The Big Money makes an argument that Karl Marx had uncanny predictions of bank failure in his day, but also lessons for today:
When money is coming in, banks are blind to their problems. An inquiry into the 1857 crisis found that the Bank of England had extended far too much credit to too many speculators-sound familiar? Had the bank been more prudent in 1855 and 1856, it probably would not have had to resort to the desperate measures that accelerated the crisis. But trying to get banks to honestly analyze their situation before a crisis hits … well, that has not gotten much easier in the ensuing 150 years.
I like it when history comes into the news and tries to give lessons AFTER a crisis. The better part of the article is where Marx predicts the bank failure before it happened.
Police in Hamburg have issued a warning to the perpetrators of the hazelnut heist not to consume any of the ill-gained goods, as the sacks containing the nuts were full of poisonous phosphate gas, Reuters news agency has reported.
The deadly gas is used to extend the shelf life of the nuts, which have to first be treated before they’re safe to munch on.
Deadly gas to extend shelf life? Sounds like a great trade-off.
The Register tells us that the great software giant is aiming to give a prediction of threat along with their vulnerability notifications:
The 11 bulletins due to arrive later on Tuesday (14 October) will contain “weather predictions” detailing factors such as whether exploit code is likely to appear, alongside the established rating system on the severity of vulnerabilities. Microsoft hopes its Exploitability Index will help organisations to prioritise patching.
Very considerate of them. Sadly The Register fails to include any clever and funny analysis in the story. The first thing that comes to mind is whether Microsoft will also begin offering a threat prediction for operating systems. Perhaps something like “You are x times more likely to be in trouble if you run this version of our software…” It could turn into a whole new marketing program: “Where do you want to go, other than Windows 98, which we admit was a disaster and about as safe as running on ice with shoes made from butter?”
Today’s Microsoft Weather: Still raining viruses with a chance of thunder spam.
