New Action Movie Features Billion Dollar Crypto... _HOT_
There's a third summary judgment motion related to Qualcomm's business practices that is worth talking about, though it is admittedly a distant third given the enormous potential of the FTC's motion regarding the licensong of rival chipset makers and Apple's motion targeting Qualcomm's "double-dipping" (chipset sales + patent royalties). In a lower-profile motion that nevertheless highlights a major issue, Apple has asked Judge Gonzalo Curiel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California to throw out Qualcomm's counterclaims according to which Apple has to repay rebates amounting to billions of dollars because it breached a "Business Cooperation and Patent Agreement" (BCPA) through its efforts to instigate and broaden antitrust investigations into Qualcomm's conduct (this post continues below the document):18-09-01 Apple Motion Re. R... by on Scribd
New Action Movie Features Billion Dollar Crypto...
"The BCPA carved out, as it must, an acknowledgment that Apple has a responsibility to respond to enforcement agencies' requests for information. But in restraining Apple from initiating action or bringing concerns to law enforcement, Qualcomm conditioned billions of dollars on Apple's silence before courts and regulators about Qualcomm's business practices. And Qualcomm is now interpreting that agreement to retaliate against Apple for responding to requests for information about Qualcomm's practices from competitionagencies, inhibiting law-enforcement review of Qualcomm's anticompetitive practices."
In light of the above, the term "gag order" is actually an understatement. Qualcomm wanted to be exonerated by using Apple, in exchange for a billion-dollar payment, as its mouthpiece. Demanding a retraction of a statement is reminiscent of what certain communist dictatorships used to do during the Cold War. They, too, obligated people to publicly speak against their previous statements.
While it's understandable that Qualcomm will try anything in a multi-billion-dollar dispute to save money and, therefore, claims that Apple breached the agreement, the most important question is why Qualcomm put a "gag order" in place and made a billion-dollar offer for retracting statements Apple had made to regulators. Why would Qualcomm have done all of that in the first place if its business model was as legal as it keeps telling courts and the general public?
Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a legislation to immediately ban the use of digital financial assets including all cryptocurrency and digital securities as a payment method in the country. This is an extension of an earlier law that banned crypto in payments. This action maintains the ruble as the sole legal tender in the Russian Federation. This law means owners of platforms offering exchange services will have to block any transactions that facilitate the substitution of digital financial assets for the ruble. Russia's financial authorities worry cryptocurrencies threaten the country's stability... Russians transact about $5 billion a year in crypto. (Bitcoinist) Read More
But like Gov. Andrew Cuomo at the state level, Hizzoner has failed to tackle this problem head on. Instead, also like Cuomo, the mayor is avoiding tough decisions and playing for time. Both the mayor and the governor are counting on Congress to deliver billions of dollars in unrestricted aid to states and cities as part of the next rescue bill, expected to pass at the end of July.
Americans have gotten used to financial chicanery. They witnessed Bernie Madoff, who ran a multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme that wiped out the life savings of thousands of investors. Then there was the 2008 financial meltdown that cost millions of Americans their jobs, homes, life savings, and hopes for decent retirements. Many Americans never recovered from this cataclysm.
SBF donated almost $40 million to political candidates and political action committees in the 2022 congressional midterm elections. He was the second-largest individual donor to Democrats, trailing only billionaire businessman George Soros in the 2022 election cycle.
Over the next 30 years, the fastest growing category of government spending is projected to be interest on the national debt. That means the government will be shelling out hundreds of billions of additional dollars each year for interest payments.
Increasing debt and high interest rates can crowd out important federal budget priorities and lead to a vicious cycle of even more debt, deficits, and interest payments. This means the government will be paying hundreds of billions dollars more each year on interest payments on top of other fixed costs that are also growing, such as health and retirement provisions for an aging population. This enhances the risk of a fiscal crisis. 041b061a72