as they are at terrorist plots.

SUCH BAD TIMING ON THE TROIKA'S PART, TO LET THE CRISIS HIT DURING VACATION...

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-02/greece-government-favours-drachma-%E2%80%93-vows-will-not-%E2%80%9Cbow-blackmail%E2%80%9D

- Merkel, Hollande, Juncker, Lagarde and Draghi in “emergency” meeting re Greece
- Bankrupt Greece must find €1.6 billion to pay IMF in June
- First instalment of €300 million due on Friday
- Leaders of EU, IMF and ECB hold emergency summit in Brussels
- 58% of Syriza membership in favour of returning to Drachma
- Unforeseeable consequences and risks of 'Grexit'

An emergency meeting was held in Berlin last night (MONDAY) between Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande, EU Commission President Junker, Christine Lagarde of the IMF and ECB president Mario Draghi. The meeting was reported to have continued past midnight. The discussions were apparently aimed at formulating a "take it or leave it" offer that would be acceptable to the Syriza government that would allow the remaining €7 billion of the existing bailout package to be unlocked so that cash can be handed back to Greece's creditors and avoid a default.

Greece, a country whose own finance minister has described it as "bankrupt" is due to pay the IMF €1.6 billion over the course of June. The first instalment of four - totalling €300 million is due this Friday.

There were fears that the country would not be able to pay its public sector wages in May demonstrating the very fragile state of its finances. It would appear that the European leadership and that of the IMF and ECB also fear the state of Greece's finances and its ability to make its payments to the IMF this month. A recent poll suggests that 58% of Syriza supporters would rather return to the Drachma than to remain in the single currency while severe austerity measures are imposed. Syriza have a 26 point lead over the next most popular party, New Democracy. From this point of view it is, therefore, not entirely politically untenable for Syriza to choose the default and exit option should the "institutions" fail to respect Prime Minister Tsipras's "red line" on VAT hikes, pension cuts and labour market reforms.

Greek 10-year bond yields have been creeping higher - currently at 11.49% - indicating that the markets view the risk of a default as being quite high. The "institutions", however, are likely to want to keep Greece in the fold at any cost. In a softening of tone Junker told German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung yesterday:

"Anyone who doesn’t see there is a humanitarian crisis in Greece is deaf and blind to what is happening there."

The unforeseeable risks posed by a default and "Grexit" to the Euro project are too great for the powers that be to wilfully allow it to happen. It could trigger credit default swaps and a derivatives crisis in the banking system. It might also lead to a geopolitical crisis should erstwhile NATO member Greece turn to Russia for financial assistance in the form of funding, trade, economic and other cooperation agreements. The consequences of making an acceptable offer to Greece may also be unforeseeable. In the short term it may buy time but in the longer term it is hard to see how Greece can come off life-support without a large scale write-off of some of its debts. It may also embolden anti-austerity groups across Europe, particularly those in heavily indebted Italy and Spain.

HISTORICAL NOTE, COURTESY OF RICHARD WOLFF....GERMANY HAD HALF ITS SOVEREIGN DEBT WRITTEN OFF, AFTER WWII, SO THAT IT WOULDN'T GO BANKRUPT....BUT GERMANY WILL NOT RECIPROCATE, ESPECIALLY SINCE SOME OF THAT DEBT WAS OWED TO GREECE AS REPARATIONS....

from ZeroHedge...

6/3/15 Greece Admits It Will Not Make IMF Payment On Friday, No Deal Expected Wednesday

For days, Greek officials have been insistent that the country will make a €300 million payment to the IMF this Friday and thus avoid a default.

Last month, we heard the same rhetoric out of Athens and as it turns out, the government had prearranged an end-around whereby Greece tapped its IMF SDR reserves to stay current. In other words, the IMF paid itself. We suspected that some similar arrangement might be in the offing this month when economy minister George Stathakis said bundling June’s payments would not be necessary because Greece was looking at a “technical solution” to make the June 5 payment.

On Tuesday evening we noted that some Greek officials seemed to be suggesting that the “technical solution” was simply a veiled reference to securing a deal that would allow the country to use a portion of its aid disbursement to pay the Fund at the end of the week. That now appears to have been confirmed with a Syriza spokesman saying that if Tsipras does not ink a deal in the next 48 hours, Greece will miss Friday’s payment.

Via Reuters:
Greece will not make a June 5 repayment to the International Monetary Fund if there is no prospect of an aid-for-reforms deal with its international creditors soon, the spokesman for the ruling Syriza party's lawmakers said on Wednesday.
The payment of 300 million euros ($335 million) is the first of four this month totaling 1.6 billion euros from a country that depends on foreign aid to stay afloat.
Greece owes a total of about 320 billion euros, of which about 65 percent to euro zone governments and the IMF, and about 8.7 percent to the European Central Bank.
On Tuesday, Greece's creditors drafted the broad outlines of an agreement to put to the leftist government in Athens in a bid to conclude four months of negotiations and release aid before the country runs out of money.
"If there is no prospect of a deal by Friday or Monday, I don't know by when exactly, we will not pay," Nikos Filis told Mega TV.

more...
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-03/greece-admits-it-will-not-make-imf-payment-friday-no-deal-expected-wednesday



Reminds me of a very close race. We won't know until it's done.

people's, as it should be. Syriza will not kneel, at least that's my take.

IMO, that's why the process in Greece has been ongoing for months. In the end, the choice is the people. Not the banksters, not the corporations.


I tell people to watch what is going on in Greece, that one day, that will be happening here. Very few listen.
I am told...Greece is way over there so nothing to watch. If it isn't on the TV nightly news, it is not important. Ugh.


But Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner is everywhere.

Why a Greek Default is Likely to Strengthen the Hand of Austerians

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/06/why-a-greek-default-is-likely-to-strengthen-the-hand-of-austerians.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Greece’s Shortening Negotiating Runway and Possibly Erroneous Assumptions

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/06/greeces-shortening-negotiating-runway-and-possible-erroneous-assumptions.html

MEANWHILE, YOUR GUESS IS AS GOOD AS ANYBODY'S

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-02/may-hem-junemaggedon



So after the carnage in the currencies and European fixed income we now have even more fun to look forward to this month. At the time of writing the bund has taking a severe pounding, dropping 1.80 or over 12 B.P.!!!



June could really be a momentous month.

Starting off over the weekend we had warnings from the ECB in their latest financial stability report of serious risks sitting in the shadow banking sector. The sector has taken over roles previously performed by banks and the ECB warns that a "fragile equilibrium" exists in world markets with underlying risks that can only be guessed at. It is a repeat of the many other liquidity warnings we have received based on worry about crowded trades, crowded exits, liquidity mismatches and stretched leverage levels. In the ECB's more sober language "Initial asset price adjustments would be amplified, triggering further redemptions and margin calls, thereby fuelling such negative liquidity spirals".

(see my earlier article http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-13/its-trap )

Greece and its possible exit has become bit of a joke, with conflicting reports coming from the same representitives. The IMF message is that they will not break anymore lending rules to accommodate Greece. If eurozone politicians insist that the IMF must be part of the next release of funds they will have to do something that satisfies the IMF that Greece will be in a position to pay back any additional loans. In the meantime capital continues to pour out of Greece with bank deposits falling to a 10 year low.



Now coming up we have the OPEC meeting ,with the first of the pre-meetings scheduled for today before the official meeting at the end of the week where they will decide their next six months production policy. All the signs are that they will continue to disagree and the PG contingent, excluding Iran, will press ahead with their market share rather than price support strategy. The most interesting item to watch for will be whether in their post meeting communique they will even pretend to be aiming for an overall production level of 30 mbpd. One of the biggest questions will be if they decide to increase production given that not only at the last meeting they decided against cuts but actually increased production. It will be interesting, given that the rally back to where we are now may be a stabilization for US Shale production to at least become viable again.

(http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-25/opecs-next-meeting-nearly-upon-...)

OTHER MORSELS OF NEWS AT LINK

http://www.salon.com/2014/07/12/the_american_century_is_over_how_our_country_went_down_in_a_blaze_of_shame/

In 1914, the American Century began. This year (2014) the American Century ended. America’s foreign policy is in a state of collapse, America’s economy doesn’t work well, and American democracy is broken. The days when other countries looked to the U.S. as a successful model of foreign policy prudence, democratic capitalism and liberal democracy may be over. The American Century, 1914-2014. RIP. A hundred years ago, World War I marked the emergence of the U.S. as the dominant world power. Already by the late nineteenth century, the U.S. had the world’s biggest economy. But it took the First World War to catalyze the emergence of the U.S. as the most important player in geopolitics. The U.S. tipped the balance against Imperial Germany, first by loans to its enemies after 1914 and then by entering the war directly in 1917...Twice more in the twentieth century the U.S. intervened to prevent a hostile power from dominating Europe and the world, in World War II and the Cold War. Following the end of the Cold War, America’s bipartisan elite undertook the project of creating permanent American global hegemony. The basis of America’s hegemonic project was a bargain with the two major powers of Europe, Germany and Russia, and the two major powers of Asia, Japan and China. The U.S. proposed to make Russia and China perpetual military protectorates, as it had already done during the Cold War with Germany and Japan. In return, the U.S. would keep its markets open to their exports and look after their international security interests. This vision of a solitary American globocop policing the world on behalf of other great powers that voluntarily abandon militarism for trade has been shared by the Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama administrations. But by 2014 the post-Cold War grand strategy of the United States had collapsed. China and Russia have rudely declined America’s offer to make them subservient military satellites, like Japan and Germany. China has been building up its military, engaging in cyber-attacks on the U.S., and intimidating its neighbors, to promote the end of American military primacy in East Asia. Meanwhile, Russia has responded to the expansion of the U.S.-led NATO alliance to its borders by going to war with Georgia in 2008 to deter Georgian membership in NATO and then, in 2014, seizing Crimea from Ukraine, after Washington promoted a rebellion against the pro-Russian Ukrainian president.

There are even signs of a Sino-Russian alliance against the U.S. The prospect excites some neoconservatives and neoliberal hawks, who had been quiet following the American military disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in a second Cold War against a Sino-Russian axis, the European Union, with its economy comparable to America’s, will not provide reliable support. Russia is a nuisance, not a threat to Europe. China doesn’t threaten Europe and Europeans want Chinese trade and investment too much. In Asia, only a fool would bet on the ability of a ramshackle alliance of the U.S., Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam and Australia to “contain” China. The U.S. still has by far the world’s most powerful and sophisticated military — but what good is it? Russia knows the U.S. won’t go to war over Ukraine. China knows the U.S. won’t go to war over this or that reef or island in the South China Sea. As Chairman Mao would have said, America is a paper tiger. The U.S. military was able to destroy the autocratic governments of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya — but all the foreign policy agencies of the U.S. have been unable to help create functioning states to replace them. Since 2003, Uncle Sam has learned that it is easier to kick over anthills than to build them. In addition to having a huge military that for the most part can neither intimidate strong adversaries nor pacify weak ones, America has an economy that for decades has failed to deliver sustained growth that is widely shared.

Apart from a revival of oil and gas production in the U.S., the economy’s main area of comparative strength has been technological innovation. The rise of self-driving vehicles and the “internet of things” are promising developments. But these mostly involve the extension of existing information technology to new sectors. The American tech economy has been living on intellectual capital accumulated before the 1980s, when the Defense Department funded the early breakthroughs in information technology. Compared to earlier breakthroughs like transistors and satellites, most of today’s innovations are trivial and contribute little or nothing either to living standards or national industrial power: “Hey, give me a billion dollars for my app that tells you when to pick up your laundry!” The picture is even bleaker when we turn our gaze from Silicon Valley to the rest of the American economy. The manufacturing sector has been decimated by subsidized imports from China, Japan and other mercantilist countries, and by the decisions of many American multinationals to shut down American factories in order to exploit cheap labor and take government subsidies in other lands. America’s infrastructure is decrepit, but Congress cannot even agree about how to fund the aging interstate highway system, much less invest in twenty-first century transportation and communications systems. Most of the jobs being created in the U.S. are in the low-wage, non-union, no-benefit service sector where millions are trapped in the status of the “working poor.”

Among the biggest beneficiaries of the current American economic system are not entrepreneurs or innovators, but parasites who owe their wealth to rigged markets or government subsidies. The “parasite load” in the U.S. economy includes many in the financial industry who expect that the federal government will socialize their losses but let them keep their profits — profits taxed at low rates, or hidden from taxation altogether. Other parasitic special interests include the predatory monopolies of America’s health care sector — the pharma industry, which charges Americans far more for the same drugs than it is allowed to charge in Canada, Europe or Asia; physicians, who tend to be paid much more in the U.S. than in other countries with comparable health outcomes; and price-gouging hospitals. Much of America’s higher education industry, too, is riddled with parasites, including bankers who profit from lifelong debt serfdom by Americans who take out student loans and empire-building university administrators who fund personal entourages with public and private money.

Suppose a delegation from a developing country were to visit various First World nations in search of models. What on earth could the U.S. teach them? How to enrich bankers who add little or no value to the economy? How to ensure that citizens pay far more for medical goods and services that cost much less everywhere else? How to make citizens go into debt to get an education? How to import multitudes of poor foreign workers to compete with native workers, even though the country is suffering from massive and persistent underemployment? How to allow many employers to pay wages so low that workers are forced to use public welfare services to survive?

AND THEN, MR. LIND RIPS INTO OUR DEMOCRACY...OR WHAT ONCE WAS....GO READ!

Michael Lind is the author of Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States and co-founder of the New America Foundation.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/01/change-dialogue-about-news_n_7225056.html?utm_hp_ref=business&ir=Business

The good news is there is good news. The bad news is very few know about it.

Newspapers, news stations and endless digital posts flash across the screens of our devices bombarding us with messages of terror, ethical lapses, sadness and grief. Tucked away amidst this news will be the occasional human nature story, but rarely are these stories given the top billing they deserve. Why?

Well first, we have an attraction to bad news. Since the beginning of time, man has thrived on the fight or flight mentality, and we are keenly wired to be ready to run in order to survive. With as many as 17 bad stories to every good story, the cycle of disparity keeps our minds attuned to more -- and when we find it, we share it. But what if we could begin to change this phenomenon? What if we could turn up the volume on the positive, pile on the good, disrupt the imbalance of bad things to good things and build a sense of hope instead of a sense of depression?

At this year's World Economic Forum, Arianna Huffington announced the launch of "What's Working," a new Huffington Post initiative that will showcase just that -- what's working. The goal is to highlight the news, organizations and people that are positively influencing and changing our lives and communities, those who are developing solutions for seemingly inextricable problems and creating a better world around us...When we (pRICEWATERHOUSE cOOPER) learned about Arianna's and HuffPost's efforts, we knew that we had to be a part of creating and fostering this community. In fact, it was directly in line with our firm's Purpose -- to build trust in society and solve important problems. That is why PwC is proud to be the founding sponsor of a new section on The Huffington Post entitled "What's Working: Purpose + Profit." Our vision is to inspire a community of change-makers and provide a consistent way to highlight the stories of the people and trends positively disrupting the market, serving as catalysts for change and developing solutions that are working to solve some of society's biggest problems. By focusing on the positive and on the solutions that are working, we can start to change the dialogue and tone of media and constructively shape conversations with our friends, colleagues and networks. We can help celebrate those who are redefining how we scale and replicate seismic positive change. We can give them a voice and a platform to share their ideas and news.

There are more of these remarkable stories than most consumers of news could possibly imagine. Our firm is proud to support organizations that are transforming lives daily. Take Eli, a driven and determined young woman who volunteers with the Trevor Project to provide life-affirming programs for LGBTQ youth in crisis. Or Tony, who created Harlem Grown by turning an abandoned yard into a thriving garden where school children grow a wide variety of vegetables used to prepare healthy foods in their schools. Or Ryan, a veteran who knows first-hand how hard life can be when vets return home and volunteers with Team Rubicon as a result. These inspiring individuals and organizations are engaged in what is often referred to as "cause work," which ranks as the third most important factor for millennials when applying for jobs. A recent study by the American Press Institute reports that nearly 70 percent of millennials read "the news" daily, and many check news sources several times every day. How can we expect them to stay positive about the potential for their own "cause work" and impact on the world if they don't have examples to follow or believe anyone will notice?

Young people are not the only ones who want to hear good news. In fact, research shows that good news travels faster than bad news on social networks, and positive articles are more likely to be shared with friends, family and colleagues. Researchers point out that this is partially due to the perception that we want to invoke on social media. As the New York Times writes, "Debbie Downer is apparently no match for Polly Positive" when it comes to sharing news. No one wants to be seen as the constant deliverer of bad news -- and I agree.

By highlighting the stories of businesses and individuals creating trust in society and bettering our communities, we can help scale successful solutions and optimize their effect. Simultaneously, an influx of good news can help change our habit of being drawn to the bad, and we can develop a more positive perspective on our communities and the world, which we will then pass on to others. We know we cannot ignore the difficult and painful news, but we believe sharing news of positivity, change, innovation and transformation is inspiring -- and necessary. In a world where we can report instantly on happenings around the globe, we agree with The Huffington Post -- we should report on what's working to better understand what actually works.


PATRONS ARE ASKED NOT TO BARF IN THE PLANTERS

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/02/fixing-the-corporate-tax-system_n_7494694.html?utm_hp_ref=business&ir=Business

For decades, multinational companies have turned to complex corporate structures that allow them to use disjointed national tax policies and rates to avoid high taxes. Dozens of corporate entities were created to hold assets -- including revenue, property, cash, patents and manufacturing plants -- wherever they would incur the lowest tax bill.

Now, a group of policy experts, government officials and economists, including Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, has a new set of reform proposals aimed at fixing the situation. The core of the proposals from the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation is a radical shift in how corporations are legally treated for tax purposes: Since the companies act like a single entity, they should be taxed that way. Taxing multinational companies as single firms is the best way to deal with the corporate strategies that exploit tax havens, the group said Tuesday.

Bloomberg calculated that of the $2 trillion in money being held offshore by U.S. companies in 2014, $795.2 billion was held by the top 15 U.S. companies. Those companies can set up entities in countries with lower tax rates, book revenues there, and then simply not move the money back to the U.S., effectively deferring paying U.S. taxes for years on their profits. To maximize the benefits, the boring but necessary work of tax accounting became a key "profit center" at some companies.

Ireland was once a popular destination for these sorts of arrangements, although recently its government has begun to crack down on the country's status as a tax haven. A key problem the group identifies is that any country that raises its tax rate alone will immediately be at a disadvantage, but that cooperative action to end tax haven abuse will take time. As a temporary solution, if an ambitious one, the group says there should be a global minimum corporate tax.

While government actions on tax rates are helpful, they miss the root cause of international corporate tax avoidance, the commission pointed out. "The primary enabler of international corporate tax abuse is the separate entity principle -- a legal fiction that enables the flow of vast amounts of taxable income away from the underlying business operations," the group said in a statement. José Antonio Ocampo, the group's chairman who was formerly United Nations undersecretary general and Colombia's finance minister, said: “This debate centers on equity: equity between good taxpayers and bad taxpayers, equity between capital and labor, equity between the rich and those living in poverty, as well as equity between countries, including between developed and developing countries. International corporate tax reforms should be considered from a global public interest perspective rather than national or corporate advantage.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-02/young-banker-struggled-with-quitting-goldman-weeks-before-death



A month before Sarvshreshth Gupta died, he tried to quit his job as an analyst on one of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s most prestigious investment-banking teams. During a flurry of technology deals early this year, working until 5 a.m. had become the norm, and the 22-year-old Wharton grad known to friends as Sav burned out, according to a bank colleague and an essay posted by his father on the website Medium. Then, soon after quitting, he changed his mind.

“I desired that he should complete his one year at Goldman Sachs, learn something about corporate life and then decide,” Gupta’s father wrote. “Under pressure from me, he rejoined.”

Goldman Sachs let Gupta come back, gave him several days off to recharge and offered him access to counseling services, according to two people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified discussing personal matters. It wasn’t long until he again faced “hard, continuous work, no breaks, no sleep and no respite,” his father wrote. On April 16, the banker called his dad from his San Francisco office at 2:40 a.m.

“He calls us and says, ‘It is too much. I have not slept for two days, have a client meeting tomorrow morning, have to complete a presentation, my VP is annoyed and I am working alone in my office,’” according to the essay. The young banker died that day.

Grueling Demands

While medical examiners have yet to release their report on what happened, the story of Gupta’s final weeks at the firm could reignite a debate about whether banks have done enough to ease grueling demands on their youngest workers. Six weeks after Gupta’s death, Thomas Hughes, a 29-year-old Moelis & Co. banker, was found dead outside his residence at 1 West St. in New York, where he lived on the 24th floor. His injuries were consistent with a fall, police said.

Wall Street firms including Goldman Sachs have sought in recent years to improve the experience for their new recruits, who carry out the Excel and Powerpoint grunt work that goes into presentations and ideas for clients. The shift, prompted by the 2013 death of a Bank of America Corp. intern, has been driven in part by a fear that the brightest college graduates don’t view investment banking as a sustainable career. Goldman Sachs hired larger classes of analysts, the title held by entry-level bankers, and encouraged them to stay out of the office on Saturdays. The firm also stopped offering analysts two-year contracts, making them full-time employees from the start.

Wrecked Weekends

Still, 100-hour weeks aren’t unheard of, and a client request can easily wreck a junior employee’s weekend. Gupta’s late nights on the technology, media and telecom banking team would have helped serve some of the firm’s highest-profile clients.

“We are saddened by Sav’s death and feel deeply for his family,” Michael DuVally, a Goldman Sachs spokesman in New York, said in an e-mailed statement. “We hope that people will respect the family’s expressed desire for privacy during this difficult time.”

****************
Summer Analyst

Gupta joined Goldman Sachs a year ago after receiving a dual bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He studied finance at the Wharton Business School and applied and computer science at the engineering school, according to Gina Bryan, a university spokeswoman. While at Penn, Gupta worked as a summer analyst at Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse Group AG, his LinkedIn profile shows.

He came to the U.S. after attending Delhi Public School, an acclaimed private school in India’s capital. At Penn, he made the dean’s list and was a member of Eta Kappa Nu, an electrical and computer engineering honor society. He was a fan of soccer and the television shows “House” and “Family Guy,” according to his Facebook profile.

While back pain limited Gupta’s ability to play sports in college, he enjoyed marathon games of chess with his father, according to the essay. Even as work kept the banker from seeing his parents on weeknights during a September visit, he was “happy and excited” as he discussed his Goldman Sachs job over pizza with his father.

“After the meal, my son offered to pay the check,” his father wrote. “My chest swelled with pride. Emotions were uncontrollable. Eyes were moist with love, pride and happiness.”
*********************

THERE ARE NO WORDS

Doesn't say how he died, too much stress?

http://www.businessinsider.com/sarvshreshth-gupta-goldman-analyst-death-2015-6

According to Dealbook's Sorkin, the young bank analyst's body was found in a parking lot by his apartment building. It's believed that he may have fallen from his building, according to the Dealbook report. What's more is the medical examiner's office hasn't released a cause of death at this time.


DOES GOLDMAN THROW PEOPLE OUT WINDOWS IF THEY AREN'T TEAM PLAYERS?

I don't think we know the truth about all those other bankerster 'suicides' either.

Anybody know anything about Windows 10?

I read a rumor it is free, for 1 year. Then you have to pay a yearly fee. I have no idea if it is better or not. I am still getting used to Windows 7!


edit:
This is what you get...
Several hundred million people could opt for Microsoft’s free upgrade offer during the first year of Windows 10’s availability, and many are probably wondering which version of Windows 10 they’ll get. Well, wonder no more!

Windows 7
Windows 7 Starter will be upgraded to Windows 10 Home

Windows 7 Home Basic will be upgraded to Windows 10 Home

Windows 7 Home Premium will be upgraded to Windows 10 Home

Windows 7 Professional will be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro

Windows 7 Ultimate will be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro

Windows 8
Windows 8.1 will be upgraded to Windows 10 Home

Windows 8.1 with Bing will be upgraded to Windows 10 Home

Windows 8.1 Pro will be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro

Windows Phone
Windows Phone 8.1 will be upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile. The availability of the upgrade may vary by hardware maker, mobile operator or carrier.

Excluded editions
Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 Enterprise, and Windows RT/RT 8.1 are excluded from the free upgrade offer.

https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/3887/windows-10-upgrade-matrix-which-version-you-get-for-free

4/26/15 Free Windows 10 is not an upgrade … it's marketing
Windows 10 is not a free upgrade, Microsoft said last week. It's a "marketing and promotional activity."
The odd nomenclature appeared in Microsoft's 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that highlighted the company's first quarter financial numbers.
In the 10-Q segment devoted to revenue recognition -- typically several paragraphs of static boilerplate -- Microsoft brought up Windows 10, specifically the free upgrade it plans to hand out to users of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 after Windows 10's summer debut.
"This offer differs from historical offers preceding the launch of new versions of Windows as it is being made available for free to existing users in addition to new customers after the offer announcement," Microsoft said. "We evaluated the nature and accounting treatment of the Windows 10 offer and determined that it represents a marketing and promotional activity, in part because the offer is being made available for free to existing users [emphasis added]."
There was method to Microsoft's apparent madness.
For accounting purposes, a free upgrade requires a company to set aside some revenue from the sale of the affected software -- in this case, Windows 8.1 -- then recognize that revenue only when the upgrade is released. All the revenue from the software sale is eventually booked, but at staggered intervals.

The difference for Microsoft? If it said Windows 10 was an upgrade, not part of a marketing campaign, the company would have had to adjust Windows revenue to account for the deferrals -- and set aside money from sales of the OS starting in January when it announced the no-cost upgrade -- reducing Windows' earnings for at least the first half of this year, perhaps longer.
That could have painted an even darker picture of Windows revenue, maybe one that would have bothered skittish short-term investors enough to impact the stock. After all, Windows revenue is already on a downward trend: In Q1 2015, sales to OEMs of consumer licenses -- those most affected by the free Windows 10 offer -- were off 26% from the year before.
By deferring revenue, those numbers would have looked even worse.

more...
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2914993/microsoft-windows/free-windows-10-is-inoti-an-upgrade-its-marketing.html

As a rule of thumb, every other Windows platform is junk. Then they come out 2 years later with a "new" system, that really just fixes the problems in the previous edition.

I bought 2 laptops around Xmas, with Win8, and they were so filled with bugs and junk and spam, I put them both back in the box and took them back for a refund. You know it's bad when I'd rather keep an old system running Vista (have 7 on my desktop). So, I think this system is all about marketing and regaining trust.

Another rule of thumb. Anything with the name Microsoft on it is a walking virus.

Buyer Beware.


I only got a new computer when Microsoft said they wouldn't support Windows XP and forced me into Windows 7 on this desktop. I'm too old for all these latest techie revisions.