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https://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-06-05/real-reason-housing-prices-have-skyrocketed https://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-06-05/real-reason... Bl

https://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-06-05/real-reason-housing-prices-have-skyrocketed https://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-06-05/real-reason... Blackrock got easy terms under NDA for buying up rental housing, getting sweetheart deals not available to individual home buyers. Now they have the arrogance to engage in moral posturing? How about they disclose the terms under which they bought those rentals? Something tells me the current administration won't mind...

fwdpropaganda 9y ago
Hey, I'm going to say this as well itentioned as possible. Please keep an open mind and as always do your own research: Zero Hedge is a pile of propaganda and you shouldn't believe anything you read in it. > Mike Whitney explained last September: (QUOTE) At the end of the first paragraph of (QUOTE) they have (businessweek). If you search for that text, it doesn't appear in businessweek, it appears in all sorts of nutter right-wing websites. What does that show about the content of the article? Nothing. But it does show you one example of the tricks that Zero Hedge uses to make itself appear more legitimate. Also, do a bit of research about Mike Whitney. His living seems to be trashing Obama. Does that mean the things he says are factually wrong? Again, no. But from my experience the kind of people who first reach a conclusion and then come up with the argument to support the conclusion, are typically dumb or dishonest.
- SyneRyder 9y ago
  I'm afraid your Businessweek example is incorrect. There is a link provided, linking to Telegram.com with the complete article from Bloomberg Businessweek. The link is broken, but it's cached at archive.org just after the date it was published in 2012: http://web.archive.org/web/20120713014102/http://www.telegram.com/article/20120712/NEWS/107129806/1237 http://web.archive.org/web/20120713014102/http://www.telegra... So why link to the Worcester County Telegram's syndication of Businessweek articles, and not directly to Bloomberg Businessweek? Because old Bloomberg articles are behind a paywall and only accessible to Bloomberg Professional Service Subscribers. Here's an example Bloomberg link from that year, note that it only contains one sentence: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-10-29/bonds-better-off-with-6-5-under-obama-from-bush-s-4-6- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-10-29/bonds-bet... As for being a right-wing nutter site, the Worcester County Telegram was owned by The New York Times at the time they published/syndicated that article in 2012. https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/11/26/john-henry-sell-worcester-telegram-gazette/NQI9Lu6jVz7NdTfqRSIdRP/story.html https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/11/26/john-henry-s... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_%26_Gazette https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_%26_Gazette I generally agree with your sentiment on Zero Hedge (and all media), definitely keep an open mind and do your own research. But in this case, it does appear to be from Businessweek.
  - fwdpropaganda 9y ago
    There's two tiers of quotes there. What you pointed out is the referrence for the inner quote (starting with "About 6 million U.S. borrowers..."). I was referring to the outer quote, the one by "Mike Whitney". Am I missing something?
    - SyneRyder 9y ago
      It applies to both quotes. Zero Hedge quotes Mike Whitney's article, and within that Mike Whitney quotes Businessweek. The quotation from Businessweek is the portion in quotation marks: “synthetic financing to reduce the up-front capital required if they agree to form a joint venture with Fannie Mae and share proceeds from the rental or sale of properties" It's from the same Businessweek article, "Colony Capital wins foreclosed homes in Fannie Mae auction". Mike Whitney attributes it only by title on his site, but Zero Hedge added a Telegram.com link to the syndicated article. It looks like Zero Hedge actually took an extra step to verify the Businessweek quotes in this case.
nefitty 9y ago
I don't see how this affects their message, other than making it a bit less effectively transmittable due to the veneer of hypocrisy. We don't let factors like these confound each other when considering complex systems, though, do we?
- peoplewindow 9y ago
  That sounds like an argument that hypocrisy is trivial and has no meaning. Hypocrisy is a thing that impacts arguments because arguments are usually, by their nature, somewhat subjective and based on many barely articulated judgements, the text of an argument being something of a gloss over the thinking that we hope has gone into it. So if someone argues strongly that path A is the right path, then walks path B, that suggests their argument was dishonest and that they may know things or believe things that they didn't let on, and that if they had, maybe we'd want to walk path B as well. In this case BlackRock is telling others to "contribute to society", which is vague enough to be meaningless to begin with, but then muddies their position even further by doing things that don't appear to be implementing their own advice. So if even they don't believe in it, why should anyone else?

fwdpropaganda 9y ago

Hey, I'm going to say this as well itentioned as possible. Please keep an open mind and as always do your own research: Zero Hedge is a pile of propaganda and you shouldn't believe anything you read in it. > Mike Whitney explained last September: (QUOTE) At the end of the first paragraph of (QUOTE) they have (businessweek). If you search for that text, it doesn't appear in businessweek, it appears in all sorts of nutter right-wing websites. What does that show about the content of the article? Nothing. But it does show you one example of the tricks that Zero Hedge uses to make itself appear more legitimate. Also, do a bit of research about Mike Whitney. His living seems to be trashing Obama. Does that mean the things he says are factually wrong? Again, no. But from my experience the kind of people who first reach a conclusion and then come up with the argument to support the conclusion, are typically dumb or dishonest.

SyneRyder 9y ago
I'm afraid your Businessweek example is incorrect. There is a link provided, linking to Telegram.com with the complete article from Bloomberg Businessweek. The link is broken, but it's cached at archive.org just after the date it was published in 2012: http://web.archive.org/web/20120713014102/http://www.telegram.com/article/20120712/NEWS/107129806/1237 http://web.archive.org/web/20120713014102/http://www.telegra... So why link to the Worcester County Telegram's syndication of Businessweek articles, and not directly to Bloomberg Businessweek? Because old Bloomberg articles are behind a paywall and only accessible to Bloomberg Professional Service Subscribers. Here's an example Bloomberg link from that year, note that it only contains one sentence: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-10-29/bonds-better-off-with-6-5-under-obama-from-bush-s-4-6- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-10-29/bonds-bet... As for being a right-wing nutter site, the Worcester County Telegram was owned by The New York Times at the time they published/syndicated that article in 2012. https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/11/26/john-henry-sell-worcester-telegram-gazette/NQI9Lu6jVz7NdTfqRSIdRP/story.html https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/11/26/john-henry-s... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_%26_Gazette https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_%26_Gazette I generally agree with your sentiment on Zero Hedge (and all media), definitely keep an open mind and do your own research. But in this case, it does appear to be from Businessweek.
- fwdpropaganda 9y ago
  There's two tiers of quotes there. What you pointed out is the referrence for the inner quote (starting with "About 6 million U.S. borrowers..."). I was referring to the outer quote, the one by "Mike Whitney". Am I missing something?
  - SyneRyder 9y ago
    It applies to both quotes. Zero Hedge quotes Mike Whitney's article, and within that Mike Whitney quotes Businessweek. The quotation from Businessweek is the portion in quotation marks: “synthetic financing to reduce the up-front capital required if they agree to form a joint venture with Fannie Mae and share proceeds from the rental or sale of properties" It's from the same Businessweek article, "Colony Capital wins foreclosed homes in Fannie Mae auction". Mike Whitney attributes it only by title on his site, but Zero Hedge added a Telegram.com link to the syndicated article. It looks like Zero Hedge actually took an extra step to verify the Businessweek quotes in this case.

nefitty 9y ago

I don't see how this affects their message, other than making it a bit less effectively transmittable due to the veneer of hypocrisy. We don't let factors like these confound each other when considering complex systems, though, do we?

peoplewindow 9y ago
That sounds like an argument that hypocrisy is trivial and has no meaning. Hypocrisy is a thing that impacts arguments because arguments are usually, by their nature, somewhat subjective and based on many barely articulated judgements, the text of an argument being something of a gloss over the thinking that we hope has gone into it. So if someone argues strongly that path A is the right path, then walks path B, that suggests their argument was dishonest and that they may know things or believe things that they didn't let on, and that if they had, maybe we'd want to walk path B as well. In this case BlackRock is telling others to "contribute to society", which is vague enough to be meaningless to begin with, but then muddies their position even further by doing things that don't appear to be implementing their own advice. So if even they don't believe in it, why should anyone else?