The Lemon Fool

I did wonder momentarily whether this might date from April Fool's Day, but no, it's apprently true - https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/co ... 23928.html

The most incredible aspect of this is that none of the institutional lenders even bothered to check what security they were actually receiving for their $2bn loan. Or question why a $6m company could offer security for $2bn.

The lenders fully deserve their fate, but despite the writer’s right on comments it’s yet another illustration of what a corrupt crock of sh*t China is.

Clitheroekid wrote:The lenders fully deserve their fate, but despite the writer’s right on comments it’s yet another illustration of what a corrupt crock of sh*t China is.

... he says, about the country that has been providing us the majority of our manufactured goods for years? I wouldn't say our own record in China and surrounding areas is spotless, is it?

Is it really necessary to add these abusive little political digs on investing boards? Especially surprising from a solicitor who would recognise that it is the individual who is culpable for his misdeeds, not the family, town or nation he belongs to.

For the record, I have found in my dealings with them that the Chinese have been wonderful and charming people and apart from a dumb foray into a dodgy AIM company, I've never been cheated or wronged by them.

As the author said in the article:

There is a quasi-racist impulse on the part of many to say such practices are common in China, but the reality is that these are universal scams. In fact, CPM itself has been approached by three separate firms with clearly fictitious Saudi light crude this week alone, and none of them were Chinese


GS
Disclosure: Happily invested in Chinese stocks for 15 years.

Clitheroekid wrote:I did wonder momentarily whether this might date from April Fool's Day, but no, it's apprently true - https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/co ... 23928.html

The most incredible aspect of this is that none of the institutional lenders even bothered to check what security they were actually receiving for their $2bn loan. Or question why a $6m company could offer security for $2bn.

The lenders fully deserve their fate, but despite the writer’s right on comments it’s yet another illustration of what a corrupt crock of sh*t China is.

You don't appear to have read the article properly. For example:

There is a quasi-racist impulse on the part of many to say such practices are common in China, but the reality is that these are universal scams.
and
The problem is not Chinese. It is universal and it is widespread.

Clitheroekid wrote:I did wonder momentarily whether this might date from April Fool's Day, but no, it's apprently true - https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/co ... 23928.html

The most incredible aspect of this is that none of the institutional lenders even bothered to check what security they were actually receiving for their $2bn loan. Or question why a $6m company could offer security for $2bn.

The lenders fully deserve their fate, but despite the writer’s right on comments it’s yet another illustration of what a corrupt crock of sh*t China is.

Dear CK

I don’t want to gang up on you but would genuinely be interested in your view about our own government’s spending.

We British tend to feel that our society is pretty incorruptible. However our government have admitted spending £15 billion on PPE in a just a few weeks. That’s approximately the cost of four new aircraft carriers spent on masks and plastic gowns and a few other things.

There are rumblings in the media suggesting that a proportion of this massive spend may have gone to amazingly small companies run by friends of ministers/special advisors without going through a proper tendering process.

The amounts involved are significantly higher than the gold scam you refer to.

A quick google of “government ppe contracts” will lead you to a lot of articles about this in a wide range of left/right media sources.

As someone who generally agrees with your thoughtful views, I’d be most interested to read your comments.

As this may be off-topic for this thread, you might choose to reply on: viewtopic.php?p=324972#p324972

regards

Howard

PS If you don’t want to reply on the polite discussion board, can I add a question which stays relevant to your OP on this thread:

Do you think some of the UK government largesse has ended up as gold bars in a number of dubious characters’ safety deposit boxes?

Howard wrote:Do you think some of the UK government largesse has ended up as gold bars in a number of dubious characters’ safety deposit boxes?

Or hopefully, gold plated copper bars like in the article!