account with Nations Bank, which Bank of America gobbled up during the ’90s. This account let him have a free safety deposit box, even though he had only a certificate of deposit. Then he decided to let the account go, since CD interest rates weren’t all that great. A few months later, the zombie uprising followed.
Ken writes for his site, DepositAccounts.com:
After about two months, I was surprised to receive in the mail a statement for that checking account. It was converted to the MyAccess Checking, and I had a $1 balance. That $1 was a credit from the safe deposit box key refund. One would think that the bank would have sent me a check in the mail instead of reopening the account. I didn’t immediately go to the branch to re-close the account, but when I received the next statement with a negative $11 balance, I knew I couldn’t wait any longer. I was hit with a $12 monthly service fee.
I went back to the same branch and after a lengthy wait, I was finally able to meet with another banker. When I first closed the account, I did receive an account closing summary which provided proof that I did infact close the account. I presented this account closing summary with the statement showing the safe deposit box refund credit. Fortunately, the banker agreed to provide a $12 credit to reimburse me for the fee. The banker also closed the account again and withdrew the $1 refund credit. The checking account should now be closed for good, but I’ll be following up this time to ensure it stays closed.
That’s right. Hold on to your account closing summaries, then bury that account in a lead coffin and a solid vault.
Zombie Accounts – Trying to Close a Bank of America Checking Account
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
Wall Street Falls as Fed Uncertainty Weighs
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AIG Quarterly Profit Beats Estimates
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Internet Displeased With Hallmark For Switching Carol’s Lyrics From “Gay” To “Fun” On Ornament
In 1794, when “Deck the Halls” was written, if someone said they were having a “gay” time, it meant one thing: Happy. But just because the meaning of that word has changed in the intervening years, many Hallmark customers are not at all pleased that the greeting card company dropped the original “don we now our gay apparel” lyric in favor of “fun” for a new ugly holiday sweater Christmas ornament.
Facebook commentators took up arms against the company’s switch on Hallmark’s page, writing that Hallmark shouldn’t have changed the lyrics in the spirit of being politically correct — and besides, “gay” isn’t a dirty word, said others.
A sample of the outrage:
Don our fun apparel? That’ll be one product I’ll leave sitting on your shelf this year.
Shame on you Hallmark, better start figuring out what you’re going to do with all of those GAY sweaters when they don’t sell.
What’s the matter with Hallmark, changing the Christmas carol to “Don we now our FUN apparel”? Are you worried gays would flock in the thousands to buy your sweater so you’d run out of stock by, oh, November 2? You’re so silly.
“It’s OK to be GAY!! Fix your dumb ornament!”
Shame on you for the new Christmas ornament where you alter the words to ‘Deck the Halls”. It is not politically correct to do so, it is lunacy. Do we ban the word gay from the English language because today it has an additional meaning? Grow up people.
But Hallmark has defended itself by saying it just didn’t want anyone to be confused by which definition of the word “gay” it meant. Or something.
“Hallmark created this year’s Holiday Sweater ornament in the spirit of fun. When the lyrics to ‘Deck the Halls’ were translated from Gaelic and published in English back in the 1800s, the word ‘gay’ meant festive or merry,” Hallmark writes in its history lesson/statement.
“Today it has multiple meanings, which we thought could leave our intent open to misinterpretation. The trend of wearing festively decorated Christmas sweaters to parties is all about fun, and this ornament is intended to play into that, so the planning team decided to say what we meant: ‘fun.’ That’s the spirit we intended and the spirit in which we hope ornament buyers will take it.”
Perhaps it might have been wiser to just assume that most people know that gay also used to mean merry, and choose a different way to market an ugly sweater ornament. Instead of a meeting where someone apparently chimed in: “Ooh! This Christmas carol has the word ‘apparel’ in it and we’re selling a sweater! Perfect!”
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
Trick or Treat: Facebook and LinkedIn Are Sweet as Candy…This One Is Not
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News Flash: Adults Stealing Candy From Kids’ Halloween Hauls
Stop feeling guilty for that raid-and-binge operation you’ll inevitably embark upon tonight when your child is fast asleep: 81% of adults admit they steal treats from their hardworking children on Halloween. But it’s still not okay for parents to steal their kids’ costumes from last year and squeeze into them for the office’s All Hallows Eve party. [NPR]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
Egypt maintains rates, downside risks to limit inflation
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), which cut rates in August and September, said the downside risk to global recovery stem from the challenges facing the euro area and softening growth in emerging markets and it would "not hesitate to adjust the key CBE rates to ensure price stability over the medium term."
The central bank raised its rates by 50 basis points in March, but then cut by a combined 100 points in the previous two months, resulting in a net reduction this year of 50 points.
Egypt's headline inflation rate rose to 10.15 percent in September from 9.74 percent in August, but some of the rise was due to the Haj season and the beginning of the school year.
Inflation is projected to continue to be affected by seasonal events, such as the Eid festivities and the school year, but "upside risks to the inflation outlook continue to moderate as the possibility of a rebound in international food prices is unlikely in light of recent global developments," CBE said.
Egypt's economy, hit by political unrest since the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, expanded by an annual rate of 1.5 percent in the second quarter, down from 2.2 percent in the first quarter.
The CBE said investment levels remain low given the heightened uncertainty since early 2011 and the weak credit growth to the private sector.
www.CentralBankNews.info
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Central Bank News Link List - Oct 31, 2013: Six major central banks make currency swap accords permanent
- Six major central banks make currency swap accords permanent (Reuters)
- Albania c.bank holds rates and vows to maintain stimulus (Reuters)
- Bank of Canada chief: policy shift had small C$ impact (Reuters)
- Indonesia finance chief Basri cuts 2013 growth forecast (WSJ)
- Somalia central bank governor resigns (Suna Times)
- Sins of past, present and future haunt banks (Reuters)
- Brazil's c.bank says keeps fiscal policy view despite budget gap (Reuters)
- Venezuela central bank to introduce non-resident exchange rate (Bloomberg)
- Economists: Hungary has scope for two more 20bp cuts (BBJ)
- Melbourne Cup day rate change unlikely (AAP)
- Ghana MPC to begin quarterly meeting Nov. 11 (GhanaWeb)
- Ampon resigns as Thai MPC member (The Nation)
- Latvia central bank head to join ECB after re-election (Bloomberg)
- www.CentralBankNews.inf o
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by InformedTrades via InformedTrades
Google, Oracle Workers Enlisted for Obamacare 'Tech Surge'
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Time Warner Cable Loses 300,000 Customers Because Of Idiotic CBS Blackout
While we didn’t pick sides in the moronic month-long fight between Time Warner Cable and CBS (because they both hate you and are just using you for your money), it always seemed like TWC was fighting the more pointless battle, as it needs the network more than the network needs it and it will be the one that ultimately has to anger customers by increasing their monthly bills. The utter pointlessness of the blackout was made even more evident today when TWC blamed the loss of hundreds of thousands of subscribers on the prolonged spat.
TWC had already admitted that the blackout, which took CBS off the air for 3 million subscribers in major markets like New York City, L.A., and Dallas, and took away Showtime for all TWC subscribers nationwide (right in the middle of Dexter’s inexplicable descent into a Monthy Python skit!), had resulted in losses to its subscriber base, both from customers who fled who cut the cord or fled to satellite competitors and from people who would have signed up for service but were turned off by the standoff.
But the latest quarterly earnings put an actual number of the recent loss of subscribers — 306,000 cable customers, 24,000 Internet subscribers, and 128,000 voice customers. The 306,000 number is double what industry analysts had expected, reports Reuters, and the company had been expected to show a net gain in Internet customers, as opposed to the net loss announced today.
“Not surprisingly we saw come customer relationship disconnect,” Time Warner Cable Chief Operating Officer Rob Marcus admitted in a conference call about the latest earnings report.
The drop in customers and the imminent exit of TWC CEO Glenn “Two Ns, Two Ts” Britt have led to renewed speculation that the country’s second-largest cable provider could be the target of an acquisition attempt by Liberty Media and its billionaire Chairman John Malone. Liberty already owns a 27% stake in Charter Communications and 1% of TWC.
“This enhances Malone’s appeal to Time Warner Cable shareholders that they would be better off with another management team,” one analyst tells the L.A. Times, while another analyst says this bad news makes TWC less alluring as a merger partner.
The motivation for TWC to stick with the blackout long after it became clear that CBS wasn’t going to budge is still unclear. Some argue that Britt was trying to shine a spotlight on the FCC’s ridiculously outdated 1992 retransmission consent rules, but most consumers don’t care about the minutiae of FCC regulations when they just want to relax and watch TV. That is not a fight any cable company will win in the forum of public opinion, especially when the company waging that battle is one of the country’s most-reviled.
And the time to pick that fight is not when the most significant thing you’re blacking out is a ho-hum season of Big Brother and Big Bang Theory reruns. If you’re going to try to convince the TV-watching audience to pay attention to the retrans fee problem, you’ll have to do it when they are unable to watch shows they really want to watch.
Hopefully this huge loss in subscribers will convince other cable operators that forcing blackouts on customers is only going to backfire and result in fewer customers, which can then force the cable company to jack up subscription fees, resulting in further defections.
Stop placing customers in the crossfire and negotiate your retransmission and carriage fee deals in private like grownups.
Time Warner Cable loses subscribers, says open to deals [Reuters]
Time Warner Cable loses 306,000 subscribers, cites fight with CBS [L.A. Times]
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
[video] Scalping with Michael Boutros on DailyFX Plus 10/31/2013 (Forex News by DailyFX)
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Pimco's Gross Urges 'Privileged 1 Percent' to Pay More Tax
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McDonald’s Has Pumpkin Pie. Don’t Eat It.
As you may have noticed, the American food industry has an ongoing plan to put pumpkin or artificial pumpkin-like substances in every food item possible between August and November. However, just because you like pumpkin, that doesn’t mean you should try all of them. Here’s a new cautionary tale: McDonald’s now offers a pumpkin pie, but you shouldn’t eat it.
“If you’re getting one of these looking for a semi-competent pumpkin pie experience,” writes Charles Lam of the Orange County Register, “you’re going to be disappointed.” Yes, it’s just McDonald’s pie crust wrapped around some pumpkin-like mush. Lam, who actually likes McDonald’s apple pies, doesn’t think that the whole dessert holds up. The filling is a blandly sweet mush, and the whole thing tastes faintly of cinnamon. It’s like the disastrous pumpkin spice M&Ms. Only you don’t expect something with most of the components of an actual pie (flour, shortening, some actual pumpkin) to just taste vaguely sweet and cinnamony.
In one way, this pie is superior to the drink that began this mania, Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte. It contains some actual pumpkin. Not all that much, since in the list of ingredients it falls after vegetable shortening but before high fructose corn syrup.
We Eat It So You Don’t Have To: McDonald’s Pumpkin Pie [Orange County Register]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
Cap-and-Trade Beat Acid Rain, It Can Beat Global Warming: Sandor
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Good Samaritan Buys Woman A New Bike After She Posts An Angry Letter To Thief
Perhaps it was the thought of all that hard work wasted, or maybe the threat of violence against whoever stole it, but a Chicago woman’s rant to the person who stole her bike resulted in a happy ending. A kindly fellow and his daughter took the 19-year-old out to buy a brand new bike to ease the pain of her stolen property.
CBS Chicago posted a photo of the letter a woman stuck on a light pole near the bike rack where her bike was boosted, located right outside the art supply store where she works. In the letter she railed against the loss of her single mode of transportation and eloquently lamented the effect its loss could have on her life, after she worked so hard to buy the $700 set of wheels.
To the letter!:
“To the piece of s*** that stole my bike from this bike rack. Do you know how hard I worked to buy that bike? Actually, you stole it WHILE I was at work,” she wrote. “I’m 19 and I payed (sic) for it completely out of my own pocket. I work 40 hours a week. I go to school part-time. And that bike was my only form of transportation, you [something redacted that must be naughty.]. I don’t even have a phone with a camera on it! So, I don’t care who you are or where your’e from but you just stole something from a person who dedicates her time to maker her life better rather than going around stealing s**t. So f*** you. And if I ever figure out who you are all 100 lab of me is going to kick your stupid ass.”
That rageful missive reached the eyes of a random passerby who happened to see it. He reached out to the woman, prompted perhaps by his own memories of having a beloved bike stolen from him.
“They were both super amazing people that sort of restored my hope in society,” the bereft bike owner said of the man and his daughter, who footed the bill for a new set of wheels.
She adds that she wasn’t looking for a free ride or to shame the thief — the letter was all about venting.
“I didn’t write the letter to get sympathy or anything, or for even someone to see the note and feel bad. That’s not why I wrote it. I just wrote it because I was really upset,” she said. “I felt like it was the only thing that I could really do, you know, just to get my anger out.”
As for her benevolent bike benefactor, however, she couldn’t be happier at how things turned out.
“I’m super-excited and stoked,” she said. “It’s pretty awesome. I’m just really happy, and excited. It’s been like an awesome, weird story.”
Angry Note To Thief Prompts Good Samaritan To Buy Woman A New Bike [CBS Chicago]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
Emerging Market Currencies at the Mercy of Fed?s Taper (MahiFX)
Many emerging market countries have over-dosed on easy money from the central banks of developed countries. Some have ended up becoming addicted to those capital flows as current account deficits have swelled along with the misallocation of assets.
The timing of the Fed’s taper is therefore vitally important to the health of many emerging market currencies such as ZAR, BRL and the TRY to name a few. If it was just down to US economic activity the timing of the Fed taper would be easier to call.
But politics considerably muddies the picture. The political theatrics in Washington, which will be back for an encore sometime in February 2014, are likely to complicate the Fed’s tapering as it did this month. These political showdowns tend to sap economic confidence.
USD/ZAR vulnerable to big sell-off
The Yellen factor
But that’s not all. On January 31, Janet Yellen takes over as Fed Chairwoman. And the Fed taper is likely to fall on her watch. The markets are assuming she will be dovish on monetary policy going by her speeches and actions and chances are she will.
However, the Fed has developed a bad habit of mis-communicating with the market. A new governor of the Fed substantially increases the chances of misinterpretation by the markets, which may create volatility.
She could for instance stress a desire to start the taper as soon as possible with the usual economic caveats but even that could be enough to unnerve emerging market currencies.
QE must end
After all there are growing concerns in the central banking community and elsewhere that years of quantitative easing is creating new potentially dangerous asset bubbles whilst only having a marginal beneficial impact on the real economy. It will almost certainly come down to Yellen and her team to figure out how to rein in QE it simply can’t carry on forever and the longer it does, the harder it will be to exit.
Another factor are reforms to financial markets in China. The authorities there are attempting to put pricing power for interest rates more in the hands of the market, which may lead to more expensive credit another factor that could hurt emerging market currencies.
Ironically the political shenanigans in Washington are buying time for emerging market countries to quickly get their economies in order. And they need to. Because once the Fed taper starts many of them could face a financial crisis as capital is sucked out leaving their currencies and asset markets to crash.
By Justin Pugsley, Markets Analyst MahiFX
www.mahifx.com
Disclaimer: This material is considered a public relations communication for general information purposes and does not contain, and should not be construed as containing, investment advice or an investment recommendation, or an offer of or solicitation for any transactions in financial instruments. MahiFX makes no representation and assumes no liability as to the accuracy or completeness of the information provided.
Originally Published on FX Times
by InformedTrades via InformedTrades
Take a trade right now!!
There is a clear break of support and now a retrace to that level... So: take the opportunity NOW !!!
I posted a quick chart of this on my blog, and you're very welcome to comment or ask either here or on the blog. Though this one should be quite clear :)
by supertramp via InformedTrades
Hot Food Lovers Rejoice! Sriracha Factory Avoids Shutdown For Now
Days after a lawsuit by a California city put the future of the much-loved but hard-to-pronounce Sriracha chili sauce in jeopardy, the judge in the case has denied the plaintiff’s request to shut the plant down until it deals with odor issues.
As we mentioned the other day, the city of Irwindale, CA, had sued Huy Fong, the makers of Sriracha, after residents complained about unpleasant odors and burning eyes and noses believed to be the result of factory exhaust.
The lawsuit requested a temporary restraining order that would have shut the plant down with still about two weeks to go before it finished processing peppers for next year’s orders of Sriracha.
But the Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled this morning that the last-minute request is asking too much too late.
“You’re asking for a very radical order on a 24-hour notice,” he explained. “You probably should have come in earlier.”
But the Huy Fong issue is far from resolved, as the judge set a hearing for Nov. 22 about a temporary shutdown.
The company claims that outside inspectors could not detect odor any farther than 20 feet from the factory, and that Huy Fong has twice placed filters on that exhaust system.
Sriracha factory can stay open for now, judge rules [L.A. Times]
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
Carry This Price Code Cheat Sheet To Hunt Down Sales Everywhere
We’ve previously shared with you Costco’s price tag code, but they’re not the only store that encodes not-so-secret sale information in the last two digits of an item’s price. Other stores do it too, including Target, Home Depot, Gap/Old Navy, and Sears. Want to crack the code and know when things are on their very lowest markdown? Here are the secrets.
The deals site Rather Be Shopping recently rounded up some of these price codes, which can be useful when you wonder whether you should really nab sale items before they’re gone. They even produced a handy wallet-sized PDF with the codes they know of.
Here are a few useful ones:
Target
- Price ending in .99: Full price.
- Price ending in .98: First markdown. Will be marked down again if the item doesn’t move.
- Price ending in .04: The final markdown.
Home Depot
Office Depot
This chain has an interesting, if rather indecisive, system.
- Price ending in .00, .50, or .99: Full price.
- Price ending in anything else: Markdown. Final markdown code, if there is one, not known.
PREVIOUSLY:
Retailer’s Big Secret: Crack the Price Tag Code [Rather Be Shopping] (Thanks, Laurie!)
Price Secrets PDF [Rather Be Shopping]
Learn The Costco Price Tag Code To Save More Cash
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
Facebook Exposes Twitter’s Teen Trouble
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McDonald’s Will Sell Bags Of Its Coffee Soon (And Then If It’s Too Hot, It’s Your Fault)
While you still can’t buy McDonald’s french fries to cook up at home or a make-your-own Big Mac kit, fans of McDonald’s coffee will be able to bring home a bag of the stuff starting next year. And that way if you brew it too hot, well, that’s probably not going to bring on a lawsuit.
McDonald’s is spreading the news to media outlets far and wide, which includes the Associated Press, that it’s going to test selling a bunch of its packaged ground and whole-bean coffee varieties starting next year.
The bags will be sold at supermarkets and other retail outlets in 2014, which may or may not include actual McDonald’s restaurants. It’ll also test single-cup servings, likely something that would fit a Keurig or other solo serving brewers/
The company didn’t say exactly when or where the coffee will start showing up for how much, but last year it debuted 12-ounce bags of McCafe coffee in Canada which sell for around $7.
Keep yours eyes peeled in 2014, folks, and drop us a line if you start seeing Mickey D’s coffee popping up at stores.
McDonald’s Bagged Coffee Hitting Supermarket Aisles In 2014 [Associated Press]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
Fiji holds rate steady, revises up growth forecasts
The Reserve Bank of Fiji forecast growth of 3.6 percent this year, up from August's forecast of 3.2 percent, and 2014 growth of 3.0 percent, up from an earlier 2.5 percent forecast. Fiji's economy expanded by 2.2 percent in 2012 and the International Monetary Fund forecasts 3.0 percent this year.
Despite this upward revisions, Reserve Bank Governor Barry Whiteside said the economy still needed support in light of the IMF's downward revision of its global growth forecasts and the bank's policy stance was maintained "given the comfortable outlook for the Reserve Bank's twin objectives (low inflation and comfortable foreign reserves)."
Fiji's inflation rate rose to 3.1 percent in September from 2.5 percent the previous month, but the central bank still projects year-end inflation of 3.0 percent due "subdued global demand conditions and contained food and energy prices."
Fiji's trade deficit widened due to higher imports and a slow recovery in exports, but the Reserve Bank said higher tourism earnings, remittances and inward investments supported the balance of payments' position with foreign reserves "comfortable" at $1.783 billion, sufficient for 4.9 months of imports, slightly down from around $1.834 billion at the end of August.
www.CentralBankNews.info
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by InformedTrades via InformedTrades
Kiss Your Pension Goodbye! (Dennis Miller)
I was on the reunion committee for my 50-year high school class reunion a few years back. As we tried to track down classmates, we discovered that manyincluding a few I had known quite wellhad died from lung cancer. These folks would light up a cigarette, joke about cancer sticks, cough, and make fun of their addiction. They ignored their symptoms and the constant warnings from their families and doctors, and they suffered the ugly consequences.
Former US Comptroller General David Walker appeared on 60 Minutes back in July 2007. His message? Our country is suffering from a fiscal cancer far more dangerous than any external threat. The federal government is broke. It has promised entitlement benefitshealth care in particularthat it cannot afford. While few economists disagreed with Walker's projections, politicians were unwilling to actually address the problem. From their standpoint, it's always better to push the problem off to a later date in the vain hope (or delusion) that it will simply disappear.
Walker eventually gave up trying to educate politicians and took his message straight to the people. The Wall Street Journal referred to him as "Chicken Little," and no one in Washington wanted to hear his doom-and-gloom message. After all, the economy was fine (remember, this was 2007). They either could not or would not see the problem. Walker was ignored.
Since then, the fiscal cancer Walker warned of has continued to grow. In July 2007, our national debt was $8.9 trillion. Six years later, it has nearly doubled to $16.7 trillion. The cancer has metastasized.
A Different Fiscal Cancer Hits Closer to Home
While the fiscal cancer Walker warned of continues to grow, pensioners are about to battle another type of cancerone that is eating away at the money they thought would sustain them through retirement.
As I recently mentioned in Miller's Money Weekly , the Employee Benefit Research Institute reports that 97% of private-sector employees do not have a pension plan. They have to save for retirement through a 401(k), IRA, or some other elective savings program. Government employees often stop reading right there. I've heard comments like, "I retired from the government. I have a guaranteed pension, so there's no need for me to worry." If you really think that's true, I suggest you take another look.
Back up and consider why 97% of private-sector employees don't have a pension. Older private businesses realized that they could not meet their pension commitments and found various means to renege on their promises. I have several friends who retired from a large airline, each with a sizable pension. Of course, then the airline filed for bankruptcy, and the benefits of higher wage-earners were cut in half.
Newer private companies never offered pensions in the first place. Sure, they administer 401(k)s and have various matching programs, but funding retirement in the private sector is now the job of employees, not employers. The demise of private pensions is foreshadowing that of government pensions; reality just caught up with the private sector faster, as it usually does.
Motor City Blues
Detroit is bankrupt and plans to cut its pensions. A recent New York Times article was full of sad stories about retired folks caring for invalid spouses who would have to return to work leaving their spouses without care if their pensions were cut. Policemen and firemen are saying they risked their lives, held up their end of the bargain, and now it is up to the government to keep its promises. These folks have legitimate gripes, but that won't keep their pension checks rolling in.
Will the state of Michigan bail out Detroit? Upon reading the Michigan Public School Employees' Retirement System fiscal-year 2012 annual report, the author of the Pension Facts blog reported that Michigan has unfunded pension liabilities of $48.3 billion. In short, the state government has its own problems.
The scramble is on to grab the last few pennies left in Michigan. Bondholderswho have a higher ranking on the bankruptcy totem polewill have to battle public unions fighting to preserve their pensions. The press will label them "rich" and "greedy" despite the fact that many are also pensioners. As we saw with General Motors, the government will find a way to usurp the law. All sides will take a financial hit and scream about broken laws and broken promises.
Were people lied to? Absolutely! Were promises broken? Absolutely! But it makes little difference now, as pensioners and creditors are left fighting over the scraps.
So who is next? Bloomberg reports: "Mounting pension liabilities have cost Chicago another cut in its credit standing." Moody's reduced the city's debt rating by three steps to A3. Why? Because of Chicago's $36 billion retirement-fund deficit and "unrelenting public safety demands" on the budget.
Can the state of Illinois save Chicago? Nope. After the state legislature failed to address its $100 billion in unfunded liabilities in May, according to the article, "Fitch dropped the state to A-, its fourth-lowest investment grade. Moody's cut it to A3, the equivalent rank. Standard & Poor's put the state at the same level."
Moody's is also reviewing 15 other cities, including Cincinnati; Portland, Oregon; and Minneapolis. On a similar note, is any city in California on sound financial footing?
Government employees who currently receive or expect to receive a pension will ultimately suffer greater losses than folks in the private sector. Most government workers have counted on their pension being there and have not built up their own nest eggs. They will get the short end of the stick as their pensions are drastically reduced. The stories of human agony will be tragic.
Court of Broken Promises
Most of us on the reunion committee were smokers at one time some, heavy smokers. Yet we all finally looked at the facts and weaned ourselves off our cancer-causing addiction. Unfortunately, politicians will never do the same with their spending addiction. We've heard countless speeches about unsustainable spending, and yet no matter who is in office, these fiscal cancers continue to grow.
Our governments are broke: cities, states, and the federal government. Detroit's plight is just the first of many ugly endings. Government pensions are not safe, and no one relying on them will be immune to the fallout. At that point, complaining will be futile. When cupboards are bare and there is no money left, it's too late to prepare for the problem.
Just like the private sector, government pension promises will be broken. Sure, politicians might feel badly about their broken promises, but that won't keep former firemen, teachers, or other retired government workers with roofs over their heads and food in their bellies.
Bankruptcy court is the "court of broken promises." In theory, it's an orderly way to fight over the scraps of a carcass. But at the end of the day, scraps are all that's left. It's sad to say, but many pensioners will find themselves in that fight, with few other resources to fall back on.
How to Come Out Ahead
While others fight over the scraps, pensionersactually, everyone approaching retirementcan take concrete steps to protect themselves. So where should we start?
- Accept the fact we cannot rely on anyone else to help us. Fretting over the injustice of it all is wasted energy.
- Get out of debt.
- Take an inventory of our assets.
- Learn how to safely build a nest egg in turbulent times.
- Position assets to minimize potential government confiscation.
- Diversify assets for additional protection.
- Seek out investment bargains. While others are fighting with the government over scraps, we should be looking for opportunities.
Fiscal cancer is not a communicable disease unless we allow it to be. While we may not be able to protect others from destruction, we can certainly protect ourselves. As Doug Casey has said many times, we are all going to get hurt; we just want to keep our share to a minimum.
The total of the US government's unfunded liabilities currently stands at $86.8 trillion, or 550% of GDP. Will this be the death of retirement in America, and what can you do to escape poverty in your old age? It's time to take charge of your retirementwithout waiting for the Fed to do it for you.
Learn to read between the lines of the constant speechifying coming from Bernanke and, soon, Janet Yellen. Or, you can let us show you how to take charge of your retirement.. My team and I make it our mission to share the best investing advice for retirees or soon-to-be-retirees, no matter what happens to pensions and Social Security in the future.
Click here to read more about how to take charge today, and discover the best financial strategies and investments to get the retirement you deserve.
View the Casey Research Guide to Crisis Investing on InformedTrades
by InformedTrades via InformedTrades
Obamacare’s Unintended Losers
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Facebook Shares Whipsaw as Traders Decipher Earnings
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Bill Erbey Made $2.3B Off Your Underwater Mortgage
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Costco Sends Us Bale Of Cardboard, Includes Free Furniture Pieces
Amy was familiar with the work of the Stupid Shipping Gang, but didn’t expect to see them in her own office. No, not in the shipping department: at Costco, the vendor that sent them some soundproof panels for the office.
The panels themselves were adequately packaged, but the feet they sit on… oh, dear.
She writes:
My office ordered some divider panels from Costco for our sales team to help reduce the noise a little bit when they’re on the phone. The feet that hold the panels up arrived today, and the packaging is ridiculous. All four feet could have fit in one box with room to spare, but they were packaged individually. Such a waste!
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
FAA OKs Air Passengers Using Gadgets on Planes
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Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Facebook smashes analyst targets but executive comments spook Street
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Batista's OGX files for bankruptcy protection in Brazil
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JP Morgan puts London FX chief on leave, Citi reported to do same
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U.S. attorney wants DOJ to take civil action against Bank of America: filing
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McDonald's and Kraft to test grocery coffee sales in 2014
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US Airways, American drawing up proposed settlement: report
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New Zealand holds rate and still sees rate rises in 2014
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), which has held its rate steady since March 2011, also repeated last month's statement, saying "the extent and timing of the rise in the policy rate will depend largely on the degree to which momentum in the housing market and construction sector spills over into broader demand and inflation pressures."
New Zealand's inflation rate - up to 1.4 percent in September from 0.7 percent in August - is expected to rise toward the bank's 2.0 percent target midpoint as domestic demand picks up.
The New Zealand dollar, known as the kiwi, remains high and a headwind to the country's exports, the bank said, adding that "sustained strength in the exchange rate that leads to lower inflationary pressure would provide the Bank with greater flexibility as to the timing and magnitude of future increases in the OCR."
Another factor weighing on demand is fiscal consolidation.
The New Zealand dollar rose steadily against the U.S. dollar since early 2009 but dropped in early May and hit US$ 0.77 on Sept. 1 after a high of US$ 0.86 in mid-April But since then it has bounced back, trading at $0.82 today, unchanged on the year.
New Zealand's economy expanded by an annual 2.5 percent in the second quarter, down from 2.7 percent in the first, and the RBNZ said the economy was estimated to have grown by more than 3 percent in the year to September and household spending was rising and reconstruction is strong, which will support the economy and at some point ease the housing shortage.
"In the meantime high house price inflation persists, especially in Auckland," the bank said, referring to its oft-repeated concern that high house price inflation could compromise financial or price stability. It added, however, that recent restrictions on loan-to-value mortgages were expected to help slow down the rise in prices.
Economists expect the RBNZ to raise rates in March 2014.
www.CentralBankNews.info
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by InformedTrades via InformedTrades
Facebook Wants To Track Where You Move Your Cursor While You Ignore Your Friends’ Posts
Because there is nothing that can’t be tracked, quantified, and turned into rad-looking chart/diagram/map, Facebook is now testing its ability to track where users move their cursors while browsing the site, presumably so it can visualize how frequently you click “hide” on all those game invites that never stop.
According to the Wall Street Journal’s CIO Journal blog, Facebook’s head of analytics believes there is value in knowing where users’ cursors go and in which parts of the screen they hover at any given moment.
And since a growing number of people are checking Facebook on mobile devices, the company is learning how track similar behavior in that cursor-free environment.
Facebook wants to know things, like “did your cursor hover over that ad… and was the newsfeed in a viewable area,” explains Mr. Analytics, who used to work at Zynga, the company responsible for many of those obnoxious game requests you ignore.
The website is currently testing this cursor tracking, not to see if it’s possible, but to see if it yields any useful data.
“We probably will know in a couple of months,” says Analyticus Prime, admitting that there is such a thing useless information. “Instead of a warehouse of data, you can end up with a junkyard of data.”
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
Facebook Tops Analyst Revenue Targets as Mobile Ads Surge
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Starbucks' Profit Climbs 34% in 4Q
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Why Do People Spend Unpaid Hours Reviewing Everything On Amazon?
Our lab-coated colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports work hard to test and evaluate every consumer product from toilet paper to Tesla sports cars, and they get paid for their efforts. But there’s an army of product reviewers out there who volunteer their time and their only reward is peer recognition, “helpful” votes, and free stuff. They are the elite Amazon reviewers.
NPR’s Planet Money profiled Michael Erb, an upstate New York wedding DJ who has a lot of free time on weekdays to review things. He reviews them thoroughly, and site users find his work very useful. His 900 reviews have made him currently the #1 reviewer on Amazon. It also entitles him to be part of Amazon’s Vine program.
Amazon Vine is a program that identifies the site’s top reviewers and sends them new stuff to review. Vine members report receiving everything from e-book downloads to appliances worth thousands of dollars. They’re not supposed to sell these items, and have to give them back to Amazon if asked. (Amazon rarely, if ever, asks.)
The NPR team seems uncomfortable with the Vine concept, wondering whether receiving items for free might color reviewers’ opinions, even if they insist that they have no conscious bias at all. (Consumer Reports, which buys all items that it reviews in retail stores, would agree.) Amazon claims that the company’s own analysis shows that Vine reviews tend to have fewer stars than those belonging to people who purchased the item.
In a way, this makes sense: if you’ve received ten Bluetooth speakers, you can compare their features in a way that isn’t really possible when you’ve only experienced one type of speaker. Even if some of those speakers were free, you can still compare, contrast, and identify the crappy ones.
Episode 492: M. Erb’s Amazon Empire [NPR]
Top Reviewers On Amazon Get Tons Of Free Stuff [NPR]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
Wall Street Ends Down After Steady Fed Sees Less Growth Ahead
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Faking Seizures To Get Out Of Paying The Tab Makes Man Unpopular At Local Restaurants
First of all: I am not a medical professional and cannot say whether or not a Baltimore man is actually faking seizures. But local restaurants are irked at the fellow, saying he’s been pretending to have seizures and going limp so he doesn’t have to pay for his meals.
Police seem to agree with the eateries and arrested the man earlier this week after one restaurant’s owners said he refused to pay a $50 bill. The night before, he allegedly went limp (literally and figuratively) when it came time to pay a $90 tab at a swanky restaurant, reports The Baltimore Sun.
This is something he does on the regular, it appears: “The paramedics showed up and said, ‘Looks like our guy’s back,’” said a chef at one of the restaurants. “He would not wake up, and they were like, ‘Come on [guy], stop faking.’”
He’s had 90 arrests on his personal record in recent years, and police say this isn’t the first time he’s pulled this ploy.
“[The suspect's] seizure occurred when he was confronted about his unpaid bill as he exited the restaurant,” another officer wrote of a January incident, adding that he is “well known to local restaurants and members of the Baltimore Police Department.”
He was sentenced to a year in jail for that $160 tab, but was out by July, and reportedly continued his dining and dashing (or passing out, really) ways.
“He was just watching the football game, eating food, and when it came time to pay, he didn’t have any money,” said the manager of a restaurant where another incident occurred on Sunday night that didn’t end with medical personnel showing up. “It’s a horrible thing for someone to be doing, but for him it’s a pretty good situation — get a free meal, get locked up, get a free meal. Just a running circle.”
Man who fakes seizures to get out of dinner tab is at it again, police say [Baltimore Sun]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
Russell's Brand of Marxism no Better than the Original (SchiffReport)
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Autopsy Shows Toddler Died From Consuming A Battery
A Las Vegas toddler died a few weeks ago, and the reason for his death wasn’t immediately clear. His illness began when he started coughing blood, and doctors couldn’t figure out what was making the child ill. The culprit wasn’t identifiable in an X-ray: a small coin-shaped battery.
We think of small batteries as watch or hearing aid batteries, but they’re found in a variety of small electronic devices now. Some of these inevitably find their way into kids’ mouths, because that’s what kids do.
They’re dangerous, though. Really, really dangerous. The single batteries react with saliva, burning the esophagus with an electrical charge. Burns bad enough to require surgical repair can happen in just a few hours after ingesting a battery.
The family of the toddler in Las Vegas didn’t find out what killed him until after an autopsy was performed. The child died of internal bleeding with lacerations in his esophagus, gastric irritation, and a collapsed lung.
His family doesn’t know where the battery came from or how or when he ingested it. Authorities have ruled his death an accident, but local Family Services is involved in the case.
What’s the solution? Obviously, supervision is important. Don’t leave a small child playing with a remote control unattended. Some experts recommend taping the battery compartments of appliances with the tiny coin-shaped batteries.
Las Vegas toddler dies from swallowing small battery [Review-Journal]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
Court To Hear Arguments In Case That Could Allow Companies To Litigate In Secret
Companies don’t ever want the public to know they’re involved in lawsuits. This is one of the many reasons that a growing number of businesses now force consumers to agree to mandatory arbitration for resolving disputes; it keeps the fight out of the public eye and often doesn’t allow for multiple consumers to join their complaints. Tomorrow, a federal appeals court will hear arguments regarding a case that ultimately could give companies the ability to litigate cases under a veil of secrecy.
We first told you about this situation a year ago. It involves a challenge to the Congressionally mandated SaferProducts.gov database maintained by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The database not only gathers product-related incident reports from various public sources around the country, but also gives consumers the ability to file safety concerns. Much like the long-running auto-related database operated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, manufacturers are then given the chance to respond and dispute the claims if they believe them to be untrue.
At some point in the last few years (it’s impossible to know since all the particulars about this case have been redacted), some company took issue with a report (and possibly multiple reports; again, it’s all redacted) filed on the database, claiming the statements posted to were “materially inaccurate.”
After some discussions with the CPSC about this issue, the agency redacted some of what had been posted to the database. That wasn’t enough to satisfy “Company Doe,” which then filed suit against the CPSC and its chair, Inez Tenenbaum.
But, at the request of this mysterious plaintiff, everything about the lawsuit is hidden from public view. That means no one knows the company’s name (or even what type of product it makes), the nature of the initial complaint(s), or the company’s issue with the complaints.
In 2012, Consumers Union, Public Citizen, and the Consumer Federation of America, filed a request to have the details of this case unsealed, believing that businesses should not be able to litigate safety-related complaints behind a shield of anonymity. A U.S. District Court judge shot down that request in a 73-page ruling [PDF] that is so blacked-out that it looks more like the world’s longest barcode than it does a legal document.
The advocacy groups subsequently appealed this ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, VA, arguing that the lawsuit “proceeded from filing to judgment with a secret plaintiff, secret arguments, and secret facts,” and the district court “The seal imposed in this case is incompatible with our law and national tradition of public access to court proceedings.”
That was last December. Tomorrow, the appeals panel will finally hear arguments from the advocates as to why it’s vital that this case be unsealed and that the public should be able to know all the relevant facts.
The results of this case, which may get all the way to the Supreme Court, could have a huge impact on public safety, as a ruling for “Company Doe” would allow any manufacturer, distributor, or even retailer of a consumer good to file a lawsuit about consumer complaints without ever having to go on the public record as having sued and permanently erasing the initial complaint that led to the suit.
“If companies can challenge reports in the database in secret, Congress’s goal of informing the public will be undermined by years’ worth of secret litigation during which the public will be oblivious to potential hazards,” writes Public Citizen in a statement about tomorrow’s hearing.
In the larger picture, this case is a test of the First Amendment right of access to court proceedings. People and businesses are defamed, slandered, and libeled all the time, and they frequently sue to have their names cleared. But they have not been able to file suits under fictitious names while also having all relevant facts hidden from public record. Even attempts to have something as minor as a whiny Yelp review removed before a trial or settlement has been held as a violation of the rule against prior restraints.
“If a corporate reputational interest justifies secret litigation or the use of a pseudonym, one can a imagine a lot of companies stepping forward to seek secrecy,” explains Public Citizen. “Companies sued for fraud, pollution, discrimination, and (of course) making dangerous products could all claim they ought to be allowed to litigate in secret under this view.”
by Chris Morran via Consumerist