• SCAMMERS ARE GETTING MORE SAVVY AND INCREASINGLY PERSONAL, posing as banks, investment professionals, credit card agents, utility companies, website representatives, security companies, charities, and any other sources who can get your attention – all to gain your confidence and trust. With vigilance and a few tips on imposter tactics & techniques, you can recognize these fraudsters and steer clear of the traps: FOUR SIGNS TO WATCH OUT FOR: (1) Too good to be true offers or opportunities; (2) Urgent request messages or social media ads to immediately act to ‘protect’ your account or accept a special offer; (3) Unexpected messages you didn’t initiate – even from a familiar name; (4) Access or Download Software requests, or allow remote access to your device. Use common sense, especially when someone is trying to press your Panic button.
• MANY THOUSANDS OF COOLER-SIZED FOOD DELIVERY ROBOTS now roam city streets, mapping their routes and surroundings using similar cameras & sensors as self-driving cars to avoid walkers, runners and most other obstacles. Contracts with UberEats, DoorDash & Grubhub make them the most visible examples of AI taking jobs from humans on bikes & motorcycles (plus with a hundred times energy efficiency). However, an increasing number of ‘assaults’ by pedestrians “releasing rage by tipping them over, stripping, dismembering, decapitating, smearing with bar-be-que sauce and feces, even throwing off a bridge have gone viral. The disdain for robots is more evident with Americans than people in other rich countries, concerned about AI intruding on daily life and demonstrating Rage Against the Machines,” and will likely increase as robot deliveries of pharmaceuticals and shopping runs are ramping up. [ECONOMIST]
• LIQUIDITY ENGINEERING IS THE LATEST INCREASING STRATEGY OF PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS which want to return cash to expectant investors without waiting for portfolio exits. Last year, Financial Times reports that some $15 Billion of Continuation Deals “kept assets under the same sponsor, but raise questions about credit quality and fund governance.” Five-year forecasts are that perhaps three-in-ten sponsor-backed exits will be achieved through Continuation vehicles. [McKINSEY PERSPECTIVES]
• ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE ON AI: “Automation has always created more jobs than it destroys, with displaced workers stepping down to jobs with services, trades and personal creation which ultimately pay substantially more, supported by rising incomes from automation itself. AI will cause real disruption between workers switching careers – especially in software/ tech/ media & cable services – and from individual companies becoming commodities, highly impacting financial/ consumer goods/ pharmaceuticals/ hospitals/ autos & industrials. But, when the smoke clears, the money comes from automation making most stuff cheap, while the jobs come from being human.” [PETER ST.ONGE]
• THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: The Census Bureau is unhappy with new Administration procedures which will be asking where residents were born and whether household members are U.S. citizens, after deep concern about the validity of the 2020 Count which (as every ten years) provides the basis for allocation of seats in the House of Representatives. The Agency’s concerns are that less people will respond to new questions involving employment & disability status, education, internet usage and commuting practices – but, particularly citizenship status, never before queried, and will “significantly widen the gap in response rates between white and Hispanic people in households with at least one likely undocumented member,” thus undercounting U.S. population. [SCIENCE.ORG]
• “Why do people tolerate or even secretly enjoy the smell of their own flatulence, while finding the emissions of others repulsive? Studies suggest an interplay of the source, exposure, and a biological drive to avoid disease. The bulk of farts consists of odorless gases, with ‘rotten egg’ smell (objectively unpleasant to the human nose) caused mostly by hydrogen sulfide. The emotional reactions come from the fact that odors are less unpleasant when the source is themselves rather than from a stranger, and also assumption of disease avoidance from foreign germs. But even a friend or partner’s odors are rated with higher intensity of disgust.” https://www.psypost.org/the-science-behind-why-we-prefer-the-smell-of-our-own-farts/
• ‘Prediction Markets’ allow users to gamble on any geopolitical event speculation, including conflict or war – where information circulates within a broader circle before becoming public. After betters won big on the Venezuela actions, last week six accounts made another $1.2M successfully betting on U.S. striking Iran by end of the month. With markets allowing anonymous betting through use of cryptocurrencies, incentive for insider trading is huge and currently wide open, with people profiting off war and death. [FUTURISM]