‘In a bid to save money’. What a way to look at it!
It’s like Parenti says. The second (third?) function of the state is to protect capital from itself. But it sometimes fails and capitalists go straight to the source, conning people out of capital rather than accumulating through the ordinary process of exploiting workers. Examples include Enron. Not sure what the consequences will be for a pyramid scheme that targets the most powerful nation on earth. The US puts up with it because they’re all capitalists and hope they can one day get away with the same scam. But China? Interesting times ahead.
(As curiosity, if you look at the Wikipedia page for Enron, it’s described as the biggest ever scandal. But there’s a qualification, ‘until…’. And then you look at the next one and see the same: ‘until…’. It would be funny if ordinary workers weren’t always the ones who have to cover the tab. The bourgeois just can’t help itself.)
Update after reading the article in depth…
We open with
started “doping” its gold as a cost-saving measure …
Again:
The mint began doping its gold as a cost-saving measure in 2018, expecting to save up to $620,000 a year — a tiny fraction of its annual sales.
(So why bother?)
And again:
this desire to save money would put the mint at the centre of what may be one of the biggest gold scandals …
‘Save’ lol. Imagine buying a box of ten pencils, finding nine inside, and the manufacturer replies with, ‘We’re just trying to save costs, don’t take it personally’. They really don’t want readers to see this for what it is. This is how public opinion gets managed. Reframing scandals to make them palatable. Who would get angry about cost saving? That’s just like buying supplies in bulk and turning off the lights and heating in empty rooms, right? Nothing to see here.
One Perth Mint insider, who asked not to be named as they could face five years’ jail if their identity is revealed, says it is a “scandal of the highest level”.
So they’re all still hoping they’ll get away with it. And probably will:
Gold doping is a somewhat accepted practice in the industry and is not illegal…
The workers will be forced to cover the shortfall:
Financing a recall of this scale would also be difficult for the mint and would likely require support from WA taxpayers.
And who’s going to pay the eventual fines?
It could be facing a hefty fine, potentially running into the hundreds of millions of dollars, like those levied on Australian banks and casinos in recent years.
Taxpayers again, I assume.
“I think it can be described as a cover-up, because [the mint] had a choice to disclose all the information, and in fact chose not to,”…
Good job that’s been clarified for us. Here I was thinking a cover up was something to be done with icing to a cake.
it did receive a customer complaint about a small number of 1kg gold bars but that, “due to Chinese government restrictions on exporting gold from China, the customer did not return the bars … and therefore the customer’s concerns could not be verified”.
The mint was so honest. They wanted to fix things, but the dastardly Chinese government prevented it.
“It happened in the first place because of poor systems management and incompetence on the refining side. But once they found it, they knew what they were doing. …”
It started as an accident! sure, mate
Bourgeois propaganda is strong to withstand constant shocks like this. And people still scream against communism.
Yeah, the system is fundamentally unstable and every capitalist is constantly trying to find new and creative ways to game it. I think we’re reaching the point where things are starting to unravel across the board.
I think you’re right. There’s only so much gaming before there’s not enough ‘real’ to back the lies. I read a while ago that in most (perhaps all) liberal democracies government debt can never be paid back. They borrow on the premise of future workers paying taxes. But we already reached the point where future tax payers will never ever be able to pay enough taxes to cover existing debt. Cancelling all government spending seems like an obvious solution until you look at anywhere that austerity has been tried. That method only accelerates borrowing and increases deficits. Even Keynes couldn’t save capitalism now. Giant house of cards. The only thing that will save it is the privatisation of Russia or China. Hence the current state of geopolitics.
Basically, and this goes right back to what Lenin wrote in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.
