8 ms·

Christ, why is it just ok for politicians to outright create and promote Ponzi and Pump 'n Dump schemes? It doesn't seem that long ago that this would have bee

Christ, why is it just ok for politicians to outright create and promote Ponzi and Pump 'n Dump schemes? It doesn't seem that long ago that this would have been a scandal but now with the moron in the Oval Office creating his own meme coins without even trying to hide his business interests, and now the president of Argentina is doing the same shit? Is this really the world that we want? I mean, I guess the answer is "yes", but I don't have to like it.

dashundchen 2y ago
Insane timeline. Jimmy Carter had to sell his unprofitable peanut farm to avoid the appearance of conflict of interests, but the current president did a shitcoin pump and dump and his supporters eat it up and ask him for more.
- tombert 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - timy2shoes 2y ago
    A for-profit media company that foreign interests can pile money into for a quid pro quo, that’s somehow not legally a quid pro quo anymore.
    - pjc50 2y ago
      Meanwhile there's a quid pro quo to avoid prosecuting Eric Adams for bribery if he changes his policies. Absolute banana republic stuff.
      - sjsdaiuasgdia 2y ago
        That one is such a clear, obvious case of corruption. I wish more people were screaming it from the rooftops. I've told a number of people about it IRL and it's shocking how few know. But I guess that's part of the "flood the zone" tactic of the fascists. For those who haven't been following along, here's the highlights. Adams did some corrupt shit, like really obviously corrupt. Foreign sources made gift offers. Advisors said "no, the mayor definitely doesn't want those gifts because that would be highly inappropriate and illegal." The mayor's office said "actually, we would love those gifts please continue!" All of this is well documented; yes, they took notes on a criminal conspiracy. Naturally, this resulted in criminal charges. Adams screams political persecution because that's what corrupt politicians do when they're caught. Trump takes office, and this creates an opportunity for further corruption. Adams and Trump make a deal. Adams will facilitate anything Trump wants to do in NYC vis a vis immigration (which may include tactics of questionable legality), Trump's DOJ will drop the charges. DOJ lawyers who were in the meetings discussing this arrangement were told not to take notes. Hm. Then DOJ leadership directs the lawyers assigned to the case to file a dismissal. They burn through 7 DOJ lawyers who resign rather than sign a dismissal. The dismissal was eventually signed by Emil Bove, who had been recently appointed to the #2 position in the DOJ by Trump. Bove's previous role was as one of Trump's criminal defense lawyers. Absolutely fucking corrupt.
        tombert 2y ago
        Yep, Adams is terrible. To everyone who lives in NYC, remember that there is a primary in June. We can minimize how long this asshole is in power.
- tptacek 2y ago
  Not quite. Carter put his farm into a blind trust during his administration; when he left office, he sold the farm because it was deeply unprofitable (and had been mismanaged by his chosen trustee).
franciscop 2y ago
Because he didn't. As he explains, it seems like all he did was do a retweet of what he thought might be a good thing (like he does a lot), not create the coin and not profited from it. According to his own words: > "A few hours ago I posted a tweet, as I have so many other times, supporting a supposed private enterprise with which I obviously have no connection whatsoever. I was not aware of the details of the project and after having become aware of it I decided not to continue spreading the word (that is why I deleted the tweet)." Either the headlines know something we don't know to say he "backtracks on a memecoin" and "Argentinian President Milei launched a memecoin, $LIBRA" or they are not true. Given the context, it seems to be the latter, so I wonder why they'd be lying?
- rqtwteye 2y ago
  I would think a head of state has a responsibility to check what he promotes.
  - snailmailstare 2y ago
    I thought a military had a responsibility to run tribunals and then execute a head of state that uses their power for a promotion, greatly reducing the chance of getting this far into a fraudulent one. Bringing a promotions run to an end, leaving the impeached with whatever profits were already made is obviously not good enough for sorting out the problem.
- tombert 2y ago
  Even if everything you said here is true, he's the president of the country. It is not unreasonable for the president of a nation to do the research of what they're endorsing before they endorse it, instead of backtracking immediately after backlash.
  - idunnoman1222 2y ago
    It’s not unreasonable to backpedal even harder
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
IAmGraydon 2y ago
Fraud runs rampant before large market collapses. https://www.history.com/news/roaring-twenties-scams-ponzi-wall-street https://www.history.com/news/roaring-twenties-scams-ponzi-wa... It happened in the 20s, before 2008, and it's happening again. Trump doing this is an extra level of depraved, and I suspect the coming crash will follow suit.
- tombert 2y ago
  It makes me wonder if I should pull my savings out of index funds and just keep cash in a savings account in the short term. Normally I'd buy treasury bills, but honestly considering that Elon has been fucking around with the treasury's code with no oversight, and considering that Trump's big strategy for eliminating national debt has been to "declare bankruptcy" (whatever that would even means in regards to an entire country that is the world's reserve currency?), I'm hesitant to even do that. I wonder if I should look into seeing if I can buy bonds for the EU equivalent of the US treasury...
  - IAmGraydon 2y ago
    Whatever you do, do not buy bonds right now. As they sell off and rates rise, the value of your bonds on the secondary market will get trashed. You'll also have an opportunity to buy bonds with massive yields if the market crashes due to a debt crisis. I mean imagine getting paid 20% per year, tax advantaged, for the next 30 years. Honestly, the rule with indexes is buy and hold. Although I'm confident we have a crash incoming, unless you need the money soon, you should just hold your index funds and add everything you can to it at the bottom. You'll also have to pay taxes on the realized gains if you go to cash. I do believe that Trump's entire presidency is going to be a massive crash, temporary rebound, and then downtrend through 2028. We will probably not return to highs until the 2030s.
    - tombert 2y ago
      I wasn't planning on buying long-term bonds regardless; historically I have bought short-term treasury bills, usually 4 to 8 weeks, depending on the coupon rate, so I'm not too worried about the value on the secondary market. I'm much more concerned with the fed defaulting on paying me back. I more or less came to the same conclusion that you listed; I don't really want to create a big taxable event, so I think right now I'm going to keep the stock I have, and in the shorter term keep future income in a savings account for awhile and suss out if there's going to be a crash or not. Obviously you can't really "time" the market but it's a pretty low-risk experiment on my end.
pjc50 2y ago
The finances of Argentina are probably unfixable, but the sad thing is that the United States is now collapsing to Latin American standards of governance. I expect there to be Brazil-style duelling sets of corruption cases after every future election.

dashundchen 2y ago

Insane timeline. Jimmy Carter had to sell his unprofitable peanut farm to avoid the appearance of conflict of interests, but the current president did a shitcoin pump and dump and his supporters eat it up and ask him for more.

tombert 2y ago
[flagged]
- timy2shoes 2y ago
  A for-profit media company that foreign interests can pile money into for a quid pro quo, that’s somehow not legally a quid pro quo anymore.
  - pjc50 2y ago
    Meanwhile there's a quid pro quo to avoid prosecuting Eric Adams for bribery if he changes his policies. Absolute banana republic stuff.
    - sjsdaiuasgdia 2y ago
      That one is such a clear, obvious case of corruption. I wish more people were screaming it from the rooftops. I've told a number of people about it IRL and it's shocking how few know. But I guess that's part of the "flood the zone" tactic of the fascists. For those who haven't been following along, here's the highlights. Adams did some corrupt shit, like really obviously corrupt. Foreign sources made gift offers. Advisors said "no, the mayor definitely doesn't want those gifts because that would be highly inappropriate and illegal." The mayor's office said "actually, we would love those gifts please continue!" All of this is well documented; yes, they took notes on a criminal conspiracy. Naturally, this resulted in criminal charges. Adams screams political persecution because that's what corrupt politicians do when they're caught. Trump takes office, and this creates an opportunity for further corruption. Adams and Trump make a deal. Adams will facilitate anything Trump wants to do in NYC vis a vis immigration (which may include tactics of questionable legality), Trump's DOJ will drop the charges. DOJ lawyers who were in the meetings discussing this arrangement were told not to take notes. Hm. Then DOJ leadership directs the lawyers assigned to the case to file a dismissal. They burn through 7 DOJ lawyers who resign rather than sign a dismissal. The dismissal was eventually signed by Emil Bove, who had been recently appointed to the #2 position in the DOJ by Trump. Bove's previous role was as one of Trump's criminal defense lawyers. Absolutely fucking corrupt.
      - tombert 2y ago
        Yep, Adams is terrible. To everyone who lives in NYC, remember that there is a primary in June. We can minimize how long this asshole is in power.
tptacek 2y ago
Not quite. Carter put his farm into a blind trust during his administration; when he left office, he sold the farm because it was deeply unprofitable (and had been mismanaged by his chosen trustee).

franciscop 2y ago

Because he didn't. As he explains, it seems like all he did was do a retweet of what he thought might be a good thing (like he does a lot), not create the coin and not profited from it. According to his own words: > "A few hours ago I posted a tweet, as I have so many other times, supporting a supposed private enterprise with which I obviously have no connection whatsoever. I was not aware of the details of the project and after having become aware of it I decided not to continue spreading the word (that is why I deleted the tweet)." Either the headlines know something we don't know to say he "backtracks on a memecoin" and "Argentinian President Milei launched a memecoin, $LIBRA" or they are not true. Given the context, it seems to be the latter, so I wonder why they'd be lying?

rqtwteye 2y ago
I would think a head of state has a responsibility to check what he promotes.
- snailmailstare 2y ago
  I thought a military had a responsibility to run tribunals and then execute a head of state that uses their power for a promotion, greatly reducing the chance of getting this far into a fraudulent one. Bringing a promotions run to an end, leaving the impeached with whatever profits were already made is obviously not good enough for sorting out the problem.
tombert 2y ago
Even if everything you said here is true, he's the president of the country. It is not unreasonable for the president of a nation to do the research of what they're endorsing before they endorse it, instead of backtracking immediately after backlash.
- idunnoman1222 2y ago
  It’s not unreasonable to backpedal even harder

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

IAmGraydon 2y ago

Fraud runs rampant before large market collapses. https://www.history.com/news/roaring-twenties-scams-ponzi-wall-street https://www.history.com/news/roaring-twenties-scams-ponzi-wa... It happened in the 20s, before 2008, and it's happening again. Trump doing this is an extra level of depraved, and I suspect the coming crash will follow suit.

tombert 2y ago
It makes me wonder if I should pull my savings out of index funds and just keep cash in a savings account in the short term. Normally I'd buy treasury bills, but honestly considering that Elon has been fucking around with the treasury's code with no oversight, and considering that Trump's big strategy for eliminating national debt has been to "declare bankruptcy" (whatever that would even means in regards to an entire country that is the world's reserve currency?), I'm hesitant to even do that. I wonder if I should look into seeing if I can buy bonds for the EU equivalent of the US treasury...
- IAmGraydon 2y ago
  Whatever you do, do not buy bonds right now. As they sell off and rates rise, the value of your bonds on the secondary market will get trashed. You'll also have an opportunity to buy bonds with massive yields if the market crashes due to a debt crisis. I mean imagine getting paid 20% per year, tax advantaged, for the next 30 years. Honestly, the rule with indexes is buy and hold. Although I'm confident we have a crash incoming, unless you need the money soon, you should just hold your index funds and add everything you can to it at the bottom. You'll also have to pay taxes on the realized gains if you go to cash. I do believe that Trump's entire presidency is going to be a massive crash, temporary rebound, and then downtrend through 2028. We will probably not return to highs until the 2030s.
  - tombert 2y ago
    I wasn't planning on buying long-term bonds regardless; historically I have bought short-term treasury bills, usually 4 to 8 weeks, depending on the coupon rate, so I'm not too worried about the value on the secondary market. I'm much more concerned with the fed defaulting on paying me back. I more or less came to the same conclusion that you listed; I don't really want to create a big taxable event, so I think right now I'm going to keep the stock I have, and in the shorter term keep future income in a savings account for awhile and suss out if there's going to be a crash or not. Obviously you can't really "time" the market but it's a pretty low-risk experiment on my end.

pjc50 2y ago

The finances of Argentina are probably unfixable, but the sad thing is that the United States is now collapsing to Latin American standards of governance. I expect there to be Brazil-style duelling sets of corruption cases after every future election.