Tim Cook used a graduation speech to trash Android phones (AAPL) | ||
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Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke at George Washington University on Sunday to give a commencement speech to graduating students. Cook spoke about Martin Luther King, Jr, working with Steve Jobs, and meeting President Jimmy Carter. But Cook couldn't resist making a little joke aimed at the people in the audience who were using Android phones. "They've asked me to make a standard announcement ... about silencing your phones," Cook said. "So those of you with an iPhone, just place it in silent mode. If you don't have an iPhone, please pass it to the centre aisle, Apple has a world-class recycling program." You can watch Cook make that joke around one minute into the video here: "Many of these customers were switchers from Android," he said. "They had bought an Android phone, by mistake, and then sought a better experience. And a better life. And decided to check out iPhone and iOS." Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Kids settle the debate and tell us which is better: an Apple or Samsung phone  | ||
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Bank of America just named the 5 'CRASH' catalysts most likely to spark a global market slump | ||
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Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) analysts just flagged five factors that could cause a "cleansing drop in asset prices." They've even given the possible catalysts a catchy acronym: "CRASH." Each factor is an assumption of a consensus in the market that if overturned could spark a slump. Here are the "CRASH" indicators to watch, with some snippets of text from the note itself:
On the last point, the bank has illustrated the surge into high-yield investments, compared with safer and lower-yielding assets like inflation-protected US bonds (TIPS):
Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: The truth about those crazy calendar trends stock market gurus always talk about  | ||
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This 13-year-old is making thousands by selling drivers a piece of paper that they don't need | ||
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A 13-year-old boy is making thousands of pounds a month by selling a paper product to that people don't actually need because it was abolished by the British government last year. In October 2014, the British government abolished "tax discs" for UK motorists after 93 years in operation. Tax discs were circular pieces of paper which motorists displayed on their windscreens. It detailed the driver's licence plate, when their road tax expired, and when their MOT was due. The tax payments are now handled digitally. The rule change meant that drivers no longer saw a daily reminder of when their road tax is due every time they sat in the driver's seat. The result was that the the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) now clamps around 5,000 vehicles a month, and fines motorists around £800 ($1,254), for having forgotten to pay road tax. According to the Guardian, more than 100,000 vehicles are likely to be clamped in 2015, compared with 60,000 in 2014, because people forget to renew their road tax in the absence of a paper tax disc. Harry Willington from Taunton, Somerset decided to print his own tax discs — which serve only as a reminder for motorists of when their tax is due. His colourful designs sell for £4 ($6.30) each.
"I'm probably the richest person in my class. I'm hoping to carry on for a while." According to the interview, Willington receives around 400 orders a day for paper discs, which he prints from home. He says that he has made £3,000 ($4,702) in the last two months, from offering eight different disc designs. His father, Howard Millington, gave him £2,000 ($3,135) to start the business, which included paying for the website, printer, a cutting device, and several pieces of advertising. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Forget the Apple Watch — here's the new watch everyone on Wall Street wants  | ||
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"I'm alright with it. The money is nice. I haven't got any plans for it yet though," The 'endgame' is here as Greece gets crunched on 2 fronts | ||
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Two cash crises are about to come to a head in Greece, with signals that both the financial system and the public coffers are about to run dry. Athens barely made its latest payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and it managed to do so only when the government discovered that it could use a reserve account it wasn't aware of, according to the Greek media. Kathimerini, a Greek daily newspaper, reports that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras wrote to the IMF's Christine Lagarde warning that Greece would not be able to make its May payment, worth €762 million ($871 million, £554.2 million). Pension and civil-servant pay packets are due at the end of the month, and based on this news Athens may struggle to pay them. Even if it does manage that, in on June 5 the country owes another €305 million to the IMF. In the two weeks following June 5 there are another three payments, bringing the June total to the IMF to over €1.5 billion. Here's what's coming:
If Greece couldn't manage the €762 million payment in May without the IMF's reserve account, it seems likely that the government will struggle to make payments twice as large after another round of pension and salary payments. But the public finances are not the only problem — pressure is building in the financial sector, too. According to Bloomberg, pressures collateral is drying up there, and the situation also seems likely to meet a head in the next few weeks. "The point where collateral is exhausted is likely to be near," JPMorgan Chase Bank analysts Malcolm Barr and David Mackie wrote in a note to clients May 15. "Pressures on central government cash flow, pressures on the banking system, and the political timetable are all converging on late May-early June"... "We are in an endgame," ECB Executive Board member Yves Mersch said in an interview with Luxembourg radio 100.7 broadcast Saturday. "This situation is not tenable." The government seems to have made little progress toward a deal to unlock the next tranche of bailout cash, too. A leaked IMF document seen over the weekend by the UK's Channel 4 News confirms reports by Greek journalist Michael Ignatiou last week that while tentative compromises are in the making for a crucial bankruptcy law and some tax issues, there is still a gulf between Athens and its creditors on pensions and the labour market. The document seen by Channel 4 describes the labour market as "the area where in the past most progresses were achieved." In short, it's no small speed bump for a deal, but a major roadblock. Without a solution, an agreement seems unlikely. There's only one hope for the government at the moment. Figures from Kathimerini last week suggested the government had managed to drain about €600 million from local government and other state funds. That boosts the government's ability to pay, but it is far short of the €2 billion that it was initially suggested the move could raise. If the government manages to find more cash through similar methods, it could prolong the standoff. But unless Athens can think of more and increasingly inventive ways to shake down the country to make these payments, it looks as if some form of default is looming. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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