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Is An FTC Retweet An Endorsement? Herbalife Shareholders Are Dying To Know
Update: the FTC was kind enough to promptly respond to our rhetorical inquiry:
@MarcToTheMarket @zerohedge Hi, Marc's correct, in our Twitters chats its standard to RT/MT all Qs, see answer: http://t.co/PTOlQdoZBr
— FTC (@FTC) March 5, 2014
So now you know.
* * *
Retweets are not endorsements... but they really usually are. Which is the reason some are wondering just why did the FTC show a specific appreciation of this particular tweet sent out yesterday by a user who appears to have a bone to pick with Herbalife, Nu Skin and other alleged pyramid schemes:
#NCPW2014 Why have you not shut down pyramid schemes like Herbalife, Nu Skin and others? What is the FTC waiting for?
— AS (@ArbitrageIt) March 4, 2014
Seen here in the FTC's twitter stream, where incidentally there are virtually no other retweets:
So which is it: is the FTC proud of its lack of action on alleged pyramid schemes and decided to call attention to this tweet, or is it a hint that something bigger is coming in the stock that otherwise is quite irrelevant, if it weren't for the epic billionaire pissing match between Carl Icahn and Bill Ackman, which we be resolved either when HLF is LBOed and Ackman's biggest loss of all time gets even bigger, or when Icahn faces a loss of a few hundred million, which to him is nothing, but losing face to Ackman - everything?
Or was it merely a fat finger by the intern manning the FTC twitter account?
h/t Randy
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the enzyte story is a perfect reresentation of the ftc and its uselessness.
if it weren't for scams, ponzi's, pyramid schemes, the military industrial complex and the medical industrial complex, the U.S. would have no eCONomy to speak of.
Exactly- God forbid someone should say "Social Security" if the FTC really starts digging......
Yeah but Social Security is a FEDERAL GOVERNMENT run ponzi, so it's exempt.
Herbalife IS A FUCKING PYRAMID SCHEME! BUT SO IS THE FED AND OUR GOV!
Fuck that old codger, Icahn.
HLF re-opens lower...then promptly trades UP $5/share from the low.
Oh yeah, and fuck that old codger, Icahn.
Maybe they should send a tweet out when they find an institution in the U.S that isn't a ponzi scheme. That would be news.
Oh, come now. At least half of all government agencies CLEARLY fall more accurately under the banner of being extortion schemes.
The coffee burned as it flew out my nose laughing at your response.
The government - they got what it takes to take what you got!
So, retweets are the new Wells Notice?
Turns out Tulving was a ponzi scheme at the end.
http://about.ag/tulving.htm
I made an FTC complaint 9 months ago, but nothing was ever done. Just one more FEDERAL government agency which turns out to be worthless for the taxpayer's dollars spent.
wow^
only an idiot would trade their physical for paper, so no wonder the fools were parted.
I was trading paper for metal. I wasn't one of the many who got burned. I filed a BCA complaint, as well as an FTC complaint. Apparently it was enough to get him to cough up the order.
reply to user name ArbitrageIt?? WTF?? this is nothing compared to what gross et al do but clearly it is market manipulation. I guess Icahn is pissed off because he thinks he's the only one who should be able to manipulate markets with impunity.
A large percentage of what is sold to consumers is the modern equivalent of "snake oil." This has been a constant throughout the lifespan of mankind. People will always baffle, bamboozle, and bullshit others. It's should come as no surprise why these naive consumers get far angrier when their health doesn't improve after consuming miracle diet pills than they did after a $5 bottle of Stain Blaster 2000 didn't fully get the Cabernet out of the carpet. I like to think of these scams as an economic version of Darwin's survival of the fittest.