Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Tenoke 1551 days ago
It's not an unlocked door situation and it wasn't illegal. It's more akin to you betting on the wrong horse and being mad at the other guy who bet on the right one for losing your money when it's your fault for gambling instead of doing something else.
1 comments
vlovich123 1551 days ago
It wasn’t just a horse bet by my reading of the article. It was more like they noticed that there was an opportunity to hobble a horse if you and your buddies rush the field and that the odds makers were not anticipating this so you bet otherwise.

You can marvel at the technical ingenuity of a heist like this but the ethics are dubious. The strongest counter is that the Bank of England wasn’t paying attention but that’s mildly victim claiming just like it would be if a company fell prey to a novel 0-day software exploit.

link
lotsofpulp 1551 days ago
When you go to buy or sell something, do you inform the seller or buyer that they are incorrectly pricing the product/service they are selling?

Do you let your counterparty know that you are willing to pay or sell at a price that is more beneficial to them?

link
UnpossibleJim 1551 days ago
They already knew, by my reading. Bankers knew there was a bubble which is why it wasn't just Soros. He convinced quite a few banks and investors to help him in this scheme (and make quite a bit of cash as well) in order to pull it off. From the article:

- George Soros and all the funds and banks that participated in this large-scale attack were then able to repay the loans they had taken out in sterling, but with a devalued pound against the US dollar -

He was just the "ring leader", as it were. To date, no one had been able to coalesce all the necessary players into a single room and get them on the same page before in order to pull off such a thing. He was a proverbial shepherd corralling a bag of cats in order to make this scheme work.

Callous and greedy, sure. Intelligent and legal all the same. Blame the law makers for this one if you don't like the outcome. Their shortsightedness and allowances of quick, speculative, money-making bubbles to prop up fraudulent banking systems had a lot to do with this.

link