98 Comments

  1. 1) While many are focused on possible CBDC scenarios, little attention has been paid to UCC Article 12 which has already been finalized, now moving ahead to enactment by U.S. states. Here is a 1-hour webinar on Digital Assets, from some of the lawyers who helped to draft the new rules, https://uniformlaws.zoom.us/rec/play/28qq2jopnYBF4saRHC-rbF2j7LpmHL_KUxsX4741ueE9VyUqTlSecTKcbRCdvAjh2eMn6bZWgQZOYwdK.wnfUUvWt7ToDSr3x

    2) Real estate pricing software, https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-realpage-rent

    “For tenants, the system upends the practice of negotiating with apartment building staff. RealPage discourages bargaining with renters and has even recommended that landlords in some cases accept a lower occupancy rate in order to raise rents and make more money. One of the algorithm’s developers told ProPublica that leasing agents had “too much empathy” compared to computer generated pricing.”

    3) Which faction was behind the Amazon leak on employee retention/attrition? https://www.engadget.com/amazon-attrition-leadership-ctsmd-201800110.html

    1. [Ask Catherine]

      If someone was going to create a hypothetical, global, software-assisted control/nudge system at the individual level, how could cross-jurisdiction responsibility transfers be handled? e.g. person from Country A is visiting Country B, or relocates to Country C?

      Could data profiles for an individual be handed off between countries? Alternately, if there was a single global database/system, how would countries respond to control-related actions by a foreign or global team, taking place in a local jurisdiction?

      E.g. there are reports of 230,000 Chinese citizens being “persuaded” to return to China, based on foreign actions by Chinese “police stations” acting locally in major Western cities, https://safeguarddefenders.com/en/blog/230000-policing-expands

      Another example is Cass Sunstein’s academic (Obama-era) papers on “nudging”, which have lead to government nudge departments in some countries. Or “permission structures”, https://modelthinkers.com/mental-model/permission-structure, “A Permission Structure provides an emotional and psychological justification that allows someone to change deeply held beliefs and/or behaviours while importantly retaining their pride and integrity. “

      If software is involved, e.g. in blockchain databases or digital currency rules, the answer to “which faction is in control of this local nudge/transaction” cannot be ambiguous. It’s not clear to me how cross-jurisdiction software control could (hypothetically) be coordinated. Without such coordination, what happens when multiple regional or factional control networks want to nudge/influence/harvest the same human individual?

    1. German law in effect from Oct 2022 to April 2023, https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/themen/coronavirus/infektionsschutzgesetz-2068856

      Google Translate to English: https://www-bundesregierung-de.translate.goog/breg-de/themen/coronavirus/infektionsschutzgesetz-2068856?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
      “The vaccination status no longer plays a role in the corona protection measures. It no longer decides on access options, for example to restaurants or events, as it did last winter. “

  4. Imagine this “debt” on a blockchain or Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Article 12 Controllable Electronic Record (CER) input to background screening for new hires – Human Capital Assets, slavery-lite, indentured laborers, or … “trainees”? https://www.reuters.com/world/us/more-us-companies-charging-employees-job-training-if-they-quit-2022-10-17/

    “When a Washington state beauty salon charged Simran Bal $1,900 for training after she quit, she was shocked … Nearly 10% of American workers surveyed in 2020 were covered by a training repayment agreement, said the Cornell Survey Research Institute … Employers are looking for ways to keep their workers from quitting without raising wages or improving working conditions,” said Harris … The CFPB, which announced in June it was looking into the agreements, has begun to focus on how they may prevent even skilled employees with years of schooling, like nurses, from finding new, better jobs … “We have heard from workers and worker organizations that the products may be restricting worker mobility,”

    1. No problem, they’ll just pull up the maps from the last few times the US War dept has done that on behalf of the bankers. If the marines don’t have them, then National City Bank (now Citigroup) surely ought to.

  6. Catherine, would love if this weeks Money and Markets covered whats going on in the homebuying world, it seems people who are not in the home buying process are not aware that the Fed just keeps hiking up the mortgage rates. It’s all over the news, but it just seems like people who already own a home are oblivious to it.

    I think its newsworthy when you see the house of your dreams, go to your lender, who says the rate just went up one whole percent, so you go back out there, find a lower priced house of your dreams, take it back to your lender, and they tell you the rate has gone up another percent. That’s astounding. That is basically bringing homebuying to a screeching halt. Would love to get your thoughts on all of it.

  7. https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/the-grid/new-england-energy-prices-increase-as-sources-of-supply-are-constrained/

    “The independent system operator New England, which oversees the wholesale electricity market in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Vermont, see those conditions increasing the likelihood of operators having to employ planned outages to manage power demand in the event of extreme winter weather.”

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