The Social Event of the Season/Your Morning Piñata

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It’s the Woodstock of perfidy! Hail, hail, the gang’s all here*:

*Kinda disappointed that ol’ Klaus Schwab couldn’t make it, but there’s hope George Soros will appear in animatronic form.

44 thoughts on “The Social Event of the Season/Your Morning Piñata”

  3. What astonishes me most is how the “sorry i f’d up” narrative is floating around so widely among many newspapers.

    Let’s not compare this to ponzi schemes or other ventures such as Theranos. FTX is a whole different level since, as the evidence suggests, this was just pure robbery. Theranos was a whole different story and deceived (on the financial side.) mostly rich equity investors. FTX (as the evidence suggests) outright stole retail deposits.

    Nowhere in the history of finance (of at least the last few decades) can such a similar fraud be found. The f’d up narrative could have been more applied to the banks in ’08 who, through numerous factors, recklessly upped the risk and leverage with the baloon exploding later.

    Again, nothing what the banks did was as scrupulous as this. As the evidence suggests this firm outright stole close to 10 billion in retail funds. No mercy for the naive creditors. If you invest in a Ponzi scheme, that’s what you get. Fraudulent casino gambling at its worst.

  5. Obvious question: What is the true intrinsic value of a crypto coin? Address this.

    The predominant investment thesis for Bitcoin is that someone else will take it off your hands at a higher price. That’s it.

  6. Hoping Schwab changes hos mind, and decides to drop on, so that ratio doesn’t upset jpa ☺👍

  7. Emery once again reveals that he knows nothing about economics. Like his predecessor Dog Gone, Emery asks questions that are so loaded with incorrect assumptions that they cannot be answered without first restating the question.

  8. This line up is a big finger to the poor slobs that think they’ve got an ice cube’s chance in hell of tracing the billions of federal fiat currency Pedo Joe and Congressional Repubs sent Ukraine back to the Degenerate party via FTX.

    They’re laughing at us.

    Zelensky rules over the most sophisticated money laundering outfit on the planet. They’re using techniques not thought possible 5 years ago.

  9. obvious question: what is the true intrinsic value of a $100 bill

    a small piece of linen, stained with ink, contaminated by metal strips – intrinsic value can’t be much more than a cent.

    but it’s backed by the full faith and credit of every politician in washington!

    okay, less than a cent.

  11. Mr Jones wrote: “obvious question: what is the true intrinsic value of a $100 bill”

    Which entity backstops crypto?

    Crypto is not Enron which was a corporate manipulation. Crypto is tulip mania; the gullible bidding up a line of computer code with no underlying value.

  13. The proper question to ask is not what is the intrinsic value of a bitcoin. Gold has very little intrinsic value, but they aren’t giving gold away.
    The proper question to ask is what does it cost to create a bitcoin?
    Bitcoins are created with computer hardware powered by electricity. The cost of the hardware is not as important as the cost of electricity.
    Currently it costs between about $20k and $60k to produce a bitcoin.

  14. Ever heard of HFT (High Frequency Trading)?
    Basically you make money by triaging between tiny price differences in securities for tiny amounts of time.
    Hard to see how that adds value to the economy.

  15. Housekeeping — I approved the posts in moderation. Not sure what triggered the two from our resident troll, but as a gentle reminder to UMMP (and all others): mentioning the departed canine will get you moderated every time.

  16. This line up is a big finger to the poor slobs that think they’ve got an ice cube’s chance in hell of tracing the billions of federal fiat currency Pedo Joe and Congressional Repubs sent Ukraine back to the Degenerate party via FTX.

    Yep. And they are quite proud of it.

  17. ^^ It cannot be both a great investment, which goes up and up, and a viable currency, which offers stable value. Crypto assets’ price is based largely on there being an even greater fool who believes the hype.

  18. There’s een a lot of discussion regarding the FTX/Ukraine/DNC money train, but not a lot of solid evidence.

    I knew, that if there was something there, the reprobates and their propaganda machine would jump on it. If they ignored it, there was probably nothing there.

    Oh yeah, it happened just the way it’s been alleged

    Ukraine is a lot like Somali refugees – The gift that just keeps taking.

  19. rAT Squeeked: ” It cannot be both a great investment, which goes up and up, and a viable currency, which offers stable value.”

    *GeorgeSorosLaughing,jpg*

  20. that ratio doesn’t upset jpa ☺👍

    That ratio not only upsets me but makes me proud that my tribe, greatly outnumbered, facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles, destruction and extermination for millennia had been able to get a hold of world’s balls. Something you cannot claim… will never be able to claim… you are just not smart enough as the tribesman. Your jealousy-driven ant-semitism only fuels the hate and foments violence against the tribe, and me, personally. Your only solution is the Final™ one. I tried to reason, but your thick skull is full of hate and nothing sinks in. Your bloodlust is unquenchable.

    I am done with you, welcome to the ignore tribe, BN, you have been delegated to the rank of troll-and wiki-bots. Adios.

  21. Oh, forgot to mention, great post, Mr D.

    You made a point about the lack of an appearance by Hr Schwab and mentioned Soros. That is an interesting angle. I can’t quite figure out that dorky Schwab fella; what sort of control does he exert and why? Is he a Soros puppet?

  22. maybe my answer was too subtle intrinsic value is the value of the thing itself

    a bitcoin has value if people believe in the shared myth that it has value but as a bunch of electrons, a bitcoin has no intrinsic value, in and of itself

    a $100 bill has value if people believe in the shared myth that it has value but as a scrap of soiled linen, a $100 bill has no intensic value, in and of itself

    this similarity is how the four people in mr d’s post are related: they are not trying to convince people to buy things of value, they are trying to convince people to buy into concepts which have no intrinsic value

  23. “That ratio not only upsets me but makes me proud that my tribe, greatly outnumbered, facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles, destruction and extermination for millennia had been able to get a hold of world’s balls and twist them like a pipe wrench.”

    FTFY, jpa.

    See, it’s not *who* is doing what, as much as it’s *what* they’re doing. If actively working to destroy Western civilization is a source of pride for you, well that’s certainly a position…at least you are not in denial.

    You say you “tried to reason”. Well, your line of argument, “all that may be true, but saying the truth out loud puts me in jeopardy”, is not persuasive. Many in my own family are really upset with me because I speak the truth about the Roman Catholic Church, and the harm it has caused, and continues to cause. I’m sorry to cause them grief, but I’m not going to ignore the truth.

    You can ignore it, if you wish, but imo your time and effort would be better spent telling your “tribe” that what they’re doing is wrong, and they must stop it.

  24. @ Mr Jones: The only way to get a dollar out is to sell to someone else who puts a dollar in.

    Zero-sum, greater fool game.

  26. Two important points to bear on mind.

    First the assumption that Central Banks are working in collusion with governments to inflate away debt. That’s supposedly a reason you need to look at crypto. It’s a BS far right narrative that’s not based in reality outside some dysfunctional basket cases like Turkey. If you believe that nonsense you may want to suspend your ZeroHedge subscription and step back into the real world for a bit.

    Second is the assumption that crypto has a “floor” price because it can be used to launder money, evade tax and extract ransomware payments. Good luck with that. At some point Congress will wake up and regulate the hell out of crypto and crypto holders will have so many reporting obligations even that logic will fail.

  27. Good luck with that. At some point Congress will wake up and regulate the hell out of crypto and crypto holders will have so many reporting obligations even that logic will fail.

    The level of stupidity and ignorance contained in that statement is astonishing, even for a nit wit like rAT.

    Tell us, rAT. How is Congress going to regulate something that doesn’t reside in the USA, or any one place for that matter, and that the people making, selling and using that thing are anonymous, and their transactions are encrypted?

    China, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela and Norko can do this within their own borders, because they control internet access, and have access to all data transmitted. Unless and until the degenerates succeed in completely usurping our Constitutional rights, and they might, they are powerless to stop or interfere with Crypto in any way.

    You’re an epic idiot, rAT…but we all know that.

  28. The article Mr D linked to was one of the most vapid articles I’ve read in a long time. It was not as much reporting as organizing statements from involved parties in favor of their own interests, or “executives” offering anodyne, zero-content statements. Seems to sum up crypto and the metaverse rather well, come to think of it.

    That said — can SiTD commenters call a spade a spade? Crypto is a very big Ponzi scheme. Enabled by absence of regulation, and unwillingness to act, promoted by famous faces, touted by irresponsible media. What was FTX trading?

    Here’s Sam Bankman-Friedback in April trying to explain “yield farming” and ending up describing a Ponzi scheme. If this had been a parody, I would have thought: “they overdo it, it should have at least a varnish of credibility”.
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C6nAxiym9oc

  30. If any of you haven’t already done so, you need to look into the background of Nazi boy Klaus Schwab. Like his Nazi father, he is a eugenicist and advocates for killing “800 million useless eaters.” His father was the head of the chemical company that bought into Hitler’s final solution and sold him the Zyklon B that his minions used in their gas chambers. He founded the WEF and enlisted left wing elitists with communist sympathies, including many Democrats in our government, to join him. He’s running one of the biggest Ponzi schemes ever created, again, DemoCommies created called gloBULL warming. Carbon credits, an invention by Al Gore and the scum at Goldman Sachs, which “polluters” can trade worthless pieces of paper for money. If you buy enough carbon credits, you can pollute as much as you want.

  31. this similarity is how the four people in mr d’s post are related: they are not trying to convince people to buy things of value, they are trying to convince people to buy into concepts which have no intrinsic value

    Yep.

  32. What product? What industry? What currency? It was all thin air. Amazing that no-one can articulate a valid purpose for crypto — just the hope that if I pay 10, some greater fool will buy it from me for 20. Which worked for a surprisingly long time.

    /”Well I build this box and put a ‘token’ in it and let’s say that it has a market cap of $20m”
    “This is really cool so people put money in the box, and it now has a market cap of $200m now”
    …..but there’s no value there, nothing of any economic value???

    “Yeah but in my world people have put money in the box and its like really cool and it’s worth $200m now”/

    This is literally how Sam Bankman-Friedback described his FTT crypto and the crypto market in general to the incredulity of his interviewers.
    It is also the well-known business model first pioneered by the famous financial innovator Mr. Charles Ponzi.

    Crypto is and always has been smoke and mirrors. Blockchain is a solution in search of a problem. SoftBank invested, that should have been enough of a red flag for everyone else.

  33. If you buy enough carbon credits, you can pollute as much as you want.

    How’s this different from indulgencies? More proof it is a religious cult and nothing else.

  35. From the investopedia article on the value of bitcoin:
    During the financial crisis, Ben Bernanke, who was then the governor of the Federal Reserve, appeared on CBS’ 60 Minutes and explained how the agency “rescued” insurance giant American International Group (AIG) and other financial institutions from bankruptcy by lending money to them. Puzzled, the interviewer asked whether the Fed had manufactured billions of dollars. That wasn’t quite the case.
    “So, to lend to a bank, we simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account that they have with the Fed,” explained Bernanke. In other words, the Fed “manufactured” U.S. dollars through entries in its ledger.5 This ability to “mark up” an account exemplifies the nature of currencies in their digital form. It has implications for the velocity and use of currencies because it simplifies and streamlines transactions involving them.

  36. Investopedia again:
    Why Do Some People Believe Bitcoins Are Worthless?
    Like any asset or thing of value, the price that people are willing to pay for Bitcoins is a socially-agreed upon level that is also based on supply and demand. Because Bitcoins are virtual, only existing within computer networks, some people have a hard time grasping that Bitcoins are scarce and that they have a cost of production. Because of this unwillingness to accept that digital traces can hold value in this way, they remain convinced that Bitcoins are worthless. Others who understand the Bitcoin system agree it is valuable.

  37. ^ I’m lost. So, how wasn’t this manufacture of dollars not “quite the case”?

    I usually consider investopedia to be pretty reliable place for info, but this article was, in my opinion, way below standard. Sloppy usage of the term currency when what he meant was money.

    If you’re interested, you might find this to be better – I did – but YMMV.

    https://www.lynalden.com/what-is-money/

  38. If you look at Bankman-Fried’s bio, you’ll see any number of warning signs that something was amiss. A neophyte in finance, moving to a Communist country with lax financial standards, rather unorthodox and perverse living arrangements, leaving Hong Kong for the Bahamas (again, financial oversight lacking), lavish campaign finance spending….and nobody picked up on this?

    It’s not quite as bad as Elizabeth Holmes, whose company took off even when it seems like half the medical college at Stanford said her idea would never work, and as she played the part of the homewrecker to her then boyfriend, but my goodness, what a con.

  39. Agreed as well with UMMP that it’s probably not a good sign for a society when a huge portion of intelligent professionals earn their living moving money around instead of making useful goods and services.

  41. Back when I lived in Hawaii, there was a young guy who worked occasionally for my wife as a line cook at a Bistro she managed. The young guy’s name was Drew-something-Irish. Good kid, in his mid twenties, decent work ethic, but My God what an alki. Broke his brother’s leg in drunken roughhousing. Eighty-sixed from the only real bar in town on Saint Patty’s day. He had been drinking Goldschlager all night and vomited up gold (as he described it) on the bar at closing time. Out you go, Drew, and don’t come back.
    Drew had red-gold blonde curly hair, a face like a leprechaun, and when he was drunk he sang show tunes in a beautiful Irish tenor.
    Eventually Drew married a middle aged Mexican-American woman, a woman from one of those families that were in the US, in Texas, before Texas was in the US. I haven’t heard much about Drew lately, but from what I do hear he and wife are now bouncing around the Southwest US. He works as a line chef, his wife works as a restaurant manager.
    Anyways, the reason I am writing this comment is that Drew was a product of divorce. His mother and father had split when he was just short of his teens. His mom had problems so his dad, a redneck from Green Bay, got custody.
    One day Drew’s dad mentioned to Drew that he was half Jewish. His mother, whom Drew did not remember much about, had a German sounding last name but, his father told him, she was a Jew. Drew told me that made some sense because from what he remembered his mom was really not into Christmas.
    After I found out about this I would always greet Drew by asking him “how are things in the shtetl?” The humor came from Drew’s being such a caricature of a Wisconsin redneck, even in Hawaii.
    So the point of this comment is that when I think of Jews I think of Drew as much as I think of Janet Yellen.

  42. Looking at the link jdm provided, it seems to be an upper crust political and social event where a lot of people didn’t really care who they were sharing the stage with. I’d be reluctant, for example, to give a podium to Van Jones unmoderated.

    And a point for Swiftee; note all the gentiles there. It is no surprise, given history, that Jews would be overrepresented in the educated professions and especially finance. Leaving town quickly was a key feature for many centuries. But just as I don’t have any real control of “my tribes” (fundamental Baptists, pasty white middle aged guys, conservatives, etc..), neither does JPA have any real control over his fellow sons of Jacob. No need to make conservatism a harder sell by bringing anti-Semitism into the mix.

  43. @Mr Jones: Asset risk is very different to counter-party risk. There are plenty of crap stocks in the market, but you don’t expect Fidelity or NASDAQ to go down because of it.

    Crypto — It’s different one of these times, maybe next…

  44. The end of the world you see in the rearview mirror is closer than it appears:

    Executive Order 14067—Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets

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