Billy Joel's "Leningrad" and the Cold War

While many musicians have been known to use their platforms to express views about politics and religion, Billy Joel did so in a unique way which served as a reflection on the Cold War and many American events rather than expressing bold convictions.
An example of this style of political analysis can be seen in his song “Leningrad” which details his experience meeting a street performer (clown) in St. Petersburg. Billy Joel compares the life of Victor the clown to his own life. The song begins,

“Victor was born
The spring of '44
And never saw
His father anymore”

This opening line is a reference to Victor losing his father in WWII. Military plays a huge role in Russian culture and many Russians claim that all Russians can name at least one family member who has been involved in the military in some way. This is because military service is mandatory for all Russian men with some exceptions. The song then continues to talk about Victor’s life and some of the repercussions the post-war economy had on the daily lives of the people of Russia. He sings,

“The Russian life was very sad
And such was life in Leningrad”

Billy Joel then transitions to discussing his experience in the Cold War Era on the other side of the world. He sings,

“I was born in '49
A cold war kid in the McCarthy times
…
Cold war kids were hard to kill
Under their desks in an air raid drill
Haven't they heard we won the war
What do they keep on fighting for?”

This is perhaps the most direct opinion we hear from Billy Joel regarding his views on the Cold War. He seems to be criticizing the Cold War as an unnecessary conflict given the fact that WWII was over. His analysis gives insight into what the American experience was like during the Cold War with air raid drills.
Billy Joel then continues to sing,

“The children lived in Levittown
Hid in the shelters underground”

Levittown was the blue-collar town Billy Joel grew up in. This lyric describes the atmosphere of fear created by the Cold War. This atmosphere continues as he addresses the Cuban Missile Crisis, singing,

“Til the soviets turned their ships around
Torn the Cuban missiles down”

Billy Joel then expresses his emotion that the Cold War has deprived the American children of the innocence of childhood. For many of Billy Joel’s peers, the realities of adulthood came too early when they were drafted into the Vietnam War.*
Joel sings,

“We knew our childhood days were done
I watched my friends go off to war
What do they keep on fighting for?”

Overall, the song seems to be criticizing the Cold War as being unnecessary and disrupting world peace. Never once does Joel directly condemn either America or the Soviet Union. Instead, Billy Joel approaches the issue with empathy, reflecting on the similarities between him and his friend Victor the clown. Even though they were on opposite sides of the war, both were suffering as a result of the conflict. He seems to be asking the question, If both sides are suffering, is anyone really winning? And if nobody is winning, what’s the point of the war?
And so it seems Billy Joel is not criticizing either side, but criticizing the lack of unity and empathy in the world, especially after the loss endured by all from WWII.
The song seems to close appropriately with the lyrics,

“So my child and I came to this place
To meet him , eye to eye and face to face
He made my daughter laugh
Then we embraced
We never knew what friends we had
Until we came to Leningrad.”

*Further opinions on the Vietnam War can be seen in the song “Goodnight Saigon” in which Billy Joel reflects on the very personal losses he faced as a result of the Vietnam War by referencing specific friends who lost their lives in the war.

Sources:
Joel, Billy "Leningrad"

Bono and Politics

Many are familiar with the Irish band U2, known for their catchy hits and revolutionary guitar work. Despite their Irish heritage, many U2 songs carry deeper political meanings regarding America.
A number of their songs provide commentary on the American Dream. These tracks include “In God’s Country”, a song which condemns the complacency taking place in America. America is represented in the song as the image of Lady Liberty. The song tells the story of “God’s Country” which was built for dreamers but seems to have forgotten its roots and now ceases to provide the American Dream. While lead singer Bono says the song isn’t necessarily responding to a singular event or cause, it is likely that the song is addressing the fact that many social movements and political passion in general was declining after the 1960’s in the US.
Many U2 songs provide commentary on specific events, individuals or political movements in America. The song “Angel of Harlem” was written about Billie Holiday, famous jazz singer and figure of the Harlem Renaissance. “Pride”, a song featured on the album “Rattle and Hum”, directly references Martin Luther King Jr. Bono sings in direct reference to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.,

“Early morning, April four
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride”.

While “Pride” and “Angel of Harlem” seem to be glorifying American heroes and cultural movements, Bono’s music condemns American politics at times. An example of this can be seen in the song “Bullet the Blue Sky”, a song which exposes the poor living conditions and harsh consequences of US intervention in Central America, especially in Nicaragua. Bono discusses the political implications of Reagan’s policy and the disruption it caused in the lives of the native people. He sings,

“Where the sky is ripped open and the rain pours
Through a gaping wound, pelting the women and children
Pelting the women and children
Run, run in to the arms of America”.

Clearly, Bono and the rest of U2 were not afraid to address serious political messages in a way that is accessible and entertaining for their audience. While some of their most bold political songs discuss religion (“Until the End of the World”) and political conflict in Ireland (“Sunday Bloody Sunday”), Bono used his music to express his passion for American politics.

Sources:
U2 albums “Rattle and Hum”, “The Joshua Tree”, “The Unforgettable Fire”, “Achtung Baby”, “War”

History of the Camera Phone

In 1999 the first ever phone with a camera in it was made by Sharp Corporation and was released in Japan in November of 2000. It allowed you to share your photos electronically and the quality was pretty good for the first of its kind. Here's what a picture taken on it looks like.
In November of 2002 the US hopped on this new trend and Sprint was the first company to start manufacturing and releasing these phones. By the end of 2003 they were big in the tech market, and were selling about as much as DVD players at that time. They were making it more accessible for people to capture important moments without needing to bring a chunky camera, and there's now the ability to share with others.
However, there have also been concerns with the use of cell phones with camera capabilities for secret photography, because people may be having their picture taken without knowledge and/or consent. Additionally, it makes the sharing of illegal photos faster and easier, and once they are out on the web, there is no getting them back. Another concern is that phones are able to be hacked and random hackers could be watching someone through their phone camera.
However, nowadays we don't think of the phone camera as something dangerous, but a part of everyday life. Some studies by Pew Research Center show that in 2014 about 92% of smartphone users used them to take photos, and 80% used their camera phones to share those photos. Cameras on phones have become interactive devices, whether they are used to video call friends and family, use a snapchat filter, scan a QR code, or used as the password on the newer iPhones. This shows a huge leap not only in the technology used, but comments on how much modern humans rely on these phone cameras in our everyday lives.
Although there's been a huge jump between Sharp Corporation's J-SH04, and the newest Google and Apple phones, the intent is still there. We now have the ability to capture important moments and share them with others, the only difference is that the quality of the camera has increased.

Sources:
https://petapixel.com/2015/02/12/importance-cameras-smartphone-war/
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/camera-phone-history/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_phone#History

The Ponzi Scheme of the Century

       If you are looking for one of the biggest ponzi schemes in recorded history, the ponzi scheme led by Bernie Madoff is the place to look. As a well-respected financier, Madoff convinced thousands of investors to hand over their savings, falsely promising consistent profits in return. He was caught in December 2008 and charged with 11 counts of fraud, money laundering, perjury, and theft. In the end, Maddof was able to con investors out of close to 65 billion dollars in savings and went undetected for decades.
Ponzi schemes are run by a central operator, who uses the money from new, incoming investors to pay off the promised returns to older ones. This makes the operation seem profitable and legitimate, even though no actual profit is being made. Meanwhile, the person behind the scheme pockets the extra money or uses it to expand the operation. To avoid having too many investors reclaim their "profits," Ponzi schemes encourage them to stay in the game and earn even more money. The "investing strategies" used are vague and/or secretive, which schemers claim is to protect their business. Then all they need to do is tell investors how much they are making periodically, without actually providing any real returns.
Ponzi schemes aren't usually very sustainable. The setup eventually falls apart after: (1) The operator takes the remaining investment money and runs. (2) New investors become harder to find, meaning the flow of cash dies out. (3) Too many current investors begin to pull out and request their returns. In Madoff's case, things began to deteriorate after clients requested a total of $7 billion back in returns. Unfortunately for Madoff, he only had $200 million to $300 million left to give.
Many people find it surprising that Maddow was able to fly under the radar for so long, seeing the fact that he was promising 50 percent returns in only 90 days, a deal too good to be true. Even though it does leave you a little skeptical at first, there is a good reason for why people trusted Madoff so much. Madoff was a well-versed and active member of the financial industry. He started his own market maker firm in 1960 and helped launch the Nasdaq stock market. He sat on the board of the National Association of Securities Dealers and advised the Securities and Exchange Commission on trading securities. It was easy to believe this 70-year-old industry veteran knew exactly what he was doing.

Sources:
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-bernie-madoffs-ponzi-scheme-worked-2014-7
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Madoff
https://www.cnn.com/2013/03/11/us/bernard-madoff-fast-facts/index.html
https://www.foxnews.com/us/bernie-madoff-ponzi-scheme-everything-you-should-know
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bernie-Madoff

Rise of Crack in America

       While the use of coca leaves as an intoxicant dates back three thousand years, crack cocaine, a crystallized form of cocaine, was developed during the cocaine boom of the 1970s and its use spread in the mid-1980s. According to the US Drug Enforcement Agency, by the late 1970s there was a huge glut of cocaine powder being shipped into the United States. This caused the price of the drug to drop by as much as 80%. Faced with dropping prices for their illegal product, drug dealers converted the powder to “crack,” a solid form of cocaine that could be smoked.
The biggest surge in the use of the drug occurred during the “crack epidemic,” between 1984 and 1990, when the drug spread across American cities. The crack epidemic dramatically increased the number of Americans addicted to cocaine. In 1985, the number of people who admitted using cocaine on a routine basis increased from 4.2 million to 5.8 million. The epidemic first started in Miami, where Caribbean immigrants taught adolescents the technique of converting powdered cocaine into crack. The teenagers eventually introduced the business of producing and distributing crack cocaine into other major cities of the United States, including New York City, Detroit, and Los Angeles. Also, the emergence of crack cocaine in the inner cities led to a drastic increase in crime between 1981 and 1986. Federal prison admission for drug offenses soared, and murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rates increased significantly. There were also marked increases in robbery and aggravated assault.
The administration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan early on began to prioritize what came to be called the “War on Drugs,” which combatted drug trafficking and aimed to end the crack cocaine epidemic destroying many lives. The efforts included the passing of federal anti-drug laws, increased federal anti-drug funding, the initiation and expansion of prison and police programs, and the establishment of private organizations, such as Partnership for a Drug-Free America, to campaign on its behalf. The idea of the War on Drugs was grounded in deterrence theory, whereby the implementation of legislation and harsher penalties would deter or discourage the use of drugs. The 100-to-l ratio between powdered cocaine and crack cocaine was used as a guideline for minimum mandatory punishment. For instance, a minimum penalty of 5 years was administered for 5 grams of crack cocaine or 500 grams of powdered cocaine.

Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/crack-epidemic
https://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/crackcocaine/a-short-history.html
https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/10/2/16328342/opioid-epidemic-racism-addiction
https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/dahleen-glanton/ct-opioid-epidemic-dahleen-glanton-met-20170815-column.html

Government Policies and S&Ls

In 1980, the Carter Administration implemented the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act, allowing thrifts to diversify their asset portfolios and eliminating Regulation Q’s cap on deposit interest rates. However, the government increased the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation subsidy for banks from $40,000 to $100,000 at the same time. This along with the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982, which gave thrift banks greater latitude to invest in real estate loans induced unrestrained real estate lending, resulted in the government creation of one of the greatest catastrophes in U.S. banking history. 

The National Review describes how both the American Bankers Association and Franklin Roosevelt opposed deposit insurance for three reasons: “First, it means there is no incentive for depositors to monitor the solvency of the banks and S&Ls in which their funds are deposited. Second, the flat-rate premiums provide no incentive to the owners to maintain solvency; in effect, these premiums represent a subsidy from solvent institutions to weak ones. Most important, deposit insurance creates a moral hazard for the owners of weak or insolvent banks and S&Ls, in effect setting up a one-sided bet. If they make unusually risky loans that do not later default, all the returns accrue to the owners; if these loans fail, the losses are borne by the insurance fund and, ultimately, the taxpayers. Heads I win, tails you lose. One should be surprised only that the insured depositories did not attract more crooks and frauds.” Thrifts were virtually given unlimited access to capital by the government, as they could promise to pay high interest rates on deposits to depositors who didn’t care about the thrift’s huge gambles (motivated by GSGDIA) due to the FDIC insurance increase. 

 Edward Kane expands on this by describing "although the Savings and Loan (S&L) debacle is extremely complex… simple-minded cartoons and horror movies can illustrate how the S&L insurance fund turned into such a mess. ...In movies such as George Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, corpses climb out of their graves and walk around hunting for food. They are hungry for only one thing—human flesh. As soon as these living-dead "zombies" feed on another human, the human quickly dies and becomes a zombie too. Many S&Ls have, for some time, been zombie institutions. These institutions were insolvent in the sense that their assets had fallen below the level at which they could cover their deposit debt. These zombie S&Ls were able to survive only because they could feed off taxpayers through the device of government-guaranteed federal deposit insurance." This disastrous reregulation compounded with Depression era policies that had essentially divided the financial industry into strictly organized and vulnerable silos, resulted in 1,043 thrifts failing between 1986 and 1995 according to FDIC data.

The Perfect Heist

One of the greatest private property crimes in the United States, and one of the most infamous art crimes in the entire world, the theft of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum remains one of the craziest heists to this day. 

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which was constructed in Boston in the late 19th century, was originally built for the sole purpose of housing the personal art collection of the museum’s namesake, Isabella Stewart Gardner. The museum was soon opened up to the public in 1903, but, in just under a century later, the value of the collection Gardner left behind would diminish by $500 million. 

On March 18th, 1990, two men disguised in Boston police uniforms approached the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, pretending to respond to a security call. Thinking that they were, in fact, police, the museum’s two security guards on patrol allowed the two thieves to enter the museum. The thieves then sprung into action, tying up the two guards and successfully immobilizing them. Within 90 minutes, the duo had made off with thirteen priceless works of art, which were:

Vermeer’s "The Concert"

Rembrandt’s "A Lady and Gentleman in Black"

Rembrandt’s "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee"

Rembrandt’s "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee"

Rembrandt’s "Self Portrait"

Govaert Flinck’s "Landscape with an Obelisk"

A Shang Dynasty Chinese Bronze Beaker

Degas' "La Sortie du Pelage"

Degas' "Cortège Aux Environs de Florence"

Degas' "Three Mounted Jockeys"

Degas' "Program for an Artistic Soiree" 

Degas' "Program for an Artistic Soiree" (a second, less finished version)

Manet’s "Chez Tortoni"

Napoleonic Eagle Finial

Combined, the total estimated value comes out to about $500 million, so the FBI was on the case. But, the Bureau quickly encountered one major problem: the culprits left behind very little clues. It was only until 25 years later that the FBI was confident that they had figured out the identities of the two thieves, narrowing down their list of suspects to George Reissfelder and Lenny DiMuzio. Both Reissfelder and DiMuzio belonged to the crew of crime boss Carmello Merlino, but what was odd was that both had died within the same year of the heist. Without really any more leads to go off of, the FBI was met with a dead end, and all thirteen stolen artworks still remain missing today—thirty years later. Even with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum offering $10 million for any information, the paintings remain in hiding, hinting at the possibility that they may never be seen by the public eye again. 

https://www.wbur.org/artery/2020/03/18/30-years-isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-heist-toll-endures
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/gardner-museum-doubles-reward-10m-970745
https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-show-unsolved-art-heist-boston-500-million-2020-3

Miss America

If you have Hulu, you might want to check out the TV show, titled "Miss America", which accurately portrays the sweetheart of the silent majority. This tells the story of the movement to ratify the ERA during the second wave of feminism and the backlash led by Phyllis Schlafly. With Schlafly at the lead, the group argued that the ERA would rescind what they deemed to be freedoms and protections for women under the current law and questioned why they should have equality when they were in a "superior" position. Early in the show, Mrs. America illustrates how STOP ERA began to gain traction with the group swaying politicians with bread and pies. in Episode 2, we see Schlafly and her legion of anti-ERA women flock to the lobby of the Illinois General Assembly to hand out homemade bread and jam with the slogan of “Preserve Us From a Congressional Jam." The group emphasized that the protection of the freedom to be a housewife and remain unconcerned with the stress of breadwinning, along with the assurance that women wouldn’t be drafted for the armed services.

Despite being a self-proclaimed "proud homemaker", Schlafly was actually an aspiring politician and activist. She was a captivating figure for the religious right being anti-abortion and anti-ERA, but it must be recognized though that she was also anti-facts, using conjecture, insinuation, and leaps of logic to gain political favor, exaggerate fearmongering, and gaslight potential groupies. Ironically, Schlafly had worked as “a ballistics gunner and technician at the largest ammunition plant in the world” during WW2. She also remained an active political voice on the Cold War and national defense throughout her life. Additionally, she ran for the United States House of Representatives in 1952 and again in 1970 (despite losing both times), with her husband asking her not to run again.  According to her obituary in the New York Times, “Mrs. Schlafly hardly noticed the Equal Rights Amendment when it was first debated in Congress” and it wasn’t until 1971, when the amendment had already passed the House, that she took up arms against it, founding STOP ERA and appointing herself the chairwoman.

What makes this show so unique is that it does not just track Phyllis Schlafly but rather a multitude of people that were involved with or affected by the second wave of feminism. The show describes how the charismatic Steinem quickly became the spokeswoman for the women’s liberation movement, along with her rival Betty Friedan, who famously called Abzug and Steinem “female chauvinist boors” in 1972. It also describes how women of color carved out a place in the women's rights movement by dedicating an episode to “Shirley” Chisholm, an extraordinary civil rights leader and the first black woman ever elected to Congress. Overall, if you're looking for something to watch during quarantine I'd say you should definitely check it out.

Amazon, The Tech Behemoth

       Amazon, the company that we all know and love, was not always the big shot that we see it as today. To many people’s surprise Amazon actually has some pretty modest beginnings that can be dated back all the way to the creation of the internet. As people started to use the internet more often with user-friendly systems, entrepreneurs started to flood the online-retailer business in the hopes of making it big. One of these people was Jeff Bezos who left his executive position on wall street to go start his own e-commerce company. Bezos ended up purchasing the domain for relentless.com, but after some more deliberation with peers, he changed the name again to amazon.com, the company that we all know about today. Amazon started off with selling books which made them a fair amount of money, allowing them to go public in 1996 and get listed in the NASDAQ.
After more time growing, and settling few lawsuits with other large companies during the time period, Jeff Bezos finally decided to expand Amazon from a book store, to an everything store. This caused Amazon’s net worth to jump even higher making Jeff Bezos a billionaire and Time’s person of the year, however this would soon end with the dotcom crash. People thought that investing in tech was always a good idea, no matter how much revenue the companies actually made, leading to massive corporations that were really making no money at all. Soon investors came to their senses and started to pull their money out of the overvalued tech industry causing Amazon’s stock price to take a huge hit. Even though Stocks don’t matter much with a company's day to day operations, they are vital for a company's capital and financing, which is something that startup tech companies, like Amazon, really need. Amazon, a long with a few other companies were some of the companies that were able to make it out alive after the dotcom bubble burst.
After the burst, Amazon was seen to be making modest earnings every year, but nothing too special, causing the company to stagnate. This showed that it was time for the company to think of something new to bring their earnings up. The response to this was creating Amazon Prime, which was surprising, because they would now be losing money on every order that was made rather than gain money. They way that Amazon combated this was by then also creating Amazon Web Services. Since servers are so expensive to buy, AWS lets you rent out serves, which is a lot more affordable than buying one. This, coupled with the marketplace that Amazon was able to buy up led to it being one of the biggest companies to this day.

Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_snoVZwQGVs
https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-amazon-history-facts-2017-4
https://www.fundable.com/learn/startup-stories/amazon

Your Data is Really Not Safe: Part 4 (Edward Snowden: Permanent Record)

Edward Snowden is the most influential person towards our knowledge of modern surveillance systems.  In 2013, Snowden revealed the explosion of modern surveillance after 9/11. Snowden disclosed hundreds of thousands of NSA documents, Department of Defence documents, and even British and Australian intelligence files. 

Snowden entered his teenage years just as computers were getting popular. After being shown how to program, Snowden spent his time experimenting with the computer, logging on into the internet and talking on forums. In school, Snowden intentionally avoided homework to scrape by with a minimum passing grade. Once he failed in sophomore year of high school, he chose to enroll in community college. 

Both of his parents were government workers with security clearances, so Snowden was a good fit for entering the intelligence sector. After enlisting in the military, getting injured, Snowden entered the security clearance program for entering the NSA.

Once Snowden saw coworkers access personal videos of families, he started to devise an elaborate plan for transferring classified documents into his computer. Snowden hid SD chips to pass through security, and transferred data by using a number of anonymity services, including Tor. He secretly emailed information primarily to journalists Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald, where they would eventually interview him in a Hong Kong hotel room.

Snowden was charged under the Espionage Act once the information got out into the press. Snowden looked for political asylum in many countries, and eventually was granted temporary asylum in Russia. Some critics of the book and Snowden speculate on his dependence on Russia and how that affects his book and opinions. 

In 2019, Snowden published an autobiography called Permanent Record. It’s really interesting, so I would recommend anyone to read it if they have time. The US filed a lawsuit against the book to receive the proceeds for the book, and China has censored the information in the book. 

Sources:

SNOWDEN, EDWARD. PERMANENT RECORD. PICADOR, 2020.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/nov/01/snowden-nsa-files-surveillance-revelations-decoded#section/7

Your Data is Really Not Safe: Part 3 (Modern Surveillance Techniques, Terms, and Programs)

The NSA collects network traffic in two main ways. The first is through a broad category called upstream collection. This collection is through the major pathways that all traffic must go through, such as fiber optic cables in the ocean or cable switching stations in the United States. The NSA hosts a number of programs categorized under upstream collection, including FAIRVIEW, BLARNEY, STORMBREW, and OAKSTAR. The first three programs all target communications within the United States by partnering with companies such as AT&T and Verizon at major stations to intercept and collect traffic while routing. OAKSTAR is a collection of many other programs that focus on international information collection. RAMPART-A is an international collaboration that aims to collect information at every major fiber optic routing point. 

PRISM is the counterpart to the upstream collection. Instead of collecting traffic as it is routed between places, PRISM uses backdoors within different companies to collect information. Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft are all participants in the program.

Much of our communication is now encrypted, which (as far as we know) no one knows how to efficiently decrypt. BULLRUN is an example of many attempts to decrypt communications, including installing and exploiting backdoors, using mathematical techniques, and industry partnerships.  

Although PRISM information can only be used and collected with a FISA court order, there is still a huge chilling effect on the First Amendment with regards to sharing opinions and thoughts. Furthermore, some argue that the government monitoring people is inherently a violation of the Fourth Amendment and a reasonable expectation of privacy.

The culmination of all of this information comes through the program XKEYSCORE. XKEYSCORE is a computer system for searching and analyzing internet traffic. The system has been compared to google.com for private internet communications. The system has also been shared internationally, especially with the Five Eyes countries. 

These programs or similar ones are still going on, having been renewed in 2018 by Congress and Trump. There was little protest when the renewal occured, which signifies that Americans may have accepted the huge collection of data as inevitable or essential for the tracking of terrorists and other criminals. 

Perhaps you think you’re protected by using Tor, an anonymized browser that utilizes volunteer relays to send information. However, the NSA still has been able to monitor traffic from Tor. Furthermore, using the browser would put you as a larger target within the XKEYSCORE program. Just by searching these terms, you are put under higher suspicion within the program. 

Sources: 

https://www.cnet.com/news/nsa-surveillance-programs-prism-upstream-live-on-snowden/

https://www.theverge.com/2013/7/17/4517480/nsa-spying-prism-surveillance-cheat-sheet

https://theintercept.com/2015/07/01/nsas-google-worlds-private-communications/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/05/nsa-gchq-encryption-codes-security

https://www.eff.org/pages/upstream-prism

Y2K Bug

        The Y2K bug, also known as the Millennium Bug, was a massive problem in the coding of computerized systems that was projected to create havoc in computers and computer networks and was a big reason for the expansion of the dotcom bubble that I have talked about in other blogs. The bugg took more than a year to fix leading to einternational alarm and major program corrections to make sure a major failure such as the Y2K bug would never happen again.
Until the 1990s, many computer programs (especially those written in the early days of computers) were designed to abbreviate four-digit years as two digits in order to save memory space. These computers could recognize “98” as “1998” but would be unable to recognize “00” as “2000,” perhaps interpreting it to mean 1900. Many feared that when the clocks struck midnight on January 1, 2000, many affected computers would be using an incorrect date and thus fail to operate properly unless the computers’ software was repaired or replaced before that date. The government, freaked out by the implications, set out to try to update all computerized systems out of the faulty software
The reason for such government urgency may not be apparent at first, but the bug had greater implications then just busting your  personal computer. Banks, which calculate interest rates on a daily basis, faced real problems. Interest rates are the amount of money a lender, such as a bank, charges a customer, such as an individual or business, for a loan. Instead of the rate of interest for one day, the computer would calculate a rate of interest for minus almost 100 years! Centers of technology, such as power plants, were also threatened by the Y2K bug. Power plants depend on routine computer maintenance for safety checks, such as water pressure or radiation levels. Not having the correct date would throw off these calculations and possibly put nearby residents at risk.
In the end, there were very few problems. A nuclear energy facility in Ishikawa, Japan, had some of its radiation equipment fail, but backup facilities ensured there was no threat to the public. The U.S. detected missile launches in Russia and attributed that to the Y2K bug. But the missile launches were planned ahead of time as part of Russia's conflict in its republic of Chechnya. There was no computer malfunction. Countries such as Italy, Russia, and South Korea had done little to prepare for Y2K. They had no more technological problems than those countries, like the U.S., that spent millions of dollars to combat the problem. Due to the lack of results, many people dismissed the Y2K bug as a hoax or an end-of-the-world cult.

Sources:
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/Y2K-bug/
https://www.britannica.com/technology/Y2K-bug
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2229238-a-lazy-fix-20-years-ago-means-the-y2k-bug-is-taking-down-computers-now/

Nortel Networks, A story of rags to riches... and back to rags

       Nortel networks, though a company that most of you have never heard before, was really big coming into the late 1900s. In the early 1900sBell canada, a large canadian company founded its mechanical department, calling it northern electric. Fast forward to 1971 and northern electric makes an innovative break-through by creating the SP-1, a telephone switching system that is used to connect phone lines. It's one of the first ever systems to use a computer, causing it to sell very fast. With the newfound money, Northern Electric is able to go public and create the first digital private branch exchange system in the world. This is again another massive breakthrough that sells like crazy.
Now, leading up to the late 70s, Northern Electric, now known as Northern Telecom, is doing very well across the globe. This lets them spread into the data market too, providing a local area network and helping offices digitize their sales price and increasing the company’s sales and stock price. Northern Telecom then sets out to become the number 1 provider of Public and private networkers, but is outcompeted by the new and fast growing internet craze. Faced with this new problem, Northern telecoms shifts its focus from telephones to data and multimedia networking, and finally changes its name to the one its most known for, Nortel Networks.
Nortel Networks, now trying to catch up with the internet, starts buying a lot of internet startups, and with the demand for data increasing, they also start flooding the market with fiber optics. This is when the dotcom bubble starts to grow and Nortel’s stock starts to skyrocket, even though they aren't really making any money because of all the acquisitions that had already happened. Between 1998 and 2000 the company is unable to record a single annual profit, leading management to remove acquisitions off the expenses to make it look like they are making a profit when they really aren't. Investors are fooled by this new number and keep on buying stock from it, making it the 9th most valuable company in the world.
This all ends though when the dotcom bubble that I have talked about in earlier blogs finally pops. Nortel Networks was relying on the idea that fiber optics would always be in high demand, and it is soon proven that this really isn’t the case. With other tech companies dropping like flies demand dries up and the tech industry starts to slow down. Finally in 2001, with sales missing their expectations, Nortel finally admits that it won’t be making any profit, causing investors to run for their lives. Desperate for change, Nortel Management takes some of its savings and adds it to the annual earnings to make it look like they were finally earning money. However, this is soon figured out and Nortel uses the rest of its money fighting a lawsuit against fraud, causing it to eventually die out.

Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKjAMxzdrHw
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-story-behind-nortels-fall/article4156221/

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/nortel-networks-corporation-history/

The Quattrone Scandal

         Frank Quattrone was one of the biggest American Technology investment bankers after the 1990s tech boom. He was responsible for starting technology sector franchises at Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse First Boston, and even helped technology companies like Netscape, Cisco, and Amazon.com go public during the tech boom. He also drove his firm, Qatalyst Partners, to one of the top M&A advisors to technology companies, advising on $33bn worth of US tech transactions in 2015, within the top 20 US M&A advisors. Though he had some roots in the tech boom, Quattrone really took off with the dotcom bubble, only to crumble, when the bubble was finally popped.
        Quattrone first arrived in California in 1979 as a junior banker for Morgan Stanley. The large New York-based firms at the time considered the technology industry to be too small to devote large resources to, leaving niche West Coast firms such as Hambrecht & Quist and Robertson Stephens to service emerging companies. Finally, his long standing roots in the tech community paid off when the dotcom bubble exploded. He left Morgan Stanley and soon after, Credit Suisse First Boston hired Mr Quattrone to lead its technology practice, which he quickly made competitive against titans Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. At Credit Suisse, his team of hundreds included not just bankers but research analysts and wealth managers who reported directly to him. His annual compensation was assumed to be in excess of $100m.
As the dotcom era collapsed, however, the conflicted arrangements by which bankers had control over other areas of the firm drew scrutiny. Several common practices connected with IPOs came under attack in the press leading to investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Association of Securities Dealers, and a federal grand jury. Quattrone feared being charged in connection with such acts and therefore engaged in obstruction of justice.
It was soon released that Quattrone, among other bankers had destroyed valuable evidence for the government’s IPO probe while they were still under subpoena by the government. Destroying evidence is, as we all know, a case of obstruction of justice and Quattrone was brought in and sentenced 18 months in prison. However, through a miracle, Quattrone was able to beat back 1 count of obstruction of justice and another count of witness tampering. Basically, he argued that he was unaware of the subpoena that was put in place when he destroyed the evidence and he was adhering to company policy, which allowed him to destroy files that were old and outdated.

Sources:
https://www.ft.com/content/4d17337a-c53c-11e5-808f-8231cd71622e
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/11928477/ns/business-corporate_scandals/t/frank-quattrones-conviction-overturned/#.XpnTpDrYphE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Quattrone
https://atlassociety.org/commentary/capitalism-and-morality/capitalism-morality-blog/3647-the-case-for-frank-quattrone