Friday, July 22, 2016

Pensng Mamacaptain Office ---- official opening on 20 July 2016






MamaCaptain begin since 8 June 2015 til now already a year plus, within a year period from nothing we glow til now we have more than 100k members.
We just celebrated our 1 year anniversary at Penang Spice Arena, during the day we have our merchant [Barrel2U]more than 100 booths , in the evening we have show and concert. All benefit donated to 30 different society with the amount of RM 500,000.
On 20 July Penang MamaCaptain office will be opening at Elite Avenue, open for public visiting.
In the market what kind of platform company can do for members within a year period??? 
My answer is only MamaCaptain can ...... 
In MamaCaptain we see our FUTURE
In MamaCaptain we see our BENEFIT
In MamaCaptain we spend without WORRIES
In MamaCaptain we help lot of MERCHANTS
So .... What are you waiting for???





Apple Watch Sales Tumble 55%

Tim Cook's first major, standalone product is a flop. According to the latest IDC data, sales of the Apple Watch plunged by 55%, from 3.6 million a year ago to just 1.6 million in Q2.  
The sharp decline in sales of a product that many "expert analysts" had staked would result in a "wearables" revolution and a new golden era of growth for Apple, is highly unusual for a new Apple product so early in its life and will add to concerns about Apple's growth prospects this year. By reference, the iPhone posted nine years of uninterrupted growth from its launch in 2007 until the first quarter of this year, when unit sales fell by 16% to 51 million the FT writes.
Other companies did better: while Apple remained the top seller, Samsung closed the gap thanks to strong 51% year-over-year growth and a 9%  jump in market share to 16%.  Lenovo’s Motorola brand also saw a sales increase of 75% to 0.3 million. The Apple Watch's market share has tumbled from 72% at its launch to just 47% in the most recent quarter. 

As IDC said, "Apple still maintains a significant lead in the market and unfortunately a decline for Apple leads to a decline in the entire market. Every vendor faces similar challenges related to fashion and functionality, and though we expect improvements next year, growth in the remainder of 2016 will likely be muted."
After initially ramping up in the first three quarters since its launch, sales of the iWatch have sharply stagnated in the new year, with both Q1 and now Q2 posting disappointing sales numbers.

While the plunge in Apple watch sales is troubling, what is worse for "wearables" advocates is that consumers may have gotten moved on. The overall smartwatch market experienced its first-ever decline as shipments fell 32% in the second quarter, totaling an estimated 3.5 million units compared to an estimated 5.1 million units in the year-ago quarter.
Over the past year, Apple has refused to released any official sales figures for the Watch since it was launched in April of last year. While analysts have estimated that it sold 12m units in its first year the number is below many observers’ initial expectations for the first launch into a new hardware category since Tim Cook took over as Apple’s chief executive. The IDC data will only add to concerns that instead of a growth product which will spearhead the next level of growth for Apple, interest in the iWatch as it has been called, was nothing more than a passing fad.
Then again one probably did not need IDC to conclude this: in March, Apple cut the starting price of the Watch by $50 to $299 for the basic Sport model. Since then, retailers such as Best Buy and Target have offered promotions that have cut as much as $200 from other versions of the Watch, in an attempt to encourage buyers.
Apple declined to comment on IDC’s figures, ahead of its earnings report next week. The Watch, a revamped Apple TV and new Apple Music service have so far failed to offset the declines in iPhone and iPad sales, which Tuesday’s figures are expected to show have continued in recent months. We doubt Apple will breakout Apple watch sales data, either next week or ever.

Déjà Vu, The Economic Indicators Look Alot Like 2008

Tech companies, financial institutions are continually cutting jobs.White House put together a report telling the American people that student debt is good. The housing market is starting to look a lot like 2008, bubbles everywhere. The IMF are a bunch of clowns and almost everyone of their predictions did not come true.

Globilization – 80% of Industrialized Nations (U.S. Citizens) Lose


VIDEO: Politician flips out… exposes central-bank scam

From Anonymous:
Below you’ll see Godfrey Bloom, a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP)from 2004 to 2014, brilliantly expose the central-banking scam…

Arrested HSBC FX Trader Had Been Cleared In Bank's Own Internal Probe

While Wall Street was shocked yesterday after the announcement that HSBC's global head of cash FX trading, Mark Johnson, was arrested at JFK on charges of frontrunning a Cairn Energy trade of $3.5 billion pounds, perhaps nobody was more surprised than his employer, HSBC. According to Bloomberg, the Johnson was about to move to the U.S. to take
up a broader position in the firm’s trading division. His arrest therefore, came as a shock to HSBC which wanted to promote the arrested trader to head of the bank’s foreign exchange and
commodities business for the Americas.
The reason for HSBC's surprised was revealed by the FT earlier, which reported that according to HSBC's own internal "investigation" three years ago into a $3.5bn currency trade that US prosecutors now believe was criminally fraudulent, it found nothing wrong with the transaction.

Mark Johnson, HSBC global head of forex cash trading

The HSBC review, conducted in the wake of a sweeping foreign exchange rigging scandal that erupted in 2013, was led by an external lawyer and found no breach of its code of conduct. HSBC declined to comment. The bank was on Thursday reviewing its own investigation of the $3.5bn forex trade to decide whether to support Mark Johnson, its global head of forex cash trading, who was arrested on Tuesday evening at New York’s John F Kennedy airport.
As the FT adds, a solicitor for Mr Scott in London strongly denied the allegations on behalf of her client, who is UK-based. While a warrant for Mr Scott has been issued, US authorities are yet to apply formally for his extradition.
HSBC reviewed its $3.5bn purchase of sterling for Cairn Energy in 2011 along with many other forex trades as part of an internal remediation exercise that it carried out at the request of regulators when the wider forex rigging scandal erupted in 2013.

People briefed on the matter said the bank’s internal investigation found no breach of its code of conduct when it reviewed the trade carried out for Cairn by Mr Johnson and Mr Scott.
How unexpected: a bank looked at its own trades, and found nothing strange despite clear evidence, as revealed by US authorities, showing that Johnson had an explicit intention of frontrunning the client order. It took a DOJ review three years later to stubmel on the smoking gun. As a reminder, the DOJ alleged the traders used a technique known as “ramping” that caused the price of pounds to spike. That spike benefited the bank’s trading book at the expense of the client, who then paid a higher price for the sterling.
When Cairn challenged HSBC about spikes in sterling ahead of the trade, an unnamed supervisor, working with the bankers, then allegedly misled the client by blaming the price increase on a “Russian” bank in the market. The complaint adds that Mr Johnson was surprised Cairn went ahead with the transaction. When told of the company’s commitment, he responded “Ohhh, f***ing Christmas,” using an expletive as an adjective.
Meanwhile, HSBC thought the storm had passed. After banks paid $10bn in fines to US and UK authorities, they complained that spot forex was not included at the time within the UK’s criminal market-abuse regime. A decision by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office earlier this year to drop its criminal investigation into forex-rigging seemed to bolster that argument. However, the Justice Department is accusing the pair of breaching a far more sweeping law: that of wire fraud. The authorities basically accuse them of deceiving their clients for gain. The evidence appears to confirm this allegation.
Roger Burlingame, a former chief prosecutor at the New York office that is bringing the case, and who is now based at law firm Kobre & Kim, explained: “The defendants are charged with wire fraud. This simply means the government has alleged that they’ve used an electronic communication in the US to commit a fraud. “The statute uses the broad, standard definition of fraud; it’s not a technical scheme targeting market abuse in particular. The same statute is used to prosecute any kind of fraud that involves email, phone calls or texts.”
The allegedly criminal trade also slipped through the fingers of the UK's SFO: "a person familiar with the SFO’s thinking told the FT that the agency had not looked at the $3.5bn trade for Cairn and instead was focused on more generalised collusion and rigging within the $5tn-a-day forex market."
Legal experts said that even under UK law, if a bank acting as an agent for its clients can be proven to have defrauded them through deceit then this would be illegal in the UK too. That is important as in order to extradite Mr Scott, the US must persuade a UK court that the alleged wrongdoing was illegal both in the UK and the US at the time.
What are the implications of this arrest for HSBC? The FT concludes that there is a chance it could "cause reputational damage to the global bank’s forex trading business and fuel more calls for HSBC to face full criminal charges. The DoJ has already been criticised for failing to prosecute HSBC after it paid $2bn in 2012 over laundering billions of dollars for Mexican and Colombian drug gangs."
On the other hand considering current HSBC's reputation, this doesn't seem like much of a risk. More importantly, since the alleged wrongdoing happened before it signed a deferred prosecution agreement in 2012 bank insiders think it is unlikely to put it in breach of the deal to avoid prosecution that is due to expire next year.
In other words, while a trial of Johnson may or may not happen, and he may ultimately be found guilty - of wire fraud - the real message here is that perhaps it is time to stop the farce that is internal bank "self reviews" of alleged fraud, which as this incident confirms are merely a waste of time and shareholder funds.

General Mills To Sell Or Close 4 Plants, Putting More Than 1,400 Jobs At Stake

General Mills continues to trim their operation in a move to stay competitive according to this Star Tribune report.  The company’s been quietly cutting jobs since 2014.
General Mills announced Thursday plans to close or sell manufacturing plants in Brazil, China, Ohio and New Jersey as the company continues to slim down costs in response to massive changes in the packaged-foods industry. The moves put about 1,400 jobs at stake.
The Golden Valley-based company has tentatively decided to close its Vineland, N.J., soup-making facility, the original Progresso Soup plant, a move that would cut 370 employees.
The giant foodmaker has reached a definitive agreement to sell its Martel, Ohio facility for $18 million to Mennel Milling Co., which would then become a supplier to General Mills. If the plant, which makes baking mixes, is closed, 180 people would lose their jobs. A spokeswoman for General Mills said Mennel has expressed interest in interviewing the majority of the current employees for jobs at the plant.
Both of these U.S. actions are subject to union negotiations before they become final.
The food company plans to close or scale-back three international plants, which will result in 420 jobs lost in Brazil and 440 jobs in China.
Since 2014, General Mills has cut approximately 3,400 positions globally.
In an unprecedented move, executives earlier this month separated the company’s high-growth products from its low-growth products, tipping off investors to its cost-cutting strategy. The products made at the two U.S. plants the company plans to shed were in the low-growth category.
The company’s divestments in Brazil and China are in response to different challenges.

So much for Project Fear - Bank of England officials admit the British economy has showed NO sign of slowing down in the month since the Brexit vote

  • Bank of England report reveals British economy shows no signs of slowing
  • Monthly survey finds most companies are continuing as usual post-Brexit
  • It flies in the face of warnings issued by Remain campaigners before vote 
  • 'As yet, there was no clear evidence of a sharp general slowing in activity'


The Bank of England last night faced fresh accusations of ‘scaremongering’ after admitting that businesses around the country have taken the referendum result in their stride.
In its first attempt to gauge the mood of firms since the Brexit vote four weeks ago, officials discovered most had adopted a pragmatic ‘business as usual’ approach.
The Bank of England had predicted that uncertainty both in the lead-up to and after the June 23 referendum would cause firms to put off hiring new staff and investing in their business. 
But monthly survey by the institution's agents – who are considered to be its eyes and ears on the ground observing the British economy – found that most companies were continuing with business as usual.
The study flies in the face of the dire warnings issued by Remain campaigners in the run-up to the vote, when there were widespread predictions the nation would suffer a devastating economic blow.
The Bank's agents found that there had been a marked rise in business uncertainty but most companies did not expect their investment or hiring plans to take a hit.
'As yet, there was no clear evidence of a sharp general slowing in activity,' the report said.
Chancellor Philip Hammond seized on the announcement as evidence of Britain's reslilience.
He said the figures were 'proof that the fundamentals of the British economy are strong'.
'As the economy adjusts to the effect of the referendum decision, it is doing so from a position of economic strength,' he said.
Exporters said they expected the weakened pound to have a positive effect on turnover.
However, the agents said fierce competition between supermarket chains and High Street retailers would mean many would look to prevent customers suffering from price rises caused by sterling's fall.
nd there was 'little evidence of any impact on consumer spending' – despite warnings that British confidence would take a massive hit after the shock result.
The report found little evidence of business pulling out of the UK, although some companies were expected to focus more on Europe for growth.
Some businesses even said they were looking to come back to Britain or find more domestic suppliers because of the lower pound.
The Bank's findings were supported by a trading report from the retailer John Lewis.
It said spending in its department stores and at Waitrose supermarkets was 3.2pc higher in the week ending July 16 than a year earlier.
Adam Tyler, chief executive of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers, said: 'This latest report from the Bank of England will provide considerable encouragement to the UK business community.
'The findings are certainly consistent with what we are seeing on the ground, namely that most businesses are carrying on more or less as normal.
'Businesses are monitoring events closely, especially news surrounding future trading relations, but the corporate paralysis some suggested has simply not materialised.'
The unexpectedly upbeat news suggests that Bank officials might decide not to push ahead with an interest rate cut next month.
Markets were widely expecting a reduction to counter the effects of a slowing economy, and Bank Governor Mark Carney has several times said he expected a stimulus to be needed.
But top policymaker Kristin Forbes, who will be one of those making the decision, said it was important to 'keep calm and carry on'.
Writing in The Telegraph, Ms Forbes said financial markets had 'stabilised' after an early 'panic'.
And she said there was no evidence 'consumers are cutting back'.
It follows an announcement earlier in the week by the International Monetary Fund that the post-Brexit hit to growth might be lower than initially thought.
After saying that leaving the European Union could trigger a UK recession, the International Monetary Fund now expects the British economy to grow by 1.7 per cent this year and 1.3 per cent next year.
That is weaker than the 1.9 and 2.2 per cent growth forecasts before the referendum, but the UK is still set to be the second-fastest growing economy in the Group of Seven industrialised nations this year – behind the United States – and third-fastest next year, behind the US and Canada. 

HOME LOANS HIT EIGHT-YEAR HIGH 

By Business Correspondent for the Daily Mail 
British households also shrugged off referendum concerns last month as they rushed to buy new homes.
Latest estimates from the Council of Mortgage Lenders showed almost £21billion was borrowed last month - the highest figure for June for eight years.
The dramatic surge came despite claims from the Bank of England that nervous families had been putting off ‘big ticket purchases’ before the referendum.
Last night, Eurosceptic MP John Redwood said the ‘doom-mongers’ at the Bank and the Treasury were being ‘forced to eat their pre-referendum words’.
In another boost to the economy, Government borrowing also fell to £7.8billion in the month of the referendum – less than forecast by economists and the lowest for a June since 2007.
Chancellor Philip Hammond said the figures from the Office for National Statistics demonstrated the ‘underlying strength of the economy’.
Even retailers who endured a fall in sales last month reported that shoppers were put off by wet weather rather than fears about the referendum, according to the ONS.
The largely upbeat report was published as ONS figures also revealed a record 31.7million people aged between 16 and 64 are in work after a dramatic surge in hiring ahead of the referendum.
John Longworth, the former boss of the British Chambers of Commerce, who was ousted after speaking out in favour of Brexit, said: ‘As I predicted, there will be a period of uncertainty in the financial markets but the real economy would be strong and continue as normal. All the indicators are that Britain is doing very well, thank you.’
Mr Redwood added: ‘Employment is at record levels, wages are rising and people are buying are buying homes. This shows that Britain is open for business – it’s business as usual.’


Federal Debt Tops $19,400,000,000,000

By Terence P. Jeffrey | July 20, 2016 | 4:57 PM EDT
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
(CNSNews.com) - The federal debt moved above $19,400,000,000,000 for the first time as of the close of business on Tuesday, according to the data released today by the U.S. Treasury.
At the close of business on Monday, July 18, the total federal debt was $19,391,094,247,028.26, according to the Treasury. By the close of business on Tuesday, July 19, it had risen to $19,402,361,890,929.46.
On Friday, Oct. 30, 2015, Congress passed the “Bipartisan Budget Act,” which suspended the legal debt limit until March 15, 2017. President Obama signed that bill into law on Monday, Nov. 2, 2015
At the close of business on Oct. 30, the federal debt stood at $18,152,981,685,747.52.
In the less than nine months since then, the federal debt has increased by $1,249,380,205,181.94
Title IX of the Bipartisan Budget Act is entitled “Temporary Extension of Public Debt Limit.” The Congressional Research Service summary explains that part of the law this way: “The public debt limit is suspended through March 15, 2017. On March 16, 2017, the limit is increased to accommodate obligations issued during the suspension period.”
Prior to President Obama signing the Bipartisan Budget Act, the Treasury had been in a "debt issuance suspension period" that Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew had declared on March 16, 2015. During that "debt issuance suspension period" the Treasury took what it calls "extraordinary measures" to prevent the debt from exceeding what was then the legal limit.

To the mattresses: Cash levels highest in nearly 15 years

From CNBC:
Despite the post-Brexit market rally, fund managers have gotten even more wary of taking risks.
The S&P 500 has jumped about 8.5% since the lows hit in the days after Britain’s move to leave the European Union, but that hasn’t assuaged professional investors. Cash levels are now at 5.8% of portfolios, up a notch from June and at the highest levels since November 2001, according to the latest Bank of America Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey.
In addition to putting money under the mattress, investors also are looking for protection, with equity hedging at its highest level in the survey’s history.
Source: BofA Merrill Lynch Global Fund Manager Survey
Indeed, fear is running high as investors believe that global financial conditions are tightening, despite nearly $12 trillion of negative-yielding debt around the world and the U.S. central bank on hold perhaps until 2017.
In fact, fear is running so high that BofAML experts think that it’s helping fuel the recent market rally.
Record numbers of investors saying fiscal policy is too restrictive and the first underweighting of equities in four years suggest that fiscal easing could be a tactical catalyst for risk assets going forward,” Michael Hartnett, chief investment strategist, said in a statement.
Positioning changed, with a rotation from euro zone, banks and insurance companies shifting to the U.S., industrials, energy, technology and materials stocks.
Fund managers believe that so-called helicopter money will become a reality, with 39% now anticipating the move compared to 27% in June.
Read the full story at CNBC here…

US Investors prepare to indict the Icelandic state

US Investors prepare to indict the Icelandic state
US Investment managers, Eaton Vance and Autonomy Capital, are preparing to have the Icelandic state prosecuted because of their investments. The two funds purchased Icelandic government bonds in the aftermath of the financial crises in 2008, Viðskiptablaðið reports.
According to Eaton Vance and Autonomy Capital the Icelandic state must be all but bankrupt since it they’re not willing reimburse investors according to marked value. They believe that the Icelandic state has violated them with the latest law bill passed in parliament in respond to the panama paper leak this spring. Their claim is that the government and the Icelandic central bank violated them and other investors with their bill of law. The bill in question gave an ultimatum of offshore fund holders and companies, they were either to accept the value set by the central bank of Iceland or take their place in the back of the line and wait for the currency restrictions to be lifted.
Eaton Vance and Autonomy Capital have asked the district courts in Iceland to appoint specialists to investigate the legitimacy of the bill. They believe it goes against the constitution of Iceland. According to their evaluation the fact that they can not be paid in marked value for their IKR is inconceivable. According to Bloomberg.com Icelandic lawyer Pétur Örn Sverrisson is one of many lawyers working on the case for the two funds.

European Central Bank 'running out of tools' to deal with crises across EU

THE Head of the Europe's central bank is running out of tools to deal with the bloc's economic woes, an expert warned ahead of an appearance by Mario Draghi later today.

mario draghiGETTY
Mario Draghi, Head of the ECB
Investors hope the bank chief will be able to calm rising fears over the eurozone's financial stability, following Britain's vote to leave the European Union (EU).

The economic picture for the bloc has darkened since the referendum outcome, which has trigged panic over Italy's banks, which hold around £270billion of bad loans on their books.

In a bid to smooth the cracks, the European Central Bank (ECB) is now expected to take monetary action in the coming months.

But Mr Draghi is running out of options, after already going to extreme lengths to boost the economy in recent years.
Earlier this year, the ECB pulled out all the stops in a desperate effort to revive growth by implementing negative interest rates and injecting more than a trillion pounds worth of cash into the economy.

Now Mr Draghi will need to pull a rabbit out of the hat to persuade markets that Brexit will not derail the eurozone economy.

BNP Paribas economist Luigi Speranza said. "The burden of responding to the Brexit shock will remain with the ECB, which is all too aware that it has fewer and fewer tools with which to respond."

Following the Bank of England's wait and see approach towards the economy following the vote to leave, the ECB is likely to adopt a similar attitude today.

But the chief is expected to hint that he could in effect print more money for the bloc or cut interest rates even lower come September.

Florian Hense, an economist at Berenberg, said:"Draghi will likely nurse market concerns about the ECB's monetary policy by using a dovish tone and possibly pointing to further action later this year.

"For the ECB it is important to keep its options open."

NASA's Kennedy Space Center firm to lay off almost 300 workers

Security services company Chenega Security & Support Solutions, LLC will lay off 272 employees between Sept. 26-30.
The Chantilly, Va.-based company filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with Florida's Department of Economic Opportunity on July 18. Chenega's Florida facility specializes in protective services for NASA and has a location at the Kennedy Space Center.
The lay offs are due to the end of the Kennedy Space Center's service contract with Chenega, Karen Rogina, director of corporate communications, told Orlando Business Journal.
"We've submitted a bid proposal for a follow-up contract; we're waiting for award notification," said Rogina. "Whether it's us or a different contractor, we anticipate a seamless transition for all the positions in the new contract."
The company was awarded a fixed-price contract beginning in December 2011 and lasting a maximum of four years, 10 months, according to NASA's public records. The maximum value of the contract was approximately $151.9 million.
Chenega's current services at the Kennedy Space Center include physical security operations, 911 dispatch, firefighting and emergency management and protective services training, according to NASA's public records.