[HN Gopher] Man who robbed bank to get his own money back hailed...
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Man who robbed bank to get his own money back hailed as national
hero
Author : drexlspivey
Score : 47 points
Date : 2022-08-13 21:32 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.unilad.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.unilad.com)
| ricardobeat wrote:
| Why is there a need to withdraw thousands? The article only
| mentions restrictions on cash withdrawal, wouldn't bank transfers
| which are purely ledger entries still work normally? If not, the
| financial system is completely off the rails and any money is as
| good as lost...
| bitxbitxbitcoin wrote:
| The financial system in Lebanon is in fact completely off the
| rails. Also, in the article it says the reason for needing to
| withdraw thousands is to pay a medical bill for his father.
| Guess the hospital doesn't want a bank transfer to their own
| frozen account.
| suprjami wrote:
| These questions are explained in the article. Generally it's
| expected that you read things before commenting here.
| [deleted]
| ricardobeat wrote:
| The article says
|
| > Banks are running low on cash to issue to people, leading
| them to place strict limits on the amount of money people can
| withdraw.
|
| I interpret "running low on cash" as physical notes. This
| does not imply any restriction on transactions, or does it?
| It's a genuine question.
|
| Note: on the topic of expectations, I'll quote from HN
| guidelines available at the bottom of the page: " Please
| don't comment on whether someone read an article."
| coldtea wrote:
| > _These questions are explained in the article._
|
| No, they are really not, as the article sticks to using the
| term withdrawing, regarding what's being restricted.
| Generally it's expected that you read things before
| correcting others here.
|
| That said, and to answer the grandparent, transfers are
| probably also restricted, it's not just about limits on
| withdrawing cash. Or they need to pay in cash, because all
| accounts are frozen transfers-wise - so, even if they could
| just make do with transfers internally, they can't use them
| to pay any foreign imports/services/etc.
| tifik wrote:
| So I take it Lebanon doesnt operate on the strict islamic system
| of banking, that I thought was designed to prevent financial
| collapses like these? Or am I just wrong in assuming that said
| system is meant to be more robust?
| elashri wrote:
| No, you are basically wrong to assume that Lebanon crisis has
| anything to do with islamic banking. Lebanon is not even a
| Muslim majority country. The problems arises from just how bad
| their reliant on financial sector for decades and how much
| unsustainable debt they acquired.
| huevosabio wrote:
| Only about 60% of Lebanon is Muslim. Roughly, it's like 30%
| Shia, 30% Sunni, 30% Christian, and 10% Druze. Their laws are
| made such that they can accommodate all the different religions
| and lifestyles.
|
| Their banking system is similar to Switzerland's, at least
| that's what it used to be. Now it's just a fully burnt down
| dumpster.
| gautamdivgi wrote:
| I think Lebanon and especially Beirut are pretty liberal. There
| hasn't been an "Islamic rule" in Lebanon. I could be wrong on
| this but even the Hezbollah doesn't have much of a social
| agenda - probably not yet.
|
| Western media likes to classify along a bell curve (radical
| Islamic, moderate, liberal, etc). That classification is mostly
| wrong though. As an example Iran is more liberal than Saudi
| Arabia in its treatment of women. It's not the west, but women
| have been in government, can hold jobs, drive etc. However,
| Iran is generally radical but the Saudis are moderates. So go
| figure
| [deleted]
| nootropicat wrote:
| This article is a perfect response to anyone asking 'why do you
| need blockchain?'.
|
| Maybe you live in a stable and developed country. Nice. Those
| people don't and it's extremely hard for them to open a banking
| account elsewhere. What they can do is save in usdt or usdc on
| ethereum. It's empirically much, much safer than holding dollars
| in a Lebanese bank.
| oarabbus_ wrote:
| >It's empirically much, much safer
|
| *unless you held your stablecoins on Anchor Protocol or a
| centralized entity that became insolvent
| SilasX wrote:
| Apparently some are skeptical that cryptocurrency would solve
| anything here, but a year ago there was a story, posted on HN,
| about the Lebanese using it for sending money into the country:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28300000
|
| Edit: Not saying it's an ironclad defense of relevance to this
| use case, but your eyes should at least _glance_ there first
| before resuming their ordinary eyeroll upon mention of crypto.
| semicolon_storm wrote:
| Yea, then you lose all your money to cryptobros instead of
| traditional finance bros. Voyager & Celsius halted all
| withdrawals within the last month. You can claim "no true
| Scotsman", but the fact is billions of dollars of customer
| funds are locked up in these platforms.
| neonate wrote:
| https://archive.ph/0dxle
|
| https://web.archive.org/web/20220813215554/https://www.unila...
| usr001 wrote:
| Lebanese here. To answer some of the questions in this thread:
|
| - No, Lebanon does not follow Islamic Banking.
|
| - No, people can't make wire transfers anymore. All bank accounts
| are frozen, you can't withdraw your own money. You have to beg
| and wait in line for weeks to be able to get a tiny amount of
| your account to be able to buy bread etc.
|
| - The local currency collapsed, lost more than 90% of its value.
| If the bank decides to give you some change (from your own
| money), they play money conversion tricks so that e.g. your
| account is down $1,000 but you get $100 only.
|
| - This person did not "rob" the bank. He tried asking the bank
| for money because his father (and some people said his child as
| well) were in the hospital, needed medical care, and for that the
| hospital needed money. He had $210K in his account, but the bank
| kept kicking him away in previous attempts to appeal to them. He
| came back with a gun, and held hostages. Negotiated until they
| give back $35K, to his brother who was waiting outside. Then he
| surrendered without hurting anyone.
|
| - He is now in bad health because he's on a hunger strike after
| they arrested him. (In the negotiation they promised him not to
| arrest him, but of course they need to make an example out of
| him.)
|
| - Why is this all happening? Bad economic and financial policies
| for 40 years, rampant corruption. The economy was unproductive,
| but they kept the local currency subsidized, as it turns out by
| just spending the money that people deposited in the banks. And
| it's all gone now.
| polote wrote:
| Why banks can not be sued for false advertising ?
| itake wrote:
| Water out of a rock.
| [deleted]
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