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Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested

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Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested

#81

Post by _curious_ »

mjd wrote: post #69
matsche wrote: post #2

it baffles me that it had to come this far. There were warning signs all over it. The German BaFin messed up so badly that one must either fundamentally doubt theircompetence or question their integrity.

Matt Levine, who writes the “Money Stuff" column for Bloomberg News, described it like this: > When a company is going around accusing reporters of conspiring with short sellers to bring it down, that is an almost infallible sign that it is going down. Companies that are not doing fraud, when reporters ask if they have faked their revenue, respond by explaining where their revenue comes from. Companies that are doing…

Really enjoy Levine's stuff, but had to unsub from his newsletter because they are too long for me to keep up with.

Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested

#82

Post by [deleted] »

tenpies wrote: post #72
geophile wrote: post #48

I was just listening to a podcast last night, in which a financial analyst who identified problems with Wirecard was harrassed for years, both online and IRL. Interesting story: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/868001948

What's really interesting is seeing the same people sound the same alarms about extremely popular companies that continue to trade today , and yet our regulators, auditors, and journalists all ignore them. We really never learn. If I were a regulator I would be taking short seller statements extremely seriously when it comes from one of the proven reliable ones.

[deleted]

Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested

#83

Post by tempodox »

Fjolsvith wrote: post #53
neuronic wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

E&Y simply had no interest in losing a customer by reporting what was well known to them.

So now, if you want to cook your books, E&Y is the auditors to go to?

Well, after that pustular bubble burst they've got rotten egg on their faces.

Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested

#84

Post by tracker1 »

xoxoy wrote: post #79

The same people with large shorts in Wirecard like Chanos also have large shorts in Tesla. Just saying.

Tesla is probably over-valued, but not every over-valued company fails. Some (amazon, tesla, google) eventually back-fill value into their bubbles.

IMHO it really comes down to how solid the business and its' operations are as a whole. As long as they aren't mis-spending any excess capital in horrible ways, they can definitely do well. Of course, I prefer to see more conservative approaches to growth and expenditures but that's nearly impossible with a car company.

Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested

#85

Post by jiveturkey »

_curious_ wrote: post #81
mjd wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Matt Levine, who writes the “Money Stuff" column for Bloomberg News, described it like this: > When a company is going around accusing reporters of conspiring with short sellers to bring it down, that is an almost infallible sign that it is going down. Companies that are not doing fraud, when reporters ask if they have faked their revenue, respond by explaining where their revenue comes from. Companies that are doing…

Really enjoy Levine's stuff, but had to unsub from his newsletter because they are too long for me to keep up with.

and here we witness the death of journalism

Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested

#87

Post by greenhatglack »

tenpies wrote: post #72
geophile wrote: post #48

I was just listening to a podcast last night, in which a financial analyst who identified problems with Wirecard was harrassed for years, both online and IRL. Interesting story: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/868001948

What's really interesting is seeing the same people sound the same alarms about extremely popular companies that continue to trade today , and yet our regulators, auditors, and journalists all ignore them. We really never learn. If I were a regulator I would be taking short seller statements extremely seriously when it comes from one of the proven reliable ones.

Though I can't speak for regulators and auditors, you have to keep in mind that 99% of journalists are just hired guns who's sights are specified ahead of time.

Since no one with power had their sights on Wirecard, nothing happened - it's not unexpected.

Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested

#88

Post by gruez »

_curious_ wrote: post #81
mjd wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Matt Levine, who writes the “Money Stuff" column for Bloomberg News, described it like this: > When a company is going around accusing reporters of conspiring with short sellers to bring it down, that is an almost infallible sign that it is going down. Companies that are not doing fraud, when reporters ask if they have faked their revenue, respond by explaining where their revenue comes from. Companies that are doing…

Really enjoy Levine's stuff, but had to unsub from his newsletter because they are too long for me to keep up with.

How is it too long? It's composed of multiple sections on different subjects. You don't have to read them all.

Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested

#89

Post by adventured »

xoxoy wrote: post #79

The same people with large shorts in Wirecard like Chanos also have large shorts in Tesla. Just saying.

Chanos, the guy sitting on a bearish call against Tesla in November. The stock is up 200% since then. If Chanos were really betting to match his propaganda, he'd never work again after being destroyed like that.

Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested

#90

Post by hogFeast »

xchaotic wrote: post #18
mschuster91 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But yeah, how they missed that is hard to comprehend. Look at the German DAX and what is in there. That is explanation enough. Heavy industry, consumer goods, banks, insurances. The only IT company other than Wirecard is SAP and it is not exactly known for innovation. Everyone, especially politics, wanted Wirecard to succeed: the only actually somewhat innovative IT company in the DAX. It's the same pattern with th…

As one person in Germany explained to me - there is no corruption at the low level - it is not worth it for the policeman to lose a nice salary and a pension for a few hundred euros bribe. So you will get a speeding ticket everytime and Germany is known for that sort of 'solidity'. On the higher end, however, the stakes and balances are different - high pay is frowned upon and owners of Aldi supermarkets etc are know…

It is also relevant that a good chunk of the ultra-rich in Germany came to prominence with govt assistance (that varies from slave labour to heavily subsidised loans).

Aldi is a pretty poor example because they are an example of a company that actively disrupted German corporate life.

So being understated is a north European characteristic but that isn't why German billionaires behave that way (they are often extremely overstated in private). They have no public profile because the way they made their money is usually horrific (Oetker family, Quandts, etc.), there are always vague suggestions of corruption, and they are very rich but aren't capitalists...it is crazy.

Also, the amount of corruption in Germany is huge. The most similar country is probably China. The state is run by and for billionaires. There is almost no oversight of this. The purpose of the German economy is to steal from consumers: low wages, forced savings, essentially free loans from state-owned banks to well connected companies, very weak unions. Not as bad as China, stuff like hukou is...fedualistic, but unlike almost any other developed economy.

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