В ближайшие дни компания и банк готовятся подписать договор, говорят источники.

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There is arguably one main reason a law would be put into place to stifle so-called "fake news" and that is so the real purveyors of fake news, like CNN, can continue to push theirs according to critics of what is happening right now in France.

The people at the top of the pyramid who are actually running the entire show appear to have it all figured out: in a world where down is up and up is down fake news appears almost everywhere but the real fact of the matter is that most of it comes from mainstream sources, like CNN. So I have to ask: Will the new laws be used to crackdown on sources like CNN that publish garbage or will the powers-that-be let agencies like CNN roll with whatever smut they like while other smaller outlets get targeted over "fake news"? Will the powers-that-be use the law as a weapon to remove controversial reports?

French AFP reports:

France is the latest country attempting to fight the scourge of fake news with legislation — but opponents say the law won’t work and could even be used to silence critics.

The draft law, designed to stop what the government calls “manipulation of information” in the run-up to elections, will be debated in parliament Thursday with a view to it being put into action during next year’s European parliamentary polls.

The idea for the bill came straight from President Emmanuel Macron, who was himself targeted during his 2017 campaign by online rumors that he was gay and had a secret bank account in the Bahamas.

Under the law, French authorities would be able to immediately halt the publication of information deemed to be false ahead of elections.

Absent some dramatic last minute reversal, it looks like French information will soon be fully controlled. The question is how long until this Orwellian trend is adopted in America as the "establishment" tightens its restraints on the general populace.

Since the financial crisis, home equity has gone from being America’s biggest driver of (illusory) wealth to one of the biggest sources of economic inequality.

And while the post-crisis recovery has returned the national home price index to its highs from early 2007, most of this rise was generated by a handful of urban markets like New York City and San Francisco, leaving most Americans behind.

To wit: home prices in the 10 most expensive metro areas have risen 63% since 2000, while home prices in the 10 cheapest areas have gained just 3.6%, according to Harvard’s annual State of the Nation’s Housing report. And while nominal prices may have returned to their pre-recession levels, when you adjust for inflation, real prices are as much as 16 percent below past peaks.

Despite seven years of rock-bottom interest rates, valuations in 3 out of 5 metropolitan areas remain below their pre-recession peak. Outside, of a few rich coastal cities, the only advantage that this “housing recovery” has brought is that some homes remain affordable for some Americans. However, thanks to the disproportionate rise in home valuations in certain densely populated areas, the number of Americans paying more than 50% of their income in rent is near a record high.

US house prices rose 5.6 percent in 2016, finally surpassing the high reached nearly a decade earlier. Achieving this milestone reduced the number of homeowners underwater on their mortgages to 3.2 million by year’s end, a remarkable drop from the 12.1 million peak in 2011.But as Bloomberg reports, nationally, just 1 in 3 homes has recovered peak value. Meanwhile, in the country’s most densely-populated markets, housing supplies are incredibly tight following nearly a decade of historically low construction.

The lack of inventory for sale is evident in both the new and existing segments of the market. In 2016, the typical new home for sale was on the market for 3.3 months, well below the 5.1 months averaged since recordkeeping began in 1988. Meanwhile, only 1.65 million existing homes were for sale in 2016, the lowest count in 16 years. And with sales volumes picking up, the inventory represented just 3.6 months of supply, an 11-year low.

Conditions are particularly tight at the lower end of the market, likely reflecting both the slower price recovery in this segment and the fact that fewer entry-level homes are being built. Between 2004 and 2015, completions of smaller single-family homes (under 1,800 square feet) fell from nearly 500,000 units to only 136,000. Similarly, the number of townhouses started in 2016 (98,000) was less than half the number started in 2005.

Renters, it seems, are bearing the brunt of the US housing stock crunch. Despite a relatively strong pickup in multi-family housing, rental markets are tighter than they’ve been in more than 30 years, though there has been some softening on the high end.

According to the Housing Vacancy Survey, the rental vacancy rate fell for the seventh straight year in 2016, dipping to 6.9 percent—its lowest level in more than three decades. MPF Research reports that the vacancy rate for professionally managed apartments was also just 4.4 percent. While some rental markets showed signs of softening in early 2017—most notably in San Francisco and New York—there is generally little indication that increases in supply are outstripping demand.

Meanwhile, the number of Americans exceeding the 30%-of-income “affordability threshold” has declined for five straight years, but while homeowners have enjoyed greater financial freedom, rates for renters have barely budged.

Indeed, 11.1 million renter households were severely cost burdened in 2015, a 3.7 million increase from 2001. By comparison, 7.6 million owners were severely burdened in 2015, up 1.1 million from 2001. The share of renters with severe burdens varies widely across the nation’s 100 largest metros, ranging from a high of 35.4 percent in Miami to a low of 18.4 percent in El Paso. While most common in high-cost markets, renter cost burdens are also widespread in areas with moderate rents but relatively low incomes. Augusta is a case in point, where the severely cost-burdened share of renters was at 30.3 percent in 2015.

In summary, the US housing market's gains since the crisis have disproportionately benefited certain cities, which creates two problems:

Renters in markets that have seen the strongest comebacks are being squeezed as wages fail to keep up with runaway rents; and,

 

Cities in the south and midwest, typically post-industrial towns, are filled with homeowners who might still be struggling with an underwater mortgage, and with only tepid gains in housing prices, many are trapped in their homes.

Come at me.

Read More »

This graphic was created by information designer Anna Vital, read her full article here.

Copyright Funders and Founders.

Step by Step: How Elon Musk Built His Empire (by Anna Vital)

“The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique.” – Peter Thiel in “Zero to One”

In the book Zero to One, prominent entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shares his vision on what it takes to create an extraordinary company.

Specifically, Thiel believes that instead of making incremental upgrades to an existing product or service, a company must aim to do something completely new to avoid ruthless competition. While Thiel has worked with many impressive people over the years, Thiel points to Elon Musk as a particularly successful member of the Paypal Mafia that has gone “zero to one” many times.

The Résumé

At only the age of 44, just “some” of Musk’s successes include building the world’s first global online payments company (Paypal) and landing re-usable rockets on ocean platforms (SpaceX). He also co-founded SolarCity, which just closed a $338 million round for providing commercial solar and energy storage, and his electric car company Tesla now has 325,000 pre-orders for the Tesla Model 3, which is good for $14 billion in future revenues.

Meanwhile, in his spare time, Musk draws up plans for revolutionary transport systems, such as the Hyperloop and VTOL supersonic jet aircraft known as the Musk electric jet.

That’s going from zero to one at least a few separate times, with many years in his career left to come. How does Elon do it?

The Life of Elon Musk

In the infographic and article from Funders and Founders, Vital highlights key circumstances, decisions, and results in Elon Musk’s life. Here are some of the key inflection points that helped him to build his massive empire.

• Elon was born in South Africa to an engineer father and model mother on June 28, 1971.
• Elon read 10 hours a day as a kid, and even read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica.
• At age 12, Elon sold his first video game that he coded for $500.
• After being inspired by Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Elon decided that his new life mission would be to save humanity.
• Leaves Stanford PhD program after two days to help found Zip2, which he started with a $28,000 loan from his father.
• He later received proceeds of $22 million from the sale of Zip2 to Compaq, which he used to start X.com.
• X.com merges with another online bank (Confinity) to form Paypal.
• Elon gets ousted as CEO from Paypal while on his honeymoon, yet still invests more money in the company regardless.
• He discovers that space rockets are artificially overpriced, and starts SpaceX to build his own rockets.
• Elon gets $250 million from the sale of Paypal to Ebay.
• Meets Tesla founders Marc Tarpenning and Martin Eberhard, and introduces them to JB Straubel. Elon invests in Tesla.
• After having three SpaceX rockets explode while approaching bankruptcy with Tesla, Elon takes action. He takes over as CEO of Tesla and raises an emergency fifth round of financing. Meanwhile, his fourth rocket launch with SpaceX succeeds and a $1.6B contract with NASA is signed.
• Tesla goes public at $17 per share (it trades for ~$250/share today)
• Elon announces reusable rockets that could make space flight 100x cheaper, and promises to also send humans to Mars by 2021-2031.
• Elon publishes the Hyperloop design, starts building the Gigafactory, unveils the Powerwall, and eventually lands a rocket on an ocean platform.

What’s next?

Launching the Falcon Heavy rocket, starting Gigafactory production, selling the Model 3 electric car, and potentially landing on Mars are just some of the things on his future laundry list.

What Musk can actually accomplish in the future is anybody’s guess. We certainly won’t be betting against him.

Original graphic by: Funders and Founders

The post Step by Step: How Elon Musk Built His Empire (by Anna Vital) appeared first on Visual Capitalist.

Взято из опроса International Republican Institute. В опросе Крым включался в состав Южного макрорегиона, что сильно мешает адекватной оценке настроений в последнем (хотя кардинально результаты опроса не изменятся – Крым даёт всего 20% населения Юга).

Комментарии, по-моему, излишни. Главная проблема экономики Украины носит не экономический, а политический характер.

This Month in Photo of the Day: The Stories Behind Your Shots

When Yanai Bonneh saw a pair of cheetahs jump onto the top of a tourist vehicle, the Your Shot contributor "didn't think too much, only realized it was an unusual moment, pulled out my camera, and started clicking." For Bonneh, it was "the opportunity of a lifetime" during a visit to Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve. "Later in the evening, I stopped on this photo, and what came out was only a big 'wow.'"

Check out the bold new look and feel of Your Shot, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

Get tips on capturing the moment »
Watch a video of the world's fastest animal »

Из-за «замороженных» счетов «Агротона» в кипрском банке держатели его евробондов не дождались выплаты на $3 млн. Капитализация компании на Варшавской бирже упала на треть

За второго по величине в стране производителя кондитерских изделий он намерен выручить $1 млрд