A variation on the Nigerian 419 scam

Remember the infamous Nigerian 419 scam? I wrote three years ago about how annoying it was to get these bogus offers practically every other day and expressed surprise that anyone would still fall for it now that it was well known. Thankfully I seem to have been dropped from the mailing lists and have not received any such offers for well over a year now, but it turns out that a variation of the scam using cashier’s checks has been used to defraud even fancy law firms for hundreds of thousands of dollars. [Read more…]

Gambling and the poor

Cleveland has just opened its first casino with great fanfare after a great deal of debate on the morality of the gambling, and there have been long lines of people waiting to get in. I don’t really see gambling as a moral issue because there does not seem to be anything intrinsically wrong with people betting on random outcomes as a means of generating pleasure and excitement. [Read more…]

Andy Borowitz on the Facebook IPO

I am sick to death of hearing about the Facebook IPO. Although I was one of the earliest people to create a Facebook account (and it still exists) I abandoned it a long time ago and do not even respond to friend requests anymore. I have thought seriously about closing it altogether but refrained from doing so because on occasion it has enabled long-lost friends to find me. [Read more…]

Goldman Sachs, short selling, and naked short selling

I do not directly trade in stocks although like anyone with a retirement account, someone is trading on the stock market with my savings. My lack of interest may be related to my lack of interest in gambling generally and to my lack of a desire to make more money. I have a job that pays me enough for my needs and that is enough. My main interest in the financial world is more on the macro side, to understand how it impacts the political and social worlds. But the recent global financial turmoil has resulted in me learning more about the world of high finance than I ever wanted. [Read more…]