EnRon made headlines. Years after EnRon, a guy who had been collecting tens of millions of dollars to invest for well-to-do people didn’t even bother to run away. After over a decade of this, the police came to arrest him and he said, “I was wondering when you were going to catch on.”
We call these Ponzi Schemes as if Ponzi was a special case. But in the real world they are routine.
Like the rest, this guy got some reputable people to hand him their money and others asked about him and were assured that reputable people trusted him.
People do not understand history because they are always astonished to hear about EnRon getting hundreds of millions in investments and having nothing. In the 1880s people invested millions of dollars in Ullyses S. Grant’s Grant and Ward Company. Nobody, least of all Grant, knew that Ward wasted every dime. Grant died deeply in debt, and those who had invested lost all their savings.
In each case I have cited, and in hundreds more, and in hundreds occurring right now, it is not that there are not enough assets to cover liabilities. It is not that someone is “mistaken.”
There is NOTHING there.
Except some people you checked with. And they may make a few calls and you go ahead and do what they recommend.
I know of no case in my personal or studied history where anyone who was asked about this sort of thing ever suffered the slightest loss of reputation for vouching for the Ponzi.
#1 by Wm White on 11/19/2013 - 9:51 am
I used to read “Yggdrasil’s WN Library” which has gone inactive for the last 9-yrs, except for a piece on Race and IQ. He (Yggdrasil) must be as old as Bob but seems to have either passed away or lost his drive –either way his site is a good read. One of the books he recommended and which I read was:
“Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,” a history of follies and speculative disasters –written by Charles Mackay in 1841.
It documents the folly of the masses and demonstrates that the masses have been asses since time immemorial. Example: The “Mississippi Scheme” of the 18th century resulted in a great loss of money to investors and enormous debts incurred by the company and bank responsible for this speculative disaster. The GOVERNMENT soon consolidated and took over the massive liabilities and “raised taxes” in order to retire the costly expense (sound familiar).
Aside: None of the bank officials or speculators were prosecuted or hanged –except for “John Law” (who most certainly was one of the responsible speculators) was targeted as the only scapegoat but still escaped justice by returning safely to England.
#2 by Mimmy Jarr on 11/19/2013 - 10:58 am
White genocide is the active pursuit of a special kind of nothingness and seems to be functioning as the inferred asset behind the U.S. dollar.
#3 by Steadiness on 11/19/2013 - 1:42 pm
haha, great article
Towards the end of the time that I was a progressive, I hung out with people who passed out talking points about various cases, which they cribbed from other lists of talking points, all the way up and down. They implicitly trust each other, and never compare anything to outside sources.
I’m convinced that’s how the President ended up saying that retarded thing about the Zimmerman case. Looking things up and trying to verify claims made is crucial. Of course, Chomsky and others have the progressives convinced that the media is controlled by corporate conservative racists who want to force everyone to celebrate Christmas.
They have blogs, which cite newspapers and books, as many layers of citations as you care to chase down – it was very impressive when I was 19 – and that’s enough to have a serious academic consensus that fat people are actually just as healthy as normal weight people.
#4 by Simmons on 11/21/2013 - 9:26 am
If you go to Daily Kos early in the day, the news cycle is frequently ahead of the left’s script writers and the poor posters who are up and trying to sound smart are hopelessly lost without their talking points. It is very funny at least to me.
#5 by mandela on 11/19/2013 - 5:10 pm
Wm White, I also have read that book. The masses are mad – for example White GeNOcide. I recommend Gustuv Le Bon’s The Psycology of the Crowd and also his book about the workings of revolution. Lots of things in there relevant to BUGS
#6 by Wm White on 11/21/2013 - 9:02 am
Thanks, I’ll look the book up.
///
It’s one thing to post the mantra everywhere but it’s another higher level of awareness when we begin to understand what motivates people and movements in general.
#7 by Jason on 11/19/2013 - 7:33 pm
know of no case in my personal or studied history where anyone who was asked about this sort of thing ever suffered the slightest loss of reputation for vouching for the Ponzi.
That’s the funny thing. No one ever blames the vouchers. This happens in politics all the time where someone promises us so-and-so is a “good man” and he turns out to be another traitor.
#8 by -Dave- on 11/20/2013 - 1:34 am
There is a tame world and a feral world.
Both worlds believe in justice, but the tame world doesn’t know what it is.
Maybe Ponzi robs those deserve to be robbed. Maybe there is nothing there because it is right that there is nothing there. Maybe those who vouch for Ponzi are doing God’s work.
I am not saying this is true, but it occurs to me that it might be true.
#9 by The Beef on 11/20/2013 - 2:15 am
The POINT being that the reason these Ponzi’s keep showing us is that NOTHING has been done to make people remember and FEAR supporting the Ponzi!
The enablers are JUST as GUILTY as the psychopath!
When the enablers are not held accountable, then nobody fears BEING one!
An example, clearly visible loss in reputation, and LONG LASTING, would need to be made.
This applies to OUR Genocide now.
Those responsible are not enough, the enablers must have a long lasting loss in reputation, permanent reminder of the ultimate dishonor; TREASON.
#10 by Jason on 11/20/2013 - 7:00 am
Yes, please let us not forget the enablers. The people who ALL my life have told me that these traitors “meant well”.
#11 by Jason on 11/21/2013 - 12:15 am
This is a “field report” for what it is worth, from talking to several White friends.
Whites do have a growing resentment. But among Whites I know, most have a hard time processing that they could be hated; that they could be targeted for harm because they are White.
This is true among conservative, implicitly pro-White types. The types that will complain about immigration, affirmative action, etc. But they will wrap themselves in pretzels to deny it is about anyone being anti-White. They desperately want to avoid making it about RACE (even though they talk about race themselves!).
Some will go as far as saying “Whites are in the way” of whatever plans “the elites” have, but they pretty stubbornly refuse to accept that there is such a category as an Anti-White.
I try to probe what’s behind it, and as strange as it sounds, it seems connected to a kind of vanity (in my unsure opinion). There is something I call the ‘Scarlett O’Hara Syndrome’, in which Whites just can’t process that they are no longer the center of the world, fully in control of things, and that everyone doesn’t wish them well (as bizarre as that sounds).
I’m curious if anyone has gotten friends or family to accept the concept of the “Anti-White”.
#12 by Wm White on 11/21/2013 - 9:33 am
@ Jason
Kai Murros writes in his book:
“National Revolution And How to Do It in a Modern Society”
Chapter: The Middle Class and the Revolution.
– The WHITE middle class is the most important instrument of the revolution, but also the biggest obstacle to it.
– The most dangerous counter revolutionary force in society is the WHITE middle-class mentality.
– Typical features for the WHITE middle class are conservatism, “SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS,” admiration for the upper class – and a thwarted political consciousness (very status quo and afraid to make waves that might jeopardize their fantasy of upward mobility).
– The WHITE middle class is attracted and fascinated by the wealth and the social status of the upper class, just as nightflies are attracted to the lamp.
=====
I added the ‘white’ to middle class but I’ve also seen the “Scarlett O’Hara Syndrome” or “Self-Righteousness” attitude in the WHITE working class ranks as well.
====
I have found personally, when I call someone anti-white or refer to someone during a discussion as ‘anti-white’ that I often get a very nervous and sometimes hostile response from White middle-class people. However, their ‘thwarted understanding of what is happening to white people does not stop ME from smacking them with mantra reality.
#13 by Jason on 11/21/2013 - 10:21 am
Interesting, I see something like self-righteousness too. That describes the desire to be RESPECTABLE pretty well.
Yes, all we can do is keep hammering and hammering. It’s the impact of the message on the overall “masses” that seems to work, not so much appeals to individual reason (at least when dealing with these types).
#14 by Simmons on 11/21/2013 - 9:29 am
“Vouchers” another word for respectable conservative, or basically without them the charade will crumble.
#15 by BGLass on 11/21/2013 - 10:30 am
Part of the “middle class” is tied to the “socializing professions.” The same people who worked for the school systems, media, educating programs under any system. Under an anti-white system, they soldier on, educating people into that. They are the people who socialize the masses in whatever way they are told.
Jason, it is hard to take in ONESELF as an object of Hate, or of Jealousy (which is a particular form of Hate.) When you are Hated for what is GOOD in you. Also, once people get a LITTLE whiff of that, they start often assuming they are persecuted for being WHAT THEY THINK is good about them. Yesterday, O’Reilly went on with some black man, going on about who was persecuted more, the catholics (in reference to the Kennedy Nov. anniversary, or the blacks; O’Reilly stated he (what he sees as his tribe) was more persecuted than the blacks on his show).
People are willing to be Hated, when they get something out of it, of course. Then being hated for what you are is great! If a paycheck was attached to the socializing white middle class types and they could be persecuted for a buck, they probably would go on about how hated they are, imo.
But it’s hard to experience oneself as The Hated Object. It’s a lack of sophistication, (not realizing other people have nothing to do with you, necessarily). And interferes with one’s own sense of goodness, of being Good, moral, right, etc. Also, realizing they Hate, not on the basis of you at all, but on the basis of MOVIES, lol