Re: Who is Janet Jackson's breast in this scenario?

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All new sophistications in finance seem designed to enable big profits and/or fraud by the first person who figures out how the game really works. It isn't exactly fraud since laws haven't been passed making it illegal, since the whole system is new, but whoever profits makes money because he knows thing others don't and is able to convince them to make bad deals.

This isn't the only thing sophisticated finance does, but it's one of them.

In Portland there was a medium sized fraud case which ended up destroying a union pension fund and sending several people to jail (including a bribed union officer). The whiz kid responsible had just recently gotten a lot of favorable press as a financial genius. (Paging Jesus). The foundation of his operation was buying bad debt, contracting it out for collection, borrowing against it, investing the borrowed money and the returns on debt collection, and soliciting new investors. Something like that; I certainly didn't understand it well. It always looked like a house of cards to me, and it was.

Besides the reptilian scam artists that are always with us, I blame drugs, futurology, prosperity theology, New Age thinking, and self-help books.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 08-18-07 6:35 AM
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All the new sophistications in finance also crowd out memories of the scams of yesteryear, like the MJSK/Native Nations/Adnan Kashoggi short-sale scandal from a few years ago.

The real conspiracy isn't in smoke-filled rooms or private jets -- it's in every cash-register and ATM machine.


Posted by: minneapolitan | Link to this comment | 08-18-07 7:22 AM
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I've been (and remain) out of the country. What in holy hell is happening on this blog?


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 08-18-07 7:24 AM
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3: Burnout, I think.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 08-18-07 7:27 AM
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The foundation of his operation was buying bad debt, contracting it out for collection, borrowing against it, investing the borrowed money and the returns on debt collection, and soliciting new investors.

Minus the actually trying to collect debt part. I lost track of a credit card once, the credit card company sold the debt to a "collection" company, and when it came time to buy a house, I found this outstanding $8K on my credit report.

The "collection" company, who hadn't tried to contact me at any point, made it as difficult as possible for me to actually pay this debt. Like, to the point of comedy. I have to assume this is because the usurious interest on my dept could be pointed to as future income and borrowed against at lower interest rates, while any actual money I might give them was just going to sit there.


Posted by: Jimmy Carter | Link to this comment | 08-18-07 10:52 AM
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Apropos of nothing, this story totally reminded me of Emerson.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 08-18-07 12:32 PM
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No, this story totally reminded me of Emerson.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 08-18-07 12:36 PM
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Whoa, St/ph/n A. M/igs is totally moving to Arkansas.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 08-18-07 12:38 PM
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I definitely don't think that pregnant preteens should marry, even with parental consent. The law makes sense to me.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 08-18-07 12:48 PM
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On a different thread we were working on the onan-o-mouse, a util factory which would produce offset utils constantly, with no human intervention at all. No more hunting for the mousie g-spot.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 08-18-07 12:50 PM
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If they're both pregnant, I understand that there's an independent law prohibiting that.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-18-07 12:51 PM
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Also, preteen married couples, should there ever be any, should be soundly spanked if the boy says "We're pregnant".


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 08-18-07 3:58 PM
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