It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, January 23, 2022
Mexico Energy Minister Says Dos Bocas Being Built in Record Time
Amy Stillman, Bloomberg News
The Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) Dos Bocas Refinery under construction in Paraiso, Tabasco state, Mexico, on Friday, Sept. 4, 2021. Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he'll present a constitutional reform this month that would give preference to the state-owned power utility over private companies. Mexico is to finish building Dos Bocas refinery in July 2022. , Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) -- Mexico’s Energy Minister Rocio Nahle took to Twitter on Saturday, responding to media reports that the flagship Dos Bocas refinery project was over budget and won’t be finished on time.
On Friday, Bloomberg published an investigation that revealed the mega-refinery project is expected to cost 40% more than previously estimated and is unlikely to be completed by the government’s 2022 deadline, casting serious doubts on whether the country can soon fulfill its goal to produce all of its own gasoline.
Without specifying the costs of the project, Nahle said “Dos Bocas is being built in record time. Opinions around the world are very positive.”
She said reports to the contrary are “speculative, alarmist and tendentious.”
The facility, located in the southeastern state of Tabasco, is crucial to Pemex’s plans to halt crude oil exports in 2023 as part of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s nationalist goal of self-sufficiency in fuel consumption.
Wall Street: Bitcoin price falls sharply, value cut in half since November
Tory Newmyer and Rachel Siegel Jan 24 2022
A dramatic sell-off in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has outpaced a marked retreat in the US stock market, as the US Federal Reserve's pivot from emergency support spooks investors who piled into highflying but risky assets during the pandemic.
The price of bitcoin has fallen from its November highs of nearly US$70,000 to now around US$35,000.
On Sunday (NZ time), bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market value, had fallen around 9 per cent in just 24 hours.
Since the start of the year, it has fallen around 23 per cent. Meanwhile, Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, fared even worse, dropping around 15 per cent over 24 hours and roughly 35 per cent since the new year.
More than three years after the sudden death of Quadriga CEO Gerald Cotten and the revelations that the company was a massive cryptocurrency scam, his widow, Jennifer Robertson, tells her side of the story.
The sell-off accelerated a two-month slide in the global cryptocurrency market that has vaporized US$1.4 trillion in value: After reaching a high of roughly US$3 trillion in early November, the total value of digital assets sat just above US$1.6 trillion early Saturday afternoon, according to CoinMarketCap.
Vocal supporters of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies suggest they have the potential to transform finance and are pushing for crypto to edge further into mainstream use as a store of value or a payment alternative. But many people are buying, and, increasingly selling, crypto as a speculative bet in hopes of turning a quick profit.
The latest crash is demonstrating the perils of the approach, just as millions of Americans have joined the digital gold rush in recent months.
Backers of bitcoin in particular argue its value lies in its limited supply, the network behind it will only mint 21 million of the tokens, suggesting it should serve as safe place to park money during times of high inflation. But prices are rising across the economy at their fastest clip in 40 years, putting the thesis under strain. To combat this, the Fed is preparing to raise interest rates, leading many investors to pull back.
The stock market sell-off has been pronounced and attracted the most attention in recent days. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 3.9 per cent for the week, while the broad-based S&P 500 shed 5.1 per cent since Wednesday.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index fell 6.2 per cent this week. But instead of investors pulling money out of the stock market and piling it into bitcoin, the pullback from crypto has been even faster.
"You'd think with the inflation we're seeing, you'd see the opposite," said Bob Fitzsimmons, the executive vice president for fixed income, commodities and stock lending at Wedbush Securities. "That's been one of the selling points for bitcoin, so its correlation to stock prices has surprised me."
Matt Maley, chief market strategist for Miller Tabak + Co, said bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies got swept up in a frenzy of investor optimism as the Fed deployed its vast emergency intervention to prop up a pandemic-ravaged economy in 2020.
"It's human nature to think, 'I'm making money, therefore I'm really smart and this thing will keep going up,'" he said. "They were right, but not as right as they thought they were."
He said he still believes bitcoin will prove itself as a sort of next-generation gold, but it will take time for investors to gain confidence in its safety.
The wild, at times precipitous, swings in the assets' values have increasingly caught Washington's attention, intensifying questions over how the emerging technology should be regulated. The attention from regulators and lawmakers has spurred the industry to assemble an army of lobbyists fighting to fend off tougher scrutiny, even as it's unclear what regulation would even begin to look like. with Stuff
The most recent price plunge comes as the Federal Reserve is taking its own steps weighing whether to launch a US digital currency, akin to electronic cash that would be backed by the central bank.
On Friday, the Fed released a long-awaited report exploring its options. For months, crypto experts, economists and lawmakers alike have been eager for any insight into the Fed's closely held thinking.
The report reached no conclusive answers, instead wading into the pros and cons of any decisions. That's in keeping with the Fed's slow movement on issues around digital currencies, even as other central banks experiment with their own versions.
The Fed has made clear that, rather than race to beat its competitors, it will be patient and deliberate, and Fed officials routinely caution that any action would ultimately depend on approval from lawmakers in Congress.
The crypto crash came as the stock market saw its worst week since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Just about every sector of the stock market sold off, with technology companies like Apple and Netflix taking massive blows.
The drop offered a sobering reckoning for investors after the markets closed out 2021 in joyful fashion, despite the fact that so many other parts of the economy remain compromised by the ongoing pandemic, soaring inflation and instability in the job market.
Even so, popular interest in cryptocurrency has exploded in recent years. Nearly 30,000 bitcoin ATMs have popped up around the US in the last few years, and even major sports stadiums are now being renamed for cryptocurrency exchanges.
Just last week, New York City's new mayor, Eric Adams, announced that he would convert his first paycheck into two cryptocurrencies. Adams's office said the paycheck will be deposited with Coinbase, an online platform used for buying cryptocurrency, and then converted into Ethereum and bitcoin.
But even crypto's most enthusiastic supporters are up against the day-to-day reality that the digital systems only go so far. Users would be hard-pressed to rely on bitcoin to pay for a meal a restaurant, a movie ticket or a quick run to the convenience store.
Link between internet speed and political activism revealed
A new study has found that peoples’ political activism seems to inversely correlate to how fast their internet connections are
Researchers from Cardiff University and Sapienza University of Rome have concluded that the faster someone’s internet speed is, the less likely they are to be involved in their communities through volunteering, politics, or other forms of civic engagement.
“We observed that civic participation and the form of engagement in the activities of voluntary organisations and political participation declined with proximity to the network,” said Fabio Sabatini, a co-author of the study, which was published in Journal of Public Economics.
Participation in political parties, for instance, fell by 19% every 1.8 kilometers closer the person lived to a local telecommunications exchange center, giving them faster internet access. Volunteering in social care fell 10% among people enjoying faster internet.
Researchers used information from communications regulator Ofcom on exchange centers and various internet speeds and cross-referenced that data with answers given in the British Household Panel Survey and the UK Household Longitudinal Study on peoples’ civic engagement.
There was an overall 6% reduction in such social participation from 2010 to 2017 for every 1.8 kilometers a person was to their local exchange.
Political party involvement took the biggest hit, but most areas saw a significant effect. Involvement in trade unions only dipped by 3.6% though, while volunteering with organizations offering social or environmental services has dipped 7.8%, according to the survey.
Sabatini theorizes in the study that Britain’s lack of public engagement could be directly tied to the rise of populism in its politics.
“The rise of populism has been linked to a decline in interest in public affairs and we thought that, being less politically and socially active, people may be less capable of interpreting political phenomena and understanding the complexity of the management of public affairs,” the researcher claimed.
What the study found was not significantly affected by the speed of one’s internet access is personal engagement with family and friends, which the study concluded “seems resilient to technological change.”
KULTUREKAMPF FOR THE RIGHT
Mars gives M&M’s a makeover to promote inclusivity
AP – Candy maker Mars is giving a makeover to its six M&M’s characters as a way to promote inclusivity.
The company said that it will provide a modern take on the appearances of the characters – which Mars calls “lentils” – and give them more nuanced personalities. The lentils, which are featured in red, green, orange, yellow, brown and blue, will also come in different shapes and sizes.
Some of the changes to the M&M characters include making two of them less stereotypically feminine. In the new version, the green M&M ditches the high-heeled boots in favour of sneakers and the brown candy no longer wears stilettos, opting instead for lower heels.
“Our ambition is to upend the expected, break through barriers, and discover the little joys shared in everyday life. Imagine a world with less judgement and more connection and consistent laughter,” the company said on its website.
Mars, whose brands also include Twix and Snickers, said that it will also put added emphasis on the ampersand in the M&M’s logo to demonstrate how the brand aims to bring people together.
TUCKER HAS A BOOT FETISH FOR SEXY M&M
The move toward inclusivity and embracing individual differences comes at a time when consumers are growing increasingly aware of how products are marketed to them. Mars is aware of this, having had to change the name of its Uncle Ben’s rice brand in 2020 due to criticism. Quaker Oats’ Aunt Jemima brand pancake mix and syrup – part of PepsiCo – rebranded last year because it said that Aunt Jemima was based on a racial stereotype.
But some marketers believe that Mars may be overthinking the marketing of its M&Ms.
LGBTQ M&M'S
Co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce Allen Adamson said the move to overhaul the character of the M&Ms is a “good idea” but it’s just an example of how worried marketers are to offend consumers. And he believes this step is on the “verge of potential overthink”.
Marketing consultant Laura Ries agreed, though she praised Mars’ emphasis of the ampersand as a symbol of unity.
“They’re looking for some attention and trying to jump on the bandwagon of trying to be more inclusive,” Ries said. “I don’t think there was an overall outcry of the overall sexualisation of the M&M. It’s just an M&M.”