Big Data, as the name implies, relates to very large sets of data collected through free or commercial services on the internet.

This massive amount of data arises from sensors, posts to social networking sites, digital images, videos posted online, transaction records of online purchases, and from mobile phone GPS signals to name a few.

A couple of aspects of big data worth noting are:

it is impossible to remove/withdraw information from big data - information once added will persist indefinitely in the cloud

virtually any information that is stored electronically, including information within personal devices, offline data storage, even information thought to be deleted, has the potential to be included in big data.

Data mining is the process of analysing inter-data relationships – connecting the dots and finding hidden meanings and relationships that can provide startling new insights.

This process of knowledge discovery provides information that can be used by industry to increase revenue and cut costs. This is where the game changes from the cloud being merely a repository of vast information to a technology that yields considerable advantage to those who can properly utilise it.

Recent advances in parallel processing, distributed computing and high-performance computing (HPC) have enabled internet-scale data analytics that give strategic information to their operators.

READ MORE: Explainer: what is big data?

February 18, 2014

Hong Kong man becomes 7th banker to die under mysterious circumstances

Yet another banker has committed suicide, with a JP Morgan forex trader leaping to his death from the top of the firm's Chater House headquarters in Hong Kong

Paul Joseph Watson, Prison Planet.com

READ MORE: Hong Kong man becomes 7th banker to die under mysterious circumstances

Wall Street is using loopholes in financial legislation to seize control of entire industrial chains.

Wall Street watchers have been concerned for some time about the monopolizing trend among big banks. One of the most alarming developments in recent years is a buying spree in which megabanks have been gobbling up physical assets.

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone has delved into this story in his characteristically colorful way, shining a light on how this particular activity took off, namely through an overlooked provision in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999. This arcane-sounding piece of Clinton-era legislation ranks high on the list of Very Bad Ideas coming out of Washington since the 1980s. It essentially overturned Depression-era regulations that had kept the banking sector under control and opened the door for commercial banks, investment banks and insurance companies to merge their businesses.

The fine print of the bill also allowed commercial banks to dive into any activity that is "complementary to a financial activity and does not pose a substantial risk to the safety or soundness of depository institutions or the financial system generally."

So what exactly classifies as "complementary" to financial activity? When the idea came up in Congress in 1999, JPMorgan's Michael Patterson said it was something like American Express owning a lifestyle magazine that complemented its business. No biggie.

But in reality, it has meant pretty much everything. Like, for example, oil tankers and raw materials. The result is something the public never signed off on — banks getting their mitts on entire supply chains and industrial processes. Taibbi explains how this is going down:

"Today, banks like Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs own oil tankers, run airports and control huge quantities of coal, natural gas, heating oil, electric power and precious metals. They likewise can now be found exerting direct control over the supply of a whole galaxy of raw materials crucial to world industry and to society in general, including everything from food products to metals like zinc, copper, tin, nickel and, most infamously thanks to a recent high-profile scandal, aluminum."

Wall Street's push into the physical commodities markets is a brave new world of financial risk, which will be assumed, as always, by you and me. Now we can add the fear of a catastrophic pipeline explosion to the list of events that might trigger another meltdown the taxpayers will end up paying for. Meanwhile, you can bet Wall Street is looking for the next loophole.

READ MORE: Predator Banks Enter Brave New World of Epic Scams and Public Hasn’t Got a Clue

Barclays bank is to axe up to 12,000 jobs this year even as it raised bonuses for investment bankers, prompting fury among politicians and unions who said it had not learned the lessons of the financial crisis.

Stepping up efforts to cut costs, Barclays said up to 9 percent of employees could go, including 7,000 in the UK, where half of the affected staff had already been notified. The cuts are not concentrated in any single business area.

Britain's third-biggest bank said it paid $3.9bn in incentive awards last year after raising bonuses at the investment bank by 13 percent despite a slump in profits from the business.

Barclays also announced that a strong performance by its retail arm helped lift group profit after tax to £886m last year, compared with a net loss of $1bn in 2012.

The average bonus across the investment bank's 26,200 staff was about $100,000. The combination of lay-offs and fatter bonuses drew indignation from Britain's biggest labour union.

Barclays chief executive Anthony Jenkins, who took the helm in 2012 after an interest rate rigging scandal, is attempting to improve culture and standards while also reducing risk and strengthening the balance sheet.

He defended the bigger bonus pot, saying the bank had to recruit the best staff to compete with global rivals and continued to have "constructive" talks with investors over pay.

The bank also cut 7,650 jobs last year, including 1,400 in the investment bank, as part of a restructuring unveiled a year ago. There were 139,600 Barclays employees by the end of the year.

READ MORE: Barclays says it has to cut costs, after announcing profits and an increase in bonuses for its investment arm