Behind The Crypto Scam – “Complete Absence Of Trustworthy Financial Information”

November 18, 2022

Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism, who called everything crypto 'prosecution futures', provides the latest FTX bankruptcy filing:

John J. Ray III, the newly appointed CEO of bankrupt crypto player FTX’s sprawling empire who played the same role in the then-biggest-evah Enron bankruptcy and other big corporate implosions, filed his formal initial assessment with the Delaware bankruptcy court in the form of declaration, embedded below.

As expected the FTX and the companies related to it are a huge criminal mess.

In point 5 of his filing the new CEO is not holding back:

Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here. From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented. …

"Potentially compromised individuals" might refer to rampant use of drugs at FTX. But it could also point to some darker connections.

More from Yves:

At the stage of this filing, Ray could only make an approximate description of the business, putting operations into four “silos” and describing the major legal entities and activities in each.

Let us look at the things FTX did not have:

Balance sheets that showed crypto customer funds as liabilities. The only customer holding on the consolidated balance sheets are fiat currencies!

Digital asset controls: “The FTX Group did not keep appropriate books and records, or security controls, with respect to its digital assets.”

An accounting department

Audited financials for all businesses. Only one “silo” used a recognized audit firm. The biggest customer-facing silo had its books prepared by a no-name flake (office in the Metaverse, you cannot make this up), two had no audited statements

Record of bank accounts and signers on those accounts

Centralized cash management

Record of employees and their employment terms

Meaningful disbursement controls

Board meetings and/or “audited by flaky auditor” financials for many FTX entities

Records of most decisions

So far, Ray has found only $564 million of cash and have moved $760 million of crypto to cold wallets.

That's only $564 million of real money in an 'exchange' that just months ago was valued at $32 billion and cashed in hundreds of millions as new capital.

Source: Bloomberg – bigger

Several billions of the customer funds the company was supposed to hold had been 'lent out' to Sam Bankman-Fried, the main owner and CEO, for 'personal use'.

How could BlackRock, Softbank, the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan and other real world investors give money to these people? What does it say about their credibility?

Keep in mind, [FTX & Co] are the entities into which some of the smartest and best known venture capital firms on the planet threw billions of dollars. These are the entities around which countless journalists fawningly editorialized, spilling untold gallons of digital ink in the service of lionizing a would-be messiah. These are the entities that were glorified on a weekly basis by the most widely-followed mainstream financial media outlets on Earth.

The suggestion that this was so elaborate a ruse that no one — neither the most seasoned VCs nor the investigative arms of media conglomerates run by billionaires — could’ve known it might end in tears, beggars belief. The fact is, nobody looked, because nobody wanted to see.

According to Web3 is Going Great some 12 other crypto 'exchanges' and 'funds' have so far closed down or halted all withdrawals of customer funds as a consequence of the downfall of the FTX scam. More will follow.

Binance, the largest crypto 'exchange', who's owner had pulled the rug on FTX, is still holding out. It is like FTX a scam and pyramid scheme that will eventually come down:

Binance is an enormous crypto exchange run by Changpeng Zhao, more commonly known as CZ. No one really knows where Binance is headquartered, or why some person who’s claimed to be a low-level staffer is listed on official documents. A 2018 document exposed that Binance had come up with an elaborate plan to create a US entity that would be used to distract regulators, while behind the scenes they helped US-based customers evade geographic restrictions on the highly leveraged crypto derivatives trading that the US regulates.

All super normal, above-board stuff. Nothing to see here.

The small crypto traders who use Binance as 'exchange' and who have 'wallets' with crypto 'coins' at Binance do not have custodial agreements with it. They are thereby unsecured creditors, the last in line who will not even receive pennies for dollars when the bankruptcy curtains come down.

Nouriel Roubini @Nouriel – 8:48 UTC · Nov 16, 2022

To be precise I literally said that Crypto is 7 C’s:
1. Concealed
2. Corrupt
3. Crooks
4. Criminals
5. Con men
6. Carnival barkers
7. @cz_binance

#binance

Matt Stoller asks why these scams are allowed. He also gives the answer – political corruption:

And behind all of these [regulatory] fights was the money and political prestige of some most powerful people in Silicon Valley, who were funding a large political fight to write the rules for crypto, with everyone from former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers to former SEC Chair Mary Jo White on the payroll. (Even now, even after it was all revealed as a Ponzi scheme, Congress is still trying to write rules favorable to the industry. It’s like, guys, stop it. There’s no more bribe money!)

I don't think that crypto should be regulated in any way. It would only give legitimacy to a huge scam that has little to do with the real economy. It would also lead to calls for bailouts when the next crypto pyramid scheme goes down. Potential bailouts are probably why Sam Bankman-Fried also tried to get some friendly regulation for his schemes.

But those entities that are currently regulated – banks, listed companies and funds – should be prohibited from 'investing' in anything crypto. Should they fall down because some other crypto hick-up occurs the real economy would take some damage.

Congress now promises to look deeper into the crypto scam:

The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing next month to investigate the collapse of top crypto exchange FTX, lawmakers announced Wednesday.

Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), the top lawmakers on the committee, said in a statement that they expect disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to appear before Congress.

Right idea – wrong people:

SBF @SBF_FTX – 21:14 UTC · Dec 8, 2021

1) A huge thanks to @MaxineWaters , @PatrickMcHenry , and the whole House Financial Services Committee for having us today to talk about the future of digital assets.

The meeting was productive and I'm really grateful for the engagement and thoughts from policymakers.

Maxine Waters & Sam Bankman-Fried

via Jordan Schachtel – bigger

bigger

chochaymon @ElliottFryback – 20:29 UTC · Dec 8, 2021

Maxine Waters just blew @SBF_FTX a kiss. Safe to say that went well.😘
Embedded video

So how big were the bribes Maxime Waters, Patrick McHenry and others received from Sam Bankman-Fried and his companies?

And what about the media that kept writing friendly puff pieces about Sam Bankman-Fried and the false 'effective altruism' ideology he represented even after his companies came down?

Yellen, Zelensky and Zuckerberg Will Speak at [New York Times'] DealBook Summit – Oct 18, 2022

The conference, scheduled for Nov. 30, will bring together the biggest newsmakers in business, politics and culture.
…
Among the speakers: President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine; Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen; Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s co-founder, chairman and C.E.O.; Shou Chew, TikTok’s C.E.O.; Mike Pence, former vice president of the United States; Andy Jassy, Amazon’s C.E.O.; Reed Hastings, Netflix’s co-founder and co-C.E.O.; Mayor Eric Adams of New York; Larry Fink, BlackRock’s chairman and C.E.O.; Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s C.E.O.; and Priscilla Sims Brown, Amalgamated Bank’s C.E.O.

One wonders how many of the participants still want him to show up.

As Yves Smith closes:

I don’t see how Bankman-Fried does not wind up in jail. The US is very loath to prosecute white collar criminals, but this story has become way too visible, too many small fry lost money, and the conduct was too egregious for this not to be punished. Given the utter chaos of the financials, it may take a prosecutor who can argue jurisdiction and venue to master enough details to gin up a filing and get Bankman-Fried. If nothing else, there’s always mail and wire fraud to get discovery started. If no one else gets there first, expect a group of attorneys general from red states to saddle up.

Bankman-Fried is young, has hundreds of millions stashed away and is connected well enough to have an easy life in jail. Isn't there some better punishment one could think of?

Posted by b on November 18, 2022 at 18:16 UTC | Permalink

Comments

I won’t repeat my previous comments on other threads re Money – understanding it’s history as being the vital starting point of understanding the world and the now fast crumbling Collective Waste that we are being led down to. Much as we were led up it.
Using our flesh and blood in some mass hypnosis’s that allowed the Ancient Slave Owners – the rest of us being the Slaves and our lands – to be claimed by them for eternity.
So bullet points for now:
– cryptos are another hypnosis.
– without electricity and computer connections they CEASE to work.
– same as Credit/Bank cards ceasing to work without electricity, connectivity
– most business’s have ‘forgotten’ how to use manual payment slips – cheques and card slips with signatures that allowed use of funds beyond instant checks.
– physical currency, fiat, is accepted by many in many countries even if it is not their sovereign currency- you can use dollar, sterling, euro, etc across the whole economy Rod as long as the trader knows how to value it and redeem it with fellow traders.
– gold /silver diamonds etc are not as easily transactionable – try paying for a beer or bread with it? Without assaying and an ability to assign an instant transactional value it is really just some jewellery at best.
– Cash and proxies for cash will arise independently within localities even if banned.
In prisons cigarettes, matches, chocolate, SIM cards, drugs etc all can be ‘cash’.
– it is the ancient slave owners who are threatened by currencies they can not control and assign store of value to.
– in their desperation to stop the independent world order arising with its own financial system beyond the control of the Ancients, that has led to the ‘new magik’ of blockchain!
That is why that new ‘god’, Crypto, nft etc are destined to fail. Harvesting actual wealth from us idiot believers as they go. As the old world order inevitably collapses , the ancients transmutation trick is again enacted- they rush to hide in the upcoming civilisation and hope to ingrain and ultimately rise and control it over many generations- that is how it always works. Over generations – not individual life times.
Musk and co are wholly part of that— they are not messiahs – they are very naughty boys🤣🤣
Most people will never understand such a scope of history, let alone rise above their demented single lifetimes ambitions, hence we remain forever Slaves , goldfish in a bowl, cursing our grandkids to forever circle around the same mindless incarceration. Feeling happy as long as we have whatever soma we are told is our ‘leisure’ – the football, alcohol, drugs or religion!
The Chinese digital yuan will obliterate all the western worlds weird shit cryptos and the valueless dollar abe private ‘national’ banks, and its palaces, like an earthquake felling whole cities.
The multipolar, SCO is coming to save us – and Ukraine is the fuse.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Nov 19 2022 12:51 utc | 101

Patroklos @ 49
The original oldhippie here. Many videos of her with cocaine nose while acting even more giddy than usual. Enough experience with drug world to know difference between sniffles and cocaine nose. Her absolute giddy responses to discussions of tragedy and death. Zelensky does the same cocaine nose stuff, in his case we have video of him doing what amount to commercials for cocaine.
Dan Andrews over in Victoria the same. We have videos of him taking a quick snort before getting on the podium.
It is very common amongst our elite and a good marker for how dysfunctional that elite is.

Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 19 2022 13:09 utc | 102

The “crypto bad” chorus out again it seems, but having a hard time making any factual arguments. And again for the record, Bitoin is NOT the same as any Proof of Stake (POS) coin, token, NFT, exchange or corporate “investment” in crypto. So stop saying Bitcoin when you mean shitcoin. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME.
As for the “if there is no electricity, there is no crypto” nonsense. Without electricity, computers or internet, the banks go back to closing at 3:00PM to do the bookwork. Remember “banking hours”? I do.
And there is no more “backing” of fiat currencies than Bitcoin anymore. US PHYSICAL Gold Reserves have not been audited since at least the 1930’s. “Trust Us”.
Well with Bitcoin you can be your own banker, the system is by definition “trustless”. The blockchain is verified and maintained by an ever increasing number of Full Nodes distributed all around the world.
The 0.001% NEED the internet to keep their “Great Powergrab” in motion.
And even if the internet was shut down everywhere, those with Bitcoin PRIVATE KEYS indelibly recorded on metal will be able to resume whatever Bitcoin activities they want as soon as the internet is re-established. Or a new internet is created…
The Wireless 5G Internet of Things relies on short-range radio to function. Independent Mesh networks can easily be set up between private home WIFI routers, bypassing the major ISPs and making this iteration of the internet nearly impossible to extinguish as long as the power stays on.
And if there is one thing that Bitcoin threatens, it is the fractional Central Banking system. The legacy financial system cannot function without the ability to constantly print/inflate via Fractional Banking and Quantitative Easing. The 0.001% have worked for centuries to convince the masses “there is no alternative”, but there is.
Staring you in the face.
So get your jabs like Gates tells you, believe St. Greta and don’t get involved with Bitcoin. But be prepared when WEF Dictators like Trudeau and Freeland freeze your bank account for “suspicion” of something like daring not to believe EXACTLY what they tell you.
“You will own nothing, rent everything and you will be happy.”
Klaus Schwab
He just left out the “Or else”…

Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 13:36 utc | 103

@Tom_12 | Nov 19 2022 8:56 utc | 83
Goes much deep and further back than that.
Suggest looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habiru
Also, perhaps:
S. Douglas Waterhouse. (2001). “Who are the Hîabiru of the Amarna Letters?”
Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 12(1), pp. 31-42.
“Despite numerous studies devoted to the question of who the “Habiru” were, a lively controversy still continues. The heart of the controversy pertains to that portion of the people referred to as “Habiru” who were attempting to take over the land of Canaan. In urgent dispatches sent to the Egyptian Court of Pharaohs Amenhotep III and his son, Akhenaten, the chieftains of the land of Canaan speak of the Habiru as a perilous threat to their city-states.” (p. 31)
—
* S. Douglas Waterhouse is Professor of Religion, Emeritus at Andrews University,
serving on its faculty as a teacher from 1963 until his retirement in 1996.

Posted by: imo | Nov 19 2022 13:43 utc | 104

Very brief vid of the Polish farm where whatever it was landed..
It’s obvious they keep tampering with the site.
https://twitter.com/IntelAndRecon/status/1592604887979683840

Posted by: Melaleuca | Nov 19 2022 13:44 utc | 105

Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 13:36 utc | 104
Translation:
“All ills of society would be solved if y’all just poured your money into this energy-hogging experimental financial asset that I’m already staked in”
Objectively indistinguishable from a sales pitch motivated by vested interest.

Posted by: Arganthonios | Nov 19 2022 14:19 utc | 106

Posted by: Melaleuca | Nov 19 2022 13:44 utc | 106
I think we have squeezed this lemon to the max.
For myself, I think it was a PsyOp not involving a S-300. The backing away from it by the US suggests that is was not cleared by them, but then who knows. They might have said OK and then made the face “What the hell ? Make this go away.” 404 investigators being invited to look is a joke. In a way it even makes the Poles look stupid, “Ok guys, we know everything about S-300. Let us show you how to do this right.” Pathetic theatrics.
The desired effect was achieve though, Russia is responsible.

Posted by: Tom_12 | Nov 19 2022 14:21 utc | 107

I think there’s no way to predict how this prosecution goes, given that the nation’s institutions are -at present- in slow-motion collapse and public trust in them is in fairly rapid decline. For example, when the Enron scandal broke many commentators said things like, “This is an aberration, not indicative of how our system works.” That argument would receive widespread ridicule today. SBF could just as easily become the scapegoat as skate free.

Posted by: DanB | Nov 19 2022 14:22 utc | 108

@ old Canadian , I guess you were referring to some of my post so am replying.
“ if there is one thing that Bitcoin threatens, it is the fractional Central Banking system.”
Of all the bs that you insist is Gods Own Truth – why do you believe in that old saw?
Bitcoin and blockchain are as much an invention as Capitalism/Anticapitalism from which arises a belief in some wizardry of banking that is ‘fractional’ so therefore, HOLLY and Trustworthy because some high priest of the fake religion of pseudo science Economics says so? Who determined the fraction? Why? Why not some other number? Keep asking Why, that’s the only way of getting closer to the ultimate truth.
If you want a truly physical, none digital, non-fiat, not backed by some artificial fixed value of precious metal currencies – then suggest you go back to Tally Sticks.
They worked beautifully but were not open to the international financial wizards who set up ‘National Banks’, associated ‘National Debts’ that they insisted Taxes be used to service.
The whole thing is a massive lie – a fairytale told to children – like Santa Claus – but some carryon believing because they will fail to look up and beyond the clouds from where that boot on their face seems to be coming.
Not jabbed, had Covid twice, immune system working fine. Schwab is your God , Bitcoin is their satanic vision. I remember when the smartest mathematicians were being recruited with even more pay than any hedge funds and trading algorithm firms were paying them to go work at UNIVERSITIES in far off AUSTRALIA to work on blockchain and invention of ever more ludicrous cryptos.
Your faith in technology is touching. As is the Collective Wasterners love affair with their Automobiles and associated industries – watch as it is removed like a rug being pulled under their feet and they fall painfully onto their arses. Crying that it’s all the fault of some foreigners and whatever.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Nov 19 2022 14:28 utc | 109

“.. I don’t want to come across as one of those “communism (or socialism or Christianity) hasn’t failed because real communism (. . .) has never been given a fair try” people..”
Guy L’Estrange@101
Why not? Are you afraid of being caught thinking, rather than accepting anti-socialist propaganda as common sense?
(Its Gandhi.)

Posted by: bevin | Nov 19 2022 14:35 utc | 110

@Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 13:36 utc | 104
—
The sad thing about magic beans is that they are only worth what somebody will pay for them. They have no intrinsic value.
But it you really believe in crypto there is a >40% arb spread to be scalped between GBTC and BTC.
Clap if you want Tinkerbell to live.
https://twitter.com/magnum___opus/status/1593912000635076613

Posted by: too scents | Nov 19 2022 14:35 utc | 111

It says something when the guy who handled Enron is shocked by the scale of criminal malfeasance. There are only two options for how this kind of thing could happen with the close involvement of political and financial elite: either that elite is stupid beyond description or thoroughly corrupt. The third option is a mixture of the two and likely the correct analysis. In any case, this situation exemplifies the systemic issues with the West as a political and economic entity.

Posted by: Lex | Nov 19 2022 14:44 utc | 112

The difference betweeen crypto and tulip bulbs is you can eat tulip bulbs. I don’t know if that old story of the guy who ate a fabulously expensive tulip bulb is true, but it should have been.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Nov 19 2022 14:48 utc | 113

BlackRock should have had the competence or simply the connections to know it was a giant scam.
Perhaps some “investors” put money into the scheme knowing full well they’d end up having to officially write it all off but also knowing that, behind the scenes, those funds were being channeled to recipients with whom they couldn’t otherwise be associated.
Some “investors” might have made public contributions, in order to endorse the scheme and draw in retail customers, while receiving a profitable slice of the scam profits deposited in the offshore account of their choice.
Or they might be dumb as rocks … but does Occam’s Razor satisfy, or does the apparent incongruity beg a more substantial explanation?

Posted by: anon2020 | Nov 19 2022 14:56 utc | 114

The real rabbit hole here I think is going to involve US intelligence agencies and the laundering of war money through the Ukrainian government / SBU back to the US entities who gave it and possibly to other pocket causes like surveillance, coup operations, drugs..etc. No telling how many ways this was done with the 2.4 trillion spent in Afghanistan. It seems not only weapons manufacturers and corrupt politicians in these sacrificial target countries get rich but also mysterious shell tech companies in the US as well. I also suspect Elon Musk is knee deep in this kind of thing, though he may keep it entirely above ground so to speak. I don’t understand this whole narrative that is on every MSM news cycle right now 24/7 about how he ‘s suddenly so incompetent and just a generally terrible businessman and crazy guy that he’s immediately running Twitter into the ground and everyone wants to leave.etc. They repeat the same words everyday on all the videos and articles: “it’s just pure chaos, I’ve never seen such chaos as there is at Twitter right now”. Like he’s some madcap jester that just spreads chaos everywhere. What does it mean? Is it a warning that the borg has turned against him as well?

Posted by: James C | Nov 19 2022 14:56 utc | 115

This pales in significance to the control frauds that led to the financial crisis, 2007. This was promoted by CEO’s, “mortgage originators were told to do whatever it took to get loans approved, even if that meant deliberately altering data about borrower income and net worth.” In other words, the huge “false profits” this engendered was the reward given to CEO’s of the largest US financial institutions. The line between criminality and everyday business practices has become very blurred, indeed, under successive governments, both democrat and republican. And there is no talk of scroungers from Mr. Biden on this, the bank CEO’s in 2007, or on the savings and loan scandals of the ’80’s. Tax payers end up getting hurt on these deals but few talk of closing down or properly regulating banks. Unstilted by the dead hand of government interference, guided solely by the profit motive, the theory is that banks lend funds for industry to invest; the practice is that speculation, with virtual money via computers, increasingly characterizes what is going on.
The whole financial system is a series of whirlpools which generates a great deal of activity but only appears to provide funds for investment as a by-product. Large funds are tied up, and many people employed, in essentially unproductive activities. They are unproductive because, while they may generate a financial return for the investor, they do not increase real resources nor the production potential of the economy. The bulk of the resources of Wall St. are devoted to making money at the expense of others, rather than making money by producing more useful goods and services. Stock exchange activity has nothing to do with providing funds for investment (the original purpose of the exchange), but share/price speculation, and dividend reaping.
The crypto-deal is just another scam, an unregulated pyramid/ponzi. Those who run it are small-fry, compared to the white-collar criminals associated with the largest banks, but just as contemptible and makes one wonder when will people say enough is enough – time to organize the banks and the economy to serve the publics’ interests, not sleazy, greedy individuals?

Posted by: zeke2u | Nov 19 2022 14:59 utc | 116

DunGroanin.
Did you ever have smallpox? Or tetanus? Cholera, or the bubonic plague?
You only give us the barest outline of your medical history. Is this to establish your bona fides with all the idiots who deny the pandemic?
There is a real reluctance-amounting to a fear- among commenters here-of being caught in the act of thinking like socialists.
It is this sense that the question of a democratic alternative to capitalist class rule has been settled (and by our old friends the Philosophers at the foot of the throne, the penny a line pundits preaching in the service of the capitalists who own them and the agents of the states that the capitalists use to ensure order in the milking sheds) that leads to these discussions between the partisans of organised capital and its loyal opposition the party of those who want “the invisible hand” to decide all.
If we do not overthrow capitalism and replace it with a society in which all contribute according their abilities and each takes what is needed then we are doomed not just to listen to endless discussions between the followers of the Koch Brothers and the Central Banks’ fans but to almost certain destruction through environmental degradation or nuclear wars-both of them consequences of capitalist class rule.
As to crypto, it is a scam so transparent that it makes the Emperor’s New Clothes look substantial. It is designed to secrete the wealth purloined from nature and work- unconsumed despite the desperate need for it among the people of the world- from others. A plague on all their houses.

Posted by: bevin | Nov 19 2022 15:05 utc | 117

Perhaps some “investors” put money into the scheme knowing full well they’d end up having to officially write it all off but also knowing that, behind the scenes, those funds were being channeled to recipients with whom they couldn’t otherwise be associated.
It would be really ideal if people actually knew US Securities Regulations. FTX was the equivalent of a Hedge Fund and only open to “Sophisticated Investors”. ie it was NOT a Retail Mutual Fund subject to SEC Regulation
Sequioa Capital is not a retail investor – it is Don Valentine’s baby – the guy who funded Apple and lots of Silicon Valley startups. quite why they invested defies logic but maybe Sir Mike Moritz will explain to investors !
Anyway it is SEC Rules that “sophisticated investors” do not have “retail investor” protections because they are “big boys” and “big boy rules” pertain.
If they cannot ascertain RISK they should not be in business
FTX was a scam. Most Crypto Currency is a pyramid scheme – it is called “Crypto” for a reason in case English presents a comprehension problem
Anyone who fell for the Mathematical Mumbo Jumbo missed out on LTCM in 1998
I kind of admire this half-wit for taking so many institutions to the cleaners – it is so easy – but not for honest souls who are gouged by financial institutions

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Nov 19 2022 15:20 utc | 118

Not jabbed, had Covid twice, immune system working fine. Schwab is your God , Bitcoin is their satanic vision. I remember when the smartest mathematicians were being recruited with even more pay than any hedge funds and trading algorithm firms were paying them to go work at UNIVERSITIES in far off AUSTRALIA to work on blockchain and invention of ever more ludicrous cryptos.
Your faith in technology is touching. As is the Collective Wasterners love affair with their Automobiles and associated industries – watch as it is removed like a rug being pulled under their feet and they fall painfully onto their arses. Crying that it’s all the fault of some foreigners and whatever.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Nov 19 2022 14:28 utc | 110
My respects.
The only thing magical about finance and economics is how magically they vanish your assets. You don’t need a Math Ph.d for any of it, and it is mainly used in finance to befuddle intended chumps.
Scientists were never supposed to be authority figures anyhow. That is all media bullshit.

Posted by: Bemildred | Nov 19 2022 15:20 utc | 119

Look back and see what the $US was “worth” in 1900. Then in 1930, and 2009 and now. Can you say slow-roll Weimar? The wheelbarrow has been replaced by a bank card.
Yes, I agree Bitcoin is the ultimate Greater Fool proposition. So be sure you understand something before you try it, or more importantly, write about it.
Absolutely, Bitcoin is purely worth what someone will pay for it or sell it at. But what if companies started paying employees and suppliers in Bitcoin, and retailers accepted payments. Then Bitcoin would be valued much as fiats are now… a pizza sells for xSats. I earn xSats per hour. Then Bitcoin would have equal standing as fiat currencies without the problem of Fractional Banking or Quantitative Easing devaluing the currency, even at the BS “target” 2%/year.
Remember when you got a discount for paying cash? I can see a day when Bitcoin/Lightning payments will get a discount over any fiat transaction. But we are not there yet. Depending on when the 0.001% see “no alternative” to crashing the world economy to create the conditions for the Great Powergrab… so far not Climate Change ™, the Plandemic nor the Ukie-Nazi war in Ukraine have put their remote-control agenda into effect. When the banks restrict or freeze your accounts (deposits, debit and credit cards), Bitcoin will look a lot more inviting.
BUT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING OR YOU W-I-L-L GET SCAMMED. Shitcoins, like all speculative/stock-casino investing, it a minefield for the unknowledgeable. Buyer Beware writ large.
The UN and it’s various US/NATO-controlled subsidiaries and financial globalist entities (IMF/World Bank/BIS/Swift/etc.) have not managed to trigger conditions that would auto-prompt the WEF hand-picked dictators to completely have their way.
A few truckers and the 100,000’s of Canadians that poured over $10million in donations for them in a couple weeks have upturned the WEF-backed Trudeau/Freeland/Singh mini-Powergrab in Canada. Next week should be interesting with Trudy, “Chrystia” (as Klaus calls her) and their ministerial toadies in the Inquiry dock.

Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 15:22 utc | 120

Posted by: zeke2u | Nov 19 2022 14:59 utc | 117
Here we go again ! Life is too short !
Clinton actually reduced US Government Bond issuance causing a Wall Street Problem
It need Synthethic Government Bongs with AAA Rating to stay in the trading came with A1 Collateral so it invented CMOs and blew out the market.
That is what caused the Financial Crash – that the US Deficit was not growing fast enough and Clinton was repaying Debt

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Nov 19 2022 15:24 utc | 121

That is what caused the Financial Crash – that the US Deficit was not growing fast enough and Clinton was repaying Debt
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Nov 19 2022 15:24 utc | 122
Yes, we were beginning to reduce the debt when Bush the Lesser came in, and Cheney promptly made sure none of that was going to happen. I still wonder why Clinton was did that. Seems un-Clinton-like in retrospect.

Posted by: Bemildred | Nov 19 2022 15:32 utc | 122

The big backers of this con ( Blackrock et.al.) aren‘t losing a penny. They likely made billions before FTX went belly up.

Posted by: Exile | Nov 19 2022 15:33 utc | 123

Bemildred: The Rothschild Class/WEF doesn’t control Bitcoin. No one does. And everyone does.
“I care not who sits on the throne of England, as long as I control the money supply.” There are various versions of this Rothschild quote, but judge them by their actions. There are few central banks that do not have Rothschild/WEF acolytes at the top levels. The ones that don’t?
Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Syria. And those that once didn’t, until the US/ZATO attacked: Iraq, Libya. The “crime” was selling petroleum in anything but $US.

Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 15:33 utc | 124

Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Syria. And those that once didn’t, until the US/ZATO attacked: Iraq, Libya. The “crime” was selling petroleum in anything but $US.
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 15:33 utc | 125
Thanks for clearing all that up.

Posted by: Bemildred | Nov 19 2022 15:35 utc | 125

BlackRock should have had the competence or simply the connections to know it was a giant scam….
Posted by: anon2020 | Nov 19 2022 14:56 utc | 115
Of course they knew. The kid who is taking the rap is a patsy front man. Groups like BlackRock are the ones in the know.
I missed the part that explains how this all got out into public view. (But I hate finance stuff even more than war porn so…) Most of the time, it seems these stories leak out by mistake (like crackhead Hunter not picking up his laptop and not being assigned security detail to think of things like that for him) and then the subsequent stories and/or investigations are designed to cover up as much as possible often by creating a narrative that points away from the actual perpetrators. In this case – like with Madoff no doubt where it turns out the Medici bank (!) was one of the chief operators behind the scenes – clearly there was a whole lot of moving and shaking going on, far more than that kid and his GF could have managed if for no other reason than that they were both far too young to have accumulated the necessary contacts.

Posted by: Scorpion | Nov 19 2022 15:37 utc | 126

Bemildred: Please don’t think I am picking on you, but…
As Carlin said, the Rep/Dem parties are both wings of the same predatory, war-mongering, 0.001%-controlled bird.

Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 15:42 utc | 127

FTX, Boeing 737max, Pfizer and Moderna/ big pharma vaccine scam – Like Ukraine, the so called beltway in the US is a black hole of corruption.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Nov 19 2022 15:52 utc | 128

Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 19 2022 13:09 utc | 103
Any chance of telling me where I can find that video of Dan snorting coke?
If you tell me and I see it , then I can tell B to remove this post and your response to me .

Posted by: Brother Ma | Nov 19 2022 16:04 utc | 129

Posted by: Bemildred | Nov 19 2022 16:06 utc | 130

Remember when you got a discount for paying cash? I can see a day when Bitcoin/Lightning payments will get a discount over any fiat transaction. But we are not there yet. Depending on when the 0.001% see “no alternative” to crashing the world economy to create the conditions for the Great Powergrab… so far not Climate Change ™, the Plandemic nor the Ukie-Nazi war in Ukraine have put their remote-control agenda into effect. When the banks restrict or freeze your accounts (deposits, debit and credit cards), Bitcoin will look a lot more inviting.
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 15:22 utc | 121

As one old Canadian to another, if your Crypto-Coin wallet is with another custodian it can be restricted or frozen. Trying to keep it offshore presents other risks.
As for discounts, that also seems unlikely as once all Bitcoins are “mined” fees are the only way to keep the system running. Miners who counted on the coins as their main revenue source will drop out. The remaining operators will act as a cartel to protect their interests/profits.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Nov 19 2022 16:11 utc | 131

Kleptocracy by kleptocurrency; how very creative. Whocouldanode something like would and will happen under WEF’s benevolent guidance?
Hey, mistakes were made. Remember, we all played a role and more importantly, we’re all in this together. And let’s look forward not backward (Obama). In other words let’s not even entertain b’s closing question.

Posted by: Doug Hillman | Nov 19 2022 16:11 utc | 132

Isn’t there some better punishment one could think of?
Posted by b on November 18, 2022 at 18:16 UTC | Permalink
Hmmm… how about he publicly declares all the real movers and shakers behind the whole thing on national television and then is allowed to walk free out into the streets. Unlike John Wick, he probably won’t make it home alive…

Posted by: Scorpion | Nov 19 2022 16:18 utc | 133

if your Crypto-Coin wallet is with another custodian it can be restricted or frozen.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Nov 19 2022 16:11 utc
It’s called SELF CUSTODY. If you hold your own PRIVATE KEYS no one on earth can steal your Bitcoin. Stamp your Private Key phrase on metal, use a multi-signature wallet, use TOR/VPN and Coinjoin/Whirlpool transactions to obscure whats going where.
Shitcoins are another matter, a real learning curve to assess the danger for anyone serious about their financial sovereignty.

Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 16:23 utc | 134

I know of a better punishment, but they only apply it to billionaires in China…

Posted by: tropicalML | Nov 19 2022 16:23 utc | 135

Guy L’Estrange@101 wrote “I don’t want to come across as one of those ‘communism (or socialism or Christianity) hasn’t failed because real communism (. . .) has never been given a fair try’ people but it think that the guy who wrote Black Swan was onto something with his anti-fragility idea.”
Money needs something to back it. It doesn’t have to be gold, no matter what most hard-money reactionaries think, but it has to be something. Ultimately in a developed economy where “money” is inextricably intertwined with credit (as in fractional reserve banking,) money/credit is based on the division of labor that increases the material production of the society. The state with its powers of taxation supports the credit system. That’s where Marx’s “fictitious capital” lurks, barely disguised. The market in government securities supports the claims of fictitious capital on future revenue. In an imperialist system, which is to say, our world now, that credit/money is backed in the internecine competition of capitals by, basically, blood. That’s why defeated powers can suffer hyperinflation. Gold bugs never explain why hyperinflation didn’t set in with the abandonment of the gold standard in 1971. Bitcoin’s notion of “anti-fragility” rests on the mistaken notion that the main threat to money’s value is government, whereas in fact, government is essential to the money/credit system. So-called fiat money is not mere words on paper, but a very material phenomenon, requiring literal armies; tax collectors; police and prisons to enforce tax collections at a minimum. Debasing the coinage is a different issue…but that’s not one that matters much in a highly developed economy that uses credit extensively.
Bitcoin copies the fundamental errors of Keynesian-style (non)explanations of economic changes are mysterious changes in propensities, expectations, strangely mutable hypothetical psychological causes of undefined masses of people. It is an answer to an irrelevant question…except I think for promising (falsely?) an untrackable cash exchange not amenable to police and revenue agents, useful for all sorts of criminal activity. Crypto in general is “backed” by the speculative money flowing in. In that sense, crypto is just another speculative mania. Strictly speaking crypto doesn’t give dividends to old investors from current inflows from new investors to support. In that sense, crypto is *not* a Ponzi scheme. But it is a cousin, so to speak.
Christianity has been tried, repeatedly, not just as a minority religion but as the victorious overlord. It ran things its way. It is absurd to claim it hasn’t been tried. Anyone talking of “real” Christianity is using a personal definition of Christianity. The accusations that Communism has failed ignore the fact that insofar as this is true, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy by its enemies, who have spent billions of dollars and thousands, no, millions of lives to make sure. Unlike Christianity, Communism has never been in charge. But even as a minority of the world, Communism’s “failure” is partly a Black Legend. Consider the myth of the Holodomor, a fascist trope taken as gospel by the public face of the academy. (Privately they may not agree, but they know it’s not good career politics to be too vocal about this.) Further, in the sense of actually meeting the needs of all the people, Communism I believe has *not* “failed” in the sense alleged. Capitalism’s titanic failures in meeting people’s needs are simply ignored.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 19 2022 16:24 utc | 136

FTX, Boeing 737max, Pfizer and Moderna/ big pharma vaccine scam – Like Ukraine, the so called beltway in the US is a black hole of corruption.
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 15:42 utc | 128
Boy you are just a fountain of information today.
Posted by: Bemildred | Nov 19 2022 16:06 utc
Sorry no, that was Peter AU1, but I concur with the statement.

Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 16:27 utc | 137

Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 16:27 utc | 138
It was a good statement.

Posted by: Bemildred | Nov 19 2022 16:30 utc | 138

Posted by: Scorpion | Nov 19 2022 15:37 utc | 127
Yepp, anyone who swallowed the Madoff explanation is naive to the extreme. I recall reading some articles which tangentially suggested that Madoff was in part responsible for the 2008 market crash. Wasn’t that a beautiful con operation.
They always need a prop to use an explanation of what happens. In 2003 Iraq it was a vial and some aluminum tubes.

Posted by: Tom_12 | Nov 19 2022 16:30 utc | 139

Bitcoin copies the fundamental errors of Keynesian-style (non)explanations of economic changes are mysterious changes in propensities, expectations, strangely mutable hypothetical psychological causes of undefined masses of people.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 19 2022 16:24 utc
OK, we are entering the “bullshit baffles brains” segment of the program.
If you don’t want to buy Bitcoin DON’T. You would be a danger to yourself. It’s a very old Christian (and any religious) trait to tell the rest of the world how to live their lives.
Politely, push off.

Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 16:31 utc | 140

Posted by: Tom_12 | Nov 19 2022 16:30 utc | 140
i still want to know what was in the vial, I think it was baking soda. baking soda, dump trucks and a few tubes. the special effects in old Dr Who episodes were more convincing.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Nov 19 2022 16:50 utc | 141

Old canadian@141 may be unaware that Keynes does in fact talk about changes in propensity to consume or the propensity to invest as the causes of subsequent changes in the economy. But that would only explain the befuddlement, coupled with my writing “are” instead of the “as” I had in a previous version of the sentence. (I am a terrible proofreader so my tendency to instantly rewrite is probably not a Good Thing.) But the notion that criticizing Keynes and his legions of copiers—there is still no other theory of profit accepted in academic economics that I know of! It’s all still, basically, “Shit happens!”—is somehow religious oppression is preposterous. And responding to criticism of someone else, especially someone dead, with the demand to “push off,” barely restrained the real feeling, is not just arrogant and rude, but an inadvertent confession of failure.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 19 2022 16:51 utc | 142

another ponzi scheme revealed… these are as plentiful as dreams..everyone has them.. some good, some bad.. a good one is finding a way out of this mad house.. have we found a way to get beyond an obsession with money to think about the welfare of others? something to ponder in all this madness..

Posted by: james | Nov 19 2022 16:53 utc | 143

Apologies that I haven’t read thoroughly this thread and need to go back and also reread b’s opening essay. This morning, however, being a cold one here in my part of New Mexico, I took up again a book I have been recommending that I read soon after its publication in 2014, David E Stuart’s “Anasazi America”. His 2013 preface is simply gripping:

“The first edition of this book was prepared in 1998 and 1999…Digging deeper into the research, I discovered to my surprise another America underneath the one we portray in our national news and other public media. That America was more fragile, less equal, and far more shortsighted than I had imagined… With publication came acclaim from some quarters and dismay from others…apparently they wanted to believe it was perfect as is. It wasn’t.”

The crypto scam is a revelation that things have not changed for the better since Prof. Stuart wrote his preface in 2013 to the second edition of his work. I’ll want to give some more excerpts, but I will save that for the ‘week in review’ comments. I will just say here that he describes the situation in America as ‘a crucial evolutionary failure.’
We are certainly over the precipice of that now.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 19 2022 17:26 utc | 144

Brother Ma @ 130
Try entering ‘Dan Andrews cocaine video’ in the search bar. It is not at all obscure. I am not privileged with inside information.

Posted by: oldhippie | Nov 19 2022 17:32 utc | 145

Posted by: pretzelattack | Nov 19 2022 16:50 utc | 142
For my part I wasn’t fooled for a second. When I saw him showing that at the UN I thought to myself,
“What a sad human being.”
He was used like a piece of toilet paper.

Posted by: Tom_12 | Nov 19 2022 17:41 utc | 146

Oh fer cryin’ out loud… OF COURSE what the population does effects the economy, as much as vice versa. I have not filled my head with the endlessly tedious details of economic THEORY, which is too often trotted out as “science” when it is more navel-gazing than objective knowledge. It is not Keynes I am telling to push off. It is those who hang on his every word as if it proved something real.
I doubt Keynes ever envisioned anything like Bitcoin, either in theory or practice. Money creation and control(manipulation?) was always going to be in the hands of some 0.001% cabal in Keynes’ world. Enforced by some empire by dint of their superior weapons and the ability to pay for the muscle to use them. Essentially mercenaries paid with fiat currencies created out of thin air these days.
At least there will only ever be 21million Bitcoins. Funny how after the 2021/22 pump-and-dump attack, Bitcoin has settled in a fairly narrow range, even after the scam FTX clearly was.
Bitcoin halts the primary mover… the endless fiat money supply and fractional banking. And that is how empires fall. When “full faith and credit” is no longer trusted. When the US Federal Reserve doesn’t have nearly as much gold as it claims. When a country like Canada has ZERO gold in its reserves, just paper (or worse, digital) fiat reserves. So if most Western gov’ts are like Canada, there is “no there, there” EITHER.
Fiat is the biggest ponzi ever. It’s only become more clearly apparent in the digital age, and the Rothschild class want to grab control of the digital “currency” system before Bitcoin takes away the money-printing punchbowl they depend on.

Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 17:44 utc | 147

Reading as far in b’s account as ‘Binance’ – this reminds me of the novel I previously recommended for its account of a ponzi scheme created by a single person in cahoots with one investor who was benefitting outrageously from the scheme’s profitability and apparently did not go to jail, thanks to a lot of shredding of files – the novel is “The Glass Hotel” by Emily St. John Mandel. Binance reminds me that how that scheme seemed legitimate for a while was because the firm had a totally legitimate investment house on the upper floor, the ponzi artists the floor below. In the novel both crash eventually.

Posted by: juliania | Nov 19 2022 17:46 utc | 148

Posted by: Scorpion | Nov 19 2022 15:37 utc | 127
Agreed on all counts. A few semi-crackpots to poke their heads through the holes in the narrative photo-board for as long as the media is paying attention. There was Mark Karpelès fronting Mt. Gox, Gerald Cotten fronting QuadrigaCX, and now Skankman-Fried fronting for FTX, but no one with any sense takes these events as face value.
The involvement of BlackRock begs an explanation beyond mere stupidity. It will be interesting to see what identifiable beneficiaries comes to light or if there are large sums that cannot be accounted for.
These schemes can also be used to lure in and damage persons or entities that might have somehow fallen out of favour … I suspect that Madoff was allowed to operate for so long precisely to entrap influential European investors and have them over a barrel if they wanted to cash out when the scheme failed.
In the case of FTX, either all the investors were incredibly stupid or one or more of them knew it was a scam but had ulterior motives for participating all the same.

Posted by: anon2020 | Nov 19 2022 17:59 utc | 149

Old canadian@148
Why do you believe, as you appear to, that Bitcoin is immune from the speculations and manipulations of what you, puzzlingly, refer to as the Rothschild class?
Surely the great bulk of the current holdings belong to financial speculators (of every religion and none) and other hoarders of wealth?
It is in the nature of markets that there will be attempts to monopolise them, so long as there is a market in bitcoin why should it differ from any other token?

Posted by: bevin | Nov 19 2022 18:08 utc | 150

Money laundering scheme for parties and members of congress
https://twitter.com/JoshuaJHansen/status/1591690057119072256

Posted by: Kenan Meyer | Nov 19 2022 18:52 utc | 151

Posted by: bevin | Nov 19 2022 18:08 utc | 151
Because he’s already invested in that particular tulip brand and needs to act in whichever way has a fractional percentage of making line go up.

Posted by: Arganthonios | Nov 19 2022 18:54 utc | 152

“The U.S. is loath to prosecute white collar crimes…” That’s because America isn’t a fair and just system. It’s a corrupt oligarchy that plays by different rules depending on where you fall politically and socially. The media and Hollyweird runs cover for the corrupt system by trying to create an appearance of a great, noble, and virtuous country that is far from the truth. One day all the vice, corruption, and dishonesty will add up with interest with no way out but through decline.

Posted by: Prometheus Defiant | Nov 19 2022 18:55 utc | 153

It is only Trumpery to turn this all-too-typical capitalist swindle into a Democratic Party/liberal/woke/Communist/Satanic conspiracy.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 18 2022 22:15 utc | 53
WTF? Trumpery? The other CEO donated $38m to the Democrat party. They obviously covered all angles. Even Ukrainian angle. No conspiracy theory.

Posted by: RB | Nov 19 2022 19:06 utc | 154

Here is an article from FAIR:
“…How could this happen? How could no one have seen this coming? These are the questions many people are asking. One problem is that in the months leading up to Bankman-Fried’s transition from financial genius to possible financial criminal (Yahoo Finance, 11/14/22), he received little scrutiny in the media. On the contrary, he was celebrated.
”
“NYT: A Crypto Emperor’s Vision: No Pants, His Rules
The New York Times (5/14/22) largely embraced Sam Bankman-Fried’s self-presentation as “a straight-talking brainiac willing to embrace regulation of his nascent industry and criticize its worst excesses.”
“Among the silliest suck-ups came from the New York Times (5/14/22), in which David Yaffe-Bellany, the paper’s cryptocurrency correspondent, said that Bankman-Fried’s “pragmatic style” came from his parents, who “studied utilitarianism, an ethical framework that calls for decisions calculated to secure the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.” Yaffe-Bellany added that “Bankman-Fried is also an admirer of Peter Singer, the Princeton University philosopher widely considered the intellectual father of ‘effective altruism…’”
https://fair.org/home/while-crypto-bro-scammed-clients-reporters-scammed-readers/
This is what it is all about:
“…Bankman-Fried, unfortunately, was a dangerous combination of factors that could win over reporters. He was optimistic about a troubled financial sector. He was making billions while spouting altruistic ideas and remaining personally thrifty, a kind of mysterious being who could be presented as a poster child for a more ethical version of capitalism. His insistence on casual dress suggested that he was just so smart, his brain operated above the mundane details of regular business…”
“A more ethical version of capitalism”.
That is the Holy Grail- an alternative to cannibalism that doesn’t offend vegans. Or cannibals. Capitalism without the greed but with the loot. A different society just like the old one. A revolution which leaves retirement plans intact and protects property.
There are a myriad alternatives to capitalism. But they all involve social and economic democracy. And none of them allow the private ownership and control of the means of production, or finance or the means to life. None of them involves private profit out of medicine or care or education.

Posted by: bevin | Nov 19 2022 19:14 utc | 155

Fiat is the biggest ponzi ever. It’s only become more clearly apparent in the digital age, and the Rothschild class want to grab control of the digital “currency” system before Bitcoin takes away the money-printing punchbowl they depend on.
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 17:44 utc | 148
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2 ZH articles (which cannot paste in here):
Title1: Why has the BIS bought back 500 tonnes of gold?
Title2: FedCoin: It Starts With A Trial Run
Am too lazy to track down, but a recent article in ZH announcing the NY Fed experiment using the term ‘leverage’ in there, which I took to mean that they will have a fractional reserve lending quotient in the mix. This means the same Money Power elites will remain at the top. Perhaps the whole fight about multipolarity is about allowing other elites into the system OR setting up their own parallel systems (with or without such highly corrupting leverage via private credit cartels masquerading as ‘central banks’ elements).
[From the first article linked above:]

Earlier in the week, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York made the announcement:
Members of the U.S. Banking Community Launch Proof of Concept For A Regulated Digital Asset Settlement Platform
The explanation may only make sense for those well versed in crypto technology:
Members of the U.S. banking community today announced the launch of a proof of concept (PoC) project that will explore the feasibility of an interoperable digital money platform known as the regulated liability network (RLN). Using distributed ledger technology, the proposed platform would create innovation opportunities to improve financial settlements and would include participation from central banks, commercial banks of various sizes and regulated non-banks.
Basically, Fedcoin is advancing and is now in the testing stage:
The 12-week PoC will test a version of the RLN design that operates exclusively in U.S. dollars where commercial banks issue simulated digital money or “tokens” – representing the deposits of their own customers – and settle through simulated central bank reserves on a shared multi-entity distributed ledger.
Some of the largest financial institutions are involved in this 12-week program:
BNY Mellon, Citi, HSBC, Mastercard, PNC Bank, TD Bank, Truist, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo.
Plus:
The technology is being provided by SETL with Digital Asset, powered by Amazon Web Services. Swift, the global financial messaging service provider, is also participating in the initiative to support interoperability across the international financial ecosystem.
From Bitcoin to Dogecoin, there seems little long term hope for those who love privacy and autonomy when the largest corporations and fintech firms work with the Federal Reserve to roll out a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
Would you like to know who else is was working with the Feds? Courtesy Coindesk:
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was, until last week, a major political donor – he gave $5.2 million to U.S. President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and spent another $40 million supporting mainly Democratic candidates ahead of the November midterm elections – and an influential figure in Washington.
Bankman-Fried regularly met with regulators and lawmakers, weighing in on how the crypto industry should be regulated. He was a vocal supporter of one bill, in particular: the bipartisan Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA), a still-in-progress bill…
We know for certain CBDCs are coming, as well as more regulation. And given the trajectory of both, a cashless society is too. What is less certain is whether or not Sam Bankman-Fried, for his culpability in what may amount to one of the largest thefts of all time, will ever see jail time.

The last question echos b’s. I doubt he will be jailed because it will turn out that he was working either for the banksters or their minions, the US Intelligence agencies, in other words he was just doing his job for the benefit of the Nation(al Security State) under the aegis of the Corporation registered as ‘The United States of America’ which is actually what most of the Administrative State works for and which does not operate under the United States Constitution which is for a separate entity, the old Republic which it has largely – though clandestinely – replaced.
It’s going to be a long winter. Sanctions are bringing down the Western economies and threatening to plunge them into a world of political turmoil with food shortages, power outages and plenty of blame to go all around, so probably some riots as well. Meanwhile, the current Upper Classes in Towers of Glass and trans-nation-state para-constitutional jurisdictions prepare our Brave New World to be offered at the point there is blood in the streets and we’ve run out of nice things to say to each other, not to mention food on the table.

Posted by: Scorpion | Nov 19 2022 19:15 utc | 156

@ bevin | Nov 19 2022 18:08 utc | 151
thanks for articulating a question i have too!
i have a hard time not thinking the answer is exactly as @ Arganthonios | Nov 19 2022 18:54 utc | 153 describes! i read these posts and try to keep it all internalized and to post less, but i appreciate both of your comments here as it is exactly my thinking!

Posted by: james | Nov 19 2022 19:19 utc | 157

So much fire and fury when China banned crypto…

Posted by: A.z | Nov 19 2022 19:26 utc | 158

Old canadian@145 descends even further into incoherence. I never “accused” Old canadian of telling *Keynes* to F.O., as it was perfectly clear Old canadian was cussing me out instead. I’m the one criticizing Keynes, in effect telling Keynes to F.O. though so, Old canadian is *not* telling those admire Keynes to F.O. This is appropriate because crypto is a fiat currency, albeit one that has no assets of any kind, not even governmental taxation power to back it up. The whole perspective is wildly askew. Somehow fiat currency, a diabolical invention of Jews (what Old canadian coyly calls the “Rothschild class,”) both serves to rob somebody by cheating them out of real money. Logically this would be Old canadian weeping for the poor oppressed creditor class (which would include bankers by the way, as banks commonly hold collateral like real estate) and capitalists making money, but Old canadian knows nothing of logic, fact or common sense. After all, Old canadian believes the robbery of propertied people by worthless currency is carried out because somehow, at the very same moment, the worthless fiat currency can still support a military machine and bribe mercenaries. (My guess is everyone on a government payroll is bribed with worthless currency, though very few serving soldiers regard themselves as mercenaries.) Sometimes in a black mood, one wishes the Old canadians could be given their gold in lieu of everything else…then left to eat their gold to survive. In lieu of such extravagant humor, just let us remember hard-money freaks are resolute class enemies of the workers. They have more fellow feeling with Roman landowners using slaves to work their estates!
RB@155 was indignant at how I correctly called portrayals of FTX as a Democratic Party money-making scheme and various other bad, i.e., liberal/woke etc. “Trumpery.” RB was fortunate to miss this kind of thing in the comments. I didn’t take notes but anyone willing to slog through all the comments can find them.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Nov 19 2022 20:10 utc | 159

“Among the speakers: President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine; Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen; Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s co-founder, chairman and C.E.O.; Shou Chew, TikTok’s C.E.O.; Mike Pence, former vice president of the United States; Andy Jassy, Amazon’s C.E.O.; Reed Hastings, Netflix’s co-founder and co-C.E.O.; Mayor Eric Adams of New York; Larry Fink, BlackRock’s chairman and C.E.O.; Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s C.E.O.; and Priscilla Sims Brown, Amalgamated Bank’s C.E.O.”
Nov. 19th 2022:
Bankman-Fried is still listed by the NYT’s Dealbook blog (an Andrew Ross Sorkin venture in navel gazing) as attending.
That’s a really well edited business gossip blog at the NYTimes. /s

Posted by: Jay | Nov 19 2022 20:36 utc | 160

Translation:
“All ills of society would be solved if y’all just poured your money into this energy-hogging experimental financial asset that I’m already staked in”
Objectively indistinguishable from a sales pitch motivated by vested interest.
Posted by: Arganthonios | Nov 19 2022 14:19 utc
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PUT WORDS IN MY MOUTH.
So I’m now suppose to tell you if I hold Bitcoin and how much, right? Why not just ask for my private keys too? Moron.
But one thing all MoA readers know. You hold NONE and have no idea what Bitcoin really is.
Bitcoin isn’t reasonable for all people, just like physical gold isn’t a reasonable way to store value for most people. You live your life and let the rest of us live ours. I think holding gold is not ideal, it’s price is controlled by… drumroll… the banksters. Try getting on a plane with any significant value in gold, or even cash. let us know when they let you out of prison and if they ever give it back. Someone can sew their private key into a coat in a way the border thugs would never find it. Or just memorize 24 words.
All that is left to conclude is that you are AFRAID that Bitcoin indeed will survive and thrive, and you will be left with fiat being inflated away at a MINIMUM of 2% per year. StatsCan puts Canadian inflation at about 7% for 2022. It broke over the 2% “target” in mid-2021 and seems to be stuck around 7%…
Other US/ZATO countries are doing worse, so don’t think you’re immune. Inflation does not “float all boats” equally. When was your last 7% yearly wage increase… thought so.

Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 20:43 utc | 161

I see after scanning a few more posts that I am the “whipping boy du jour”. Have at it boys, you just show your own lacking in so many ways.
But I have real things to tend to. Continue screaming at the walls in my absence. But I leave you with this old nugget:
“Do not attempt to teach a pig to sing, it wastes you time and and annoys the pig.” Anon
Sorry to add your FUD level. We’ll see who was right in a decade or so. Or maybe as soon as 2030, one of the WEF’s “magic years” where things like ICE cars and and your freedom will vanish. Klaus says so:
“You will own nothing, rent everything and you will be happy.” K. Schwab (a Rothschild on his mother’s side)
Oh ya, don’t forget the “OR ELSE”.

Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 20:53 utc | 162

I still wonder why Clinton was did that. Seems un-Clinton-like in retrospect.
Posted by: Bemildred | Nov 19 2022 15:32 utc | 123
As cover, of course, for the illegal bombing of Yugoslavia and perhaps more importantly for the final gutting of Glass-Steagall and the ushering in of Wall Street FIRE sector money to the DNC’s coffers where previously it had been an exclusive Republican relationship.
TL/DR: Clinton (and the GOP Congress) balanced the budget because it made headlines and placated the “working class” before what was to come.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 19 2022 20:59 utc | 163

I think people are confusing the general concept of cryptocurrencies with the various frauds and hacks that have pervaded the crypto industry. In a cut-throat capitalist society like the USA and collective west, there will always be shady dealers and outright grifters masquerading as do gooders and experts to con people out of their wealth.
I’m not going to recommend anything to anyone, but what I’ve done is buy the bear dips and sell during the bull runs. And it’s been very profitable. I don’t keep more than a few hundred $ in any exchange (like FTX or Mt. Gox, cough cough) at any given time, and have ‘cold storage’ for the coins I keep before inevitably selling them.
Is crypto (the broad term) a greater fool scam? Of course it is. But so is virtually any financial “product” marketed to us by Wall Street casinos; and they are supposedly regulated (LOL yeah right). It’s just a hobby for me and a way to diversify my retirement portfolio; not a fix-all answer to all the world’s problems, so I don’t have any preachy things to say about it one way or another. Just realize that it’s incredibly dangerous, volatile and risky and act accordingly, especially with these “tokens” and exchanges.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 19 2022 21:05 utc | 164

Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 16:23 utc | 135
Not necessarily that safe. When this newfangled quantum computing is finally figured out, no current Public/Private keys will be safe. Can the crypto ecosystem adapt before trillions are wiped out/stolen? Remains to be seen. Also have you ever heard the terms “illegal number” or “illegal prime”?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 19 2022 21:11 utc | 165

Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 20:53 utc | 163
You’re the whipping boy du jour because you see it fit to propagandize in here about speculative assets, like all cryptobros are wont to do, because they all need a stream of new schmucks to buy into their sponsored brand.
Take your proselytizing to wherever it’s welcome and you’ll quickly find yourself out of this disagreeable situation.

Posted by: Arganthonios | Nov 19 2022 22:38 utc | 166

TL/DR: Clinton (and the GOP Congress) balanced the budget because it made headlines and placated the “working class” before what was to come.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Nov 19 2022 20:59 utc | 164
Can only agree, makes perfect sense, and thank you.

Posted by: Bemildred | Nov 19 2022 22:55 utc | 167

A punishment for SBF? His private stash and any remaining assets should be given to his small investors. The big boys had the resources to vet the company and didn’t. They should be responsible for reimbursing any of their clients that their negligence caused harm to.
For SBF himself? Manual labor at a super fund site like Hanford till retirement age after which he can see what it’s like to live on Social Security and Medicare.

Posted by: CD Waller | Nov 20 2022 1:28 utc | 168

All of the questions asked in the post can be answered with “It’s because he’s Jewish.”

Posted by: Asip | Nov 20 2022 2:13 utc | 169

Yes. This particular example of the crypto scam was very likely used as a money laundering mechanism for the DNC by way of the asshats they happen to be in business with in Ukraine.

Posted by: Josh | Nov 20 2022 3:13 utc | 170

When was your last 7% yearly wage increase… thought so.
Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 19 2022 20:43 utc | 162
Dramas about Inflation OMG an invitation to be scared and panic!
Dear Mr Rocket Scientist – How much did BTC increase in the last year?
I will tell you: It went from $59,682 USD down to $16,666 today, right now in fact.
I think that is an ” increase” of Minus 82% – kind a makes OMG 7% inflation look like bullshit in the morning, yes?
Plus, the USD has actually increased in “value” but it’s still ultimately worthless the longer you hold it.
Gold has theoretically dropped from $1806 to $1752 in a year – but essentially that is still an increase in value because the USD has increased in value and PPP globally at the same time.
Of course the whole financial bruhaha is a house cards, I’ll admit that. But the fact is Old Chap BTC and Crypto is not a key to riches nor to the escape door. It’s all worthless crap.

Posted by: SeanAU | Nov 20 2022 5:01 utc | 171

Bugger! A typo – Minus 72%

Posted by: SeanAU | Nov 20 2022 5:02 utc | 172

That these crackers are connected to the scammer Samuel Bankman-Fried is beyond amazing.
https://twitter.com/DeepBlueCrypto/status/1593787344125050880
By the way, Samuel Bankman-Fried is still not in jail (nor anyone else), though enough has come out to do so if it was a normal case.
Free Market at its best.
One in which You Will Own Nothing And Be Happy.

Posted by: Tom_12 | Nov 21 2022 17:57 utc | 173

These two images explain everything
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FiGTQHEXkAMWe5J?format=jpg&name=small
https://twitter.com/DeepBlueCrypto/status/1594721896016547840/photo/1
I wonder who the “stake holders” in this scam were, because surely there must be winners in this. No, it is not Samuel.

Posted by: Tom_12 | Nov 21 2022 18:01 utc | 174

But the fact is Old Chap BTC and Crypto is not a key to riches nor to the escape door. It’s all worthless crap.
Posted by: SeanAU | Nov 20 2022 5:01 utc
There’s an old saying: “Someone who says something is impossible should not interrupt the person who is doing it.”
When did I EVER say Bitcoin was a “key to riches”? That’s YOUR BS.
And you missed where any crypto that is NOT Bitcoin is the same as the legacy Financial Casinos, are shitcoins, BUYER BEWARE.
You don’t want to own Bitcoin… fine, your choice. But last I checked, it is not illegal to own or buy/sell Bitcoin in most of the world.
You are afraid. Afraid that your assets will be inflated away, then the gov’t will actually come and confiscate your physical gold. The US and other gov’ts have done it before, so why wouldn’t the Great Reset be just another excuse to do the same in such an “emergency” as Covid?
“You will own nothing, rent everything and you will be happy.” Klaus Schwab And somehow this doesn’t apply to you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY-CNH8qrKw
https://grandmageri422.me/2022/04/27/what-to-do-with-the-useless-eaters-according-to-wef-monster-yuval-noah-harari/?shared=email&msg=fail
How do they plan to do this? The bank-account-freezing response to the Trucker Convoy, the sheepdogging of the Yellow Vests in France and the outright theft from the farmers in Holland should show you the iron fist inside the WEF/Rothschild-class velvet glove. Canada is in the middle of a Silent Coup, where a cabal of WEF-sycophants have seized the government and rule by proclamation and bastardization of the Constitution.
Did you know Freeland is in the running to be the next head of NATO? The granddaughter of a known WW2 Nazi propagandist, who is barred from Russia for her activities promoting Neo-Nazism IN UKRAINE…
Ya sonny, go hide your head under the covers. But stop attacking those who choose to deal with the coming collapse of the world financial systems in a way you can’t understand.

Posted by: Old canadian | Nov 22 2022 14:13 utc | 175

SBF has been arrested in the Bahamas, where his lawyers will fight extradition to the USA. This the day before he was due to get a grilling in congress…
Tucker Carlson laughs wryly…
Video:
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1603101099543724033

Posted by: Gt Stroller | Dec 15 2022 10:12 utc | 176

Article in the NY Post
https://twitter.com/RepHuizenga/status/1602770065476055040
Securities and Exchange Commission chairmain Gary Gensler has some ‘splainin’ to avoid…
“Republican John Rose of Tennessee drily described the timing as “interesting” and took a well-deserved swipe at Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler.
“As a recovering attorney, it makes me wonder why a prosecutor would not want to potentially add lying to Congress to accompany the list of charges against Mr. Bankman-Fried,” Rose said.
“It also makes me wonder why the SEC waited until today to file its own charges . . .
“Chairman Gensler has failed at his job, and worst of all, he has failed to protect investors. . .
“While he has been asleep at the wheel, the Democratic majority has failed to have him testify to this committee for over 14 months, which I believe is a disservice to investors.”
“Gensler, the former finance chief of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, has a lot to explain about FTX’s collapse.
Why, for instance, did he meet with SBF twice over the past year, unprecedented access for the target of a major fraud, according to Post contributing business commentator Charlie Gasparino.
SEE ALSO
Fallen crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried is being held in a Bahamian prison.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s Bahamas jail infested by rats and maggots: ‘Not fit for humanity’
And why did Gensler scrub from his public calendar details of meetings with his old boss Hillary Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and SBF’s fellow billionaire Democratic donor George Soros, as reported this week by Fox News?
Republican New York gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, a former prosecutor who has served on the House Financial Services Committee, had his own theories about why SBF was nabbed before he could sing.
“It seems like you’re trying to protect someone,” he said, surmising the motive may have been to prevent SBF from testifying about his relationship with Gensler.
Former prosecutor Andy McCarthy, once an SDNY assistant US attorney, is similarly perplexed, saying the only explanation that makes sense, apart from incompetence by prosecutors, “is they didn’t like the prospect of what was going to come out at the hearings . . .
“So, the Democrats who run the Justice Department accommodate the Democrats who run the committee,” he told Fox News.
No one believes SBF’s claim that he donated just as much money to Republicans as he did to Democrats, and there is no evidence to back him up. But FTX did funnel several million to chosen Republicans, which seems to have worked out as an insurance policy for Democrats at Waters’ hearing Tuesday. Cheap protection if it is.
According to a keyword search of the CSPAN transcript, in four hours of testimony by Ray, not one question was asked about campaign donations by either side.

Posted by: Gt Stroller | Dec 15 2022 13:24 utc | 177

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