Financial fuckery thread

[Junkenstein]

While I'm at it, Barclays being naught boys again:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27536127

Mr Plunkett was a director on the precious metals desk.

He was responsible for pricing and managing Barclays' risk on a contract that was specifically linked to the price of gold at 3:00p.m. on 28 June 2012.

If the gold price was above $1,558.96 (£925.57) at that time then Barclays would be required to make a payment of $3.9m to its customer.

But if the price was below that benchmark Barclays would not have to make the payment.

Mr Plunkett created fake orders with the intent of pushing the price of gold below $1,588.96, which he succeeded in doing.

The result was Barclays was not obligated to make the $3.9m payment to its customer, and Mr Plunkett booked a profit of $1.75m for the bank.

Barclays and Mr Plunkett agreed to settle at an early stage, thereby qualifying for a 30% discount on their fines.

Again, we're still talking fines instead of jail. Like you'd expect for substantial levels of fraud.

The FCA also fined the trader, Daniel James Plunkett, £96,500.

City trader. Director at the metals desk. £100K fine. This does not feel proportionate.

Also, highlights how vulnerable the system is to abuse from one person in the right place. I can't see any real changes being made to this as he probably made substantially more for the bank that £26 Million.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27788238

The European Commission is to open a formal investigation into Apple, Starbucks and Fiat in relation to tax arrangements with three EU countries.

The firms' arrangements with Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg will be investigated.

Announcing the move, tax commissioner Algirdas Semeta said that "fair tax competition is essential".

Last year, a US Senate investigation accused Ireland of giving special tax treatment to Apple.

The European Commission will look at whether the companies' tax affairs breach EU rules on state aid.

Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said: "In the current context of tight public budgets, it is particularly important that large multinationals pay their fair share of taxes."

Countries in Europe cannot allow certain firms to pay less tax than they should, Mr Almunia added.

Apple said that it had not had "any special tax deal with the Irish government".

It's that time of year again where we piss and moan about multinationals dodging tax and then do fuck all to fix the problem. Nice how the article focuses on Apple and ignores Fiat and Starbucks. The BBC bias towards reporting on Apple in detail is getting quite blatant and I'm certain there's more than a couple of writers/editors who hold shares. It's the only reasonable explanation at this point.

[Junkenstein]

Shocking only because of the levels of idiocy invovled:
http://www.hannapub.com/ouachitacitizen/news/local_state_headlines/article_8a017c20-ed41-11e3-b622-0017a43b2370.html

Congressman Vance McAllister admitted Thursday to voting against legislation in the U.S. House anticipating he would get a political contribution for his vote.
A Republican from Swartz, McAllister spoke about the matter as an example of how "money controls Washington" and how work on Capitol Hill is a "steady cycle of voting for fundraising and money instead of voting for what is right."
McAllister made the remarks during a Northeast Chapter of Louisiana CPAs gathering at the University of Louisiana-Monroe's Alumni Center.
McAllister said he voted "no" on legislation related to the Bureau of Land Management though he did not identify the bill. McAllister said a colleague on the House floor told him that he would receive a $1,200 contribution from Heritage Foundation if he voted against the bill. He would not name his colleague since he "did not want to put their business out on the street."
"I played dumb and asked him, 'How would you vote?'" McAllister said. "He told me, 'Vote no and you will get a $1,200 check from the Heritage Foundation. If you vote yes, you will get a $1,000 check from some environmental impact group.'"
That answer was a surprise, McAllister said.
"I said, 'Are you serious?' and he told me, 'Yeah, wait and see,'" McAllister said.
McAllister said he voted against the bill but did not receive a $1,200 contribution from Heritage Foundation. Federal law prohibits public officials, including members of Congress, from directly or indirectly seeking, accepting or agreeing to receive anything of value in return for the performance of any official act such as voting.
"I voted no, and I didn't get a Heritage Foundation check but he did," McAllister said. "I went back and checked with my friend, 'I didn't get a check, man. What were you talking about?' He told me, 'Well, I got one. Why didn't you?'"

How fucking dumb do you have to be to become a congressman and not understand the basics of lobbying?

How much dumber do you have to be to take your ignorant fucked up attempt at getting a bribe and making it nice and public?

I suppose we shouldn't wonder about how dumb you would need to be to vote for such a chap. That'll get depressing.

[Junkenstein]

http://realbusiness.co.uk/article/26990-fearnley-whittingstalls-river-cottage-raises-1m-through-mini-bonds-

he company raised the cash with equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube's new mini bond option, which is aimed at more established businesses and was launched two weeks ago. It allows companies to raise £1m+ by selling non-transferable, unsecured mini bonds.

The River Cottage Bond, which allowed private investors to make an initial investment of £500 or more, and pays out 7% fixed interest per annum, will allow the company to expand its award-winning chain of restaurants.

This fucking stinks. I'm not exactly certain how this gets around FSA/collective investment regulations but I'm seeing a fucking fantastic way to potentially wash money.

That ROI is somewhat fishy too. I'd seriously question their ability to honour that.

[LMNO]

Seriously.  The whole thing REEKS of "Ponzi Scheme".

[Junkenstein]

That was my first instinct too, but this is a "celebrity chef" that's doing this so there's got to be some kind of mechanism that's allowing it. I'd guess have conditions for payout (which you just fall short of) will be featured. I'll check into this mini-bond thing more but the whole "kickstarter for existing businesses" is just asking for money to be laundered surely.

Please tell me I'm not crazy for viewing every financial tale in criminal terms. It just seems to be saving so much time but I'm probably veering towards the paranoid.

[Reginald Ret]

That was my first instinct too, but this is a "celebrity chef" that's doing this so there's got to be some kind of mechanism that's allowing it. I'd guess have conditions for payout (which you just fall short of) will be featured. I'll check into this mini-bond thing more but the whole "kickstarter for existing businesses" is just asking for money to be laundered surely.

Please tell me I'm not crazy for viewing every financial tale in criminal terms. It just seems to be saving so much time but I'm probably veering towards the paranoid.

I don't think you're crazy.

Then again, I may be crazy myself because i see money as a potential social interaction (with other people, objects or organisations), and not as an object.
A person/object/organisation would have to be seriously antisocial to try to hoard money.
So I am distrustful of people who use money to make more money while keeping their social interactions to a minimum, that is just silly.
If you don't want to colapse the potential into a social interaction, then just don't do anything with your money. That way you can be as alone as you want. But why would you do something with your social interactions to increase your potential social interactions when you don't want to have any social interactions?! I know you don't want to have social interactions because i know you want to hoard money.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014.html

At the same time that people like you and me are thriving beyond the dreams of any plutocrats in history, the rest of the country—the 99.99 percent—is lagging far behind. The divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse really, really fast. In 1980, the top 1 percent controlled about 8 percent of U.S. national income. The bottom 50 percent shared about 18 percent. Today the top 1 percent share about 20 percent; the bottom 50 percent, just 12 percent.

But the problem isn't that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.

And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won't last.

It's quite startling to hear this from a self-described plutocrat.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014.html

At the same time that people like you and me are thriving beyond the dreams of any plutocrats in history, the rest of the country—the 99.99 percent—is lagging far behind. The divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse really, really fast. In 1980, the top 1 percent controlled about 8 percent of U.S. national income. The bottom 50 percent shared about 18 percent. Today the top 1 percent share about 20 percent; the bottom 50 percent, just 12 percent.

But the problem isn't that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.

And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won't last.

It's quite startling to hear this from a self-described plutocrat.

OH MY GOD THIS GUY FUCKING GETS IT.

Wonder if anyone will listen...

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28289331

Details of £1.1bn worth of defence spending are to be unveiled by the prime minister later.

It is due to include cash for drones, UK special forces and intelligence gathering to tackle global terrorism.

David Cameron is due to make the announcement at the Farnborough International Air Show.

He is expected to say funds for "vital" Ministry of Defence programmes have been found as a result of austerity measures.

£1.1 Billion buys a fucking lot of all of the above. This is in no way related to the emergency law being shoved through.

If anyone starts bitching about the previous governments spending habits, they need to seriously stop smoking crack. Where this 1.1Bn has come from is the shocking thing, really. It's not from chasing down tax dodgers or making (any multinational corporation) pay what they owe in back-taxes. It's essentially taken from the poorest in society and seems to now be being spent of fuelling oppressive surveliance techniques against them. I bet drone use here will be pretty common within 5 years ("We need to find this missing kid, you see")

The rest for "special forces and tackling terrorism" just means more money for GCHQ,MI5, MI6 and various police forces. Which have excellent records for corruption and idiocy. So the future's bright. 

[Reginald Ret]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28289331

Details of £1.1bn worth of defence spending are to be unveiled by the prime minister later.

It is due to include cash for drones, UK special forces and intelligence gathering to tackle global terrorism.

David Cameron is due to make the announcement at the Farnborough International Air Show.

He is expected to say funds for "vital" Ministry of Defence programmes have been found as a result of austerity measures.

£1.1 Billion buys a fucking lot of all of the above. This is in no way related to the emergency law being shoved through.

If anyone starts bitching about the previous governments spending habits, they need to seriously stop smoking crack. Where this 1.1Bn has come from is the shocking thing, really. It's not from chasing down tax dodgers or making (any multinational corporation) pay what they owe in back-taxes. It's essentially taken from the poorest in society and seems to now be being spent of fuelling oppressive surveliance techniques against them. I bet drone use here will be pretty common within 5 years ("We need to find this missing kid, you see")

The rest for "special forces and tackling terrorism" just means more money for GCHQ,MI5, MI6 and various police forces. Which have excellent records for corruption and idiocy. So the future's bright.

The sad thing is? a lot of them actually believe it will ever only be used for that.

this may be relevant:
http://thesamovar.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/function-creep-surveillance-in-london/

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28415508

US video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) has reported a 51% jump in profit for the April-to-June quarter, boosted by strong sales of titles like Titanfall and FIFA 2014.

Net profit rose to $335m (£196m) for the period, up from $222m a year ago,

EA has also benefitted from the launch of gaming consoles, which has driven up demand for its video game titles.

large part of that growth was driven by the so-called "freemium" model - which offers free content but then charges users for additional digital goods.

EA said $105m of its mobile revenue during the period "comprised of digital extra content and advertising revenue, reflecting the shift to the freemium business model".

That was up 39% from a year ago.

Behold, the future of gaming.

In other EA idiocy, The stupidly DRM filled always online sims game now has an offline mode. Only took a couple of years and a festering playerbase to prompt that.

Financial idiocy in games companies may be worth it's own thread. The dying online version on Mechwarrior is a total trainwreck with terrible design decisions, broken promises and beating the players for cash at every turn. Not many games offer bonus skins with a $500 pricetag. Even fewer do it while actively lying to the fans faces.

Seriously, check out the Mechwarrior thing, it's hilarious.

http://www.gamefront.com/500-gold-mechs-go-on-sale-in-mechwarrior-online/

The gold mechs are a good idea. They will be the main target for the whole opposing team. Maybe even teammates will shoot them (oops, sorry, just testing my weapon groups)."

"The thing is, gold plated mechs... It's... It's the first truely indefensible thing they've done. I mean, really, could it have it any more crass? Gold plated? Really PGI? Really?"

Run down of some of the fuckery these developers have pulled in their search for a quick buck. I'm almost impressed. It's a cracking example of how not to run the development of a product in any way.

http://www.gamefront.com/mechwarrior-online-forum-ragesplosion/

A few days after the patch, PGI President Russ Bullock issued an apology letter to the community. This letter is notable for a number of reasons. First, it is a massive wall of text that is very difficult to read. Second, it acknowledges the communication issues, but pins the blame on Erlam, one of the community's favorite figures.
Finally, the letter unintentionally insulted those upset by the changes to Mechwarrior Online by stating that the community has been widely accepting of Mechwarrior Online's proposed direction, when countless rage threads on the forums showed otherwise. The result was a feedback thread that grew by dozens of posts per hour, the majority of which were extremely negative. Some players made blog posts calling Russ out for the apology, including one by a published BattleTech author that dissected the apology point by point. Countless users expressed their desire to seek refunds, and many got them.

The thread and other heavily critical forum posts like it were also notable in that they showed clear evidence of moderator censorship. Posts critical of PGI's direction of the game — even posts worded in a neutral manner — were deleted by moderators, with thread page numbers fluctuating as scores of negative or critical posts were removed. When players yelled about their posts being deleted, the moderators probated them.

Like I said, It's almost impressive.

[LMNO]

Somewhat related, the "freenium" model is an abomination, and must be put to death in a violent and gruesome manner.

[Raz Tech]

Video games, to me, are already nearing the point of being unplayable.  Somewhere between the handholding method of game creation nowadays, where you don't really have to know how to do things as long as you can follow an arrow on a compass or a shiny gold trail on the ground, and the now accepted idea that you can put out a full-priced game that you only completed half of and then just put out the rest of the game as DLC to squeeze even more pennies out of people. 

What's going to happen when some games go the way of cell phone games, and you can only beat some levels through either endless grinding, or spending real money on special super-awesome equipment that will make that level super-easy.

What's going to happen when Call Of Duty sells the best weapons and if you don't feel like paying, you only get standard crap.

I hate it.  I yearn for the days of old.  Maybe the graphics weren't as beautiful, but they usually told a good story, were complete, and there was actual difficulty involved.

[LMNO]

To be honest, I haven't played a genuine computer game since Myst.