[tomder55]

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.

[tomder55]

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)

[jlisenbe]

It makes them feel good to use other people's money for a 'just' cause they approve of

That's about it. It explains why the average liberal dem is all in for raising the taxes of groups which don't include them. I was talking with a lib I know very well some time back. He was lecturing me on the need to take care of the poor. I asked him which ones he was taking care of, and the answer was of course not a single one.

[tomder55]

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

[tomder55]

This is quite fortuitous for the Dem recipients . They will not have to answer questions about what they took from SBF ;and what they gave in return .

[tomder55]

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

[tomder55]

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.

[jlisenbe]

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.