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mostlysignssomeportents · 8 months

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The long bezzle

Going to Defcon this weekend? I’m giving a keynote, “An Audacious Plan to Halt the Internet’s Enshittification and Throw it Into Reverse,” on Saturday at 12:30pm, followed by a book signing at the No Starch Press booth at 2:30pm!

https://info.defcon.org/event/?id=50826

When it comes to the modern world of enshittified, terrible businesses, no addition to your vocabulary is more essential than "bezzle," JK Galbraith's term for "the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it"

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/09/accounting-gimmicks/#unter

The bezzle is contained by two forces.

First, Stein's Law: "Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop."

Second, Keynes's: "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

On the one hand, extremely badly run businesses that strip all the value out of the firm, making things progressively worse for its suppliers, workers and customers will eventually fail (Stein's Law).

On the other hand, as the private equity sector has repeatedly demonstrated, there are all kinds of accounting tricks, subsidies and frauds that can animate a decaying, zombie firm long after its best-before date (Keynes's irrational markets):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/02/plunderers/#farben

One company that has done an admirable job of balancing on a knife edge between Stein and Keynes is Verizon, a monopoly telecoms firm that has proven that a business can remain large, its products relied upon by millions, its stock actively traded and its market cap buoyant, despite manifest, repeated incompetence and waste on an unimaginable scale.

This week, Verizon shut down Bluejeans, an also-ran videoconferencing service the company bought for $400 million in 2020 as a panic-buy to keep up with Zoom. As they lit that $400 mil on fire, Verizon praised its own vision, calling Bluejeans "an award-winning product that connects our customers around the world, but we have made this decision due to the changing market landscape":

https://9to5google.com/2023/08/08/verizon-bluejeans-shutting-down/

Writing for Techdirt, Karl Bode runs down a partial list of all the unbelievably terrible business decisions Verizon has made without losing investor confidence or going under, in a kind of tribute to Keynes's maxim:

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/10/verizon-fails-again-shutters-attempted-zoom-alternative-bluejeans-after-paying-400-million-for-it/

Remember Go90, the "dud" streaming service launched in 2015 and shuttered in 2018? You probably don't, and neither (apparently) do Verizon's shareholders, who lost $1.2 billion on this folly:

https://www.techdirt.com/2018/07/02/verizons-sad-attempt-to-woo-millennials-falls-flat-face/

Then there was Verizon's bid to rescue Redbox with a new joint-venture streaming service, Redbox Instant, launched 2012, killed in 2014, $450,000,000 later:

https://variety.com/2014/digital/news/verizon-redbox-to-pull-plug-on-video-streaming-service-1201321484/

Then there was Sugarstring, a tech "news" website where journalists were prohibited from saying nice things about Net Neutrality or surveillance – born 2014, died 2014:

https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/2/7324063/verizon-kills-off-sugarstring

An app store, started in 2010, killed in 2012:

https://www.theverge.com/2012/11/5/3605618/verizon-apps-store-closing-january-2013

Vcast, 2005-2012, yet another failed streaming service (pray that someday you find someone who loves you as much as Verizon's C-suite loves doomed streaming services):

https://venturebeat.com/media/verizon-vcast-shutting-down/

And the granddaddy of them all, Oath, Verizon's 2017, $4.8 billion acquisition of Yahoo/AOL, whose name refers to the fact that the company's mismanagement provoked involuntary, protracted swearing from all who witnessed the $4.6 billion write-down the company took a year later:

https://www.techdirt.com/2018/12/12/if-youre-surprised-verizons-aol-yahoo-face-plant-you-dont-know-verizon/

Verizon isn't just bad at being a phone company that does non-phone-company things – it's incredibly bad at being a phone company, too. As Bode points out, Verizon's only real competency is in capturing its regulators at the FCC:

https://www.techdirt.com/2017/05/02/new-verizon-video-blatantly-lies-about-whats-happening-to-net-neutrality/

And sucking up massive public subsidies from rubes in the state houses of New York:

https://www.techdirt.com/2017/03/14/new-york-city-sues-verizon-fiber-optic-bait-switch/

New Jersey:

https://www.techdirt.com/2014/04/25/verizon-knows-youre-sucker-takes-taxpayer-subsidies-broadband-doesnt-deliver-lobbies-to-drop-requirements/

and Pennsylvania:

https://www.techdirt.com/2017/06/15/verizon-gets-wrist-slap-years-neglecting-broadband-networks-new-jersey-pennsylvania/

Despite all this, and vast unfunded liabilities – like remediating the population-destroying lead in their cables – they remain solvent:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/verizon-sued-by-investors-over-lead-cables-environmental-statements-2023-08-02/

Verizon has remained irrational longer than any short seller could remain solvent.

Short-sellers – who bet against companies and get paid when their stock prices go down – get a bad rap: billionaire shorts were the villains of the Gamestop squeeze, accused of running negative PR campaigns against beloved businesses to drive them under and pay their bets off:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/30/meme-stocks/#stockstonks

But shorts can do the lord's work. Writing for Bloomberg, Kathy Burton tells the story of Nate Anderson, whose Hindenburg Research has cost some of the world's wealthiest people over $99 billion by publishing investigative reports on their balance-sheet shell-games just this year:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-08-06/how-much-did-hindenburg-make-from-shorting-adani-dorsey-icahn

Anderson started off trying to earn a living as a SEC whistleblower, identifying financial shenanigans and collecting the bounties on offer, but that didn't pan out. So he turned his forensic research skills to preparing mediagenic, viral reports on the scams underpinning the financial boasts of giant companies…after taking a short position in them.

This year, Anderson's targets have included Carl Icahn, whose company lost $17b in market cap after Anderson accused it of overvaluing its assets. He went after the world's fourth-richest man, Gautam Adani, accusing him of "accounting fraud and stock manipulation," wiping out 34% of his net worth. He took on Jack Dorsey, whose payment processor Square renamed itself Block and went all in on the cryptocurrency bezzle, lopping 16% off its share price.

Burton points out that Anderson's upside for these massive bloodletting was comparatively modest. A perfectly timed exit from the $17b Icahn report would have netted $56m. What's more, Anderson faces legal threats and worse – one short seller was attacked by a man wearing brass-knuckles, an attack attributed to her short activism.

Shorts are lauded as one of capitalism's self-correcting mechanisms, and Hindenberg certainly has taken some big, successful swings at some of the great bezzles of our time. But as Verizon shows, shorts alone can't discipline a market where profits and investor confidence are totally decoupled from competence or providing a decent product or service.

I’m kickstarting the audiobook for “The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation,” a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and bring back the old, good internet. It’s a DRM-free book, which means Audible won’t carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/10/smartest-guys-in-the-room/#can-you-hear-me-now

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truckguy84 · 6 months

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Workie lad x

#facebook #lad #cute lad #workwear #workie #hi vis workwear #dirty jeans #bluejeans #boots #boxersorbriefs

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lovelyballetandmore · 26 days

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Kota Sato | The National Ballet of Canada | Photo by Karolina Kuras

#kota sato #national ballet of canada #ballet slippers #balletphotography #balletmodel #blue jeans #bluejeans

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expired-chlorine · 10 months

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dutchcowboy1870 · 8 months

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2023-09-06

#sendraboots #gear365 #cowboy boots #nofearingear #botd #straightcowboy #blue jeans #leather #vrod #leather chaps #bluejeans

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aretis · 11 months

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#lifestyle #myuploads #aesthetic #elegant #streetstyle #bluejeans

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barry-j-blupjeans · 2 years

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24 or 6 from the prompt list? Any pairing you fancy would be great!

6. soooo *twirling hair and fluttering eyelashes* why does everyone think you're a freak

--

There was a heavy thunk as someone came over the top of the booth and slid down into the corner of the booth. Barry startled, scooting away to give Lup the space she would need. Not that he could scoot away too much, considering Taako slid into the booth next to him, trapping him in the middle. Maybe could Barry could slip under the table if he needed to leave. He thought about the state of his back problems right now and figured that he'd only do that in a worst-case scenario.

Like if Lup caught something on fire and Taako wouldn't budge.

Or if they tried to beat him up or something.

Both were actually not that unlikely, but Barry was trying not to think about it.

"Sooo," Lup said, propping her elbows up on the table. She twirled one of her curls around her finger. On his other side, Taako somehow managed to get his feet onto the table, though with the space he had, it was more like his entire legs were up there. "Why does everyone think you're a freak?"

"I- uhm." This was not what Barry had been expecting. He didn't really know what he had been expecting, because Lucretia's general summary of the twins yesterday had just been "people who you want on your team for Fantasy Family Feud." He cleared his throat. "Excuse me?"

"Why does everyone think you're a freak," Lup repeated like that helped clear it up any.

"Who- who thinks I'm a freak?" Barry asked, trying not to feel too hurt.

"Oh, y'know," Taako said. "Magnus."

"Merle, too."

"Me."

"Lucretia."

"Lucretia said I'm a freak?" Barry said because that one did hurt a little.

"She didn't use those exact words," Lup said. "Actually, I think the only one she explicitly called a freak was Merle and we all know that's true already-" a fair assessment. Barry had seen him sweet talking the cactus Barry had put on his desk. "But she was like..."

"She said that you seem like the kind of guy who picks up roadkill off the side of the road," Taako interjected.

"Yeah," Lup said, snapping her fingers.

"That's not really a freaky thing to do," Barry said. "Like, if no one else is gonna take 'em I might as well-"

"You actually do that?" Lup demanded, slamming her hands on the table. She looked delighted. When Barry cast a glance over at Taako again, he looked less so. "That's wild, dude! How is that not in your definition of crazy!"

"What'd'you-" Taako cut himself off, giving a little breathless laugh. Lup leaned back, giggling a little to herself. "What'd'you do with 'em anyway? Like, d'you eat 'em, or what?"

"I don't-"

"There is a right answer," Taako said.

"What's... what's the right answer?" Barry asked, a little timidly.

"Stew," Taako said immediately.

"I'm afraid of what the answer is if it's not stew," Lup said.

"No, no, it's, uh, it's stew," Barry said. They gave him matching, disbelieving stares. "Good ol', uh, roadkill stew. Just like mom used to make."

"Barry," Taako said.

"Barry," Lup said. "Barry, babe, stop. What do you do with the animal corpses? I'm getting concerned."

Barry flushed, sinking down in his seat. Did this qualify as a worst-case scenario? He felt like it did.

"Promise not to tell," Lup said, and going off Taako's snort, that was a very empty promise.

"I just, y'know, like taxidermy some-"

"Taxidermy!" Lup laughed, loudly, drawing some attention from the neighboring booths. Barry's face was too hot. He was going to die in this seat. Maybe Taako and Lup would be nice and bury his corpse instead of stuffing it because of what he just admitted.

"That is freaky," Taako said. "So you've got like, dead squirrels or some shit in your living room?"

"I have a room for them," Barry defended.

"That's even worse!" Lup said, grinning as if no other answer could have made her happier in the moment. "Oh my god, we're gonna get along so well, Barold. You're my new goth best friend."

"Hey!" Taako said. "I thought I was your goth best friend."

"Taako, your goth phase ended twenty years ago and it's only hurting you to pretend like it's still going," Lup said. "Barry's mine. I'm calling dibs."

"Dibs on the man who picks up dead animals from the side of the road?"

Barry slowly slipped down as they argued over his head. Something on the floor beneath the booth was sticky and he grimaced but made his way around it. At least he didn't have to get past Taako's legs.

Overall, he thought as he made his escape, not a bad first meeting. Definitely not the worse one he's had, considering what he walked in on with Merle.

#barry bluejeans #taako #lup #bluejeans #kinda lsdkf??#taz #taz balance #first meeting bay-bee!#asks #anon #ise cube writing #mine #ask to tag #i honestly dont know if it needs any warnings slkfdsd

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jestemkasia · 1 year

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Forever favourite 🤍 Lata mijają, a miłość do tego połączenia w ogóle nie słabnie 😌 #bluejeans #ootd #simplicity https://www.instagram.com/p/Cls4anysgzY/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#bluejeans #ootd #simplicity

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woopsidaisey · 1 month

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