I put on Fox News this morning at 6am.  I normally do not watch Fox News.  In the first 6 minutes I was absolutely disgusted with the way the three anchors fawned over the Republican National Convention, defended Melania Trump’s seemingly plagiarized speech, and praised Chris Christie’s public prosecution of Hilary Clinton.

I thought to myself….this is not news.  It is so clearly biased towards a particular political party and base of constituents.  I could not expect to get any unbiased facts out of this purported “news” broadcast.

So I decided to see what the competition was up to.  I changed the channel to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program.  This show does not have the word “news” in the title, but their own description of the show is “…features interviews with top newsmakers and politicians, and in-depth analysis of the day’s biggest stories.”

And once again I was disgusted with the unbelievable bias that the show’s hosts had against Republicans, Trump, the RNC and everything associated with the right.  If not for the two guests from Bloomberg, who remained dignified and factual when they answered questions, the show would have seemed comical with it’s bias.

Large scale media in this country has an undue amount of influence on our population.  That is both a product of citizen’s passive nature, and the media’s insatiable appetite for filling 24 hour news cycles by pandering to our lowest common denominators.  It is easy to watch “news” that does not challenge your assumptions but merely feeds you what you already know and want to hear.  But as citizens and voters in a country of free press, we need to be better ourselves and demand more facts, less analysis and less bias in the information we take in.  A citizenry that does not think for itself is not a citizenry that will remain free forever.

David Jaxon found a good post on effective meetings and has an excerpt on his blog here:

To make meetings more effective, learn to listen

I have been thinking about this a lot lately.  Too many times, in a one-on-one discussion or a team meeting, people do not listen to one another and incorporate the information and analysis into their own thinking; they are just waiting for their turn to speak.

A friend told of an interesting event that really drives home the point about the benefits to all of actually listening to one another.

Setting: Campus panel of students discussion on the Israeli/Palestine issue(s)

For the first 20 minutes, the aged professor and audience of students listened to both sides shout and rage against the other side in 3 – 5 minutes bursts.  There was little cohesive discussion, specific topics were bounced around in no particular order, and there was a lot of emotions and name calling.

The professor then interrupted and told each “team” that they needed to take notes on what the other side of the panel was saying.  The panels of students on each side were perplexed because they all felt like they “knew” the other side’s arguments.  But the professor persisted and the students on the panel all agreed to take notes on the other sides arguments each time someone spoke.

The next 20 minutes of the panel were much more subdued.  The “listening” side of the panel at any given time was busy taking notes.  There were occasional requests to repeat a statement which sometimes flustered the speaker because the speaker had not necessarily thought about what they were saying; they were just spewing off.  The tone of the arguments became more focused on facts and analysis than on emotion.

After 20 mins the professor interrupted again.  Now, using the notes they had taken (and by default the listening they had done), the two sides of the panel were given the topics that were brought up in the first 20 minutes of heated yelling and raging.

Rather than emotional yelling with no discernible improvement in understanding or proposed solutions, there was rational discussion.  There was respect between the two sides of the panel.  They had the ability to stay on topic until some level of agreement (resolved or unresolved) was reached.  And civility ruled.

The professor’s point to his entire section had been made.  Active listening is a purposeful decision by the listener and the speaker.  If you are not actively listening, you are wasting your time and the speaker’s time.  A good meeting involves discussion around a topic or topics.  If you have invited others to speak at a meeting, but are not able to incorporate their information into your analysis and decision-making process, then you have failed at “meeting”.

What a terrible week for the US.  A number of issues that surround law enforcement have come to a head in a tragic week.

The fatal shootings of two black men in Minnesota (Philando Castile) and Louisiana (Alton Sterling) by policemen have been captured on videos posted to social media for all to see.  In both cases the black men were armed which should rightly make police officers much more concerned for their personal safety.  But from what is publicly known at this time, neither man went for their weapon, and in the case of Philando Castile, he was reaching for his license to carry as had been requested by the officer who then shot him.  This is outrageous behavior by a supposed trained, professional police force.

And now Dallas.  A peaceful protest of the two above shootings turned into an assassination of Dallas police officers (5 dead, 6 wounded at this time) by multiple suspects using automatic weapons.

There are important issues of race that play a large part in all of these incidents.  But the recurring theme is guns.  Handguns on the persons of the two black men fatally shot by police officers; automatic weapons in the hands of the Dallas assassins.

Guns.  Guns.  Guns.

I believe in the 2nd amendment.  I believe that a population has the right to bear arms for two reasons.  The first is attack by outside enemies of the state in which an armed population is a deterrent and resistance towards the outside attackers.  The second case is the rare case that the citizens need to rise up and forcefully take back power from a government that has abducted power from those citizens.  Though a preferred method of ensuring a government entity does not take too much power from the people it serves is by the citizens taking an active part in politics and the political process.

I am not a weapons expert but in neither of those cases are hand guns or automatic weapons necessary.

If anyone has a rational, scientific argument that the number of and easy access to guns in this country had benefited anyone other than the gun manufacturers, I am willing to listen.  But until I hear a valid argument in favor of guns, I remain convinced that the US as a country and society is worse off due to the prevalence of guns.

With today’s scheduled vote by the Massachusetts House of Representatives on a Bill to include and fully protect transgender people in the State of Massachusetts, it is time for me to re-post something written by California Representative Mike Honda (@RepMikeHonda) last year.  His words of wisdom bring tears to my eyes.

I am the proud jiichan, or grandfather, of three beautiful grandchildren: my two grandsons and one granddaughter.

Being a grandparent is one of my most rewarding life experiences. I am able to relive the joy of raising my own children. I enjoy seeing my daughter raise her children with the same grace and love she learned from her mother. I am given pure and unconditional love only grandchildren can give. Yet, even though I try to offer guidance to my grandchildren in hopes of being an inspiration, I have come to realize that it is them who have become my role models, helping me see the world through their strength, innocence, and hopeful worldviews.

Eight years ago, my second grandchild was welcomed into the world and assigned male at birth. We soon learned that this child was someone truly special. The following years of toddlerhood brought about situations that would have our family begin to question society’s views on binary gender. At about 18 months, the child announced to my daughter’s family, “I’m a girl,” and asked to be called “daughter” and “sister.” An affinity for stereotypical girl things and clothes became apparent, and at about age 3, with clarity and confidence, a family announcement was made: “I want to be called Malisa.” She was welcomed by the family to be true to herself, but made the choice to present male in public for the next few years.

One day at preschool, a classmate asked Malisa why she liked to play dress up and wear “girl-things.” Having overheard this conversation, her teacher was moved to tell my daughter about Malisa’s perfect response. The teacher’s voice, full of joy and admiration, relayed the conversation and said the confident response summed up what all people should want children to feel: “My mom says I can wear whatever makes me happy.” For her eighth birthday present, I was honored to be able to gift her something many 8-year-old girls wish for, regardless of what they are assigned at birth: pierced ears. It is moments like this that make being a grandparent so special and I was honored to be there for her.

Over the years, given the freedom to be true to herself, she has matured into an amazing young person. Her comfort in knowing who she is, and her desire to be understood and accepted as a female, became consistent, persistent, and insistent.

I admit it was not immediately comfortable learning to use a new pronoun and name, making the inevitable mistakes that come with understanding something new, and finding the strength to push my personal fears of a more difficult life for a loved one aside. What made it easy was Malisa’s vibrant, yet shy, smile flash across her face when she first heard me call her by her affirmed name. That made me see that loving her was all she needed. It’s that simple. It was the validation of knowing her family supports her and allows her to be true to what she has known as far back as she can remember – she was born a girl.

I, myself, continue to become a stronger ally by asking questions, listening, and having an open heart. It is the gesture of embracing differences and not fearing the unknown. It is realizing that support and acceptance is essential to helping an ever-growing community of young people finding the courage and confidence to be themselves.

Recently, I chose a simple act of public affirmation by tweeting about my support and love for Malisa. By sharing our experience, my hope is to start a public conversation for families and society about acceptance and support for transgender children and adults. This conversation will in turn bring awareness of bullying and depression leading to the terrifying statistics surrounding transgender homicide and suicide. My tweet has been viewed over 1.2 million times. That’s 1.2 million opportunities to give a child the courage to express who they are. The hope of encouraging a parent, grandparent, or sibling the courage to start a necessary dialogue so their family knows they are supported. To remind people of the courage it takes for someone simply to express who they are.

My family and I are overwhelmed by the response we have received with thousands of comments, messages, and tweets thanking us for sharing our story. We have read touching stories of parents and grandparents of transgender children who appreciate Malisa’s courage to be a role model. Families have reached out asking for resources to help them begin their own journey. Others have realized that it is okay to admit they know very little about the transgender community and now want to learn. Every step toward knowledge is a step forward for the community.

Mutual respect is an element of humanity. It’s one of my guiding principles in the formation of the Congressional Anti-Bullying Caucus: (https://antibullyingcaucus-honda.house.gov/). Respect comes through recognition. Malisa, and the many other individuals like her, deserve not merely tolerance and acceptance, but recognition of their affirmed gender identity. I hope our journey becomes an inspiration – a source of courage – for children, parents, and friends to recognize individuals, like Malisa, for the beautiful people they are.

Picked up from www.forexlive.com

Turns out the SWIFT network, which has been around for decades as a means to transmit monies around the world in multiple currencies was hacked.  When I first started in the asset management worked circa 1995, SWIFT was touted as the forefront of secured, speedy information transmittal.  SWIFT was how all major financial institutions transmitted monies to each other.  But I should have seen this hack coming.

In the last 3 years of working with and for retail-facing Margin Trading Product (“MTP”) companies, the amount of “bank wire” deposits has been dwarfed by the number of and notional volume of Payment Service Provider (“PSP”) payments.  Especially from less-developed regions of the globe.  China, SE Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America…..all these regions are seeing a rapid shift to PSP’s as a means to transmit monies.  Everything from trading accounts, to buying toilet paper is not happening via PSP’s.  Think of PSP’s as a less-regulated version of PayPal; but not as sophisticated as cryptocurrency accounts.  Users can open PSP accounts easily with one of hundreds of providers, and there is little ability for regulators to demand and enforce Know Your Client (KYC) laws.

The PSP companies can pop up almost overnight and can shut down just as quickly.  There is little oversight.  And there is a value chain of larger and larger companies that ends at the top with the global credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard.  So clients end up paying a healthy transaction fee, but it gives a moped/taxi driver in Indonesia access to fund trading accounts or to purchase home goods that he could never previously get access to.

My thoughts are that the PSP world sits right in-between crypto-currencies and bank wires; there are features that users like and just enough control that regulators are not pounding at the door to be let in.  The space will continue to grow rapidly until the time comes that a massive-level company goes out of business and takes client funds with them.  But until that point, there is lots of room to grow in the PSP space.