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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday November 26 2019, @02:05PM   Printer-friendly
from the just-business dept.

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

U.S.-based chip-tech group moving to Switzerland over trade curb fears

A U.S.-based foundation overseeing promising semiconductor technology developed with Pentagon support will soon move to Switzerland after several of the group’s foreign members raised concerns about potential U.S. trade curbs.

The nonprofit RISC-V Foundation (pronounced risk-five) wants to ensure that universities, governments and companies outside the United States can help develop its open-source technology, its Chief Executive Calista Redmond said in an interview with Reuters.

She said the foundation’s global collaboration has faced no restrictions to date but members are “concerned about possible geopolitical disruption.”

“From around the world, we’ve heard that ‘If the incorporation was not in the U.S., we would be a lot more comfortable’,” she said. Redmond said the foundation’s board of directors approved the move unanimously but declined to disclose which members prompted it.


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @03:46PM (14 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @03:46PM (#924953)

    From TFS:

    A U.S.-based foundation overseeing promising semiconductor technology developed with Pentagon support will soon move to Switzerland after several of the group’s foreign members raised concerns about potential U.S. trade curbs.

    Given the arbitrary and selective nature of the current administration's tariff and tariff exemption actions, I'd be really nervous about being punished economically if my organization didn't swear fealty to the Trump administration too.

    As Paul Krugman pointed out [nytimes.com] today:

    ...Trump is quietly applying a Ukraine-type extortion-and-bribery strategy to U.S. corporations. Many businesses are being threatened with policies that would hurt their bottom lines — especially, but not only, tariffs on imported goods crucial to their operations. But they are also being offered the possibility of exemptions from these policies.

    And the implicit quid pro quo for such exemptions is that corporations support Donald Trump, or at least refrain from criticizing his actions.

    [...]For example, in 2018 a company owned by Oleg Deripaska — an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, who is supposed to be under U.S. sanctions [nytimes.com] for activities that include interference in foreign elections — received a waiver [nytimes.com] from aluminum tariffs. The waiver was withdrawn only after Democrats in Congress noticed it, with the Commerce Department claiming that it had been granted as a result of a “clerical error.” Uh-huh.

    Is that the only reason for RISC-V to leave the US, or even the most important one? I don't know. But it certainly raises questions for which no real answers seem to be forthcoming.

    Starting Score:    0  points
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    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @04:02PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @04:02PM (#924958)

    Like if Ukraine is so rife with extortion and bribery, why do some segments of government and the MSM want us to keep pumping money into there?

    • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday November 26 2019, @07:15PM (1 child)

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Tuesday November 26 2019, @07:15PM (#925028) Journal

      why do some segments of government and the MSM want us to keep pumping money into there?

      The most common reason is for a piece of the action. That's why corrupt politicians win reelection for 30 years or more, everybody wants some of that pie. There's nothing particularly complex about it.

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27 2019, @12:03AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27 2019, @12:03AM (#925168)

        And because the democrats profiting there are political rivals (or in their clan) of Trump, that makes it uninvestigatable for the Trump administration -- even impeachable, according to 2019 democrat party doctrine.

        Americans sitting at home and watching the evening news take a step back and think: Just what of they are telling you is right and wrong is right and wrong?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @04:38PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @04:38PM (#924977)

    I find it amusing you'd be quoting Krugman when he predicted the stock market would impload with Trump. Perhaps he meant sometime in Trump's second term?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @04:44PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @04:44PM (#924981)

      Do you dispute the facts in the quote?

      Or are you just foaming at the mouth because he's not falling in line behind you to suck Trump's cock?

  • (Score: -1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @04:59PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @04:59PM (#924984)

    Be wary of NYTimes "opinion" pieces. Read that piece for the facts presented, without the wordsmithing. And you get this:

      - Trump wants Tariffs because he thinks they're good for American labor
      - Apple wants exceptions because obvious
      - Trump tours an Apple factor and starts rambling off about politics
      - Apple CEO doesn't get into an argument with Trump over politics
      - Omg! Quid quo pro! Advertsus solem ne loquitor! Scandal scandal scandal!!!

    The New York Times and other publishers have made sure to ensure that there is a special carve out from fact checking and other validation for "opinion" pieces. It gives them carte blanche to run genuinely fake news as real news with plausible deniability if/when it can be proven to be fake: "That was just the author's opinion, as was clearly labeled at the top of the article, the categorization of the piece, and even in the page title. We in no way hid the fact that this piece was little more than an opinion piece."

    In this case it's even worse since the author is the same person who, among other gems, authored this [nytimes.com] evergreen piece:

    It really does now look like President Donald J. Trump, and markets are plunging. When might we expect them to recover?

    Frankly, I find it hard to care much, even though this is my specialty. The disaster for America and the world has so many aspects that the economic ramifications are way down my list of things to fear.

    Still, I guess people want an answer: If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.

    -Paul Krugman

    And Krugman's probably better at economic forecasting than he is at telling the truth!

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @06:56PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @06:56PM (#925016)

      That's generally what opinion means, yes, so there is no need to put it in quotes. It's what at least 75% (maybe closer to 90%) of what all 24-hour TV "news" sources do, and what many other sources like Breitbart and OANN do. (See, I put news in quotes there because they are devilishly good at making you think you are watching news when you are watching opinions about the news). But for newspapers, if the piece says "OPINION" across the top of it, as this one does.... well you can pretty well assume that there are going to be conclusions drawn beyond the facts themselves. Those might be debatable. See how that works?

      Your factual analysis of the situation is pretty lacking. Here's the facts being presented:
            - Trump visited Apple and told several falsehoods both there and on Twitter ("Today I opened a major Apple Manufacturing plant in Texas that will bring high paying jobs back to America.")
            - Neither the CEO nor the company corrected the President's lies, but instead kept silent about them.
            - Deprikasa was relieved of aluminum tarriff sanctions, in a move the administration claims was an error.
            - The JEDI contract went to Microsoft instead of Amazon, which was a complete surprise to most of the industry with an opinion about it.

      The opinion being drawn from these examples is that Trump engages in crony capitalism, and the litmus test for these is personal support of Donald Trump. Seems right to me.

      That this is plausible is very simple. Trump is pathologically narcissistic. That is an opinion but rooted in enough factual occurrences that I'm not going to belabor proving it to you - if you can't see it already you won't anyway. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that Donald Trump supports them who support him personally and those who do not will be punished in any way that Trump is able to. He has proven again, and again, and again that he only supports those who support him, where his Oath of Office requires him to uphold the principles of the Constitution which are to support all people in America, those who like him and those who hate him both. He fails to support members of his own party who do not show the deference to which he feels is his due. It would be more surprising if he weren't a crony capitalist. But I digress.

      Then you conclude by arguing the messenger instead of the message.

      So you have no command of what opinion is. You do not understand the facts. You have incorrect concepts about the subject. And you try to shoot the messenger.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @07:53PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @07:53PM (#925043)

        The article is even more fake than you're assuming. Trump was referencing the new Austin campus (with around 15,000 new employees) that Apple announced immediately after his Tweet:

        Apple Announcement (per local news) [kxan.com]
        Trump Tweet [twitter.com].

        Check the dates. I'm sure that was just yet another 'woopsie' on Krugman's part.

        The New York Times continues to fall to impressive new lows.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @09:40PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @09:40PM (#925103)

          The article is even more fake than you're assuming. Trump was referencing the new Austin campus (with around 15,000 new employees) that Apple announced immediately after his Tweet:

          Apple Announcement (per local news) [kxan.com]
          Trump Tweet [twitter.com].

          Except, Trump's tweet said he "opened" a new manufacturing plant. According to the article *you* linked, Apple has just begin construction and will not have any actual Apple business activities until 2022.

          So. Trump *lied* about the plant he was standing inside (which was *opened* in 2013), as he couldn't be talking about "opening" a facility that won't finish construction for two years or so.

          So I suggest that *you*

          Check the dates. I'm sure that was just yet another big, fat, hairy lie on Trump's part.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27 2019, @05:11AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27 2019, @05:11AM (#925264)

            I'm going to assume you have a limited command of the English language. I can help!

            Open [dictionary.com] [ oh-puh n ]
            verb (used with object)
            to set in action, begin, start, or commence (sometimes followed by up)
            to open a campaign.

            Krugman, however, has no such excuse. Nor do the New York Times editors. It's simply more literally fake news from the NYT guarded by a classification as "opinion".

    • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday November 26 2019, @07:51PM (3 children)

      by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Tuesday November 26 2019, @07:51PM (#925042)

      Trump wants Tariffs because he thinks they're good for American labor

      That bit alone should be modded + 1 Funny.

      He has spent most of his life refusing to pay for it.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27 2019, @05:32AM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27 2019, @05:32AM (#925266)

        What people campaign for politically and what they do in their own private life are often quite different. Because what benefits you as an individual and what benefits a nation are often in distinct conflict. For instance Warren Buffet remains one of the most vocal proponents for higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy. Suffice to say until such laws pass, he's continuing to do absolutely everything and exploiting every loophole that exists to minimize his tax bill.

        Or going well back into the past, Jefferson was one of the most vocal advocates for trying to end slavery in the US. His phrasing in the constitution "All men are created equal." was not accidental. It was an abbreviated version of a rather lengthy rant against slavery he had initially included, but one that other signatories refused to accept. Yet of course he would go on to inherit more than 100 slaves himself whom he did not simply choose to immediately liberate (though that is more nuanced and outside the scope of the point here - he did liberate a number of the most skilled who he felt would be capable of comfortably making it on their own).

        In general so long as something provides a personal benefit (such as tax avoidance) there will be enough people that that will not stop exploiting it that you're doing nothing but hurting yourself by refusing to also 'indulge.' You could stop it to virtue signal, but when the gains you see from such things are genuinely significant - that often has a much higher personal value than the value of virtue signaling. If I gave you a $50 would you become a raving hateful racist online for a year? Probably not. For $1 billion? You wouldn't even hesitate. Your minimum value is somewhere in between. We all have our price, but it's only the very wealthy and/or powerful than generally reach a point that such price might be ever actually be paid. Hence the quote, "Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity."

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27 2019, @09:37AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27 2019, @09:37AM (#925298)

          As an example of this in the other direction, after primarily US bankers nearly destroyed the world economy during the previous administration Obama chose not only to not hold anybody accountable, but to give them hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to bail them out. Following the end of his presidency these same groups, among others, are paying him tens of millions of dollars in "speaking fees." That is in your face corruption that we've completely normalized. Imagine now, for a moment, that Obama had been a billionaire. Might he have reacted differently to these bankers' behaviors during his presidency?

          We can only speak in hypotheticals so there's no clear answer, but this question and concern is one reason why if I do choose to vote democrat again (which I have not since 2008), it would likely only be for a man of extensive independent means such as Bloomberg. I rather disagree with his positions, but whatever his price is going to be - it's probably more than some millions to low tens of millions of dollars. It's the same reason that though I tend to disagree with many of Trump's positions, and especially his behavior online, I will probably vote for him in 2020, excepting the possibility of a Bloomberg/Schultz/etc winning the DNC nomination which would make things more difficult. Because while I may disagree with Trump I think he is engaging in behavior that he genuinely thinks is good for America. By contrast, I do not think that Obama's decision to give the bankers a massive payday, to try to shovel through the TPP in the most undemocratic fashion, etc were things that he felt were good for America. Those are things that I think he felt were good for himself.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27 2019, @10:38AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27 2019, @10:38AM (#925301)

          If I gave you a $50 would you become a raving hateful racist online for a year?

          Yeah I would, but I'd probably outsource it out to an Indian for $10.