The US tried to stop cartel money-laundering; devastated mom-and-pop businesses

hhedora about 2 hours ago 14 commentsRead Article on theguardian.com

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Discussion (14 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

Aeolun•about 1 hour ago

I'd say the law has achieve exactly the effect it intended.

thinkcontext•about 1 hour ago

I wonder how much this will drive adoption of crypto for remittances.

lokar•2 minutes ago

I don’t see how. Their problem is they have cash and want to turn it into something else. The law criminalizes that transaction without reporting.

altern8•about 1 hour ago

I forget where I read this but I agree that if you want to know the real reason for a government policy, look at the effect is has.

It's pretty obvious what they're doing.

kej•42 minutes ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_wha...

gruez•36 minutes ago

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/come-on-obviously-the-purpo...

TheJoeMan•32 minutes ago

"The purpose of a cancer hospital is to cure as many patients as possible" seems also like an extreme? They are businesses, after all, and there will be cases that would be unreasonable to pursue?

adithyareddy•34 minutes ago

This meme needs to die, such a complete thought terminating cliche.

pyvpx•32 minutes ago

I would love to better understand your thinking behind this statement, if you care to elucidate.

mhurron•40 minutes ago

So there is no such thing as unintended consequences? Everything always works to the master plan?

Isaackoz•20 minutes ago

Don't you know? Our great leaders are playing 4d chess on a higher dimension and everything they do is carefully planned and executed. Every failure and blunder is a move beyond our comprehension as part of the supreme master plan. Haven't you read The Art of War???

Obviously sarcasm... But in all seriousness, it's scary how many people genuinely believe this.

catigula•about 1 hour ago

The amount of nickel-and-diming and outright being screwed over at local businesses I've experienced in my lifetime vastly eclipses generous return policies and treatment by megacorporations.

x3ro•1 minute ago

Let’s keep in mind that US corporations just received literal billions in tariff refunds, effectively stealing money from everyone who bought anything in the last year.

But i’m sure being charged an extra dollar at a small store that’s barely getting by (assuming this is true) is the real problem..

foco_tubi•39 minutes ago

Hot take: it’s generally probably less harmful psychologically to be screwed over by an identifiable individual than a faceless mega corporation. Rationalizing a bad experience as “one bad apple” feels better than ruminating over systemic oppression.

ajross•about 2 hours ago

This article is repeating a transparently false framing as the truth. This wasn't a law about cartel money laundering, which doesn't happen near the border anyway. Money laundering at scale happens in the global market and always has.

The clear purpose of the regulation was exactly the "side effect" detailed in the article: hurting immigrant communities that maintain ties across the border. And it worked. It does no one any good to pretend otherwise.

abfan1127•about 1 hour ago

The issue is that it wasn't "clear" to sufficient people. Too many people believe at face value the claims. Some of them honestly believe the face value claims.

scottLobster•about 1 hour ago

I'm not sure that more information will help those people. I saw an interview with a Haitian-American restaurant chain owner who voted for Trump and was dismayed that he might have to close a couple of locations due the removal of Temporary Protective Status for Haiti causing him to lose employees. He said that Trump sold him on the idea that "he was a businessman, and would act like a businessman", and that he now regrets his vote.

Like, the "eating the cats and dogs" line, specifically targeted at Haitians, wasn't enough for you to think that maybe this guy didn't have your best interest at heart? Also Trump's history as a "businessman" is anything but wildly successful or something to envy.

These people will see whatever they want to see until they get hit, so unless you're in a position to provide the hit, or somehow impart discernment that most elementary school kids have, they can only be contained and we should be happy if they pay their taxes and don't vote.

watwut•41 minutes ago

> Also Trump's history as a "businessman" is anything but wildly successful or something to envy.

Maybe we should stop treating these contradictions with Polyanna level of naivety. What is more likely: a.) these people did not seen the obvious contradictions or b.) these people are giving out publicly palatable sympathetic responses. It is all economic vote, except that conservatives were never good for small businesses.

What if these people are not as dumb as they pretend to be. What if they are actually attracted to the same thing that makes other men attracted to Trump - the male supremacy ideology and the racism against "not them exactly". The fun ugly part of it. The cruelty against homosexuals and trans. Saying that openly will still makes you look bad, so we get the "we had no idea, this was just economic vote" kind of nonsense.

thinkcontext•about 1 hour ago

Its a particularly galling policy for disproportionately hurting small businesses given the number of money laundering, sanctions avoidance, etc big fish Trump has pardoned, ended investigations and enforcement generally.

tangamandapio•about 1 hour ago

The belief that all the people you yourselves elected are lying all the time and openly out to get you is such an uniquely Gringo idea it's entirely possible the migrants in this community, like the one showcased in the article, mistakenly took the racists' word at face value.

Retrospectively, looking at the various kinds of concentration camps set up all over the country, that might have been a bad choice to make. But that doesn't make it a less reasonable one at the time.

ratelimitsteve•about 1 hour ago

in fairness: the people we elected lie a lot and one of them has built a personal army that he uses to fill the concentration camps you allude to.

bix6•about 2 hours ago

Ah yes let’s ruin someone’s life over $200 but nobody look at Trumps accounts. He definitely was debanked for political reasons and not because he was laundering money.

ratelimitsteve•about 1 hour ago

the problem with Poe's Law is that when someone else violates it by misreading your sarcasm you're the one who has to pay the fine in fake internet points.

pRusya•30 minutes ago

Internet points are real and carry weight. Online friends are real, too.

throwaway894345•about 1 hour ago

> He definitely was debanked for political reasons and not because he was laundering money.

What proof do you have? On what planet would major banks piss off the most capricious and unrestrained president in modern US history? What possible upside could there be for them? Trump (34 time fraud felon known for scamming everyone he can and using his position in government to massively enrich himself) was almost certainly "debanked" because he is doing more of the same shady shit that he's known for and the banks are obligated by the law to treat him like anyone else.

bix6•about 1 hour ago

My post was sarcastic. July 12th Capital One said they closed accounts due to AML concerns.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/capital-one-close-trump-ac...

alistairSH•about 1 hour ago

I think the parent post was sarcasm.

Capital One closed hundreds of Trump's accounts in 2021. Trump is suing them, claiming it's a political debanking. CapOne fighting back because they feel their AML team was correct to close those accounts.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/capital-one-says-it...

exe34•about 1 hour ago

Congratulations on your humour bypass! I hear it's a difficult surgery. You must have had a good surgeon.

mdp2021•18 minutes ago

And to think I have censored my "Welcome to the Internet, where you will find post-flatearthers that believe in the shape of a 2.5d Moebius bottle".

Given the type of things vocal people believe, no, posters must know we cannot assume people be joking.