In 1945, whilst most, contemporary mainstream commentators were unable to look beyond the ends of their noses, with a perfect sense of irony, Eric Arthur Blair a.k.a. George Orwell (1903-1950) presented fact as fiction in an insightful 'fairy story' entitled, 'Animal Farm.' He revealed that totalitarianism is merely the oppressors' fiction mistaken for fact by the oppressed.
In the same universal allegory, Orwell described how, at a time of vulnerability, almost any people's dream of a future, secure, Utopian existence can be hung over the entrance to a totalitarian deception. Indeed, the words that are always banished by totalitarian deceivers are, 'totalitarian' and 'deception.'
Sadly, when it comes to examining the same enduring phenomenon, albeit with an ephemeral 'Capitalist' label, most contemporary, mainstream commentators have again been unable to look further than the ends of their noses. However, if they followed Orwell's example, and did some serious thinking, this is the reality-inverting nightmare they would find.
More than half a century of quantifiable evidence, proves beyond all reasonable doubt that what has become popularly known as 'Multi-Level Marketing' is nothing more than an absurd, cultic, economic pseudo-science, and that the impressive-sounding made-up term 'MLM,' is, therefore, part of an extensive, thought-stopping, non-traditional jargon which has been developed, and constantly-repeated, by the instigators, and associates, of various, copy-cat, major, and minor, ongoing organized crime groups (hiding behind labyrinths of legally-registered corporate structures) to shut-down the critical, and evaluative, faculties of victims, and of casual observers, in order to perpetrate, and dissimulate, a series of blame-the-victim closed-market swindles or pyramid scams (dressed up as 'legitimate direct selling income opportunites'), and related advance-fee frauds (dressed up as 'legitimate training and motivation, self-betterment, programs,' etc.).
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The following short article is for those regular readers who have been wondering why I haven't yet published anything about the disturbing appearance of George Soros in the chapter of 'MLM/Income Opportunity' tragicomedy, entitled: 'Herbalife (HLF)?'
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| Ironically, George Soros has been presented as a 'messianic billionaire' (Messiah - 'the liberator, or would-be liberator, of an oppressed people'). |
http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2013/08/01/why-george-soros-investment-in-herbalife-is-terrible-news-for-bill-ackman/
At the beginning of August 2013, it was reported that the Soros Hedge Fund had bought a large stake in 'Herbalife,' causing shares in the counterfeit 'direct selling' company immediately to jump 9%; for it was also implied that the messianic billionaire, George Soros, had personally been responsible for making this trade.
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| George Soros Bill Ackman |
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| Carl Icahn |
The temporary re-inflation of the market price of 'Herbalife' shares, meant that (on paper) Bill Ackman was around $300 millions down on his $1.2 billion short-selling bet that 'Herbalife' is a fake enterprise which will soon be closed down, whilst (again on paper) Carl Icahn and the Soros Hedge Fund, were hundreds of millions of dollars up on their own long bet against Bill Ackman's short position.
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| Paul Sohn (b.1978) |
In reality, the person who was largely-responsible not only for the Soros Hedge Fund buying a significant chunk of 'Herbalife' shares, but also for making sure that the rest of the world knew about it, is Wall St. whiz -kid, Paul Sohn. He is reported as boasting to a gathering of fellow Wall St. whiz kids (whom, for obvious reasons, he wanted to pile in on the 'Herbalife' deal) that :
'George Soros broke the Bank of England..! He can break the back of Bill Ackman!'
Not surprisingly, Mr. Sohn's reckless behaviour surrounding his 'Herbalife' trade, immediately became the subject of an insider trading complaint filed by Bill Ackman, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
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| Dr. William Keep, Dean of the College of New Jersey |
Furthermore, specialist economist, Dr. William Keep, has informed me that Paul Sohn was advised by him that Bill Ackman's analysis is essentially-correct, albeit somewhat naive, in that 'Herbalife' has indeed, been hiding a pyramid scheme, but that, in his (William Keep's) informed-opinion, given the previous track record of US regulators/legislators, the odds on 'Herbalife' being urgently investigated by FTC officials, prosecuted and closed-down as a fraud, are remote. Thus, as I have previously stated on this Blog, Wall St. investors have knowingly bought shares in a highly-organized form of theft, and presumably they also took legal-advice as to their own potential liability before they did so. However, I would contend that any short-sighted, amoral advice, and/or opinion, which failed to persuade Wall St. investors that it is not safe to acquire large blocks of 'Herbalife' shares, was itself fatally-flawed, because whomsoever offered it, was evidently unqualified to identify the wider-phenomenon which has been lurking behind the pernicious fairy story entitled 'MLM Income Opportunity.' That said, for obvious reasons, it now very doubtful whether Mr. Sohn will be capable of facing wider reality - even though it has been offered to him.
With a level of hypocrisy, and irony, that is close to exquisite, in public, young Mr. Sohn and his wife, Sarah, have professed to being enthusiastic supporters of LIFT - a charity which 'aims to combat poverty and expand opportunity for all people in the USA.' In private, young Mr. Sohn seems to have become so bedazzled by an opportunity to make quick and easy money, that he has completely failed to apply his professed-morality, let alone commercial common-sense, to his deeds. For there is absolutely no doubt that 'Herbalife' has been part of an ongoing financial, and psychological, holocaust (with a small 'h') which has secretly consumed countless millions of vulnerable individuals around the world by brainwashing them into believing that 'Multi-Level Marketing is a viable, and legitimate, business opportunity, in which failure to make money, is always entirely the fault of the participants never the sponsors.' Sadly, whether he cares to face reality or not, Paul Sohn has risked a large quantity of other people's money, supporting an effectively-valueless, and demonstrably-criminal, enterprise dressed up as a 'business.'
The above, Orwellian propaganda video (which employs covert hypnosis, ego-destruction, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, etc.) features various, exemplary, heterosexual 'Herbalife' shills acting out the fictitious 'Negative vs Positive' scenario which has always controlled the personalities, and behaviour, of the deluded 'MLM' economic cannon-fodder. In this particularly disturbing presentation of the comic-book 'MLM' world, the 'successful' shills steadfastly pretend to have been once like 'dirty', 'miserable' and 'broke' little rats trapped on a treadmill in a form of Hell (i.e. the world of traditional employment), but after exactly duplicating a 'Proven Step-By-Step System,' they have achieved redemption as superhumans in the miraculous, clean and pure 'Herbalife' Utopia, where no one works, but everyone is healthy, wealthy, happy and free....
..... and also drives a Ferrari, and/or a Hummer, and/or a Bentley, and/or a Porsche!
Tellingly, if at the time he made the 'Herbalife' trade, young Mr. Sohn sincerely believed the absurd, but nonetheless pernicious, fairy story that the 'Herbalife' company has been pursuing an entirely lawful enterprise - selling a viable 'income opportunity' which has 'helped millions of ordinary people to start their own business and achieve their dreams and goals,' then he would be too stupid to have landed a job making the coffee at Soros, let alone making decisions involving billions of dollars.
David Brear (copyright 2013)
What are the questions SEC investigators should be putting Paul Sohn?
ReplyDeleteAccording to the media, an SEC attorney has already spoken to Mr. Sohn. However, so far, I've been unable to get to speak to Mr. Sohn myself, but the common-sense questions I'd like to put to this young fellow are:
DeleteWould you be prepared to face the ego-destroying possibility, that you have been largely-ignorant of what lurks behind the kitsch corporate facade known as 'Herbalife' and that you have, in fact, become involved in a reality-inverting phenomenon which was/is completely beyond your understanding?
Before you made your recent 'Herbalife' trade, you took the trouble to discover whether it was likely that the FTC would be able to close the company down, but did you take the trouble to discover how many individuals in total have signed up to participate in the so-called 'Herbalife income opportunity' over the past 30+ years?
What possible lawful reason(s) can you put forward for the corporate officers of 'Herbalife' withholding the answer to the above key-question from the public, regulators and investors?
When you made your 'Herbalife' trade, did you sincerely believe that the 'Herbalife' company has been pursuing an entirely lawful enterprise - selling a viable 'income opportunity' which has 'helped millions of ordinary people to start their own business and achieve their dreams and goals?'
Would you be prepared publicly to go on record and endorse the so-called 'Herbalife income opportunity' as a viable means for the average person to earn extra-net-income?
David Brear (copyright 2013)
What makes you so certain Paul Sohn knew herbalife is a pyramid scheme when you've not talked to him?
DeleteAnonymous - the universal criteria which determines whether so-called 'MLM Direct Selling Schemes' are dissimulated closed-market swindles or pyramid frauds (in which unlawful investment payments, based on the false expectation of future reward, have been laundered as 'sales' simply by giving the victims of the fraud effectively-unsaleable wampum) is whether these schemes have had 'sales' revenue, other than that deriving from their own participants' purchases.
DeleteIn simple terms, in order for any alleged 'opportunity to earn income' to be economically viable, and lawful, it must have had a significant, and sustainable, external source of revenue.
Any system of economic exchange without a significant, and sustainable, external source of revenue, in which participants are led to believe the attractive, self-perpetuating lie that they can earn income simply by handing over their own money and recruiting more participants to do the same, who then recruit more participants to do the same, etc. ad infinitum, is, therefore, fraudulent.
The above, is a common-sense deconstruction of the academic explanation of a pyramid scheme dressed up as a direct selling scheme, which specialist economist, Dr. William Keep, offered to Paul Sohn, prior to his making the Soros 'Herbalife' trade. However, at the same time, it was pointed out to Mr. Sohn that, when challenged, the officers of 'Herbalife' had claimed to be completely ignorant of whether their company's alleged 'opportunity to earn income' had, in fact, ever had a significant, and sustainable, external source of revenue.
In other words, the bosses of 'Herbalife' steadfastly pretended that they didn't know if they had been running a monumental racket. However, no one is disputing that during the previous 30+ years, millions of individuals have been churned through the so-called 'Herbalife income opportunity,' whilst there is no hard evidence that any of these people received more money from 'Herbalife' than they handed over.
One would have to be pretty damn stupid, and/or blinded by greed, not be able to work out what has been going on here, and right under the noses of regulators.
David Brear (copyright 2013)
David - Perhaps US regulators should check out why Herbalife was judged a pyramid scam in a Belgium court and how Herbalife then appealed the vedict by claiming that the Belgians didn't understand how MLM works?
DeleteAnonymous - Thanks. This civil lawsuit (filed by an independent consumer association, on behalf of the Belgian public) was a victory for common-sense in Belgium, where (after years of legal argument) a commercial judge ruled that it was not not up to the plaintiffs to prove their case against 'Herbalife.' On the contrary, it was up to 'Herbalife's' officers and attorney's to produce hard evidence that an overwhelming majority of the company's claimed 'sales' had been to the general public and not just to the company's own 'salesforce.'
DeleteAs you have pointed out, as soon as this required evidence was not forthcoming and 'Herbalife' was duly judged to be a pyramid scheme in Belgium, the group's bosses appealed - claiming that the verdict was worthless, because it was based on 'a simple misunderstanding of MLM direct selling', in that many of the persons whom the judge mistakenly thought were 'Herbalife Distributors,' were actually 'Herbalife's discount customers.'
Thus, in the inverted-world according to the bosses of the 'Herbalife racket, provided the word 'seller ' is read as 'buyer,' theft by deception is perfectly legal.
David Brear (copyright 2013)
This is rubbish!!! It is not for Soros Icahn and Ackman to investigate if any company is a fraud. That's the job of regulators. Investors, should only be interested in the bottom line.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - Your insulting comment has been published, but I have to say that it ranks alongside the most thoughtless, reality-inverting drivel that I have ever received.
DeleteHas it never occurred to you that 'Herbalife's' bottom line is, in fact, central to the current battle on Wall St.: Bill Ackman vs Icahn and Soros?
After extensive research, Bill Ackman discovered that 'Herbalife's' profits have derived from a fraud and, consequently, he knows that the company's 'bottom line' has itself always been part of the same fraud. However, this information and analysis was already in the public domain long before Ackman became involved..
In public, Bill Ackman assumed that US regulators have simply not been doing their job (in respect of 'MLM' racketeering), and that if he gently pointed them in the right direction, they would finally protect the public and close 'Herbalife' down. Unfortunately, Bill Ackman has found out that, even in the light of his own informed-complaint to the FTC, US regulators remain reluctant to protect the public.
I am of the opinion that, in order for Bill Ackman to win his $1.2 billions bet, he should now go all in intellectually (rather than just financially), and give a comprehensive public presentation in which he clearly explains why 'Herbalife' has not only been a fraud, but also part of an overall pattern of ongoing, major, racketeering activity.
David Brear (copyright 2013)
ARE CORPORATIONS (I MEAN, IN THE SO CALLED REAL ECONOMY) PYRAMIDS ? OR NOT ?
ReplyDeleteDO WORKERS IN CORPORATIONS, EARN THE SAME AS HIGH EXECUTIVES?
JUST QUESTIONS, IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND. I'M CONFUSED.
diego domenech - What you have written (albeit in the form of apparently innocent questions), is the classic thought-stopping defence of blame the victim 'income-opportunity' racketeers -
ReplyDelete'All corporations are pyramids, because the bosses earn more than the employees.'
However, once you know how blame the victim 'income opportunity' rackets function, the parallel logic of this familiar defence, is revealed as being fundamentally flawed and an outrageous inversion of quantifiable reality.
In plain language, this defence is childish drivel.
In a blame the victim 'income opportunity' racket, there are bosses and there de facto slaves giving their time money to the bosses (under the delusion that, by doing so, they will become a boss). Although, to casual observers, these de facto slaves can appear to correspond to workers in a traditional commercial corporation, in reality, they receive no overall net-financial benefit, and are not protected by employment legislation.
In a traditional commercial corporation, workers must be paid for their time and effort, because they are protected by employment legislation.
The defining characteristic of what are commonly referred to as pyramid scams, is the fact that they have no significant, or sustainable, source of revenue other than their own participants.
Can you give me an example of a traditional commercial corporation that has had no significant, or sustainable, source of revenue other than its own employees?