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The most terrifying part: >The final phase of Reis' scheme was to buy controlling interest in the Bank of Portugal, a step which would allow him to retroactive
by andrepd 7y ago
The most terrifying part:
>The final phase of Reis' scheme was to buy controlling interest in the Bank of Portugal, a step which would allow him to retroactively make his fiction about Bank approval true. With control of the bank, the entire counterfeiting could be swept under the rug, ensuring that there would never be any evidence of the fraud.
- MrBuddyCasino 7y agoTo me the terrifying part is it nearly worked: "Eventually they controlled 10,000 of the 45,000 shares needed for controlling interest in the bank, but publicity led Bandeira to ease off the purchases even as he sent Reis ever more inflated false reports of the number of shares they had acquired."
- comboy 7y agoI recommend reading up on how FED got created.
- ceejayoz 7y agoIs this something specific I'll find in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Federal_Reserve_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Federal_Reserve..., or do I have to add "lizard people" to the search terms?
- comboy 7y agoWikipedia article is fine. All the facts are there, if you prefer more narration I like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQUhJTxK5mA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQUhJTxK5mA
- ceejayoz 7y agoCould you clarify a couple specific facts you're looking to point out, instead of asking us to watch a 21 minute video from some random YouTuber?
- comboy 7y agoI do recommend reading about it or watching, but what I was aiming at, is that if Reis would have succeeded, it wouldn't really be much different from the system that we have in the US today and how it got created. It was done with perhaps a bit more finesse but it's basically the same thing. edit: I can't reply below, but the text is not that long and it's about how money works which is likely relevant to you regardless of your wealth. I suppose short abstract would be that somebody with [power/money] decided to create more money out of a thin air and succeeded. FED is not responsible before congress, the president or pretty much anybody. I'm not interested in conspiracy theories. The facts are wild enough.
- ceejayoz 7y agoWhich specific items in the Wikipedia article support the idea that the two are similar? I suppose evasiveness is its own answer, and I'm probably gonna skip the YouTube video whose comments are full of "it's the Rothschilds and Lincoln was assassinated over this!"
- mieseratte 7y ago> Which specific items in the Wikipedia article support the idea that the two are similar? Which items contraindicate the claim?
- ceejayoz 7y ago> Which items contraindicate the claim? The fact that the Federal Reserve was deliberately created by an act of Congress, and the Portugal crisis was triggered a fraudster forging contracts and counterfeiting currency?
- AnimalMuppet 7y agoIn general, when person X makes claim Y, and cites Z as evidence, if Z doesn't actually support Y, then X is presumed to not have a valid basis for claiming Y. "Z does not disprove Y" is not needed. "Z does not support Y" is enough.
- DerekL 7y agoWhat do you mean by “FED”? Do you mean “the Fed”, the Federal Reserve System?
- lukasLansky 7y agoIt's not an uncommon way to get rich. Eastern European privatisation after the fall of the Iron Curtain often failed after management of corporations owned by many small shareholders borrowed company money to themselves, something that is obviously almost criminal negligence, certainly something that should get you removed from management ASAP. But before the shareholders managed to do anything, the money was used to buy controling stake in the company and weak protection of rights of minority shareholders took care of the rest.
- agent008t 7y agoSimilar schemes had been very common in Russia in late 80s-90s. And they were a lot more successful and had much larger scale than Reis - many of those carrying out such schemes later seized highest political offices of the country (and continue to remain in power).
- segmondy 7y agoWhat's amazing is the speed of execution. He got released from prison in Aug 1924, and in Feb 1925 he had fully executed his plan.
- EGreg 7y agoIn ancap utopia: Step 1: Form a gang of marauders Step 2: Rent all the courts in a village Step 3: Rob everyone, or pollute their river or extract their resources Step 4: Have your privately owned courts render a verdict of innocent Step 5: Profit (because of arbitrage) Having governments doesn’t eliminate this. Similar things are done all the time by elites in a country, or OPENLY by state capitalists extracting resources from other countries like UFC in Guatemala or BP in Iran. Except they are done systematically and no one can challenge it. Read Smedley Butler from the same time frame. Erdogan even tried to go one further and fire the entire supreme court because they may have convicted his son
- felipeko 7y agoPrivately owned courts do not have the institutional force of the state, their decision is as strong as their reputation.
- EGreg 7y agoIn an ancap utopia you mean? Point is that if you control the courts and police then whatever you do can be declared legal. And you can make money not necessarily lose money buying a controlling stake in all the courts and even renting them AirBNB style to your rich buddies. There are no other institutions left, that have any teeth, you bought all the major ones. If they come after you, your police will just rebuff them. The point is people band together to create larger and more powerful organizations. But it still doesn’t solve all instances just pushes the corruption to a higher level.