logo-loader

Facebook Plunges as Pressure Mounts on Zuckerberg Over Data

Published: 09:41 20 Mar 2018 GMT

no_picture_pai

2018, the 49th year of The Chart Seminar

Eoin Treacy's view
The first venue for The Chart Seminar in 2018 will be:

Melbourne on April 16th and 17th. . 

I will also hold an online seminar, probably in May over the course of three or four days.

There will be another Seminar in London in November and I am in initial discussions with a potential partner about organising a New York Seminar.

If you would like to attend or have a suggestion for another venue please feel to reach out to Sarah at sarah@fullertreacymoney.com. 

The full rate for The Chart Seminar is £1799 + VAT. (Please note US, Australian and Asian delegates, as non EU residents are not liable for VAT). Subscribers are offered a discounted rate of £850. Anyone booking more than one place can also avail of the £850 rate for the second and subsequent delegates.


Video commentary for March 19th 2018

Eoin Treacy's view
A link to today's video is posted in the Subscriber's Area.

Some of the topics discussed include: FANG flu contributes to Nasdaq pullback. UK pulls back on Micro Focus International, Pound strength and mining weakness, gold steady, oil steady, bond yields quiet.


Facebook Plunges as Pressure Mounts on Zuckerberg Over Data
This article by Sarah Frier for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are calling on Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg to appear before lawmakers to explain how U.K.-based Cambridge Analytica, the data-analysis firm that helped Donald Trump win the U.S. presidency, was able to harvest the personal information.

Facebook has already testified about how its platform was used by Russian propagandists ahead of the 2016 election, but the company never put Zuckerberg himself in the spotlight with government leaders. The pressure may also foreshadow tougher regulation for the social network.

U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota and John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, have called on the chairman of the Judiciary Committee to bring in technology company CEOs, including from Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, for public questioning.

Eoin Treacy's view
The status quo was shaken by the election of Donald Trump and the rise of populist causes right across Europe and parts of Asia. Whether this is as a result of Russian propaganda or demographic/personality profiling is missing the point. A deep vein of discontent has been tapped by emotional rhetoric which is a symptom of political change regardless of the avenue through which it is delivered. That is contributing to polarity in political views which is likely to intensify until a new reform agenda has been implemented and it could take a decade of political disfunction to achieve it. Continues in the Subsc



Understanding China's Rise Under Xi Jinping
This speech delivered by Kevin Rudd at West Point earlier this month represents an excellent summary of the machinations of political power in China which I found very interesting. Here is a section:

However, militating against any of the above, and the “tipping points” which each could represent, is Xi Jinping’s seemingly absolute command of the security and intelligence apparatus of the Chinese Communist Party and the state. Xi Jinping loyalists have been placed in command of all sensitive positions across the security establishment. The People’s Armed Police have now been placed firmly under party control rather than under the control of the state. And then there is the new technological sophistication of the domestic security apparatus right across the country—an apparatus which now employs more people than the PLA.
We should never forget that the Chinese Communist Party is a revolutionary party which makes no bones about the fact that it obtained power through the barrel of a gun and will sustain power through the barrel of a gun if necessary. We should not have any dewy-eyed sentimentality about any of this. It’s a simple fact that this is what the Chinese system is like.

And

Many scholars failed to pay attention to the internal debates within the Party in the late 1990s, where internal consideration was indeed given to the long-term transformation of the Communist Party into a Western-style social democratic party as part of a more pluralist political system. The Chinese were mindful of what happened with the collapse of the Soviet Union. They also saw the political transformations that unfolded across Eastern and Central Europe. Study groups were commissioned. Intense discussions held. They even included certain trusted foreigners at the time. I remember participating in some of them myself. Just as I remember my Chinese colleagues telling me in 2001-2 that China had concluded this debate, there would be no systemic change, and China would continue to be a one-party state. It would certainly be a less authoritarian state than the sort of totalitarianism we had seen during the rule of Mao Zedong. But the revolutionary party would remain.

Eoin Treacy's view
China is going to stay authoritarian and is in the process of implementing an internal security apparatus that is more sophisticated than anything the world has seen before. The nexus of artificial intelligence, cameras, local monitoring, real name social media enforcement, social scorecards are all designed to ensure the long-term sustainability of single party rule.


Businesses Respond Positively to Transition Deal
This article by Ian Wishart and Tim Ross for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

“Business leaders will welcome the announcement of a provisional agreement on an implementation period and congratulate the U.K. government for heeding the call of business and making it a priority early on,” Allie Renison, head of Europe and trade policy at the Institute of Directors, says in statement. “We are, however, concerned that not enough attention is being given now to the finer details and practical implications of transition.”
But the British Chambers of Commerce was more positive. “While some companies would have liked to see copper-bottomed legal guarantees around the transition, the political agreement reached in Brussels is sufficient for most businesses to plan ahead with a greater degree of confidence,” BCC director general Adam Marshall says in a statement.
It’s also noticeable that the pound has risen significantly against the dollar.


Eoin Treacy's view
The GBP/EUR exchange rate is the clearest barometer for the market’s perception of whether the Brexit negotiations will be advantageous or not for the UK in the short term. Every time the tide of opinion turns bullish on a negotiated settlement the Pound rallies and vice versa.


Eoin's personal portfolio update February 28th 2018

Eoin Treacy's view
One of the requests subscribers have asked for most over the last few years has been to have an easy way to find what positions I have open at any given time. Therefore, I repost this section on a daily basis and the title will always include the date of my most recent trade. 


Long-term themes review March 7th 2018

Eoin Treacy's view
FullerTreacyMoney has a very varied group of people as subscribers. Some of you like to receive our views in written form, while others prefer the first-person experience of listening to the audio or watching daily videos.
The Big Picture Long-Term video, posted every Friday, is aimed squarely at anyone who does not have the time to read the daily commentary but wishes to gain some perspective on what we think the long-term outlook holds. However, I think it is also important to have a clear written record for where we lie in terms of the long-term themes we have identified, particularly as short-term market machinations influence perceptions.
Here is a brief summary of my view at present.






 

Ariana Resources updates resource and reserve; realises long-term strategy

Joining Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio is Ariana Resources PLC (AIM:AAU) managing director Kerim Sener, who sits down to discuss the latest resource and reserve update for the Zenit Mining Operations in Western Türkiye. The update encompasses the Kiziltepe and Tavsan sectors, operated...

4 hours, 59 minutes ago