#BLN analysis

[batmanlovesnirvana]

— How Faith Shapes Superman’s Identity | analysis

SUPERMAN is best known for his incredible superpowers, such as super strength and invulnerability, but an often overlooked aspect of his character is his faith. This belief system plays a crucial role in shaping his moral compass and can even provide practical advantages in challenging situations, giving him an edge over other non-believing heroes like Batman, who also may not share the same convictions.

Though Superman was created by two Jewish writers, he was raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent, a Christian couple who instilled in him a sense of morality and ethics. However, Superman's faith is not rigidly tied to any specific religion. Instead, based on his extensive experiences as a superhero, he believes in a higher power or a God-like force. This broader spiritual outlook allows him to reject specific religious doctrines, such as the concept of Hell, which he doesn't believe exists. Interestingly, in Jewish teachings, Hell—or "Gehinnom"—isn't seen as a physical place of eternal suffering but rather as an intense feeling of shame for one's misdeeds. This spiritual anguish, a temporary state, serves to purify the soul. This concept resonates with Superman’s beliefs, acknowledging a higher moral accountability without subscribing to the idea of a punitive Hell, subtly nodding to his creators' Jewish heritage.

This belief becomes particularly significant in *Batman/Superman: World's Finest #3*, written by Mark Waid and illustrated by Dan Mora. In the story, the villain Felix Faust traps Superman, Batman, and Billy Batson in an illusion designed to mimic Hell. The illusion is so convincing that Batman struggles to cope with the experience. In contrast, Superman remains calm and composed. His serenity allows him to see through the illusion and identify Faust's location, ultimately disrupting the sorcerer's magic.

Superman's super-hearing aids him in pinpointing Faust's position, but his composure stems from a deeper source: his conviction that a benevolent God would not create a place of eternal torment like Hell. This strong belief prevents him from being psychologically manipulated by Faust's magic. For Superman, the idea that Hell does not exist is a fundamental part of his worldview, which gives him clarity in situations where others might falter.

This incident highlights the practical benefits of Superman's faith, especially since he is typically vulnerable to magic. Magic users often try to exploit heroes' fears, but Superman's strong conviction acts as a shield against such psychological attacks. Unlike Batman, who, despite being an atheist and not believing in Hell, still falls prey to the illusion, Superman's firm belief provides a unique form of resilience. This suggests that merely not believing in something isn't enough; it takes a strong and positive faith to withstand such deceptive tactics.

Superman's religious beliefs are a key component of what makes him a remarkable hero. While his physical powers allow him to confront threats far beyond the capacity of ordinary humans, it is his unwavering commitment to justice and morality that truly defines him. Without this deep-seated faith, Superman might be more susceptible to believing in a punitive and unjust concept of Hell.

Even if future storylines in DC Comics depict his son Jon as an atheist, it is evident that faith remains a core aspect of Clark's character. Superman's belief in the non-existence of Hell not only strengthens his resolve but also serves as a vital tool in overcoming villainous deceptions, proving that his spiritual beliefs are as significant as his more tangible superpowers.

A.N : any other opinions are welcome. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment or reblog, I would appreciate it :)

Also should I do the same for Bruce/Batman ?

[ohsalome]

In 2022, Russia has redirected a significant portion of its energy exports to China and India.

Countries that have scaled back their trade with Russia most drastically include the U.S., the UK, Japan and Singapore. Germany continues to be the source of a large share of Russia’s imports despite significant reductions.

Sanctions have significantly reduced the trade between Russia and the US. By October 2022, Russia’s exports to the US had fallen by almost 50% compared to 2021. During the same period, US exports to Russia declined by $2.5 bln compared to the previous year.

The sanctions regime, closely coordinated by the US and EU, was able to disrupt the Kremlin’s direct access to western technology in the short term.

Russia established alternative routes fairly quickly with imports of dual-use and controlled commodities now exceeding pre-war levels.

Evasion routes can be detected with macro-data analysis, for example, by correlating the chronology of relevant events (e.g., the onset of Russia’s military assault on Ukraine in late February 2022, the western imposition of sanctions) with significant shifts in goods’ origin, volume supplied by trading partner, and their position as share of overall trade with Russia by each respective partner.

Our data shows that countries most actively facilitating circumvention of wartime sanctions by Russia include: China, Turkey, Cyprus and the UAE.

In 2022, China became Russia’s most important trade partner, receiving about 20% of Russia’s total exports and serving as the source of 35% of Russia’s total imports.

US sanctions have resulted in a significant decline in the monetary value of global transactions by designated Russian companies, but did not eliminate them.

Sanctions have not stopped Russia’s import of controlled and dual use high tech goods critical to its ability to wage war on Ukraine, such as UAV/parts and microprocessors/semiconductors.

UAV deliveries continued to Russia as late as November and December from UAE, Hong Kong, China, and Singapore.

Russia’s imports of microprocessors/semiconductors increased from $1.82 bln in 2021 to $2.45 bln in 2022 (for the year as a whole).

China has become Russia’s most important source of semiconductors and integrated circuits. In 2022, China, Hong Kong, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland led by dollar value of microchip sales to Russia; China, Hong Kong, Estonia, Turkey and Germany led by the number of transactions.

Despite sanctions, in 2022, Russia hit its highest current account surplus in history. The surplus in 2022 reached $227 billion, more than twice the previous record ($122 billion in 2021).

Russia has retained its access to vast amounts of foreign exchange, which has been critical to its ability to continue its war on Ukraine.

Sanctions have resulted in a 16% contraction of Russia’s imports in 2022 for the year as a whole.

The significant 35% contraction in the first few months of the war was followed by a recovery that we expect to be sustained in 2023.

Russia’s total exports increased by more than 30% between January-September 2022 over the corresponding period in 2021, driven mostly by oil and gas exports.

Since the start of the war, foreigners have paid Russia $190 bn for oil exports or $225 billion in the entirety of 2022 (comprising 11% of Russia’s GDP).

The delay in the EU embargo implementation and the G-7 price cap has weakened the effect of the EU embargo. For now, even data on Russian oil prices is limited. However, it appears Russian oil is selling already below the current price cap of $60

[palmoilnews]

TOP NEWS Agricultural Commodities > Argentina rains 'turn game around' for grains after drought, exchange says > EU wheat steadies after slide with Black Sea exports in focus > India removes floor price for non-basmati white rice exports > Brazil sugar stockpiles revised to record low, says trader Wilmar > POLL-US September cattle placements seen down 4% from last year > GRAINS-CBOT soybean futures jump as some polls show Harris with US election lead > SOFTS-Raw sugar surges amid weak Brazil production outlook, cocoa down > VEGOILS-Palm hits highest level in over two years due to weak output, policy moves > InVivo eyes Ukrainian wheat to counter Russian export expansion > World Bank says will double agricultural commitments to $9 bln a year by 2030 > ANALYSIS-Potash supply nears pre-war levels, pushing producers to cut output > Kazakhstan grain harvest almost complete; aims to export 12 mln T > Jordan makes no purchase in 120,000 T barley tender, traders say > South Korea to supply stocks of kimchi cabbage after hot weather damages crop > EXCLUSIVE-State and industry input led US farm agency to relax bird flu testing

[euro-journal-english-news]

Children dying in Somalia as food catastrophe worsens

Children dying in Somalia as food catastrophe worsens

Famine averted for now but crisis worsening – IPC ‘Children are dying now’ – UNICEF U.N. funding appeal facing $1 bln shortfall MOGADISHU, Dec 13 (EuroJournal) – More than 200,000 Somalis are suffering catastrophic food shortages and many are dying of hunger, with that number set to rise to over 700,000 next year, according to an analysis by an alliance of U.N. agencies and aid groups. The…

[preppernewstoday]

These are the most recent news items and commentary about economics, stock trends, stocks and investing opportunities. Hedges, derivatives and obscura are also covered. These items come from the "tangibles-heavy" contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Senior Editor, JWR. Today we will be looking at the global credit market turmoil which began in England. (See Economy & Finance section. Precious Metals: Goldman explains what oil and gold can offer: This commodity is a 'welcome chance'. o o o Hedge funds remain bearish. Gold investors need more evidence that the Fed will slow down its rate increases. Economy and Finance Consulting client wanted my opinion about when the Federal Reserve would change from tight credit to loose credit. I explained to her that the FOMC would not likely change until the US is in deep recession, or when the credit markets are frozen or collapsing. What time could that be? They likely won’t be too worried about a recession until at most the spring 2023. A credit freeze, similar to the one England suffered recently, could occur at any moment. We can expect more dollar strength in the Forex and short selling precious metals by institutional and speculative investors. o o o UK cuts tax for wealthy, which caused market turmoil. o o o Video by Neil McCoyWard: It Begins... JWR’s Comments: Rishi is a bit suspicious. Take note that Rishi Sunak is a proponent of both a British CBDC and government-administered digital identification. o o o CNBC's Perpetual Cheering Section: Keep the course. For long-term investors, bear market reminders Commodities: The US Diesel Crisis is Here, and it's spreading along the East Coast. o o o A report by a globalist think-tank: October 20,22 Commodity Market Outlook : Pandemics, War, and Recession: Drivers for Aluminum and Copper Prices. o o o Over at OilPrice News: U.S. JWR's Comment: U.S. Accelerates Three-Tier plan to Reduce Oil Prices This is not a coincidence, surely? Derivatives: Mark to market losses from LDI derivatives could reach $167 bln – JPMorgan analysts. o o o Credit Suisse announces "radical" restructuring with Saudi backing. JWR's Comments: This could be their Lehman Moment with many far-reaching implications. o o o Analysis - Underwater - How the Bank of England gave markets a lifeline o o o LDI Chaos May Hurt Private Equity and Property Allocations. Forex and Cryptos The Dollar's Global Wake of Destruction. o o o Convergence between Fed-ECB Interest rate Biases Sends Dollar Low o o o U.S. U.S. jury finds Credit Suisse didn't rig forex market. o o o Schwab Market Perspective - No Stopping The Fed. o o o UK Police Council reports that officers are trained to enforce crypto. o o o CoinJournal reports that Bitcoin has rallied to $20,000. This is the next target. o o o As expected, Regulators propose the first global rules prior to the 'crypto winter' thaw. Tangibles in Investing Tamara Keel describes an investment-worthy pistol: FN High Power: A Classic rebooted. o o o Institutional Investors Seek Collectibles Home Run. o o o The state of the Collector Car Market: Very Very Good. A pericope: "This year's Monterey Car Week auctions set an 18.9% record for collector car sales. They brought in $469,000,000, 18.9% more than the 2015 record of $394.5 Million. There was a 78% sell through rate and an average selling price of $590713, both reported by auction houses. Some commentators believe that the current bear market, rising inflation, and fears of recession drove Monterey's record-breaking prices. This prompted investors to search for other places to invest their money, much as they did during the sharp declines in stock price. Provisos: SurvivalBlog Editors and their staff are not licensed to act as investment advisors. For more information, please visit our Provisos webpage. News tips:

JWR can receive your investing and economic news tips. You can send your information via the Contact form. These news are often particularly relevant as they come directly from people who monitor specific markets. Please send any news you find that might be of interest to SurvivalBlog users. Local news items that have been missed by news wire services are particularly appreciated. It doesn't have to be just about commodities or precious metals. Thanks!

[your-dietician]

Analysis: ECB 'QT' may be next challenge for tumultuous markets

New Post has been published on https://medianwire.com/analysis-ecb-qt-may-be-next-challenge-for-tumultuous-markets/

Analysis: ECB 'QT' may be next challenge for tumultuous markets

LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) – The European Central Bank is considering entering the maelstrom of volatile world markets to start winding down its massive bond holdings – just as governments scale up spending to respond to an energy crisis likely to induce a recession.

The ECB, which bought 5 trillion euros ($4.87 trillion) of bonds over the past decade to lift inflation deemed too low, now finds itself battling to bring it down as it runs at a record high of 10%.

On top of aggressive interest rate hikes including an unprecedented 75 basis-point move last month, policy hawks want to begin quantitative tightening (QT): the scaling back of the ECB’s bond holdings.

European Central Bank policymakers discussed earlier this month a detailed timeline for running down part of their bond portfolio and envisioned its start sometime in the second quarter of 2023, Reuters reported on Thursday.

The process will likely come after the ECB hikes its benchmark rate to around 2% and be very gradual, but bond markets, reeling from aggressive rate hikes globally, an energy crisis and a rout in British bonds – are nervous.

“There is much at stake in the euro zone when it comes to QT,” said ING senior rates strategist Benjamin Schroeder, adding that the closely watched gap between Italian and German yields was the main focus.

“But beyond spreads there is also a fear of stoking further market volatility, especially when government funding plans in the eurozone are under growing upside risk.”

At 2.35%, Germany’s 10-year bond yield is up 250 basis points this year and Italy’s up almost 360 bps – the largest surges in decades.

Germany last month unveiled a 200 billion euro package funded by new borrowing to help cushion the blow from the energy shock. BofA expects net European government bond supply to rise close to 400 billion euros next year, the highest on record and well above the 120-145 billion euros expected this year, dampened in part by ECB bond-buying.

“This consideration also makes the practical implementation of ECB QT significantly harder,” BofA said.

SOFTLY, SOFTLY

Analysts expect the ECB would first gradually phase out reinvestments of bonds maturing under its conventional bond purchase programme. That would reduce its balance sheet by a “manageable” 155 billion euros in 2023 and 300 billion euros in 2024, ING reckons.

Goldman Sachs estimates that bond markets should be able to digest an annual 250 billion euro unwind of those holdings. Ten-year bond yields in higher-rated states would rise a mere 6 bps, and 15 bps in Southern Europe.

Even if those holdings were to be unwound, analysts widely expect the ECB would still continue reinvestments under its pandemic emergency bond purchase programme (PEPP). It shifted funds to countries such as Italy and Spain over the summer as a first line of defence for a divergence of the yield spread they pay over top-rated Germany’s seen as “unwarranted”.

Reuters sources said the QT discussion earlier this month did not impact PEPP reinvestments, set to run through 2024.

Eric Oynoyan, head of European rates strategy at Morgan Stanley, estimates PEPP redemptions will total around 151 bln euros next year.

“To some extent, ironically the PEPP flexibility is a way to keep on doing QE for peripheral debt while doing QT and could even eventually lead to tighter spreads,” he said, referring to the first half of next year.

An eventual wind-down of PEPP holdings could add to balance sheet reductions in 2025 worth a total 388 billion euros, ING said. Analysts do not expect the ECB to speed up the process with outright bond sales.

The easy money era is over

UNCHARTERED TERRITORY

How QT will play out is largely unknown in the same way that quantitative easing was an experiment.

The Federal Reserve has started to wind down its $9 trillion balance sheet and staff recently concluded that bond market strains could complicate the operation by amplifying its impact and raising rates more than anticipated.

The Bank of England’s plans to start QT in early October were delayed until Oct. 31 as it launched an emergency bond-buying programme to stem a bond market rout sparked by the UK government’s Sept. 23 announcement of a “mini-budget”.

“The lesson from the Bank of England is that essentially, if you don’t have financial stability, there’s no point trying to pursue price stability,” said Piet Haines Christiansen, chief analyst at Danske Bank.

The big headache for the ECB is containing bond spreads.

In addition to PEPP reinvestments, it has also launched a new tool, the Transmission Protection Instrument (TPI), under which it would buy bonds from states seeing an “unwarranted” widening of spreads over Germany.

AllianceBernstein portfolio manager Nick Sanders said he was “sceptical” how the ECB could achieve QT with those protections in place.

“If you’ve got euro zone yields supported by backstop they’ve got in place, it’s going to be very hard for them to move into QT environment without a shock towards peripheral spreads, particularly Italy.”

The ECB may also find itself undertaking QT during a recession, which would lead to “overtightening” of policy, said Annalisa Piazza, analyst at MFS Investment Management.

No doubt the ECB, whose assets rival the Fed’s, adding to balance sheet runoff globally would be another source of uncertainty for broader markets.

A rough rule of thumb is that $1 trillion of QT is consistently worth about 10% off global equities, strategists said.

($1 = 1.0264 euros)

Reporting by Yoruk Bahceli and Dhara Ranasinghe, additional reporting by Samuel Indyk in London; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Tomasz Janowski

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read the full article here

[hrmnnswbrtkrmr]

Translation of a ukrainian officers analysis:

THREAD 1/7 Intel from a Ukrainian officer about a meeting in Putin’s lair in Urals. Oligarchs convened there so no one would flee. Putin is furious, he thought that the whole war would be easy and everything would be done in 1-4 days. @EPPGroup @general_ben @edwardlucas @politico 

2/7 Russians didn’t have a tactical plan. The war costs about $20 bln/day. There are rockets for 3-4 days at most, they use them sparingly. They lack weapons, the Tula and 2 Rotenberg plants can’t physically fulfil the orders for weapons. Rifles and ammo are the most they can do.

3/7 The next Russian weapons can be produced in 3-4 months – if even that. They have no raw materials. What was previously supplied mainly from Slovenia, Finland and Germany is now cut off.

4/7 If Ukraine manages to hold the Russians off for 10 days, then the Russians will have to enter negotiations. Because they have no money, weapons, or resources. Nevertheless, they are indifferent about the sanctions.

5/7 Alpha Spec Ops have been near Kyiv since the 18th February. The goal was to take Kyiv and instal a puppet regime. They are preparing provocations against innocent civilians – women and children – to sow panic. This is their trump card.

6/7 Russia’s whole plan relies on panic – that the civilians and armed forces surrender and Zelensky flees. They expect Kharkiv to surrender first so the other cities would follow suit to avoid bloodshed. The Russians are in shock of the fierce resistance they have encountered.

7/7 The Ukrainians must avoid panic! The missile strikes are for intimidation, the Russians fire them at random to “accidentally” hit residential buildings to make the attack look larger than it really is. Ukraine must stay strong and we must provide assistance! #StandWithUkraine

8/7 Spread this information so the world would realise how important it is to assist Ukraine right now and without hesitation! It is difficult for Russia, but it is difficult for Ukraine as well if the West does not provide meaningul support! @EPPGroup @MFAestonia @MoD_Estonia

[alexduecode]

What is Code Quality Rank?

You need no technical qualification to understand what happens under the hood of your project. Based on analyzing 2.5 bln. lines of code and 172k repositories we found it possible to condense a code quality summary to the one letter rank.

Main Idea

Our product is based on the idea of simplicity. Any person who doesn’t even have a special technical background, will be able to understand immediately what is happening with the codebase by just looking at the results of our analysis: is it getting better, or, perhaps, it’s only getting worse; see who and when introduced low-quality code or vice versa—has cleaned the Augean stables.

As a result of negotiations, such a global high-level idea has transformed into the idea of ratings.

How Does Rating Work?

As we have already mentioned, the rating is a generalized assessment. So, it generalizes something and consists of multiple parts. Yes, it is true.

We use SonarQube as a “backend” for collecting quality indicators of source code. And, therefore, the process of obtaining a code quality rating is quite simple: Launch SonarQube; Obtain stats from SonarQube; Feed the resulting statistics to our algorithm; ??? PROFIT!!! The rating is calculated!

Several Technical Details

So, as we have already found out, each commit and repository differ by the number of code lines used by technology and language, as well as the number and type of violations. Our goal is to make sure that the resulting estimates are independent of these parameters, in other words, so that you can:

Compare the code written in one language but in different volumes;

Compare the code written in different languages;

Compare developers;

Compare repositories. How To Compare Repositories With Each Other?

Obviously, the repository containing no violations at all will always get the best rating. But what if, for example, there are ten violations in a repository? Is it a lot or not? It all depends on the number of code lines in your repository. If there are only ten of them, then this is not very comforting news for you! But if there are hundreds of thousands of lines of code, then this is already a fairly clean code. Is it possible to say that in this case, these two repositories are comparable in the code quality?

Our algorithm answers this question by setting an appropriate rating for the code quality depending on the number of lines, and number and types of violations encountered in this repository.

In other words, we compare the number of code lines in the newly analyzed repository against the already analyzed ones for a given language. Then, we find repositories similar in volume and look at the number of violations in the analyzed repository in comparison to those we already have analyzed. If it’s low, we mark the code as good, if there are a lot of violations, the mark is worse.

How to Compare Two Ratings For Different Languages?

It’s very easy! You simply compare the ratings with each other, without thinking about what language your repository is in, nor about how many lines of code are there in it! Our approach frees you from these worries! Repositories become comparable regardless of language and number of code lines!

Thus, our algorithm fully meets the goals.

Why Didn’t You Choose Another Approach?

We have experimented with different approaches.

The simplest approach was based on a simple comparison of violation density. But the key drawback of this approach was that it made it impossible to compare repositories using different programming languages. Such an approach, with all its simplicity, was limiting the possibility of its use by the framework of one language. Estimates became incomparable.

We have also experimented with well-known machine learning approaches—classification and clustering. But, as the practice has shown, and you saw it from the graphs above, there are no clusters in the distribution of the number of errors in the repositories.

With the classification, the problem was even more interesting. Since classification requires labeled data (there should have been indications of whether the code in the repository is good or bad), the problem turned out to be an Ouroboros. We need quality classes of program code, but to get them, we need to build a classification model. And to build a classification model, you need quality classes of program code.

Only the good old statistical approach was left, which we have used. Our approach is based on the construction of a multidimensional probability density function for errors in the source code, the level lines of which are our ratings. And this approach is working! Moreover, this approach fully satisfies our requirements for the rating system.

Pros And Cons of Our Rating System

Simplicity and clarity even for a software development newcomer;

The ability to compare developers writing in the same language;

The ability to compare developers using different languages;

The ability to compare repositories by code quality;

The honesty of the Rating System.

What Does Honesty Mean?

Here I would like to talk about one case.

We’ve built rating models for different languages ​​and launched them on in-house production servers. As we work and scan the repositories and commits inside the company, we have accumulated some data displayed on our dashboard.

And then, something unexpected happened! It turned out that the ratings of Java, JavaScript, and PHP developers were on average worse than those of Golang developers! And, of course, the blame was on the DS department, which was said to set up these rating models, strongly discriminating individual languages ​​and technologies!

The DS department just pointed out that we had just really great Golang developers, without going into details. Such excuses satisfied the unsatisfied group only for a short time. And finally, when the situation was already quite tense and the people began to demand answers, the DS department started an internal investigation, the result of which is this article. The purpose of this article is to add transparency and clarify the understanding of the principles of the constructed rating system. After all, no one likes when their work is evaluated by some mysterious model that works, as it seems, like a black box.

[truck-fump]

Analysis: From zero to $12 bln; investors chase <b>Trump</b> stock hype | Reuters

New Post has been published on https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/zero-12-bln-investors-chase-trump-stock-hype-2021-10-25/&ct=ga&cd=CAIyGjUzM2UwMTY5ZmFhZTIwMGQ6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AFQjCNF7u3hBMwOgqBe97EZ0UKvC50hvkw

Analysis: From zero to $12 bln; investors chase Trump stock hype | Reuters

Donald Trump has united some of his supporters and detractors in buying shares in his new company and hoping to score a big win.

[palmoilnews]

TOP NEWS Agricultural Commodities > Russia widens grain export curbs, halts some Aston ships, sources say > Panama Canal drought could threaten supply chain, S&P says > ANALYSIS-Europe's restless farmers are forcing policymakers to act > Ghana to raise cocoa farmgate price by up to 50%, Cocobod says > Bird flu hits Texas dairy cows, hens, human as ducks migrate > GRAINS-Corn rises for 2nd session on fund buying, market eyes US planting > COLUMN-Wet April outlook offers mixed benefits for US winter wheat, corn -Braun > Argentina's farm export revenues up 22% in March > Jordan tenders to buy up to 120,000 metric tons wheat, traders say > SOFTS-Robusta coffee rises to 16-year peak, cocoa slides off record high > Morocco's wheat imports forecast at 5 mln tons next season - trader group > Hunger grips southern Africa as Zimbabwe declares drought a disaster > India aims to expand seafood exports to $12 bln in two years, sources say > VEGOILS-Palm extends gains on supply shortage ahead of Eid holiday > India's rapeseed output likely to hit record high in 2024 on expanded area

[lonnysapotheek]

A Step-by-Step Look at Fake Counterfeit Drug Stats

I have written extensively about how the pharmaceutical industry and its allies deceive the public by conflating the issue of counterfeit drugs with safe, more affordable prescription medicines that Americans purchase online and import for personal use. One of the industry’s main tactics is to make the counterfeit drug problem look as big as possible. They then falsely connect it to Americans buying legitimate meds online and as an excuse to oppose prescription drug importation in general. They do this through industry-funded groups and researchers.

A non-profit organization, funded by drug company Eli Lilly and other industry sources, called the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP) has a page called “The Global Fight Against Illegal Online Pharmacies and Counterfeit Medicines.” It states: “Worth $200 billion a year, the market for counterfeit pharmaceuticals now eclipses almost everything in the underground economy, including prostitution, human trafficking and illegal arms sales.” On that same page, it goes on to report how ASOP is educating the public about “Canadian online pharmacies and drug importation” and “how the legalization of importation of prescription drugs from Canada and other foreign countries would endanger consumers by threatening the protections provided by the Drug Supply Chain Security Act of 2013.”

Where did that number, $200 billion come from?

It’s a vicious circle of seemed “authority.” Basically, a statistic appears in a seemingly authoritative article or even scholarly report. A citation appears with that statistic, but it is rarely checked or questioned because the authority is trustworthy enough. Then, the media sees that statistic and regurgitates it over and over and over again. In the case of this $200 billion figure, the story is no different.

In 2010, Reuters published an article called “Customs group to fight $200 bln bogus drug industry.” The story is largely about the work of the World Customs Organization signing a declaration to address the problem. It reads, “Counterfeit drugs have become a $200-billion-a-year industry and the 176-nation World Customs Organization (WCO) will sign a declaration later this month to fight the scourge, an official said on Thursday.” Soon thereafter, I started seeing this figure everywhere, popping up among industry sources and their warnings about online pharmacies and importation of medicine.

For example, the website of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly pegs the counterfeit drug trade at $200 billion. It states: “Counterfeit drug sales generated an estimated $200 billion in illicit profits in one year alone.” Eli Lilly does not cite a source for the data.

In its section on counterfeit drugs, Sanofi’s website notes a $200 billion figure and it actually has a citation:

“World Economic Forum, Global Risks, Sixth edition, An Initiative of the Risk Response Network, 2011, p. 23. IRACM 2015.”

That World Economic Forum (WEF) report is about all kinds of threats to the economy, such as geopolitical, societal, technological, etc. Among those threats is illicit trade in counterfeit goods, including medicine. The report has a chart of the “rough” – their words — estimate of the market size of illicit goods, among them web and video piracy, cocaine, software piracy. The largest is for counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs, and sure enough the estimate is $200 billion.

But how did the WEF come to that number?

It was not WEF’s research. At the bottom of the chart it reads: “Source: Havocscope and experts.” That may not exactly seem promising as an authoritative citation, but even little-known organizations have conducted worthwhile research.

That’s not the case here.

That Havoscope figure comes from a page on its website that is titled Estimated Value of the Fake Drug Industry. It states: “The counterfeit drugs industry is estimated to be worth $200 Billion a year.” Go to the page. It seems to only exist for the purpose of propagating this statistic. I would have thought that this was some industry-funded research to justify this data point but no. In fact, coming full circle, Havoscope cites the aforementioned Reuters article from 2010, which as mentioned above does not attribute the dollar figure to anyone!

The $200 billion counterfeit drug figure, which first appeared in 2010, actually came on the heels of a 2005 estimate in a report by Peter Pitts of the drug industry-funded group Center for Medicine in the Public Interest: $75 billion. The report propagated the idea that drug importation to lower drug prices would help terrorists get to Americans through counterfeit drugs. It was called “21st Century Healthcare Terrorism: The Perils of International Drug Counterfeiting.” See it to believe it: https://docplayer.net/3507537-Moderator-s-guide-21st-century-health-care-terrorism-the-perils-of-international-drug-counterfeiting-september-20-2005.html

How did they get to $75 billion?

As I understand it, a person from the World Health Organization, speaking at a conference, estimated that the pharmaceutical market globally was about 10% counterfeit, another stat for which I have not seen actual research. The report by Peter J. Pitts applied that 10% estimate to projected global pharmaceutical market of $750 billion in 2010, and on that basis estimated $75 billion in the counterfeit drug market. That was the most prevalent stat regurgitated in the media on the scope of counterfeit drugs worldwide for a long time, until the $200 billion overtook it.

In 2016, WebMD’s Medscape, which is generally accepted as authoritative, noted a figure of $431 billion to quantify the counterfeit and substandard drug market, citing the World Health Organization as a source. Then, without any substantive connection, Medscape tied this to online pharmacies. Roger Bate, on the website of the American Enterprise Institute, wrote:

“One would expect more from Medscape than to provide propaganda for domestic pharmacy and pharma interests”

In 2017, the World Health Organization conducted a meta-analysis, a study of 100 studies that collected and tested pharmaceuticals in middle and lower-income countries and determined a market worth $30 billion in counterfeit drugs. That was only for lower and middle-income countries. But the conventional wisdom is that counterfeits make up less than 1% of drugs sold in high-income countries, which could not be more than $10 billion. Consequently, that report talked about the potential dangers of buying drugs online, which are real, but did not include tests of medicines ordered online in its actual study.

Earlier this year, a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union calculated international trade in counterfeit drugs at $4.4 billion.

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[selinamary]

What will be the ripple price in 2020?

Ripple acts both as a cryptocurrency and a digital payment network for financial activities. It establishes quick, secure and cheap exchange procedures all over the world. In the year 2019, technology targets to expand its operations to many more countries. Ripple came to existence in August 2013 to the crypto market. Ripple is going to rule all international transactions worldwide. The platform owns a currency (XRP) that allows everybody to use it in order to create their own via RippleNet.

Why invest in Ripple?

Currently, 55 billion out of 100 bln XRP coins are secured. This means it avoids the fall in the Ripple price.

Ripple aims to set up quick, safe and cheap exchange procedures all over the world.

Ripple platform allows only the pre-approved members to manage a node and verify XRP transactions.

Ripple Price Analysis

Ripple Price  can be forecasted by the related sources.Ripple was trading at $0.005882 resistance levels at the beginning. As days passed by, the Ripple price started trading at higher rates.During March 2018, Ripple was trading at the rate of $0.697269, which was clearly an 11,752.28 percent increase.

Ripple Price Prediction 2020

 A various set of experiments were executed in the year 2019.If the growth of XRP is successful, then Ripple can reach up to the heights of $2 by the end of 2020. Ripple price prediction can be forecasted by the related sources as in 2020, the price will be the same and in November and December will grow to 0.37 USD. 

[joannpace]

$240 Bln Japanese Company To Pay Employees in Bitcoin

A Japanese holding company will offer employees part of their salaries in Bitcoin in 2018. #ANALYSIS

$240 Bln Japanese Company To Pay Employees in Bitcoin published first on https://cointelegraph.com/

[ghanafinancialmarket]

Ghana Non-Traditional Export Earnings Jump To US$2.8 bln In 2018

Ghana Non-Traditional Export Earnings Jump To US$2.8 bln In 2018

Export earnings has jumped 10 per cent year on year in 2018 as various initiatives by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) to boost performance begin to take shape.

From January to December 2018, NTEs brought in an amount of $2.813 billion compared to $2.556 billion earned in 2017.

Presenting the figures at the Launch of the Report on Analysis of 2018 Non-Traditional Export Statictics, Mr…

[dqu--us]

BLN Webinar: Introducing the BID Learning Network Data Quality and Use Collaborative | Better Immunization Data Initiative

BLN Webinar: Introducing the BID Learning Network Data Quality and Use Collaborative Feb 20, 2019 SUBJECTS: GAVI, PACKAGING, PEOPLE, POLICIES, PRACTICES COUNTRIES: GLOBAL The BID Learning Network (BLN) invites you to view a webinar presentation on “Introducing the BID Learning Network Data Quality and Use Collaborative.” Since 2014, the BLN has been bringing African countries together through peer learning, to identify and share tested solutions related to data collection, quality, and use. Designed as part of the BID Initiative, the BLN aims to empower countries to enhance immunization service delivery. The BLN recently partnered with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to form the BLN/Gavi Data Quality and Use Collaborative (the DQU Collaborative) to work with countries within the WHO/AFRO region to improve immunization data quality and use through peer-to-peer learning and interaction. The DQU Collaborative will enable collective problem analysis and design of interventions to address these problems among participating countries. The DQU Collaborative will intentionally work with other initiatives such as the WHO Academy to identify opportunities for learning and capacity building. The ultimate goal of the DQU Collaborative is to increase equity and coverage for immunization services in Gavi-supported countries through improved data quality and use. This webinar will be of interest to data management specialists, Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) managers, health management information system (HMIS) specialists, and other health care specialists committed to improving data collection, quality and use across health systems. If you missed the virtual event, you can now view the webinar slides here. PRESENTERS: Dr. Chilunga Puta Dr. Chilunga Puta has over 20 years of experience in public health and research in sub-Saharan Africa. She has been working closely with diverse global partners and national governments particularly in the area of infectious diseases and quality of health care. Dr. Puta has held various portfolios that have included directorship and technical advisor positions in research, quality improvement and infectious diseases. She is currently serving as the BLN Director with PATH. She holds a joint honors BSc in Microbiology and Biochemistry, an MPH in Disease Surveillance, an MBA (Law), a PhD in Biochemistry with extensive postdoctoral training in infectious diseases. In addition, Dr. Puta is a Certified Continuous Quality Improvement Associate of the American Society of Quality. Catherine Muyawala Catherine Muyawala, the BLN Community Coordinator, is a knowledge management specialist with over 20 years of experience in information management including coordinating communities of practice. She has held various knowledge management-related portfolios in diverse sectors including public health. Catherine holds a BA in Library and Information Science and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA). VIEW ALL POSTS & RESOURCES