Tausi Insider

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were under pressure on Monday following last week’s spectacular collapse of crypto exchange FTX, while regulators opened probes and rival exchanges sought to reassure jittery investors of their own stability. The implosion of FTX, once a darling of the crypto industry with a US$32-billion valuation as of January, has spurred investigations by the U.S. Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a source with knowledge of the investigations said. The SEC’s probe is also targeting FTX executives, their knowledge of the handling of customer funds and any potential breaking of securities laws, a second source with knowledge of the investigation said. While the crypto industry has touted digital assets as fundamentally different from traditional finance, the sector has proven to be susceptible to the same risks and should be subject to the same rules, Federal Reserve vice-chair Lael Brainard said o...

Amazon.com Inc AMZN-Q is planning to lay off about 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs starting as soon as this week, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The cuts will focus on the e-commerce giant’s devices unit, which houses voice-assistant Alexa, as well as its retail division and human resources, according to the report, which also said the total number of layoffs remains fluid. The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. As of Dec. 31 last year, Amazon had about 1,608,000 full-time and part-time employees. Amazon joins a bandwagon of U.S. companies making deep cuts to its employee base to brace for a potential economic downturn. Last week, Facebook-parent Meta Platforms said it would cut more than 11,000 jobs, or 13 per cent of its workforce, to rein in costs. https://www.tausiinsider.com/amazon-reportedly-plans-to-lay-off-10000-people-in-corporate-technology-jobs-starting-this-week/?fee...

Facebook owner Meta META-Q reached out to EU antitrust regulators some time back in an attempt to settle investigations into its use of customer data and the tying of its classified advertisements service to its social network, people with direct knowledge said. There were very preliminary discussions which so far have not made any progress, the people said. The European Commission and Meta declined to comment. “I am not surprised that there is no traction. You can better assess the exposure risk if you see something in writing like a statement of objections,” said Tobias Caspary, a partner at London-based Fried Frank. The EU competition enforcer launched an investigation into Facebook in June last year, focusing on whether the social network unfairly use advertisers’ data to compete with them in the online classified ads sector. A second investigation centres on whether Facebook ties its classified ads service Marketplace to its social network to give it an advantage in reaching cus...

Photo : Pressmaster ( Shutterstock ) Have you ever been baffled by how someone can believe a conspiracy theory that obviously doesn’t hold together? Well, flip that around for a second and think about yourself: Do you really understand all the things that you have strong opinions or beliefs about? Chances are, you don’t. This is the “ illusion of explanatory depth .” It happens when we think we have a deep understanding of a subject, but if you were to ask us to explain it, we’d hit a wall basically immediately. What is explanatory depth? As a paper describing the subject puts it: “People feel they understand complex phenomena with far greater precision, coherence, and depth than they really do.” This illusion can apply to what you believe about political or social causes, for example. Maybe you’re excited to volunteer or donate for something, but that’s based more on feelings and opinions than a full understanding of the issue. One study asked people to explain the policies ...

Photo : Pressmaster ( Shutterstock ) Have you ever been baffled by how someone can believe a conspiracy theory that obviously doesn’t hold together? Well, flip that around for a second and think about yourself: Do you really understand all the things that you have strong opinions or beliefs about? Chances are, you don’t. This is the “ illusion of explanatory depth .” It happens when we think we have a deep understanding of a subject, but if you were to ask us to explain it, we’d hit a wall basically immediately. What is explanatory depth? As a paper describing the subject puts it: “People feel they understand complex phenomena with far greater precision, coherence, and depth than they really do.” This illusion can apply to what you believe about political or social causes, for example. Maybe you’re excited to volunteer or donate for something, but that’s based more on feelings and opinions than a full understanding of the issue. One study asked people to explain the policies ...