Financial fuckery thread

[Pæs]

Banker suicides are because Necronomicoin, duh.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Banker suicides are because Necronomicoin, duh.

I still need to write something for that...

[Pæs]

I keep opening the thread and then losing steam.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I keep opening the thread and then losing steam.

I just keep not getting to it, because I am busy as fuck, and when I have time, my brain is empty.

[Telarus]

I wish I did have actual numbers to compare to the general population. Because of stories like this one:

http://politicalblindspot.com/bank-ceo-assassinated-in-parking-garage/

[Reginald Ret]

I wish I did have actual numbers to compare to the general population. Because of stories like this one:

http://politicalblindspot.com/bank-ceo-assassinated-in-parking-garage/

If only we had some people with researching skills that look up these interesting and new things for us.
I would gladly pay for some paper object filled with this kind of thing.
Because they are filled with new and interesting facts we could maybe call them interestingpapers?
I have heard legends of such things existing in the past, the people that did this kind of work were called journalists or something like that.

[Junkenstein]

Shut up! Journalism and research was outlawed last decade in favour of crowd-sourcing all information.

Bow before Metadata, your new god.

[Junkenstein]

Also:

Hermann's website blamed "the Liechtenstein Government and country financial market authority" for having "illegally destroyed my investment company Hermann Finance and its funds, depriving me of my livelihood."

Little else is know beyond this. But what is clear now is that at least one of the 13 dead international banking heavyweights was deliberately killed.

Plausible motivation and 13 is surely getting towards statistically significant. I'd be interested to know what their list is, who's on it and when did they start keeping it.

[Junkenstein]

Probably unrelated, probably totally innocent, just seems worth adding to the list:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/jim-flaherty-former-finance-minister-dead-at-64-1.2605728

A source close to the family told the CBC's Evan Solomon that Flaherty died of a massive heart attack. Emergency services were called to Flaherty's home in Ottawa at 12:27 p.m. Thursday.

Conservative MP Kellie Leitch, who lives in the same building, was administering CPR when paramedics arrived, according to sources. Leitch is a pediatric surgeon who co-chaired Flaherty's campaign for the Ontario PC leadership. Flaherty was her friend and mentor.

Flaherty had battled health problems in the months leading up to his resignation, most publicly, a painful skin condition called bullous pemphigoid. But Flaherty had also experienced a medical issue during a Conservative caucus meeting some time in the last eight months. He was attended to by Leitch on that occasion as well.

Conservative MP Bernard Trottier said on CBC News Network's Power & Politics that Flaherty's Conservative colleagues thought at the time the problem was related to "extreme fatigue."

The bold made me question this a little. "Extreme fatigue" like "Tired and emotional" is pretty vauge and is usually used to indicate a totally different problem. "Tired and emotional" is typically shorthand for "Drunk", and "Extreme fatigue" often means "Hungover".

Probably way off the mark in this instance, but I'd be interested to see the follow up stories in the next few weeks after the obligatory pseudo-mourning rituals are completed.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-26957683

Later this year, the UK economy will get a £10bn boost from illegal drugs and prostitution, writes Anthony Reuben.

The Office for National Statistics, which has to calculate the figure, confirmed it at an economic forum last week and will publish more details next month. It will be £3bn from prostitution and £7bn from illegal drugs.

The European Union has declared that illegal activities need to be included in national accounts so that comparisons can be made between countries. In the Netherlands, for example, some drugs are permitted that are illegal elsewhere in Europe, and there is legal prostitution. Given that the allocation of the EU budget is based on the size of a country's economy measured by gross domestic product (GDP), the EU wants to be sure that all countries are measuring it in the same way.

The inclusion of illegal activities in GDP is one of a range of changes to the national accounts which will be introduced across Europe from September. The activities involved are only supposed to be those in which both parties are, at least nominally, voluntary participants.

This could have some interesting consequences. For one, you'll get at least a crude idea of the various values of EU drug markets in comparison to their neighbours. There's a few benefits to that, particularly if you're considering a legalisation/taxation move to try and prop up you're fucked economy. There's more than a few EU countries that could consider that.

It'll certainly be interesting to see this data when available and see the size of the black market across the EU. I have a feeling that some states will grossly underestimate the size of their own.

[Reginald Ret]

Wouldn't it be hilarious if many countries decide to legalize weed for monetary gain but it backfires and drug use rates drop?

[Junkenstein]

That would surely be a major victory in the ongoing war on drugs.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27048297

Paul Flowers, the former Co-op Bank chairman, has been charged with drug possession, prosecutors have said.

Mr Flowers was arrested in November following newspaper allegations he was involved in a drug deal.

He had stepped down from the Co-op six months earlier over concerns about his expenses. He resigned as a Methodist Church minister days before his arrest.

He has been charged with two counts of possession of a class A drug and one count of possession of a class C drug.

The charges relate to cocaine, methamphetamine and ketamine.

Will be interesting to see the fallout from this. It would also be interesting to see the results of mandatory piss testing if you're an executive of a bank. This seems to be a very established cultural theme and I really don't understand how anyone can claim the economy to be improving if you've still got the same cracked up wankers spinning the roulette wheel.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27046286

Starbucks is to move its European head office from Amsterdam to London by the end of the year, following a row over corporate tax avoidance.

"This move will mean we pay more tax in the UK," the company said.

Horseshit, and I'll tell you why. No company will act in a manner that will negatively impact on their own profits. This becomes more true as the organisation you look at increases in size. Starbucks is now very large indeed. If Starbucks are indeed "paying more UK tax" then this is because they have minimised tax exposure in other European countries.

[LMNO]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27048297

Paul Flowers, the former Co-op Bank chairman, has been charged with drug possession, prosecutors have said.

Mr Flowers was arrested in November following newspaper allegations he was involved in a drug deal.

He had stepped down from the Co-op six months earlier over concerns about his expenses. He resigned as a Methodist Church minister days before his arrest.

He has been charged with two counts of possession of a class A drug and one count of possession of a class C drug.

The charges relate to cocaine, methamphetamine and ketamine.

Will be interesting to see the fallout from this. It would also be interesting to see the results of mandatory piss testing if you're an executive of a bank. This seems to be a very established cultural theme and I really don't understand how anyone can claim the economy to be improving if you've still got the same cracked up wankers spinning the roulette wheel.

"Hopped up on meth and Special K" is a great way to sum up the economy of the past decade.