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Currency Exchange Website Accused of Cyber Terrorism By Venezuelan Government (arstechnica.com)
braindrainbahrain writes: A U.S.-based website that covers the unofficial exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Bolivar, the Venezuelan currency, has been accused of cyber terrorism in a civil complaint. Venezuela, suffering from ever increasing inflation, maintains very tight controls on currency exchange, and accuses the website operators of racketeering and conspiracy. In an earlier speech, Venezuelan President Nicola Maduro stated he would ask the President of the United States to hunt down the operators of the DT Site and extradite them to Venezuela to be tried as criminals.
The coverage I've seen of this today has emphasised that the Venezuelan Government's filing has essentially no chance whatsoever of success. That's undoubtedly true, but I suspect it misses the point.
This is unlikely to be about the law, or even about an attempt to stifle the website in question. Rather, it's likely to be gesture politics aimed at a domestic audience. Maduro, like Chavez before him, keeps his political base motivated by constructing elaborate theories to show that almost the entire world (and particularly the US) is conspiring against them. The sense of victimhood and isolation this creates is a useful political tool.
When this filing is rejected (likely at the first hurdle) it becomes another piece of "evidence" that the US is seeking to destroy Venezuela.
This is from a man who thinks capitalism is terrorism.
Nicolas Maduro is insanely angry that his political party got heaved out of office in the recent elections, and he's going to be heaved out too, as soon as it's legally possible. Venezuela's shitty governance isn't quite fixed yet, but it's well on the way... and Maduro's already begun his transformation into a salt golem.
( for the sarcastically challenged: the above are not a recipe for creating a sound economy, just so that we are clear)
So is 1985 not a recipe for fuctioning happy society, and it was used verbatim, just look around ;)
1985? Check your code for an off-by-one error. Or is it like a new version; 1984++ or something?
To win a Nobel prize in economics today a person needs to have no idea about real economics and instead he needs to support the idiotic Keynesian ideas that let the governments do what they want to do anyway: print paper money and pretend that central planning is what builds the economy. In the beginning of 20th century USA had under 20 formal economists and a sound economy. Today USA has tens of thousands of 'economists' and a shadow of its former economic power.
You can't handle the truth.
That's the reason that economics is a sham.
Economics is ultimately about the study of people and they are a difficult thing to study and understand. Computer science has unsuccessfully being trying to mathematically recreate them for a long time.
Economics also suffers a lot from politics and wishful thinking.
"High finance" is at best fraud obscured by math.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
It's 1984 2:1985, Attack of the Proles.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
( for the sarcastically challenged: the above are not a recipe for creating a sound economy, just so that we are clear)
I wish people would stop attempting sarcasm on the web. Sarcasm becomes completely invisible against the background noise, and it's impossible to tell a troll from somebody trying to be ironic (usually unsuccessfully).
Poe's law doesn't just apply to fundamentalism any more.
Fantasy and wish-fulfillment have always been a hallmark of the science of Economics. And bad math. Some of the biggest names in Economics (Milton Friedman, Keynes, etc) are basically just self-justifying cheerleaders.
Economics is a softer science than parapsychology. I'm not exaggerating, either. If you find the few people who are doing parapsychology research at major institutions, you'll find that they're much more rigorous than they have to be, because of their bad reputation. Economists, on the other hand, especially the ones who sit in named chairs, mainly exist to advocate for their pet systems. And their math is pretty unimpressive when you dig down.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Well, while I agree with you that finance is harder than people who are totally ignorant of it are likely to realize, it's unlikely to be 4x harder than the theory of computation or advanced algorithms courses I had to take to get my BSCS, otherwise (a) a lot fewer people would be able to do finance, or (b) a lot more people would be able to do stuff like amortized analysis of algorithm complexity. It seems more likely that the CS program you attended was weak.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Of course you can group things together with the same preface and have a rhetorical argument.
Snowden is not a terrorist, because we know from WikiLeaks that most of this information is available for purchase via third parties who get databases full of information about Americans. Other intelligence agencies likely know all about the internal spying, but he spooked the public and corporations not in the know. Plus, he isn't spreading fear for an agenda: we have news agencies who do far more of that.
Keynesian theory is really sound, and has been maligned by Globalists and Fascists, and people who tank economies. Printing more money is about the Fed, which arguable could be called "collectivist banking organization". Print no money or too much? More bad?
The next sentence makes no sense, "corporate collectivism"? Just throwing that word in doesn't help all the self contradictions, of course. Democratic collectivism might be a term for Socialism. When we had more of that, our economy was booming, so you'll have to site some examples of any time in history when we had MORE of a free market and the economy wasn't tanking. The banks had a free market in 2008 and just before the prior great depression. And the collapse of the dollar before that -- we've had to reissue the currency a few times BTW. And the history of the awesome free market in the USA being awesome is between 1940 and 1980, so, this is like a global warming chart where you use two points to make a trend line.
The Federal Reserve Bank is not part of the government like the US Mint. They DO manipulate the economy, and by extension the market. Not sure if they are printing a lot or a little money right now but the interest rate being low is due to deleveraging of the economic catastrophe in 2008 -- when the free market tanked banking.
Why would corporate collectivists (fascists?) hand the economy over to Democratic Socialists (the only example of democratic collectivism I've ever seen is on Star Trek, so I'm taking a guess here)? Total free markets and private property ALWAYS tank an economy -- see; history. We are far too close to "free market" right now, which is why wages have been stagnant. I'm sure too collectivist and it would tank -- but we've never been there.
New rules and regulations, that is what makes a nation productive. This is usually a sign of a Libertarian child. All rules and regulations are not bad nor good. The correct rules and regulations are awesome. If you have no rules and regulations, you can't have a marketplace, nor an infrastructure. Not having building codes in Haiti means a level 4 earthquake can level a city. Too many and you have expensive buildings like California. Like Socialism, and salt, you need a little but not too much.
Of course, you could be sarcastically using double negatives. I agree with you that terrorism is blowing things up to scare people, but that also describes our military,
It's just asymmetric warfare.
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
1985? Check your code for an off-by-one error. Or is it like a new version; 1984++ or something?
I doubt GP meant this... But there is a novel called 1985. Not all that impressive, I thought, certainly not nearly as good as Clockwork Orange.
Gosh, thanks. That must be why the other ships call me Meatfucker -- GCU Grey Area (Eccentric)
I'm not saying finance isn't hard. That said, linear algebra isn't hard, either. What I'm saying is that computation theory is as hard as any subject gets before only a tiny fraction of the population can do it.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Snowden has never been accused of terrorism. If you are going to make claims like that, back your shit up with citations.
Same goes for Assange.
Making shit up to attack is silly when there is so much to point out that doesn't need to be made up.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Venezuela is "Little Venice"
Why do I suddenly have a sinking feeling...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Let them drink Coke!
While I understand the charges are likely based on political paranoia within Venezuela's government and a desire to find a scapegoat for their financial issues, how could a website that merely reports an exchange rate (the site in question appears to be a news site and not an actual currency exchange) be guilty of racketeering? If the exchange rate was wrong, no one would use them as a reliable source of information in the first place. This would be like trying to charge the New York Times with securities fraud because they report stock prices.
Of course. In this world nothing is a bigger crime than honesty and nobody is a bigger terrorist than somebody telling the truth to power. Snowden is a terrorist to the USA government, same as Assange.
But dolartoday doesnt tell the truth. Ask any Venezuelan, nobody changes at this rate. (not much lower, though)