Authored by Michael Msika via Bloomberg,

European stocks are surging like never before in the new year, revved up by a surprise softening in inflation readings as well as resilient economies. While low positioning and bullish technicals point to more upside, there are roadblocks ahead.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index just had its best start of a year on record, advancing 6.5% over the first two weeks. The performance already exceeds strategists’ forecasts for the full year.

“Markets may have good reasons to see the glass half-full on inflation and dismiss hawkish central banks’ rhetoric,” says Barclays strategist Emmanuel Cau, while warning that some consolidation “would make sense and feel rather healthy.”

But overall, the strategist says positioning and sentiment are not as bullish as European price action suggests, and sees further gains possible, noting the rally seems more due to short covering than capital reallocation to the region.

Additionally, equity flows are still muted, exposure from CTAs and hedge funds is below normal, and investor sentiment indicators are still bearish, Cau says.

And technicals are rather bullish, according to DayByDay analyst Valerie Gastaldy, who says the Euro Stoxx 50 could well gain another 10% within a few weeks once it catches a second wind. She sees the first real resistance for the index at 4,415 — the high from 2021.

“In the short-term, the market may feel overheated, especially as there is no confirmation yet that yields will rise more slowly,” Gastaldy says, but technicals signal that the most probable scenario for the Euro Stoxx 50 is to rocket to a new high, with the current rally having at least the same size as the one in November.

No part of the market is oversold and there seems to be a lack of interest in buying downside protection, even with volatility under 20 — which was a key sell signal over the past year.

In fact, many strategists are scratching their heads and sticking to a view that a storm is coming and investors should hedge. BofA strategist Sebastian Raedler even sees 20% downside by the second quarter as economic growth momentum fades due to monetary tightening.

Separately, UBS strategists Gerry Fowler and Sutanya Chedda recommend buying risk reversals on European equities (sell calls/buy puts), seeing 8% downside ahead on declining earnings and margin expectations.

“The market significantly under-prices downside risks,” they say.

The upcoming earnings season could be a reality check for Europe, although even the salvo of profit warnings from the past few days — including Logitech, Ubisoft, Halfords, Signify, VAT and Gym Group — failed to dent investor optimism.

For now, bears are lacking arguments. The extension of the rally from 2022 losers, along with Europe’s largest company LVMH trading at an all-time high, makes finding shorts very difficult, according to Cowen’s EMEA head of trading Carl Dooley.

“So some kind of pullback looks fair,” he says. “It certainly feels like one is due. But aren’t we all thinking that?”

Russia and Belarus have kicked off joint aerial drills over Belarusian skies on Monday, in a worrying prospect for neighboring Ukraine given the exercises will last for a full two weeks, until Feb.1. 

Minsk, however, has called the drills “defensive in nature” amid accusations from Kiev that Belarusian armed forces are about to join the Russian invasion. Seeking to downplay that this signals escalation in Ukraine, Minsk also called the exercises mere “technical drills” which seek greater compatibility among the allies’ air forces.

An Al Jazeera correspondent in Moscow said that “We all know that last month President Vladimir Putin went to Minsk, where he met his counterpart [Alexander] Lukashenko, where they agreed that Russia will provide the Belarusian air force with training to be able to use what they described as aircraft that could carry unconventional weapons.”

But the correspondent noted: “there are many concerns with the role Belarus is playing with respect to the war, whether this is going to have [an] impact.”

As of last week, the Pentagon said it had yet to observe any Russian troop movements in Belarus that would indicate the two countries are staging a fresh attack on Ukraine together. Over the last weeks there have been widespread reports of Russian heavy equipment moving across the border by train into Belarus.

According to an AP description of the Monday joint air force drills, “The exercise will feature joint air patrols, action to support ground forces, airborne operations, air reconnaissance and transport flights, the ministry said. It didn’t mention the number of aircraft that will be involved in the drills.”

Ten days ago, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko paid a visit to a military base where Russian troops are stationed, in but the latest sign of Belarus’ growing support to Russian efforts in Ukraine.

“At this stage, units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are ready to carry out tasks as intended,” a defense ministry official said at the time. Lukashenko himself had referred to the conflict in Ukraine as part of his country’s “common cause” with Russia.

The Ukrainian government, meanwhile, has continued to charge that Russia is using Belarusian territory to launch drones as it targets energy infrastructure.

Authored by Alexander Zhang via The Epoch Times,

A man has been arrested under terrorism laws after traces of uranium were found in a cargo package at Heathrow Airport, police said.

Uranium was detected in a package at the airport on Dec. 29, London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed on Jan. 11.

The man, who is in his 60s, was arrested after counter-terror officers searched an address in Cheshire on Saturday.

He was arrested on suspicion of an offence under Section 9 of the Terrorism Act 2006, which covers the making and possession of radioactive devices.

He has been released on bail until April, the Metropolitan Police said on Sunday, adding that there does not appear to be any direct threat to the public.

People queue to enter Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport, London, on Jan. 18, 2021. (Henry Nicholls/Reuters)

According to the Sun newspaper, which first reported the incident, the package had originated from Pakistan and arrived in the UK on a flight from Oman. The uranium was found in a shipment of scrap metal, according to the BBC.

Uranium can be used for civilian power generation and scientific purposes and is a key ingredient in nuclear weapons. Certain isotopes emit radiation that can be harmful to humans, and the metal itself is toxic if ingested or inhaled.

‘Very Small Amount’

Police stressed that the amount of uranium detected was “very small.”

Commander Richard Smith, who leads the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “The discovery of what was a very small amount of uranium within a package at Heathrow Airport is clearly of concern, but it shows the effectiveness of the procedures and checks in place with our partners to detect this type of material.

“Our priority since launching our investigation has been to ensure that there is no linked direct threat to the public. To this end, we are following every possible line of inquiry available to us, which has led us to making this arrest over the weekend.

“I want to be clear that despite making this arrest, and based on what we currently know, this incident still does not appear to be linked to any direct threat to the public. However, detectives are continuing with their inquiries to ensure this is definitely the case.”

Undated photo showing the New Scotland Yard sign outside the Metropolitan Police headquarters in London. (Kirsty O’Connor/PA Media)

On Jan. 10, after the incident was reported in the press, Smith said, “I want to reassure the public that the amount of contaminated material was extremely small and has been assessed by experts as posing no threat to the public.”

“Although our investigation remains ongoing, from our inquiries so far, it does not appear to be linked to any direct threat. As the public would expect, however, we will continue to follow up on all available lines of inquiry to ensure this is definitely the case,” he added.

He added that the incident “does highlight the excellent capability” of UK police and other security agencies to monitor the country’s ports and borders “in order to keep the public safe from any potential threats to their safety and security that might be coming into the UK.”

Giving evidence at the Police and Crime Committee of the London Assembly on Jan. 11, Smith said that it was “understandable” that media reports on the incident would attract “considerable attention and potentially concern.”

He said: “The circumstances are that in the course of routine scanning at London Heathrow an element of cargo was identified that was emitting a radioactive signal. There are procedures in place to deal with these sorts of incidents and those procedures were enacted. As part of that, the counter-terrorism commands were contacted and have opened an investigation into the surrounding circumstances.”

Armed police officers patrol the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport prior to its official opening, in London, on March 14, 2008. (Dan Kitwood /Getty Images)

Britons ‘Should Be Pretty Reassured’

Col. Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical and biological weapons expert, told the BBC Radio 4 “Today” programme on Jan. 11 that people should be reassured that the uranium was detected.

He said, “It’s very clear that the comprehensive surveillance network that we have in place in this country, run by the security services, the police, and others, has actually worked and picked up potentially a very dangerous containment that could provide a threat.”

De Bretton-Gordon, the former head of the UK’s nuclear defence regiment, added, “In this country I think people should be pretty reassured that we’re not going to see dirty bombs from this type of material.”

Asked what could have happened to the metal, he said: “If it is for nefarious reasons, for bad reasons, to create mayhem by Iranians or some sort of Russian proxy, then that is an area of concern. But I think the key thing is that there are people looking out for this, and this should not worry the public unduly.”

Last autumn, former Prime Minister Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-budget sparked financial turmoil across UK markets. The Bank of England was forced to intervene with a massive bond-buying scheme to halt pension fund deleveraging. One market that was exceptionally roiled by the chaos was the UK commercial property market. 

Truss’s then-chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, caused financial turbulence and fears of a 2008-style financial crisis by unveiling the mini-budget, also known as “The Growth Plan,” which was designed to boost economic growth through tax cuts that were funded by fiscal stimulus. This caused dysfunction in the UK gilt market and led to pensions unloading everything from stocks, bonds, collateralized-loan obligations, and even office buildings. That quickly cooled investments in London office buildings in the fourth quarter. 

Real estate information provider CoStar Group Inc. revealed £400 million ($488 million) of offices in the UK were bought and sold in the fourth quarter, an 88% plunge from the prior quarter. 

Bloomberg noted, “the dealmaking freeze — worse than the decline during the financial crisis or Covid-19 lockdowns — came as former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s proposals for unfunded tax cuts spooked markets.” 

CoStar’s data shows the two-decade quarterly average for offices bought and sold is around £3.5 billion ($4.2 billion). So the last quarter’s figure reflects the turmoil sparked by Truss. Also, buyers are on the sidelines as they wait for price adjustments due to higher borrowing costs and the rising risk of recession.  

At the time of the turmoil last fall, pensions were unloading positions in the UK’s largest property funds, causing these funds to gate redemptions to avoid asset “firesales.”  

And the turmoil is unlikely to be over. US fund manager BlackRock recently suspended redemption requests from investors in its £3.5 billion ($4.2 billion) UK property fund. 

The net asset value of the BlackRock UK Property Fund has been on a rollercoaster ride in the last few quarters and roundtripped Covid lows. 

It seems like a combination of Truss’ disastrous mini-budget sparking financial chaos late last year and increasing economic uncertainty have led to freezing the UK office property market. 

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

A Ukrainian activist who has been lauded by legacy media outlets called for “all Russians” to be “wiped off the face of the Earth.”

The genocidal remarks were made by blogger Melania Podoliak in response to a missile hitting an apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Dnepr.

The building was struck after a Russian missile was shot down by a Ukrainian anti-air weapon, according to Aleksey Arestovich, an adviser to President Vladimir Zelensky.

“It’s absolutely fair for me to wish for all Russians and Russia to be wiped off the face of the Earth,” Podoliak tweeted.

“It’s not hate speech, it’s not horrible of me, it’s just FAIR,” she added.

It’s absolutely fair for me to wish for all Russians and Russia to be wiped off the face of the Earth. It’s not hate speech, it’s not horrible of me, it’s just FAIR.

14.01.2013, Dnipro, a residential building after Russian missile attack. pic.twitter.com/4TPHYm13a8

— Melaniya Podolyak (@MelaniePodolyak) January 14, 2023

Quite how it was “fair” for all Russians to be killed in response to their government being embroiled in a war wasn’t explained by Podoliak.

Her comments were flagged after it was noted that Podoliak has been given a platform by numerous western legacy media outlets, including on NBC News as a “political activist” and by Fox News as a “media consultant.”

Critics accused Podoliak of being “pro-ethnic cleansing,” to which she responded by tweeting swear words.

Fuuuuuck you

— Melaniya Podolyak (@MelaniePodolyak) January 14, 2023

After some respondents said they knew Podoliak’s home address, she told them they were in for “a big fucking treat,” posting a photo of herself holding a shotgun.

Cool, now these bots threaten me by letting me know they have my address

Well if you know that, you also know your in for a big fucking treat. Cya!

(Unless you want to waste an entire missile on me, which is going to change nothing for you, you’re still gonna get fuucked) https://t.co/4iesIszNGw pic.twitter.com/EbRkD8krPp

— Melaniya Podolyak (@MelaniePodolyak) January 15, 2023

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard such genocidal rhetoric.

As we previously highlighted, Ukrainian TV host Fahruddin Sharafmal took to the airwaves to demand the genocide of Russian children, quoting top Nazi Adolf Eichmann as he called for “killing children.”

*  *  *

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Record warmth spread across Europe in the first half of January. Temperatures in the energy-stricken continent felt more like spring as several metropolitan areas recorded the warmest temperatures on record. Now a pattern shift is underway as parts of northwest Europe brace for a cold snap starting Monday. 

The latest runs for global weather models, including GFS Operational and ECMWF Operational, show what appears to be a downward shift in temperatures for northwest Europe. Average temps are expected to average in the low 30s degrees Fahrenheit this week, below 5,10, and 30-year averages. 

GFS and ECMWF models show temperatures in London could decline to the low 30s by tomorrow — well below average for this time of year. 

A similar cold spell in Paris is slated for early this week. 

As well as colder temperatures in Berlin. 

Freezing temperatures across northwest Europe for the second half of the month will push up heating demand.  

Mild temperatures curbed heating demand and allowed for injections into natural gas storage at a time when supplies should be drawing. But that could change with the return of winter. 

The return of freezing conditions did very little to boost EU nature gas prices, which fell to the lowest level since September 2021 as the supply outlook remained robust. 

“There currently appears to be no end to the losses on the European gas market,” analysts at trading firm Energi Danmark A/S wrote in a note. They added: 

“The panic-like situation from last year has been replaced by confidence that Europe will get through this winter without any supply issues.”

Still, some are warning winter isn’t over:

#natgas
Weather models are cooling by the day. European snow cover is forecast over half of Europe including Greece, Italy, Turkey, even Lebanon and North Africa reaching 3 foot of snow. #natgas pic.twitter.com/L5hjnXWgbW

— Heinrich Leopold (@LeopoldHeinrich) January 16, 2023

forecast #polarvortex pic.twitter.com/2rqHLgNv9N

— PV-Forecast (@PvForecast) January 16, 2023

#natgas
To the astonishment of weather forecasters models (Jan17,23,31) are becoming colder and colder in Europe. This is exactly what the weakening of the polar vortex suggests. This will intensify as an historic strong vortex has accumulated a record amount of arctic cold air. pic.twitter.com/jI9txxPD8n

— Heinrich Leopold (@LeopoldHeinrich) January 15, 2023

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told BBC on Friday that Ukraine is a “de facto” NATO member since it’s equipped with so many of the alliance’s weapons and dismissed the idea that his comments were controversial.

Reznikov said he was confident that Ukraine’s Western backers would supply Kyiv with warplanes and tanks despite some concerns about escalating the war. A day later, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed he would be sending Challenger 2 tanks.

“This concern about the next level of escalation, for me, is some kind of protocol,” Reznikov said. “Ukraine as a country, and the armed forces of Ukraine, became the member of NATO. De facto, not de jure [by law]. Because we have weaponry, and the understanding of how to use it.”

Reznikov made similar comments earlier this month when he said in an interview on Ukrainian TV that his country was “shedding blood” for a “NATO mission.”

His view aligns with that of Russian officials who have repeatedly stated that they are not just fighting a war against Ukraine but also against the US and NATO.

In comments to BBC, Reznikov dismissed the idea that what he was saying is controversial even though it implicates that NATO is a direct party to the conflict…

“Why [would it be] controversial? It’s true. It’s a fact. I’m sure that in the near future, we’ll become member of NATO, de jure,” he said.

The implication that NATO is directly involved in the war gives Russia a pretext to launch an attack on NATO bases in Europe if it chooses to do so. Right now, there’s no sign that Moscow is looking to take such a step, but as the US and its NATO allies continue to ramp up military aid, further escalation becomes more likely.

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

Shadows are falling / And I’ve been here all day / It’s too hot to sleep / And time is running away / Feel like my soul / has turned into steel /I’ve still got the scars / That the sun didn’t heal / There’s not even room enough / To be anywhere / Lord it’s not dark yet, / but it’s getting there

Bob Dylan, Not Dark Yet

Lights! Action! Reset!

The World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Davos Freak Show is back in business on Monday.

The mainstream media of the collective West, in unison, will be spinning non-stop, for a week, all the “news” that are fit to print to extol new declinations of The Great Reset, re-baptized The Great Narrative, but actually framed as a benign offer by “stakeholder capitalism”. These are the main planks of the shady platform of a shady NGO registered in Cologny, a tony Geneva suburb.

The list of Davos attendees was duly leaked. Proverbially, it’s an Anglo-American Exceptionalist fun fest, complete with intel honchos such as the US Director of National Intelligence, Avril “Madam Torture” Haines; the head of MI6 Richard Moore; and FBI director Christopher Wray.

Remixed Diderot and D’Alembert Encyclopedias could be written about the Davos pathology – where a hefty list of multibillionaires, heads of state and corporate darlings (owned by BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street and co.) “engage” in selling Demented Dystopia packages to the unsuspecting masses.

But let’s cut to the chase and focus on a few panels next week – which could easily be mistaken for Straight to Hell sessions.

The Tuesday, January 17 list is particularly engaging. It features a “De-Globalization or Re-Globalization?” panel with speakers Ian Bremmer, Adam Tooze, Niall Ferguson, Péter Szijjártó and Ngaire Woods. Three Atlanticists/Exceptionalists stand out, especially the ultra-toxic Ferguson.

After “In Defense of Europe”, featuring a bunch of nullities including Poland’s Andrjez Duda, attendees will be greeted with a Special Season in Hell (sorry, Rimbaud) featuring none other than EC dominatrix Ursula von der Leyen, known by a vast majority of Germans as Ursula von der Leichen (“Ursula of Cadavers”) in a tag team with WEF mastermind, Third Reich emulator Klaus “Nosferatu” Schwab.

Rumors are that Lucifer, in his privileged underground abode, is green with envy.

There’s also “Ukraine: What Next?” with another bunch of nullities, and “War in Europe: Year 2” featuring Moldova woke chick Maia Sandu and Finnish party girl Sanna Marin.

In the War Criminal section, pride of place goes to “A Conversation with Henry Kissinger: Historical Perspectives on War”, where Dr. K. will sell all his trademark Divide and Rule permutations. Added sulphur will be provided by Thucydides strangler Graham Allison.

In his Special Address, “Liver Sausage” Chancellor Olaf Scholz will be side by side with Nosferatu, hoping he won’t be – literally – grilled.

Then, on Wednesday, January 18, comes the apotheosis: “Restoring Security and Peace” with speakers Fareed Zakaria – the US establishment’s pet brown man; NATO’s Jens “War is Peace” Stoltenberg; Andrzej Duda – again; and Canadian warmonger Chrystia Freeland – widely rumored to become the next NATO Secretary-General.

And it gets juicier: the coke comedian posing as warlord may join via zoom from Kiev.

The notion that this panel is entitled to emit judgments about “peace” deserves nothing less than its own Nobel Peace Prize.

How to monetize the whole world

Cynics of all persuasions may be excused for lamenting Mr. Zircon – currently on oceanic patrol encompassing the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean and of course “Mare Nostrum” Mediterranean – won’t be presenting his business card at Davos.

Analyst Peter Koenig has developed a convincing thesis that the WEF, the WHO and NATO may be running some sort of sophisticated death cult. The Great Reset does mingle merrily with NATO’s agenda as agent provocateur, financer and weaponizer of the proxy Empire vs. Russia war in black hole Ukraine. NAKO – an acronym for North Atlantic Killing Organization – would be more appropriate in this case.

As Koenig summarizes it, “NATO enters any territory where the ‘conventional’ media lie-machine, and social engineering are failing or not completing their people-ordaining goals fast enough.”

In parallel, very few people are aware that on June 13, 2019 in New York, a secret deal was clinched between the UN, the WEF, an array of oligarch-weaponized NGOs – with the WHO in the front line – and last but not least, the world’s top corporations, which are all owned by an interlinked maze with Vanguard and BlackRock at the center.

The practical result of the deal is the UN Agenda 2030.

Virtually every government in the NATOstan area and the “Western Hemisphere” (US establishment definition) has been hijacked by Agenda 2030 – which translates, essentially, as hoarding, privatizing and financializing all the earth’s assets, under the pretext of “protecting” them.

Translation: the marketization and monetization of the entire natural world (see, for instance, here, here and here.)

Davos superstar shills such as insufferable bore Niall Ferguson are just well rewarded vassals: western intellectuals of the Harvard, Yale and Princeton mould that would never dare bite the hand that feeds them.

Ferguson just wrote a column on Bloomberg titled “All is Not Quiet on the Eastern Front” – basically to peddle the risk of WWIII, on behalf of his masters, blaming of course “China as the arsenal of autocracy”.

Among serial high-handed inanities, this one stands out. Ferguson writes, “There are two obvious problems with US strategy (…) The first is that if algorithmic weapons systems are the equivalent of tactical nuclear weapons, Putin may eventually be driven to using the latter, as he clearly lacks the former.”

Cluelessness here is a euphemism. Ferguson clearly has no idea “algorithmic weapons” mean; if he’s referring to electronic warfare, the US may have been able to maintain superiority for a while in Ukraine, but that’s over.

Well, that’s typical Ferguson – who wrote a whole Rothschild hagiography just like his column, drinking from the Rothschild archives that appeared to have been sanitized as he knows next to nothing meaningful about their history.

Ferguson has “deduced” that Russia is weak and China is strong. Nonsense. Both are strong – and Russia is more advanced technologically than China in their advanced offensive and defensive missile development, and can beat the US in a nuclear war as Russian air space is sealed by layered defenses such as the S-400 all the way to the already tested S-500s and designed S-600s.

As far as semiconductor chips, the advantage that Taiwan has in chip manufacture is in mass production of the most advanced chips; but China and Russia can fabricate the chips necessary for military use, though not engage in mass commercial production. The US has an important advantage here commercially with Taiwan, but that’s not a military advantage.

Ferguson gives away his game when he carps about the need to “deter a nascent Axis-like combination of Russia, Iran and China from risking simultaneous conflict in three theaters: Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Far East.”

Here we have trademark Atlanticist demonization of the top three vectors of Eurasia integration mixed with a toxic cocktail of ignorance and arrogance: it’s NATO that is stoking “conflict” in Eastern Europe; and it’s the Empire that is being expelled from the “Far East” (oh, that’s so colonial) and soon from the Middle East (actually West Asia).

An AMGOT tale

Nobody with an IQ over room temperature will expect Davos next week to discuss any aspect of the NATO vs. Eurasia existential war seriously – not to mention propose diplomacy. So I’ll leave you with yet another typical tawdry story about how the Empire – who rules over Davos – deals in practice with its vassals.

While in Sicily earlier this year I learned that an ultra high-value Pentagon asset had landed in Rome, in haste, as part of an unscheduled visit. A few days later the reason for the visit was printed in La Repubblica, one of the papers of the toxic Agnelli clan.

That was a Mafia scam: a face-to-face “suggestion” for the Meloni government to imperatively provide Kiev, as soon as possible, with the costly anti-Samp-T missile system, developed by an European consortium, Eurosam, uniting MBDA Italy, MBDA France and Thales.

Italy possesses only 5 batteries of this system, not exactly brilliant against ballistic missiles but efficient against cruise missiles.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had already called Palazzo Chigi to announce the “offer you can’t refuse”. Apparently that was not enough, thus the hasty envoy trip. Rome will have to toe the line. Or else. After all, never forget the terminology employed by US generals to designate Sicily, and Italy as a whole: AMGOT.

American government occupied territory.

Have fun with the Davos freak show.

How much money is a brand truly worth?

As Visual Capitalist’s Omri Wallach details below, for some companies, a brand is something that helps slightly boost customer engagement and sales. But for others, including some of the largest companies in the world, a strong brand is one of their most valuable assets.

this animated graphic by James Eagle uses the annual brand rankings from Interbrand to track the world’s most valuable brands from 2000 to 2022.

Measuring Brand Value

One of the difficulties of brand valuation is its subjectivity.

In accounting, the value of a brand is sometimes represented as an intangible asset called goodwill on the balance sheet. That’s because the brand power associated with a company (i.e. brand recognition, brand loyalty, customer base, reputation, etc.) often makes a company more valuable than just the sum of its tangible assets like land, buildings, or product inventory.

This works for accounting purposes but is still a rough estimation, and doesn’t precisely quantify a brand’s true value.

For Interbrand’s studies, a consistent formula for brand strength was utilized which is based on a company’s financial forecast, brand role, and brand strength. It uses estimates of the present value of earnings a brand is forecasted to generate in the future.

The Top 10 Most Valuable Brands Since 2000

When the 2000s started, the internet was top-of-mind in terms of both markets and customer perception. The Dotcom bubble was driving the world’s largest companies, and brand value at the time reflected tech’s popularity:

Half of the top 10 most valuable brands at the time were in tech or telecom, including Microsoft, IBM, and Nokia.

Others were classic American brands and companies at the top of their fields, including Coca-Cola, General Electric, Ford, and McDonald’s.

But over the next 20 years, much of the old guard was replaced by new and rising brands. By 2022, only three of the top 10 most valuable brands from 2000 remained at the top:

Apple’s brand is now worth an estimated $482 billion, even though the company didn’t even crack the top 10 list back in the year 2000.

In fact, four of the top five brands on the 2022 list are directly in tech, and even Amazon (#3) is often considered a tech giant. Not surprisingly, brand value in the top 10 has grown almost across the board, though Coca-Cola is a notable exception, dropping $15 billion in estimated brand value over 22 years.

How will the most valuable brands continue to evolve over the coming decades?

Authored by Judith Bergman via The Gatestone Institute,

The United States recently banned TikTok from all federal government devices over growing security concerns. That is a good start.

TikTok, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned at the beginning of December, is controlled by the Chinese government, which is a national security concern.

TikTok, a video-sharing app owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has, according to TikTok’s own estimates, 1 billion users worldwide. In 2021, TikTok had approximately 87 million users in the US, according to Statista. Disturbingly, a recent study found that 10% of US adults get their news from the Chinese app, up from 3% in 2020.

Wray said that China’s government can control the app’s recommendation algorithm, “which allows them to manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations.”

“All of these things are in the hands of a government that doesn’t share our values, and that has a mission that’s very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States. That should concern us,” Wray said in a speech at the University of Michigan.

Wray’s comments echoed those he made at the “Worldwide Threats to the Homeland” hearing held at the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee on November 15.

“We do have national security concerns at least from the FBI’s end about TikTok,” Wray stated.

“They include the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users. Or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations if they so chose. Or to control software on millions of devices, which gives it opportunity to potentially technically compromise personal devices.”

Wray’s concerns are not new — actually, they come a bit late. In 2020, President Donald J. Trump, citing similar security concerns, tried to ban the app in the US, in addition to sanctioning the company, but several federal judges ruled against both sanctions and a ban, blocking his attempts. One judge ruled that the ban failed “to adequately consider an obvious and reasonable alternative before banning TikTok” and that the ban was “arbitrary and capricious.”

“ByteDance’s submission and compliance with Chinese law has rendered it a reliable, useful, and far reaching ear and mouthpiece for the Party and State,” the Trump administration wrote at the time in a document motivating the proposed ban. The document cited ByteDance’s commitment to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as resulting in “systemic censorship of content across its platforms” and “the harvesting of user data.”

In the document, the Trump administration stressed noted:

“ByteDance, as a company, and its subsidiaries are subject to PRC national security laws that require or compel the assistance of any Chinese citizen or entity in surveillance and intelligence operations. As ByteDance is subject to PRC jurisdiction, PRC laws can compel cooperation from ByteDance…”

Chinese law requires all Chinese companies to turn over information to the Communist Party upon request — and ByteDance reportedly employs more than 130 Party members to ensure compliance, among other matters.

The Trump administration stated :

“One of the foremost national security risks presented by the TikTok mobile application in the United States is the possibility that the PRC government could, through lawful authority, extralegal influence (Communist Party) influence, or PRCISS, compel TikTok to provide systemic access to U.S. user’s sensitive personal information. A number of press reports clearly indicate the PRC Government has already compelled TikTok to assist them for domestic surveillance, censorship, and propaganda action within China, and their compliance is indicative of how they are likely to respond to intelligence requests on U.S. users. Given the bounty of information TikTok could offer on foreign users, as well as the aforementioned cyber tactics employed by the PRC, the Department of Commerce assesses the PRC and PRCISS would not limit their use of TikTok to domestic concerns and would instead use it for foreign intelligence and surveillance.”

Furthermore, similar to the concerns expressed by Wray, the Trump administration argued,

“The PRC government and the CCP can exert influence on ByteDance and, through the TikTok app, censor and shape content available to U.S. users in ways that can influence their opinions and views of China.”

In April 2021, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley wrote:

“TikTok is a Trojan Horse for the Chinese Communist Party that has no place on government devices—or any American devices, for that matter…. TikTok has repeatedly proven itself to be a malicious actor.”

According to Adonis Hoffman, a former chief of staff and senior legal advisor at the FCC who has served in legal and policy positions in the U.S. House of Representatives:

“Its algorithm is at once simple and sinister. Download the app on your smartphone and you have given China access to all your data… This opens a treasure trove of data on millions of Americans for the Chinese government to use whenever and however they choose. And history shows they use that data for nefarious purposes.”

President Joe Biden reversed Trump’s attempt at banning TikTok, signing an executive order in June 2021 that revoked Trump’s proposed ban. Instead, the Biden administration has sought to work out the security concerns with ByteDance through a negotiated deal with the Chinese company that would reportedly allow TikTok to continue operating in the US without any change of ownership.

“Well, I think Donald Trump was right,” Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, recently said.

“I mean, TikTok is an enormous threat. So, if you’re a parent, and you’ve got a kid on TikTok, I would be very, very concerned. All of that data that your child is inputting and receiving is being stored somewhere in Beijing.”

Brendan Carr, a Republican commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, said in November that the only way to resolve the national security concerns regarding TikTok would be to ban the app.

“I don’t believe there is a path forward for anything other than a ban,” Carr said. According to Axios:

There simply isn’t “a world in which you could come up with sufficient protection on the data that you could have sufficient confidence that it’s not finding its way back into the hands of the [Chinese Communist Party],” Carr said.

In October, Forbes revealed that a China-based team at ByteDance had planned to use TikTok to track the locations of an unspecified number of Americans.

In December, it was revealed that ByteDance had used the app to surveil several journalists to track down the journalists’ sources.

According to Texas Governor Greg Abbott:

“TikTok harvests vast amounts of data from its users’ devices — including when, where and how they conduct internet activity — and offers this trove of potentially sensitive information to the Chinese government,”

Also in December, Indiana became the first U.S. state to sue TikTok, for misleading users about the Chinese government’s capacity to access their data and showing mature content to minors.

“The company’s ownership of TikTok is problematic for two reasons,” wrote Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Republican US Representative Mike Gallagher.

“First, the app can track cellphone users’ locations and collect internet-browsing data — even when users are visiting unrelated website.

“That TikTok, and by extension the CCP, has the ability to survey every keystroke teenagers enter on their phones is disturbing. With this app, Beijing could also collect sensitive national security information from U.S. government employees and develop profiles on millions of Americans to use for blackmail or espionage…

Even more alarming than that possibility, however, are the potential abuses of TikTok’s algorithm…

Its algorithm is a black box, in that its designers can alter its operation at any time without informing users… in the hands of ByteDance, it could also be used to subtly indoctrinate American citizens.

TikTok has already censored references to politically sensitive topics, including the treatment of workers in Xinjiang, China, and the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square. It has temporarily blocked an American teenager who criticized the treatment of Uyghurs in China. In German videos about Chinese conduct toward Uyghurs, TikTok has modified subtitles for terms such as ‘reeducation camp’ and ‘labor camp,’ replacing words with asterisks.”

In China, the content available on TikTok could not be more different. China serves up the “spinach version“: science, physics, engineering and patriotism. In the US, TikTok serves up the “opium version.” Tristan Harris, a former Google employee, said of China’s approach to TikTok on CBS’ 60 Minutes:

“It’s almost like [the Chinese] recognize that technology is influencing kids’ development, and they make their domestic version a spinach version of TikTok, while they ship the opium version to the rest of the world.”

“If you’re under 14 years old, they show you science experiments you can do at home, museum exhibits, patriotism videos and educational videos,” said Harris of the content served by TikTok within China, adding that Chinese children were limited to only 40 minutes a day on the app.

“There’s a survey of pre-teens in the U.S. and China asking, ‘what is the most aspirational career that you want to have?’ and in the U.S., the No. 1 was a social media influencer, and in China, the No. 1 was astronaut. You allow those two societies to play out for a few generations and I can tell you what your world is going to look like.”

TikTok urgently needs to be banned from the US and the rest of the free world.