This should serve as a reminder to everyone that once you deposit your money in a bank, unless you have put it in a safe deposit box, it's no longer your money.  You have effectively made an UNSECURED loan to the bank.  If/When said bank goes Belly-Up, the depositors are the LAST people to get paid when the Bankruptcy judge starts divvying up the banks assets amongst its creditors, all of whom have higher standing than a peon depositor.

This case is of course a blatant and obvious fraud, but neatly enough constructed using corporate law that unless they can figure out who stole the money and what he did with it nobody will even see any jail time, besides the fact these folks have been bilked out of their life savings.

A further reminder to stay away from new & tricky financial set-ups in the banking and investment biz.  Stick to well established Credit Unions with a history longer than 20 years, preferably 30.  Any financial organization set up since the turn of the millenium has a high probability of being a scam.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/22/synapse-bankruptcy-thousands-of-americans-see-their-savings-vanish.html

'I have no money': Thousands of Americans see their savings vanish in Synapse fintech crisis

RE

Quote from: RE on Nov 24, 2024, 02:35 AMThis should serve as a reminder to everyone that once you deposit your money in a bank, unless you have put it in a safe deposit box, it's no longer your money. 

RE

The article seems to indicate that Fintech was the underlying problem...not necessarily the bank. The wife is quite adament about these services that will loan you money pre-paycheck, and institutions that "pretend" to handle your money when in fact they are playing their own games in the market and only design their marketing material to look like a government back entity.

As usual it is a buyer beware....and the article didn't mention how many FDIC accounts had ever not been backed by the government when the bank itself suffered issues. Up to the stated limits anyway.

Yah, that's where the fraud comes in.  The intermediary obviously designed their pitch and promotion to customers to make them believe they were depositing their money in an FDIC insured account.  Otherwise I doubt most of these folks would have deposited their money with them.  These weren't risk taking people.  If I was a lawyer, I'd be suing whoever it was that got these folks to open an account with them.  That person also probably believed the account was FDIC insured, which means you have to name the directors of the company in the lawsuit.  If you can prove they knowingly committed fraud, the coporate shield for liability evaporates.  The tricky part is proving that, of course, and the money has apparently been disappeared expertly.  It's gotta be somewhere though.  They need a good forensic accountant.  They should look up The Accountant.


RE

Scary stuff, I use established banks.  Banks where FDIC insurance is not an issue.  Brick and mortar places where you can walk through a door.  Online banks give a better %, but the possibility of fintech is there, and banking digitally is scary.  Loosing $200K is loosing years of work.  A life's work.

Find out who took the money, then let Luigi out and give him a list.

I have one investment account that deals in short term bonds.  It is supposed to be very safe, and it is at a nationally known bank.  I'd prefer a fixed interest where the principal is FDIC insured.  Such an account is not available at this bank with anything but token interest.  My desire to earn 4 or 5% on my stash makes me a fucking imperialist.  I admit it.  Walking on the wild side with my stash I am.



Elon watched this as a baby.  You know he did.  And the global south is involved in earning my 5% somewhere.  You know it.  So how about some municipal bonds?  I talk about money having a brain.  Mine is telling me it wants to grow.  Which of us will be smarter?

Quote from: K-Dog on Feb 17, 2025, 12:35 AMMy desire to earn 4 or 5% on my stash makes me a fucking imperialist.  I admit it.  Walking on the wild side with my stash I am.

Locally that is available on checking account balances with one condition, you run at least 15 online/card charges a month through the account. So we park plenty of cash there but use it for McDonalds purchases, Dr co-pays, fountain drinks at convenience stores, little crap. The interest more than pays for all the little crap, it is quite a nice scheme. Collect the 4.875% a month on whatever is in there. Seems reasonable for decent chunks of money, but obviously real "investments" aren't looking for just those kinds of returns.

Trumpovetsky's outstanding work in crashing the stock market has blown over into the bond market, which kills the traditional"flight to safety"   method normal investors use to protect their pile of money in a bear market.  Right now the only way to make money is to day trade and short sell the asset classes taking the biggest hits.  This is tough to do because you need to be in front of the trades and pay close attention to your Bloomberg terminal.  It takes a lot of trades so your broker fees can add up and cost more than you make.  Also helpful is to have inside information, which is of course illegal.  I'll bet dollars to doughnuts Trump has kept his broker fully in the loop of what tariffs are going down, on who and when.  IOW, INSIDER TRADING on steroids, which is a felony and fits under HIGH CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS.  Of course, the SEC would have to investigate and prosecute, which ain't gonna happen.  However, there are a few Billionaaire Hedge Fund managers who are getting pissed off who may look for other means to retaliate.  Nobody likes seeing Billions wiped off their portfolio value.

Bond rout starting to sound market alarm bells

https://www.reuters.com/markets/global-markets-tariffs-bonds-2025-04-09/

Funny that. I heard about the US bond yields going up alarmingly and then soon after Trump calls a pause on his higher rate tariffs. The supposed reason for this pause being there were so many countries wishing to negotiate the US didn't have the capacity to listen to them all hence the 90 pause... Sounds like a load of bollocks.

It is amusing it came to this as during work much discussion was devoted to the ongoing developments of these tariff wars. In those numerous discussions the consistent message made was the belief that at some point Trump would back off but would only do so when he could frame a pause (or even a reversal in policy) in such a way that made him sound like he won the game. In the world of Trump he would rather let the world burn that to appear like he lost the "deal".

On the surface there is a 90 day reprieve (mostly anyway) but one has to wonder if he will actually start an act 2 after the three month has elapsed. What are you thoughts there?

One thought I was beginning to ponder was if this tariff talk kept escalating further and further and Trump didn't show any signs of backing off could there be a chance he may "accidentally" fall out of the window? I mean funny things do tend to happen if you piss off enough billionaires...

Quote from: monsta666 on Apr 09, 2025, 01:31 PMOn the surface there is a 90 day reprieve (mostly anyway) but one has to wonder if he will actually start an act 2 after the three month has elapsed. What are you thoughts there?

Already in Act 3. The idiot threatens, changes his mind, institutes something...for a day....offers a reprieve, changes the numbers, trumpets like a blubbering walrus, his BS is repetitive, intellectually lacking and shit if peak oil wasn't so yesteryear he would have his own website weaving it into his Chinese bad guys delusion. 

He's bouncing the rates around so fast it's like Meadowlark Lemon of the old Harlem Globetrotters bamboozling the Washington Senators around the point.  You couldn't possibly trade this in any rational fashion without knowing what he is going to do when he wakes up in the morning.  Hard to imagine how the boys at the customs department on the docks know what to charge on a shipment from day to day.  Did it arrive on Tuesday when it was 30% or Wednesday when it was 50%?


He's definitely losing support in the Senate over this issue, which is boiling over into the budget negotiations.  This is going to make passing any budget extremely difficult.  At this point Act III would be a Goobermint Shutdown.

He's also likely to lose the House in the midterm elections, which will completely lock up the legislative agenda in Act IV, at which point he'll start blaming the Demodopes to rev up his MAGAotts.

Will he last the whole 4 years?  Not if he keeps this up.

RE

Govt might end up quietly paying the tariffs for billionnaire importers like Walmart and Home Depot. Either that or ship left and right chinese bootsraps that break when you pull them up through low tarriff trade surplus countries. Put them together in America and package as the patriotic choice.

Im guessing the 30 day pause ⏯️ was after someone explained him who pays the 2 bn$ a day:

https://youtu.be/shk1ZLeBZtI?si=q5jQ8mnS18RVZ9ln

So the 30 day pause applies to every country except China. Instead, theyre talking about 500% tariff on China, up from about 120% going both ways at present. There are no alternate suppliers for a lot of things made in China. Unless it gets bypassed, If they  go ahead with a suicidal 500%, there should be empty shelves in a month tops.

How much chinese components go into American cars, trucks and tractors, or spare parts? Significant amount for sure, especially on the hybrids and EVs. How much is in building construction? Are we going to see stalled projects, disputes between builders, buyers and banks on who wears the cost...crazy times.

Sean Foo says Game On:

https://youtu.be/ywTjtkDY4Zg?si=NuAghV440ztr6yVF

500%?  They might as well make buying Chinese illegal.

RE

Quote from: Goldernen Oxernen on Apr 10, 2025, 01:16 PMSo the 30 day pause applies to every country except China. Instead, theyre talking about 500% tariff on China, up from about 120% going both ways at present. There are no alternate suppliers for a lot of things made in China. Unless it gets bypassed, If they  go ahead with a suicidal 500%, there should be empty shelves in a month tops.

This is to some extent good news. For entertainment value if nothing else. After waiting around for decades for SOMETHING doom like to occur (seriously, gasoline rationing in Pennsylvania during global peak oil in 1979 was the last REAL thing) it will be interesting to see how the market reacts to consumers not getting something they want.

Quote from: Goldernen OxernenHow much chinese components go into American cars, trucks and tractors, or spare parts? Significant amount for sure, especially on the hybrids and EVs.

Indeed. And how many parts of ANY kind have I put into ANY of my EV's, spanning some quarter million miles now?

None.

And I just bought my first BRAND NEW EV....I figure it's good for the kind of 6 figure mileage other ones were without needing much. Like....3 moving parts in the drive train....and  the ones that don't move don't appear to break.

Quote from: RE on Apr 09, 2025, 02:27 AM IOW, INSIDER TRADING on steroids, which is a felony and fits under HIGH CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS.  Of course, the SEC would have to investigate and prosecute, which ain't gonna happen.

Remember, you heard it here first! 

Well-timed options trades ahead of Trump's tariff pause draw questions

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/well-timed-options-trades-ahead-trumps-tariff-pause-draw-questions-2025-04-10/

RE

Following from the art of the flipflop 30 then 90 day pause,  Treasury Secretary Bessant is saying they want as many countries as possible who they just insulted, to help put pressure on China. Sounds like "lining up begging to make a deal" to me.

Autogeddon on the horizon. You can't cross the border to buy a new iPhone or laptop if your car can't be fixed:

https://youtu.be/EkGoN3IFcuo?si=KvloV6BmhJ42r32X