This is a clip from the movie The Big Short, which is based on the book by the same name by Michael Lewis. While the movie has been somewhat fictionalized, this was a real conversation that happened:
“Can you name one time in the past year where you checked the tape and you didn’t give the banks the AAA percentage they wanted?”
“If we don’t give them the ratings, they’ll go to Moody’s, right down the block. If we don’t work with them, they will go to our competitors… Not our fault, simply the way the world works.”
Hell, they’ve been pulling shady shit for so long that there’s actually a Heist novel from about 2005 that was inspired by it, called Geek Mafia.
One of the central plans is
Spoilers
Making a bunch of counterfeit comics, breaking into the grading company, slabbing them and inserting them into the system, and selling them as legit - because, who is gonna shuck them and check, and risk absolutely destroying the value of them on the off chance they’re not real, when they were supposedly inspected and certified by the well-known grading company?
Good point. They do have barcodes on them. That can still be solved by hacking or social engineering instead of a physical break-in. Just convince an employee to enter in false records.
WE don’t, but it’s also a Heist novel, it’d be a pretty short and fucking boring book if they did the whole heist with a few amazon purchases and a bit of data entry while still in their PJs at home. I think I can forgive the more difficult route in service of the overall story.
I’m surprised any of these companies are really truly trustworthy. Like it seems there are too many opportunities for them to slip in bullshit and poison the well. Or just straight up wash trading and other scammy scams. Reminds me of the whole WATA games thing that was being talked about in the retro console games market:
Also reminds me of this incident where one or two experts got too ‘captured’ for anyone’s own good:
I know in the Golf thread, we were talking about the new LIV tour and the Saudi influence on sports. Well, it turns out that in trying to diversify away from oil, Saudi Arabia is also starting to invest in videogame publishers:
$1 billion in Embracer and $3 billion in Nintendo might not seem like much now, but just remember how much influence China has over the movie industry, and how that country’s influence has warped movies. Who knows what hidden strings or influence Saudi Arabia might have on these companies going forward in terms of narrative content, portrayal of LGBTQ+ content, etc.
It’s like all Americans are waking up to what the rest of the world has wondered about during the century of American dominance of media, sport, finance, military, etc. lol
So what should Saudi Arabia be doing instead of diversifying their economy away from fossil fuel extraction? Or must they stick to that from now on?
It’s a bad situation either way, but cries of “oh no, there might be some unsavory influence” rings hollow from a nation that literally has military parades during their sporting events, and are passing laws criminalizing trans kids.
I will say a large part of China’s influence in gaming and media is not just due to their existing companies and their investments but also because china represents the largest single market for film or gaming products in the world. A huge part of the warping of the production of films and games comes from trying/hoping to tap into this market which what gives distributors and the gov’t in China such a large amount of leverage.
While Saudi investments might get them some influence, they will never be able to exert the same market force as China because the consumer market in Saudi Arabia doesn’t even register.
Maybe this is my own “American blinders” being on, but despite American dominance of media, sport, finance, etc., America has never (at least to my knowledge) tried to impose content limitations on other countries.
Saudi Arabia should absolutely be trying to diversify their economy. That’s a good thing, but whether it’s “sports-washing” or now “game-washing” their reputation, people should at least be aware of what’s going on. And again, as culturally dominant as the US is, it’s not the US government itself investing in other counties’ sports leagues or videogame publishers. The US government isn’t investing in the Chinese Basketball Association, the US government isn’t buying shares of videogame publishers.
I absolutely agree! Saudi Arabia, from at least a cultural standpoint, will never exert as much influence as China because of its market-size, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t have a larger financial influence, now that it owns parts of Embracer and Nintendo.
Right. But that’s my point. It doesn’t matter if they have or haven’t, it’s just that’s what it can “feel like” in the rest of the world outside of America, in the same way you now “feel like” Saudi Arabia might do so in the future, despite not having any more or less proof they will or plan to.
I disagree. There’s a tremendous difference between America’s cultural dominance for the past several decades and what China and Saudi Arabia are trying to do.
I get that the US has dominated the world’s culture, sports, movies, etc for decades, but the US government itself has never used that dominance as a tool for censorship or repression. We know that China has. Saudi Arabia might influence Embracer and Nintendo behind the scenes. This is completely different from Hollywood’s cultural dominance or the US-based videogame industry.
The US is far from great, but you’re comparing apples to oranges here.
I’m comparing the FEELINGS of people outside America, towards the dominance and influence of America, to what you are FEELING about the future possible dominance and/or influence of Saudi Arabia and/or China.
The facts of what American has or hasn’t done, or what Saudi Arabia may or may not do, are irrelevant.
Then you missed the point of why I posted that article about Saudi Arabia investing in Embracer and Nintendo, and in the other thread, about the Saudi-backed LIV golf tournament.
My feelings aren’t about Saudi Arabia’s cultural influence growing in the abstract, if the LIV was a private back golf tournament that suddenly became popular, I’d have no problems with it, no one would have problems with it, good for them!
But the reason why the LIV tournaments are generating so much controversy, the reason why I posted the article about Embracer and Nintendo, is because all those things are about a government trying to influence culture through state-sponsored tactics.
Again, if there was this new Saudi Arabian-based golf tournament that suddenly became popular, I wouldn’t care, and people wouldn’t be talking about it. My FEELINGS about a private Saudi tournament would be ambivalent. It’s only because the LIV is directly financed by the actual government of Saudi Arabia that it’s generating controversy.
The FEELINGS, as you seem to keep focusing on, are completely different. I have no FEELINGS about other countries increasing their cultural influence around the world and in America naturally. I mean, just look at the rise of Kpop or anime, but it’s completely different when a country sponsors or controls a part of its cultural exports and uses that to influence the rest of the world. My FEELINGS in that later case are completely different.
There are many countries in the world. The US represents only 3% of the people on earth. Even China is only 17.5%. In principle it is not right or fair for any one country to assert cultural dominance over others. Ignoring the content of the works produced, why should a movie made by a studio in Los Angeles, CA be promoted to a worldwide audience and not a movie made by a studio in Santiago, Chile? Are the perspectives of the Chilean people not just as worth sharing? Is their story not just as worthy of being told and heard?
Ideally there should be a more egalitarian representation of different cultures and nationalities in mass media. Due to reality, locally produced works will always be dominant in any region, but in terms of imports it is not right for any one place to dominate.
Of course nothing is how it should be. The countries that invest the most on this have the most success. KPop is explicitly funded by the South Korean government. Other countries like China, Russia, Saudi, etc. are going the classical route of openly owning, in part or whole, media production companies. The US has Hollywood, of course. Influence is not proportional to population, as it should be.
I personally like to see media from all around the world. Much of what is produced in the US, in any medium, is shit I don’t care for. Due to the language barrier I end up leaning towards content from other English speaking nations as well as Japan and Korea that have large official and unofficial translation efforts to help spread their works. I would love nothing more than to see things from other countries if it were only more accessible in English.
All that said, there are some real problems when certain countries hold so much sway over the world-wide media landscape.
Works of art supporting values I agree with may get censored. No pro-LGBTQ+ stuff in China, Russia, etc.
Works of art supporting values I disagree with, and that may contain dangerous falsehoods, may spread. Look at how kids in the Philippines don’t realize the truth about what life was like under Marcos Martial Law.
Works of art, regardless of content, may bring economic benefit to people who are committing evil acts. China produces some hit movie and then uses that money to commit genocide.
I’m perfectly happy for any country, corporation, or individual to create and spread their media to a wide audience except when it falls into one of those three categories. I don’t care if the US loses dominance, as they also produce a pile of propaganda we could do without. I just don’t want to see evil places assert cultural dominance and promote regressive ideas which will make the world a worse place to live.
