4 ms·

It seems like a pretty wild time to be on the offensive against American fintech companies. No real comment on the merits of their research (yet), just a little

It seems like a pretty wild time to be on the offensive against American fintech companies. No real comment on the merits of their research (yet), just a little shocked at the timing.

illiarian 4y ago
When is the right time to go against predatory and corrupt companies? Yesterday. But today is a good second choice.
squokko 4y ago
Why?
gordon_freeman 4y ago
FYI: Hindenburg Research on Block (Square) has been going on for last 2 years. Not saying the release of the report is strangely coinciding with all the bad news we are having about Finance/Banking industries but wanted to add this info.
DoctorNick 4y ago
“You’d shoot a man in the back?” “Well, it’s the safest way, isn’t it?”
- phnofive 4y ago
  Always has been...
  - blitzar 4y ago
    To shoot someone in the back, first you have to get behind them.
    - polygamous_bat 4y ago
      Well, it's easy when they blindly rush forward without checking for a looney-tunes looking cliff... See [1] for example, where Hindenburg was able to acquire a debit card for "Donald Trump" with a fake ID. [1] https://hindenburgresearch.com/block/ https://hindenburgresearch.com/block/
PaywallBuster 4y ago
Doesn't look like Block's collapse would cause any issues with the financial system
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
mschuster91 4y ago
As a German, I used to think the same back when Wirecard was first attacked - and look where that ended. Right now, the financial system is extremely unstable - bad actors with an awful lot of exposure have been exposed, and a lot of people are like sharks in the water, smelling blood. It looks like we're due for another come-to-Jesus moment in the banking scene, they haven't learned enough from 2008.
- jahnu 4y ago
  > they haven't learned enough from 2008. I think it looks like they learned a lot! I.e. make sure you get too big to fail.
  - mschuster91 4y ago
    That one is on the regulatory agencies as well - they looked on silently as larger banks gobbled up smaller ones, or in the case of UBS/CS, actually forced them to merge.
  - nikanj 4y ago
    Credit Suisse was too big to fail just a month ago
    - jhugo 4y ago
      And indeed the government forced a merger with UBS, reaffirming that they were too big to fail.
      - astrange 4y ago
        "Too big to fail" means the regulators tell you what to do /all the time/, not just after you've failed. You don't want to be too big to fail! There's a lot of businesses only small banks can do, like backing sweep accounts and neobanks like Simple/Aspiration.
blitzar 4y ago
Why do you say that? "apps" that do nothing more than transfer money two parties, representing 0 innovation and doing nothing new are valued in the 10's - 100's billions.

It seems like a pretty wild time to be on the offensive against American fintech companies. No real comment on the merits of their research (yet), just a little shocked at the timing.

illiarian 4y ago

When is the right time to go against predatory and corrupt companies? Yesterday. But today is a good second choice.

squokko 4y ago

Why?

gordon_freeman 4y ago

FYI: Hindenburg Research on Block (Square) has been going on for last 2 years. Not saying the release of the report is strangely coinciding with all the bad news we are having about Finance/Banking industries but wanted to add this info.

DoctorNick 4y ago

“You’d shoot a man in the back?” “Well, it’s the safest way, isn’t it?”

phnofive 4y ago
Always has been...
- blitzar 4y ago
  To shoot someone in the back, first you have to get behind them.
  - polygamous_bat 4y ago
    Well, it's easy when they blindly rush forward without checking for a looney-tunes looking cliff... See [1] for example, where Hindenburg was able to acquire a debit card for "Donald Trump" with a fake ID. [1] https://hindenburgresearch.com/block/ https://hindenburgresearch.com/block/

PaywallBuster 4y ago

Doesn't look like Block's collapse would cause any issues with the financial system

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

mschuster91 4y ago

As a German, I used to think the same back when Wirecard was first attacked - and look where that ended. Right now, the financial system is extremely unstable - bad actors with an awful lot of exposure have been exposed, and a lot of people are like sharks in the water, smelling blood. It looks like we're due for another come-to-Jesus moment in the banking scene, they haven't learned enough from 2008.

jahnu 4y ago
> they haven't learned enough from 2008. I think it looks like they learned a lot! I.e. make sure you get too big to fail.
- mschuster91 4y ago
  That one is on the regulatory agencies as well - they looked on silently as larger banks gobbled up smaller ones, or in the case of UBS/CS, actually forced them to merge.
- nikanj 4y ago
  Credit Suisse was too big to fail just a month ago
  - jhugo 4y ago
    And indeed the government forced a merger with UBS, reaffirming that they were too big to fail.
    - astrange 4y ago
      "Too big to fail" means the regulators tell you what to do /all the time/, not just after you've failed. You don't want to be too big to fail! There's a lot of businesses only small banks can do, like backing sweep accounts and neobanks like Simple/Aspiration.

blitzar 4y ago

Why do you say that? "apps" that do nothing more than transfer money two parties, representing 0 innovation and doing nothing new are valued in the 10's - 100's billions.