Niall Ferguson warns, “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes,”—Beware of Greeks bearing gifts

Niall Ferguson warns, "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes," aka, "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts."

Here are some excerpts from his piece on Bloomberg this week.

Joe Biden Could End Up Being a Wartime President

Notwithstanding his pledges of uplift and healing, history suggests post-pandemic peace is rare, and Democratic wars are not.

Successful Democratic candidates for the presidency of the United States invariably campaign with promises of domestic largesse and moral uplift. They nearly always end up taking their country to war. Can Joe Biden be a rare exception to that rule, if he succeeds in defeating Donald Trump on November 3? That will depend not just on how well he and his national security team conduct U.S. foreign policy. It will also depend on how stable the world around them is. The bad news is that post-pandemic peace is another historical rarity.

...

Joe Biden's speech on Thursday night was the continuation of a very long tradition in lofty Democratic rhetoric, traceable all the way back to Thomas Jefferson. "If you entrust me with the presidency," declared Biden, "I will draw on the best of us not the worst. I will be an ally of the light not of the darkness. It's time for us, for We the People, to come together. For make no mistake. United we can, and will, overcome this season of darkness in America. We will choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege." Whoever wrote that speech had done their homework.  At times I wondered if an algorithm had mashed it up on the basis of all previous Democratic acceptance speeches.

...

One disaster begets another.

The Inside Story Of #Robinhood’s Billionaire Founders, Option Kid Cowboys And The Wall Street Sharks That Feed On Them

Selling Order Flow is how they make money. 

In October 2019, Robinhood gleefully announced to its customers, "Options Stop Limit Orders Are Here," a nifty feature which essentially puts trading on autopilot. 

"That [stop limit] order is immediately sold to a high-speed trader who now knows where your intention is, where you would sell," says one former high-speed trader. "It's like you're writing a secret on a piece of paper and handing it to your broker, who sells it to someone who has an interest to trade against you." 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2020/08/19/the-inside-story-of-robinhoods-billionaire-founders-option-kid-cowboys-and-the-wall-street-sharks-that-feed-on-them/

In the #Covid era, #Minecraft & #Roblox are being adapted to teach everything from physics to politics. Roblox will see sales of $1 BILLION this year, 2X what it made in 2019. Minecraft will generate more than $600 MILLION, up +25%

Teachers Use Minecraft and Roblox to Educate Kids During Coronavirus Pandemic - Bloomberg  

In the Covid era, Minecraft and Roblox are being adapted to teach everything from physics to politics. Roblox Corp. says it now has 150 million monthly active users, up from 100 million a year ago. And use of the school version of Minecraft, which costs as much as $5 per student per year, more than doubled this spring and summer. Research firm Loup Ventures predicts Roblox will see sales of $1 billion this year, double what it made in 2019, and Minecraft will generate more than $600 million, up at least a quarter. 

See the article online here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-24/teachers-use-minecraft-and-roblox-to-educate-kids-during-coronavirus-pandemic?

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-s-secret-envoy-to-the-uae-and-how-its-arms-and-cyber-dealers-do-business-ther-1.9080381

Israel's secret envoy to the UAE and how its arms and cyber dealers do business there

Yossi MelmanPublished at 09:57

When Mossad agents poisoned to death – according to foreign media reports – senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January 2010 in Dubai, Israeli diplomat Bruce Kashdan was also present in the emirate. The Mossad chief at the time, Meir Dagan, didn't bother informing him in advance, so he learned about the assassination in the media.

Later, the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, told Kashdan he knew that the Israeli didn't know about the operation.

PODCAST: Inside Israel's no-change, no-cost peace deal with the UAECredit: Haaretz

This example demonstrates the great trust that has built up over the last 25 years between Kashdan, who is employed on a special contract and whose official title is "consultant," and Gulf leaders.