Tech Review | Russia, Tech, & Elections: We Have Met The Enemy, She Is

Tech Review (TR 2017-11-04)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Elections, Tech, & Russia: We Have Met The Enemy, She Is, 2) Google Has a New Plan for China, 3) Investing: a. The Week, b. Amazon Doesn't Care About Profits, c. What You Need To Know About Alibaba $BABA d. Cryptocurrency Speculators, e. 80/20 Rule? 4) ICYMI Tech News.

1) Russia, Tech, & Elections: We Have Met The Enemy, She Is: 

Hillary Clinton’s Secret Takeover of the DNC | POLITICO.com: "When I was asked to run the Democratic Party after the Russians hacked our emails, I stumbled onto a shocking truth about the Clinton campaign ..."--by Donna Brazile, November 02, 2017.  See also:

• Twitter Admits It Buried "Podesta Email" Tweets Ahead Of The Presidential Election | ZeroHedge.com: "... A question emerges: did Jack Dorsey [CEO of Twitter], with his arbitrary decision to censor specific content damaging to Democrats, interfere with the election, and a funnier question: if Hillary lost with Twitter censoring anti-Hillary content, what would the outcome have been if Twitter actually respected the First Amendment? 
• Facebook $FB says Trump and Clinton spent $81,000,000 total, Russian agency $46,000--TechCrunch.com, and Elizabeth Warren: "Yes," Democratic Primary Was Rigged For Hillary.
• Thousands attended anti-Trump protest organized by Russian-linked group on Facebook--TheHill.com, and "A U.S. political party [DNC] applied to a hostile power [Russia] for lurid stories about a domestic opponent."--The Trump Dossier Dam Is Breaking | WSJ.com.
• DNC Chair Wasserman Schultz Shunned FBI, Hid Security Breach From DNC Officials--ZeroHedge.com.
• Mainstream Media Now Claiming That It Is 'A Crime' To Investigate Hillary Clinton's Ties To Russia--ZeroHedge.com.

2)  Google $GOOGL $GOOG Has a New Plan for China: Artificial intelligence, not search--Google actively promoting TensorFlow in China, Alphabet putting scouts on ground from Google and CapitalG units to look at Chinese companies for potential AI investments--Bloomberg.com. See also: Google Cannot Be Stopped | TheAtlantic.com: "The company's global ad business is now larger than that of Facebook, Alibaba, Baidu, Twitter, Amazon and Snap, combined."

3) Investing

a. The Week: As expected, the Federal Reserve left rates unchanged at 1.00%--1.25% and President Trump nominated Jerome Powell to be the next Chair of the Federal Reserve when Janet Yellen's term expires in February, 2018. Markets: U.S. stocks finished the week by breaking another set of records on Friday, as all three major benchmarks closed at highs due to strong Apple earnings and ISM nonmanufacturing data for October. Apple $AAPL shares soared to $900 billion in market cap after reporting earnings and iPhone X guidance.

b. Amazon $AMZN doesn't care about profits: "The aim is not to make money on any particular service; Amazon likely lost $7.2 billion on shipping last year and is selling hardware supporting its virtual assistant Alexa around or below cost. It’s adding to the value of the system itself. Entire industries are loss leaders for Amazon. For companies that must make money on what they sell, it’s a terrifying prospect."--QZ.com See also: Amazon: “Our view is that just because Amazon can disrupt somebody else’s profit stream, it doesn’t mean that Amazon earns that profit stream. For the moment, the market doesn’t agree. Perhaps, simply being disruptive is enough.”--Einhorn Vents his Frustrations about the Crazy Markets | WolfStreet.com.

c. What You Need to Know About Alibaba Group Holding Ltd $BABA: "BABA stock is pricey, trading at a jaw-dropping 17x sales. Even Amazon, which is rarely called a cheap stock, sells at just 3x its sales. Is a dollar of Alibaba revenues worth almost five times as much as a dollar of Amazon’s sales? ... The company’s [Alibaba] accounting system is complex, to say the least. And it seems that JD.com is catching up to them on their home turf, particularly in terms of delivery technology. Alibaba’s frenetic rush for growth may leave them exposed on their home turf. In any case, with the stock up more than 100% year-to-date, this probably isn’t the best time to be buying shares."--InvestorPlace.com

d. Cryptocurrency speculators are chasing profits in a world where all risks appear to have been removed by years of central bank liquidity that is trying to find a place to go.--Big Bitcoin Investor Believes Bitcoin Might Still Go to “Zero,” Just Riding the Momentum | WolfStreet.com: “My view on bitcoin is that it is a technological experiment that may or may not prove to have any long lasting value. Bitcoin has a market capitalization greater than 90% of the companies in the S&P 500, but it still might fail. I don’t know and neither does anyone else, no matter how certain they are of their opinion.”  See also Coinbase Adds A Record 100,000 Bitcoin Traders In One Day | ZeroHedge.com,

e. 80/20 Rule? 78% Of US Workers Are Living 'Paycheck-To-Paycheck' & 71% Of Them Are In Debt | ZeroHedge.com.

4) ICYMI Tech News:

• Qualcomm accuses Apple of sharing proprietary information with Intel--TheHill.com. 
• Reuters.com: App developer access to iPhone X face data spooks some privacy experts.
• Effectively Handing U.S. Government Purchasing Power Over to Amazon--theintercept.com.
• The Nokia 2 is a very cheap Android phone with a huge battery: "99 Euros for a smartphone that promises two days of use"--engadget.com.
• Honor the Flag & Cut the Cord? ESPN Lost lost 480,000 paying subscribers last month and Fox Sports One lost 584,000 households--ZeroHedge.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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