Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually that is very "easy" to do, first you short sell some stock (naked short) for $1M, then the stocks value goes up by $8M. You are asked to cover your short and even after your $1M you are still left holding $7M in liabilities.
This is incorrect. You can’t talk about absolute $8mill gain without talking about the total market cap (total value) of the stock. What would have happened that the company its not increase by $8mill but increase by 8 times the current value which is more possible to happen for small cap stocks.
Martin Shkreli indictment [pdf]
161–170 of 182 posts
Re: Martin Shkreli indictment [pdf]
#162Re: Martin Shkreli indictment [pdf]
#163Re: Martin Shkreli indictment [pdf]
#164My first reaction to his arrest was joy and then I saw comments about him getting "beat up in jail" to put it lightly. People who say those kinds of things are no better than him. Possibly worse. The solution to dealing with people like him is to be able to separate them from society or fix the system so it can no longer be exploited so "easily". He may have hurt a lot of people but it's been through proxy as far as…
>My first reaction to his arrest was joy and then I saw comments about him getting "beat up in jail" to put it lightly. >People who say those kinds of things are no better than him. Possibly worse. If wishing bad things would happen to someone who has done bad things and actually raising the price of AIDS drugs fiftyfold to get rich are anywhere near each other in your moral calculus, I'm terrified of your moral calc…
But I just imagine that. It's not like I would ever attempt to actually set up such a thing.
Or I imagine that he goes in, and most everyone is kept segregated under extremely high security, with leg shackles and spit masks. He is put into a cell, and his cell mate has a horribly scarred face, but a bright, friendly grin, insomuch as the scars allow it. That night, he wakes up, unable to move, as the razor blade digs into his face. "I used to have that pretty face. Why should you get to keep it?" The next morning, his cell mate is taken away to solitary. A few weeks later, after his wounds heal, he gets a new cell mate. Lo, it's Martin Shkreli! So he flashes a bright, friendly grin as he thinks about his hidden razor blade. Rod Serling narrates us out, talking about the prison where all the other prisoners are copies of you.
We need to imagine prison as a terrible place, where bad people get punished as they rightly deserve, because we need to believe that putting people inside actually somehow serves justice in a useful way.
He won't get beat up in jail because he deserves it, but because he will find no one inside willing to watch his back, and the other inmates will attempt to extort some of that pharma-CEO cash out of him while he is within their reach.
Re: Martin Shkreli indictment [pdf]
#165My first reaction to his arrest was joy and then I saw comments about him getting "beat up in jail" to put it lightly. People who say those kinds of things are no better than him. Possibly worse. The solution to dealing with people like him is to be able to separate them from society or fix the system so it can no longer be exploited so "easily". He may have hurt a lot of people but it's been through proxy as far as…
>>The Wolf of Wall Street was a glorification of this type of behavior and a lot of people saw Jordan in that movie as a "Hero" Interesting analogy, and I'm glad you pointed this out. I was disgusted by Wolf of Wall Street, and even more disgusted by how exalted Belfort became after. So many friends and acquaintances admired and aspired towards what they saw in the film - that was the worst part of it for me. I just…
Re: Martin Shkreli indictment [pdf]
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>The Wolf of Wall Street was a glorification of this type of behavior and a lot of people saw Jordan in that movie as a "Hero" Interesting analogy, and I'm glad you pointed this out. I was disgusted by Wolf of Wall Street, and even more disgusted by how exalted Belfort became after. So many friends and acquaintances admired and aspired towards what they saw in the film - that was the worst part of it for me. I just…
To go anecdote for anecdote, I have never met anyone who has expressed admiration of or aspiration to what they saw in that film. I think your disgust and inability to relate is the more common view, but maybe I'm just naive.
Re: Martin Shkreli indictment [pdf]
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Someone filed a FOIA with the FBI to try to get them to release it: https://twitter.com/wisemana/status/677510714236510209 Seems like it's unlikely that you can just FOIA arbitrary data from a CD or hard drive that's been seized during an investigation though.
Sadly they haven't got it: https://twitter.com/NewYorkFBI/status/677597263540191232
FOIA is not used to obtain information contained in the seized material, but information that arose during the investigation. If for some reason, the information created in the investigation contained the actual recording from the album, then you could at least theoretically ask for that information. If not, then there was no information to ask for in the first place.
What can I ask for under the FOIA?
A FOIA request can be made for any agency record. You can also specify the format in which you wish to receive the records (for example, printed or electronic form). The FOIA does not require agencies to create new records or to conduct research, analyze data, or answer questions when responding to requests.
Re: Martin Shkreli indictment [pdf]
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is incorrect. You can’t talk about absolute $8mill gain without talking about the total market cap (total value) of the stock. What would have happened that the company its not increase by $8mill but increase by 8 times the current value which is more possible to happen for small cap stocks.
If I sell something for $50 million and need to spend $58 million to cover, I'm down $8 million. There's no need for an 8x increase in valuation.
Re: Martin Shkreli indictment [pdf]
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree with this form of dismissal as a rule. If someone says something and then says "it was a joke", "it was a game", "I was just making a point", that doesn't cancel out the words and their impact - social atmosphere is not an intellectually pristine environment. You will change the atmosphere by yelling "fire" in a crowded theater and once it's done, there is no going back. Likewise, if we dismiss someone's s…
FYI, the "fire in a crowded theater" phrase comes from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in Schenck v. United States [1]. Writing for the majority (actually it was a unanimous decision), Holmes wrote: The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic. Many people nod their heads at this example, but they forget that Holmes was using it to j…
Re: Martin Shkreli indictment [pdf]
#170I watched his stream on Twitch about a month ago and he came across as a nice guy. Viewers were asking him for career path, post-secondary education, and bio-tech advice. He was responding to questions politely and seemed to be pretty chill. From what the media reports on him and what I saw on Twitch, seems as though he may have a bit of a Jekyll-Hyde type personality.