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Gordon Gekko in the movie 'Wall Street ' was the recognizable villain. He looked the part .He dressed the part . He lived the part . He came right out and said he was greedy and that greed is good.
Today's villains are not so readily recognizable. They dress in ratty t shirts ;looking like they need grooming ,and justify their plunder in moral terms . They are what CS Lewis warned us about Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. FTX was a Ponzi scheme marketed as a moral cause that offered elected officials bribes (donations ) in the name of the greater good. You see the same type of scam in the BLM Global Network Foundation. 25 BLM chapters sued Shalomyah Bowers,the foundation's boss for fraud and misrepresentation by siphoning more than $10 million from donors .The previous boss ,Patrisse Cullors, resigned after shewas caught spending of $3.2 million on 4 luxury residential properties. There is an even greater corporate bubble yet to burst. It is the $ multi-trillion world of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) funds .These sucker in investors with the same do gooder model that SBF used. It is also called the 'effective altruism movement' . It is an attractive scam because the people investing believe they are satisfying an altruistic urge. The good news is that responsible fiduciary minded managers are seeing through the scam. Vanguard iscutting ties with Net Zero Asset Managers, a climate focused ESG . Florida is removing $2 billion of the state treasury portfolio invested in Blackrock because of their allegiance to ESG . “We are disturbed by the emerging trend of political initiatives like this that sacrifice access to high-quality investments and thereby jeopardize returns, which will ultimately hurt Florida’s citizens. Fiduciaries should always value performance over politics” Florida pulls $2 bln from BlackRock in largest anti-ESG divestment | Reuters Missouri and Louisiana divested from the scam. Silicon Valley wokesters are all in so it will take good time and probably a lot of money lost before these investment scams go away. |
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Clueless last month issued new regulations that say 401 K funds can now consider including woke ESG funds into your retirement portfolio.
Final Rule on Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov) His progressive instincts prevail . It makes them feel good to use other people's money for a 'just' cause they approve of . Even better if you use the unelected 4th branch of the Leviathan state(Dept of Labor) to enforce it . Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar observed “Even as free market forces begin to erode the ESG fairy tale and expose the intellectual dishonesty and utter lack of transparency in this investment scam, President Biden is using the DOL rulemaking process to double down on policies that put his social agenda above the retirement needs of hard-working Americans.” Texas comptroller blasts Biden administration plan advancing retirement funds prioritizing ESG - Santa Barbara News-Press (newspress.com) |
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It makes them feel good to use other people's money for a 'just' cause they approve of
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Update . As noted already ;SBF was a major donor to Cluless Joe and the Democrats .
Yesterday the DOJ dropped illegal donation charges from the list of violations. He donated $93 million in stolen customers $ to the Dems He also was a heavy donor to woke groups . He is currently out of jail on $250 million bail. How has he behaved ? Well in a blatant attempt of witness tampering he gave a NY Slimes reporter the personal intimate writings of his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison. who is scheduled to be a key witness against him. She was running his hedge fund branch of FTX, and wrote about some of her personal struggles running Alameda Research |
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SBF is being let off the hook for charges related to donating to the Dems The DOJ decided to drop the charges Friday before New Years Eve.
US dodges delay of Sam Bankman-Fried’s sentencing by dropping second trial | Ars Technica Originally scheduled for a March trial ,this case would've put Dems who benefitted under the spot light . Not good for an election cycle . Only Trump can be tried during the election |
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update
SBF was sentenced to 25 years in jail. His lawyers tried a Robin Hood defense. Yeah he was stealing . But he was doing it for altruistic reasons. He simply took the ideal of effective altruism too far Effective Altruism (sounds a lot like our tax system....... do good deeds with other people's money) I don't know. Court docs claim his victims were not hurt as bad as thought. FTX customers are likely to get their money back from the sale of assets that have been seized during the FTX bankruptcy. 25 years seems harsh for a non-violent offense ..... even for someone who the judge claimed could be in a position to do financial harm in the future. |
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Read this quote again from above. We should be reminded of this frequently.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. |
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Apparently I was mistaken about the longevity of the cryto craze. If anything it has become more insane ;even crazier that Dutch tulips. Tulips were a crazy investment too. But at least they had a physical value.
Crypto has nothing but the value an investor sees in an electronic transaction. It is getting weird I don't know when crypto currency first were based on an internet meme. But it is all the craze. The first time I heard of it was a couple years ago . There is a cryto meme currency called DOGE. Musk backs it and this apparently was the inspiration in naming a new Federal agency Department Of Government Efficiency . It has reached levels beyond absurd. In the days before his inauguration Trump and Melania issued their versions called $Trump and $Melania . His is a meme of the photo of him after the assassination attempt captioned fight fight fight . Melania's is one that shows her hands in a prayer with her face in a goofy grin.(I will not post the pictures ) Evidently they are both doing well and adding greatly to the Trump family fortune. The ethics questions this poses is for others to ponder . We just let a purported President walk out of the White House enriching his crime family with $ multi-millions in foreign money gained through the selling of his influence. Somehow he used his pardon power to pardon his whole family as he was sitting in the audience watching Trump being sworn in. The power of the Presidency has expanded rapidly in the last decade. So a grift on the side seems small potatoes . |
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Trump can get things so right and so wrong. The wrong is the above creating crypto "meme coins " that are intended to cash in on becoming President. Unlike the Trump watch and other merchandise that he shamelessly markets . This can easily be turned into a money laundering operation on par with what the Hunter Biden quid pro quos did.
What he got right is that he used an EO to ban the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)." (for now ) Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology – The White House The EO establishes a working group to create a federal regulatory framework governing digital assets ; and to evaluate the creation of a strategic national digital assets stockpile. |
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Trump is obsessed with crypto . I see Dutch tulips everywhere .
History of the Tulip Mania - Tulips are Perfect for Spring Birthday Bouquets – Kremp Florist Trump says he wants to create a "strategic cryptocurrency reserve " . Howard Lutnick Reveals: Trump to Unveil Bitcoin Reserve Strategy at White House Crypto Summit - The Pavlovic Today He would have the nation "invest " in bitcoins and other stuff that sound like cryptocrap like ethereum, XRP, solana, and cardano ;maybe even Trump comicoins . Trump names cryptocurrencies in strategic reserve, sending prices up | Reuters He says this will elevate the market and make America they crypto-capital of the world . In other words he wants the US to subsidize the market. There is legislation in the Senate to get the ball in motion. C:\Users\lip\AppData\Local\Temp\LIP24548.loc A strategic reserve for petroleum makes sense . It is real and it is a good thing to stockpile for an emergency . A crypto coin is in the ether world ;a hacker's click away from disappearing (I think) . How the Bybit hack happened: inside the $1.5 billion crypto heist 20% of Stolen Bybit Funds ‘Gone Dark,’ Says CEO—Here’s How Gold is stored in Fort Knox (maybe ....that is yet to be confirmed) . Where do you store a strategic reserve of cyber currency ? Such an announcement serves to increase the value of cybercurrency of those who already have holdings . Bitcoin Price Suddenly Soars After Lutnick Reportedly Reveals ‘Massive’ Trump Reserve Plan But how it helps the US is beyond my understanding. |
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