Am I the only one who thinks that if a highly risky, volatile, and semi/unregulated financial product is being advertised as ‘safe’ and ‘high returns’, it should immediately raise red flags within the regulators, whether financial or even advertisement? Surely, if your product is trying very hard to convince you that it is safe, somewhere inside you, your Spidey-sense needs to tingle, right?
I mean, crypto is being advertised aggressively to poor youth with mobiles. It is being gamified and pushed as rather easy to invest in and make profits. And it is being normalised by large, splashy, celebrity-endorsed advertisements in the mainstream media like the front pages of national newspapers and prime spots on the cricket T20 world cup, especially the highly watched Indo-Pak matches.
I may sound like an uncle who is behind times (which I probably am) to most of you, but honestly, this is how lotteries are advertised. I worry this may lead to addiction, crime, and financial ruin.
The ironic part is that by convincing the poor youth that this is a fun game and it is easy to win, they will bring in millions of speculators with money that they cannot afford to lose, thus pushing up the prices which will result in even more innocent and silly speculators thronging to buy, perpetuating the cycle. This is a Ponzi scheme if there ever was one.
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This is my space. To ramble, rant, or ruminate. You are welcome to join me. You can see more of me here. I am an IAF+Air India brat (my father and my kid brother, both have donned the wings of the Indian Air Force) growing up in cantonments across the nation, and attending 12 schools before graduating as an Electrical Engineer from Pune University in 1994.
I speak, read, and write English, Hindi, and Marathi (in that order of proficiency), and am very active on social media (mainly Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and lately, Threads and YouTube too), though I do not engage beyond first or at most second level comments. My philosophy for writing can be found here.
Professionally, I am consulting with young people heading their own startups. If you are a startup and need an impartial Entrepreneur-in-Residence to bounce your ideas off, get practical advice from, and basically have around for the 33 years of hard-earned experience in starting up, running, and even shutting down companies, then I am your man. To start a conversation, mail me here.
Personally, I am deeply and passionately engaged in educating (and learning with) my daughter (who was born on my 42nd birthday!) in a non-formal setting and chronicling her (and my) journey. Indeed, unlike most kids who want to become pilots and firemen, actors and doctors, and so on, during my childhood, when I was asked what I’d want to be when I grew up, I’d always answer, ‘Father.’ So, in a way, I am living my dream. I consider myself the luckiest man on Earth (until life is discovered on other planets).
In my spare time, I love to ride/drive, travel, try different foods, watch movies (I love murder mysteries, war movies, and heists), read (mostly non-fiction), debate, and sometimes play golf or squash, or if it’s low enough stakes, poker.
I am politically promiscuous, in the sense that I do not follow a specific political or social party or leader but, from instance-to-instance, choose the argument (and hence, the side making that argument) that best suits my ideological stance of secular humanism. You can find my posts about politics here.
I love dogs and horses (though it’s been a rather long time since I rode one) and am an avid biker with a Royal Enfield 650 Interceptor, who I call BattleCat III. Follow my travels and travails on the bike here.
About my opinions, they are how I like my morning tea: extra strong, piping hot, somewhat dark, grounded in earthy aromas and spices, something that instantly wakes you up, and served without standing on ceremony.
Try me. Start a conversation! What have you got to lose?
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