Reddit mentions: The best white collar crime true accounts

I have not been quoting her book in multiple comments; I had one other comment where I stated that contrary to popular belief, Lynne did not say anything about Britney's virginity, bipolar diagnoses, etc. There are many false reports regarding the actual content of her book, which I have read and know is void of many rumored stories.

Jamie did not deny anything Lynne - or anyone else - said about him. I was only stating the reasons why Britney herself has said she has "never had a good relationship with [her] father." This is hardly a secret and not worth debating further. The court doesn't argue his past either, and that wasn't even why I mentioned his past - again, I'm referring to Britney's childhood and how it shaped her relationship with her father. Regardless, Lynne and Jamie were on good terms back in 2008, and she was not trying to assassinate his character. She was just telling her story. They actually got back together at one point... the story didn't change.

There is a history of contentious situations with the judge involved in Britney's case. I'll share a few: https://web.archive.org/web/20111203192937/http://www.judgerevagoetz.com/

http://www.therobingroom.com/california/Judge.aspx?id=15067

https://twitter.com/mandell_peter/status/1024783729418330112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1024783729418330112

Which makes this even more interesting: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D4UvqtlXoAAfFkX.jpg

Regarding the commentator who said Britney's mom discussed bipolar in her book (which is 100% false), TMZ is known for speaking to Britney's team; in fact, it's known that the team uses TMZ, E! News, People magazine, etc. to control various narratives surrounding her life. That's fine - it's how they protect her from unfavorable rumors these days, which is understandable after the intense scrutiny and violations of privacy she's endured. For the record, TMZ stated a few weeks ago that she has a bipolar diagnosis, but quickly deleted all mentions of the diagnosis. Today they said they've spoken to many people "in her world," and she has never received a formal bipolar diagnosis, but she absolutely "must" take the medications because of "similar symptoms."

If true (again, I do not know Britney nor do I claim to, but I don't feel bad discussing this given her team's relationship with TMZ and their desire to put it out there), it's very interesting how someone who has been under two 5150s and seen many top doctors has never received a formal diagnosis. I know my doctor wouldn't put me on those strong meds if I didn't officially have bipolar. I am not privy to all the personal details of Britney's life, but guardianship abuse is not uncommon whatsoever, and I hope she has someone helping her out because even her best friend since childhood whom she still sees today - Jansen - is following the #freebritney movement and responding with thumbs up. Remember Jansen from For the Record, Britney in Hawaii, preschool pictures, etc.? She's been there since day one and is still a best friend to Brit: https://www.instagram.com/p/BPgswBNgDh1/?hl=en

When a 37-year-old woman can't even pick her own friends, go to the bathroom alone, consent to taking a selfie without her father's permission (Mario Lopez also commented on this to say he remembered), etc., that would make anyone feel incredibly stifled. There are many ways to help someone that don't involve completely stripping them of their rights - I know this personally.

I'm not saying I know what's best for her, but again, I really hope someone who is legally authorized is watching this very carefully. It's not up to me, of course, but I just hope she's okay. Apparently her best friend doesn't think she is; there are messages of her saying she believes prayers are needed.

We'll see what happens. I personally hope she escapes the spotlight forever and do not care to purchase any music or concert tickets from her. I haven't in years.

“Go ahead and see what you can do, because you have been deemed incapacitated, so everything you say or do is meaningless,” said Brenda Uekert, principal court research consultant with the National Center for State Courts. “You can’t even get an attorney, because a judge has already determined that you don’t have the ability to make decisions for yourself.”

https://www.nextavenue.org/guardianship-u-s-protection-exploitation/

“In most states around the country, it is easier to qualify as a guardian than it is to become a hairdresser. There are no sanctions when they serve poorly." - PAMELA B. TEASTER, DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR GERONTOLOGY AT VIRGINIA TECH

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/court-appointed-guardian-system-failing-elderly_n_59d3f70be4b06226e3f44d4e

Often, it is only possible to take the conservator to court through an uphill battle and regain the rights of the individual after a lengthy fight.

Other situations increase the difficulty of pursuing the claim if the person under the conservatorship is legally deemed incapacitated. The court considers these elderly individuals as unable to make decisions for themselves. Reversing this is usually the first item to accomplish.

https://www.hg.org/legal-articles/conservators-committing-fraud-48066

More victims: https://stopguardianabuse.org/victims/

More: https://www.amazon.com/Guardianship-Fraud-M-Larsen/dp/0692586210

There are endless stories.

It's kind of shame that there aren't more good books out there on these topics. And that a lot of what is out there is shameless self-help-style wankery.

Here's what I'd suggest: Jump straight into good stories about finance, and pick-up the lingo and concepts as you go. Investopedia -- despite the cheesey name -- is a great resource for when you encounter an idea with which you're unfamiliar.

Good stories about finance include:

• Michael Lewis has, to my knowledge, never written a bad book, but Liar's Poker and The Big Short are great places to start.
  
• Roger Lowenstein's When Genius Failed is a good story about the hubris of hedge funds.
  
• James Stewart's Den of Thieves does a great job of covering the bond market and the white-collar insider-trading scandals of the 1980s. His Disney War is also a great introduction to corporate governance, in addition to being a novel-esque good read.
  
  On a more abstract, less story-based level, you might also look at:
  
  
  
• Taleb's Fooled by Randomness, the precursor to the much-lauded "Black Swan" (and in my opinion, the much superior book).
  
• Bernstein's Against the Gods, which gives a broad (and accessible) tour of how humans throughout history came to understand and build whole markets around probability and risk.
  
  Good luck!

>Didn't GOP campaigns commission and/or pay for the Steele memo?

The financing is still murky, but they seem to implicate both parties.

>It wasn't just something that could have been on the market, it was actually purchased on the market. If so, it's a strong example of oppo being a thing of value under the proposed market test.

That is right, but first, it was a purchase. Are market exchanges contributions? I don't think so. But even if it was not purchased, and was contributed, it would broaden the definition of a 'ToV' to a degree where I do think it starts to infringe on freedom of political speech. Hence why it would be absurd to include things of this nature under election finance law.

>Maybe. I take a less conspiratorial view, I think it would just be too expensive and difficult to prosecute.

I don't actually think that there is a conspiracy not to prosecute in order to protect the political class. I think the decision is reached independently that it would not be desirable thing to pursue because of structural reasons. It can be explained through coordination games where 3 conditions are met. One particular combination of strategies will lead to an outcome everyone involved considers best, everyone knows it, and everyone knows that everyone knows it. There is empirical research that coordination without communication can be successful even if the outcome is not considered best by any of the participants.

>Speaking of which, I just picked this up. Haven't read it yet, but I've heard good things: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XBZFQR2/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Looks really good, adding it to the list. Thanks for the recommendation.

I can't think of any really good accounting books, but The Smartest Guys in the Room is a really good cautionary tale that features a lot of (very bad) accounting. Also a great documentary.

If anyone has any good books that feature accounting (ie: good histories of accounting scandals, etc.) I'd like some recommendations as well.

From surveys, the majority of the people of Ukraine consider the 2014 Ukrainian revolution to be a popular revolution, not an illegal coup.

I read a good book not too long ago called Moneyland, which has lots of info about Ukraine and corruption:

> Yanukovich ruled Ukraine for four years, from 2010 till 2014, during which time he enriched himself and bankrupted his country. Finally, Ukrainians got fed up, and thousands protested throughout the cold winter of 2013–14, until he fled. The riches he left behind revealed him to have had tastes so baroque as to make even Manafort look restrained. The spreading grounds of his palace at Mezhyhyria included water gardens, a golf course, a nouveau-Greek temple, a marble horse painted with a Tuscan landscape, an ostrich collection, and an enclosure for shooting wild boars, as well as the five-story log cabin where he indulged his tastes for the overblown and the vulgar. It was a temple of tastelessness, a cathedral of kitsch, the epitome of excess.
>
> Everyone had known that Yanukovich was a criminal, but they had never seen the extent of his haul. At a time when ordinary Ukrainians’ wealth had been stagnant for years, he had accumulated a fortune worth hundreds of millions of dollars, as had his closest friends. He had more money than he could ever have needed, as well as more treasures than rooms to store them.

> Please just like, go outside of the US at some point.

What are you even talking about man? I'm literally an immigrant who has lived in Japan, the Middle East, India and am now living in the US. At the risk of sounding boastful, I would like to think that's several more countries lived in than an average American and, as a consequence, I have knowledge of several systems in different countries. I also studied at the Univ. of Chicago, so I'm hardly a noob when it comes to Economics, especially the premise of free markets. I also don't understand what you are ranting about when you invoke Ireland, Palestine or Saudi Arabia. How are they relevant to a discussion of the flaws of Libertarianism?

Also, no one is appealing to tradition here. You're pontificating on economic policy based on concepts pulled out of your ass that don't work in reality and I'm responding to that. Also, there is a reason democracy and governments have been around for a long time now. It's because they are the best systems till date, in the absence of a grand utopian present or future. Just because you think you're smart and have all these big ideas doesn't mean anything if the premise from which you are operating is flawed. You are discounting all the cases where government serves its role and taxation benefits the masses in order to put forward your point of a profit motive being the best carrot for capitalism.

If you're really interested in where the current problems of society come from, go read the book Secrecy World. Tax avoidance and offshore banking have decimated the ability of governments to function effectively in providing services. That, in my view, is a bigger danger than so-called government inefficiency.

I have an eccentric obsession with the oil/energy industry. Some of these books were mentioned already, but below are my absolute favorites:

• The Prize
  
• The Frackers
  
• Oil 101
  
• The Big Rich
  
• The King of Oil
  
• Fundamentals of Investing in Oil and Gas
  
• The Smartest Guys in the Room
  
• The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels
  
  If you're looking for a history of oil and gas check out The Prize, and The Frackers covers the more recent energy revolution. Oil 101 and Fundamentals of Investing in Oil and Gas deal more with the technical side.

That's the problem with modern society. Everyone just sort of floats from 1 eye popping tabloidy headline to the next. Just sort of "surfing" on the shallow/superficial surface from 1 controversy to the next. Everyone wants the "thrill" .. but nobody wants to do the actual work to legitimately fix things.

Nobody ever sticks with it or deep-dives to track/follow or effectively educate themselves:

• Mueller Report... 400+ pages. What % of Americans have actually sat down and thoughtfully read it ?
  
  
• Panama Papers ... 11.5 million documents,.. searchable online databases, plenty of good books written about it. (I personally read this one: https://www.amazon.com/Panama-Papers-Breaking-Story-Powerful/dp/1786070472)
  
  
• Paradise Papers - Few people probably even heard of it.. but arguably bigger than Panama Papers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Papers)
  
  Sorry,.. I gotta go.. don't have time for that. There's a new trend popping up hot on Instagram !!... /sarcasm

>...and the rich can move to another country quickly with a good percentage of their money

It's adorable that you think their money even resides in the United States to begin with. There's a good book coming out soon about this called "Moneyland" (and the author was just on an episode of Planet Money).

>Whole business model of crypto is to FOMO people into buying high and selling low. There is literally nothing you can do to predict whether the price is going up or down. It is pure gambling. If you want to gamble, go to Vegas. Gambling there is regulated and you odds of winning are much better than in crypto wild west.

>The best way to deal with FOMO is to understand that you can have FOMO about anything. Does FOMO of winning a lottery keep you up at night? I think not.

Seconded. FOMO is the core of all cryptocurrency speculation (and bubbles generally), but it's not unique to it.

The good news is this means almost all of the advice for dealing with other kinds of FOMO—like seeing other people's "better" lives on social media—works just as well for crypto.

Consider these articles on dealing with FOMO, mentally replacing "Facebook" with "crypto charts", "social events" with "investment opportunities", and "exciting experiences" with "easy 10x gains":

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/stronger-the-broken-places/201501/10-ways-overcome-fear-missing-out

https://lifehacker.com/how-can-i-overcome-my-fear-of-missing-out-1148725866

For some more direct advice on defeating crypto FOMO, I highly recommend reading Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain ($5 on Kindle, link is the author's referral link, not mine).

A lot of it is basically about why the underlying economics is nonsense, which you've already figured out based on your post, but chapters 4 and 8 were what killed any remaining jealousy I had over the people who actually did buy Bitcoin ten years ago.

Basically, it made me realize two important things. First, many of those hypothetical gains aren't real. They're just numbers on a screen until you actually cash out. And cashing out is significantly harder than it seems. So when someone shows me a chart saying I could have turned a few hundred US Dollars into a pile of Bitcoin worth tens of thousands of USD Tethers, I know that their numbers aren't fully reflective of what I would actually be seeing in real-world cash gains right this moment.

Second, the ease and frequency of scams, hacks, user error, and general malfeasance means that the raw numbers don't reflect the actual risk. Let's say I had a bunch of Bitcoin in 2010. Well, I probably would have had in Mt. Gox, like most people who were doing anything other than sitting on a cold wallet. And then I would have lost them when Mt. Gox got hacked and shut down. Whee.

And if not Mt. Gox? Between 2010 and 2016, a third of all exchanges had been hacked and almost half had closed. Who cares that my original "investment" nominally goes up 10x if I lose 90% of it in the meantime?

I'm pretty smart, but I'm not psychic; I would be fooling myself to think I would have cleverly avoided all the bad options and only taken the precise actions that would have let me navigate the field of scammers and hackers and successfully cash out with my entire wallet intact over the span of eight years. So what am I actually "missing out" on?

He's a really cool dude. He wrote this book, and I had the pleasure to hear him speak. He recalls being afraid for himself and his family in the years leading up to the arrest. He asked the small town police force to check in on his house, and they used to drive by often. He was a huge library supporter, and very down to earth and generous. He also had a bottle of water during his speaking engagement that turned out to be gin!

Yes, it's as simple as that. For regular landline telephones of course. Because there's no data channel, there has to be a way for the consumer to tell(signal) the central office that the phone line needs connected to where they are trying to reach.

For years, the connections between central offices were also using a similar system to communicate between their electronic systems, ie their "switches" as they were called.

There was even a large community of people who took advantage of how the system worked to obtain free phone calls. They were called phreakers.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_box

For a fascinating read about the early years of phreaking see

Exploding the Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws who Hacked Ma Bell https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009SAV5W0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_.uV9Bb9Y40GGD

I've met the author. A key takeaway which he leaves out is that despite changes to the telephone systems that happened in the 80s, clever methods existed that allowed these same concepts to work well into the 2000s. And this doesn't include what's possible with VoIP.

There's a few nice books on the topic (anonymity, how 4chan ended up keepin the anon system, how long term users saw much less homophobia and racism than new acceptance for things they never had been exposed to). I was on 4chan for a little while. Can't remember other author names but I find the take of Parmy Olson to be very close to how the thing felt. She's presenting the history of 4chan as a total outsider, but she did do the research, and she makes the whole Poole/Anonymous/LulzSec thing sound like a nice suspens story. It's easy to read. It's still very, very much contemporary and it's very strange for me to call it history but it is and I don't know how people can use the internet without having at least some idea of what went on around 4chan (but they can I'm just being old).

This is tangentially related, but you might enjoy this book if you haven't read it already.

https://www.amazon.com/Chickenshit-Club-Department-Prosecute-Executives-ebook/dp/B06XBZFQR2

Cheers.

If you're really interested in the Enron scandal, check out Conspiracy of Fools. It's written more like a narrative instead of a journalistic report like The Smartest Guys in the Room. If you read them both you'll know the whole thing inside and out.

Far less and far less informedly than /u/dgerard, who's written a book on the topic: Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain.

My general sense is that Bitcoin (and cryptocurrencies in general) are the best educational programme on the benefits of central banking authority ever devised.

There are some potentially useful applications of blockchain, though I strongly suspect they're not in the area of cryptocurrencies. One that I'm exploring is th idea of a publicly-disclosed, auditable, PKI key regeneration or recovery system. I'm not sure that that's quite possible, but it may be, and could prove useful.

Yes it was a group, the workings were quite complex. They all sat permanently in an IRC channel together, its crazy interesting.

We Are Anonymous by Parmy Olson. Outstanding first-hand sources and well written book on it.

> Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

I love that documentary. I've probably watched it 100 times. Read the book if you haven't, but Eichenwald's book Conspiracy of Fools is even better.

The book Moneyland goes over it pretty well.

The extremely rich and powerful have a different set of rules than you or I. They live in a very, very different world. Also, at that level, corruption often isn’t actively prosecuted, it might seem surprising being so visible blatant in a place like the US, but it’s status quo in much of the world, and obviously does occur in the US too.

Great Frontline documentary on Steve Cohen & Raj Rajaratnam’s insider trading cases that’s worth the watch if you haven’t seen it yet. Came out a few years back, 51 min watch.

https://youtu.be/5jnihc4rzFw

Also looking to read the book about the massive investigation that caught them both up but have been to busy. It’s called Circle of Friends.

https://www.amazon.com/Circle-Friends-Massive-Crackdown-Trading/dp/0062096060

It's not my opinion it's fact. This book does a great job of telling the whole story. I totally recommend it.

The Ponzi Scheme Puzzle. It's not ground breaking but it's interesting because the author looks at ones that I hadn't heard of including some international ones and ties in some related things like multi level marketing.

https://www.amazon.com/Ponzi-Scheme-Puzzle-History-Analysis/dp/0199926611

> Huge Corporations that no one would imagine would ever fall, encouraged many investment firms to put huge amounts of their clients retirement funds into the company, only to be shocked when overnight the Corporation filed bankrupt and closed

Er, that happened in some cases, but in many cases it was caused by clearly illegal Ponzi schemes, con-artists, etc. Like Bernie Madoff.

Speaking of that worthless piece of trash, the book by Harry Markopolos, "No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller"

https://www.amazon.com/No-One-Would-Listen-Financial/dp/0470919000

Is a fascinating read. If I recall correctly, Madoff was at least partially responsible for that 2008 - 2009 meltdown of Wall Street - well, him, & the refusal of most so-called financial experts to see the huge problem with his scams.

Might also want to check these out - I just found them, & am looking forward to reading them:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124208012

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/mar/24/bernard-madoff-whistleblower-harry-markopolos

http://abcnews.go.com/US/bernie-madoff-sleuth-harry-markopolos-warns-ponzi-scams/story?id=36578436

Not sure if this is the report filed anonymously by Markopolos, but it lists multiple red flags which indicated the dishonesty of Madoff's schemes:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/Madoff_SECdocs_20081217.pdf

Anyway, the past teaches us what to beware of in the future. False prophets are everywhere - in religion, Wall Street, politics, and more.

>So I really don't put to much weight on so-called experts on cults who say a cult will last forever, heck I don't even put that much weight on our expert weatherman, he's right only about 50% of the time.

>I wouldn't be surprised if WT fell overnight for some reason we never even anticipated.

I would LOVE to see that! Just not going to get my hopes up, because I don't like being disappointed.

So did I... Using the Red Box to get free calls and then paperclip trick when the red box didn't work anymore.

If you haven't done so already... read this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Exploding-Phone-Untold-Teenagers-Outlaws-ebook/dp/B009SAV5W0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485567686&sr=8-1&keywords=phreaking

It's fantastic.

Thanks! Amusingly, I think I've read a book that references this one -- Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy -- without even realizing the title was derivative. Will definitely check this out.

The Panama Papers is a pretty good read on how the super-wealthy are basically evading the law across the world.

Anyone remotely interested in this topic must read Exploding the Phone, by Phil Lapsley - a truly monumental effort to document this era in history.

If I was the wife I would be strongly against that kind of division. Cashing out cryptocurrencies for real US dollars in your pocket can be incredibly difficult or impossible. I say "real dollars" as opposed to "numbers on some shady unregulated exchange's database", where the exchange says withdrawals are currently disabled due to a software bug but we'll totally have them working again next month. Because that kind of thing has happened multiple times in the past, with exchanges who ended up either running away with all their customers' money or losing the money in a hack and trying to cover it up. See (1) (2)

Read this guy's book, it's pretty good. He describes bitcoin exchanges as "keep[ing] your money in a sock under someone else's bed".

> While obama was ruining the country,

With all the billions of free taxpayer cash he gave the bankers the bankers were able to build far better homes for themselves than what Jimmy Carter could have done.

Personally, I think they belonged in jail making shivs for themselves.

Not about Obama specifically, but this book gives a good overview:

https://www.amazon.com/Chickenshit-Club-Department-Prosecute-Executives/dp/1501121367

Ha, I knew right away from the title this was about Sabu. Everyone who hasn't should read We are Anonymous if you are at all interested in the rise and fall of anonymous and lulzsec. Sabu plays a pivotal role in the events that unfold, eventually culminating with his arrest and subsequent informing.

Yeah, chickenshit reasoning.

Go read the Holder memo.

It's the Department of Justice, not the Department of Justice When It's Easy.

Fraud is always illegal.

The book "No One Would Listen" was written by Markopolos himself. I'll admit though, I have a degree in Economics and some of the Wall Street products he would talk about would slow me down to look up certain investing terms. Needless to say, you will learn a lot about how Wall Street works and why federal agencies like the SEC are full of chodes.

> I think it would put us into a situation where, for example the Steele memo could be argued to meet the criteria of a ToV. This would be an absurd conclusion.

Didn't GOP campaigns commission and/or pay for the Steele memo? It wasn't just something that could have been on the market, it was actually purchased on the market. If so, it's a strong example of oppo being a thing of value under the proposed market test.

>unfortunately I think it would be to protect the political class as a whole in avoiding precedent.

Maybe. I take a less conspiratorial view, I think it would just be too expensive and difficult to prosecute. Especially since it would only come to court if there were strong evidence of a crime being committed, and by then we'd have seen political consequences such as impeachment. I think most US Attorneys would say, "Look, the guy's been impeached, why spend our enforcement dollars on prosecuting a billionaire's kid?"

Speaking of which, I just picked this up. Haven't read it yet, but I've heard good things: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XBZFQR2/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

(Edit: raw link, not a referral thing, obvs)

"The Chickenshit Club" by Jesse Eisinger and "The Hellhound of Wall Street" by Michael Perino are two of my favorites.

Attack of the 50 foot blockchain by our own u/dgerard

You can find the paperback for sale here.

His blog can be found here.

David—anything you’d like to add so people can find your content?

Yeah if you want to read a book about bribery and hidden money read the book Panama Papers All kinds of rich people hiding their money- Jackie Chan, Putin, politicians, so many politicians and soccer people- the book is chock full of soccer people hiding the money. Its not even a secret, FIFA and whatever Europes branch of FIFA is hid money all over the place and took millions in bribes.

Read [this] (http://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Anonymous-LulzSec-Insurgency/dp/0316213527) book if you get a chance.

Moneyland is a new book about how the rich are living in sort of a shadow society without rules or regulations. They steal from everyone and use their wealth to keep the money and themselves out of trouble.

https://www.amazon.com/Chickenshit-Club-Department-Prosecute-Executives/dp/1501121367/ref=nodl_

Not always.

https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Inside-LulzSec-Insurgency/dp/0316213527

Parmy Olson - We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency (2013)

See also (The title comes from a Comey quote btw.)

https://www.amazon.com/Panama-Papers-Breaking-Story-Powerful/dp/1786070472

I prefer Comey's highlights in The Chickenshit Club

I literally wrote a book on the subject, which appears to be the only critical book. You can read the first few chapters on Amazon with "Look inside!" - chapter 1 answers "wtf is a bitcoin". (And chapters 2 and 3 tell you why Bitcoin and answers to a lot of the claims you'll see in this thread.)

I learned, which I know sounds like a cop-out answer.

If you want to understand the markets, learn psychology. You will be surprised by how emotions drive people buying and selling stocks. Here is a great example from the movie Trading Places. Honestly that movie gets a lot of things right, this is another great scene in the movie.

Being able to learn and being able to be wrong. Everyone says this but if you hate Trump I would ask you what are the good things Trump has done. Same thing if you hate Obama, I would ask you what good things he had done. I would give you a few days to come up with some answers. How many people do you know that would never say a good thing about either one? Realizing you are wrong and being able to learn why you were and improve is something that most people will avoid. People will rather choose to believe they are right they learn that they are wrong and learn what is the right answer.

17.When I employ people as advisors, I will occasionally listen to their advice.. Rules for an evil overlord. Rather obvious but listen to peoples advice but always be cautious. It is usually best to be able to read their advice and look at it logically. Compare it to other people advice as well.

If you liked the movie "The Big Short" I would suggest "No One Would Listen". It is about a quant trying to warn the SEC about the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.

They don't even care then, see:

https://www.amazon.com/No-One-Would-Listen-Financial/dp/0470919000

The reality is that there are not enough prosecutors (by an order-of-magnitude) to effectively police this stuff. So violent crime gets the priority.

These guys are a bunch of idiots! Seriously, 4chan is someone? Not only that but password app? Really? Even before I took cybercrime I knew it wasn't something so simple as a app. They are the worst at explaining how someone gets hacked. There are many many ways to get into someones account. Social engineering is the best way than to just guess someones password. They should really read We are anonymous or even look up how people found out they got hacked when a white hat hacker told them how they did it.

About a year ago, I read a book on Enron A conspiracy of Fools, fantastic book by the way, and it went into pretty good detail about exactly how Enron was messing with the Californian energy markets. It was absolutely disgusting. Straight out illegal.

Here's an example (this is just one of many, named scams they had. Naming them was partly what got them busted.):

They found out the energy brought into California from out of state was paid for by the state at a much higher rate. So Enron produced energy in CA, ran it on a loop out of the state and back in again - and charged the higher price.

Another scam: Enron discovered that during peak-energy volume times of the day, that the state could cancel energy transfers of a B2B nature in favour of allowing the consumer energy market to function. They would be paid huge compensation for every energy transfer they were asked to cancel. So during peak times, Enron would schedule loads of completely fake transfers (that were NEVER going to take place) and then the state would ask them to cancel the transfers - and in the process, pay them huge compensation for doing so.

The list went on - they just had scam after scam after scam. What Enron did to the people of CA should NEVER be forgotten.

Not least of which, because if you think Enron were the only ones doing it - you're certifiably wrong. Further - I have no doubt that big companies are STILL doing all kinds of scams, so long as they believe they can get away with it. Or if they believe the risk vs reward of doing it and getting caught occasionally still justifies the reward.

Awesome, thanks for posting the quotes. I really should read the whole thing.

If I may add a couple of additional sub-topics for discussion:

1. In We Are Anonymous, there was something about deception among the participants in DDoS's. IIRC, it said that some of the DDoS attacks would have been mostly or completely ineffective without the participation of a couple specific people who had botnets. So the majority of Anons who participated and thought they were the ones taking down the sites were just (at best) wasting their own computer resources and (at worst) putting themselves at risk of arrest for no reason. Is a protest still a protest if the target isn't affected by the protester?
   
   
2. How about this scenario:
   
   >Carder-pretending-to-be-Anon: Hey, let's all DDoS this bank website in support of Occcupy Wall Street!
   
   >Anons: *DDoS bank website
   
   >Carder: *chuckles Lol, dumb skiddies! *hacks in while bank is distracted by DDoS, steals customer information
   
   >Bank: We've been DDoS'd and hacked by Anonymous!
   
   >LE: Anons, you're under arrest!
   
   >Anons: But it was a social protest!
   
   >Carder: *Heh heh *enjoys $$$$$$*
   
   Should the Anons have any liability for being gullible skiddies?

After the financial crisis I read as much as I could about the subject, I read "All the Devils are here", The Big Short, Too big to fail, Crash of the Titans, The Chicken Shit club and many others. So I'm well aware of the culpability of the ratings agencies. But that doesn't excuse the big banks or their actions like you seem to be implying. The banks knew that the MBSs were stuffed with dog shit subprime loans, yet they also knew by getting a CDO from AIG they could get a Triple A rating. They deliberately gamed the system so individual bankers could make huge short term profits selling MBSs. Yeah, Moody's, Fitch, and Standard and Poor's were incredibly corrupt, but who was corrupting them? The big banks that were paying them. The Big Banks were not innocent players, who naively saw a short term advantage that they could use. They were an active participant, they gamed the system, then paid off the referees.

On your second point, I agree, the financial recession wasn't caused by bankers being malicious or evil, but I do think it was caused by short term greed, and willful ignorance. A see no evil, hear no evil, let's not rock the boat, while a good thing lasts greed.