Considering this can potentially ruin Brown's reputation, shouldn't they wait to get solid confirmation before slapping him with the 'insider trading' label?
I'm really a bit confused here. If a Goldman employee did this, he'd get a $50M bonus, be knighted, and be given permanent immunity in advance by the President of the United States against all prosecution, whether related to this affair, or any others, past, present, or future. If a hedge fund manager did this, same thing. If any Republican politician did this, same thing. But somehow, if it's a tech industry employee, or (of course) anyone in the bottom 99.5% of the class structure in the US, they get fired and/or jailed.
Wow, this reasonable response is getting downvoted, whereas the parent, which is basically a gibberish string of conspiracy theories is the top comment?
This is a pretty clear example that the comment threads have seriously gone downhill.
Imagine instead of Goldman the OP would have said "YCombinator", how fast do you think it would have been downvoted ?
You can't have one rule for companies you like and another for companies you don't.
I like many HN'ers am a startup founder, I'd be horrified if someone baselessly accused my company of advocating criminal activities. I don't care if the company being wrongly accused is Goldman, Microsoft, AOL or some tiny startup. Wrong is wrong.
While such behaviour might be tolerated in other online communities, it should have absolutely no-place on HN.
You're just being obtuse. I didn't wrongly accuse Goldman. I rightly pointed out past abuses which Goldman has carried out. Do you not read the news?
And yes. You most certainly can have one rule for companies who are multi-billion-dollar bad actors, and other rules for companies which, well, aren't.
Have you heard of the terms "if" and "freedom of speech"?
If you seriously think what I posted is libel, sue me. No, really. I'll be easy to find; just search nearby hospitals for the guy who was admitted because he was unable to stop laughing.
What a joke. Did Goldman pay you to defend them here? If so, your salary needs to be reduced.
I was making a general point about how financial firms in general have miraculously escaped any prosecution or financial consequences for the crisis they caused. I think it was a valid point. In any case, an opinion, voiced in the conditional, is about as far away from "libel" as can be imagined.
Arrington wants to keep the joke going. He goes to unusual lengths with his April Fools jokes. Again, take everything he says with a grain of salt for the next 24 hours.
Well, if the article is not an April fools joke then its a leap to claim that this is "Insider Trading". The term specifically applies to public companies and not to companies in general. This distinction is not a "footnote" in the article, it is the fact that negates the entire article.
Insider trading cases in the US have been bought under SEC Rule 10b-5 which reads:
To use or employ, in connection with the purchase or sale
of any security registered on a national securities
exchange or any security not so registered, or any
securities-based swap agreement (as defined in section
206B of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act), any manipulative or
deceptive device or contrivance in contravention of such
rules and regulations as the Commission may prescribe as
necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the
protection of investors.
Considering this can potentially ruin Brown's reputation, shouldn't they wait to get solid confirmation before slapping him with the 'insider trading' label?