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Oh, this is a good one. The UK government some years back wanted to encourage the use of biomass for energy (which is itself a questionable idea but I'll leave that for the energy generation thread), so it entered into a contract-for-difference agreement with a generation company, Drax. It and Drax figured that the price of biomass-generated electricity needed to be at least $X for Drax to make a reasonable return, so the agreement was that if Drax generates electricity with biomass and sells it for under $X, the end-user gets a higher bill to pay Drax the difference. If Drax sells it for more than $X, the excess money goes back to the utility/consumer/government. At the time of the agreement, prices were low, which means money was going to be flowing to Drax under this arrangement, and Drax bought up biomass supplies to insulate itself from spot changes, since $X wouldn't vary based on biomass prices. You can see where this is going, so you're smarter than the UK government. Whoa, electricity prices increased. Drax doesn't have any ability to profit from the increase in electricity prices because when they sell at greater than $X, they have to pay the excess profit back in compensation for the subsidies it received. But biomass prices *also* increased, so they stopped generated electricity altogether and just sold off their biomass stock off to other generators. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-uk-power-stations-avoided-paying-back-consumers/#xj4y7vzkg quote:The company didn’t break any rules. But “it looks like they are acting in bad faith,” said Ed Davey, who was the UK government’s energy secretary when it negotiated the firm’s subsidy deal, and is now leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats. “It’s against the national interest.”...“This is gaming the contract, which is supposed to protect consumers in these circumstances,” he said. Then you shouldn't have negotiated such a dumb, obviously and easily-gamable contract, Ed.
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Aug 5, 2023 17:45
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The bad guy in the 007 movie Moonraker was also named Drax, which makes this absolutely hilarious.
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Aug 5, 2023 17:53
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Iirc drax are also the ones that want to get more coal mining so they are all round terrible. The biomass thing is also a scam when it comes to renewables. Anyway there is a story today saying that the UK government has now managed to set the price on the CFD on wind power so low that the company that was due to build the biggest offshore wind farm yet is pulling out because they could never make the money back (particularly due to the increased cost of materials apparently). So in summary, the UK government continues as normal via a combination of vested interests and rank incompetence.
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Aug 5, 2023 18:02
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It's been a while since I've done any filking and the scan is a little bit off, but I came up with the chorus in the shower and just had to finish it up.Lien on You, dedicated to Aivanaa Maraea and Rajesh Pai posted:Sometimes in our lives Cassius Belli fucked around with this message at 19:13 on Aug 5, 2023 |
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Aug 5, 2023 18:10
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Powerful Two-Hander posted:The biomass thing is also a scam when it comes to renewables. I looked into this and found out about the the fantastically named "Cash for Ash" scandal... which was also in the UK
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Aug 5, 2023 18:34
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Phanatic posted:
Very generous to assume the UK government is massively incompetent and not just blatantly corrupt.
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Aug 5, 2023 19:04
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mrmcd posted:Very generous to assume the UK government is massively incompetent and not just blatantly corrupt. porque no los dos?
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Aug 5, 2023 19:05
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Phanatic posted:Oh, this is a good one. It's even funnier than that. They had multiple biomass generators and only one was covered by this subsidy. So when prices rose above the cap (in addition to selling off extra fuel) they just turned the subsidized/capped one off and started running the others at higher loads. Great dealmaking, UK. RPATDO_LAMD fucked around with this message at 20:16 on Aug 5, 2023 |
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Aug 5, 2023 20:13
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Turning and turning in the widening gyre The lender cannot hear the equity; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the lien, The blood-dimmed HELOC loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of fiduciary is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate volitility. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second mortgage is at hand. The Second mortgage! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Venture Capital Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with banker body and the head of a shibe, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its Doge thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Pauzible to be born?
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Aug 6, 2023 19:57
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Pauzible, the company that wants to scam you out of your house, must be paying for some SEO as a result of this place, lol. #1 search on google is now their linkedin #2 is their INCREDIBLY sad YouTube channel, which as 1 loving subscriber, and an "intro to Pauzible" video with 51 views.. Like, don't go watch anything, we don't want to drive their numbers higher, and with view numbers that loving sad even an incredibly  2023 goon rush from just this thread could triple their numbers LMAO. #3 is us. One loving subscriber, 51 views. Goddamn. I've got more than that off the back of like one super lazy video I did a decade ago to show someone a build in some dumb video game. Little timmy who's totally going to be a professional streamer gets more than that, because little Timmy has at least one parent and a couple grandparents or uncles or whatever to give them pitty subs. lol. LMAO rofl even.
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Aug 6, 2023 21:37
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It's three people on two different continents trying to start a fintech on a third continent with a paper mill Delaware incorporation. They really didn't have a chance in the current environment. I'm guessing this is a VC cash seeking exercise. They're not even relevant enough to show up on crunchbase. Their best option is to tell their angel investor that it's the wrong time, bail out of all of this and memory hole the name.
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Aug 6, 2023 21:39
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Cyrano4747 posted:Pauzible, the company that wants to scam you out of your house, must be paying for some SEO as a result of this place, lol. Didn't even get both founders as subs. Lmao
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Aug 6, 2023 21:40
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leper khan posted:Didn't even get both founders as subs. Lmao Seriously that's like your mom throwing you a pitty sub but dad having better things to do. loving ice cold.
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Aug 6, 2023 21:41
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Cyrano4747 posted:Pauzible, the company that wants to scam you out of your house, must be paying for some SEO as a result of this place, lol. Let's crowdsource a better youtube channel with the same name
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Aug 6, 2023 21:44
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How did this thread originally find out about pauzible? Are they just in the process of some sort of soft opening and haven't seriously started trying to advertise it yet or something?
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Aug 6, 2023 21:46
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Cyrano4747 posted:Pauzible, the company that wants to scam you out of your house, must be paying for some SEO as a result of this place, lol.
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Aug 6, 2023 21:49
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mystes posted:How did this thread originally find out about pauzible? Are they just in the process of some sort of soft opening and haven't seriously started trying to advertise it yet or something? Maybe the second founder who didn't subscribe to the channel hates the whole idea and posted it here. 
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Aug 6, 2023 21:49
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mystes posted:How did this thread originally find out about pauzible? Are they just in the process of some sort of soft opening and haven't seriously started trying to advertise it yet or something? Pauzible_cs posted:Addressing some of the queries raised in the thread earlier on Pauzible
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Aug 6, 2023 21:51
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Sundae posted:Maybe the second founder who didn't subscribe to the channel hates the whole idea and posted it here. The kind of person that would start a lovely loan company to prey on low income people would also give lowtax money? Seems pauzible.
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Aug 6, 2023 21:53
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mystes posted:How did this thread originally find out about pauzible? Are they just in the process of some sort of soft opening and haven't seriously started trying to advertise it yet or something? SpelledBackwards posted:
however, I found it pmchem posted:i heard you guys like dumbass VC-funded fintech startups, how about pawn shops for home equity?
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Aug 6, 2023 21:56
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gonna laugh my rear end off if this all started because they tried to do some astroturf on twitter and it blew up in the worst possible way. Which is to say both negatively, plus on a low enough traffic website that they won't even get the Streisandeffect, but high profile enough that googling them prominently turns up what a scam they are.
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Aug 6, 2023 22:05
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some noble goon should sign up for pauzible where's zaurg he has a mortgage
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Aug 7, 2023 01:03
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Cyrano4747 posted:gonna laugh my rear end off if this all started because they tried to do some astroturf on twitter and it blew up in the worst possible way. And they would've gotten away with it, if it weren't for those meddling goons!
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Aug 7, 2023 01:11
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:some noble goon should sign up for pauzible Is zaurg even allowed to post outside his thread?
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Aug 7, 2023 01:36
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He was amnestied with the changing of the guard in BFC
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Aug 7, 2023 01:39
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orange juche posted:Is zaurg even allowed to post outside his thread?
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Aug 7, 2023 01:53
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This Be The Pauzible They gently caress you up, your liens and loans. They may not mean to, but they do. They charge you all the fees they owe And add some extra, just for you. But they were hosed up in their turn By fools in banks and VC firms, Who half the time were soppy-stern And half rife with fintech brainworms. Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don’t charge interest yourself. Brain Curry fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Aug 7, 2023 |
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Aug 7, 2023 02:14
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mystes posted:thank you for linking a post that explicitly references that fact that there were earlier posts in this thread before it and therefore by definition does not answer my question Thank you for not getting the joke that I answered your question was well as Pauzible themselves answered questions about them in the thread.
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Aug 7, 2023 02:42
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I think it would have actually been more obvious that that was what you were going for if you hadn't posted it as a quote of their actual post
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Aug 7, 2023 02:50
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moana posted:Pauzimandius is my favorite so far, I love that poem. That's high praise coming from the San Saba Songbird  I wonder where the line for 'fair use' would be if one wanted to frontpage or vanity publish a collection of inspired prose.
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Aug 7, 2023 04:27
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mystes posted:thank you for linking a post that explicitly references that fact that there were earlier posts in this thread before it and therefore by definition does not answer my question What if pmchem is Pauzible!? 
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Aug 7, 2023 04:37
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"...it's a day that I'm certain my guest at this time will not forget, I'm talking about home equity lender Pauz..." "Subprime means subprime!" "Sub..?" "Subprime means subprime, man." "Subprime means subprime? What do you mean by that?" "I'm talking about all the way to primary lienholder, yeah. Unjustifiably in a position that I'd rather not be in. But the lien will rise to the top, ooh yeah. Pauzible Pandemonium, yeah, has got more to offer than pmchem thinks that I got, yeah, and let me tell you something right now, cards stacked against the King of the Lien Pauzible in the home equity loan market, let me say it, yeah, let me say it out loud, and let me point to the moderator of the BFC subforum on Something Awful, the King of the Lien Pauzible is not happy with your decision, yeah. I am the King of the home equity loan market and there is no doubt about it, yeah, you Coffeezilla you know that I'm the King of the Lien!" "Well, wait-wait a minute though Pauzible, I've got to ask you very seriously, do you blame pmchem, the distinguished moderator of SA's BFC, for Rocket Mortgage being the biggest home equity lender today?" "Yeah, I do, yeah. Outside interference, yeah. In my moment of glory! Yeah, and now I'm living in a nightmare. And I am the King. And now, not only the Biggest Home Equity Lender belt must fall but, the Biggest Lender period! Because Freddie Mac, yeah, I am the king, yeah, the King of the Lien. And there is no-one that does it better than the King of the Lien Pauzible! On balance, off balance, doesn't matter. I'm better than you are, yeah, and I'm talking everyone in the home equity loan market, and I'm even talking to Something Awful, yeah. I'm on my way, and nothing is gonna stop me. Nothing's gonna stop me." "You know, just out of curiosity, Pauzible, and I certainly don't want to diminish your tremendous VC funding, but I'm very curious. I haven't seen Bitcoin lately." "Yeah. It's on the outside of the market, does it interfere in my contracts? Yeah? Nothing, zero, pure fiat yeah and I've been, uh yeah, maligned from the top to the bottom and because they can't handle the King of the Lien Pauzible: the KING of the LIEN! Nobody does it better!"
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Aug 7, 2023 05:59
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SettingSun posted:"...it's a day that I'm certain my guest at this time will not forget, I'm talking about home equity lender Pauz..." VC's a hell of a drug
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Aug 7, 2023 07:34
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they should have just paid some tiktok finance influencer to blast out "this one weird trick to make $$$! Just take this out and invest in buying shares in this pyramid!", they'd have probably made a load of money in passing the liens through before they inevitably "suddenly had to pivot to running away with your cash"
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Aug 7, 2023 09:19
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Powerful Two-Hander posted:they should have just paid some tiktok finance influencer to blast out "this one weird trick to make $$$! Just take this out and invest in buying shares in this pyramid!", they'd have probably made a load of money in passing the liens through before they inevitably "suddenly had to pivot to running away with your cash" Instead they bought a forums account lmao
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Aug 7, 2023 12:23
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Powerful Two-Hander posted:they should have just paid some tiktok finance influencer to blast out "this one weird trick to make $$$! Just take this out and invest in buying shares in this pyramid!", they'd have probably made a load of money in passing the liens through before they inevitably "suddenly had to pivot to running away with your cash" The problem there is that nobody who watches tiktok finance influencers actually has any home equity. The whole business plan depends on there being people who are financially sound enough to have successfully bought a house and built up some degree of equity, but also financially dumb enough to risk all of that equity on a startup that totally swears they'll be financially sound enough to make your mortgage payments for up to 3 years. Also, I wonder how they handle things like PMI, property tax, etc. If you still have to pay all those each month then you're not getting as much of a pause as they claim. (Since these folks don't seem to be US-based, I wonder if they've even considered that. Their liens against the property are basically worthless if it gets seized by the county for unpaid property taxes.)
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Aug 7, 2023 17:06
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LanceHunter posted:Also, I wonder how they handle things like PMI, property tax, etc. If you still have to pay all those each month then you're not getting as much of a pause as they claim. (Since these folks don't seem to be US-based, I wonder if they've even considered that. Their liens against the property are basically worthless if it gets seized by the county for unpaid property taxes.) If I had to guess, Total cash paid by Pauzible / Appraised value of house = Percentage value of total lien
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Aug 7, 2023 17:10
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Cassius Belli posted:If I had to guess, I don't believe you can file a lien with a percentage-value, it has to be a specific dollar amount. Which brings up an interesting question: when do they calculate that amount to file the lien? Or have they even thought it that far through? (Given the 0 example cases they provide, I can imagine they haven't.)
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Aug 7, 2023 17:25
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LanceHunter posted:The problem there is that nobody who watches tiktok finance influencers actually has any home equity. The whole business plan depends on there being people who are financially sound enough to have successfully bought a house and built up some degree of equity, but also financially dumb enough to risk all of that equity on a startup that totally swears they'll be financially sound enough to make your mortgage payments for up to 3 years. There are tons of people out there who managed to buy a home but are not financially sound. We're not quite at the '08 levels where garbage loans are being written to obviously financially unfit/unprepared people, but there is still a LOT of room for people to buy with far less of a down payment than the thread orthodoxy holds is responsible. The whole point of Pauzible is that they're pushing forward the window where they can prey on people - previously you'd need to have a bit of time in your home so you had some equity to tap (especially if you were coming in with a low down payment) but their whole angle is to just "pause" your mortgage payment in return for a stake in your home. So hypothetically you could do that poo poo pretty drat early. Anecdotally I'm also seeing a lot more ads on TV telling people that they should "unlock their home equity" etc. so it looks like people are trying to get in on that too. Part of the issue is that there are a whole ton of reasons - some good and noble, some less so - that have made it attractive policy to make home ownership available to people who wouldn't normally qualify for a loan. The sort of people taking advantage of things like FHA loands and down payment assistance programs are also more likely to have a lower degree of financial literacy than someone who can afford traditional financing themselves, and they're more likely to be in precarious financial straits (e.g. less predictable and reliable income), which is exactly the sort of situation that makes the pitch to "just put your mortgage payment on pause" a lot more attractive. As an aside, I don't think the language they chose was an accident. A lot of debt payment stuff got put on hold during the pandemic (see: student loans, mortgage forbearance) and the notion that you can temporarily put a hold on debt payment is something that seems to be a somewhat permanent part of the dialog now. And all of that is a big part of what makes Pauzible so scummy. There are a lot of well meaning attempts out there to expand home ownership because it has been identified as one of the major drivers of inter-generational wealth and social mobility. Setting aside whether housing should be the way that happens (, it shouldn't) there's been a lot of time, effort, and money spent trying to square that circle and help people normally locked out of home ownership and financing to get on that ladder. So what Pauzible is is a cynical attempt to target the people who actually jumped through that hoop and who might actually be in a position to have an appreciating asset and take that from them.
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Aug 7, 2023 17:31
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Jesus, typing all that out really crystalized something for me that's been lurking at the back of my mind: What makes Pauzible so loathsome is that they're basically trying to leech off aid designed to help people, and in doing so make money by keeping poor people poor. It's the home buying version of those scum gently caress degree mill private for profit colleges (think Phoenix) that specifically target people eligible for loans designed for lower income people or people who have VA benefits. Siphon off the aid, make your buck, and leave the target in the same lovely situation they were in before only now without even the possibility of using those programs to try and better their situation.
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Aug 7, 2023 17:35
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