Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a cardinal pun somewhere in there but I can't think of it.
... but I can't place it.
This would be a top tier joke if only we could rank it.
Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare
101–110 of 169 posts
Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
One weird thing I have noticed is that in the UK the phrase “The Germans” is often used instead of “Germany” (where it’s grammatically valid, of course) for some reason. It’s really noticeable if you watch British TV coverage of the World Cup or European Championships. Don’t know if the OP is British or living there, but it’s possible that this is what’s happening and they don’t mean “all Germans ...” and just mean “…
Very common here in the US to do this with all countries. "Germany" is a country, whereas "Germans" are people. So in a sporting context saying something like "The Germans are better at passing the ball" makes more grammatical sense than "Germany is better at passing the ball". Same for the Italians, the French, etc.
It’s not quite the same actually. You’ll see the commentators occasionally reference Italy/The Italians or France/the French ... but the way they use “The Germans” is on a different level. I also feel like it’s also said with a weird intonation, so not “The Germans” but “The Germans” - with a little snarl :-D
I don’t know how to explain it - you’d need to watch a World Cup with BBC and ITV coverage to see it in action. England have a special footballing history with Germany so it may be related to this.
Note: not implying this was what the original person meant, this is just a silly tangent :-)
Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare
#103Doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Worked for a fintech company a few years back that used Wirecard as the processor for one of their products. Somehow they managed to lose the PK/FK relationship between accounts and transactions (or something like that). A whole lot of our customers suddenly started getting other people's transactions on their accounts. It was the final straw that shutdown the entire product line…
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Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare
#104I wonder how many companies in the world are basially built on warm words without any real value behind. I made the experience that a lot of people don't really care if a company has positive revenue streams anymore, they don't even know what a balance sheet is. They simply invest because other people do. And those other people invested because people before them did. This new style "invest billions now in a lossy st…
When the scam is big enough, there are consequences for the auditors. Enron sank Arthur Andersen, for example. Didn’t hurt the consulting arm (now Accenture) though.
Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare
#105I wonder how many companies in the world are basially built on warm words without any real value behind. I made the experience that a lot of people don't really care if a company has positive revenue streams anymore, they don't even know what a balance sheet is. They simply invest because other people do. And those other people invested because people before them did. This new style "invest billions now in a lossy st…
The EY point is interesting. I'm not sure if it's still this way, but when I worked there, a lot of care was put on audit clients as the partner(s) signing off the work had effectively unlimited liability, and could lose pretty much all their money in a worst case scenario. Unfortunately audit work, where the company decides on their auditor, has an in-built conflict of interests. If the auditor is too harsh/rigorous…
> The EY point is interesting. I'm not sure if it's still this way, but when I worked there, a lot of care was put on audit clients as the partner(s) signing off the work had effectively unlimited liability, and could lose pretty much all their money in a worst case scenario.
Does it ever pan out the way? I'm speaking of the liability on the partners. There have been a number of these in recent times involve pretty much all of the big firms.
Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare
#106This looks really bad for BaFin, they basically treated the Financial Times as criminals for blowing the whistle over the last few years.
Does it matter if the corrupt BaFin officials who decided to treat the journalists as criminals are not prosecuted?
Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare
#107I wonder how many companies in the world are basially built on warm words without any real value behind. I made the experience that a lot of people don't really care if a company has positive revenue streams anymore, they don't even know what a balance sheet is. They simply invest because other people do. And those other people invested because people before them did. This new style "invest billions now in a lossy st…
> They were satisfied with a clumsy fake audit certificate for 2 billion euros in a Philippine account! For how many companies EY did the same? How superficially do they check their customers?
A lot.
Like a lot a lot.
The entire* commodities sector is built on promises like this.
The entire shipping and freight sector.
The entire commercial paper market.
Its promises, redundancies, assurances, and credit.
It usually doesn't go wrong. As long as bond holders get their 2% and common stock shareholders get wiped out, everything is A-OKAY.
(entire is hyperbole, the point is clear, don't be that guy)
Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare
#108Invisibilia just released a great podcast about trust, based on the experience of a trader who was harassed by Wirecard. The trader, who was shorting Wirecard, was subject to surveillance, and a constant stream of phishing attacks. https://www.npr.org/2020/06/02/868001948/trust-fall
I just listened to it this morning when it came up in my feed. I had added this episode after it was mentioned in a previous HN thread about Wirecard. I guess the short seller was proven right.
Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare
#109I wonder how many companies in the world are basially built on warm words without any real value behind. I made the experience that a lot of people don't really care if a company has positive revenue streams anymore, they don't even know what a balance sheet is. They simply invest because other people do. And those other people invested because people before them did. This new style "invest billions now in a lossy st…
When the scam is big enough, there are consequences for the auditors. Enron sank Arthur Andersen, for example. Didn’t hurt the consulting arm (now Accenture) though.
I initially understood this to mean Accenture changed its name as a consequence of the Enron/Arthur Anderson scandal. But Anderson Consulting changed its name to Accenture in January 2001, and the scandal only became public later that year.
Seems like the two companies weren't very close even before that, the name change was required as part of a legal settlement with Arthur Anderson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accenture#Split_from_Arthur_An...
Re: Wirecard files for insolvency after financial hole laid bare
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
When the scam is big enough, there are consequences for the auditors. Enron sank Arthur Andersen, for example. Didn’t hurt the consulting arm (now Accenture) though.
I initially understood this to mean Accenture changed its name as a consequence of the Enron/Arthur Anderson scandal. But Anderson Consulting changed its name to Accenture in January 2001, and the scandal only became public later that year. Seems like the two companies weren't very close even before that, the name change was required as part of a legal settlement with Arthur Anderson. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ac…
Pretty sure that the partners in Anderson took a big haircut after Enron.