Questions tagged [finance]

The management of money in which an individual or a business decides how the money will be used to generate more revenue or profit.

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Did Elon Musk pay more in taxes than every politician in the world combined?

A tweet claims Elon Musk paid more in tax than every politician on earth combined: Which, if correct, is extraordinary. So, did he?
stevec's user avatar
  • 263
19 votes
2 answers
8k views

Does China receive billions of dollars of foreign aid and special WTO status for being a "developing country"?

According to this video, "China Just Lost the Space Race!", China is a so called "developing country" which has for decades been receiving billions of dollars of foreign aid and ...
Evan Carroll's user avatar
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79 votes
1 answer
18k views

Could Elon Musk sell $US6 billion in stock “right now”?

Recently (26 October 2021), CNN published an article with the eye-catching headline: 2% of Elon Musk's wealth could solve world hunger, says director of UN food scarcity organization This was ...
Rebecca J. Stones's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
463 views

Was the GameStop short squeeze caused by small individual investors?

I've seen a fair number of articles recently (example) describe the GameStop short squeeze as a victory for the little guy over Wall Street. They claim that it was a bunch of small individual ...
pacoverflow's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
359 views

Are fifth freedom flights more often discounted than regular flights?

I read on https://www.flypointyend.com/5th-freedom-flights/ (mirror): The fifth freedom allows an airline to carry revenue traffic between foreign countries as a part of services connecting the ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
61 votes
2 answers
13k views

Do doctors "get more money if somebody dies from Covid”?

Source (one of many). At a rally in Michigan on Friday (Oct 30th, 2020), President Trump repeated an extraordinary and unfounded claim that American doctors were profiteering from coronavirus deaths. ...
Mawg says reinstate Monica's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
385 views

Has the Federal Reserve been propping up stock prices since March 23 2020?

I happened upon this r/askeconomics post that hasn't been answered. In The Hill, Thomas Lyns of Northwestern Univ and Daniel Taylor of UPenn's Wharton proclaim So, where does all the Fed money go if ...
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75 votes
3 answers
16k views

Have any financial traders gotten a large shipment of a commodity sent to themselves by mistake?

Certain oil futures contracts went negative in April 2020 over the difficulty of storing crude oil. With this came a resurgence of stories of hapless traders receiving the actual commodities that were ...
xnor's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
471 views

Did US Govt profit from the 2008 financial crash bailouts?

This site here says that basically, the government sold back some of the assets it bought to bail-out banks during the financial crisis of '08. I'm assuming it was basically the federal bank that ...
GettnDer's user avatar
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10 votes
0 answers
262 views

Did the IMF admit that capital controls have been successful in Malaysia?

A DW article says Malaysia stood out as a country that refused IMF assistance and advice. Instead of further opening its economy, Malaysia imposed capital controls, in an effort to eliminate ...
Fizz's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
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Did any U.S. president try to set up an interest free monetary system in the past?

On this ultra-fascist page 12 Things You Were Not Told About Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany, it is claimed that: If America nationalized their currency as Hitler did for Germany, they would ...
Tim M. Schendzielorz's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
297 views

Will Australian unions be getting $AU22m per year from superannuation funds?

This article from The Fair Go (a group sponsored by the Liberal Party of Australia) claims that Australian unions will get $AU22 million per year from superannuation. IF THIS RATE OF GROWTH ...
user1605665's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
616 views

Is Sesame Street at risk of losing funding with Trump's new budget proposal?

Trump's latest budget proposal includes cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. There have been claims that this would endanger funding to Sesame Street. However, Sesame Street moved off of ...
David says Reinstate Monica's user avatar
59 votes
1 answer
9k views

Would Trump be worth more if he simply invested in mutual funds?

I have seen several claims that Trump would be worth significantly more if he had just invested his father's money in an index. Bloomberg puts Trump's current net worth at $2.9 billion... if Trump ...
Some Guy's user avatar
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77 votes
3 answers
30k views

Is this pie graph describing US government spending accurate?

This graphic is doing the circuit on Facebook. Is the pie chart an accurate depiction of US government spending? Look closely at this chart of federal spending. Military 57% Education 6% ...
dsollen's user avatar
  • 9,830
42 votes
3 answers
37k views

What makes up $17,500 cost to outfit a U.S. Soldier mentioned in War Dogs?

I just watched the movie War Dogs last night (good flick, btw), and they opened with a line that claims that it costs $17,500 to outfit the average US Soldier. Assuming this disregards training and ...
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4 votes
0 answers
714 views

Did big investors use pre-knowledge of 9/11 to short American stocks?

There are many claims that some large investors had foreknowledge of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and used that to buy "put" options - especially in the affected airlines - that allowed ...
User001's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
1k views

Did the U.S. sign a treaty with another government about the legality of a single coin?

On the Wikipedia page about the golden $20 double eagle coin, there is the following sentence: This piece is unique as the only 1933 double eagle the U.S. government has deemed legal for its ...
wythagoras's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
228 views

Is Warren Buffett the "only ... man in history [who] has invested billions of dollars of other people’s money successfully over the long run"?

In "$1 billion stakes on the menu", The Economist (2016-05-21 print edition) writes: only one man in history has invested billions of dollars of other people’s money successfully over the long run: ...
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9 votes
1 answer
701 views

Did a court rule that advertising claims by S&P that it has credibility and reliability aren't supposed to be taken seriously?

Matt Taibbi writes in 'You F--ked Up, You Trusted Us': Talking Ratings Agencies With Chris Hayes: In that case, the Second Circuit ruled that the plaintiffs suing S&P could not make a fraud claim ...
Christian's user avatar
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14 votes
0 answers
589 views

Are there around S$800 billion unaccounted for in Singapore's public finances?

Christopher Balding, an associate professor at Peking University, claims in this note that Given publicly available economic data on Singaporean finances, there is an expected asset gap of more ...
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6 votes
0 answers
2k views

Does winning the lottery increase odds of committing suicide?

I've heard on a few occasions claims that one should not play the lottery because it increases the odds of committing suicide later. Here are a few articles I found that at least reference the idea: ...
dsollen's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
16k views

Were Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy the only two presidents who ever attempted to end the Federal Reserve Banking Cartel?

The image below is widely circulated on Facebook: Is it true that Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy the only two presidents who ever attempted to end the Federal Reserve Banking Cartel? The ...
JonathanReez's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
152 views

Was NYSE outage on July 8th, 2015 a result of a cyber attack? [closed]

New York Stock Exchange claims that the downtime was due "internal technical issue" and denies claims of cyber attack. On the other hand, allegedly few hours prior to the outage Anonymous has tweeted:...
vartec's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
700 views

Can credit cards be cloned remotely with an RFID reader?

This news story from "13 Investigates" shows Walt Augustinowicz (an RFID expert, and seller of RFID proof pouches) who has a portable reader than picks up credit card details while they are still in ...
Alex's user avatar
  • 1,269
10 votes
0 answers
324 views

Is Miss America Organization the world's largest provider of scholarship assistance for young women?

The official website for Miss America Organization claims: The Miss America Organization is one of the nation's leading achievement programs and the world's largest provider of scholarship ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
631 views

Do management consulting firms add more value to their clients than the fees they charge?

A [recent question here] prompted me to ask the more fundamental question of whether the fees charged by professional advisors can be shown to be worth it. Many consulting firms certainly claim their ...
matt_black's user avatar
  • 56.1k
17 votes
2 answers
1k views

Do banks typically lose as much money as they make in the long term?

Nicholas Nassem Taleb makes the following passing statement in his latest meditation on the nature and management of risk (Antifragile): ...businesses with negative optionality (that is, the ...
matt_black's user avatar
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52 votes
2 answers
112k views

Does UNICEF use less than 14% of the donated money for the advertised causes?

I have heard claims from several people in relation to the occasional donation my wife or I make: that some charities have so much waste in their organization, or use so much money to market their ...
RomanSt's user avatar
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23 votes
2 answers
947 views

Does "Micro Finance" reduce poverty?

Organizations like Kiva (also discussed in a mostly unrelated question) offer small loans to low-income people in under-developed countries. From their web site: Microfinance is also the idea that ...
Flimzy's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
842 views

Are many successful entrepreneurs post-secondary education dropouts?

One often hears anecdotes about how successful CEOs / founders / entrepreneurs are college or university dropouts, usually bringing up the same set of examples with one or two CEOs du jour. Most ...
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11 votes
1 answer
921 views

Do the rich in the US donate an average of 15 percent of their income?

Dick Smith in a recent rant about "selfish" rich Australians made a claim that: In the United States, the rich donated an average of 15 per cent of their income, Smith said. But in Australia it ...
going's user avatar
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30 votes
2 answers
10k views

Does Apple have more cash reserves than the U.S. government?

There are stories like this floating in the internet. Apple is now more liquid than the United States government, the Financial Post reports. As the government struggles to resolve the debt ceiling ...
Vinoth Kumar C M's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
21k views

Does pornography bring in more money than all US sport franchises combined?

I've been sent chain emails about pornography industry revenues and was quite flabbergasted by some of the figures. The version I recalled hearing was that pornography brings in more revenue than all ...
Hendy's user avatar
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39 votes
3 answers
17k views

Is Kiva a scam?

Or, at least, has a questionable business model? Kiva is a website/organization that allows private persons to give micro-loans out to (very) small businesses in developing countries. Their idea ...
Lagerbaer's user avatar
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11 votes
5 answers
2k views

Is mathematical modelling of investment markets a "science"? [closed]

A relative of mine works for a big bank (of bailout fame) in the investment division. We had a discussion where he claimed that what he does is actually a science. Me being an engineer called baloney ...
John Alexiou's user avatar