Boil Before Drinking » money

Vive La France! Vive la vérité!

Brother Greg — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:28:57 +0000

I’ve always been a big fan of France, and of banks losing billions of dollars (yes I know it’s the customer and the taxpayer who pay in the end but it’s still fun to watch). So todays news that Jerome Kerviel, the trader implicated in the recent $8Billion loss at Societe General is suing for wrongful dismissal put a huge smile on my face.

Apparently SG has violated a few aspects of French labour law in dismissing Kerviel. Not only have they not had a meeting with him to explain why he was fired, they also have not proven he did what he was alleged to have done. On top of that get this- According to the Times UK

“Mr Kerviel’s massive gambles on markets were actually in the black when his bosses stepped in. The losses only occurred when SocGen sought to unwind his gambles.”

So not only was this guy playing fun games with billions, he was making his masters money until they tried to figure it out. Once again we learn to leave the math guys alone as long as the black box keeps spitting out money.

RIAA is Bad Investment

The Runs — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:01:00 +0000

An article posted on the Motley Fool investment blog got me thinking. Since the only thing the RIAA seems to care about is money and the bottom line, it will probably be investors who ultimately force them to turn away from this ridiculous cycle of law suites and intimidation against customers.

The gust of the post on Motley Fool was that litigation is not a good business model.

The Motley Fool.com: We’re All Thieves to the RIAA

“As I’ve said before, a good sign of a dying industry that investors might want to avoid is when it would rather litigate than innovate, signaling a potential destroyer of value. If it starts to pursue paying customers — which doesn’t seem that outlandish at this point — then I guess we’ll all know the extent of the desperation. Investor, beware.”

The thing is, everyone is a potential customer. The marketing done by recording companies targets every person who listens to music. Therefore, the RIAA is ALWAYS going after its customer base.

These law suits are not cheap, and I have not seen any evidence that the RIAA is actually coming out ahead overall. They are costing the industry money, something that may be in shorter supply these days. And all of this money going into legal fees is fighting a battle against the changing reality of information distribution. Any savvy investor, and even the dumb ones should recognize that this is not the way to succeed in business, and is certainly not how the investor would want their money spent.

Circuit City Bankruptcy?

Brother Greg — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:49:00 +0000

I remember reading something in the spring about Circuit City firing anyone making 51 cents or more above an arbitrary maximum average. Because we all know how generic sales people are, I’d much rather have the “I don’t know what that is” high school kid helping me than the guy who’s been doing it for 10 years.
The good news is that the verdict is in and it’s a hard indictment of corporate idiocy. Circuit City’s stock price is down from almost $20 in March to just above $5 now. Of course this should mean a multi-million dollar bonus for the CEO shouldn’t it?
Now I believe it’s the responsibility of the free market to continue tearing Circuit City a new one, and if we’re all lucky they’ll be under new management and/or bankrupt by next Christmas.

Feds try to shut down Liberty Dollar

Brother Greg — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:14:00 +0000

So apparently someone in the USA is printing their own negotiable currency backed by gold and silver reserves. Just like in the old days when bread was a nickel and I wore an onion on my belt, because that was the style at the time.
Even though there used to be hundreds, if not thousands of types of paper money in the Estados Unidos the Feds are saying it’s unconstitutional and raided the offices of the Liberty Dollar to shut them down.
I say they’re playing unfair. It’s not like the money looks anything like the greenback. If I want to trade you a good or service for a piece of paper (in this case one backed by gold and silver) that’s my business. It’s not a new idea, but certainly interesting that it’s coming back.

P.S. The Feds seized two tons of coins featuring Ron Paul’s face.

Racism is still rampant?

Brother Greg — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:34:00 +0000

Check out this interesting piece on the pervasiveness of racism. It’s written by a guilty academic and centred around postcards. I mean bad post cards, not bad like the ones that show bikini babes that say “Wish you were her”.

P.S. I just got a 38.8% pay raise. Suck it whitey.