Allen Stanford

[littlebabyjesus]

You a cricket fan, yw?

 

[newharper]

Allen Stanford does too, except his is underhanded.

I'm shocked I tell you ; shocked to the core.

 

[newharper]

Sir - how dare you, how very dare you suggest that upstart Colonials can out-do good British men and women in the matter of unbridled cupidity. This fine nation possessed and still possesses some of the greediest, least moral individuals in the world, and needs no education from the Yankee-Doodles as to how to produce appallingly rapacious financial criminals.

How do I love thee.
Without trying to brownnose meself!

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

You a cricket fan, yw?

I haven't seen enough to tell you.

They have snappy uniforms that make their butts look nice, so they're halfway there as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I haven't seen enough to tell you.

They have snappy uniforms that make their butts look nice, so they're halfway there as far as I'm concerned.

You've not lived until you've been in a changing room filled with the aroma of a dozen sweaty boxes

 

[littlebabyjesus]

You've not lived until you've been in a changing room filled with the aroma of a dozen sweaty boxes

Stale wee smell?

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Stale wee smell?

Sweat, wee and public school jizz.

New from Glade.

 

[hipipol]

Funny, hipipol, I never figured you for quite the nationalist, you're showing yourself to be. I suspect the issue you'd rather talk about is the "special relationship" between the US and the UK, rather than finance. If so, feel free to start a thread.

If you think Enron is unusual in the history of the world, you need to go back do some research. The only thing that makes Enron different is that it occurred in the world of modern computers and communications technology. That's what allowed that to reach the scale that it did.

Oh dear me.....there is no "special relationship" - as Palmerston said of this country when we were the biggest kid in the playground - “Great Britain has no friends, only interests." - same is true of the States today. The scale of fraud in the States is larger mainly because of the size of the US economy but also because there are fewer effective regulatory structures to control big companies - there are at least 5 major Federal agencies looking at the sale of financial products many with overlapping powers, with the net result that a lot falls thru the cracks - I also dont recall any coporate fraud in Europe over the last 10/15 years other than Parmalat in 2005 matching anything near the scale of Enron, or the market manipulation fraud of AOL in the "merger" with TimeWarner. Last time something that big happened here was the Guiness shenanigans and that was back in '87.
In the 19thc we had untrammelled capitalist greed driven fraud but its sort of slowed up over the last 100 years or so
This is not some Jingoist rule britannia garbage I spout but actually the point that large corporations in the US are even less constrained either by law or by their own long term self interest, this leads to a condition where fraud is seem as OK, its a means to an end and any means are justified.
Please let it also be known that I think our Governemt are crap with regulation too and are pretty much fraudulent every day

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Oh dear me.....there is no "special relationship" - as Palmerston said of this country when we were the biggest kid in the playground - “Great Britain has no friends, only interests." - same is true of the States today.

As I suspected. Feel free to start a thread about it.

The scale of fraud in the States is larger mainly because of the size of the US economy but also because there are fewer effective regulatory structures to control big companies - there are at least 5 major Federal agencies looking at the sale of financial products many with overlapping powers, with the net result that a lot falls thru the cracks

In part, I'd certainly agree with you. The world's largest economies are going to spawn the most fraud unless kept in check by both regulation and enforcement. However, the point you seem to be missing is that these are not American corporations, or, at least they don't see themselves as that. Any GE employee will tell you that GE is loyal to no country and they see themselves as a global corporation separate from national laws. And with their revenues (GDP) its hard to argue that they couldn't be nation in their own right if they chose. When a corporation reaches that size there's special problems that crop up in regulating them. National laws, even those of the US can simply be ignored in favor of offshoring it somewhere else. Or, with that amount of money and power they can simply buy the laws the like. The beast has outgrown its master. Without global regulation and global enforcement, a country's regulation can be reduced to largely symbolic.

This is not some Jingoist rule britannia garbage I spout but actually the point that large corporations in the US are even less constrained either by law or by their own long term self interest, this leads to a condition where fraud is seem as OK, its a means to an end and any means are justified. Please let it also be known that I think our Governemt are crap with regulation too and are pretty much fraudulent every day

You seemed to be saying "it's everyone but us." I'll consider it dismissed as unfounded.

 

[hipipol]

didn't say that - you will note that I have said we have our shitty coporate theives - the point is one of regulation
As for the biggies being global - all companies have a domicile for tax and regulationif nothing else - the posturing here by HSBC and Prudential insurance is just that - no other country wants their liabilities on their own blance sheet

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18450893

A mere 110 years. With 30% parole he'll be out in no time

 

[elbows]

I especially love the fact he gave a 40 minute statement despite previously attempting to avoid trial by pretending his brain had gone on a permanent vacation due to prison beatings, depression, etc.

Must get my hands on the full statement if possible, as it should add some weight to understanding of this type of personality. Apparently he blamed the government for shutting him down, thats what ruined his perfectly legitimate global financial powerhouse

 

[thriller]

how the mighty have fallen. a while back he was captured with the england captains wife on his knee. now he could find himself on another prisoners lap

 

[littlebabyjesus]

What an absurd penal system they have in the US. I have no real sympathy for Stanford. He's a very bad kind of thief. But I do pity anyone caught up in that country's vicious system.

 

[Captain Hurrah]

It's scary.

 

[Quartz]

What an absurd penal system they have in the US. I have no real sympathy for Stanford. He's a very bad kind of thief. But I do pity anyone caught up in that country's vicious system.

Somehow I doubt he'll do too badly. I expect he's got pots of money squirrelled away somewhere to make his life more comfortable, and he'll somehow get assigned to a cushy low-security prison. And in a few years, when the attention of the press has moved on, he'll somehow be quietly released on parole.