Is Facebook a great opportunity to short sell?

February 1, 2012

By Steven Greer, MD

Facebook finally submitted their SEC form called an S1, preparing to go IPO on the NYSE under ticker FB. They are valued by some metrics at more than five times what Google was in 2004. Are they worth it or is this the best opportunity retail investors will have to short a stock in their lifetimes?

Looking at the S1 found here, go to the risk factors on page 11:

Right away, they mention that American users are tapped out from “Facebook fatigue” and that new usership is flat. Go to page 44 for the chart. That is all that matters for valuation in this stock. An investor pays a large premium for stocks with huge remaining growth, not for mature stocks.

On page 14 they list strong competition as a risk factor. By some accounts, Google’s version of Facebook is exploding. Facebook has few barriers to entry if a large Apple or Google decide to get into this space.

On page 18 they list as a risk factor the heavy reliance on Zynga online game users as revenue. Most of the people stuck on Facebook all day long are unemployed gamers.

Page 18 also lists the risk that governments will pass new laws that will make the very essence of Facebook’s business model, which is to collect your personal information and sell it to marketers, become illegal.

Page 20 essentially lists Mark Zuckerberg himself as a risk factor since he owns so much of the company.

Understanding those risk factors, one then has to use the various valuation metrics of “tech land” to see if the stock is a short at whatever the price settles out to be upon trading. Consult with your money manager carefully before buying long ticker FB. The performances of other social networking stocks that went IPO last year have been dismal.

(Dr. Greer is a former Wall Street financial “sell side” analyst and portfolio manager. He is the founder of BatteryPark.TV and frequently contributes to NPR, The WSJ, CNBC, and Fox News)

Outrage over high salaries of 9/11 Memorial staff amidst budget overruns

January 30, 2012

Construction of the September 11th Memorial has screeched to a halt as the numerous different state, federal, and city bureaucracies fight over the tab of the cost overruns. After rushing out a partially constructed memorial to avoid embarrassment on the tenth anniversary, not much progress has been made since.

Amidst this, we get a better sense today of the bloated number of bureaucrats on the September 11th Memorial staff leading the construction while they also reap huge financial rewards personally. The WSJ is reporting that top executives of the September 11 memorial have been receiving nearly $500,000 salaries. Relatives of those killed on 9/11 are outraged.

According to the WSJ, “Joan Gerner received $296,565 upon leaving her position as executive vice president of design and construction in May 2010, bringing her total compensation that year to $439,463, recently released tax records show. She was the group’s highest-compensated employee that year….. In 2010, seven other executives with the organization received compensation in excess of $200,000, records show, and four received compensation packages of more than $300,000, including the president, Joseph Daniels, who earned $378,288 in salary and other benefits…. Retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches, whose son, Jimmy, also a firefighter, died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, called the foundation executives’ salaries, and specifically Ms. Gerner’s severance payment, “totally obscene” and an “insult” to victims and their families. “They shouldn’t be having contracts like they’re professional athletes—it’s totally disgusting,” Mr. Riches said. “It’s a shame, and they have no shame.”"

According to the WSJ, Mayor Bloomberg has been supportive of the high pay and large staff. “But Mr. Bloomberg has long defended the executive compensation at the memorial and other such organizations. Julie Wood, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bloomberg, said the mayor believes the “professionals at the 9/11 memorial are paid only a fraction of what they’re worth, but at a level similar to people at comparable nonprofits.”"

From Wall Street Journal

Steven Greer, MD discusses with Bill O’Reilly the Japan radiation concern for the US?

April 2, 2011

Currently, the radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima meltdowns (plural) reaching the United States are of no concern. The levels are miniscule and of no medical harm. However, radiation exposure and subsequent risk to cancer is cumulative and the situation cannot be allowed to continue for months, ala the BP oil spill. What will the international community do next?

We discussed this with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly.

Three Cunard Oceanliners Together Again

January 13, 2011

Once again, a trio of flagships from the British Cunard cruise line (The Queen Mary 2, The Queen Victoria and The Queen Elizabeth) came together in New York Harbor. A similar gathering took place in 2008.

(Heat convection currents and the cold air by the buildings made the images a bit blurry)

(In full screen 1080iHD)

Featured resident Alan Wilzig

Nearby resident, Alan Wilzig, and fan of BatteryPark.TV, is featured in the NY Post today.

Pop culture people who need to go away in 2012

December 31, 2011

If you have found yourself yelling at the TV due to the bad content, or avoiding the movie theaters, you are not alone. It’s not you. The content providers are flailing, desperately and pumping out the worst shows ever.

As fewer people watch free broadcast TV, and even fewer people under the age of 35 pay $150 per month for cable TV, the TV executives have been scrambling to stop the ratings declines. Situation comedies rule the waves, as do multiple versions of the same show, such as the CSI related series. TV news has been the worst hit, and what passes for news now would make Edward R. Murrow gasp if he were alive.

In Hollywood, it is no better. The bad economy, combined with more convenient home theaters and iPads, have caused the box office revenue to decline 11% since 2009. As a result, just as we saw in the music industry, the films are playing it safe, going after the sequel, remake, and family markets.

As a result of these factors, some really annoying people keep showing up on our screens, despite the public not liking them. The following is meant to be constructive for the TV or Hollywood executive. We made a list of the most egregious pop culture faces who need to retire in 2012.

Film Actors

Shia LaBeouf is the product of Steven Spielberg’s hubris. The master of formulaic blockbusters, Spielberg thinks that Shia is someone who females or wimpy males can view and identify with, as he struggles through action packed situations. That might work for films where the special effect robots and Megan Fox are the main attractions, but it does not work in real films. The remakes of “Wall Street” and “Indiana Jones” that starred Mr. LaBeouf were, quite literally, examples of some of the worst casting in the history of modern Hollywood filmmaking. Shia single handedly ruined those films.

January Jones, for those of you who do not know, is the pretty blond who gained fame in the AMC show “Mad Men”. In that limited role, she is sufferable. But placed in larger roles, her lack of acting skills is astonishing. Moreover, she is almost anorexic and simply not appealing as the eye candy that the casting directors seem to think. Her role in “X-men: First Class” was painful to watch. She needs to stick to just the Mad Men series and eat some Big Macs.

Ryan Reynolds began his career in comedic roles. He has a funny looking face with his eyes a bit too close together. He then developed an HGH-like physique, took off his shirt, and casting directors tried to transform into a leading man, to much failure. “Green Lantern” was a bomb. He needs to take 2012 off and try to come back as the principle in the remake of “Saved by the Bell”.

Katherine Heigl was clearly told that she was special by her mother, and seems to have made some good friends in Hollywood. Despite box office bombs one after the other, she keeps getting the leading roles in big budget movies. Maybe Hollywood is finally getting smart and targeting smaller niche markets and that is why they give her the roles? Who knows, but this is certainly an enigma.

Jack Black is clearly the experiment of some Hollywood executives who think that if they push him into the theaters often enough we will like him. It’s not working. “The Big Year” and “Gulliver’s Travels” were money-losers for Hollywood.

Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms, and other “Bro Film” genre actors who are oblivious to their nerdiness have worn out their welcome. The sequel to “Hangover” was hated by most fans who loved the original. That’s a really bad sign when fans turn on a cast so swiftly. Zach’s HBO show “Bored to Death” apparently bored everyone to death, and was cancelled. Zach needs to retire and possibly try some directing or producing, or anything behind the camera.

Broadcast Television

Ryan Seacrest is everyone’s favorite person to hate on TV. He sticks around thanks to the ratings of American Idol. Not well known, however, is that he is the evil mind behind those Kardashian talentless sisters, producing their reality TV schlock. The geniuses at NBC floated a trial balloon rumor of him becoming the new Today Show host, which was popped instantly. Ryan Seacrest needs to stay on American Idol and punish the viewers for being so stupid as to watch.

Ashton Kutcher took over for Charlie Sheen on CBS’s “Two and a Half Men”, and his lack of charisma is glaring. He could never do 7-gram rocks of crack like Charlie. Also, his stupid hair hats are annoying people. Ashton needs to go away for 2012 and reinvent himself, which will be to do for a former male model with no acting skills.

Seth Meyers somehow kissed Lorne Michaels’ butt enough to become “Lead Writer” for the rarely funny Saturday Night Live. His smarmy act is very uncreative, as are most of his jokes. Seth needs to go away in 2012 mainly because of his annoying “Really?” shtick that he started. Enough!

Conan O’Brien was a ratings disaster when he was handed the Tonight Show job, as the idiots at NBC demoted the #1 viewed Jay Leno. When NBC then, in turn, demoted Conan to 12:00, the arrogant Harvard grad refused, quit, Fox did not bite, and he ended up on basic cable floundering with less than a million viewers at times. Conan is too old and wrinkled now to be doing his Harvard-dorm-room-style pranks. It is so sad to watch that Conan needs to take himself out to the woodshed in 2012.

Television News

Nancy Synderman, MD has done more to mislead and endanger the American public than anyone else, given her large platform as medical news reporter on NBC Nightly News. She seems to have been demoted recently, with most stories being handled by Robert Bazell or more qualified breast cancer surgeons. Dr. Synderman needs to go away in 2012 and try being a real doctor again.

Christiane Amanpour is one of numerous broadcast TV news anchors who benefited from some executive somewhere thinking that her snooty British accent would fool dumb Americans. ABC’s “This Week” was one of the best Sunday morning shows when George Stephanopoulos hosted it. But ratings tanked after they made Ms. Amanpour the host, and Stephanopoulos is back. Ms. Amanpour needs to move to London and bother the Brits in 2012.

Katie Couric was another disaster as a TV news anchor. After being replaced as anchor of the CBS Evening News, and sparing the public for a while, she is planning to resurface in 2012. Ms. Couric needs to cancel those plans and stay in retirement.

Josh Elliott is ABC’s most recent brilliant idea as a TV news anchor. Within months, he has moved from ESPN, to reading the short news segments on ABC’s Good Morning America, to now being the full anchor on many occasions, leaping over the normal anchor Dan Harris. Likely, the ABC executives mistakenly think that the large ratings and revenue of ESPN had something to do with Mr. Elliott and that he can bring some charm to the shrinking ratings of GMA. Mr. Elliott needs to go back to the cheesy low brow too-costly ESPN in 2012.

Jeff Glor is an unknown Wall-Street-investment-banker-look-alike who recently was given some fill-in work as anchor on the CBS Evening News. He rapidly made this “Go away in 2012″ list of ours due to his bizarre speech. He seems to have his lower jaw wired shut. Make no mistake. This is not an impediment that he had to overcome. This is something that was deemed an asset by CBS and allowed him rise to the crème of the top at CBS. As TV news tanks, no gimmick seems out of line. CBS likely conducted small focus groups and saw that the audience zoomed in on Mr. Glor, like passerby’s rubbernecking a motor vehicle accident.

Trish Regan, the former CNBC “business” anchor, demoted by CNBC, then let go, is reportedly going to be resurfacing on Bloomberg TV in 2012. Ms. Regan made this list because she epitomizes the maddening barrage of clueless business anchors chosen for their looks. Her shtick is wearing skin tight dresses that accentuate her legs and breast augmentations. Enough! Business people need competent business stories, produced by people with Wall Street experience (such, as Stephanie Ruhle on Bloomberg).

Jim Cramer on CNBC has been wrong on major stock calls so often (ala the infamous Bear Stearns calls that got him dragged before the viewers of the Daily Show for a berating), that people are numb to him. He likely has too many crony friends in TV now to be fired by the new owners of CNBC. Mr. Cramer needs to do the country a favor and retire himself in 2012.

Jon Stewart…Wait, this is a mistake. Jon Stewart is great. He is one of the few things to look forward to on TV for 2012.

“Music”

We placed music in quotes. There really is no true music industry any longer. We could have selected almost any pop music performer for this list, but settled on these celebrities who “need to go away in 2012″.

Taylor Swift is not as egregious as some, since she supposedly writes her own songs (with lots of production help), but this act has been bled dry. Enough is enough. Taylor Swift needs to retire and come back as an old lady when she is 24 years old.

Rihanna is attractive, but that synthesized monotonous electronic voice of hers has to go away for a while. Maybe she could try acting and be a robot in a new Transformers movie.

Kanye never had telent and never will. Take a nap in 2012 Kanye. Come on man. You know its the right thing to do.

All American Idol and X Factor contestants need to disappear from the media forever, not just for 2012.

If you find that the offering of content in 2012 is unacceptable, then express your views with your checkbook. Cancel your cable service.

CB1 says “Close Indian Point”: Steven Greer, MD interviews Julie Menin

Update: June 28, 2011

The New York Times is reporting that Governor Cuomo plans to close Indian Point nuclear power plant. The two nuclear pants in jeopardy on the flooding Missouri river likely played a role in the timing.

March 22, 2011

The Community Board 1 held a full meeting on March 22nd. One matter was the passage of a resolution demanding the closure of the nearby Indian Point three-nuclear-reactor power plant 30 miles north on the Hudson River. BatteryPark.TV’s Steven Greer, MD interviewed CB1 Chairperson Julie Menin.

Pier A plans are “A slap in the face to Italian Americans”

Update: June 25, 2011 The oyster bar wins

It appears as if the BPCA is not backing down on it’s subversive plans to turn Pier A into a for-profit bar (see below). John Fratta, leading opponent to the bar plan and champion of the idea to make Pier A an Italian Heritage museum, was rebuffed by the BPCA. His group had requested via Freedom of Information Act the details of how it came to be that the Poulakakos family was awarded the plan to make the pier a restaurant and bar. He organized a small press conference event today at the pier in protest. Based on our sources within the CB1, there seems to be little resistance to the oyster bar plan.

March 29, 2011

John Fratta, CB1 Chairman of the Seaport/Civic Center Committee explain why the CB1 opposes the current BPCA plans to turn over the Pier A to a private restaurant group led by the Poulakakos family. He is leading a drive to convert the Pier A into an Italian American heritage museum to compliment nearby Jewish and Irish museums. Mr. Fratta calls the current plans, “A slap in the face to Italian Americans”.

Niether the BPCA nor the Poulakakos family accepted our offer to be interviewed.

(The video can be viewed in 1080i HD by clicking the YouTube settings)

The Irish Hunger Memorial Mr. Fratta mentioned

Why Facebook does not want to reveal its books in an IPO

Update: December 13, 2011

As we first reported a year ago, the U.S. usage rates of Facebook is way down, per the New York Times article. This is very bad for the hyped valuation and why they shunned the openness of the IPO process.

The article reads, ”

But the figures on growth in this country are stark. The number of Americans who visited Facebook grew 10 percent in the year that ended in October — down from 56 percent growth over the previous year, according to comScore, which tracks Internet traffic.

Ray Valdes, an analyst at Gartner, said this slowdown was not a make-or-break issue ahead of the company’s public offering, which could come in the spring. What does matter, he said, is Facebook’s ability to keep its millions of current users entertained and coming back.

“They’re likely more worried about the novelty factor wearing off,” Mr. Valdes said. “That’s a continual problem that they’re solving, and there are no permanent solutions.””

Update: August 20, 2011

In our previous February article, below, on why Facebook does not want to go the traditional SEC-regulated IPO route, there is a related story about Groupon that supports our thesis. Groupon is struggling to go public after its shaky financials were made public during its attempt to go public. Here’s the story.

We continue to believe that many of the claims about Facebook’s true number of users, whether that number is decreasing, and the true profitability of Facebook, are metrics that the company does not want to reveal in an IPO process.

Update: June 19, 2011

We previously reported (below) that Facebook executives might be reluctant to take the company public via a normal IPO because the disclosure process would reveal truths about decreased usership that would damage the hyped valuation. A recent report by an Internet marketing firm that tracks Facebook users claims that Facebook lost 6 Million users in the U.S. in May. Growth for Facebook is coming from non-U.S. countries late to adopt. This is consistent with our own experiences.

BatteryPark.TV recently implemented a password-protected homepage that allowed Facebook users to login with their existing Facebook account. The residents of Downtown Manhattan revolted. Almost no one seemed to be a Facebook user. In addition, anecdotal feedback indicates that Facebook is not cool any longer with the youngest users. The Facebook overload phenomenon, see below, is genuine.

We continue to believe that Facebook missed the best window of opportunity to go public in 2007. Social networking IPOs LinkedIn and Pandora have both faired poorly this year. With the end of QE2 and the worsening economy causing the markets to correct, a successful IPO window is closing rapidly.

Update: March 8, 2011

CNN just posted a story “How much is Facebook really worth?”

At the time of our story on February 1, the entire mainstream media was doing nothing but positively hyping the potential and valuation of Facebook. Unique points made in our story back in February were that the parameters that would be used to value Facebook, that would have to be made public if they went IPO, might not support a $50 B valuation. Specifically, do Facebook users stop “clicking” after the initial excitement, due to Facebook overload? Are there really 500 Million ACTIVE users? If Facebook can no longer sell your personal information due to new laws or backlash, is Facebook worth anything more than a Huffington Post model? Was Goldman Sachs trying to sell yet another dog of an investment to its clients, ala Abacus?

February 1, 2011

Facebook recently tried to raise a reported $15 Billion in capital via a novel private offering of stock underwritten by Goldman Sachs. Goldman was then planning to sell those shares to select banking clients in a manner that would somehow not violate the SEC’s 499-shareholder limit and trigger a mandatory IPO.

The whole convoluted scheme became too controversial and Goldman Sachs cancelled the offering to U.S. buyers. Instead, non-U.S. buyers received shares, raising more than $1 Billion for Facebook.

Related, Groupon, Demand Media, and LinkedIn also backed away from planned IPOs. The full disclosure process of going IPO revealed that the companies were in fact losing money rather than profitable, as they claimed using clever accounting afforded to private companies.

Why is Facebook so reluctant to go the normal IPO route? What parameters on revenue, number of users, and clicks per month would stand up to GAP and Sarbanes-Oxley? Did Facebook miss the best window for IPO back in 2007?

If Facebook does not have a true active user base of 500 million people, a claim that would be scrutinized in public offering documents and have to be personally approved by the CEO Zuckerberg, that would indeed be a powerful reason to avoid an IPO. Likewise, for an advertising revenue model company such as Facebook, the unique user “clicks” per month is a crucial parameter that drives future revenue estimates and stock valuation. If the rate of active logins per Facebook user has peaked, that too would be a serious blow to the company valuation.

Many users of Facebook, of all demographics, will explain that they initially login and “click” around on Facebook far more in the beginning, then cool off. In fact, there might be a new burnout psychiatric syndrome called “The Facebook effect”, as reported on ABC news, whereby users start to dislike the Facebook experience.

Social networking, as a whole, is a new phenomenon that has come to mainstream only within the last three years. The Time Magazine 2010 “Person of the Year”, Facebook CEO Zuckerberg, was a choice recognizing that 2010 was the year social networking gained critical mass. As Saturday Night Live noted, even many “mothers” and grandparents are using Facebook.

Will the generations that use Facebook the most, those who collect hundreds of “friends”, suddenly tune out and make Facebook yesterday’s fad like sacral tattoos and Paris Hilton? Already, an ABC interview with the actors nominated for Academy awards this year revealed that none of them are on Facebook.

Is social networking really this vastly untapped mysterious space in which to invest? The major competitors to Facebook are not doing well. MySpace, owned by News Corporation, is laying off half of its staff and rumored to be on the selling block. Google and Apple both tried to start social networking sites and failed. If the social networking space is so wildly profitable, as Facebook claims, why have these otherwise successful companies failed?

The biggest threat to the entire class of “social network” companies is whether public outrage will grow over the egregious violation of privacy that is essential for the business models of the companies. The Wall Street Journal launched a series of “What they Know” stories exposing how Facebook collects personal information of users and then sells that to advertisers. The FCC has already introduced regulation to limit this activity, and congress might pass new bills with more teeth. That would be the death sentence to Facebook revenue.

More evidence that Facebook might be desperate to inflate “clicks” and daily activity is that it allows for countless bogus “celebrity” pages to exist. The young naive user who is accepted as a “friend” to a bogus impostor Gossip Girl actor page, for example, becomes excite and starts to use the site more. Facebook has sophisticated tracking algorithms and could shut down all of the bogus sites if they wanted to.

When Goldman Sachs first announced the plan to raise $15 Billion for Facebook via a private offering, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal calculated that the entire company was receiving a $50 Billion market capitalization value. The WSJ compared Facebook parameters to other companies such as Yahoo and Google and found major disconnects between the fundamental drivers of valuation and the actual valuation being assigned.

If Facebook was wildly overvalued at $50 Billion, why would Goldman Sachs sell shares to its most important clients? To answer that, one needs to look way back in history to 2010 and the congressional hearings whereby the Fabulous Fab sold “shitty investments” called Abacus to clients, while Goldman was internally shorting Abacus. Goldman Sachs partners are under extreme pressure to perform. Failing to do so means that they lose Partner status. Given that there were no consequences to any individual at Goldman Sachs, and the CEO Lloyd Blankfein is now attending White House State Dinners, it is quite likely that the way of doing business at Goldman Sachs has not changed at all.

Let them eat cake. Sell them overpriced Facebook.

The parade of Santas

December 11, 2011

Local resident Fran Miller sent these to us

(Click images to enlarge)

By Fran Miller

Oh the irony. Leticia Remauro denied access to BPCA offices

December 10, 2011

By Steven Greer

The Tribeca Tribune has a story about the recent BPC CB1 meeting whereby Leticia Remauro, former BPCA employee, met face to face with current BPCA administration (but not with CEO Gayle Horwitz, see our story Gayle Horwitz hides under her desk..”). In the story, they have a nice photo of Ms. Remauro being temporarily forbidden past the security desk at the WFC lobby and from going up to the BPCA offices for the meeting.

This event, so well documented by the Trib, has tremendous irony in it. Previously, while still media relations director for the BPCA, Ms. Remauro did the same thing to BatteryPark.TV. She told the security desk to not allow us up when we were trying to inquire about a parks related story. The saying “What goes around comes around” is fitting here.

The concerning part of this story, however, is that it reveals a pattern by the BPCA, a public office, of not allowing critics and citizens into their Ivory Tower in the WFC. We have consulted with legal experts and former BPCA senior executives, and this is illegal for the BPCA to selectively not allow certain members of the public into the offices.

Recall, the BPCA recently made important decisions about renewing the contract with the city for the PEP, and this was done at a meeting with no public input. A farce of a “Town Hall” meeting was held after the important decisions were made.

The cover up and hiding grows. Ms. Horwitz was recently a no-show at the tree lighting ceremony. There was supposed to have been a BPCA meeting on Tuesday, December 13th, to further discuss the growing scandal of the mass firings of the 19 staff ad the fate of Gayle Horwitz. It was rumored that Chairman Thompson was going to ban the public from the meeting. It seems they cancelled the entire meeting instead, according to the Tribeca Tribune.

Carl Glassman of Tribeca Tribune, Photo of Leticia Remauro being held up at WFC security

Our Person of the Year

December 4, 2011

By Steven Greer, MD

Our selection for Person of the Year won’t surprise you, but our runner up might. The question used for selecting the Person of the Year was, “Who will people, ten years from now, remember the most from 2011?”

Osama bin Laden was killed, but 2011 was not the year of OBL. That was really 2001.

Muammar Qaddafi (or numerous other spellings have been used) was a consideration. He personified the Arab Spring.

Penn State coaches Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky were candidates, as was Rep. Anthony Weiner. But the two biggest names of the year, in our opinion, were Steve Jobs and Charlie Sheen.

We almost selected Charlie Sheen because his mental breakdown, subsequent firing from the CBS #1 show Two and a Half Men, and comedy tour, became a true phenomenon. He developed millions of Twitter followers faster than anyone before, and proved that “new media”, via his Ustream home broadcasts, had finally arrived. TV executives took notice.

Our selection for Person of the Year, however, is Apple founder Steve Jobs. His death was the most memorable event of the year related to any single person. Jobs died at the peak of his career, at a time when his devices like the iPad were still transforming society.

After his death, the summaries of his life made people remember that he was not just a guy who got rich off of one big idea. He did it over and over with Apple, then Pixar, then Apple again. He transformed the music and movie industries. He did not live to see it, but he put in place the ability for Apple to soon transform the home entertainment system when Apple makes a large screen TV with a computer inside.

Storm over New York Harbor June 17 2011

June 17, 2011

Steven Greer quoted in Wall Street Journal about Facebook privacy violations

Steven Greer, Editor of BatteryPark.TV, is quoted in this WSJ article

Facebook ‘Unfair’ on Privacy

November 30, 2011 By SHAYNDI RAICE And JULIA ANGWIN

The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that Facebook agreed to settle charges that it misled users about its use of their personal information. Julia Angwin has details on The News Hub.

Facebook Inc. agreed to a 20-year privacy settlement with the U.S. government that would require the company to ask users for permission before changing the way their personal information is released.

The settlement, the strongest government rebuke yet to the social network, stems from changes Facebook made to its privacy settings in December 2009 to make aspects of users’ profiles—such as name, picture, gender and friends list—public by default.

In an aggressive complaint, the Federal Trade Commission charged that Facebook’s changes threatened the “health and safety” of users, in part, by exposing “potentially sensitive affiliations” such as political views, sexual orientation or business relationships.

As part of the settlement, Facebook agreed to submit to independent privacy audits every two years for the next 20 years. If it violates the settlement, it can be fined $16,000 per day per violation. The requirement to ask for permission could force Facebook to be less aggressive in the way that it rolls out new features. Previously, Facebook has rolled out features such as facial recognition by asking users to turn new features “off” rather than asking them to turn them “on.”

‘I think that a small number of high-profile mistakes… have often overshadowed much of the good work we’ve done,’ Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post.

The landmark privacy settlement marks a turning point for the social network as it attempts to build bridges in Washington and appease Wall Street ahead of an initial public offering.

The settlement may go toward quelling investor concerns over Facebook’s privacy policies, which have faced intense scrutiny. Facebook may file for an IPO as early as this year and is targeting an offering date between April 2012 and June 2012, people familiar with the matter have said.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, in a blog post, said his company made a “small number of high-profile mistakes.” In the past 18 months, he said, Facebook has released 20 new tools to give users more control over how they share information. He said Facebook is making a “clear and formal long-term commitment” to “giving you tools to control who can see your information and then making sure only those people you intend can see it,” he said.

Related

• Facebook Targets Huge IPO
• Heard: The $100 Billion Question
• Earlier: Facebook Retreats on Privacy

Facebook has settled with the FTC over charges that the social networking site violated users’ privacy, just as the company is getting closer to an IPO that could value it at $100 billion. WSJ’s Don Clark has details on Digits.

Mr. Zuckerberg also appointed two attorneys as new chief privacy officers, Erin Egan and Michael Richter. Mr. Richter, previously Facebook’s chief privacy counsel, will oversee product-related privacy issues. Ms. Egan will oversee policy-related privacy decisions.

Still, some Facebook users doubt the settlement will change Facebook’s behavior. “How can it possibly result in a change?” said Steven Greer, a New Yorker who runs an online health-care information service. “The very fundamental business model of Facebook is to collect information about you and use it to sell ads.”

Dr. Greer said he deleted his business’s Facebook page a few weeks ago when the company asked him for his cellphone number to verify his account, because he doesn’t trust it with his data.

The FTC charged Facebook with eight counts of violating its users’ privacy that constituted “unfair and deceptive” behavior. The agency has rarely alleged “unfairness” in privacy-enforcement actions.

“The settlement signals that the FTC will use every tool at its disposal to make sure that every company treats every user’s privacy with care and respect,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.

The FTC alleged that Facebook engaged in deceptive behavior when it promised user privacy protections that it didn’t fulfill. Specifically, the agency said Facebook promised that third-party apps would only have access to user information they needed, when in many cases, apps had unrestricted access to users’ personal data.

Similarly, the agency said Facebook’s “verified apps” program failed to certify the security of apps. The FTC also alleged Facebook didn’t delete users’ photos and videos when users deleted their accounts, even though it claimed to.

The FTC also said Facebook, which has long claimed it doesn’t share users’ specific private information with advertisers, was in fact giving a specific user ID to advertisers that could be combined with a user’s browsing history, allowing for a more unique identification of users than had been previously known. The FTC didn’t have any specific allegations as to how the information was used by advertisers.

In the proposed settlement, Facebook says it admits the facts in the FTC’s complaint but expressly denies the FTC’s allegations the law has been violated.

Facebook agreed to many of the same terms that Google Inc. agreed to in March when it settled charges that it had deceived users by telling Gmail users that their information would only be used for email, when it was actually used for a social-networking service called Buzz.

Like Google, Facebook agreed to a install a comprehensive privacy review of new products and to seek affirmative consent from users before making changes that override their privacy preferences.

Unlike Google, Facebook negotiated language that says it may in the future seek to modify the requirements for affirmative consent to address “technological changes and changes in methods of obtaining affirmative express consent.”

The settlement will be subject to public comment for 30 days before the FTC decides whether to make the agreement final.

The addition of new privacy officers is Facebook’s latest effort to develop its relationship with Washington. The company began to revamp its privacy and policy staff in July 2010 with the hiring of Marne Levine as vice president of global public policy. Then, in September, it hired Ms. Egan as senior policy adviser and director of privacy. She was previously a partner at Covington & Burling LLP and co-chairman of its global privacy and data-security practice.

Facebook has also hired Louisa Terrell, former special assistant to President Obama for legislative affairs, to join its Washington office. It hired Erika Mann, a former member of the European parliament, to head its Brussels office.

Write to Shayndi Raice at shayndi.raice@wsj.com and Julia Angwin at julia.angwin@wsj.com

Body found in water off Battery Park City

November 26, 2011

The Post is reporting that a dead body was found in North Cove Marina. Read the story here. The police told BatteryPark.TV that the body is an unidentified Hispanic male. The cause of death is not yet determined.

Port authority and City Spar Over Escalating World Trade Center Expenses

The planned 2012 opening of the Sept. 11 museum at the World Trade Center is in jeopardy amid a dispute over hundreds of millions of dollars in unexpected costs related to redeveloping the site, people familiar with the matter said.

Construction on the sprawling museum has slowed considerably since September, when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey stopped approving new contracts and extensions of existing contracts, people familiar with the matter said. Its planned September 2012 opening will likely be pushed back, the people said.

Rob Bennett for The Wall Street Journal

The $800-million-plus project is the latest pressure point in a series of funding disputes at the World Trade Center site, where the redevelopment tab has reached more than $11 billion.

The fight puts the Port Authority—controlled jointly by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie—at odds with the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the chairman of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum foundation.

Fueling the battle is $156 million that the Port Authority—which is building the museum—says the foundation owes for construction costs. Port Authority officials have said privately they are concerned about the museum having enough money to finish the job, people familiar with the dispute said.

The foundation denies it is responsible for the cost overruns, and for its part believes it is owed more than $100 million on account of delays, a person familiar with the matter said.

The two sides are negotiating a set of conditions for arbitrating the dispute outside of court.

Representatives for all sides on Sunday said the issues would ultimately be resolved.

“The Port Authority, the city and the museum are working collaboratively to resolve these matters,” said Patrick Foye, the Port Authority’s executive director.

Julie Wood, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bloomberg, said in a statement that funding disputes have been overcome before. “We’re confident we will work them out again,” she said.

The World Trade Center redevelopment has been plagued by near-constant disputes among public agencies as well as with private developer Larry Silverstein, who has the rights to develop three towers.

Most of the billions in added costs over the years have been absorbed by the Port Authority, which owns the site and is in charge of the rebuilding.

The overruns at the museum have been in dispute for months, but those and other problems were left unresolved until now, in part because officials wanted to avoid a public fight before the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, people familiar with the discussions said.

The city and the Port Authority also have recently been fighting over who will pay for up to $300 million in security costs related to the site, people familiar with the discussions said.

Mr. Cuomo has begun to take a more active approach with the Port Authority, a typically cash-rich agency that has been weighed down by the costs of rebuilding. He recently installed Mr. Foye, a former economic development aide, as its new executive director, and put four new appointees on the agency’s board.

The agency appears to have taken a more aggressive approach with funding issues lately, and it has added pressure on the memorial foundation by not approving the contracts for the museum.

The dispute is partially over whether the $156 million in overruns are the responsibility of the museum, or whether they are broader infrastructure that the Port Authority should pay for. Generally, the foundation is responsible for the museum’s cost. The Port Authority is paying for site-wide infrastructure.

The Port Authority claims the foundation is responsible for such unexpected costs. But the foundation denies it is responsible and is preparing a claim of more than $100 million against the Port Authority, for additional costs caused by construction delays and the operational complications of opening the memorial when the surrounding streets and sidewalks weren’t yet open, one person familiar with the situation said. Talks have been active. Mr. Foye met Friday with city officials including Deputy Mayor Robert Steel.

The Port Authority has raised broader concerns about the foundation’s ability to pay for the full cost of the museum. Mr. Foye told members of the agency’s board earlier this month that Joseph Daniels, the foundation president, said he expected a “cash squeeze” early next year, a person familiar with the board meeting said.

Michael Frazier, a foundation spokesman, said it “has reached its funding commitments and will continue to do so.”

Exclusive: The missing Goldman Sachs ferry boats are found

November 2, 2011

By Steven Greer, MD

The New York Times first reported in March that Goldman Sachs had purchased two new luxurious state-of-the-art ferry boats to carry employees across the Hudson River and doc at the WFC Vesey Street slip. The boats were supposed to go into commission in April but never did. In fact, the boats seem to have mysteriously disappeared.

We previously reported that neither Goldman Sachs nor the CEO of the BillyBey Ferry Company would comment on the fate of the boats. Last night, all of the parties who would know were present at the CB1 meeting. We asked the Port Authority, DOT, and BillyBey CEO Paul Goodman what became of the Goldman Sachs ferry boats and they all refused to comment (see video). The Port Authority spokeswoman said nervously, “I do not have privy to that information.” The BillyBey CEO essentially filibustered and changes the topic.

We spoke with the New York Times reporter who first covered this story, Pat McGeehan. A credible rumor circulating to explain this hush-hush over the Goldman Sachs boats is that the vessels were purchased somehow using federal bank stimulus or bailout monies, then the Goldman executives realized that buying catamaran river yachts might give a bad appearance to the press so the boats were sold or returned.

We then spoke directly with the boat manufacturer. All American Marine, in Bellingham, Washington, to ask whether they knew the fate of the Goldman Sachs boats. The marketing account manager who “handled that deal from start to finish” and has “been to New York for this many time”, told us that he “…had no idea why Goldman Sachs is not using those boats. They are still tied up to the pier in the Hudson River. They are perfectly fine, accepted, and ready to use. They just tell us that “the timing is not right” to put them into commission.”

All American Marine explained that the state-of-the-art boats made for Goldman Sachs have the least polluting engines available now which fall into the EPA’s Tier-2 category. They use Caterpillar diesel engines with exhaust particulate filters. He said, “We in the marine industry are now being pressured to clean up our act (with regards to exhaust emissions). The particulate filters are an experiment on process. The downside to strong filters are that they can back up the exhaust and hurt the engines.” He said that each boat cost Goldman Sachs approximately $2.75 Million per boat.

The Goldman Sachs mystery ferries have now been located. Why they are out of commission is still a mystery.

New York Times

Big meeting tonight to discuss the fate of the polluting NY Waterway boats

November 1, 2011

By Steven Greer, MD

The CB1 Battery Park City subcommittee will meet tonight to discuss the fate of the BillyBey Ferry Company’s air and noise polluting ferry boats (6:00 PM, 1 World Financial Center, 24th floor). After several meetings leading up to this one, scheduled to be in attendance tonight are the CEO of BillyBey, representatives from Senator Gillibrand and Rep. Nadler’s offices, the EPA, the DOT, the non-profit environmental watchdog group the NRDC, and The New York Times.

Key issues to be determined will be:

• What did BillyBey do with the more than $7 Million in grants provided by an arcane grant from the State and City specifically meant for cleaning up ferry boat exhaust? “The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), in partnership with the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), announces the Deployment Phase of the New York City Private Ferry Emission Reduction Program.”
• BillyBey claims that several of their boats have already been retrofitted with diesel particulate filters. However, per our filming and reporting, not a single New York Waterway ferry that docks at the Vesey Street slip seems to have any such filter.
• BillyBey also claims to be completely replacing older diesel engines with more modern “clean diesel”. When will this take place?
• What happened to the brand new super-clean and quiet Goldman Sachs ferry boats, seen briefly in April and reported by the New York Times? They seem to have disappeared and never made it into service. BillyBey CEO Goodman refused to answer that question in our previous call with him.
• What powers does the federal Clean Air Act give our local EPA to enforce pollution violations that appear to be committed by the BillyBey New York Waterway ferries? The well-funded non-profit environmental watchdog group, the NRDC, and the EPA, will shed some light onto that.
• What role will the Port Authority, operator of the Vesey Street slip and contractor with BillyBey, play in resolving this public health problem?
• What role will the city play now that the city is in contract with BillyBey for the East River new ferry services?

After decades of being subjected to noise and air pollution from the BillyBey New York Waterway ferries, our community seems to the most support ever for resolving this problem. Please attend the meeting tonight.

(unedited filming of ferry boat pollution)

TV “News” hits a new low with the 60 Minutes Madoff family interview

October 30, 2011

By Steven Greer, MD

CBS’s “60 Minutes” has long been one of the most respected and trusted “TV News” sources. Now, even that bastion is crumbling as the old media world slowly becomes more obsolete and viewers switch off.

The interview with the Madoff family tonight has generated plenty of outrage. But the bigger story is how poorly CBS and 60 Minutes handled the opportunity.

CBS gave two con artists, Ruth and son Andrew, the biggest forum of its kind in the world to spew poorly told lies and distortions in an attempt for Andrew to regain some form of a normal life. Andrew is clearly peddling a book that his bizarre “fiancé” will profit from, as she serves as a money laundering mule and shield from the bankruptcy lawyers.

Morley Safer and the 60 Minutes producers made very little attempt to question the accuracy of any of the Madoff claims. Ruth claims that she was never the bookkeeper of the Ponzi scheme after 1960, for example. There are plenty of experts who could offer evidence refuting that. The son claims he knew nothing about the Ponzi scheme, a virtually impossible reality, and Morley Safer barely questioned him.

There were no experts, like Harry Markopolos or the bankruptcy lawyers, to offer a counterpoint and blow the Madoff lies out of the water. This would have been like shooting fish in a barrel for Markopolos.

60 Minutes clearly lowered their standards and cut some form of a deal to get the exclusive for interview with the Madoff’s. As rating in TV slip, the networks are lowering their standards.

West Thames Park lawn looking mangy

October 19, 2011

(An excerpt from Downtown Express By Terese Loeb Kreuzer)

After months of negotiations between the Battery Park City Authority, the Hudson River Park Trust and the New York State Department of Transportation over who should pay to resod the West Thames Park lawn and who should police and maintain it, the lawn already is looking mangy.

“Kids come there from high schools on the other side of the West Side highway and play pick-up sports after school,” said Mark Costello, a Community Board 1 member who is also on the board of the Downtown Little League. “There’s no rule against it. The problem is that that’s not what that lawn is built for. Last year, we also had adults coming over from Wall Street after work, and they would play and were very aggressive. I think the emphasis [for that lawn] should be on passive use and family play.”

The guidelines for the park say, “No cleats, no using more than half the field per group and no aggressive play that may result in harm,” said Anne Fenton, a B.P.C.A. spokesperson. But, she added, “There’s only so much you can control in nature.”

The B.P.C. Conservancy has been entrusted with caring for the lawn, and as of a few weeks ago, the H.R.P.T. and Battery Park City Parks Enforcement Patrols (P.E.P.) assumed joint jurisdiction for policing it.

For full BatteryPark.TV coverage, click here

Also, please note how BatteryPark.TV is the only local New York news source with the journalism ethics to cite other sources, even if they could be viewed as competition

BPCA CEO Gayle Horwitz responsible for the field control and feud with HRPT and DOT