dkf
dkf's Journal61% of the cash reserves of U.S.-based companies are held overseas
@ezraklein: 61% of the cash reserves of U.S.-based companies are held overseas: http://t.co/7LfCS7MdpW
We've known for a while that Apple has a mind-bogglingly large stockpile of cash: $147 billion, as of the latest count. On Tuesday, we learned that it's also a huge chunk of the total amount of cash held by U.S.-based companies overall, not including banks: About 10 percent, according to a report from Moody's.
The more interesting thing, though, is how Apple's domination reflects an increasingly unequal cash distribution across American corporations generally.
First of all, it's important to note that cash reserves have been rising steadily over the past five years, as corporations seek to shore up their reserves -- a behavior known as "liquidity preservation" -- in an uncertain economic environment. "The financial crisis really highlighted a greater need to get better control of your own financial future," explains Moody's analyst Richard Lane.
Another factor may be the compounding effects of globalization. Companies are making more and more of their profits overseas, and lose a lot of it to the U.S. Treasury when they bring that cash back home, which they have to do in order to paying dividends and doing share buybacks. So they've tended to sit on it instead -- and now, 61 percent of the total stockpile is stored outside the U.S.
Capitol Hill driver ID'd. Miriam Carey, 34 yo dental hygienist with history of mental health issues
A dental hygienist from Connecticut was the female driver who tried to ram her car into a White House barricade and was shot dead near the US Capitol after a high-speed chase through Washington streets Thursday afternoon, law enforcement sources told The Post.
Sources said Miriam Carey, who formerly lived in Brooklyn, was licensed to practice in New York and Connecticut and had a permit to work as a hygienist in Connecticut prisons.
At least a dozen gunshots were fired when she tried to flee cops, who had trapped her two blocks from the Capitol. She was believed to have been hit several times.
A child believed to be a girl about 2 or 3 years old was found unhurt in her black Infiniti sedan, which had Connecticut license plates.
Authorities had no immediate explanation of the woman’s motive. But Capitol Police chief Kim Dine told reporters there was no reason to believe it was an act of terrorism “or anything other than an isolated incident.”
ABC News said the 34-year-old woman had a history of mental health issues. A task force of FBI and Secret
Service agents was executing a search warrant at her Connecticut home, CNN said.
http://nypost.com/2013/10/03/capitol-shooter-was-conn-based-dental-hygienist/
Name confirmed by New Haven Register
http://www.registercitizen.com/general-news/20131003/stamford-woman-killed-in-capitol-shooting
Police descend on Stamford condo complex in Capitol shooting investigation
STAMFORD -- A car that attempted to ram the White House gate Thursday afternoon is registered to a Stamford woman, according to a local law enforcement official.
Police are descending on the Woodside Green condominium complex. A police official on the scene confirmed their presence is tied to the Capitol shooting.
Police have entered 114 Woodside Green, but it is unclear which unit they are searching. The Stamford Police Department's bomb squad is also on scene.
News photos from the scene in Washington, D.C. show that the black car was displaying Connecticut license plates.
After the car unsuccessfully tried to gain access to the White House grounds, it led police on a car chase that ended near the Capitol. The driver, a woman, then exchanged gunfire with police and was killed. A young child, described as an African-American girl in news reports, was found in the car and was taken to a hospital. A Capitol Police officer was injured when the black car rammed his police car at the end of the chase.
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Source-Car-in-Capitol-shooting-registered-to-4866571.php#src=fb
@Autria_Godfrey: Hearing the 34 year old Stamford woman at center of Cap Hill shooting was a dental hygienist ... more on who she was RIGHT NOW on @ABC7New
A law enforcement source identified the woman to the New Haven Register as Miriam Carey.
@byjenniferswift: Per a law enforcement source, woman involved in D.C. shooting is Miriam Carey of Stamford http://t.co/e7LQroBxaq
Justice Department Guilty of Excessive Secrecy, Internal Audit Finds
President Obama has claimed his administration is the most transparent in history. But excessive secrecy is still a problem within the Justice Department, according to a new internal audit.
Earlier this week, the DOJ’s inspector general published a report reviewing how the department has been classifying information. The secrecy review, which involved the IG’s office conducting more than 100 interviews with officials from agencies including the FBI and the DEA, found that there was a “persistent misunderstanding and lack of knowledge of certain classification processes.” The audit criticized what it described as “deficiencies” in how the DOJ classifies information: In a review of a sample of documents, unclassified information was wrongly designated secret in several instances.
The overclassification of information has become a major issue for the U.S. government since 9/11, with a spike in sensitive national security-related programs leading to spiralling secrecy. In the realm of surveillance, in particular, extreme secrecy has become commonplace, with the DOJ and FBI often heavy-handedly redacting or withholding large portions of documents in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. According to the Information Security Oversight Office, in 2012 alone, executive branch agencies issued more than 95 million “classification decisions.” That’s a 3 percent increase on the figure for 2011 (92 million), and a 25 percent rise on the figure for 2010 (77 million).
The IG report says that while misclassification at the DOJ is not “widespread,” redactions done by the department are sometimes wrong and unnecessary, and that officials appear to have a blasé approach to classification. The IG reviewed a sample of 141 documents in total—from the FBI, the DEA, the National Security Division, and the Criminal Division—and found a total of 357 “classified document marking errors,” meaning that they either did not contain required classification markings or contained incorrect classification markings.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/10/03/justice_department_guilty_of_overclassifying_documents_internal_audit_finds.html
@cnnbrk: A task force is preparing to execute search warrant at the driver's Connecticut home
@cnnbrk: A task force is preparing to execute search warrant at the driver's Connecticut home, law enforcement sources said. http://t.co/1LNz0jWdlR
@cnnbrk: Sources: Driver of car chased by police in the heart of Washington was shot several times while inside her vehicle. http://t.co/1LNz0jWdlR
U.S. indicts 13 members of hacker group Anonymous
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. grand jury on Thursday indicted 13 members of the hacking group Anonymous over cyber attacks that were reported against government agencies, trade associations and others beginning in 2010, according to a copy of the indictment.
The indictment was filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, and charges the members with conspiracy to intentionally cause damage to protected computers as part of Anonymous' "Operation Payback."
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKBRE9920ZD20131003?irpc=932
The pic of the Capitol Police Car is crazy.
thing looks crunched, my god RT @viewofadam: Capitol Police car involved in earlier incident bit.ly/17xJg7H pic.twitter.com/3uq3VypRFf
Female suspect dead
@RyanLizza: RT @betsy_klein: ABC's @MLevineReport: source says suspect reported dead on scene. A female. #capitollockdown
@marcambinder: Still not clear whether suspect fired shots or was fired at because she tried to injure officers or carjack someone at the Capitol scene.
@cnnbrk: Source: Car chase ended at Capitol; driver got out of car and was fired upon. http://t.co/DQjN2v2zPn
@TimAlberta: Suspect was a woman; she was shot by police during car chase, per Cap police. Officer injured during car wreck, NOT from shots fired.
U.S. Is Overtaking Russia as Largest Oil-and-Gas Producer in the world.
The U.S. is overtaking Russia as the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas, a startling shift that is reshaping markets and eroding the clout of traditional energy-rich nations.
U.S. energy output has been surging in recent years, a comeback fueled by shale-rock formations of oil and natural gas that was unimaginable a decade ago. A Wall Street Journal analysis of global data shows that the U.S. is on track to pass Russia as the world's largest producer of oil and gas combined this year—if it hasn't already.
The U.S. ascendance comes as Russia has struggled to maintain its energy output and has yet to embrace technologies such as hydraulic fracturing that have boosted American reserves.
"This is a remarkable turn of events," said Adam Sieminski, head of the U.S. Energy Information Administration. "This is a new era of thinking about market conditions, and opportunities created by these conditions, that you wouldn't in a million years have dreamed about."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303492504579111360245276476.html
Iranian cyber warfare commander shot dead in suspected assassination
The head of Iran’s cyber warfare programme has been shot dead, triggering further accusations that outside powers are carrying out targeted assassinations of key figures in the country’s security apparatus.
Mojtaba Ahmadi, who served as commander of the Cyber War Headquarters, was found dead in a wooded area near the town of Karaj, north-west of the capital, Tehran. Five Iranian nuclear scientists and the head of the country’s ballistic missile programme have been killed since 2007. The regime has accused Israel’s external intelligence agency, the Mossad, of carrying out these assassinations.
Ahmadi was last seen leaving his home for work on Saturday. He was later found with two bullets in the heart, according to Alborz, a website linked to the Revolutionary Guard Corps. “I could see two bullet wounds on his body and the extent of his injuries indicated that he had been assassinated from a close range with a pistol,” an eyewitness told the website.
The commander of the local police said that two people on a motorbike had been involved in the assassination.
The Facebook page of the officers of the Cyber War Headquarters confirmed that Ahmadi had been one of their commander and posted messages of condolence. But Alborz users warned that the openly accessible book of condolence could harm Iran’s national security.
“Stop giving more information about him. The counter-revolutionaries will take advantage of his murder,” said one post. “It sounds like a hit job for a security officer of this importance”.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/10350285/Iranian-cyber-warfare-commander-shot-dead-in-suspected-assassination.html
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