American Banker (June 22)
“Companies and government agencies have been added in recent days to the list of institutions victimized by a supply chain cyberattack by a ransomware gang that exploited a weakness in file transfer software popular with enterprises.” Cl0p, a ransomware gang, “started exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Progress Software’s product MoveIt to steal data from at least 91 organizations, including state and federal agencies and at least 10 U.S. banks and credit unions. Data compromised in the leaks included names, addresses, birthdates, Social Security numbers and more.”
Tags: Banks, Companies, Compromised, Credit unions, Cyberattack, FTP, Government, Institutions, MoveIt, Ransomware, Supply chain, U.S., Victimized, Weakness, Zero-day vulnerability
New York Times (March 31)
“For the first time in American history, a grand jury has indicted a former president of the United States.” Former President Trump “spent years… ignoring democratic and legal norms and precedents, trying to bend the Justice Department and the judiciary to his whims and behaving as if rules didn’t apply to him.” His indictment shows the rules do apply and, with it, these “institutions have proved to be strong enough to hold him accountable for that harm.”
Tags: Accountable, Democratic, Grand jury, History, Indicted, Institutions, Judiciary, Justice Department, Legal norms, Precedents, President, Rules, Strong, Trump, U.S., Whims
Financial Times (June 6)
“The Japanese AGM season will provide rapidly digestible evidence of three things: how empowered activists feel, how awkward the big institutions feel about backing them, and how threatened managements feel by both of those.” The results are unlikely to show real change. “Despite the appearance of change, half of Japanese stocks still trade below book value and carry not just a record value of cash as a proportion of equity, but the largest such ratio in developed markets.”
Tags: Activists, AGM, Appearance, Awkward, Book value, Cash, Change, Empowered, Evidence, Institutions, Japan, Managements, Stocks, Threatened
Bloomberg (February 21)
“The American love affair with stocks is deepening as everyone from frenetic day-traders to staid institutions dive further into the market…. While aspects of the craze—the growing obsession with penny stocks and options, primarily—are the basis for daily warnings about a bubble, bulled-up positioning is proving a sturdy backbone for the rally.”
Tags: Backbone, Bubble, Craze, Day-traders, Institutions, Market, Options, Penny stocks, Staid, Stocks, U.S., Warnings
Washington Post (December 3)
President George H.W. Bush’s remarkable legacy includes putting together “one of the finest, scandal-free Cabinets in U.S. history.” In contrast, the “current crew” is populated with “liars, braggarts and bullies” who posterity will judge harshly. “None of them will be heralded for leaving American democracy stronger than when they entered office. Neither in their personal dealings nor in their policy choices will they be seen as kind or considerate. They’ve torn up international agreements, frayed relationships (here and abroad) and deformed institutions.”
Tags: Agreements, Braggarts, Bullies, Bush, Cabinets, Democracy, Institutions, Legacy, Liars, Policy, President, Relationships, Scandal-free, U.S.
The Economist Times (April 1)
“Most worrying for America and the world is how fast the businessman in the Oval Office is proving unfit for the job.” It is a relief “that the main victim” of President Trump’s “slurs has so far been the tweeter-in-chief himself.” And this is also “testament to the strength of American democracy. But institutions can erode, and the country is wretchedly divided…. Unless Mr Trump changes course, the harm risks spreading.”
Tags: Businessman, Democracy, Harm, Institutions, Oval Office, Relief, Risks, Slurs, Trump, U.S., Unfit, Victim
