51–60 of 182 posts
I hope the investigation has been ongoing and didn't start as the result of political pressure. Edit: No need to hope anymore. Grand jury started in January and investigations ongoing since 2012.
By reading the filing, the investigation is years old.
Seriously disappointing news. Shkreli seemed like such an obvious troll in how he defended his price gouging by saying that a CEO's role is to maximize profit for the benefit of shareholders...and yet did so in such an unnecessarily obnoxious way that if he truly were the uber-capitalist, he would know that bragging and drawing attention to what an asshole you are does not achieve the true capitalist goal. I would've…
The performance art hypothesis has not been disproven to my knowledge, but I haven't ever heard of anyone being arrested and indicted by the feds as being part of their plan in life. Are there any such examples?
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No sense giving the defense any more reasons for appeal. Whether the guy is a scumbag or not, whether he has a lot of money or not, the criminal justice system should not be imposing undue burden or punishment based on public opinion regarding a matter that isn't even relevant to the case. I won't lose any sleep when this guy goes to prison for a long time, but no sense doing nonsense that will only mildly inconvenie…
any chance he doesn't end up in prison, though? I might be naive, but I'm under the impression that the book doesn't get thrown at white-collar criminals in the US. what are the odds he just ends up on probation?
Personally, I think that impression (which is popular) is largely because A) white-collar criminals can typically afford better representation than someone e.g. accused of armed robbery; B) we're much more likely to hear about someone who embezzled $30 million getting off with a slap on the wrist than we are to hear about someone who broke into an empty apartment building getting a similarly light sentence.
What I'm curious is how this affects the Wu Tang Clan's album he bought? http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/business/media/martin-shkr...
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Umm, you know how short sales work right? You're borrowing shares to sell them at current prices and then have to return the shares later. If the price rises, you are out the difference between what you sold at and what you repurchase at for when the call to cover comes in.
From Wikipedia: "Naked short selling, or naked shorting, is the practice of short-selling a tradable asset of any kind without first borrowing the security or ensuring that the security can be borrowed, as is conventionally done in a short sale." It is really easy to lose your shirt with a naked short.
The ones here being happy at this guy being indicted are the ones that defend economic libertarianism later for the sole reason that it allows them to pay less taxes, regardless of what's in the public interest. Disgustingly selfish.
Also, who defends economic libertarianism "for the sole reason that it allows them to pay less taxes, regardless of what's in the public interest"? I know that's a favorite caricature of libertarians that's dear to those who don't agree with libertarianism, but that doesn't mean it's true.
Not that your comment is particularly worth of discussion, but you'd think there would better reasoning behind calling out a broad category of commenters out as being "disgustingly selfish".
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any chance he doesn't end up in prison, though? I might be naive, but I'm under the impression that the book doesn't get thrown at white-collar criminals in the US. what are the odds he just ends up on probation?
I don't know any of the specifics of the case and IANAL so I couldn't say. My lay understanding is that this is a pretty straight-forward case and he will see the inside of a jail cell. Personally, I think that impression (which is popular) is largely because A) white-collar criminals can typically afford better representation than someone e.g. accused of armed robbery; B) we're much more likely to hear about someone…
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. 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…
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 can't relate.