While I’d also describe them as hit pieces or at least biased they are more than conjecture. Considerable sums of money being pulled out of Binance and the lack of legitimate audit are real concerns that should and are spooking investors.
It isn't just that. The same network effects that propelled cryptocurrencies and exchanges to the moon are now facing its uglier side. It cuts both ways. There's a chance these currencies and exchanges emerge out of this boom-now-bust cycle stronger than before. Time will tell.
You’re on to something there. Finance is all about trends, and when to follow them versus when to bet against them.
But crypto in particular seems subject to wild extremes of irrationality. It attracts people willing to to ignore fundamentals and move serious money based on faith and intuition.
This is not true. The scam are usually carried out by highly illiterate young boys who simply carry a file containing files labeled as first letter, second letter, third letter and so on. Then they go phishing with these.
I’ve seen this idea of they’re trying to filter out educated people so often that it makes me laugh. They aren’t , they’re simply dumb.
I'm not sure about the legalities, but some possible answers are:
a) Because the automated system will continue to call them until they connect a real person to the customer.
b) If the law is silent about which party can impose bureaucratic hassles on the other, then perhaps this system would satisfy some legal obligations.
I.e., if the law allows a business to argue, "The customer who wanted to cancel their subscription never stayed on the phone long enough tell that to our customer service rep!", then perhaps the law also allows a customer to argue, "I tried to cancel my subscription, but they kept hanging up on my voice menu system!"
Perhaps I misunderstand the law, but my (potential) pet peeve is that businesses get away with imposing time-consuming, costly friction on their customers in the form of paperwork, call-waiting time, etc. I think it would be just for customers to repay that in kind.
I don't understand this claim. USA army occupied Afghanistan, organized corruption (oh sorry "privatization of public services") for years and paid masses of informants and mercenaries and still had to stop occupying Afghanistan. Just like France was kicked from Algeria over 50 years ago after countless massacres.
Not that i'm happy with the Taliban regime now that the USA are gone, but this wave of reaction is the logical aftermath of USA policy. Turns out not killing/oppressing millions of people and not destroying their public services could have a much better outcome in terms of "progressive politics".
It also allows them to more deeply tie your buying habits to your browsing history and to monitor you to figure out how to manipulate you towards spending more towards their owned and affiliated interests, while also making interest on your purchases. Diabolical.
Because they promote it as a $9 purchase, less than the price of 2 cups of coffee!!!
And most people are far too financially illiterate to understand what that means.
An APR of 23% for $50 sounds like I will have to pay $12.
A $4 flat fee is so much CHEAPER!
Nevermind that a credit card means I can pay back in 3 weeks minimum in the US, without paying any interest, and further, a $4 flat fee on $50 over 6 weeks is an APR that's over 60-70%, if not a lot more.
Most people in the US live paycheck to paycheck. High-interest, short-term loans on small principals to the working class have been around for a long time.
As crazy as it seems, in Brazil, payment plans are accepted everywhere. You can literally buy gas , groceries, medicines or whatever on your credit card and they will split make those installments for you. Maybe this market exist outside of the US?
Well, any time you buy with a credit card, you’re effectively doing the same thing.
I remember when they were rolling out credit cards in the US as a common payment method (late 90s)[1], and so for the first time you could put your McDonald’s meal on a credit card, comedians were joking that it felt like you were saying you couldn’t afford it all at once.
Which is not too far off from the reaction here.
[1] and to clarify, yes credit cards were a thing long before that but they were mainly accepted at department stores and for big ticket purchases, not fast food.
The whole purchase amount plus interest is taken from the credit card limit and every month you are charged for those installments.
If you don't pay in full your statement, you pay regular Brazilian credit card interest rates (i.e. very high) on top of the BNPL interest rates.
Some stores that have high cash flow may opt to not explicitly charge interest, opting to discount the price if you pay in full or charging the same price no matter whether paying in full or in 12 installments.
It's important to note that the Brazilian BNPL scheme is enabled by the credit card acquirers, so there's a high degree of integration.
Honestly, I do. I'm that broke. For instance, there are a couple of subscriptions I would take out that are on great sales for Black Friday, but only on their Yearly Payment options, which I can't afford in one lump sum, so I have to continue paying the monthly fees.
